The 72 Demon Follies....
Well, a few more months have gone by so I thought it time for a brief update.
There was no racing in February at Gainesville due to the GatorNats and some other races.
In March, we took the car up for the monthly brackets. Got there on time, unloaded, tech'd, waiting by the trailer for the call to staging. The call never came! Absolute silence from 9:00 until we threw in the towel at 2:00 as it now looked like rain was coming. Nothing ever came across th PA system! We convinced them to give us a raincheck and we left. The rains came which added additional delays and they stopped racing after midnight only to pick it back up on Sunday. Glad we left!!
In April, we took the car again. Made it to round 3 and lost on a breakout. Went 11.162 on an 11.17 dial. Dang!! Even tried the Pro bracket that day. Dialed a 7.01 (Pro runs 1/8 mile) and went 7.012. But had a red-eye -0.047. Darn driver!
Our last outing was yesterday, 5/19. The weather has obviously gotten hotter as the DA started around 1900 and went to 2750 later in the day on our last run (was 87 degrees). The car was notably slower all day - running 11.20@117+. The 60', 1/8, and quarter were all noticeably slower. Spoke to several others and confirmed they were also off about the same amount. I keep a linear regression of all of this car's runs and it shows it slows down about 0.065 seconds/1000 DA. So much of the ET can be attributed to the higher DA.
There are lots of sharks in the Sportsman class here. Talked to one guy and learned he went racing 37 times last year, was in the finals 17 times, and won it 11 times. Another guy has either won or been in the finals every time since we've been here. Tough sledding for sure! Interestingly enough, both of these guys deep stage with the 2nd guy trying to rush you by doing no burnout and immediately staging as soon as they give the signal to start your burnout. I don't change my process when I've raced him a couple times (and lost :BangHead:) but I find it an interesting tactic. So we went 3 rounds yesterday and lost on a surprise -0.076 red-eye. Where did that come from??? Don't know where it came from but I know where we went with it: into the trailer! Ran it out and the car went 11.214 on an 11.20 dial so ole dummy here cost the race!
Had a good run in round 2 (rh lane, #6020) - see timeslip below (tapped the brakes at the end but not sure it slowed it down any). 60' is usually 1.52-ish and 1/8 is usually 7.01-7.02-ish so you can see how much slower it was. And BTW...that .003 light did not get me the bye run in the next round. Someone else had a .002! Remember, these are all footbrake cars! Sharks!
Here are a couple pics from the track.
One other thing...my wife has found the joy of driving this car on the street! So when we take it somewhere to a show or cruise, guess who is the passenger??? Or she tells me to go drive the 71 Demon!
Well, a few more months have gone by so I thought it time for a brief update.
There was no racing in February at Gainesville due to the GatorNats and some other races.
In March, we took the car up for the monthly brackets. Got there on time, unloaded, tech'd, waiting by the trailer for the call to staging. The call never came! Absolute silence from 9:00 until we threw in the towel at 2:00 as it now looked like rain was coming. Nothing ever came across th PA system! We convinced them to give us a raincheck and we left. The rains came which added additional delays and they stopped racing after midnight only to pick it back up on Sunday. Glad we left!!
In April, we took the car again. Made it to round 3 and lost on a breakout. Went 11.162 on an 11.17 dial. Dang!! Even tried the Pro bracket that day. Dialed a 7.01 (Pro runs 1/8 mile) and went 7.012. But had a red-eye -0.047. Darn driver!
Our last outing was yesterday, 5/19. The weather has obviously gotten hotter as the DA started around 1900 and went to 2750 later in the day on our last run (was 87 degrees). The car was notably slower all day - running 11.20@117+. The 60', 1/8, and quarter were all noticeably slower. Spoke to several others and confirmed they were also off about the same amount. I keep a linear regression of all of this car's runs and it shows it slows down about 0.065 seconds/1000 DA. So much of the ET can be attributed to the higher DA.
There are lots of sharks in the Sportsman class here. Talked to one guy and learned he went racing 37 times last year, was in the finals 17 times, and won it 11 times. Another guy has either won or been in the finals every time since we've been here. Tough sledding for sure! Interestingly enough, both of these guys deep stage with the 2nd guy trying to rush you by doing no burnout and immediately staging as soon as they give the signal to start your burnout. I don't change my process when I've raced him a couple times (and lost :BangHead:) but I find it an interesting tactic. So we went 3 rounds yesterday and lost on a surprise -0.076 red-eye. Where did that come from??? Don't know where it came from but I know where we went with it: into the trailer! Ran it out and the car went 11.214 on an 11.20 dial so ole dummy here cost the race!
Had a good run in round 2 (rh lane, #6020) - see timeslip below (tapped the brakes at the end but not sure it slowed it down any). 60' is usually 1.52-ish and 1/8 is usually 7.01-7.02-ish so you can see how much slower it was. And BTW...that .003 light did not get me the bye run in the next round. Someone else had a .002! Remember, these are all footbrake cars! Sharks!
Here are a couple pics from the track.
One other thing...my wife has found the joy of driving this car on the street! So when we take it somewhere to a show or cruise, guess who is the passenger??? Or she tells me to go drive the 71 Demon!