by spencerforhire » Sun Oct 20, 2013 8:25 am
Back to Mirimachi NB for the final race of both the ADRA and Pro Tree series on the weekend of September 28/29. Weather is cool traction is pretty good and the log book shows some best to date this season numbers even with the 9.90 tuneup. Ended up qualifying 11/15 for the Pro Tree with a less than ideal 10.018 pass; with a much quicker but throttle stopped car in the other lane I backed off at the stripe because I couldn't see him. Should have learned that by know; he blew by my at 150+ about 10 ft from the finish. Really wanted to qualify well; another #1 Q point bonus would have added some more cushion to my slim points lead in this series. Didn't get a good light in the first round; I'm already losing but it didn't matter; at about 1000ft the car backfired and shut off. I'm freaking because all I can think about is last year's broken timing chain episode. Got towed back to the pits(always embarrassing) and pull the valve covers but can't see anything bent or broken. Crossing my fingers I look under the distributor cap and find I can spin the rotor button and shaft around in circles. All that happened was the roll pin holding the drive gear had sheared off. 5 minute fix( I had another roll pin in a spare dizzy) and we're back in business. So I change to spectator for the rest of the day; I watch the next round carefully as my points lead has dwindled to 6 as the 2nd place guy has a 1st round win. When he loses in round two I can finally breathe; no one else is close enough to get past me; I win the Super Rod 9.90 Pro Tree series! My low budget, flat black, ugly duckling Vega has managed to beat some really nice(really expensive!) cars driven by experienced, winning drivers. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!
Sunday morning comes with heavy frost and awesome air; pitching the 9.90 tuneup and going back to full power nets me an awesome pass- 9.76@137+ with 6.202@113.20 in the 1/8th. best to date this year 60ft of 1.395 and even a RT of .512. I qualify ok at 28/77(big field for around here) but get "burned down" at the starting line in round one by an inexperienced racer. He took forever to stage and after 8 or 10 seconds of sitting there my trans brake "hiccuped"- The car lurched forward about 2 ft before the starter even pushed the button. Best I can figure, the solenoid overheated and disengaged momentarily.
So I slip a few places in the ADRA points back to 15th and the season is over; almost- we still have "Team Race" for bragging rights with each of the 4 tracks sending their 8 top points finishers to an end of the year invitational grudge race. Lots of good natured trash talk in the week in between, and it's close to home this year, only 1.5 hrs away in Greenfield.
A few good pics surface after I get back from Mirimachi, including a "photo op" I set up in the qualifying round Sunday morning- two Vegas- mine and Jody's(fellow board member buckracer24) one black and one white with identical dial ins.
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The "fleet"-
72 Vega HB Drag Car -383/'Glide/9"(9.35@146.19)(5.94@117.28 1/8th)
77 Vega Estate wagon- project(someday)will have TPI305/T-5, S-10 spindles/axles
76 Vega GT- 400/4spd/9" retired from active duty(rusty)
06 Silverado 2WD ex.cab daily
03 Silverado 2WD ex.cab (retired)
06 Haulin' 20ft enclosed car transporter
06 GMC Canyon Shop truck
07 Colorado project( 5.3 4L60e swap)
99 Saturn SL1- wife's car
01 Saturn SC2- son's project
07 Saturn Ion Redline project
and 4 more Saturn "parts cars"
Note- the very act of listing all of these has made me realize I have some kind of problem.....
Visit http://www.spencerforhire.ca