More Pictures From Last Weekend.....

The Best Day Ever...

...is the best way I can describe Sunday, November 14th 2010. The day started with great surprise when Stan (my great friend and transpo man) showed up with his grandson Dylan & my longtime friend Robert Anderson (who also built my engine).....We  ended up with about a dozen friends in our pit. Racing is about people and friends and on this day, I had plenty.....we would need the the combined brainpower right off the bat.

We actually broke the car unloading it off the trailer.A heim joint inside the the shifter body broke. Who would make something like that out of plastic? Oh well...I didnt have a spare in my parts box, so I decided to rob one from the power cut-off.....While Bob, Bruce & Stan worked on the shifter, I stole the clevis from my chute lever to replace the heim on the power cut-off. I then found a throttle cable quick-disconnect to use on the parachute.Once we solved that series of issues we warmed it up. and we were off to the lanes. The car count was low so we were able to pull right in.

Since I hadnt been in the car since 2007 I opted to take it easy on my first run. Good thing too, I had a bit too much air in my slicks and the car bounced thru the first few hundred feet. It settled down and starting moving out. I lifted and coasted thru.

My second lap was gonna be a good one until the the engine quit at half track. I was a tad worried un til we found that the mag hadnt been tightened enough. No Sweat...A quick timing light warm-up and were off to the lanes for run # 3

After a nice burnout, we staged it up and while the launch was soft it really started charging. I hit the shift button and she got a tad crossed up. I peddle it and drove it to about 800 ft.

I know what your'e thinking..."How quick & fast, Dave?"......10.45 @ 119 mph.....Nothing to brag about, I know...But dammit we all had fun. and for me, that is ALL that matters. Yes, we will get quicker, yes the driver will be less shy about driving and tuning it. But I will never forget how much fun we had. Robert Anderson shot over 400 pictures, Jim's son Kyle shot some great videos. and in almost EVERY picture is one of my guys or myself smiling or laughing.......as I said, It WAS the best day I ever had at the races.

My heartfelt thanks to:
Stan Rosier & Dylan
Robert Anderson
Jim Wilkins
Kyle Wilkins
Natalie Wilkins
Bruce Schneider
Bob Kelly ---Who DROVE from Michigan just to be there!!!
Matt
Alex
Tony Morris

Well...Here we are...

In sunny Florida....Had a nice flight in....Picked up my parts and headed to the race shop. We dragged the car out of the mothballs and cleaned it up. Despite being in storage it looked pretty good....even though it's sustained a few dings in the paint.....We went to install the new magneto and discovered that the drive gear was different than the old one...once we got it swapped out and dropped in, she lit off right away....What a relief !....My friend Bob is coming with my new / old trailer on Saturday. While we won't be using it this weekend (wheel bearing issues) it will be repaired and ready to deliver my car to Vegas if and when I decide to. I'm really looking forward to getting out to the track Sunday. Its been almost 4 years since we have done so.