After a long day at the dynotune in Richmond, I drove to Hagerstown, MD to be at a private track rental the following morning. The weather was sunny and warm in Richmond, but wet, foggy and cool when I arrived in H-town. With no chance to dry overnight, I awoke at 6AM to find the morning event canceled. The track still managed to open for the regular schedule of the day at noon - the first day of T&T.
Since I was there... :big-grin:
As usual, the place was packed. All month, the weekend test and tunes had been cancelled due to weather. The track opening had been much anticipated. I arrived before 11 and was ready to run when they made the call to the staging lanes shortly after noon. I was second in line in the lanes. Needless to say after a long winter nap, both the track and driver were in need of getting back into shape.
After warming up the Hoosiers, I lined up against a Super Stock S-10. I had him at the beginning but he quickly gained separation and pushed the truck to the win light.
Car - 31(me) / 693(S-10)
R/T - .225 / .191
60' - 1.924 / 2.189
330' - 5.740 / 5.692
1/8 - 8.883 / 8.594
MPH - 78.73 / 84.31
1000 - 11.583 / 11.110
1/4 - 13.866 / 13.241
MPH - 100.74 / 105.73
It was difficult to tell if I spun off the line but the track conditions left a lot to be desired. The car stuttered a bit at the 1-2 shift. It was not unusual for the first run to less than expected. And later in the pits I found my cooling fan bypass was malfunctioning and needed a fuse for some unknown reason.
About an hour and a half later, the call to the lanes came. I decided to try the other lane this time and found myself against an unknown older model TransAm.
Car - 93(T/A) / 31(me)
R/T - .096 / .099
60' - 2.312 / 1.899
330' - 6.284 / 5.619
1/8 - 9.463 / 8.698
MPH - 77.85 / 79.59
1000 - 12.173 / 11.371
1/4 - 14.452 / 13.632
MPH - 99.18 / 98.93
Approaching to stage, I couldn't resist and reached down and opened the cutouts. We came off the tree door to door and it wasn't long the opponent was trailing and in my mirror. After picking up the slip, I returned to the pits. At first glance the 13.6 felt better, but the MPH made me wonder. Then I noticed the long awaited goal of 1.8s in the sixty foot had finally been acheived, albeit just barely. :big-grin:
Now things were getting ugly. Breakdowns on the track and a couple of license runs and Gamblers races meant a 3 hour wait. The car was bone cold when I finally arrived in the lanes again beside some Pro Chevy driver. He asked what my car weighed and was suprised at the answer. I'm not sure he was suprised it was heavy and ran so well or it was not as heavy as he thought since he remarked something about his weight. Regardless, I knew from the numbers on his car, I was out matched.
Car - 31(me) / 999(Chevy)
R/T - .155 / .032
60' - 1.921 / 1.853
330' - 5.678 / 5.124
1/8 - 8.803 / 7.869
MPH - 79.36 / 88.86
1000 - 11.497 / 10.274
1/4 - 13.768 / 12.326
MPH - 101.18 / 109.76
The slip didn't suprise me as I felt the car just wasn't where it needed to be, despite the MPH. I learned later there was a pretty stiff headwind during the run as the breezes had been shifting during the day. Even though it was late, I kept the tires on the car hoping for just one more call. But alas, there was no more runs to be made and I packed up the gear and headed home with just as many unanswered questions as I came with. The density altitude averaged over 2000 feet throughout the day, pretty high for this time of year, so that didn't help either.
With only 3 runs, not much testing and tuning was accomplished. On the two hour ride home I felt the car starting to miss under load. I have new plugs that arrived too late for the tune, hopefully that's the cure for that. It would've been nice to been able to run at the private rental and get some real testing done for the start of the season.
But all in all, had a good time, got a new sixty foot record and nothing broke!
Since I was there... :big-grin:
As usual, the place was packed. All month, the weekend test and tunes had been cancelled due to weather. The track opening had been much anticipated. I arrived before 11 and was ready to run when they made the call to the staging lanes shortly after noon. I was second in line in the lanes. Needless to say after a long winter nap, both the track and driver were in need of getting back into shape.
After warming up the Hoosiers, I lined up against a Super Stock S-10. I had him at the beginning but he quickly gained separation and pushed the truck to the win light.
Car - 31(me) / 693(S-10)
R/T - .225 / .191
60' - 1.924 / 2.189
330' - 5.740 / 5.692
1/8 - 8.883 / 8.594
MPH - 78.73 / 84.31
1000 - 11.583 / 11.110
1/4 - 13.866 / 13.241
MPH - 100.74 / 105.73
It was difficult to tell if I spun off the line but the track conditions left a lot to be desired. The car stuttered a bit at the 1-2 shift. It was not unusual for the first run to less than expected. And later in the pits I found my cooling fan bypass was malfunctioning and needed a fuse for some unknown reason.
About an hour and a half later, the call to the lanes came. I decided to try the other lane this time and found myself against an unknown older model TransAm.
Car - 93(T/A) / 31(me)
R/T - .096 / .099
60' - 2.312 / 1.899
330' - 6.284 / 5.619
1/8 - 9.463 / 8.698
MPH - 77.85 / 79.59
1000 - 12.173 / 11.371
1/4 - 14.452 / 13.632
MPH - 99.18 / 98.93
Approaching to stage, I couldn't resist and reached down and opened the cutouts. We came off the tree door to door and it wasn't long the opponent was trailing and in my mirror. After picking up the slip, I returned to the pits. At first glance the 13.6 felt better, but the MPH made me wonder. Then I noticed the long awaited goal of 1.8s in the sixty foot had finally been acheived, albeit just barely. :big-grin:
Now things were getting ugly. Breakdowns on the track and a couple of license runs and Gamblers races meant a 3 hour wait. The car was bone cold when I finally arrived in the lanes again beside some Pro Chevy driver. He asked what my car weighed and was suprised at the answer. I'm not sure he was suprised it was heavy and ran so well or it was not as heavy as he thought since he remarked something about his weight. Regardless, I knew from the numbers on his car, I was out matched.
Car - 31(me) / 999(Chevy)
R/T - .155 / .032
60' - 1.921 / 1.853
330' - 5.678 / 5.124
1/8 - 8.803 / 7.869
MPH - 79.36 / 88.86
1000 - 11.497 / 10.274
1/4 - 13.768 / 12.326
MPH - 101.18 / 109.76
The slip didn't suprise me as I felt the car just wasn't where it needed to be, despite the MPH. I learned later there was a pretty stiff headwind during the run as the breezes had been shifting during the day. Even though it was late, I kept the tires on the car hoping for just one more call. But alas, there was no more runs to be made and I packed up the gear and headed home with just as many unanswered questions as I came with. The density altitude averaged over 2000 feet throughout the day, pretty high for this time of year, so that didn't help either.
With only 3 runs, not much testing and tuning was accomplished. On the two hour ride home I felt the car starting to miss under load. I have new plugs that arrived too late for the tune, hopefully that's the cure for that. It would've been nice to been able to run at the private rental and get some real testing done for the start of the season.
But all in all, had a good time, got a new sixty foot record and nothing broke!