five7kid

iTrader: (14)

I hadn't had the car out yet this year with the first points race being Friday evening. I had Friday off, and they happened to run a day test, so I went out to get a few passes before it got official.

Didn't really do anything to the car since last fall except change the oil and gear lube, which I did Wednesday night. Had a check engine light Wednesday morning, code said Bank 2 O2 no activity, so I figured another O2 sensor had gone out. Got it up in the air for the fluids changes, looked over at the passenger side header and saw the O2 connector staring back at me connected to nothing - not sure how it came unplugged, maybe ran over a pile of snow or something, but it came off clean. Plugged it back in, all's good.

The last pass last fall it ran a 12.69 at our 5800' elevation, weighing right at 3400 lbs going down the track. Next weekend is a race series I intended to run the '57 in, but it isn't running yet. It has a 12.75 max ET requirement, so if I sub'd the Camaro, I'd have to pick it up a bit to make the cut (day spring racing is typically slower than day fall racing). So, I took the back seats and front passenger seat out, spare tire and jack out, to see if that would help. First pass was a 12.76, weight with about 2/3 tank of gas 3310, so I thought we might be close. In 3 more passes, all were in the 12.6's, so that was encouraging.

In the late afternoon they started time trials for the evening racing. I entered two classes, each get 2 time trials. Stayed in the 12.6's, last pass a 12.61. First round the car usually slows down because of the wait and the air getting weird, but the DA dropped 200' and we got a slight tail breeze, so I took a couple hundredths off anyway - good thing the other guy went red, or I'd have been in trouble because it slowed to a .66 (he was slow from his dial as well).

Won't bore you with all the details, but made it to the 4th round (out of 7) in both classes. My wife was out with the camera, this was 1st round of the 2nd class, one of my better runs of the night.




Yes, it's ugly, but not too shabby for a year-round daily driver, IMO...

AlkyIROC

That's quite a camera angle.

Must be nice to be racing already. We has some cold and snow last weekend. Edmonton has their first T&T this weekend and the first race is next weekend but I'm not ready to race yet. The downside of not having a local track, I now have a 5 hour round trip so doing a sat/sun race isn't feasible. I'll just hit the Sunday racing as much as I can this year once I'm ready.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

The track is built on the side of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The grandstands were basically built on the hillside. Above the grandstands, they cut back the hill for the pit area. My wife was sitting at the top of the grandstands for the video. She knows where to sit so she can get both sides of the tree and a good view of the entire track.

I'll admit it's nice to have an NHRA big boy track 6 miles from your house (played a part in the decision of which house to buy when we moved here...). Sort of like being able to play your softball league games at Wrigley Field.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

sounds like a solid first showing! keep up the good work, and good luck this season man! i just want to get back to the track with slicks on, lol.

PhoenixFirebird

iTrader: (2)

I know the feeling lol. I live 4 minutes from Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, and it's just wonderful. Until I'm still wrenching on the Firebird while I hear cars going down the track Motivation though right?

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Thanks, Matt.

Yes, I was hoping to have the '57 running in time for the season - maybe next month. Every time I'm at the track, someone asks about it. But, the Camaro does pretty well in its own right. I guess people are starting to figure that out - half of my wins Friday were by red light...

Of the two classes I ran, my son is tied for 3rd place in the one (ahead of me...). The other one (which was the one in the video above), it actually only went 6 rounds, and the finalists weren't registered for season points, so I'm actually in 3rd place myself in that class.