New guy with a question

[s10gramps]

Thanks John, we're all loaded up and ready to go in the morning. The forecast is iffy at best again but we'll be there. Another thing, I picked up a new tow vehicle, the 6 cylinder pick up just wasn't going to cut it long term so I made the change now. If you go out to Lapeer tomorrow good luck to you too, if Milan cancels and the weather looks good to the north we may head up to Lapeer.

[butterbean]

Bigdaddy did you ever think you would be running 6.50's in that olds??? bet you love the fuel??? anyway great job in tuning like we said it will take you a little bit but you will get there, Gramps nice truck, you guy need to give us updated tomorrow

[s10gramps]

Yep we'll let you know.

[s10gramps]

Man it was a long day, 3 different rain delays, and it was humid as hell out there. The truck is still running fat, so I'm going to drop down another jet size for next week. I could go to the line at either 180 or 190 and not gain any temp after a 1/4 mile pass. I didn't even go thru 1 of the 2 jugs of fuel I have that is 80%. I lost in the first round of the pro bracket (lousy light) and went out in the second round of the Sportsman bracket (another lousy light) we got some points in the sportsman bracket and we're tied for 7th after the first of 12 races. The consistency is real good, the 60' times are just a touch higher than last year but the MPH is up by one (115) I was dialed in at 11.77 all day.

[bigdaddy198]

We went to Lapeer yesterday the car was off a bit. But I had bought a new set of NGK heat range 7 plugs and my boys somehow lost them. We eventually found them under my tool box but by then it was getting late so I hated to but I had a new box of heat range 6 plugs so I put them in. We ran a couple passes but the heat was really working against us but I was running 6.70/6.71/6.71 in testing but it kept getting hotter thru the day. Anyways at show time it was hotter than all get out so I dialed in a 6.74 went up and ran 6.77 took out the top car at the track as he broke out trying to catch me any ways I made 3 more passes took out another heavy hitter and then redlit against the first car I took out he had bought back in. Then I went back up bought back in and the car had fallin to 6.81's all 3 rounds but the volt guage was faling steady. On my last pass the second car I took out had broke after he bought back in and him and his brother both race there and the both are in the 6.30 range. I stage still dialed a 6.77 he knocked his dial all the way up to a 7.36 a full second slower than what he runs and when he did leave first I jumped causing me to red lite very Dumb thing on his part cause his win lite came on and he ran a perfect 7.36 telling me he is running a delay box and throttle stop and useing it to make the other guy feel like he left early. Well I dont run any box but from now on I am going to Dial what I run and when it comes time to race jerks like this I will jump my dial in to a 7.99 and leave a day ahead of him and let out of it way before the stripe. I really dont call that racing but sometimes guys like that need to be taught a good lesson. Anyways I found out the car was not charging snd the reason I figure it was slowing down was its harder to run the 7al-2 plus box plus my big fuel pump fan and meziere water pump but I found out there was a fuseable link in the line that was popped so I am going to fix it now and get my act together. I am racing at Ubly this weekend Dan. Gotta get away from the guys with hidden delay boxes and throttle stops at our track they are not even suppose to run a box car there.

[s10gramps]

Yeah John that heat and humidity was knocking every bodies times down. One of my buddies in the Sportsman bracket runs a 14 Challenger SRT, he was running 12.3x in the cool weather, Sunday he was running 12.6x and very inconsistent. I lost just under .1 but my consistency stayed very nicely. As far as your experience at Lapeer on Sunday, I've seen some very "questionable" things go on there, one Sunday in the trophy bracket I watched a kid buy back in three rounds, that's all I'll say. I pulled the plugs out of the truck and they looked pretty good actually so I'm leaving things as they are. I've got points races this and next Sunday. Now if I can just get my head together I can go some rounds and get some points. There was a pretty good car count Sunday 34 cars in Sportsman and over 50 in the Pro bracket. Ubly's program looks like it's going to be real popular this weekend, good luck there John.

[bigdaddy198]

Thanks Dan you should do well this weekend weather is suppose to be nice not too hot. I am going to Ubly on Friday afternoon to do few test hits I got heat range 7's in it now and jetted it down 2 spots to 100 squared and it seems alot better. I just need to get away from that same old grind the minute they see you knockin people out they pull out the bag of trix. So best thing to do is go to a No Box Challenge. Hope you do well Dan your on a good tune and its seems stable I hope mine gets that way. 2 weeks ago we were at 6.50'd but we got it bsck now I hope maybe even better. I will get with you next week boys I hope you all do well and Race Safe on E85.

[triplenickel]

Any updates fellas? Anybody go racing this past weekend?

[s10gramps]

Yep we made it out and had a terrible day. The truck on the other hand was running great. The timing system at our track is just a mess, and has been for two years now, all kinds of complaints, I'll explain here before I tell you our results this weekend. The complaints are this, that the left lane always times quicker than the right lane, and I thought man I don't know about that, but many,many racers have complained about it. The other major complaint is that the right lane seems to have an inordinate amount of red lights over the left, this one has plagued me for 2 years now to the point that the only time I'll run the right lane is if I'm forced to. If I run the right lane and leave the same way I do in the left lane I'll red light at least 75% of the time. One explanation for this I was discussing with one of my buddies there Sunday, he brought up the fact that you have a dominant eye and that can make a difference, he said why don't you try closing your left eye when you run the right lane because you are using your right eye from the left lane and see if that makes a difference, I'm going to try that this Sunday in my qualifying runs and see if there's anything to that.
Now on to Sundays race, I run in two brackets (Pro 13.99 and faster door cars, trans brakes allowed, no delay boxes) and (Sportsman 11.50 and slower, no trans brake or delay box, door cars). I get two qualifying runs in both brackets for a total of four qualifying runs, I take two runs in each lane. Sunday I ran the first two qualifying runs in the left lane 11.57 both runs (fastest the truck has ever run) the next two qualifying runs I made in the right lane both 11.61, I figured the humidity had come up a bit and that was making the difference. So I line up for my first elimination run against last years champ in the Pro bracket a buddy of mine (real good guy) he has his Nova dialed at 10.84 in the right lane, I figured I'd dial in right at 11.61 and just run the truck right thru because it's running so consistant now and I line up in the left lane. Now remember Sam was using the trans brake and I'm foot braking (I don't have a trans brake). I take him off the light him .0388, me .0280 I take him all the way down the track, I get to the mph trap and I see he isn't going to catch me so I let off and beat him to the line and I was just astounded when his win light came on, now mind you the humidity has gotten even higher now than the last qualifying run. To say I was seriously pi$$ed off is an understatement all the way down the return road to the time slip booth I'm thinking to myself if that f%#@ing time slip is anywhere near 11.57 I'm going to lose my mind, I get the slip yep 11.58, had I stayed in it, it would have been another 11.57 so it wasn't the humidity that was making the other lane 11.61 passes. Now the first elimination run in Sportsman, we were the next pair to go to the water box and it starts raining so we sit thru 30 minutes of rain and then another 30 minutes to dry and reprep the track. I had changed my dial in back to 11.57 at this point and I was in the left lane again, well I got the motor warmed up good and the other guy another buddy who pits right across from us had his Camaro dialed in at 11.59 so we were basically heads up we both had .07 lights and it was an awesome race he nudged me by no more than 4 feet, we get the time slips and both cars ran like $hit right after that rain delay he ran 11.74 and I ran 11.76, we were both shaking our heads. So thanks for making me re-live that love to be forgotten afternoon of quality drag racing triplenickle....LOL

[triplenickel]

Sorry gramps But, we have to hash up the past to get well!!! Maybe we can learn from this! I have a possible theory for this, but I need more info! What were your 60' times in each lane?

[s10gramps]

I totally agree on the learning from it. I know of one thing I'll do differently from this point on, instead of running the first 2 qualifying passes in the left lane and then the second 2 in the right lane, I'm going to run the first and the last qualifying passes in the left lane and the 2nd and 3rd qualifying passes in the right lane. This will give me a better idea if the weather is affecting things. Ok the 60' times in order
1st Q L lane 60' 1.65 ......... 1000' 9.64........ 1/4 11.57@116.92
2nd Q L lane 60' 1.64 ......... 1000' 9.64....... 1/4 11.57@116.25
3rd Q R lane 60' 1.68......... 1000' 9.67........ 1/4 11.61@116.53
4th Q R lane 60' 1.68........... 1000' 9.67.........1/4 11.61@116.60

1st elimination L lane Dial in 11.61......60' 1.64......1000' 9.64.....1/4 11.58@114.23
2nd elimination L lane Dial 11.57.........60' 1.69......1000' 9.80....1/4 11.76@114.82

[triplenickel]

Well, It's exactly as I suspected gramps. Your 60' times reflect the problem. To be .03 to .04 difference from lane to lane means that the roll out is not the same from lane to lane. This has a big affect on your reaction times. The right lane seems to have considerably less roll out than the left which is why your 60' times are slower. The less rollout, the quicker the reaction time. That's why when you leave at the same spot on the tree in the right lane, you're red lighting. It's close to an equal ratio....meaning that if you're .01 slower in 60' you'll be .01 quicker in R.T. The track personnel at your track need to do a better job of making sure the rollout from lane to lane is as equal as possible. That big of a difference is unacceptable in my opinion! If you were to check your incremental times from 330' on in each lane, they're probably pretty close.

[triplenickel]

As for the falloff on your last run, I would suspect that either the track prep after the rain wasn't very good or maybe you picked up a head wind after the rain or maybe both. I noticed your speed was down on that last run compared to your first 4.

[s10gramps]

Yep people have been complaining about the roll out for going on 3 years now. Last year the track brought the timing system people out to check and set the roll out in both lanes and they claimed the roll out was well within the NHRA recommendations. As far as the last run the track seemed fine and the wind stayed the same and it still is today from the south west which is a tail wind at the track. My thought on that was that right after rain like that (it was a very light shower for about 30 min) the humidity hangs in the 95% range for about an hour after the rain stops and that may have had a lot to do with that.

[triplenickel]

I wouldn't think that the increase in humidity would kill almost 2 tenths! The loss of .05 in 60' (1.64 to 1.69 in the same lane) is kind of glaring to me.