First the old camera stopped working. Barbara’s new camera would not record good quality video, my weather station stopped working and on my first time trial, the car went dead when I tried to leave the starting line. Things went downhill from there.
The car started back up and went down the track but it seemed to be moving around a lot when I got down on it. On the second pass it went to the centerline, from the left lane, and I got out of it before the 1/8 mile. On the third time trial the same thing happened at the very start and I got out of it immediately.
We took it back to the pits and Reggie, Houston and Willie Davis went under the back and found the right rear shock was shot. Reggie noticed the right coil-over spring was not in the correct position, and Houston and Willie Davis determined the shock was the problem. This was the cause of all my handling problems.
We never did figure out what caused the car to cut off on the first time trial, right at the line, but it did not happen again all day.
I was disgusted and embarrassed all day. In the Navy, we had a saying about our ships. It was, “Run it may, shine it must!”. The car looked good all day, even when it was not running its best.
I decided not to run in eliminations on Sunday.
I will get a new set of coil-over shocks for the rear, have the car scaled and be ready for the next Top Doorslammer event.
The best part of the whole day was being chosen as the “Editors Choice” for an IHRA award from the manager of DRM magazine. I will be interviewed and have a photo taken on Sunday morning before the racing program begins.