TireSmoke.org

Went out to Thompson tonight for the 2nd week in a row, and maybe 3 times in the past 4 weeks? I had made some small improvements with the Blazer and thought I would run it one more time before I swapped the converter. I had no delusions of getting out the first round or anything. But sometimes it's better to be lucky-- then good.

I got out there kinda late and ended up only getting 1 time run. It still won't leave the line -- .36RT, 2.4 60ft. Its awful. The shifting on this thing is still a little wonky. 1-2 will go at 5500-5700, but 2-3 will hang on to 6000 and I don't really like it revving that high, so I try to lift a little to get the 2-3 shift. But in the meat of the powerband, it pulls strong. 14.73 @ 96 mph.

Round 1, I dialed 14.75, and the other guy redlights. So I get a free pass with my .30 RT and run a 14.72.

Next round I dial down to 14.71. I gotta go up against Fred. Uh oh, this guy's good and probably gonna clean my clock on the tree. And he does, .11 to .20 and I only muster a 14.88, but he breaks-out running 14.74 on a 14.79 dial, on the brakes but not hard enough. He totally had me covered.

Round 3 is the semi-final. Three cars left. I GOT THE BYE RUN!! I never get the bye run (until now). Sweet, now I get another free run. .23 RT, 2.5 60ft and it only runs a 15.10. WTH, why is slowing down when it was cooling off outside? No matter, I was guaranteed a trophy at this point!

Round 4 is the final. Paul asks if I'm gonna dial a 15.00 after that bye run. I said f*ck no! and dialed 14.99 I'm lined up against a newer-ish Ford reg cab/short bed. With my RTs so terrible, I just aimed to leave, anticipating the third yellow. I ended up smoking the tree for a .01 RT, and the truck shot out of the hole waaay better than any other pass, 2.14 60ft. Where'd that come from?? Now I'm way ahead, I lift at 2/3 track, then pedal it back to WOT and take the win, running 15.02 on a 14.99.

That's 2 wins this summer, and I was 1 round short of the final in my Chevelle last week. It's been a pretty good summer at TRP!

-Dave

A fun night for sure.
On my 1st round I failed to turn off "Traction Control" and ran a 15.29 on a 14.79 Dial, my opponent broke out.
On my 2nd round, with a slight tap on the brakes, sure was surprised to see 'Smoke get the win light.

He sure made the best of it, his trophy run was crazy sweet! Congrats!

As always, TRP is a great time.

I decided not to run truck with these guys and ran the Stock class instead. More cars, a little faster group. But really, I was out here to break my red-light-in-the-first-round problem. I spent a bunch of time early on studying the tree, gaining some focus back, and it seemed to work. My lights in time runs were .06, .04, and .08. BUT, I've had good time runs before and blew it in eliminations... So with a better focus, I went into round 1 against a Mustang dialed 14.14 to my 12.59. We both had .08 lights, but he didn't get off the gas soon enough and went 14.12 to my 12.67. Hooray for no red!
Round 2 got me up against a Hellcat dialed 11.32 to my 12.61. His .04 bettered my .06 and he ran an 11.34 to my 12.607, and still beat me to the stripe by .003. It was super tight, and really, after giving up over .02 on the tree, there was no way for me to win, even if I ran my number. That was a real tight race that I'm not upset to lose. I came green with a respectable light, the truck was real close to my dial... that's normally a winning round.

I'm considering going out next week too, but now I know what I need to do when I go out there to get my head in the game.

It was fun watching Dave go through the field, which was unfortunate for Fred, but somebody has to win. But his .01 light completely won him that race, it was cool.

-BP

Watching the weather, not looking good. TRP has not posted anything yet. "OH YEAH" is clean and ready.

Truck is clean, roads are wet, rain is possible, I'm staying home.