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Bluebaugh Racing’s Team AutoTrader headed for the Pacific Street Cars Associations (PSCA) California Nationals this past weekend May 16-18, 2008 at the California Speedway with high hopes. Crew Chief, Deborah Woodard said, after winning the Las Vegas Nationals we finally have consistent runs and solid data. The Team was looking forward to stepping up the AutoTrader Monte Carlo and having a productive weekend. Instead the weekend turned into a thrash on the car and fist full of problems. Fortunately good friends and sponsors came to the rescue.
Bluebaugh said you know its going to be one of those weekends’s when the transmission in the truck burns up with a fully loaded trailer 300 miles from home before the race has even started. The team managed to limp into the California Speedway to start a day of test and tune with little sleep. During testing a rocker stud on the exhaust pulled out of the head creating an internal nitrous explosion in the AutoTrader Monte Carlo. Woodard said, when the exhaust valve won’t open the nitrous has to go somewhere. We got lucky in that no cylinders were damaged.
Bluebaugh and Woodard worked late into Friday night with the help of Toy Factory Racing to try and repair the head to no avail. On Saturday, Woodard found David Beckley, through fellow racer Randy Haggerty. Woodard said, I was really worried because once you start trying to weld on these heads, the aluminum goes soft and nothing will hold. Trying to combat a rocker stud problem on short notice is a worst case scenario. Beckley applied a most creative solution permanently repairing the head with no welding.
Unfortunately, Bluebaugh missed qualifying the AutoTrader Monte Carlo completely placing the team dead last on the ladder and facing first round with no clutch data. Everyone in the Prostreet field had some difficultly making it down the hot track with an unusual heat wave in effect at the California Speedway.
In round one of eliminations, Bluebaugh and Team AutoTrader ran the Dodge Viper of Bob Griffith and Eric Lenore who qualified number one with 6.614 @ 215.58. Bluebaugh turned a precision 6.599 @ 215.77 running perfectly down center of the track giving Griffith and the fans a real show of competitive heart after thrashing all weekend to get the AutoTrader Monte Carlo fixed. Griffith showed no mercy putting on a great side by side spectacular drag race beating Bluebaugh by a mere .0083 seconds with a 6.596 @ 213.98 and low ET of the round. Bluebaugh and Woodard agreed that with just one qualifying pass the outcome would likely have been much different.
Woodard said, while it was a disappointing end to a long weekend, the end results were actually good. Our old truck was on borrowed time with the transmission. Tony Kane of Hughes Performance is graciously sponsoring all new heavy duty Hughes parts to repair the truck. We are grateful to Hughes Performance for their support of our race team and the sponsorship provided in times of need. Kane also towed our race trailer some 300 miles back to Phoenix. Fellow racer Jeremy Hangar took the truck to his shop near the raceway and will provide labor for the repair at a racers discount. We are also grateful to get the head repaired and to Andy at Toy Factory Racing who gave his evening to help. Bluebaugh said if it were not for good friends and sponsors, we would be stranded in California with a broken truck and broken race car.
All Work and No Glory for Team AutoTrader at the California Nationals
Bluebaugh Racing’s Team AutoTrader headed for the Pacific Street Cars Associations (PSCA) California Nationals this past weekend May 16-18, 2008 at the California Speedway with high hopes. Crew Chief, Deborah Woodard said, after winning the Las Vegas Nationals we finally have consistent runs and solid data. The Team was looking forward to stepping up the AutoTrader Monte Carlo and having a productive weekend. Instead the weekend turned into a thrash on the car and fist full of problems. Fortunately good friends and sponsors came to the rescue.
Bluebaugh said you know its going to be one of those weekends’s when the transmission in the truck burns up with a fully loaded trailer 300 miles from home before the race has even started. The team managed to limp into the California Speedway to start a day of test and tune with little sleep. During testing a rocker stud on the exhaust pulled out of the head creating an internal nitrous explosion in the AutoTrader Monte Carlo. Woodard said, when the exhaust valve won’t open the nitrous has to go somewhere. We got lucky in that no cylinders were damaged.
Bluebaugh and Woodard worked late into Friday night with the help of Toy Factory Racing to try and repair the head to no avail. On Saturday, Woodard found David Beckley, through fellow racer Randy Haggerty. Woodard said, I was really worried because once you start trying to weld on these heads, the aluminum goes soft and nothing will hold. Trying to combat a rocker stud problem on short notice is a worst case scenario. Beckley applied a most creative solution permanently repairing the head with no welding.
Unfortunately, Bluebaugh missed qualifying the AutoTrader Monte Carlo completely placing the team dead last on the ladder and facing first round with no clutch data. Everyone in the Prostreet field had some difficultly making it down the hot track with an unusual heat wave in effect at the California Speedway.
In round one of eliminations, Bluebaugh and Team AutoTrader ran the Dodge Viper of Bob Griffith and Eric Lenore who qualified number one with 6.614 @ 215.58. Bluebaugh turned a precision 6.599 @ 215.77 running perfectly down center of the track giving Griffith and the fans a real show of competitive heart after thrashing all weekend to get the AutoTrader Monte Carlo fixed. Griffith showed no mercy putting on a great side by side spectacular drag race beating Bluebaugh by a mere .0083 seconds with a 6.596 @ 213.98 and low ET of the round. Bluebaugh and Woodard agreed that with just one qualifying pass the outcome would likely have been much different.
Woodard said, while it was a disappointing end to a long weekend, the end results were actually good. Our old truck was on borrowed time with the transmission. Tony Kane of Hughes Performance is graciously sponsoring all new heavy duty Hughes parts to repair the truck. We are grateful to Hughes Performance for their support of our race team and the sponsorship provided in times of need. Kane also towed our race trailer some 300 miles back to Phoenix. Fellow racer Jeremy Hangar took the truck to his shop near the raceway and will provide labor for the repair at a racers discount. We are also grateful to get the head repaired and to Andy at Toy Factory Racing who gave his evening to help. Bluebaugh said if it were not for good friends and sponsors, we would be stranded in California with a broken truck and broken race car.
