So, I can't make it to US41 so on Friday I went to Great Lakes Dragaway, it cooled down fast to high 40's, DA of 479 feet (HOLY CRAP!!), Barometer of 29.46inches and rising and an unprepped drag strip. Does anybody know what it costs to race at GLD, I have never paid the same amount this year, they hit me up for 35 bucks for a Friday night T&T, what the hell?????
I waited until 7pm to make my first pass, I finally got to the burnout box and I thought the kid gave me the signal to do my burnout. I back into the waters edge and drop the hammer, suddenly he's waving me to stop and my foot gets stuck between the &#^$^%$%motherfu*ckin clutch and brake and smoky goes the clutch before I unlodge (is that a word??)my foot and now have the unGodly smell of clutch in the cabin. Don't ask how this is possible, my shoes are 13's, even though I have never screwed up like this before I am buying race shoes so this doesn't happen again.
At this point I'm screaming at the 16 year old they have running that area and he's ignoring me, now I see I'm also to blame, the car in front of me was still at the staging lane so maybe I thought he signaled me, s.h.i.t I don't know but in 30 years of drag racing I have never made a mistake like this. There is a nice sized crowd so Ugh did I look stupid. I was more worried about my car but you get the picture by now..
The area before the staging area was sticky as hell, the starting line was too or so I thought, hey, if the 20 feet before the line is this sticky why not the starting line right? WRONG!!!! The tree comes down and I launch, errrrr no, that's not right. I launched around 2500rpms and the car sat there, spinning like I was in water. I back pedal it and ease into it and as soon as boost hit they smoked but then suddenly bit so off I go and hit 2nd gear, up in smoke I go again, s.h.i.t fire and save the matches!!! End result, a 12.9@112 with a 2.4 short time which wasn't bad I thought considering the amount of spinning I had.
2nd run an hour plus later and this time I don't make an arse out of myself, there is a row of 9 second cars that ran in front of me and I'm thinking GREAT! I'll stick now! BUT the car that ran in front of me spilled something, all over the starting line!!! ARRRRGGGHHHH!!!What does GLD do? They take out a mop and clean it up, then put powder down to dry up the rest and then signal me to go ahead and pull up, I now know I am in for another high 12 or possible 13 second run and actually thought about taking the side ramp and heading back the the pits so other cars can dry up the track or possibly going home since this night has turned out to be crap.
I decide to run it, if I can make an arse out of myself once, why not twice right? I do my burnout and pull up, I can't avoid the powder because it's EVERYWHERE, they didn't even attemp to dry it all up, I guess they just don't give a good crap. The tree comes down and I launch at idle trying to walk it past the powder and they instantly go upspinning so at this time I figure short shift to second and see what happens, no shock it spins to the limiter and fish tails.
End result, 13.0@112, 2.4 short time, this race was against an '06 GTO which ran a 13.2@105, he actually was ahead of me for the better part of the run because I spent so much time spinning.How I got 112 mph in both runs is amazing considering the first quarter of the track was spent just trying to get the car going. Once the car was going it felt like a monster, up to this point it has never pulled this hard. Thankfully the clutch felt solid both runs even after smoking the crap out of it.
After this 2nd run I was done, I can take a hint, GLD just wasn't going to prep the track or do proper cleanup so FU*K them. On the way home I'm still in a rather crappy mood, a big block Chevelle SS comes up on my left and pulls a rev so now I'm thinking dude you so picked the wrong car to screw with tonight, I drop it to3rd, he see's thatand he floors it, we're doing 45 so I dropped it to 2nd and put about 4 bus lengths on him. Holy friggin crap the car felt good, ithazed the tires through 2nd and made a nicebark in 3rd, the Chevelle made a left turn before the next light so wanted no more, damn I wanted to slaughter him at the light, I didn't even care if thetires spun it would have been nice spinning the tires and blowing his doors off, but my mood was much better now.I went home and got my G-Tech out and went back to Randall Rd and let her rip, the result, not sure how accurate it was but she ripped off an 11.9@117 twice on new pavement, excellent launchand I gotta say the car felt like an animal, 2nd gear felt almost as good as 1st gear, I mean holy crap it felt great.
BUT, the G-Tech is off I'm sure so I feel if I could have hooked that night I could have run a 12.0 or 12.1 but would'a could'a or should'a don't mean crap without a timeslip so my best is still a 12.21. Oh yeah, my timeslips from GLD, almost no ink so can't give comeplete breakdown of the run, did I mention GLD FRIGGIN SUCKS?
I wish I could be at US41 with JD today, sorry bud but workin workin workin! I'll PM you, have a great Sunday everybody!
GO BEARS!!!
Worst night at the track, also GLD SUCKS
I'm looking for shoes now.
