Here'a a quick rundown of the day...
First run of the day, of the season, on the new motor...
Reaction - 0.7582 (rusty??)(0.500 tree)
60 ft - 1.8162
330 ft - 5.2889
594 ft - 7.6831
1/8 ET - 8.2222
1/8 MPH - 83.48
1/4 ET - 12.9750
1/4 MPH - 103.32
I was pretty pleased to see a 12 second ET and was somewhat surprised. I lined up again and ran a 13.0361 ET with a 101.04 mph trap speed with a 1.7881 sixty foot time.
I then decided to switch tunes to one with with different shift points and came up with a 13.0560 @ 101.16 with a 1.7838 sixty foot. Repeating the same tune I ran again and came up with a 13.0275 @ 100.59 with a sixty foot time of 1.7595 seconds.
Not wanting to abuse the new motor, I decided that was sufficient time trials and went to the pits. I decided to settle on a 12.95 dial in for the brackets to follow lunch.
So much time had passed by the time the brackets started, I was unsure of the dial-in since the weather had changed significantly and it was much warmer and less humid. Lined up against a 16.1 second opponent I made sure I held my stance at the tree and not become distracted and red-light. My reaction time was a .5683 vs. the opponent's 1.0545. We both ended up breaking out at the end but the first or worst rule put the win light in my lane with a 12.9122 on the 12.95 dial with a trap speed of only 100.93 (I had lifted the throttle at the end once I passed the opponent at the far end of the track). The sixty foot time on that run was a 1.7733.
On to the next round (barely).
Back in the staging lanes I change the dial to a flat 12.9 simply by erasing the 5 off the dial-in. It didn't take long to be called again and I was paired with a T-bird with a 13.8 dial-in meaning I would only have to wait 9 tenths of a second to launch. I staged shallow and launched hard.
I was beat at the tree with the T-bird's 0.6461 reaction time vs. my 0.6700. I ended up catching up to the T-bird quickly and put some distance between us before I hit the brakes at the finish. I was surprised when I saw the win light in the other lane! When I picked up the time slip, I saw I had run a 12.9083 at 102.08 mph. BUT when I scanned up back to the top of the slip I saw it listed my dial-in time as a 12.95!! Huh??
I had made sure the display board showed a 12.90 before I staged, so I was baffled why the timeslip showed a 12.95 dial. I decided to go to the staging lanes and find out what the heck had happened. I went straight to the track official in the lanes and explained my case while showing him my timeslip. He asked if I wanted to re-run and I told him no as the other guy thought he had a bonafide win but I just wanted to know what happened and more importantly to let the tower officials know they had a 12.90 show on the timing board but printed a 12.95 on the timeslip.
The staging lane official talked to the tower on the radio for a few seconds then explained to me that the tower had read TWO dial-in numbers, one a 12.9 and the other a 12.95 and they went with the 12.95! What had happened was earlier in the day, the staging lane official was checking everyone in the bracket lane had an ET selected as a dial-in. When he saw mine he deemed it was a bit unclear as I had the 12.95 on the front and side windows (but admittedly my marker didn't like the shiny clean windows with rain-x). So he used
his marker to write the 12.95 on the back glass. In the battle, I had completely forgotten about the numbers on the back and inadvertently left the original dial-in as is.
A preponderance of coincidence had cost me the win.
All in all, it was a good day despite the miscue. I was pleased with the first outing on the new setup and left feeling I had a good foundation to build upon.