1BadBu
Aug 13th, 08, 11:33 PM
Sometimes, no matter how much you prepare, things just don't go your way. We really stunk up the joint this last weekend at the Nightfire Nationals at Firebird raceway in Boise Idaho.
It took me 10 hrs to drive the haul rig from Sacramento to Boise and the same to get back. Over 1000 miles round trip. Firebird is a beautiful facility and the crew there is one of the best I've seen. The people in Boise are friendly and polite and I wouldn't mind living there.
That's about all the nice things I can think of to say about our weekend.
As a Top Fuel race team, we really stunk-up the joint. No amount of arguing or explaining could convince the team owner to follow the Crew Chief's advice and our performance suffered because of it. Just because you own the car, doesn't mean you know how to tune it. Needless to say, the only bright spot was some good top-end speeds (245+) but unfortunately, the quicker car wins. 6.20's & 6.30's aren't gonna cut it in Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragster. Murphy ran consistant 5.90's all weekend at 235 and went home the winner.
We blew the motor during our second qualifying pass Saturday night so "beer time" became "put in the spare motor time". We were up till 2am getting the car ready for Sundays eliminations. Oh yeah....only a 12 car field so everyone qualified. Even us.
Here's a few pictures of everyone getting the job done. It's a great team and I'm proud to be part of it. That's our Crew Chief, Gary Grisel (my best friend from way back in our days together in the Marine Corps) putting the cam in the back-up motor. There's me (the bald guy) putting the oil tank back in after cleaning it. Our Driver, Jason Richey working on the heads and even some family friends pitching in to wipe down the oil drenched frame and body panels. Lastly, you'll see what happens when the owner tunes the car and a pic of the pit after the guy next to us went home early.
It took me 10 hrs to drive the haul rig from Sacramento to Boise and the same to get back. Over 1000 miles round trip. Firebird is a beautiful facility and the crew there is one of the best I've seen. The people in Boise are friendly and polite and I wouldn't mind living there.
That's about all the nice things I can think of to say about our weekend.
As a Top Fuel race team, we really stunk-up the joint. No amount of arguing or explaining could convince the team owner to follow the Crew Chief's advice and our performance suffered because of it. Just because you own the car, doesn't mean you know how to tune it. Needless to say, the only bright spot was some good top-end speeds (245+) but unfortunately, the quicker car wins. 6.20's & 6.30's aren't gonna cut it in Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragster. Murphy ran consistant 5.90's all weekend at 235 and went home the winner.
We blew the motor during our second qualifying pass Saturday night so "beer time" became "put in the spare motor time". We were up till 2am getting the car ready for Sundays eliminations. Oh yeah....only a 12 car field so everyone qualified. Even us.
Here's a few pictures of everyone getting the job done. It's a great team and I'm proud to be part of it. That's our Crew Chief, Gary Grisel (my best friend from way back in our days together in the Marine Corps) putting the cam in the back-up motor. There's me (the bald guy) putting the oil tank back in after cleaning it. Our Driver, Jason Richey working on the heads and even some family friends pitching in to wipe down the oil drenched frame and body panels. Lastly, you'll see what happens when the owner tunes the car and a pic of the pit after the guy next to us went home early.