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Mike Lawless
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« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2011, 02:00:10 pm » |
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Paul Miller and I were the only VW guys there, both in the 11.60 index E/Gas class since Paul decided to give it a go. This particular race was daytime qualifying and night time eliminations, the entire event done in one day. It was pleasantly warm, with a nice breeze and once the sun went down, it was incredible! It's really too bad more the the west coast VW crowd doesn't take advantage of this venue. It's really great racing!
We came with a freshened tranny thanks to Mike Herbert and crew at Rancho, and I had slipped in a new set of rod bearings and fixed some minor issues while it was apart.
In round one of qualifying, we came out on top with an 11.63 and a .007RT. The funny thing was that it shifted so effortlessly that I backed out of the throttle after the 1-2 shift not sure if it actually went in or not! It did, and the little bobble early in the run put us enough over the 11.60 index.
In round two, I got the run against long time racing buddy and former NHRA bracket champion Mark Simonian in his .69 Camaro. Mark had decided to give E/Gas a go, since switching engines and not having quite enough umph to make it in the highly competitive 10.60 D/Gas class. I paced Mark all the way down and ended up with an 11.612, which was once again good enough for the number 1 qualifying spot.
With 11 cars, the number 1 spot earned us a bye in round one of eliminations. I ran it all the way out and posted an 11.605.
Just about all of the current points leaders exited in round one, it was a good opportunity to try make up some ground.
In round two, we faced young gun Jacob King in his '69 Corvette. We had lost to him in round one of the last race when I missed the shift, so I was looking to set things straight.
I did everything I could do, but Jacob came out on top again. He had a .010 light to my .013, and I took the stripe only to run further under than he did, 11.51 to 11.53.
I can't really complain. It was a very tight race and if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't do it any different. Based on my ET on my bye run, I wasn't about to dump it and give up the stripe. Jacob was actually pitted right next to us so I congratulated him on a job well done. Looking over the run stats, it was probably the closest run out of all the eliminations!
I was really wanting to get by him, because my buddy Mark, who went to win the event (both E/gas AND sportsman!) was to be my semi final round opponent, and that woulda been a cool, cool deal!
The next WCHRA event is July 23rd. I really hope some of you guys can kick off your high heels and join us! It truly is great racing!
Big thanks to Rancho for getting our trans turned around for us. A new set of synchros and a 1-2 shift fork was all it needed, everything checking out good. Also thanks to Rick at CB performance, and Don at Pauter Machine for the help with some engine bits. We really appreciate you!
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