cyclone
06-27-2005, 08:54 AM
Well racing in real classes sure was a lot more fun that doing the river racer thing. The competition sure was intense. Definately more expensive, but more fun as well. I wrenched on the boat until 12am to get the data system and launch controller in place at Tom Papp's shop friday night. Left for Bako at 1am and made it to the motel 6 at about 4am with Randy and Jessa. We were too tired to drop the boat off at the track and although the motel parking lot was crawlin with lot lizards and unsavory types, we put the truck and trailer in view of our room and crashed out for 3 hours.
Saturday morning we got to the track in time to set up pit with the rest of the TPR guys and got the boat through tech inspection. There weren't alot of boats present so the call for all the blown gas jet boats to the inramp came quick. As I suited up I noticed that my helmet was missing the helmet restraint d-rings so I instantly panicked and went looking to borrow another helmet. CS19 was kind enough to find me a helmet that fit but I missed the call for BGJ anyways. That sucked because it was like watching money fly out of my wallet. 1 -pass gone.
Randy and I prepped the boat again and warmed the motor in time for my bracket pass. When we got to the launch ramp I was told I could hurry up after this pass and make up my missed 1st pass afterwards. As i sat on the rope I was pretty comfortable even though during my only 3 times with the boat on the water at the river, I'd never made a full pass with my foot on the floor. The lights went out and I armed the launch controller and put my foot to the floor. The controller held the motor at 5-grand for a fraction of a second and the zinged it up to 7,200 rpm and the boat did a burnout and went nowhere. When it did finally hook up I went down the track sliding sideways and steering left. The result: 9.56/113 mph with a .90 rt. clearly we had some work to do. My conservative hardware setup had the boat bowsteering something fierce and the launch control program was way too short to keep the pump from cavitating out of the hole.
Knowing that we had just a few minutes in the pits before I had to race back up the ramp to make up my BGJ pass, we skipped the warm up the motor excersize and attended to the hardware. Tom Papp brought the ride plate up a degree and since there wasn't time to adjust the launch control program I decided not to use it on the next pass.
My next pass wasn't much better because I had to instantly get used to gently rolling the boat over on plane instead of flat-footing the throttle, to keep from cavitating the pump. It doesn't take much to cavitate my pump even with the AA impeller in it. I launched the boat at 6,000 rpm, which again was too high, so the boat did a burnout again and I ran 9.70/114.6 mph with a .78 rt.
Now I was getting frustrated. I knew I needed to drive the boat better out of the hole.
I lined up for my second qualifying pass in BGJ and this time pedal'd it out of the hole at 5,000 rpm and ran a 9.40 et/115.3 mph with a .65 rt. At this point the boat was still running really flat and not driving straight down the track so we took the ride plate up a bit more.
My second qualifying pass in the bracket went great. I launched the boat at 5,500 rpm and this time the boat drove straight and effortlessly. I ran a 9.28 at 116 mph.12 with a mediocre .59 rt. the hardware changes worked helped a bunch.
Normally when i go to ming my sundays are fun but there's no pressure because I'm not really racing anyone in the river racer class. Since I was running BGJ and 9.00-9.49 et bracket classes I had to get my game on so that I didn't lose in the first round and get put on the trailer. I was more comfortable in the boat now so we threw a few more degrees of timing in the motor, which it really liked. I drew a blown daytona 1st round in BGJ and were it not for red-lighting.....I ran a 9.25 et/ at 116.56 mph with a -.70 rt. I left real early. So my stint in BGJ was over after the 1st round.
I really didn't want to go home early and wanted to get my money's worth so when my bracket came up I made sure wasn't going to red light. Thank god the flatty I trailered did the same thing because he was even slower off the mark then I was. I won my first round with a 9.13 et/ 117.70 mph with a .81 rt.
Winning a round was the greatest. I was so stoked and when I heard that CS19 beat Joe Lakamp and I was facing him in the next round I was even more stoked. We paired up and left the rope at the same time but my boat once again did a burnout at the lights and I had to play catch up. I ran a 9.22 et/116.97 mph and lost the race with an awful 1.053 reaction time. Chris definately outdrove me. congrats man! Wouldnt been even cooler to see you take out Roznos in the final.
Well that was my weekend. I had a blast and can't wait to go back. Now its back to the river!
thanks to randy J., Jessa B., Jeff Becker, Randy B., Tom P, and everyone else that came by and said hello or helped out.
Saturday morning we got to the track in time to set up pit with the rest of the TPR guys and got the boat through tech inspection. There weren't alot of boats present so the call for all the blown gas jet boats to the inramp came quick. As I suited up I noticed that my helmet was missing the helmet restraint d-rings so I instantly panicked and went looking to borrow another helmet. CS19 was kind enough to find me a helmet that fit but I missed the call for BGJ anyways. That sucked because it was like watching money fly out of my wallet. 1 -pass gone.
Randy and I prepped the boat again and warmed the motor in time for my bracket pass. When we got to the launch ramp I was told I could hurry up after this pass and make up my missed 1st pass afterwards. As i sat on the rope I was pretty comfortable even though during my only 3 times with the boat on the water at the river, I'd never made a full pass with my foot on the floor. The lights went out and I armed the launch controller and put my foot to the floor. The controller held the motor at 5-grand for a fraction of a second and the zinged it up to 7,200 rpm and the boat did a burnout and went nowhere. When it did finally hook up I went down the track sliding sideways and steering left. The result: 9.56/113 mph with a .90 rt. clearly we had some work to do. My conservative hardware setup had the boat bowsteering something fierce and the launch control program was way too short to keep the pump from cavitating out of the hole.
Knowing that we had just a few minutes in the pits before I had to race back up the ramp to make up my BGJ pass, we skipped the warm up the motor excersize and attended to the hardware. Tom Papp brought the ride plate up a degree and since there wasn't time to adjust the launch control program I decided not to use it on the next pass.
My next pass wasn't much better because I had to instantly get used to gently rolling the boat over on plane instead of flat-footing the throttle, to keep from cavitating the pump. It doesn't take much to cavitate my pump even with the AA impeller in it. I launched the boat at 6,000 rpm, which again was too high, so the boat did a burnout again and I ran 9.70/114.6 mph with a .78 rt.
Now I was getting frustrated. I knew I needed to drive the boat better out of the hole.
I lined up for my second qualifying pass in BGJ and this time pedal'd it out of the hole at 5,000 rpm and ran a 9.40 et/115.3 mph with a .65 rt. At this point the boat was still running really flat and not driving straight down the track so we took the ride plate up a bit more.
My second qualifying pass in the bracket went great. I launched the boat at 5,500 rpm and this time the boat drove straight and effortlessly. I ran a 9.28 at 116 mph.12 with a mediocre .59 rt. the hardware changes worked helped a bunch.
Normally when i go to ming my sundays are fun but there's no pressure because I'm not really racing anyone in the river racer class. Since I was running BGJ and 9.00-9.49 et bracket classes I had to get my game on so that I didn't lose in the first round and get put on the trailer. I was more comfortable in the boat now so we threw a few more degrees of timing in the motor, which it really liked. I drew a blown daytona 1st round in BGJ and were it not for red-lighting.....I ran a 9.25 et/ at 116.56 mph with a -.70 rt. I left real early. So my stint in BGJ was over after the 1st round.
I really didn't want to go home early and wanted to get my money's worth so when my bracket came up I made sure wasn't going to red light. Thank god the flatty I trailered did the same thing because he was even slower off the mark then I was. I won my first round with a 9.13 et/ 117.70 mph with a .81 rt.
Winning a round was the greatest. I was so stoked and when I heard that CS19 beat Joe Lakamp and I was facing him in the next round I was even more stoked. We paired up and left the rope at the same time but my boat once again did a burnout at the lights and I had to play catch up. I ran a 9.22 et/116.97 mph and lost the race with an awful 1.053 reaction time. Chris definately outdrove me. congrats man! Wouldnt been even cooler to see you take out Roznos in the final.
Well that was my weekend. I had a blast and can't wait to go back. Now its back to the river!
thanks to randy J., Jessa B., Jeff Becker, Randy B., Tom P, and everyone else that came by and said hello or helped out.