Cedar Falls Raceway---Rapids Weekend Story

#1 07-31-2007, 06:52 PM

2007 CEDAR FALLS RACEWAY NIGHT OF FIRE

Last weekend the Nitro Madness team went to a favorite track from Rapid’s past, Cedar Falls Raceway in Cedar Falls, Iowa. It is a ¼ mile track that used to hold division 5 races. Way back in the early 80’s I would race at Eddyville on Saturday night and then drive to Cedar Falls for Sunday racing. I think the last time I was here was somewhere around 1990 with the Pro Mod car.

The track was having Nitro cars back for the event for the 1st time in 10-years and the fans packed the place! I was told they set an attendance record for the track. Jack Wyatt, Dale Creasy Jr, had their Nitro Funnycars. Dale and Radar and the Russell’s had their NTF cars there. Roger Stanke with his nitro fed. Arnie “The Farmer” Beswick had 2 cars there. We match raced against Lance Van Hauen’s NHRA Alky funnycar. They also had jet cars and wheel standers. It was an incredible show for the fans.

Saturday was typical Midwest hot and humid weather. When we got to the track around noon the place was already packed. I have no idea how many handout cards were given away and signatures I did, but it was a ton of them. Since we were there early I got to spend some time talking to the other racers. It was the first time I got to meet Roger, and man he is a great guy who really works hard to put on a good show for the fans. You should have seen the talent pool he had with him for crew guys. It read like the who’s who of Midwest fuel tuners. I would look forward to racing his “Pipe Rack” anytime.

Since our crew guys were coming from all points this weekend we had to wait on them to all arrive at the track. RC, rode on the RAGBRI again this year. That is the “Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa”. This is a big deal around here as they start on the West edge of Iowa and take a different route clear across the state all in 1-weeks time. Pappy had a wedding his family was at, and had to gather them for the trip to the track. KB, had to wait to leave town until noon on Saturday. That left Scott and Peggy, and Laura and I to take the rig and get it set up. Even though it cut severely into my hammock time, we managed to pull it off.

Scott and I discussed what we wanted to accomplish with the 2-shots at the track. There were some things we wanted to try. We decided to experiment with the launch RPM on the first run by leaving closer to an idle. I think the car liked it as it had a .975 60-foot time which is a new record for our team.

I discussed with Lance and neither of us had a lane preference so I told him I had trouble seeing the tree from the Rt lane, I would take it the first run, and the left the 2nd run. I let him know we do a pretty long burnout and to start his accordingly. Since his car has a pedal clutch I volunteered to stage first and let him have the time he needed to get the rpm’s up and then come on in. Our car has been carrying the front wheels out quite a ways and this run was no exception. It pulled pretty good and ended up matching our team record ET of 6.40. A couple of reports ago I told you I had discovered I didn’t like getting out run when our car made a good pass. I was right,,,I DON’T LIKE IT! Ha! Lance came around me just before the finish line and beat me by about ½ a car or less. How do you like that, I tie our record run, and lose.

You should have heard the crowd as we towed back. They were lining the fence and just kept screaming and waving to us. They were close enough I could hear them talking about how much fun they were having. It was a cool feeling to just be a part of the deal at that point. I knew the night was really lining up to be something special at this event.

Back to the pits, all the service work was complete. Everything looked good so I hopped it up a bit hoping to put a 6.30—anything on the boards. We decided to go with a 4000 RPM launch, the highest we ever had tried in the car. In the lanes, Lance asked if I cared if he ran the left lane again. I said that was fine, and was planning on the track being a bit better when the sun went off it. The corrected air was nearly the same, my fuel changes seemed to be working. My “Walter Mitty” side was thinking, take any lane you want Mr. Screw-Blower Alky boy, I have a little something for you. On the burnout, I ended up almost to the 1000-foot cone. The hot rod was really thumping and I was ready.

We staged, when I went up on the throttle, it was loud in my car. I heard him come on in and we left almost together. In an effort to keep the reporting fair,,,,I left ahead of him. I got to enjoy that about 2-whole seconds though. Around the 400-foot mark, the car spun pretty good so I stuck it in high. About 700-feet it spun hard again, and then moved over to the right wall. It spun hard enough to turn on the shift light, but I was out of gears to shift at that point. Lance came around me at 1200-feet running almost 30 MPH faster. I guess those Screw Blowers really do make some power!

As it turns out, Lance and I were the only ones in the 2nd round of the Pro-Show to make it down the track. I don’t know why, but when the sun went down, the dew came in and the track didn’t come around as expected.

It was a great time. The crowd really seemed into it. Our team found out just before we left that we had set the track record for AA/FA’s with our 1st round pass. That took a little sting out of losing both rounds. In looking over the run sheets with Laura during dinner late that night I noticed that in the last 9-runs in our car, 8-times we have run between a 4.11 and a 4.16 to the 1/8th mile. The car has set ET records for our team in the last 3-outings. I guess we all like the new car pretty well at this point.

I hope you enjoyed my “What I did Last Weekend” Story.

Rapid

#2 07-31-2007, 07:04 PM

Great reporting Randy !
Hope you are coming down to race Reep and Marriot at the BHRA this weekend.

#3 07-31-2007, 07:16 PM

Sorry Larry,

We are getting ready for the World Fuel Altered Nationals II at Eddyville, Iowa on Aug 17th and 18th.

We will be in MO-KAN with the OFA group on Labor Day. Any chance of you making that show??

Rapid

#4 07-31-2007, 09:08 PM

Great report!!

EDB

#5 08-01-2007, 05:26 AM

Great stuff as always Randy! Keep it coming ......

#6 08-01-2007, 06:19 AM

Great read! Thanks!

#7 08-01-2007, 09:22 AM

Great story Rapid. Keep 'em up! What about pictures?

#8 08-01-2007, 09:49 AM

Awesome as usual Randy! Thanks for sharing.

#9 08-01-2007, 10:39 AM

Great Story Rapid. I've got to make it down there for a race some time. I've been told that it's a great track.

I'll second the request for pictures.

#10 08-01-2007, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David N Gawboy

Great Story Rapid. I've got to make it down there for a race some time. I've been told that it's a great track.

I'll second the request for pictures.

Make that a third!

Love your stories Rapid......

#11 08-01-2007, 04:16 PM

Thanks everyone. I will look for some pictures. I know Laura took a few, but I had forgotten to set the camera on Hi-res so the quality may not be too good.

Rapid

#12 08-01-2007, 04:21 PM

Lets see if this works. It is a couple of photos and a video that is really grainy.

Rapid

In the staging lanes.

Ready to fire for the run.

The video. Laura gets a bit excited when I run. She didn't bother to tape the complete run.

#13 08-01-2007, 04:38 PM

Great Stuff, Rapid! I really enjoy reading your what I did last weekend articles. Cedar Falls is a really nice track as I remember it (haven't been there in several years though) but my first trip there was for the first ever Div 5 ET finals back a number of years! Just curious, have you run the 1/8 mile at Pacific Junction yet?

Terry

#14 08-01-2007, 04:44 PM

Hi Terry,

I don't believe Scott has talked to them. I would like to run over there sometime.

Rapid

#15 08-01-2007, 04:48 PM

They seem to be getting a lot of cars from Eastern NE also--I haven't made the trip yet, but the word I'm getting from our local racers is that it is a good facility that will get better and they run a good show. Hey, by the way, let's make sure we get things arranged to have you at good ol Kearney Raceway Park NEXT season, ok? All the poor spectators have had the opportunity to see the last few years are TADs--nothing against the alcohol guys, but most of our spectators have never had the nitro experience and you would be an instant hero just like at Cedar Falls! Does Jok Nicholson still run the track at Cedar Falls?

Cedar Falls Raceway---Rapids Weekend Story

Cedar Falls Raceway---Rapids Weekend Story

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