Archive for January, 2009

My wife accidentally did not record the second pass so we only have the tachometer view for this pass, sorry!

Today was the day of the very first race of the ADRA 2009 season.  The gates opened at 9 am, I paid the gate fee, and went in to find a free space as close to the spectator stands as possible.  I went to the booth next to the Hot Rod Shop to sign up to join the ADRA.  After I paid the member and race fees, I went back to my trailer and unloaded the car.  My wife, Shelley, and her friend, Anna, were with me today.  They helped by putting the required ADRA stickers on the sides of the car.  I started the car, and let it warm up for about 15 minutes (it was cold today!)  After the car was warmed up, I drove it to the tech inspection station and the car had no problems passing tech.  Then it was time to wait.

We did not start lining up for the first time only pass until around 11:00, and I finally made my first pass at 12:10 pm.  I made my second time only pass at 1:04 pm, and then the final time only pass at 2:05 pm.  After each pass I checked under the car for any signs of a leak.  It seems the new oil filter angle adapter gaskets did the trick – it was bone dry under there.

The elasped time (ET) for the first two passes were 12.5191 and 12.4412.  Yes, you read that right – 4 digits of accuracy after the decimal.  The track has completely taken out the old timing system (wires and all!) and installed a brand new system by Accutime.  Not only is it much more accurate, we also get more data points (new 1000 foot MPH and ET).  And not only that, the new system automatically updates race results in real time, which we can access using the track’s WiFi sytem.

Anyway, the ADRA has a thing where for the third time only pass you write in your dial-in and whoever goes closest to the dial in without going under wins a bonus prize.  I wrote 12.44 on the windows, and ran a 12.4222.  I also red lit for that third pass by a pretty big margin (-0.1037) so I made a mental note to wait a touch longer before launching on my next pass.

Then it was time for the first round of eliminations.  I got paired up with Mr. Kerbel who drives a black Plymouth GTX that runs in the 11.50′s.  We did our burn outs, staged, and I watch the three amber lights go down… blink… blink… blink (wait a touch) and go!  I screamed when I saw the red light come on for my lane!  I red lit by -0.0113 second and that was the end of the first race for me.

I had so much fun today – and am already looking forward to the second race of the season, which will be on February 7th.  Here is a picture of the time slips, and I will be posting videos after this entry.