Nothing to Show

Sometimes you win, Sometimes you lose, and sometimes you don't even get the chance.  This weekend was one of those weekends where you don't get the chance.

Here is a short synopsis of the last two days.  3 States, 2 Racetracks, 7 hours of driving, 8 hours of sitting at a track, 0 passes.  Nothing to show for the weekend that was.

Friday we took the Roadster to Kanawha Valley to do some more testing.  We get there and unload like normal and prepare to make the few passes necessary to see if we had fixed the car.  15 minutes before the Test and Tune session was to begin, the PA announcer lets us all know that nothing is working!!! The track has no computers, no timers, no tree or anything!!!!!  They announce that they will let cars go down the track Arm Drop Style!!! Some cars went up and played, but we did not.  There was no point.  If we could not see any times how were we to know if we picked the car up???  So we sat around for a few hours to see if they could get everything fixed.  They couldn't.  So we loaded up and headed back home.

The original plan was to go home and load up my dragster and then on Saturday head back to Kanawha for a points race.  However, on the way home we get a phone saying that they had decided to cancel Saturdays program because there was no way that they could have the timing system up and running in time.  So we make the decision to race at Bluegrass Raceway Park in Owingsville, KY on Saturday.

Gates did not open up down there until 5 pm on Satuday, so we have plenty of time to get everything ready on Saturday morning.  The radar did not look great but we have never let the possibility of rain keep us away from a race track.  I do not know how many times the radar has lied to us and we were able to get the race in.

However, this day was one of those days that the radar was right.  We get to the race track at about 4:30.  A shower had blown through right as we got there.  It was just enough of a rain to get everything wet and that was about it.  The track personnel did a good job of drying the track and shortly after 6 the opened the lanes up for open time trials.  As the first pair of cars starts going down the track, it starts raining again.

It rains off and on until 8, when they decided to pull the plug.  Luckily we had no unloaded anything.  So we jumped in the truck and made the 2 hour drive back home.

I guess we had a lot of family bonding time, however I wanted racing time!!!!  

Next weekend is going to be an off weekend, unless I decide to take my street car down to Kanawha and run it in Super Sport.  (This is a strong possibility)

Look for another blog entry in a few days.  Considering my recent racing exploits have been few and far between I will post some of my thoughts on other goings on within the world of drag racing.

Rain Rain Go Away

If you are ever at a drag strip and you need a boat to get from your pit space to the staging lanes, you know you are in trouble.

That was the exact situation that we had at Kanawha Valley this past Saturday.

We we supposed to have two points races, however Mother Nature decided against it.  After the first time trial for the first race on Saturday, a pop up storm came through and washed out the day.  We got about 3 inches of rain in 30 to 45 minutes.  I thought we were going to need to build an Arc for a little while.  I don't know if put race cars in two by two would have worked, but it almost got to that point.

I guess the weekend was not a complete wash though, as on Friday night we did take out the new Roadster and did some testing.  The car ran a best of 6.58 at 102.  A little slower than what we anticipated.

This weekend may not treat us any better.  The forecast is calling for a 50% of rain on Saturday.  So hopefully everything holds off.

Plan for the weekend is to take the roadster down and test some more tonight.  Then load the Dragster and take it back to Kanawha Valley tomorrow.

That is the plan, lets just hope that Mother Nature can understand my need to race tomorrow!!!

On a side note, I know he will not read this but I just want to say Congrats to the Living Legend of Racing John Force on getting back into the winners circle at Denver this past weekend.  A win that was needed in a big way.

Also a big shout out to the Nitro Twitter Group (NTG).  Great group of people who love drag racing.

Wedding Break

I know it has been a while since my last post, but there is good reason.  On Saturday July 9th I got married.    We then left on that Monday and went to Las Vegas for our honeymoon.  So racing news has been little to come by recently, but I guess it was for a good cause!!!

Recap of the last week.

On Saturday I got married to the beautiful Mrs. Kelli Claytor (formerly Kelli Little).  I currently do not have any pictures of the wedding, however I do have a picture of the wedding cake Kelli got for me.

She totally surprised me with the cake.  I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen.  Whoever she had make the cake did a great job considering she only had a few pictures of my dragster to go off of.

Sunday, my dad went and picked up the latest addition to the Claytor Racing Stable of race cars.  We bought a roadster off of our good buddy Mike Stowers.

This is going to be a fun little toy to play with.  We can use it to Super Rod race at IHRA Pro-Ams.  We will also use it to run in some bottom bulb and foot-brake races.  I drove it once before a few years back and it was a blast.  Should be a good, fun car to drive that we can hopefully have some success with.

Then on Monday the wife and I left for our honeymoon in Las Vegas.  The trip started a little rough as our flight was delayed in Columbus for over 2 hours!!!! Nothing worse than sitting in the airport with nothing to do.

While in Vegas, we had a great time.  This was my 3rd trip to Vegas and the 2nd for Kelli.  Simply put, I love Vegas.  I wish I could say that gambling treated us well, however I would be lying if I said that.  However, there were plenty of other great moments that overshadowed the loses.

The first highlight off the trip was a chance encounter Friday afternoon with should be baseball Hall of Famer and Cincinnati Red great Pete Rose!!! We were walking through the shops at the Mandalay Bay and looked over at a memorabilia shop and Pete Rose was there signing things.  So we bought a Jersey for us, and a bat for Kelli's dad and got Pete to sign them.  We also got to talk to him a little and get pictures with him.

Being from Southern Ohio, the chance to meet Pete Rose and talk to him a little bit was priceless (the jersey and bat however were not!! LOL) Great time.

Then on Friday night we had to tickets to go see Ron White perform at the Mirage.  Ron White is a comedy genius.  He was great.

Now, back home things are back to normal.  Back to work for me tomorrow and then off to the race track on Friday to test the Roadster!!

A little skill, A lot of Luck

I want to start by saying Thank You to everyone who has served for this country so that we can have the freedoms that we have.  Thank you guys and gals.

As far as racing goes, out preparation started Wednesday when we changed fuels pumps (we put a smaller pump on).  After getting everything together we loaded up on Friday and went to Kanawha Valley Motorsports Park in West Virginia for the Friday Night Test and Tune.

The plan was to make three passes to make sure everything was good and then load up and leave.  That plan worked about as well as any of our plans normally do.  First pass the car runs a speedy 5.67 at 117.  Mind you that the car had been running 5.20 at 130.  So basically we spent $600 for a new fuel pump to slow the car down half a second, Austin Coil would be proud!!!!  We make 6 more passes, for a total of 7 (remember the plan??) in which we finally get the car to run high 5.20's.  So we load up and head home so we can get stuff ready to leave early the next morning to head to Bluegrass Raceway in Owingsville, KY.

We get to BRP and enter the Quick 16 and Top ET.  We get two time runs and get the car to run a 5.29 which is on par with what it ran Friday night.  Round 1 of the Quick 16 would be up first.  The Q16 didn't fill up entirely so there was a bye run first run.  I get the luck of the draw and get the bye run.

Next up is 1st round of Top ET.  My opponent red lights and I got .0008 on the tree.  The perfect reaction time earned me the bye run for round 2 of Top ET.  I get by 2nd and 3rd round in both q16 and Top.  Round 4 in the Quick 16 was the finals!!!

In the finals my opponent goes .004 on the tree.  I however missed it.  The sun was shining directly onto the tree and I simply could not see my top bulb come on.  Luckily I have the bump down set up, which is set to .010.  I hit the bump down 5 times before I leave and only bump it to a .064!!!! So simply put,  I am dead.  I run it out the back door and go a 5.241 on my 5.24 dial.  However in doing so I run it hard enough to not let my opponent lift, and he breaks out by .002!!!! I win!!!!  Was not the prettiest, it was entirely luck, but a win is a win.

So next up is round 4 in TOP ET, where I have to run Charlie Bellamy.  CB is dialed a 5.67 to my 5.23. He leaves with a .034 to my .004.  I get to the finish line and grab a ton of brake, he goes dead on 1, I go  a 5.25 to take the win by .008!!

Round 5 of TOP was the semi final round.  I was dialed 5.23 to my opponents 5.19.  We both miss the tree with mid .03 lights.  I get to the finish line and hit the brakes to take .005 strip.  I break out by .008 and he breaks out by .002.  I lose.

So for Saturday I won 8 straight rounds.  Got a Win and semi appearance.  A good day.

Here is a picture of me in the winners circle after winning the Quick 16.

On Sunday I lost in the first round.  I bought back in and ended up getting down to 12 cars.  A decent day at best.  Highlight of the day may have been my .0000 reaction time in dialing for dollars.

A good weekend.  A little skill, A lot of luck but a run weekend and a win.  Now off for a few weeks as I am getting married this Saturday and then heading to Vegas for our honeymoon!!