My 1st NHRA "Experience"

[savoyracer]

Originally Posted by luckydog

SUCKED!!! I should start off by saying all of the NHRA officials and staff I encountered this past weekend were very polite and treated me with respect. Tech was a breese, even though Rock tried to set me up, and it only took 15 mins to get our credentials. The rest of the weekend, however, sucked! This may get long, so you may want to throw a bag of popcorn in the microwave. It all started before we ever got to the track. We were running down the turnpike and was sideswipped by a man driving a Budget rental truck, intentionally (long story). Luckily all he did was take off the passenger side mirror. Of course he kept right on driving so we got his liscense plate number, called the state patrol, pulled off the road and waited a hour for the patrol officer to show up. Thursday as I was heading to the lanes for my 2nd TT the pump in the trans decided to break, and of course I don't carry a spare. After much deliberation and a little encouragement from the wife I decided to pull the trans and see if I could fix it. While trying to pull the convertor (it was bound in by the pump gear) the trans slipped on me and landed on my wifes knee leaving one hell of a big bruise. I took the trans and convertor to Jim Hughes (very nice guy) and he fixed me up with a new pump, band, and dressed up the convertor. I reinstalled everything (at this time about 4 hours into it), started the car and within 15 seconds broke the new pump. I think the combination of Jim rounding the edges on the convertor to make it work and my dumb arse not shimming between the flexplate and convertor, the convertor wasn't into the pump far enough. At this point I threw in the towel and called it a weekend!! It don't stop here. Friday night we were out riding around on the 4-wheeler after the rain. I guess I turned a little too sharp for Sara (my wife) who was holding both of our beverages and she slid off the back of the bike. Luckily she didn't get hurt, just scrapped up a little. Saturday, tornadoes on the ground 3 miles from the track!!! Sunday, after FINALLY getting home, Sara was unpacking the motorhome, stepped out, and rolled her ankle pretty badly. So needless to say I was glad to return to work today!!
I did get to meet some new people this weekend. Thanks to Gary Federico for showing me where everything was Wed. BIG thanks to Jim Hughes and Kevin for all your help. Jim is a really good guy who will go out of his way to help someone out, he was even under my car with me. He most definately got the shaft in Topeka and has every reason to be pissed off!! Thanks to Rudy Matthews for the use of some of his tools and offering his convertor and trans (although in my car probably would have stalled somewhere around 2000rpm). Thanks to Mark Sanders for the convertor bolts and offering his trans and convertor (again around 2000 rpm), and Lee "the doughboy" for offering your stuff. You guys are great.

After this I'm ready for a few weekends off.
Entry and Crew: $330
Deisel fuel: $300
3 Days off work: :$350
new pump and band: $320
Beer and food: $100
Watching you wife sliding on her stomach acrossed the blacktop and not spilling a drop of beer: PRICELESS 1
Driving 250 miles home with the worst hangover of my life: PRICELESS 2

.........thanks for putting a smile on my face tonight!! And{the obvious question} How did you pick the name Lucky Dog Racing????

[luckydog]

Originally Posted by THE LEGEND

1) Dropping Tranny on wife's knee
2) Kicking wife off Pitbike
3) Pushing wife out the RV
4) Oh yea hitting budget truck with passenger side of RV which one can assume is where wife was sitting.

My question is would you like to take my wife with you sometime?LOL
Chip

Now thats some funny shy!!!!! I never thought about it that way. It doesn't look too good on my behalf. Actually I got the name and logo from a tatoo I got when I turned 18. At the time I was feeleing pretty lucky (see priceless moment #1) and thought the tatoo was fitting. Anyways, I'd rather be lucky that good any day!!!!!