Results and News

--- Sept, 2003 Part II ---

So here's the latest from the track.

We spent last weekend up in Mission British Columbia for the season ending CMDRA races. Mission is an interesting track. It's quite old so it isn't quite as glitzy as Vegas and some others, but the surface is good and the air is very dense, which in racing terms translates to fast times. That, plus the fact that the Canadians are wonderful hosts and fun to party with makes it a great weekend.

Our only problem was at the border where, as usual, we were pulled in to customs and had to wait around while they searched our motor home and trailer. That took about 2 hours and ended up with a long lecture and a $75.00 duty payment because we had an extra couple bottles in the liquor cabinet. You'd think folks had better stuff to do with their time. The worst part was that one of our crew was about an hour ahead of us going through and he was refused entry into Canada. That made it a bit of a scramble at the track.

The racing part of the weekend was greatly improved from what we've been doing lately. We had a couple problems in qualifying with the nitro bike when the motor shook loose in the chassis during qualifying and then spit an exhaust pipe loose. But those are pretty common and quick fixes. On Sunday we lost in eliminations, but the bike ran quicker and faster than it ever has before. The only reason we lost was...ahem....pilot error. At about 300 ft down the track the bike was drifting to the right side of the track and I let off the throttle, just a teeny bit to get the front tire back on the ground, but it was enough to let Al Miles go by me for the win.

However, I can't be too disappointed. He's the Canadian champion and I had him beat cleanly til I had my little hesitation. In racing circles, you'll hear everyone talk about 60 foot times. That's the time it takes you to cover the first 50 feet or so of the race track. It's about 3-4 car lengths. To give you an idea, your average street car might take 2 or 3 seconds or more to cover that distance. A typical street bike might to it in 1.7 seconds. We've been running 1.3 all year and finally in Mission, got down to 1.2 seconds. That's been one of my goals since the beginning of the year. (Seems funny talking about spending an entire year to gain a tenth of a second.) Even more important, we did no damage to the bike. For the first time in many months we finished the race by just servicing the bike, rather than rebuilding it.

It's amazing what new products and technology can do. The new synthetic lubricants, and in our case Royal Purple Oils, are so good that we ran the bike this weekend with no oil pump at all. We just squirted 8 ounces of oil into the motor before we ran each pass, and the engine ran fine. That's something you could not do before the current quality blends of synthetics. We have also come a long way in such things as piston technology. Pistons have been a weak link in nitro motors for years and with the precision work of companies like CP Pistons who have helped us tremendously this year, we've managed to get to a place where we can run several passes without replacing pistons, which is a great time and money saver.

Although I'm disappointed we finished 4th in the Canadian points standing this year, it is still a great improvement over last year and puts us on track for next season.

Becky lost her bid to finish in the top 2 in her class in Canada as well. We chased a crack in the frame of her bike all weekend and finally managed to weld it together enough for her to run. In fact, she ran her fastest time ever on the bike, by three tenths of a second, but it was not enough and she lost in the eliminations. It was strange watching her being towed back from the finish line with a huge grin on her face even though she lost. That's what personal best records can do for you.

For now, it's a rare weekend off and getting ready for the California Fun Drags in Sacramento on October 11 and 12, followed a week later by the AHDRA finals in Las Vegas. Those are two of our favorite races and will be a great way to finish off the season.

See you at the track.

--- Sept, 2003 Part I ---

We're back after a long week getting ready for and participating in the AHDRA races in Woodburn, Oregon.

I think this will go down as the 3 a.m. weekend. On Thursday. We finally received all the last minute parts needed to finish building the engine in the nitro bike, and managed to get things put together by about 3 a.m. Friday morning. Left later that morning and headed to Woodburn. Made the trip down with Lee Uhrich and the crew from JARZ performance, who make 3-4 races a year down here in the States.

Qualifying started on a slow note. Becky's bike ran well and the rebuild job we did on the transmission seemed to be holding up fine. (another 3 a.m. marathon) But, it was a very fast field in pro gas and she was 9th. My first round was even worse, when the bike wouldn't fire on the start line. Very frustrating after having fired it 3 times in the pits. Towed it back and found that we had broken a tooth on the oil pump drive gear. Fixed it, or so we thought, and headed out for round 2 of qualifying. Again Becky struggled a bit and although she ran faster, she was still qualified 9th, which was not good enough to make it to the finals on Sunday. (They take the 8 fastest qualifiers as the finalists.) Managed to fire the big bike and although it was a pretty sloppy run I still managed an 8.7 and qualified 6th out of 13 bikes there. The sloppy part was getting way too close to the wall and having to let off on the throttle. I think I'm getting wimpy in my old age. I can remember when I wouldn't have let up. Of course that was before the big crash in Seattle last year.

The third round was a bit better, but not much. I missed the tune-up and the bike sputtered down the track but ran an 8.6. Becky improved again but was still 9th, so she was done for the weekend. It was very frustrating for her, especially after having been runner up in Canada two weeks before. Saturday night brought the next 3 a.m. day. As frequently happens on Saturday night, we were standing around the trailer trading lies and drinking beer while I did what I hoped was the final servicing on the bike, only to realize that the fixed oil pump was no longer fixed and we had run the last pass of qualifying with no oil circulating in the engine. By this time it was 11 p.m. and at the urging of my drunken fellow racers I decided to swap engines. Closed up the doors to the trailer and got busy while the party went elsewhere. Finished at....3 a.m. Had a quick moment to look at the big motor and realized that even after running it with almost no oil, it wasn't hurt too badly. Thankfully the Royal Purple oil we run did its job.

As things happen, the replacement motor was pretty tired and did not run all that well on Sunday, especially since I didn't have a chance to test it before running. The net result was getting eliminated in the first round after running another 8.7. At least I lost to the eventual champion.

Time to get busy and get ready for the season finals in Canada this weekend. Becky has a chance to take one of the top two spots and I have an outside shot at 3rd, so we'll set the tune up on the motors to "kill" and see how things run.

Finally, a special word of thanks to the folks at CP pistons, Baisley High Performance, Axtell, V-Twin and Total Seal, all of whom came through as promised on Thursday with the parts we needed to run.

T-shirt of the weekend. "Smoke a Fatty" written across the top, and instead of the expected cartoon of a guy smoking dope there's a picture of a nitro drag bike with a 14" rear tire doing a big smoky burnout. Exlposion of the weekend. The guy from California who broke a rod in his motor going down the track. The broken part ended up spinning around like a buzz saw and cut through the rest of the motor and part of the frame of the bike. Luckily no injury.

--- May, 2003 ---

We would like to thank Smith Brothers Pushrods from Bend Oregon for their support and welcome as one of our sponsors this year. Be sure to contact Smith Brothers for all your special pushrod needs.

Its time for the first race report of the season!!!

We now have the first two races of the 2003 season behind us, and although we continue to fight gremlins, we seem to have worked at least some of the problems out that have plagued us for much of the past year.

The race in Phoenix in the end of March produced a lot of broken parts on the nitro dragster. On the first qualifying pass, I did what is known as "torching" the motor. Essentially, a pinhole size leak develops between the cylinder head and the cylinder, and within a couple seconds, it enlarges to about the size of a quarter. When that happens, fire and hot aluminum come shooting out of the motor and you're pretty much done for that run. The good part is that it puts on quite a show for the crowd. The bad part is that it pretty much destroys a few parts.

We had a spare motor, which we put in that afternoon. However, we were only qualified 10th and that evening, they shortened the race to an 8 bike field, so I got to watch the finals from the sidelines.

Becky has to complete her licensing runs, which are essentially about six runs down the track, observed by officials, to be sure you are competent to ride in a race. She finished the first three of those at Phoenix and although she would have qualified 7th for the race, she could not compete because she was still "licensing".

The race at Las Vegas during early May produced slightly better, but still frustrating results. The nitro bike ran its fastest speed ever, 162 mph. But, we entered the race with some motor parts still damaged from Phoenix and by the third round of qualifying had pulled several bolts out of the cases. These are the bolts, which hold the cylinders to the cases. Although we were qualified for the finals on Sunday, we couldn't compete because of the left over damage. Everything should be fixed up and ready to rock by the next race, in Mission British Columbia in three weeks.

Becky has completed her licensing runs and should be ready for competition at the next race. We also found an ignition gremlin, which had been plaguing her bike from the beginning of the season, which should make for great improvements.

As always, there was lots of excitement at both races. The Phoenix race saw the largest field of nitro bikes ever, approximately 50, with 66 year old Ray Price winning the top fuel finals. Unfortunately Ray was injured at the Las Vegas race when he failed to get stopped in time after completing a run at 216 mph and ran off the end of the track. We understand he's doing well and will recuperate quickly from his injuries. The top fuel finals at Las Vegas were the most exciting we have seen in a long time. Our good friend Ron Houniet from British Columbia lost to Doug Vancil from New Mexico, by .006 seconds. Ron ran a 6.655 and Doug ran a 6.649, both at approximately 200 mph.

We should have everything patched up and ready to go in a couple weeks and if we can get lucky with the weather, we should have a good race in British Columbia at the end of the month.

We have a couple photos from Phoenix posted up on the web site, and should have some from Las Vegas soon.