General

Today I went out and bought an engine anti-gravity device.  This is going to make it easier for me to load the block onto my truck for the trips to the machine shop.  I need to bring the block back to the shop so they can check out why the crank is hard to turn for part of the rotation when the #3 cap with the thrust bearing is installed.  The machine shop will also balance my rotating / reciprocating parts and square deck the block.

P.S. I know it is really called an engine hoist…

We got up at 4 am. I had the car all ready to go the night before so it was just a matter of jumping into the shower and then leaving at 5 am to head towards Tucson. We stopped by at the usual spot for race gas (Love’s) and I filled up my jugs with the good stuff. We got to the track right on time at 8 am.

The weather was good – nice overcast sky blocking out the hot sun and it started out in the 60′s and the highs were somewhere around the 70′s.

Passed tech with flying colors. The night before, I had suddenly remembered that Speedworld wanted me to add a ground wire from the fuel cell to some spot on the car. So, I did that. I also put the charger on the batteries then. No issues with tech at SIR.

Waited in my pit until 10 am for the first run. I was a bit nervous, it had been a while since I last raced the Duster in November. Pulled into the staging lanes. Everything seemed good. I did the burnout nicely, staged, and launched nicely at the third yellow. Car pulled through all the gears with nice power. This was the world record shattering pass with 10.588 at the 1000 foot mark. Sorry, Andy…

I noticed the passenger side slick was really close to the wheel well lip – I couldn’t even put my finger in between the tire and lip. So I put write on around the edge of the tire to see if it was rubbing while I was making a pass. You can see it in pass 2 on the video. Turns out it is not rubbing during the pass, but rubbing a slight bit possibly when I make the left turn off the shutdown into the return lane. I am going to add some more preload on the passenger side Caltracs at home to lift the car off the tire a bit. But it is not a concern for this race.

Pass 2 went by fine. There was a moment when I panicked and thought I hadn’t flipped the switch on the 3-step. I looked down and saw that I did flip it… I just had no memory of doing it (that is what happens when it gets routine!) – so when I looked back up at the tree I saw the third yellow was already on. So I made a quick decision to just wait and launch on the green, and did that. My R/T was .545. No big deal – I just made a mental note to myself to trust my routine and that it works, don’t second guess myself. Car followed the weather nicely for pass 2, went a little bit slower. No surprises.

The third pass is our one shot pass. I dialed in a 12.76, and ran a 12.79. Close, but not close enough to win the one shot. Car seems to be doing good so far… I am far more relaxed and start joking around with my friend Sam Ehret. He was 2 pits next to where I was at. I saw him jack up his car and crawl under it so I go over and ask him what is going on. Sam and I have a little history – his car is always breaking down and I’m always there to tease him about it. I asked if he was able to tow his car all the way down to Tucson without parts falling off his car. It’s all in good fun and we both enjoy it. Sam said he was having problems shifting into third. So his time only 3 runs were all screwed. Hmm. He is mad and ready to go home. I joke to him that I hope I go up against him for first round of eliminations. Sitting duck. Sam laughs. We go up to the drivers meeting. They announce that Sam has the $25 bounty on him. He looks at me and gives me the thumbs up. We laugh. Then they start calling out the pairings. Sam Ehret – Left lane… Marvin Herbold – Right lane. We both look at each other and crack up laughing… what are the odds of that?!? He goes to the snack stand and gets and ice cream cone. He is ready to go home. This is going to be easy – like shooting fish in a barrel.

We all line up and go into the staging lanes. Shelley made a nice video of that. Kind of dramatic. Anyway, we end up waiting for about an hour in the staging lanes. I keep checking Performaire – the weather is not really changing. I decide to keep my 12.76 dial in – I ran a 12.79 the last pass so I wanted to give myself some safety room. I knew Sam would not be able to get close to hitting his dial in. Finally it is time to go, we do our burnouts, and we stage. I am very relaxed and happy at this point. The tree goes, and I do a very nice launch – I see my light is green and I practically start doing my vicotry dance. Shift into second. Shift into third. I look over – I can’t even see Sam anywhere. I approach the first 1320′ MPH beam and hit the brakes. I ride the brake through the 60′ trap and start whooping and hollering. Then I start to wonder… hey… I didn’t see a win light… hmm… weird. Maybe it is broken. There was no possible way I could have lost! Weather was the same and I hit the brakes. I was expecting my car to have done a 12.80 at best on a 12.76 dial. I pull around and grab the time slip from the booth. I looked down at it and saw this “<< WIN"... WHAT?! HOW!?!? THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE!!!! W...T...F... then I look over at my ET. 12.735!!! How on God's green earth did my car pick up and I was on the brakes too!

Of course later when I get home it hits me. Wind. I bet it was the wind. I didn't realize it then, but now I think the wind really picked up while we were waiting an hour in the staging lanes. After my pass I talked to Paul and Sam (Paul is the one with the blue car that says Pete's Fish and Chips). Paul was talking about how he noticed a lot of cars were breaking out. He broke out himself, and his opponent broke out bigger (so he won).

Well it is a good thing I got eliminated - my car would not have made another pass. I tried to start it to load it up on the trailer - no start. Battery was dead. What?!

Now, remember I added the ground wire from the fuel cell to a ground on the car? Initially I was going to just put it where the drivers side battery ground was hooked up to. I unscrewed the bolt then it felt really loose. Whoever put that on did a real crappy job of it. There is no nut on the other end of the bolt to secure it tightly. You can't even put one on - the idiot put that bolt in right above the frame rail. I changed my mind and wired the fuel cell ground somewhere else. I tightened that battery ground back up. Well... I guess I basically killed that battery ground because the car ended up running on only one battery (the passenger side one). It was really low during that last pass - the alternator was the only thing keeping the car alive. I am going to have to redo both battery grounds and make the connection better.

Here is the video!

Today I raced in race #2 of the 2010 ADRA season. The Dart did not do well – it was still experiencing weird break up or fuel starvation issues at the top of 2nd gear.

I got a competition single for the first round of eliminations – my opponent’s car broke down. Then for the second round I broke out – it was really hard to judge when to brake because the other guy had nearly 80 mph on me! That was a real fun pass – just watch the video and you will see what I mean. I was too far ahead by 9 feet – but man at 130 MPH, 9 feet isn’t much!

The huge black dude in the red shirt in the middle of the video with the 2011 Camaro – he is an Arizona Cardinals football player.

        TT 1    TT 2    TT 3    EL 1    EL 2    EL 2 (other guy)
DIAL                   19.75   19.75   19.80   10.36
R/T      .1031  -.0363  -.0224  -.0575   .1430   .1726
60      2.6603  2.7886  2.6783  2.8315  2.7503  1.4609
330     7.6482  7.8622  7.6828  7.9024  7.7436  4.2413
660    11.8520 12.3038 12.2049 12.3375 11.9464  6.5878
MPH    58.59   54.99   51.48   54.24   58.46  104.21
1000   15.3916 16.1309 16.2387 16.1939 15.6967  8.5764
MPH    66.63   60.85   57.49   60.51   59.82  118.58
1320   18.5948 19.7795 19.9637 19.7064 19.6698 10.3755
MPH    72.44   62.95   61.22   66.47   51.28  129.42