It sure was a hot one and the car was running real hot on the way going up to Lancaster. We had to slow down a bit just to keep it within a safe temperature. After a while the track opens and we make a few passes.. First one is like 18.49.. I thought what the hell is this... ou: Second one is a 17.33.. a little better and we can at least maybe take the old pb. Third one comes out with a 15.71 on the time slip.. Seems suspicious, I don't think you have a 13.990 at the T4 mark and then a 15.715 over the line :error: .. We made a bunch of more passes and They were all around 16.50-16.65 range with the best at 16.49, so that's a new pb which is what we were aiming for. I had one more of those 15.2 slips, but it just doesn't make sense. Other cars also had some funny slips with a skylark running a 12 sec pass with a stock 350 :error: .. There's still some tweaking to do, and maybe I can advance the timing a few more degrees, but I was satisfied for the day and will leave that option open for next time up there. I entered the bracke eliminations and managed to bump a 13 sec bug out in the first round. In the second run something interesting happened as we lined up and the car in front of me leaves the line and later comes back at the end, just so he wouldn't run his 10 sec racing buddy. Hmmm.. That meant I had to move up from going against the Dodge with tons of wheelspin to the semi-pro guy.. What if everyone decides to start moving around in the line? I decided to cut this guy no slack since he most likely knew exactly how his car was running, so I redlighted with 7 hundreds, I still ran down the track and was only 4 hundreds of my time so it would still have been tough for him.. Next time!!! It was otherwise a fun day with lots of different stuff going on, bands playing, flame throwing contest etc etc..
Palmdale is a slow track and the heat doesn't help either. The best I ran in my 71 Riv was 16.2 at about 80-85 mph. That same night 99% of the hondas were running 17-20 second 1/4 miles and other mild small block powered muscle cars were running in the 15.8 range. I think I did ok for a 4500+ lb. car.
Me and gf took some pics of other cars, I really like the personality showing through in these custom cars. I used the small pocket digital camera and the old slr is getting more and more dust on it. It's really a shame since you have much more control working with the manual camera and you tend to plan your shots better since it will cost you $ to have the film developed. I want to get a digital manual camera, but funds are too tight right now. Some day, some day.. - - - This overflow bottle is a real beauty of a solution I think.
Wouldn't we all want a little devil for a hood ornament? A massive chrome engine with a blower was stuck in this hot rod, it was just too pretty to go down the track with..
A lot of depth in the paint on this orange tail dragger. Built on request to be sent to Japan in September.
Me, the gf, and the time slips.. We probably went through a small bottle of water each every half hour since the temp was over 100 degrees for the first few hours. Here it has cooled down a little and it's getting to be the end of the day. We left at about nine in the evening and the event was to go on for another hour or so.
It is true for the lancaster track that it does have a few disadvantages for setting good times, I think it says on their site that just the elevation is good for a 3% difference, and then it gets baking hot during the summer, so that should slow you down even more. The land the track sits on is owned by some minig company that is excavating some substance from the ground and the last patch they haven't touched yet is the track area itself, so it will most likely close down in a fairly short time. Hopefully it can be reloacted to an area which has already been depleted.. Keeping our fingers crossed..
With regards to those (2) 15 sec. slips... it sounds like you may have been getting other guys' slips? Is that possible? Congrats on the new P.B., though! Boats on the track rule!! :TU:
Could have been, it was the right number though and the other car I went with was the right number too. I think they just screwed up a bit somehow, since a few people had odd numbers coming up.
Congratulations on the better times!!! Rat Fink Event?!?!?! Any Pics of Primer and Flames to keep me motivated??
