Dave’s Milan Report

Posted on September 5, 2009 by Old Hippie

Milan Report From The MoparStyle Racing Team

We loaded up the coach and trailer on Tuesday 8/25, and my wife Deb, son Dallas, daughter Hope, and three dogs left at 9AM Wednesday towards Milan. The trip was not without incident. In East Texas a pickup truck pulling a 50' travel trailer and two tractor/trailers tangled in the rain and had both sides of 59 closed for over an hour. In Marshall, Texas we had a blowout in the trailer and that took over an hour to change — and then another hour to get Wal-Mart to mount a new tire on the rim. Again in Arkansas there was an accident that had us sit on I-40 — and so we didn't pull in to Milan until early afternoon Thursday. Once there — we had our usual pit at the end of Midway row.

Friday was rained out — although we were able to get the cars teched in.

Saturday in the Test & Tune, we sat in the lanes for about 3 hours as water was seeping up in the left lane. A couple of cars would run and get out of shape — so they'd close and try to dry it some more. I was in the left lane and spun horribly down the track — before having to finally abort and lift at about the 1100' for a 9.9 at 119. We'd made so many changes to my car (clutch and suspension) that I wasn't sure if it was all the track — or if my car was also part of the problem. We didn't get another opportunity for a Time Trial — so I slowed my usual B/FX (9.50) down to C/FX (9.75) as I was unsure what the track conditions would be. The track was actually very good — after the T&T, and I'm terrible with trimming off too much time. In my first Qualifying, I did a 9.49 lifting at the 1500' — so it appeared to have been a bad choice of changing my Class. In my second Qualifying I was matched with a 13-second LeMans wagon — so I couldn't gauge my speed with anyone close to me in class. I short shifted at 6500 and lifted at about the 1400' — and took too much off, so I qualified poorly. Dallas just barely broke out (10.98 and 10.99 on 11.0 class) both times, and also qualified poorly in NMC.

In Sunday's eliminations — Dallas red lit in the first round. I had a Broke Bye (when a Scotty Jiles Wheel Stand in the second round of Qualifying bent up his car some) and did a 9.74 – so it looked like I figured out how to slow down just enough. I drew a black B/FX Thunderbolt in the second round of Eliminations — so I left first by a 1/4 second. I left and wrung the car out to the 1/8 and then slowed and waited for the Thunderbolt to catch up as to not break out. I beat him on the ET — but I apparently slept at the light. I'd cut good lights in Qualifying and thought I had a good light on this run — but the ticket said .111 against his .060, so I was out. I appear to not be doing well in the last three race chase.

At Zmax, I was knocked out in the first round — the first time in over a year since I'd not gone at least three rounds — dropping me from third to forth in the points. The Princess was in first but went out in the first round — so she's now in second. Doug was in second — but went three rounds — so he's now in first. Skip was in third and went three rounds — keeping him in third. Kurt was in 5th, but went four rounds — so he's now passed me for 4th — and I'm in 5th. I need to hit a homerun and have everyone fall on their face just to get 3rd after Memphis.

Silver Crown, who built my coach and trailer. was at the race. I had them look at my trailer because of how exposed the air bag hardware was to road hazards — and if something happens to the airbags the tires get cut down. Silver Crown admitted that there was a problem — and said they'd fix it — despite the trailer being out of warranty. So after the race I drove west for 120 miles to White Pigeon, MI — which is just above Elkhart, IN — and dropped the trailer off at 7PM Sunday. Since we were in the North and had a couple of days to kill — we drove east 450 miles to Buffalo, New York (arriving at 2AM) so my wife could visit with her family. While there, we went to the Mecca of Chicken Wings — the Anchor Bar, where Buffalo Wings were invented in 1964.

Wednesday evening we headed back to White Pigeon — as the Amish who do these coaches work from 3AM to 1PM. The trailer had all three axles laser aligned, the wheel wells cut higher and new fenders installed, 6 new 12-ply tires, guards made for all of the air bag hardware, and even fixed a little dent in the front from when I jack-knifed the trailer backing in a Bradenton. Then, even though the coach was also out of warranty, they had four guys spend about 5 hours adjusting the awning, replace a generator switch, replace the rear camera, adjusted some windows to make them close smoother, cabinet latches, and make a few other adjustments. All of this was done at no charge — long after the warranty expired. While there, I toured their facility where they make the motor homes and trailers. These Amish men are true craftsmen. Needless to say that I'm very happy with the company and I might be upgrading to a newer rig with a slightly different layout — if I can find someone looking for a slightly used 2009 rig.

Back to racing — the next race is the Monster Mopar Weekend at the end of this month, and then the final NMCA race in Memphis in October.

The fiberglass molds for the hood, bumpers, fenders, and tailgate for the 60 Plymouth have been made — and the parts will be made this week. Mark Artis says he'll be starting on the paint and body as soon as he's received those parts. It should be ready and tested for the start of the 2010 NMCA season.

Again, all NSS and NMC have the ability to upload their racing photos and maintain a team blog at http://nssracing.ning.com/ - along with checking on the future events listed or listing those not yet listed. None of this is rocket science — you just have to make an investment of a couple of minutes to learn.

Dave’s Zmax Report

Posted on September 5, 2009 by Old Hippie

Zmax NMCA — Dave’s Report

With the Motorhome and trailer loaded up my wife Deb, son Dallas and daughter Hope; our two Labs and Boston Terrier; and I had a rather uneventful trip to Charlotte, NC. We arrived in a downpour at about 6PM Wednesday, shown the staging area, and given number 6 to enter the track on the next day. Shortly after noon — we were led onto the track and assigned a pit. I assume they expected a much larger crowd than what ultimately showed, as the bigger rigs were crammed in pretty tightly. The generator exhaust was overwhelming in this tight area. Even though this was a combination of NMCA, NMRA, True Street, and a bunch of racers with Hot Rod Magazine — it had a lighter turn out than many of us in the pits expected. I’m sure the light turn out was partially because of the long haul, the heat, and maybe people knowing something we didn’t.

By 4PM we’d set up out pits, unloaded both cars and golf cart, established credentials and teched the cars in. The beer light turned on — however sadly we couldn’t enjoy our pits as the diesel generator of the toter next to us and the gas generator of his refer trailer smoked us out of our pits all weekend.

We were immediately impressed with the size of the pit surface and the huge grandstands — but unimpressed that the closest piece of grass for the dogs was at least a mile away. It wasn’t too bad for us as we have a golf cart to drive the three dogs to a field — but I felt sorry for those who had to walk their dogs there. Many did not and just let their dogs go in the pits.

In NSS, you could have thrown a blanket over the Top four cars before the new “Points Redistribution” program of the NMCA — but their Socialization of Champions Points closed it up. I was in 3rd, 250 behind the leader (Doug Duell) — but 5th through 10th were now all of a sudden within striking range. The new system uses two of the last three races (throw out one) + previous recalculated points from the first four races, plus bonus points for attending more races. It was important to me that I do well.

Friday had one Time Trial. A few things became immediately apparent. The first was that the track sucked for traction. Faster cars in all classed didn’t have any traction — including many of the faster NSS cars and all of the 4-speed NSS cars. NMCA immediately was aware of it as it was what everyone was grumbling about, and I’m sure they tried their very best to crack the whip on the clueless track personnel to make the track better — but they also had the announcers making excuses about how hot it was and how that affects VHT. It was hot — but I’m from Texas and know what you can expect from a hot track. This was a lot more than that. There was virtually no groove, partially from the track being new smooth concrete and green from little racing, and partially from poor prep. The other thing was track personal. They appeared to have as many cops as racers, and they and the other track personal were generally rude and incompetent. There was a mountain of complaints of people being told by the cops not to stand in the stands when cars went by, not to take a beer into the bathroom, and a dozens of other silly rules applied with a very heavy hand. The track personnel also applied a heavy hand with crew in the lanes, and doing a myriad stupid things like watering down the back of a car that had just finished their burnout. There is a thread on the NMCA forum that has some of these complaints. NMCA/zmax completely unhappy (1 2)

Because of all of the spinning in Time Trials, I changed my class from B/FX to C/FX before the first Qualifying pass — for the first time in two years. I figured I’d spin — but I could catch them at the top end. In my first round I drew Gerry Bates for the second time in two races. He was a gentleman. Knowing that I couldn’t hook and hadn’t made one decent pass in four — he gave me lane choice despite his better qualifying position. Class Act! I put a good light on him (.033 vs. his .103 — and after spinning to a horrible 1.69 60′ (giving up 4/10 second over my normal 1.29) — I thought I caught him at the top, but I was .007 short in the package. It was the first time in a year that I hadn’t gone at least 3 rounds in NMCA. Doug Duell (#1) was also out in the first round — but Skip (#4) and the Princess (#2) went a couple of rounds. I think Skip made it to the Quarters and Stephanie to the Semis — where I believe Brian Merrick took her out. The small Fords (Skip, DW, Merrick, Bates, Bud, and Kurt) didn’t appear to have the traction problems of the Mopars. The Final was an all Thunderbolt Final with Brian and DW. Brian got the win in a very close race.

Just because the track wasn’t slippery enough yet for the finals — Zmax made history by having 4 Jet cars go down the track at the same time between the Semi-Final and Final Rounds making sure to apply the proper amount of un-burnt oil on the full length of the track.

I would have called this a terrible week (and it was for me with regards to my personal racing) — had my son Dallas not won NMC (Nostalgia Muscle Car). Andy Warren (Dallas has had to go up against him twice in the last three races) was solidly in first, but between the new points system and getting knocked out of the first round — there is less than one round (100 points) between 1st and 3rd in NMC. Fortunately for Andy — you get to throw out one race — plus Dallas missed Bradenton and will miss out on 100 bonus points. Dallas would have to win another race with Andy getting knocked out in the first round to win.

Speaking of NMC — this site (and the two associated with it) are for both NMC and NSS. In a future post, I’ll explain how NMC drivers can submit their News and updates. Look in the posts above soon.

We leave for Milan, MI this coming Wednesday morning.