FLYING PIG RACING: ANRA SUMMER NATIONALS

I'm super late getting this posted...but here goes.

On August 20, 2021 we set out for The Patch to attend the ANRA Summer Nationals. My wingman was sidelined in prep for a "wing" replacement, so I was flying solo dragging the pig and Kenny the Nuke was close behind, following me out to be my fuel and tire man on Saturday. On Sunday the Nuke and Dave the wrench Lee will share the duties. It's funny- Famoso Raceway is a mere 135 miles from the home turf but you sure do drive through some fairly lonely parts. I had to snap this pic because it felt like I was the only one on the road that morning!

So we rolled into the patch around 12:30 and joined Woollybear and Frankster who had come up on Thursday and did some testing. We took our time setting up the pit and settling in for the weekend. Kenny was super confident in filling in for my wingman. I told him "those are some big chonies to fill, but I know you're the man for the job".

On Friday evening Ashley (little nuke) arrived with her entourage which was awesome because I enlisted them to clean and prep the pig for Saturday morning!

Ashley and Quinn getting the grunt work done under the watchful eye of "supervisor" Big Ben!

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So when Qualifying round 1 rolled around we headed to the lanes. Turned out Woolly and I would be paired for a side by side qualifier in Q1. I did the natural thing...challenged Woolly to a reaction time duel- $100 to the better reaction time. Turns out Woolly likes to keep his money and he said no thanks! After shooting off my mouth I figured I better lay one down so I went for it. Woolly had a respectable .022 light but that was NOTHIN' compared to my perfect .000!!! LOL.

That shot scored me the No. 1 Qualifier in Hot Rod and this bitchin' trophy to prove it!

Sunday, race day! I had a bye round in round one because of my qualifying position so that was good. The car was a little inconsistent over the weekend so I was pretty nervous when it came time to put a number on the window. At least I was guaranteed to get out of round 1.

When round 2 came up, I was paired with Dan Rowley, 2020 season champ, and master of rowing the gears in his radical 4 speed Chevelle. When the lights came down we both had good reaction times (I think my .020 to his .024) so we were set up for a good finish line duel! When we passed 1000 feet I had almost a full car length on him. Way too much. So as we approached the 1320 I backed out of the gas and then I panicked! I know that car of his has a strong top end charge and I jumped back on the gas way too soon. I ended up getting there first by something like .06. and breaking out in the process. I needed to cut that to about .02. Oh well - that's drag racing!

That left the day in the able hands of Woollybear! And me his biggest fan!

He went a couple rounds in Hot Rod, but the real story was D-Gas.

Woolly just marched through the highly competitive Dgas field mowing them down with killer reaction times and all kinds of 10.60s. He ultimately killed it in the final running a 10.604 on the 10.60 index to take the win. His first ANRA win!

It was a blast to celebrate that one in the winners circle with the whole group!