So hanging out with Spencer Massey this weekend, kinda sorta. Alot of people don't know he races on a fairly weekly basis when not in the nitro car. Got an update on Don Schumacher's cancer, also found out what the team organization is for next year. Not a good pic, i'm going to try and get one with him tomorrow.
After the second qualifying hit, dad came back with a flat tire. We found the leak, 2 small holes a half inch apart, like a large staple. Got one plugged, went to plug the other, and the tire cracked open between them. Useless.
So I can up to the tower for a page on the PA looking for tires. One of our friends, who pretty much carries an entire spare car's worth of parts, happened to have a set of scuffs that he did not like. They happened to be the new mold that we were going to buy anyways. The only problem was that we had to get our tires off our beadlocks and get the new tires on, during the time of a regular turnaround. Not a problem for guys like @Nitro Dude ....but we'd never worked with beadlocks before. Somebody had an electric impact gun, so we were able to zing the beadlocks off real quick and get the old tires removed. It was getting the new tires on that was a pain. You're basically taking a tire opening that is exactly 16" nominal (more like 15.875 actual) and putting it around a 16" ring. Easier said than done.
So 2 other racers, dad, and I got to work on getting the new tires seated on. We got the front side of one tire on then split into 2 teams of 2, and started on the second tire while dad and another did the backside of the first tire. They were halfway through the back and my partner and I were 3/4 way through our tire when they called our class to the lanes. So our friends got in their cars and went up, followed by the rest of the class.
Dad finished his tire, so I ran it back to our pit, on the other end of the track, got it mounted up and torqued, threw some fuel in the tank, then ran back, where dad finished up the tire I'd been working on. We put our friend's tools away and brought that tire back, got it slung on the car, dad got suited up, and we made it up as the very last car in our class with 4 pairs left in front of us.
Got up to the line, staged, and when the tree fell, other guy went nowhere. Turns out his launch control timers failed. Gives us winlight but dad lifted right after the 330 to prevent going to fast/breaking out. Got back, finished torquing the wheels, went back up for round 2. Somehow drew the same guy again (this is a buyback race- you lose, you buy back in). Second round dad gets the winlight on a pedal job, again not a full pull so still no idea what the car wants to run on the new tires. Come around for 3rd round, we draw a guy that's well known to be a hitter. Sure enough he's 007 to dad's 22 on the tree, top end both drivers were 3 off the dial pedaling, putting us on the trailer.
Guess we won't know what the car wants to run until qualifying tomorrow. On Board Data shows good progress though.
After the second qualifying hit, dad came back with a flat tire. We found the leak, 2 small holes a half inch apart, like a large staple. Got one plugged, went to plug the other, and the tire cracked open between them. Useless.
So I can up to the tower for a page on the PA looking for tires. One of our friends, who pretty much carries an entire spare car's worth of parts, happened to have a set of scuffs that he did not like. They happened to be the new mold that we were going to buy anyways. The only problem was that we had to get our tires off our beadlocks and get the new tires on, during the time of a regular turnaround. Not a problem for guys like @Nitro Dude ....but we'd never worked with beadlocks before. Somebody had an electric impact gun, so we were able to zing the beadlocks off real quick and get the old tires removed. It was getting the new tires on that was a pain. You're basically taking a tire opening that is exactly 16" nominal (more like 15.875 actual) and putting it around a 16" ring. Easier said than done.
So 2 other racers, dad, and I got to work on getting the new tires seated on. We got the front side of one tire on then split into 2 teams of 2, and started on the second tire while dad and another did the backside of the first tire. They were halfway through the back and my partner and I were 3/4 way through our tire when they called our class to the lanes. So our friends got in their cars and went up, followed by the rest of the class.
Dad finished his tire, so I ran it back to our pit, on the other end of the track, got it mounted up and torqued, threw some fuel in the tank, then ran back, where dad finished up the tire I'd been working on. We put our friend's tools away and brought that tire back, got it slung on the car, dad got suited up, and we made it up as the very last car in our class with 4 pairs left in front of us.
Got up to the line, staged, and when the tree fell, other guy went nowhere. Turns out his launch control timers failed. Gives us winlight but dad lifted right after the 330 to prevent going to fast/breaking out. Got back, finished torquing the wheels, went back up for round 2. Somehow drew the same guy again (this is a buyback race- you lose, you buy back in). Second round dad gets the winlight on a pedal job, again not a full pull so still no idea what the car wants to run on the new tires. Come around for 3rd round, we draw a guy that's well known to be a hitter. Sure enough he's 007 to dad's 22 on the tree, top end both drivers were 3 off the dial pedaling, putting us on the trailer.
Guess we won't know what the car wants to run until qualifying tomorrow. On Board Data shows good progress though.
The top video is the camera that you left stuck on the trailer. 
