On April 22nd my Wingman and I headed up to Famoso Raceway for the big event! We were finally going to close out the 2020 season. After a crazy rain and hail storm brought the November 2020 finals to an abrupt halt, the ANRA honcho Butch Headrick had made the call that we'd finish at the season opener in April '21.
This is probably a good time to thank my crew and friends for their support and hard work.
I could never do this without: Dave the wrench Lee, Barry my wingman Fehlman, Kenny the nuke Wilson and Autohaus Dan Hunt.
And racing with and pitting beside these guys is what makes it so much fun: Wayne the legend Rich, Woollybear the surf board guy, Frankster Gankster, Rick Eubanks and Topolino Zack.
When things got interrupted in November we had won the first 2 rounds of Hot Rod. So as it stood we were 20 points (2 round wins) behind the leader Dan Rowley, and tied with Ed Walker, both of whom had also advanced in round 2. So, we were set up for an interesting finish.
Anyway, me and my wingman Barry (not Dan) made the customary stop at Blackwell's Corner aka James Dean's last stop, and topped off the fuel tank. We rolled into the Patch at roughly 12:30 and straight through the gates. Incredibly, the pits were packed with myriad rigs and enough caution tape to wrap a mummy festival. (for the uninitiated, the caution tape is used to claim pit space for your buddy who is arriving later) Since we were also the designated "space savers" for our buddies, we found the only big chunk of unclaimed turf and set about tossing cones out to mark our ground. So, touché I guess. When all was said and done we had a great row, including Kenny the Nuke and Ashley, Dave "the wrench" Lee, Woollybear and Frankster Gankster, Ricky and Randy Eubanks, And Topolino Zack with Chris in tow.
It was Thursday and all we had to do was set up camp and get the car tech'd. So we leisurely unloaded and I fired up the weber and got the hot dogs going for lunch. (just the first step in a meat overload weekend) Well all that went smoothly, until a few hours into it the generator on my rig died. We were sitting right there and heard it cough a little, then stumble and halt. Weird. So we tried starting it and it acted like it wasn't getting any fuel. We gave 'er a drink from a can of starting fluid and it fired up. Cool. 10 minutes later- cough, sputter, dead. We pulled the fuel filter, had a look, gave it an air treatment and put it back. No go. About that time Ricky walks in and says "sounds like a fuel pump". Well not good news, but certainly what is seemed like. So Rick says he thinks he might have one in his rig. What?! 30 seconds later he walks in with the exact fuel pump in his hand. Brandy new, in the box! Drag racers are awesome!! 10 minutes later, the generator is singing like the Velvet Fog.
That night Kenny and Dave grilled up the Ribeyes that the Nuke had brought along and we feasted on red meat. Then we sat around the campfire and told tall tales. Perfect evening at the drags.
Friday rolled around and we were ready for the resumption of 2020 season finals. The gig was one time hit, and then round 3 of elims. On the time run I had a great reaction time of .013 but I was seriously rusty on my shifts. I ran 10.59 or something like that when really it should have gone around 10.48. So when round 3 came up we lucked out and had a bye round by virtue of my qualifying reaction time. I took the freebee as another opportunity to get it right and ran a 10.47. So when round 4 came up we dialed 10.49 and figured we were pretty close. I cut an .014 light to his .034 and it turned out to be a double breakout affair. I took too much stripe going under by .05, and he was under by .03. So that's how my 2020 season ended. Dan Rowley went on to take the season championship and I think we ended up in 3rd in season points. A great year by any measure.
With the season over, it was time to turn to a really good night of eating, drinking and comradery. Dave the wrench had put a massive brisket on the Pit Boss at about 6:30 AM and it was smelling really good. I for one, haven't had the best of luck with my brisket. Turns out this masterpiece of Dave's was the best I have ever had. Melt in your mouth tender and seasoned to perfection.
