Hey everyone,
Yesterday was a very long, very bizarre day at the track. I'll spare you the intimate details, the short version is I came into the final race yesterday (#12 of 12) several rounds out of first place, and had no hope of closing that gap. Due to a string of luck so amazing I should have bought a wheelbarrow full of lottery tickets afterwards, I somehow waded through early rounds and then knocked out the points leader (Tyler Rush) in round 4 to tie it up for the 2015 track championship, and could have locked it up had I won the final round.
The car had just run a 14.02 in round 4 (taking out Tyler) and I expected the car to run right around the 14.02 again, but it slowed to a 14.049 at 99.91 mph; slowest trap speed all day. I killed the tree with a 0.003 reaction time, but unfortunately Luke matched it with a 0.010 (these numbers are almost unheard of in Sportsman "footbrake" cars, those are more like Super Pro dragster numbers launching off a transbrake) so it all came down to the dial. Since my car was running slow, he caught me and lifted at the top end, and I lost. This forced a tiebreaker runoff with Tyler for the championship.
The track got my run with Luke on video and posted it on Facebook (link below). At 11 seconds, you can hear the announcer say "WOW!..." (referring to our reaction times), and then he's drowned out by burnout noise. Also if you look closely around 15 seconds, you can see Stephanie's 500E coming back up the return road, below the "13.99" board on the left side, she's leading the 11-second Pro truck she just beat in the Domestic vs Import final (hehehehehe).
In the runoff with Tyler, I was certain the 500E would slow further - just ran a 14.05 so I dialed 14.05 and expected to run 14.06-14.09, maybe. But noooo... the damn car ran fast, 14.019 so I broke out by 0.031. I managed another crazy light, 0.008 reaction (vs Tyler's very good 0.041), and I had enough of a lead where I could have won... all I needed to do was tap the brakes at the stripe. I flat screwed up and didn't brake, and took too much stripe... 0.0423, probably 3-4 feet ahead, when I wanted 1-2 feet. Margin of victory for Tyler was 0.0093 (tick over nine thousandths of a second). He also broke out (13.248 on 13.26 dial) but he broke out by nine thou less than me, so he's the 2015 champ. Third year in a row, dammit... Tyler won 2013 and 2014 too.
I also was runner-up in the Outlaw Street championship; first loser in two classes, but did manage a championship in Alumni. Final season points for those 3 classes are in the attached PDFs. Sooo close to doubling up with 2 championships that year.
Oh well, maybe next year!
[Update: I didn't do well in 2016, but my wife won the track championship in Alumni class!]
Video:
Photo of the final round starting line / launch:
My wife Stephanie went out early in Sportsman, but went on to win the Domestic vs Import challenge, as the only import entered:
Official results from yesterday's races:
Yesterday was a very long, very bizarre day at the track. I'll spare you the intimate details, the short version is I came into the final race yesterday (#12 of 12) several rounds out of first place, and had no hope of closing that gap. Due to a string of luck so amazing I should have bought a wheelbarrow full of lottery tickets afterwards, I somehow waded through early rounds and then knocked out the points leader (Tyler Rush) in round 4 to tie it up for the 2015 track championship, and could have locked it up had I won the final round.
The car had just run a 14.02 in round 4 (taking out Tyler) and I expected the car to run right around the 14.02 again, but it slowed to a 14.049 at 99.91 mph; slowest trap speed all day. I killed the tree with a 0.003 reaction time, but unfortunately Luke matched it with a 0.010 (these numbers are almost unheard of in Sportsman "footbrake" cars, those are more like Super Pro dragster numbers launching off a transbrake) so it all came down to the dial. Since my car was running slow, he caught me and lifted at the top end, and I lost. This forced a tiebreaker runoff with Tyler for the championship.
The track got my run with Luke on video and posted it on Facebook (link below). At 11 seconds, you can hear the announcer say "WOW!..." (referring to our reaction times), and then he's drowned out by burnout noise. Also if you look closely around 15 seconds, you can see Stephanie's 500E coming back up the return road, below the "13.99" board on the left side, she's leading the 11-second Pro truck she just beat in the Domestic vs Import final (hehehehehe).
In the runoff with Tyler, I was certain the 500E would slow further - just ran a 14.05 so I dialed 14.05 and expected to run 14.06-14.09, maybe. But noooo... the damn car ran fast, 14.019 so I broke out by 0.031. I managed another crazy light, 0.008 reaction (vs Tyler's very good 0.041), and I had enough of a lead where I could have won... all I needed to do was tap the brakes at the stripe. I flat screwed up and didn't brake, and took too much stripe... 0.0423, probably 3-4 feet ahead, when I wanted 1-2 feet. Margin of victory for Tyler was 0.0093 (tick over nine thousandths of a second). He also broke out (13.248 on 13.26 dial) but he broke out by nine thou less than me, so he's the 2015 champ. Third year in a row, dammit... Tyler won 2013 and 2014 too.
I also was runner-up in the Outlaw Street championship; first loser in two classes, but did manage a championship in Alumni. Final season points for those 3 classes are in the attached PDFs. Sooo close to doubling up with 2 championships that year.
Oh well, maybe next year!
[Update: I didn't do well in 2016, but my wife won the track championship in Alumni class!]
Video:
Photo of the final round starting line / launch:
My wife Stephanie went out early in Sportsman, but went on to win the Domestic vs Import challenge, as the only import entered:
Official results from yesterday's races:
