The newest drag racer gears up!

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

I'll be in the trailer tonight making some tweaks, hope to get out this weekend - somewhere.... Ben loves the new engine, it's all bottom end compared to the Blockzilla! We did it for the mph, that's the part that is frustrating me right now - but we'll get it figured out, just in time to reinstall Amanda's HP engine and get that one re-figured out! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/eek.gif[/img]

Fishing sure is relaxing!

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

So, we were able to break away last Saturday and hit Numidia. The cold temps, 35mph headwind, and crazy sticky starting line (I walked out of one of my shoes!) wreaked havoc on us as we tried to figure out the new combo. Ben had decent lights, but the cars were running slow - folks were dumping weight, but I chose not to in order to help offset the occasional cross wind. Ben went out first round with a goof at the stripe - don't know how he always gets paired up against the track champ 7.90 cars in the first round.... Oh well, they have a buy back round, and he won that - but went out in round 2 by misjudging the stripe as he was trying to hold the steering wheel at a 45 degree angle to offset the wind.

A bummer day of racing, but still a good time - it's a great track, we love going there. Staging lanes for round 2, Jr car count was pretty good for a holiday weekend at 26-30'ish:



I bought Ben's car by myself on a Friday night back in 2010, and he never met the previous owner. Well, the previous owners were at the track on Saturday - you can see why he got out of the car early, he is quite tall! My Benjamin is very tall for his age, and DJ towers over him! DJ now races the blue Nova in the background. Just a little transition picture:

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

This past Saturday was the next points day at MGR, but we could not attend due to my nephew getting married - all 3 kiddies were in the wedding over in NJ. Just as well since they only got one time shot after which they sat for 2 hours - and then they called the race, apparently for:

&quot;&quot;Sunoco Race Fuels Money Trail 8 was stopped in middle of the first time trials due to track conditions.

Because of the heavy rain that hit the area the night before, the track will have to be scraped in its entirety, an operation that will take several hours.&quot;&quot;

That's a first for me!

So, after planning through some complicated logistics involving multiple vehicles (one of which was the 'race car rig'), Ben and I were able to grab a hotel farther east in NJ after the reception so we could race at Englishtown on Sunday. We need to get some runs on this new engine combination and sort out some strange stuff. Long story short, we hustled to get there for the 8am gate opening, then sat till 10am, then hustled to get 3 time shots in - learned a couple of things, added 10 #'s, and dialed an 8.90 - for the rest of the day!

Long story short, Ben went 5 rounds to get to the final - but we simply got beat in a good ole drag race and Ben runner'd up! Our best showing yet, and it was a real confidence builder for Benjamin. Some pic's:

We were so busy, (E-Town has a separate 1/8th mile track for the Jr's, so they run almost continuously!), I didn't take a pic of him in the lanes till the 4th round. They run age groups at this track, but group B was pretty big - hence the # of rounds he had to go.



No 'luck rounds' (bye's or red light wins) for us yesterday, Ben drove to each round win.



The Jr Program at Englishtown is pretty good, and they certainly treat their winners and runner up placers well. Benjamin got a plaque for winning first round, a nice tropy, a handful of decals, and a $25 debit card from Wells Fargo! He was pumped, helped him get over the runner up finish (a little!).



This is now his new favorite track!


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Benjamin went a few rounds yesterday to grab his first win. We were at one of our favorite tracks, Quarter Aces Drag-o-Way in Boiling Springs, PA for a nice day of racing - just the guys for Father's Day.



This track has a small creek running through it (literally, there are 2 bridges on the way to the starting line), and tradition is that you get creek water dumped on your head after your first win here. Little bro Danny couldn't figure out what was going on!!



All the guys:



Our mascot:

[Xplantdad]

That's great Marlin...some great memories already [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

It was a good day! New engine is still giving me fits, but.... still a big: [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[Xplantdad]

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]

[chevy427450]

Very nice Marlin. Getting that far is always a treat and congrats to Benjamin. (Dad also).

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

From Victory Lane to despair [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/mad.gif[/img] Friday night TnT, then 2 days at Cecil County was a thrashing bust.

The 12.90 car just won't slow down, till I throttle stopped it too much and it died mid track Friday night - had to run down the track with the golf cart to get him. Then on the 3rd run at Cecil County on Saturday, he took the turn too fast and ran the left front wheel up the wall taking out the left front tire etc... and cracked the nose. We parked it.

The 8.90 car just won't speed up. Another gear change Friday night helped ET but not mph. Went out 2nd round at Cecil on Saturday, then the car wouldn't stage on a time trial for the dial 330 race - turns out some bolts backed out of the axle mounting plate and eventually tore up / locked up the rear. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/eek.gif[/img]

Ben was bummed, and wanted to race on Sunday. So, we decided to forfeit the Saturday night baseball game tickets I had for us, and we thrashed on the cars instead. Put his backup engine into Amanda's car, moved the pedals so he could fit into it, re-routed the oil overflow/breather system, swapped front wheels, and it fired up! So, we hit the hotel to get cleaned up and then a late run to Burger King.

First time shot on Sunday was disaster, oil pushing out everywhere and it flat dies at the stripe after vibrating. I knew it wouldn't like the 7.33 gear, but didn't expect 9100 rpm at the stripe! So, I figured out that it was jetted waaaay too fat, and the humidity was high, so the excess fuel along with the moisture was filling the block up. We dumped 8+ oz of oil/fuel from the overflow, and 18+ oz from the block, jetted down and barely made it back up for first round with a 'guess' dial. After all that, we lost first round - but car picks up a tenth, no oil leaking anywhere. We buy into the consolation race, and Ben wins first round on a double breakout. But, we go out in round 2. So it ends.

Today we scramble for replacement parts, put Amanda's car back into the 12.90 configuration, and give it another go next weekend! They can't all end with a trophy [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/frown.gif[/img]

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

New billet rear axle assy with splined wheel hubs, its only $$ [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/eek.gif[/img] As I removed the damaged parts last weekend I noticed that the old assy (which is keyed) was rolling the square key over a little and probably wouldn't last another year. So, we upgraded to this:



Another bunch of clutch changes and we'll be back for more testing.... One of these days I'll be able to just relax in this chaos!