In the Friday night and Saturday racing, I didn't lose a single round. Oh, what a feeling!

But, as Paul Harvey would say, I should tell you "The rest of the story."

Friday was "Club Clash", a series where local car club members come out and have some fun. There were about 475 cars out there, only 2 time trials allowed (I got back into town late and only got one time trial). After three oil-downs, the last occuring almost on the stroke of midnight, they gave up after the 3rd round was complete. I won my race in the 3rd round, but of course, there were over 50 others that did, too.

Today, the regular ET series, along with "Fast 16" and "Quick 16". Took longer than normal to get through time trials. I won the first round (other guy red-lit - I was slower, had already cut a .006 light, which followed my .001 time trial light). As they were about to start the 2nd round, it started to rain, and they gave up after about 3 hours of waiting.

So, two truncated races, but I kind of liked the feeling of having won the last race I ran (didn't mind the back-to-back .001 & .006 RT's, either).

 

Thats great 57. Sounds like fun.

 

sounds like a great weekend! great r/t's

 

Hey, before you explained it , sounds pretty damn good As long as we're boasting, I'm still happy after today's performance. Got to bed Sat. night/Sun morn at 3am-had a night race that went till 1:30am, decided to go to the NHRA track Sun. morning 7am and check out the new R/T thing .000 and the LED tree at the NHRA track. Started out as a terrible morning-long story, but once I got there things got better, once again lit the Sportsman class up and messed with the true track racers points chase . So far 2 for 2 at this track and this class. Finally got the new button on the sterring wheel figured out-for this track anyways, still needs work at home track, started out with .066, then a .065, once I got deep into the rounds and pushing it, had a .024, .026, .004, and in the finals, the tracks point champ got itchy and pulled a -.089 red eye. I'm like a cemetary, I'll take anything; as wins are few and far between this season as stepping up to Mod. and being the slowest car in the class was a bad move, but it's making me step up the game on my dails, so it's good experience since we're starting the other ride in Mod, next points race. Get to be the faster of the bunch finally!!
475 cars, I wish to *** either track I raced had a car count like that-think of all the money to be won!!!!!

 

Good rac'n! Maybe you could teach me how to cut lights like that, that's awesome.

 

Believe it or not, we're racing for trophys for that series. Most of us "regular" racers treat it as test & tune, but it's a lot of fun, too.

I left the track Friday night at 12:55 a.m., went into work at 6:30 a.m., was back at the track at 10:15 a.m. for the Saturday races. I made my one & only elimination run at 4:45 p.m., they didn't call it until 8:30 p.m. That's a lot of sitting around.

But, hey, we don't do it for the money, right?

 

All that sitting around sounds like our track on a points event...organization is bad out there to say the least.
I almost enjoy the "fun" races more than the points races cause you don't have the pressure per say of points chasing, kinda reminds me when I first got going racing, more for fun. Nowadays after tasting the money, it's turned more into a job on the weekends, plus the Super Series points add up at the end of the season. The one thing about the NHRA track that I like is the fact that along with winning the money, they also give out a trophy, my buddies been doing this for years and has 3 boxes of plastic so he thinks I'm goofy when I get mine cause I'm pumped. To me, they will be reminders in the future that I accomplished something, cause the money will be spent before it's even in your hand. I don't think making money and the word racing are ever used truthfully in 1 sentence.

 

Most of the sitting around was waiting for the rain to stop. Before it started raining, there was almost always somebody going down the track. They stopped for track prep before the big boys went down (high-6, low-7 dragsters w/7.35 bump, 8-second door slammers). I give them high marks for being organized, actually.

We found a bunch of my old trophies cleaning out the storage room this spring. They are nice reminders (now if I could just remember what "Klassensteiger" means...).

 

I will say this about the NHRA track we have here-they are on top of everything!! Our guys at home get pissy and pout when there's an oil down, or some other wrench thrown in the mix and it takes them 2-3 times as long to resolve the problem. Down at the NHRA track, they have 6 guys working the burnout box and they work very well together, it's guaranteed your getting a clean launch pad every pass. All their equipment is top notch so no matter what happens it's resolved almost as quickly as it happened. I don't like the 1hr drive to get there, but considering most guys out there would love to drive an hour instead of 2-4 I'll deal with it. I don't know why I have'nt made it a point to show up there more often, just feel comfortable at the home track I guess. I have noted one thing however, both times I've ran down there I was nervious/scared before every round up until I let go of the button, and I've had good luck thus far as I think the fear of not knowing the competition and how good they are makes me push myself a little harder, when back here I know most of the guys, what they run, how well they hit the tree, how close they usually run to their dails, etc... and there is no nerviousness at all-and since mioving to pro class I go out 1st round every time-well most every time. For me I guess being anxious is a good thing. Is it just me, or do most guys get this anxious feeling away from home?

 

Klassensteiger = Class riser

I haven't won a trophy in over 3 years now and nothing with the car except a hard luck award.

You don't drag race to make money. Our local track thinks they offer good payouts compared to others. 40% of our entry fee (each class is seperate) is given back as prize money. 50% of that goes to the winner. 40 cars in Pro ET each pay $50 to race. $2000 total entry fee. $800 total prize money for Pro ET. Winner gets $400 plus a trophy. That would be real nice if we ever had 40 cars. It's usually in the 20-30 range.

That's like charging baseball players to go play and be part of the show to draw in spectators. If they win, they'll get paid. Actually that's the way it should be for all sports. You don't perform, you don't get paid. Many racers invest thousands of dollars into their race vehicles and never make any money racing. Sponsorship and contingency winnings help but definitly not prize money.

I'd like to get a bunch of "pay on performance" sponsors. Nobody wants to just give you $1000 to go race but if you tell them that every time you win, they pay $50 and a runner up is $25. Now if you have only 10 sponsors like that and you win, that's $500 in your pocket. I'm sure many businesses would go for that kind of sponsorship. There's not a big chunk of money out of their pocket all at once. As far a decals for the car would go I wouldn't put anything larger than 6x9 on the car for such a small sponsorship.

Maybe some day I'll go around and try to drum up some sponsors like that. I need to keep the car together and running for a chance at winning before I'd consider finding sponsors.

Until then I'll just pay the money and go race.

 

Wow, the sponsored pay as you win idea is great!!! Next spring this is definately going to be one of my tactics for more cash. I went around when there was still snow on the ground trying to drum up a little extra cash, but the simple fact of the matter-bracket racing is boring to watch and both track spectator count is low, so the businesses have no intrest in this sport as they give their money to the mud packers, frustrated yes, but as a business owner myself I know why. LOTS more people to see the name for more exposure, even though when's the last race you went to you remember the sponsor on the car-local type racing that is. If it were'nt for this car saving me at tax time, I don't think I'd buy half the junk I do just cause I can hide it.
Just putting a bug out there, if anyone is interested in a digital weather station I'm trying to get a deal worked out with the guy at Appidata System. It's a hand held station that tells everything except wind speed/direction. Comes with software that allows you to plug it into your desk/lap top for really pretty on screen monitoring, otherwise the hand held unit has a 4 line LED screen. Compensates automatically so it tells you what altitude the atmosphere is-raced last weekend @ 2100 ft. and in the evening got down to 1600 ft., the cars were running faster -you'd be surprised how much it fluctuates from morning to late evening. I should have the first one here by the middle of the week so I can find out all the other goodies it has to offer. Once I get all the material, I'll have a full run down of EVERYTHING it comes with/does, and pics of the whole package. It does not come with E.T. predictor, but who used that anyway?! Suggested retail of this unit is $279.00, but if I can sell them to racers I can drop it down to $200 + shipping.

 

Here's one of the best little hand held weather station's I've seen. It'll tell you everything you need to know about the weather including density altitude. If I was going to buy a new one, this is what I would buy. It's not designed as a racer's weather station so it doesn't know anything about HP compensation or ET predictions but it's got a lot of instruments packed into a little package.

http://www.nkhome.com/ww/4000/4000.html