RAPID
Nitro Member
2007 NIGHT OF FIRE AT EDDYVILLE RACEWAY PARK
The Nitro Madness team had a match race with the Cheaper than Therapy team owned by Howard Knowles out of Joplin, Mo. this past weekend. It was all part of Eddyville’s annual big 4th of July show. It was a fantastic event featuring Jack Wyatt and Dale Creasy Jr, fuel funnycars. The Orange Crate, and NightMare NTF cars were there also. There were jets, wheel standers, the Ozark Mountain Super Shifters. The weather was perfect and the track was prepped the best I have ever seen it. This track is usually very good, but last Saturday it was perfect!
Howard is a regular on the Outlaw Fuel Altered circuit and always is tough. He proved why this weekend by soundly whipping me on the tree both runs. Lucky for me, I was able to drive around for the wins, but it took the entire track to do it. Now I am sure you realize that not being able to see the tree is a “bit of a handicap” but I had strict instructions with my crew to have one of the guys come over and “Kick the tire” when it was time to leave. So I believe it was their fault, they must have had slow reaction times, or I could have left sooner. I am going to have to fix the not able to see the tree thing one of these days I guess.
Eddyville does a top-notch job of making the drivers feel welcome and special. Before the event they bring us all out on the starting line for introductions and to shoot some tee shirts into the crowd. I grabbed some shirts and started for the line. Laura said, “Oh No, you are not going to throw shirts are you?” Yes, I replied, why? “Well, you suck at throwing those!” I am pretty sure she is confusing my lousy Frisbee skills with my throwing shirts ability. Great, now I have to do well or I will never here the end of it. After being introduced, I put the shirt into the slingshot deal we shoot them out into the crowd with. I pulled it back and sent is sailing over the bleachers into the far pits. I didn’t hear anybody fall over so I don’t think I hit anyone. The 2nd one went right into the crowd as planned. T-Bone was there doing the announcing and told Laura over the speaker system that “I officially didn’t suck at it anymore.” I had shared our conversation with him while we were waiting to begin.
Time to fire up and run. Howard knew I did long burnouts, so he let me hit the water first and start my burnout. I was going along and thought, this is far enough and lifted,,,and then I grabbed a handful of brake as I noticed I was about to roll past the finish line. Oh well, it was fun anyway! I hurried back to keep from holding things up. Note to self, while backing up and waving at the crowd, order a new set of slicks on Monday. The first run was a nice 4.14 @ 173 MPH. I had richened up a couple of holes, so it was about what we were planning on. I was lucky enough to get the win light.
There were plenty of other cars running so we had ample time to service the car and make a few changes. It was a good thing as the crowd was huge and they filled our pits buying shirts, asking questions, and talking about the new car.
We switched lanes for the final run and as the funnycars had both run well earlier we knew either lane was going to be good. Our best at this track is a 4.12. Since we had just run our 5th 4.14/4.15 in a row we wanted to step it up and get a new team best for this track. Scott and I discussed it, and added some timing, and a little bit more fuel. It didn’t work, but we did run a 4.16 with the car moving a little from the dew on the track. Nothing too bad, just enough to scrub off some ET. I should mention we had our best 60-foot times ever for our car. It went .996 in the 1st round and .999 in the 2nd run.
I hope you enjoyed reading my “What I did Last Weekend” story.
Rapid
The Nitro Madness team had a match race with the Cheaper than Therapy team owned by Howard Knowles out of Joplin, Mo. this past weekend. It was all part of Eddyville’s annual big 4th of July show. It was a fantastic event featuring Jack Wyatt and Dale Creasy Jr, fuel funnycars. The Orange Crate, and NightMare NTF cars were there also. There were jets, wheel standers, the Ozark Mountain Super Shifters. The weather was perfect and the track was prepped the best I have ever seen it. This track is usually very good, but last Saturday it was perfect!
Howard is a regular on the Outlaw Fuel Altered circuit and always is tough. He proved why this weekend by soundly whipping me on the tree both runs. Lucky for me, I was able to drive around for the wins, but it took the entire track to do it. Now I am sure you realize that not being able to see the tree is a “bit of a handicap” but I had strict instructions with my crew to have one of the guys come over and “Kick the tire” when it was time to leave. So I believe it was their fault, they must have had slow reaction times, or I could have left sooner. I am going to have to fix the not able to see the tree thing one of these days I guess.
Eddyville does a top-notch job of making the drivers feel welcome and special. Before the event they bring us all out on the starting line for introductions and to shoot some tee shirts into the crowd. I grabbed some shirts and started for the line. Laura said, “Oh No, you are not going to throw shirts are you?” Yes, I replied, why? “Well, you suck at throwing those!” I am pretty sure she is confusing my lousy Frisbee skills with my throwing shirts ability. Great, now I have to do well or I will never here the end of it. After being introduced, I put the shirt into the slingshot deal we shoot them out into the crowd with. I pulled it back and sent is sailing over the bleachers into the far pits. I didn’t hear anybody fall over so I don’t think I hit anyone. The 2nd one went right into the crowd as planned. T-Bone was there doing the announcing and told Laura over the speaker system that “I officially didn’t suck at it anymore.” I had shared our conversation with him while we were waiting to begin.
Time to fire up and run. Howard knew I did long burnouts, so he let me hit the water first and start my burnout. I was going along and thought, this is far enough and lifted,,,and then I grabbed a handful of brake as I noticed I was about to roll past the finish line. Oh well, it was fun anyway! I hurried back to keep from holding things up. Note to self, while backing up and waving at the crowd, order a new set of slicks on Monday. The first run was a nice 4.14 @ 173 MPH. I had richened up a couple of holes, so it was about what we were planning on. I was lucky enough to get the win light.
There were plenty of other cars running so we had ample time to service the car and make a few changes. It was a good thing as the crowd was huge and they filled our pits buying shirts, asking questions, and talking about the new car.
We switched lanes for the final run and as the funnycars had both run well earlier we knew either lane was going to be good. Our best at this track is a 4.12. Since we had just run our 5th 4.14/4.15 in a row we wanted to step it up and get a new team best for this track. Scott and I discussed it, and added some timing, and a little bit more fuel. It didn’t work, but we did run a 4.16 with the car moving a little from the dew on the track. Nothing too bad, just enough to scrub off some ET. I should mention we had our best 60-foot times ever for our car. It went .996 in the 1st round and .999 in the 2nd run.
I hope you enjoyed reading my “What I did Last Weekend” story.
Rapid
