LIVE from Palm Beach Nitro Jam

[jmcarter]

Bradenton car counts will "tell the tale" for NHRA in D2, think Pomona filling up is a whole different deal. If racers aren't willing to drive to Jupiter or Bradenton then racing "down south" will probably not be much different than last year. So-so car counts at best.

[Chad Rhodes]

Originally Posted by jmcarter

Bradenton car counts will "tell the tale" for NHRA in D2, think Pomona filling up is a whole different deal. If racers aren't willing to drive to Jupiter or Bradenton then racing "down south" will probably not be much different than last year. So-so car counts at best.

Also let's wait and see what the turnout for the Nitro Jam in Baton Rouge is. There are a ton of good race cars in that area, and the ones I have talked to are going.

[Michael Beard]

Boy, you could tell it was the first race of the year! Drove like crap for the most part, but in the end managed to make it to the semifinals of the No-Box side of the E.T. race -- I got $300 for making it to the 4th round.... I like that math. To those that stayed home, your loss.

The weekend turned out to be a little more of an adventure than I was hoping for. The driver's side slick developed a bad cord or something. We had a long oildown when Mayhew's engine finally gave up the ghost. The tire was a little lower than I would've liked it by the time we finally got to race. .001 light, and then had a winter-hibernation brain lapse and forgot just how much room cars make up in the 1/4-mile. I'd lost .16 between the last two qualifying runs (to the wind... Manny Sousa lost .15 as well), and I wasn't trusting the wind nor the dial. By the time I started pedaling, I knew it was exactly wrong, and Brenda cruised on by for the win. I made the turn on top end, and the tire gave up, leaving the car stranded on the top end of the opposite side of the track.

I tried to thumb a ride back with Manny. 'Course he thought I was just checking to see if he'd won or not, so I had to show a little leg to get him to stop. He got me back to his pit, and one of his buddy's gave me a ride on the golf cart the rest of the way back to mine. Tim Davis and I took two scooters to get my spare rear wheel (w/ street tire), a floor jack, and a lug wrench over to the other side. Swapped out, throw tools in the trunk, drive back to the pit, grab the spare slick (and I thought I was being silly bringing it, but knew that it was the last 20x8-14 on the planet). The other rim had gotten boogered a little (*might* be ok, but not worth the risk), so we had them dismount the street tire, put the old spare slick on, and changed it right in the tire guy's pit. No-Box is already in the lanes, and running. Gotta drive back to my pit at 1,200' to get all the tools, wheels and tires out of the car, ask Jim to call up to the tower as I zip through the staging lanes (access to the far side pit) to put me in the No-Box race on my other Gold Card. Drop junk, back to the lanes. By that time, there's only two cars left... the bye car... and Myron Piatek. Car's hot, dial up a tenth, didn't even have time to check the air in the newly mounted slick (ended up about 4psi high). Myron welds me as usual, we're both on the brakes, and I give it back by .001... so! Been beaten up by two World Champs so far! LOL Sheesh!

Get back to the pit, thinkin' about loading up, but realized there were so few bracket cars that if I bought back in, I'd only have to win one round to get in the money. I'd tell you about my second round match-up with Harry Morgan, but all the video cameras ran out of film trying to record the whole thing. The wind turns tail, and I get a double-breakout nod, -.08 under to -.11 under! Lucky again 3rd round again a 9-sec car. Got stupid and laid off the tree, but watched him leave in the rearview and figured I had 6 or 8 to work with, so I ran it to a couple car lengths before the first cone, and lifted to go dead-on. Back on my game to have to run Myron again in the semis of No-Box... he's .012 to my .015, but the tailwind goes away, and I'm simply in the way. As Myron had his two best R/T's against me, I respectfully request that he quit respecting me! At least I've only been beaten by World Champs so far this year! LOL

The car was outstanding to the 1/8th mile, but you could see by the split times how bad the wind affected it on top end... but that was the same for the big car there last year, too. Just one of those tricky tracks. All in all, good weekend, made a few laps, and paid for the trip.

Thanks to my chauffeur The Legend, our pit, uh, person, Tim Davis, chef Ron Ortiz, etc... sorry I didn't get to see more people, between being pitted on the other side, and the tire debacle.

Was way behind with work, now way, way behind... may skip Bradenton to try to catch up, and shoot for Gainesville. Double-header at Immokalee this weekend: Pro-Am Saturday, Sportsman National on Sunday (Nat'l event contingency) Y'all should stay home, I could use the paycheck. ('cept for Ortiz... he's part of the booked-in show!)

RE: car counts... Legend is right. Despite car counts being low, they were actually up from last year. On a tangentially related note, I did a great deal of research into doing a US Class Nationals type race, but how can a promoter actually *trust* S/SS racers to show up? It was a sad realization. I'm very happy to see Zane and Van Poppel doing their $10K S/SS race at Numidia this spring, and hope they do well, which is why I'm supporting them. I hope that the rest of the S/SS community shows them the support they deserve.


Several S/SS pics posted on Drag Race Central! http://www.dragracecentral.com/Serie...s=PHOTO-SUMMIT

[mtkawboy]

Atta boy to former stock eliminator racer Robert Snowball on his top dragster win