LIVE from Indy - NHRA Div 3 LODRS Season Opener

[Michael Beard]

We're LIVE from Indy, for the NHRA Div 3 LODRS season opener. It's a good for filling out tech cards. The (wildly) inaccurate long-range forecast originally said nice Fri-Sat with rain on Sunday. The reality is actually a better situation: rain this morning leading into a picture-perfect remainder of the weekend.

I got here about 4pm yesterday and worked til 9pm (interspersed with a lot of benchracing with folks who stopped by to talk about next week's Auto Meter Northern Class Nationals.) Installed new seatbelts installed, changed the starter, put my big front tires on, new class/car# decals, and saw Lynn Ellison for Collector Tethers. Since I've got the old school straightpipe collector with the 3-bolt flange, I didn't know exactly what I needed, but Lynn crawled under the car and had a combination for me in a jiffy. I also got to check out his JustNTime transbrake button test bench. He had three buttons set with different springs, shims, etc. I hit each one, not even hooked up to anything, and the last one was visibly, shockingly slow to release. Actually did a double take. They've hit on a perfect balance to accomplish that. I'm a footbraker with a slow leaving car, but if I were in Adger Smith's car again, that button would be just the trick for those 7000 rpm launches. Sure easier than swapping tires! (Indy is one of the few places I even need the tall fronts... Fiber optic Compulinks are nice and tight!)





While the overnight rain has soaked everything, it is starting to slow a little. Looks like the pits filled up quite a bit last night -- lots of rigs, but plenty of elbow room, too.

I wanted to add a thanks to Summit Racing Equipment. I've been so busy that my order wish list had been buried on my desk for a month. I finally made use of my Summit gift cards from last year's IHRA TOC and Christmas. Ordered a bunch of stuff online Tuesday night and it was on my doorstep the next afternoon.