Last weeks results plus day 1Las Vegas national event

Sorry about the delay in getting last weeks results posted . I had a lot of things to do between work and racing it's been a little crazy. I'll get you caught up with last week first. If you remember Dave won first round and we qualified number one which gave us a bye run in round two since there was a odd amount of cars.Round three we had the car that finished number four in the world last year. He beat us on reaction time but we ran a 9.06 to his 9.08 so we won by eleven thousandths of a second . Unfortunately Dave red lit by three thousandths of a second in round four and that ended his day .I also won first round and in round two left the starting line with a .003 reaction time the car decided to go left and I fought it to half track but had to lift when I almost crossed the center line. I'm not sure what happened I kept turning right but the kept going left. My best guess is I got little out of the grove, the left rear tire got in the loose stuff and with all of the weight on the rear tires it wouldn't steer so it just kept going left . What happens when you launch the car the weight shifts to the rear tires so the front end is barely on the ground and doesn't respond very well when trying to turn . Now on to this week . It's Saturday morning and we'er running only Dave's car this week . They don't run my class at all of the national events and this is one of them. We had two qualifying runs yesterday . The first one was at 9:45am and we ran to fast 9.017 . The second run was at 8pm and I slowed it down to much and ran 9.091 . At this race we only get two try's at qualifying so this morning is round one . Hopefully I can get it close . As always thanks for checking in ,wish us luck Kenny Speed

2 for 2 in Vegas

 . I'd have to say Saturday couldn't have gone much better . We each had one more qualifying pass and then first round of competition . Dave's last qualifying run produced a 9.068 just a little more than a hundredth of the index . Q3 was my quickest run at a 7.514 and we ended up in the 20th spot on the qualifying sheet out of 34 but I once again red lit , ok in qualifying but I can't do that on the next run or I'll gone . We felt pretty good about the way every thing looked going into round one and back to the trailer to got ready . Dave's class is the largest with 130 cars in so even after first round there will 65 cars left . Dave was up first and we needed to make an ajustment because the wind had picked up . It's about 2pm when we run and the dragster goes 9.050 dead nuts for the win and with the perfect ET we grab number number one spot and with an odd amount of cars in round two we get a bye run tomorrow into round three . Sweeeeet . It's a long wait for my run we're last up so it's 7 o'clock when we roll in and it's cooler than on any other run we made so we should be a little faster . We put a 7.50 on the window for our dial in and it's time to go . Our opponent is dialed at 6.92 so he has to spot me .58 seconds and neither one of us can go faster than our dial or we loose . I run 6.51 and his 6.91 is to fast so I get the win . My light wasn't great but is was a ton better than his and it wasn't red .We both get to race tomorrow . We shot some new video today so as soon as I edit it i'll post it . Well it's 12.30 and i'm beat . See ya tomorrow .Kenny Speed

Hard work pays off

Today we buckled down and got to work on getting these cars straightened out and at least for now it paid off . It was the first day of the 2nd division 7 race of the year . Dave and I both made two qualifying runs . Dave went first at about 930AM and after spending a few hours looking at data all the back to last year I came up with a setup I felt would get us close to the 9.05 index . After running 9.20 and 9.21 yesterday we needed a good run to get everybody in a better mood. The changes I made paid off with 9.07 only 2 hundredths off the index . Now it was time to see if the changes I made to the chassis on my car worked . My first pass came at about 1230PM and car went straight down the middle of the track to 7.541 so two for two so far . I did red-light by a mere 8 thousands , but in qualifying that doesn't matter . I just needed a little more delay in the box to fix that . They changed the order for Q2 so I ran before Dave . Once again she went down the middle with a little bit faster 7.528 and .002 reaction time , I'm stoked . Back to the trailer to get Dave ready . Dave's run dragster runs a very close 9.039 only .011 of the index so both cars are right where we want to be . So a few prayers and a little elbow grease and some good results . Now if we can do the same tomorrow we might have a good weekend . I'm done for the night . Check in tomorrow and find out how day two goes .

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t. Kenny Speed

Vegas test session Not so good

GOODMORNING , It's race day , time for some fun and time to get these cars dialed in . Yesterday was not the best test session we've eve had by far . We weren't even close on Dave's car . The index for Super Comp is 9.05 in Vegas instead of the customary 8.90 . The reason for the change in index is because of the elevation of the track . Vegas is 2100ft above sea level . The higher the altitude the less oxygen in the air . Less oxygen less horse power so they slow the index down to compensate for having less HP . The theory being when you go to different tracks with different elevations the car should be close to the corrected index . I hope I explained that so you can understand it . Now on to my car which for some reason didn't want to go straight down the track on either run . It was like driving on a slip and slide . After doing that twice I decided to make some changes to the chassis setup so we'll have to wait untill tomorrow to see what happens . Bottom line pretty much a waste off time . We'll try again tomorrow . I'll let you know how it goes . Thanks for checking in .

Kenny Speed The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual.Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. -Ayn Rand

Next up Vegas

Ok I have know idea what's going on with my blog but this is the third time I'm writing this . Even though I saved it , it disappeared . It's been a long three weeks since I updated the blog ,sorry about that, but life gets in the way . The auto repair and tire shop has been slammed and short handed . The Tattoo shops are kicking ass ,thanks to Bobby and our new Chandler manager Big Mike . And I had my 17th wedding anniversary with my best friend and the person that although sometimes it's probably not the best idea , let's me be me. Not to mention dealing with me busting myself up all the time . So I'm in Vegas, got in Wednesday afternoon so we could do some testing Thursday with both Dave's and my car . Randy , Randy Jr , Pacman and myself spent the last three weekends working on the car and trailer getting ready for Vegas . I have to mention without Randy I couldn't even go racing . He works is ass off making sure the car is ready and runs the shop when I'm gone . We're running both cars this weekend and only Dave's next weekend , NHRA for some reason is not running my class at either race in Vegas this year .Bryan's car is still waiting on engine repairs . Hopefully we will have all three ready for Sonoma . The more cars the more data ,especially for Bryan and myself since we run the same class . I'm going to try and update the blog every night we're racing for the next to weeks. Got to go for now , time to racing. Thanks for checking us out . Kenny Speed

I guess we'll have to get them in Vegas

My 1973 Vega from 1986 It ran mid 9's at 140Mph

Today is the last day of our four races in three weeks start to the season . I guess I should start by telling you how today went , Not so good is the answer . The weather was a tad better today so I dialed 7.410 and since I was so close to going red yesterday I added .005 to my delay box ("Delay Box" is a common slang term used in drag racing to describe an on-board timer which is a Transmission Brake Delay Timer. A transbrake forces the race car to remain stationary at the starting line, in gear, regardless of how much engine power is applied. When the yellow bulb on the tree comes on you let go of the button that operates the transbrake to start the race.The delay box then keeps the transbrake engaged and won't let the car move until the green light comes on .The box is adjustable to thousands of a second . If your wandering why the detailed explanation of the delay box it's because the .005 I put in box was not quite enough . I needed double that because that's how much I went red by .Had I put .010 in it would have been a perfect light . Instead it was red ( and that sucks ) . You know that's what makes drag racing so hard . In other forms of racing if you mess up there's another lap or hundred to make up for it . Drag racing it's mano a mano  you lose you go home . You win you move on . Most races take 5 to 7 rounds to win depending how many car are in your class , I thinks that's it for tonight  I'm going to take a few days off from the blog so I can get caught up with my real jobs . I think the next blog I'll grade us on how we did so far and what we're going to change to make us better in Vegas ,which by the way is going to be our next race the last two weeks of MARCH .We may do some testing before that if things work out right . Again don't forget to check out the ads that run along side the blog . It's free to click on them so check them out . Also don;t be afraid to join the blog it's also free  . I leave you with picture of my first real race car from 1986 It's my 1973 Vega Super Gas car  Thanks Kenny Speed                                                                                                                     The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. - Ayn Rand

Firebird day 2 & 3 with video of the Mustang

It"s Saturday night so I'm a day behind . I'm going to try and catch up in tonight's  blog . Friday is first round of eliminations for race one this weekend and after a good day qualifying Thursday , Friday didn't go so well . Dave  had his first round in the morning and left the starting line a little early and got the big red light by 8 thousands of  second . But that's the kind of racing we do . Most of the time it's hundreds or thousands of a second that decide if you win or put it in the trailer . My first round came at about noon and having run 7.44 twice in qualifying the day before in vary similar weather conditions I felt we couldn't go faster than 7.43 so that's what I dialed in at ( "Dial-In

Car "A" has been timed at 17.78, 17.74 and 17.76 seconds for the quarter-mile, and the driver feels that a "dial-in" (or guessed time during a race) of 17.75 is appropriate. Meanwhile, the driver of car "B" has recorded elapsed times of 15.27, 15.22 and 15.26 on the same track and he has opted for a "dial-in" of 15.25. Accordingly, car "A" will get a 2.5 second headstart over car "B" when the "Christmas Tree" counts down to each car's starting green lights. ) So  I leave the starting line with a .015 reaction time to my opponents .035 light which gives me a .20 advantage ,( huge in the racing we do ) get to the top end , don't see the other car so I lean on the brakes to keep from  going under my 7.43 dial in . I think I won , then I get the bad news . I ran 7.403 and my dial in  was  7.430  so that's .027 under my  dail  in so I lose because I broke out (When a  driver go quicker than his/her predetermined "dial-in" it is a "break-out"  In the case of both vehicles making their runs under their dial-ins, the win goes to the driver who breaks out the least.) So not such a good start to my come but that's racing . Sometimes you do  everything right and still lose . That's why they call it Drag Racing  . Sometimes it's racing and sometimes its a Drag . Now we're done with race one and it's Saturday and on with race two . We both get two qualifying today and eliminations start Sunday morning . Now Dave's dragster has still been all over the place in 60 feet and yesterday before Q2 we added 30 pounds to the weight box in the front of the car in an effort to keep the front from popping up on a good tracks because you want the car to move forward not upward . Upward is wasted motion and if it goes up on one run and drives straight out on the next it will change the 60ft times . We also installed a MSD 2 step to control the starting line rpm . The problem here is we only get a few runs to figure it out . It's 10am as we head up for Q1 and we take our best guess .  Not so good 8.979  we're way to slow . We only  have one more pass to get this thing figured out .  We head back to prep my car for Q1 . IT's just past noon everything is ready so we head on up . We should run pretty close to yesterdays time the weather is unchanged the the track conditions are still good . I do my burn out back up and stage the car , Sweet .004 on the reaction timer and a 7.438 on the score board not bad for an old guy . Now time to get work on Dave's only as usual NHRA has screwed us again and instead of Q for Dave's car it's round one , not good . We have a run in our log book from yesterday that the weather is pretty much the same as it is now and we ran 8.899 so we're going to use that setting and hope we're close . Well that went like crap 8.989 way to slow and a not so great .065 light and we're fist round runner up two days in a row. That sucks .With the new setup in the car we're going need a few laps  to figure this thing out . Not getting that second run today really messed us up . I decided to skip Q2 since I don't think we can learn anything . It's hotter out and we're going to slow down so sense in beating on my car . So I'm out guys . Thanks again Kenny Speed