SS Springs on 75 Duster
Got there Friday evening at 8 pm....got escorted to pit space. Saturday Morning unloaded car and proceeded to check everything..oil...water...tire pressure...brake fluid....
Couple hours later as we were getting closer to making our 1st time run I started up car to drive around pit to warm it up....as I was backing out of stall the transmission cooler line burst dumping 4 qts of Type f tranny fluid. Looking at the damage I could see i could repair line but would have to remove radiator to get at it....no big deal only 2 bolts hold it in....i realized i would not make that time run... ok...fixed line....now the fun...start up engine with no water to quickly check fluid level...i had already dumped 2 qts in it....and had to add 2 more...luckily had 5 qts in the trailer.
Needed water for radiator...need container to get water....fellow racing from Vegas gave me a container....but then I found out there none of the faucets had any water only the bathroom but needed a hose and funnel...So I dumped bottle water into the radiator....12 ounces at a time.....
Used several can of brake cleaner to clean off the residue of the tranny fluid...I fire up car...drive to staging lines....well..the dam thing would not warm up above 150 degrees...leaving the water pump off ...and cycling it on / off....At the hit..the car fell flat on it face.....then ran 11.87 at 116+.....mile an hour looked good the but the ET sucked...
so looking for a dial in....I figured 116.44 should be somewhere in the 11.40s....so I wrote 11.40 on window...got car good and warm...race an F body mustang that was turbo charged....his dial 9.59 mine 11.40.....about 1000 ft mark i could see he was still way back there....and at the 1st light i hit the brakes....running 11.57 at 102....he was 6 tenths off his dial in....
So sorting thru the couple of time slips in the car looking for something to compare incremental times with.....as only time slips i had were in the 11.20 from Vegas....making a dumb *** guess...i was going to dial somewhere in the 11.50s.....as we are put on a ladder after round 1...next guy was local with a Road Runner 440...dial in at 11.50....so what the hell...I dialed 11.50...heads up...time slip below....close ran down the track...but i should have dialed 11.55..but i still would have lost....