FLYING PIG RACING: OMG! QUARANTINE DRAG RACING IS REAL

So, during the last week of April I caught wind of an event being put together that would enable a limited number of racers to get back to the track and compete for some big buck$. Sounded really intriguing to me so I made a few calls and reached Dragster Jeff Crider, my long time Famoso Raceway friend and got the skinny. Seems you need to be a member of "Race Club" for starters. So I started making some noise and ultimately got the call from Race Club promoter Jesse Adams with the official invite! Now, the rules of Race Club are like the rules of Fight Club. Rule 1: Don't talk about Race Club. Rule 2: see rule 1. You see this thing had to be on the down low to keep the attendees to a minimum, so as to ensure we could meet social distancing requirements and yada yada amid all the COVID 19 pandemic hysteria. Everything was being handled very quietly. The track and promoter had the okie dokie from local law enforcement and the powers that be at the county, but still there was no-one outside of race club with any knowledge of where, when, how.

However, the day before the deal, promoters met with NHRA and the sanctioning body decided that they would review the details after the race and maybe use it as a template for getting other tracks up and running again. So, there is some info out there, although most posts don't specify where this took place. Those that know, know!

Me and my wingman Barry (aka Weldo, aka the twin) made the 6 hour pull on Friday, arriving around 5PM. Jesse, the promoter had saved us a pit stall literally adjacent to the staging lanes and 100 feet from the starting line! This is cool!

We spent the evening Friday checking out the facility, and watching the first race of the weekend go down- a $2000 to win affair- taken by a cat named Cliff Hall who proved to be a beast that weekend.
What we found that evening was a bunch of people enjoying racing, lots of free beer (corona and others), food and entertainment (a DJ and a fire pit and dance floor) all while maintaining appropriate social distance and caution! Truly a blast!

Me and B and the tree
Yes, he IS 6 feet behind me!

Wingman doin" what he does

Socially distant

Beer in the lanes!!

I bought into the Saturday race- a whopping $5,000 to win deal- which kicked off with time runs at around 3PM. So me and B took a cruise around the pits just prior and warmed up the pig. Everything was hunky dory until I made the hit on the first time run. The car left like it's supposed to, but then started buckin like a mad bronc. I watched the tach drop to zero and then peg the rev limiter- repeatedly- like WTH? So I coasted it off the track and on the return road it was buckin and poppin and everything else and finally when I made the last turn toward our pit it popped and shut off. I landed about 100 feet short of the pit with no power. Nunca, nada. zip. I got a push back into the pit and we started noodling it and ultimately wingman found a broken wire at the solenoid. Lucky for us it dropped out while he was checking connections. Apparently the wire had come out of the crimp connector and was intermittently making contact. Thus the wild bucking and sporadic tach.

The culprit

Happy driver

So with that fixed we went back up and made 3 more passes: a 6.64, 6.65, and 6.68 with reaction times of .017, .005, and .028. (oh yeah- this was 1/8 mile racing)

When round 1 came up I was ready to rumble. There were about 25 no box (Pro) cars and about 32 box (super pro) cars. Format was box vs. box and no box vs. no box until the ladder dictated otherwise. So I dialed a 6.66 and went up there and totally screwed it up! I guess I forgot to let go of the button. I was sitting at the line thinking WHY isn't my car moving. I felt like I was on time but apparently my thumb was stuck on the button and I cut a .151 light. 151 is good in rum. Not good in racing. For the record I ran a respectable 6.668.

Cool drone shot

Lucky for me there was a buyback for 1st round losers so I got to fork out another Benjamin and try again. I dialed the same 6.66 for round 2. This time I had an ok .043 light to my opponents .042. He dialed 6.72 and ran dead on .72 with an 8, while I ran dead on my .66 with a 7. Now if you're pretty quick at math you might be able to figure out the results pretty closely but since the clocks at the track only show out to thousandths let me help you: I lost that race by 9 ten thousandths of a second.
That is the closest loss I have ever had. In fact, it won me the not so prestigious award for closest loser- a bitchin' Starrett dial caliper. So that was cool. I guess.

Meanwhile the racing continued and when it was all said and done that beast Cliff Hall (driving a "backup car" because he wrecked his Mustang last race) went the distance and collected the $5k winners check! That on top of his $2k from Friday night. Nice weekend for that cat.