quote:

Originally posted by B KING:
I think they stated they had 100+ for TnT on Fri.

I won the 5.80 index again!

2BKING

Congrats, these index classes are tough to win.
Great to see the track being well supported with a 100 plus cars for TnT

quote:

Originally posted by RPROGAS:
Bryan's (2BKING) first pass Friday at Barona was a 5.82 something, so he found and corrected the problem. Car actually looked and sounded like it was on a 5.6ish pass.

Bob

Bob,

It would have been a high 5.6 if I wasn't using my right foot as a top end throttle stop. Wasn't bad for a freshly scraped track, a little more bare than I care for.

Glad you won $50 off my win; I wouldn't bet on me again. The odds are starting to stack against me.

It was good visiting with you all again! Till next time.

2BKING

Thanks for the congrats guys!

I'll start this by saying, it's good to have my 5.70 bracket tune back. In case you didn't know, I raced on messed up tune last weekend. It could only muster mid 5.90s to 6.0s & the variance was ridiculous! We found the issues to be -2* timing from our base setting & a burnt header gasket on the O2 sensor side.

Anyway, I entered 2 index classes 5.80 & 6.50 & did some hot lapping. Fri. I had made 2 5.80 hits during the TnT. Sat. I made a hit for the 6.50 index. I guessed at the spot drop, don't laugh. I dropped at the 330' mph cone & coasted to the 1/8th at 6.63. That was my time run for the day.

The only reason I brought up the 6.50 index, because I was disappointed with myself. I missed my spot drop & broke out with a 6.44. I beat myself up on the 6-hour drive home today.

As for the 5.80 index. I was overall happy with my performance but need to work on the .400 pro tree set-up a little more. While no one out treed me, there's still some room for improvement.

Next 5.80 race for me will be in July at Famosa, CA.

2BKING has 2 points races coming up this next weekend. No rest for this old man.

Rubber meets the road & track tomorrow morning. I skipped the TnT today & have the 3rd & 4th points races this weekend.

I'm hoping to go a few more rounds this weekend than the 1st races. The tune is fixed so I can't use that excuse. I'm still the underdog with no delay box but that's why I'm there.

I have 6 more points races to get my head & car right for the Spring Fling Million events. I'm debating on testing/racing my hotter tune with the better fuel. My bracket tune is working well for my racing, but I think some more mph would be beneficial at the Fling races.

2BKING

As I arrived at LVMS Saturday morning they were calling my class to the lanes. I unloaded as fast as I could and made it to the lanes to be in the last pair down the track.
I was .001 in the second time run which got me the wait and see bye. I got it and my substitute 289 engine did me well and I got to the final round and was better on the tree than C.W. Hoefer but couldn't cover the dial and he got the nose past me at the stripe. Still a fun day and the car is pretty good.
Sunday I made it to rd 3 and lost a good one to Jon Irving who I think went on to win.
Good weather, good friends and fine time to be racing.

Dan,

I'm beginning to think we're the only ones that talk about our racing: good, bad or in between.

Good job on making it to the finals! That C.W. Hoefer is one tough/talented racer. He won S/Pro foot braking his stocker on Sun.!

As for me a 1st round loss on Sat. & a 2nd round loss on Sun. I need to pay more attention to C.W., he truly has a way of winning races.

I'm getting some things figured out on the Camaro, that have been long overdue. My 60' variance has been out of control, but I finally made some headway. When the car was on the dyno. The tuner told me he could see when the water/methanol was injecting. The issue was the rpm it was injecting was different each time. Well, I turned the system off on Sun. & my 60' variance tightened up greatly. Still needs some more work but I might be fighting a losing battle of tire size vs. power.

Now that the water/meth is off. I have to re-baseline my long travel switch because the car's reaction time is slower when it's on. I've been using all 7 shims in the Biondo button, I'll probably have to pull 2 or 3 shims out. That will be worth around .010-.015 slower vehicle reaction times.

Back at the points, the end of Feb.

2BKING

This message has been edited. Last edited by: B KING,

I can’t talk much about racing as we in this area have been shoveling snow or freezing to death. I did start to change my converter but now I am gone for 8-10 days. Plus 1/2 the tracks around here are being repaired.

This thread was started back in 01/2024; it has gotten a good number of views at 44,000+, but not a lot of participation.

I use it as pointing the finger back at myself & to take a look of what I did good, bad or in-between. We/us have the vast majority of control of what happens when we are bracket racing.

2BKING

I suppose I can chime in, now that I'm back in the racin seat after a loooooong layoff. Only out twice so far, but plenty good to speak of. Some bad and one downright embarrassing moment that we'll just call ugly... Learning something every run, which is up to 8 total passes now. As far as the learning goes, only thing I'm changing at the track right now is tire pressure. Car is doing a great job of making me look good. The learning so far has been mostly about me and my routine and dealing with distractions. Raced Jan 10 at CPD, which is also the day after my brothers B-day. Only real significance to that, is the help he provided me from his perch in Heaven that day. Short times are slow right now, which I expected. This being my 1st clutch car, I knew I had it set up soft to begin with, but figured that would be pretty safe to get my feet wet in this car. As expected, my reaction times were all over the place. 1st time run R/T was .257, 2nd was .377. Wasn't really worried over that though. Instead I was paying much more attention to getting pre staged/staged right and then getting RPM up on time before dropping the clutch. This is far different than the automatics I've run, where I slowly bump into the stage beam, hold transbrake button, floor it and release button on time (hopefully). Now, I have to set line lock around 300lbs, slowly let enough clutch out to roll in, clutch in again and release line lock, get engine RPM up on 1st amber, then drop clutch as close to the transition of 2nd to 3rd amber as I can. I caught myself forgetting to release the line lock until I was down track a couple times. Not a big issue with such little brake pressure, but still a mistake. 1st round of eliminations is where my brother, Mike, came through for me. Every time I visit my family at the cemetery, I ask him for help with the his old car. No different on this day, as I stopped in to visit on the way to the track, (2 miles away). I can seriously say he pulled through for me, as I actually won that round, with a .125 reaction time. I never saw my opponent and let off pretty early. Got my time slip and his R/T 8.772. Yes, 8+ seconds. In the staging lanes later, I overheard him talking to someone saying, he didn't know what happened, that he just didn't go. My explanation for that, my brother was there, helping his little brother and holding the guy back. First race and first round win since 2015 for me. 2nd round I lost to one of the tougher drivers and former track champions. Patted myself on the back due to .003 R/T, which may have been pure luck. I didn't shift on time 3rd or 4th gear and slowed myself down too much. Pretty sure I let the darkness distract me, as it was a very different look and feel than when the sun was out. All in all, very successful return to racing. 2nd post to come shortly.

I've been working on another phase of our bracket racing program, being able to go round after round with fewer maintenance requirements. Water and transmission temperatures, battery charging, fuel consumption, etc. I want to reduce/eliminate everything related to the scramble between rounds, something my son religiously worked on with the Late Model circle track car.

If nothing else it reduces the anxiety of the driver.

Bob

Last weekend was our 2nd race of the season at CPD, their annual Valentines day classic. Prior to the race, I put more base pressure in the clutch. Also finally found/fixed what I believe was the problem I've chased for a while, with one exhaust rocker losing its lash adjustment. Poly lock was dinged up at the trunion. Not any more. Some really good and some really ugly happening here. 1st pass off the trailer, I scored a .000 perfect light and knocked a tenth off my 60'. Probably plain ole dumb luck, but I'm claiming the braggin rights anyway. Also, quickest/fastest pass to date with this car for me. 2nd pass went red by a lot and went quicker again. Guess I was a little big headed after the prior run R/T, LOL. 1st round eliminations, I had a respectable'ish light at .053 to my opponents .048 but I didn't shift on time once again, slowed down and lost. Bought back in and made myself look really good (sarcasm) in the 2nd round. I had the reddest red light possible without leaving on the staged light, I believe. Time slip shows it as, -LB3-. Damifino what that means, other than, too damm early dude, LOL. Another big learning experience, as I hosed my staging routine. I set the line lock at 300lbs as usual and rolled into pre-stage. As I waited for my opponent, I got heavy on the brake, setting too much pressure and knew I'd have trouble getting staged. Other guy staged pretty quickly after pre-staging. From there my mind scattered. I let off the button, reset line lock to 300, rolled in and released the button. My mind was apparently in FFWD, because as soon as the 1st amber hit, I said it's time to go. I knew it as soon as I did it, and went on to run nearly dead on my dial. Got a really good laugh when I got my time slip. Talked to my opponent later. He said he thought he missed something, since he was supposed to leave first and realized I was past the 60' before he went green. LOL. Still had a great day, despite my mistakes. As of right now, I'm not concerned about winning rounds. Losing and buying back, while costly $$$, is ok for now, as I'm using this time to learn to drive this car with three pedals. I'm really super stoked just to be racing again. While I've always been super competitive, I've never been one to get upset over losing a round or race. I'm hoping that trend from years ago sticks with me.

As far as the car goes, I haven't unloaded it yet, too busy with work and granddaughter the past couple days. I plan on putting it in the garage later this week to go over the valve lash to hopefully set my mind at ease that the lash gremlins are gone for good. Also check what I can check on the clutch, spark plugs, valve springs and go over nuts/bolts throughout the car to make sure nothings coming loose. Going to swap the 5000 low side chip to 6000 or higher, swap the high side chip from 8000 to 8500'ish, and pray I'm getting it right. After talking with a friend who's clutch car handy, I learned these Ram Red Hats don't really start putting a lot of pressure on until 6000+ RPM. Figuring this, without any base pressure changes, I'll either blow the tires off, or hook-n-book out the hole next time out. As far as the high side chip, the folks who ran this car before us, ran it up to 9000 RPM, so I'm confident I'll be safe below that. Going by memory, they also had a 7000 chip on the low side. I know this car pulled nice wheelstands when my brother had it out. He ran it with the same setup as the prior owners. Also, in an effort to help my reaction times become better and consistent, I need to adjust the clutch pedal travel. Bottom to top, I have roughly 12-14 inches of travel. Clutch engages around 9-10 inch mark. Need to tighten that up. Going to put a long stud on the pedal/bracket and adjust it against the floor to do that. In my head, I think I know what I'm doing, but putting it into practice sometimes shows me otherwise. LOL.

Hope y'all are seeing more win lights than I am. LOL. Have a great week.