FLYING PIG SCORES SECOND WIN OF THE SEASON!

2019 YEAR OF THE (FLYING) PIG!

And that's no lie.  On Friday November 8th, my wingman Barry (not Dan) and I loaded up the race gear, hooked up the pig on a trailer and headed out to Auto Club Famoso Raceway for the ANRA Fuel and Gas Finals.  We arrived around 1:30 PM, sat in the coach in row 5 until the gates opened at 3PM and found us a nice little patch of asphalt in the pits at about half track.  Barry jumped out and secured some space for Woollybear and Gankster Frankster, Dan and Aidan, and Wayne (super comp) Rich. So the Flying Pig Racing Pit was set with the 3 cars ready to do battle.  Woolly is competing in D/GAS and HOT ROD.  Wayne and I - just HOT ROD.

For me the "big deal" was that this is my first race back after hurting the motor at the August race and missing the October race while the motor was being refreshed. It's always nervous time when you make that 1st pass on the new motor.  And this time we did some different stuff, namely having the pistons coated with an abradable coating that scuffs off during break-in, theoretically giving the pistons a perfect contour match to the cylinder wall. I'm gonna tell you - that motor was TIGHT when we got there.  I could barely get the starter to spin it.  Seriously tight.  So we took the car out for a break-in drive around the pits...about 8 minutes at 1500-1700 RPM followed by tech inspection, followed by another 8 minutes at 2200-2500 RPM. I could already feel it loosening up a bit.

On Saturday we made our two qualifying runs, and man, it was good to get that 1st one out of the way.  The car ran great and that first pass was a 10.53 which was not bad for a tight motor and a nervous driver.
Second pass went 10.45 and I was feeling like I was back in the saddle.  Just where we left off at the last race.

On race day, Wayne (super comp) Rich had a little trouble re-adjusting to his 10 flat Vega after spending the previous 3 days in Las Vegas driving a Super Comp Dragster. He red lit in round one and spent the rest of the day being my biggest fan.

Woollybear won round 1 of Hot Rod, but in round 2 he got bested by his opponent who cut a perfect .000 light!  Woolly then went out in round one of D/Gas, leaving me as the last pig standing!

As for the Pigmobile, I managed to take home the hardware, going 7 rounds to win the Hot Rod trophy!  What an incredible day.  It wasn't an easy one- Barry worked his butt off, handling fuel, tire pressures, driver counseling duties, and oh yeah trying to stem the pesky oil leak that we chased all day. But we did it.  With a little luck and a gift (when my 3rd round opponent red lit by .001) and some good driving we pulled off the second win of the season. We came into this race just 40 points behind the leader, and had a mathematical (albeit small)  chance of catching them and winning the season title.  As for me, my mentality was just go rounds.  Win the race. Whatever happens after that is out of my control. We did our part and I think when the chips fall we'll have finished 3rd in points and 20 points behind the winner.  The season champ is Jerimie Jennings who I raced and beat in the final round! Kind of the perfect script. I was super happy with my reaction times. I hit the tree hard when I had to. 4 of my lights were .019 or better including an .016 in the semi, and an .015 in the final.

missing the final time slip...it's here somewhere.

Race winner with the series champ Jerimie Jennings.

My wingman congratulating the champ.

Greeted in victory lane by the best race promoter, Butch Headrick, and the VOICE of ANRA Mike English!

What else?... Wayno had his new beer sponsor M.Special on board, and they graciously sent out a few cases of brew for the pits!  Enjoyed a mighty fine IPA out there!
Barry and his bride whipped up some killer breakfasts for us.  Especially the breakfast sliders. Wow! What a treat they were.  And honorable mention goes to the feast of bacon wrapped hot dogs on Saturday night.  If that ain't race track food, I don't know racin'!

SLOracer. Out.

2019 ANRA FINALS PREP

Well, after the big win at the ANRA Spring Nationals things didn't go exactly as planned.
We arrived at the June Race something like 10 points behind the points leader, with high hopes and great expectations.

When we headed to the lanes for the 2nd qualifying run I noticed that the oil pressure was acting erratically. Like the pressure was 20 lbs lower at idle than it should be, yet when you revved the motor the pressure came up. I watched it closely in the lanes and decided to pull out of line and go back to the pit. We inspected, and noodled the possible causes. Always being the optimists we tried to convince ourselves it was just the worn out motor, valve train, blah, blah, blah.  So I decided to take it back to the lanes for the clean up round and keeping a close eye on the oil pressure, staged it, launched it and then felt it struggling, so I lifted and coasted it off.

So our weekend was done.  We picked up 10 points (for showing up) and loaded our junk and went home.  The following week Autohaus Dan pulled the motor and we sent it off for refreshing. Turned out the oil pump pick-up tube had broken off.  Not the first time. Also found a broken rocker stud.  So, we've got a refreshed motor, and rebuilt heads as we head into the final race of the year.  Meanwhile, we missed not only that race but the October race as well.

By some miracle, we are only 40 points behind the leaders, so "mathematically" we are still in it. Not that I am doing the math.  We'll just go out there this weekend and break in the new motor and if things go our way we'll finish the season with some round wins and be ready for next season.

It looks like our crew will be Me, Barry, Dan, Aidan Hunt, Woollybear, Gankster Frankster, and Wayne (Super Comp) Rich.  Yes "Super Comp". But that's a story for another day.