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.

Awesome sunsets out there with Dragster Jeff

DJ music afterparty

Would I do it again?  In a heartbeat.
SLOracer. Out.

COVID-19 BLUE

Well it is 4.26.20 and we should be heading for the final round at the ANRA Season Opener!!
But instead, we have the COVID-19 blues.  So here's a couple older videos to pass the time.

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.

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER

On May 31, June 1-2, 2019 The Flying Pig Racing team headed out to the ANRA Spring Nationals at Auto Club Famoso Raceway, for the second installment of the ANRA series.  Our expectations were high because we sucked in the first race and really needed to step up the game to get in the hunt for a championship.

I left out of Osos at about 9:30 AM Friday with my wingman Barry (not Dan) riding shotgun.  We decided to drag the Flying Pig up to the Patch a little earlier...hoping to get a better pit entry number.  Last race we thought we got there pretty early and got NUMBER 65, which still put us a little farther down track than we wanted. So this time we were a little surprised when we arrived some 3 hours prior to gates opening- and when Chaplain Matt gave us our pit entry number...guess what - it was NUMBER 65 again! Co-incadinky?  I think not!  

We got in and pitted with Woolly Bear and Gangster Frankster, Kenny the Nuke and Ashley, and Dave, biscuits-and-gravy Jann and Karen and Jenna.  So we got our stuff moved into the pits, unloaded, tech'd, and settled in for a relaxing Friday night complete with ribeyes
on the grill!  Life is GOOD!

 

The weather was great on Saturday and we laid down two qualifying passes within  13/1000 of each other and reaction times good enough to qualify #4 for eliminations Sunday. Oh, I hear there were 96 cars in my class (Hot Rod).  I didn't count them myself but I'm gonna go with that number.  Man that's a boatload of cars.  Since 1/2 the field is eliminated each round, it'll take 7 round wins to snag the trophy in this deal.

Sunday eliminations came and the weather was identical to Saturday...Density Altitude and Humidity were staying within a really tight window, so we dialed a 10.55 for round one.  I can't really come up  with enough words to properly describe the rest of the day...but it was the best day of racing EVER!
We went the distance, grabbed the brass ring, outlasted the field... however you want to say it... TOOK THE TROPHY HOME!

I NEVER CHANGED MY DIAL. NOT ONCE. 10.55 ALL DAY

It went something like this:

Round 1-  I treed him with an .012 light and lifted to an easy win at 10.67.
Round 2-  I treed him with an .014 light and lifted to an easy win at 10.65.
Round 3-  My opponent red lit, and I ran 10.552 on my 10.55 to win.
Round 4-  I treed him with an .022 light and lifted to win with a 10.59.
Round 5-  A really close double breakout race I took the win with the closer 10.547.
Round 6-  My only gift of the day (Bye run to the final).
Round 7-  Opponent red lit against my .019 light.  I ran a 10.541 to take the trophy!

A couple notes---

• Thanks to Dave, Barry,  and Kenny for doing the work to get the car ready, and doing final prep in the lanes. (also Kenny for the jug of fuel ;)
• Thanks to Autohaus Dan for keeping the car tuned, solid, and safe at the Central Coast Autohaus shop.
• Thanks to Woolly Bear and Frank and Ashley for the support and the laughs.
• Thanks to Wayne Rich for coaching me into a winning mentality over the many talks this last year. (wish you coulda been there)

An then there is this:  Woolly Bear, "the surfboard guy" as track announcer Mike English calls him, had some really spectacular runs in his bitchin' Nova.  He has found great consistency lately and is honing the reaction time.  He came out with a great win in round one, and just got nipped in round 2.  It's awesome to see more competitive cars in the Flying Pig Racing stable!- or poke I guess.

AND LASTLY- My wing man Barry (not Dan) and I went out for a celebratory lunch on Monday.  We ate at one of those places where you order your food at the window and they give you a number to set on your table so they can find you when they bring it out... and the random number the cashier handed us was NUMBER 65! Ya can't make this stuff up.  I might call NHRA tomorrow and ask if I can swap out my competition number for number 65!

SLOracer.  Out.

2019 ANRA SEASON OPENER April 27-28, 2019

Well it's that old "windshield and bug" story.  This weekend we were definitely the bug!

FLYING PIG RACING rolled into "the patch" at Famoso on April 26th with high hopes to continue to build on last year's success, but it just wasn't to be.

Wayno (the surf legend) Rich, Woollybear (Ding Repair), and I, teamed up in the pits with Chuck (if you don't share your toys...) and Crystal "Scoots" Irvin for the 1st of the ANRA Races of the year.  We all showed up with high hopes for a season kickoff that would set us up for the year to come.

Wayne and I elected to drop DGas this year, thinking we would put all of our efforts into the Hot Rod class and limit distractions, blah, blah, blah.  Woollybear followed suit and so, there we were, three Hot Rod racers ready to take it to the field. LOL.

Wayne who finished 2nd in points last year, and Me who finished 4th in points last year absolutely sucked in round one and lost.

 Ironically, 5 of the top 7 or so from last year went out in round 1.  What a weird start to the 2019 season.  Ok, if it sounds like I am taking some consolation from this, it's true! Maybe we can pull ourselves up out of this.

Woollybear and Chuck followed us directly to the round 1 runner up party. So, wow, an early day.
("Hi honey, I'll be home early tonight.  What's for dinner"!)

Meanwhile (thank goodness) Crystal "Scoots" Irvin gave us a reason to stay and watch, as she mowed down most of the field in Sportsman, finally bowing out in the semi final.  Nice run Scoots!!

So, with ANRA season opener in the books, it's on to the Spring Nationals-  May 31- June 2, and an opportunity to redeem ourselves.

FLYING PIG RACING'S WAYNE RICH GOES TO FINAL ROUND

The Central Coast Autohaus Flying Pig Racing team had nearly the full compliment of family at the ANRA Fall Nationals last weekend at Auto Club Famoso Raceway! What a crew!  We had mine, ding master Woollybear's, and the Lgend Wayno's hot rods there.  And we were joined by Chuck ("if you don't share your toys...") and his bride Cindy- with the Hook Nova..  Support crew included Barry aka Not Dan aka Weldo the Wingman; Dave The Wrench with his posse- Mrs. Biscuits and Gravy along with the girls; Autohaus Dan (crew chief extraordinaire); Kenny the Nuke; Frankster Gankster; J.C. the Wanderer; and of course Ai and Zena- Princess Warrior!  Holy Cow! 

Woollybear has decided to set his badass nova up to run 10.60s (after proving it could run 9s at the last summit race) so he was tweaking it to slow it down, and I think he did a pretty darn good job of getting to that magic number.  Look out next year- this guy could be competitive in Dgas and Hot Rod!

Meanwhile, Surf Legend Wayne goes absolutely unconscious in Hot Rod- marching through the field of over 100 cars- all the way to the final!!  The Vega was insanely consistent and with the help of tuner/crew chief/psychiatrist  Autohaus Danny, Wayne leapfrogged a gaggle of heavy hitters to get himself up to 2nd in the season championship points!  Rookie!! I am learning from this guy.  Thanks Wayno! Round after round, after round, after round...ok, you get it.

7 rounds, a trophy and an envelope $

I came into this race 2 rounds behind then points leader Dale Thomas. As luck would have it I drew him in the first round.  I call that opportunity!  We had a super close race- .002 second separation at the start- I ran him down and blipped the throttle once, taking a close stripe and the win.  So, with that I put myself in position to move up in points- only to lose 2nd round in a close race, but I just "took a little too much win light" breaking out by a couple hundredths.  Luckily for me, a bunch of the heavy hitters also went out in early rounds, so when the dust settles I think I am about 3 rounds out of first.  It ain't over yet!

More pics and video coming. Until then,
SLO Racer. Out.