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 

A good day at the track

Now That's A Burnout  

Well today made up for yesterdays debacle . I'm worn out so tonight's blog won't be long . We made two qualifying  runs with both cars today . First Dave's car , pass number one goes 8.954 a little to slow after another poor 60ft time . Q2 8.899 almost perfect and the 60ft time back to where it should be . zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz  Told ya I was tired , fell asleep while writing . We did come up with a idea of whats going on and maybe how to fix . We added 25lbs to the weight box in the front of his car . I'll let you know tomorrow if that helps and why it helped . Next , my car Q1 a little after noon ,right lane , 025 reaction time ( pretty darn good ) after a year long layoff  . Car goes right down Broadway 7.445  at 185.24 mph . Q2  goes off about 4:30 about an hour behind schedule  . I decided to try the left lane to see if I could see the tree over the hood scoop . Good news I can see just fine . What did I see ? I saw I got drilled on the tree (loss of concentration ) but we did run 7.446 again so that's real good . Two pair after my run we had a crash ( drivers ok ) but the crash along with the fact that they are already running late  cancelled Q3 for the both of us. Eliminations start at 8am with Dave's car going up at about 8:45 and my first round at about 11am . I'm done Good night all . Once again thanks for the great photos from my buddy Dee Myers . Kenny Speed

Sweet Lanuch

I guess that's why they call it test day

It was a test day alright . Mostly of what was my patience . Originally I wasn't going to test today but I'm sure glade I did. Not much went right with my car today To start with we lost the bolts for the wheelie bars and spent thirty minutes looking before we found them . Then it was time to half way tear the car apart so we could get though tech inspection , and he barely looked at it .It's one of those you don't tear it apart before go to tech,and they make you do it when you get there and that's a pain in the ass . Or there's what we did . When we get back to the pits from tech Dave's  car ready so we make a run and we're way to fast 8.82  on a 8.90 index . I'll let Jason take responsibility for that since he made the call on the Throttle Stop . The good new is as long as the car goes  A  to B with no problems  it"s never a waste because we have that information to use . Mean while on my car the front end doesn't want to fit properly since the doors were worked on so we have to fix that and then we have to all the new safety equipment to adjusted so it fits me once I'm in the car. After taking the seat in and out several times and me crawling in and out several times we got everything to fit . It's now almost 3pm . We head up to the lanes and with not much of wait its our turn . I fire it up and head to the water box to do my burn out . Every thing goes good untill I stage the car and bring up the rpms . For some reason the starter decides to make me wait for another car to run they other lane against me . Only problem , he's standing where I can't see him so he can't  get my attention  .  I've got my car staged gas pedal on the floor and he's not starting the tree . About the time  I let off the gas he starts the tree . So I hammer the throttle and run it on down at 7.60ET 185mph . I run a way off pace 1.36  60ft  time ( should be 1.12 or better ) so basically a wasted run . Now for the so good news , we still don't have brakes that work properly . Thank God for the parachute cause I wasn't stopping without it. In fact I ran off the end of the track on that run so back to the pitts to fix them .As we arrive back to our pit  we here they're closing the lanes in 10 minutes so we're going to take Dave's car  up . I take a look at the numbers and set the stop and Dave heads up and  runs 8.874 so at least were getting close and we get a couple of runs tomorrow to get it on the number . We'll be here early tomorrow and try to find some brakes so my car will stop . Thanks for checking in Kenny Speed 

Time to go racing

Well , It's my turn . Wednesday is open test day before this weeks NHRA  Division 7 and Regional race at Firebird Int Raceway . The Division 7 race is Thur-Fri and the Regional Sat-Sun . Dave will be racing Super Comp and I'll be in Top Sportsman . Bryan was unable to repair his motor in time . If you want to see some good racing at a reasonable price this weekend is a great time to come out and watch . You can find information at    http://www.firebirdraceway.com/     . So hopefully this is where the blog comes in handy . Everyone always wants to know when and where I'm racing so they can come and watch . Here's your chance . Tickets are $30 a day  Gates open at 8am all four days.                      See Ya At The Races      Kenny Speed

Good morning to all . Last night I spent some time on the computer looking at video and talking to Darryl from Darryl Smith Race Cars and Dee Myers called  Don from Don Ness Race Cars so we could get some ideas of what is causing the inconsistent  60ft times in Dave's dragster . We all came up with a possible cause and solution . I won't bore with all the details but basically we're  going to drop the air pressure in the rear slicks another 1/2 pound and see what happens . So I head to the track with first round of competition  looming and not sure where we're at with the race car . We warm  the car up and do our usual pre-race routine . About 10Am  we get the call first round  Super Comp to the lanes . I decide to sit back and wait so we can run near the end of the pack . What I'm waiting for is to try and allow the air temp and humidity to get close to where it was yesterday when we ran . The only problem with that is I wasn't the only one with that idea . All the heavy hitters from K&N and Lucas oil products were also waiting . To give you some back round , since last year at Vegas we have taken out three K & N cars and two Lucas Cars . Who do we draw first round ? Last years division seven ( our division by the way ) champ in one of the K & N cars . They line up and Dave goes .000 on the reaction time ( perfect light ) and with a big head start is able to hit the brakes to keep from breaking out . (Should a driver go quicker than his/her predetermined "dial-in" it is a "break-out ) He takes a 021close win light by .0022 or about 8 inches , almost to much brake pedal . A look at the ET slip 1.202 in 60 ft so that's new before it was either 1.18  or 1.24 . changing the air pressure changed the 60 ft times now lets see it stays consistent . Now it's hurry up and wait cause we don't run until the end of the day , Or not as Jason and I get back to the trailer I notice the front tires on the dragster are turned in different directions , I guess just as Dave was slowing down from making the run the front steering  inner tie rod ripped out  the steering rack  . Thank God it didn't happen going down the track it could have been nasty . Now we have a real problem . We have maybe three hours to find parts and get this thing fixed  . First thing is to get the front wing and body panels off the car so we can get to the broken part . It's only been about thirty minuets and we have broken parts in hand and head up to manufactures midway hoping someone has what we need  ,but no such luck . Next stop Tom Yancer Race Cars  in Chandler  . Dave and I jump in his car and run over to Tom's shop . Lucky thing Tom is working on his car getting  it ready for next weekend so he's there . Tom doesn't have a new rack but has a used one . Only problem is our tie rods  won't work on his rack so Tom was nice enough to take time away from his car to fabricate some new ones for us .It's now about two thirty when we arrive back at the track . It takes us about forty five minutes to get the parts back on the car and reset the wheel alignment . Just in time for the call for second round . First round is random pairing , so basically everyone pulls into the lanes and you run who ever is along side of you . All rounds after that are done on a ladder where you have pre-determined opponents . Whats the chances, we are lined up with one of the Lucas cars . They line them up and once again Dave has the starting line advantage with a very nice .015 lite and wins on the brakes again .60 foot time slowed a bit to 1.21 so maybe we still have a bit of a problem but we got the win. Now only 20 minutes and we're heading back up for round three and unfortunately Dave leaves a little early and sees the the big red light ad  to add insult to injury 60 foot time 1.23 so we stall have that problem to deal with before next weekend .The picture is of my car . It's late and I'm done Good night everyone  . Don't forget click on the ads along side or under the blogs . Thanks Kenny Speed

Arizona Nationals

left to right  Dave  Jason  Kenny  

It's Friday morning at Firebird International Raceway  time for Q1 ( first round of qualifying ). Now the good news is we do have some data from just a few weeks ago when we tested here . That will make a lot easier to get close on the first qualifying pass unlike Pomona where we started from scratch . Jason and I look at the current weather conditions , compare it to our practice runs ,do a little calculating and head up for Q1. First pass of the, weekend not bad 8.872 . Remember we're looking to run 8.90 so we're only 3 hundredths to fast . We get one more qualifying run this afternoon ,then it's first round Saturday morning . I was lucky enough a few years ago to get introduced to Don Schumacher a few years ago and even played golf with him in Denver .For those of you who may not know the name ,Don is the owner of three top fuel dragsters and four funny cars . Now the good thing about that is they have a hospitality area were they feed all of the guest from the companies that sponsor them . I can text Don and he will give me hospitality area passes . So free lunch for Dave , Jason and I in the fuel pits . Nice . A pork chop ,rice and beans , salad and a brownie for lunch hits the spot . Time to get back and set the car up for Q2 . Now the temperature has gone up so we need to take some time out of the timer so we can make up for warmer temperature which slows the car down  . We head up for Q2 . Dave makes his run and the car slowed way down 8.972. A quick look at the Et slip  ( A paper slip thar gives you reaction time, 60', 330', 660', 1,000', 1,320' elapsed time, 1/8 mile and 1/4 mile  m.p.h. Your time slip also gives you the same information about your competitor as well as records which racer was the winner during eliminations ) and I see the 60ft time for the car fell way off thus the reason for the off pace 8.972 . This is a problem that happened at Pomona a few times , and now here .  We need to figure it out before tomorrow . We have some video that I've been taking of the tires since we started having this problem so I'm heading home to look it over and see what I can come up with . Here's a picture my good friend and photographer Dee Myers took of Dave , Jason  and  I . Don't forget to click on and check out some of the ads on the side of the blogs it helps pay the bills . Thanks for following    Kenny Speed

Arizona Nationals Update

Just figured I would take a minute to hit everyone up with a schedule for this weekend . I'll start with super comp the class Dave is running again this weekend . Friday Q1 should be about 10am and Q2 about 12:15 pm . First round will be Saturday about 10am and second round maybe about 4:15 pm . Just in case anyone wants to came by and say hi we are all the way at the back of the pits . You go under the Goodyear bridge and go around to the left and you can't miss us . Now for the Pro schedule Friday they have two sessions 1:30 and 4pm . Saturday there sessions are 11:30am and 2pm .Sunday eliminations start at 11am and Pre Race Ceremonies at 10am . If you haven't seen Top Fuel or Funny Car there is nothing like the raw power these machines produce . It's the fastest show on earth . See you at the races .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

Pre-Race CeremoniesPre-Race Ceremonies

Pre-Race Ceremonies

SUPER STREET TT-2 11:00 AM TOP FUE

NHRA"S qualifying sheet shows Dave in the number one spot   

Good morning from rain soaked Pomona . It's early monday Morning and the wet weather continues . NHRA has us scheduled to run 4th class out at 10am. Looks highly unlikely to me but we'll have to wait and see. It's 10am ,they just called us up for round two and as soon as they run the first pair of stock it starts to rain . Back to the trailer we go . Fast forward to 2pm and the call goes out for super comp to the lanes . The weather is looking pretty good , maybe we can get this done . This is second round so from here on out lane choice is decided by the flip of a coin. . Lane choice is said to be unimportant unless , you don't have it. As crew chief I almost always have a lane I prefer . This weekend it's the right lane . There are different reasons to like one lane over the other . The main reason is how consistent the car has been off the starting line during the runs you made so far . At this particular race we had a problem with tire spin in the left lane just a few feet after launch on one of our qualifying passes. Now on NHRA's behalf I'll say at national events , track condition is not usually a problem except when the weather has been  either to hot , to cold , or to wet . This weekend we had the cold and the wet thing going so track conditions were constantly changing and were definitely not optimal . You may also pick one lane over the other if your driver can see better in one of the lanes . Where that comes into play would be at the top end when your looking for the other car so you can lift off the throttle before the finish line , if you have him covered. Now I know your saying to yourself why would you lift during a race . Here's the reason and I'll try my best to explain it. Since the lanes are timed with there own timers it's possible to run 8.90 seconds a lose . Since the timers don't start till the car moves both cars could run 8.90 and the one who leaves the line first or has the better reaction time would cross the finish line first . Now back to the reason why you would lift before the finish line . If you leave the line first you would have the advantage at the other end so you would lift to keep from breaking out ( breaking out , going faster than they allowed time for your class )in this case 8.90 seconds . Drives in door cars prefer the right lane for two reasons ,first it's easier to see the Christmas tree because in the left lane you have to look around the huge hood scoop that most of the cars have , Also it's easier when your looking for the other car at the top end you can look right out your window instead of trying to see through the roll bars and out the passenger side window .Ok now that I cleared that up ( ha ha ) back to second round . The other driver flips the coin I call heads and we get the right lane . They do there burnouts ,line them up and away they go . Dave gives up a little on the starting line but makes up by running 8.919 to other guys 8.934 . With the other drivers reaction time figured in Dave sneaks around him by a scant .0027 seconds or about 6 inches at the stripe. Back to the trailer for a quick refuel and battery charge and about 30 minutes we're back in the lanes for round three . Another coin toss and again I call heads and again we head to the right lane ,so good so far  Burnouts complete they line up and just that fast we're done as Dave  (trying to improve on his reaction time from last round ) leaves to early and gets the big red light. Overall a good weekend . We learned a lot , qualified number one and went a few rounds . Not great , not bad . Next blog should be Friday that's our next qualifying day for race number two. Thanks for playing Kenny Speed

First Round results with a cool on car video

Sunday Morning  ,what can I say it's 7am and pouring rain , not a good way to start the last day of the Winter Nationals .No runs Saturday now rain on Sunday .We should be in the 4th round of competition and we haven't even started  .After they dried the track they send the first pair of fuel cars down track about 11:30 only 30 minuets late . The revised , revised schedule says we run after the second round of the Pros  so I guess we'll go watch for a while . The racing was great , Courtney Force got her first win  over Bob Tasca .and John also collected his first round win of the season . The only real upsets were Clay Millican over Khakid alBalooshi and Todd Lescenko over Robert Hight , NHRA has decided to revise the already twice revised schedule .Looks like now we're right after 3rd round of the pros . We head up to watch 3rd round and some more great racing  was on tap , Wining and going into the finals will be, in Pro Stock Greg Anderson vs Jeg Coughlin Jr. . Funny Car will see team cars Mike Neff and John Force  square off and in Top Fuel Spencer Massey and team mate Tony Schumacher . It's now 4:34 pm and it's time for Super Comp first round . The temperature a brisk 58 and the humidity 66 with a slight head wind . Jason and I compare notes and set the timer for the throttle stop for what we hope will get the dragster to run 8.90 . After a long two days of waiting around Dave does his burn out ,stages the car , and there off . Dave goes 8.902 good for the win and number one qualifier . The winning margin of victory a scant .0027 thousands of a second . Now the not so good news . By time they run the finals its to late for us to run again . Looks like we're playing hooky from work Monday to finish up .For the record Anderson , Massey and Force are winners in the  Pro classes . It's late and I'm spent . Kenny Speed   PS This is a really cool video we shot on Friday Night during Q3

New in car HD video from Pomona

It's time for you to get feel of whats its like to go 0 to 150 Mph in 8 seconds . This video is from  thursday nights dinner winning run . I ran the video until the very end when Dave climbs out of the rail ( another word for dragster ) just to give you an idea of what the entire run is like . The whole run took only about 4 minutes  .As your about to find out we spend a lot of money for a few minutes of  fun . If you think about it a set up like Dave's would cost  about 75k.  That's just car , truck and trailer no motor home or spare parts . Then you get to add in the weekends expenses gas, food, hotel , entry fees , etc .For a race weekend out of town you can figure about at least 15 hundred providing you don't break anything . Is it worth ? All I can say is , hell yes .Now let's  move to Fridays qualifying run . The  morning run called Q3 or 3rd round of qualifying weather wise was pretty much a carbon copy of Thursday . If you remember we were way to fast Thursday morning so we need to add some time to the throttle stop timer . Now here's something cool about the video . If you listen to the rpms of the engine you can here the throttle stop come on and then go off. First the car leaves  the starting line,you'll here the motor rpms climb to about 7200 rpms then the transmission shifts into high gear , about a second after the shift the rpms drop off for about 2 seconds , then its back to wot or in layman's terms wide open throttle .(  A throttle stop is a devise that's connected to the carburetor that opens  and closes the carburetor and is controlled by a timer ) If  you want the car to go faster you decrease the time the stop is on and if you need to go slower you increase the time the stop is on . Sounds simple enough and it is,the tricky part is trying to figure how much to add or subtract to run the class index of 8.90 seconds , remember we're talking thousands of a second . After taking every thing into consideration we added 4 tenths of a second to the stop timer and ran 8.894 just 6 thousands of a second from a perfect 8.900 . We goofed around all day waiting for our first round of eliminations only to have a Super Gas car crash ( no injury's to the driver ) and make them move first round to Saturday morning . Guess what it's now 9:30 pm Saturday and all I can say is rain , so no runs today for us.And finally if your scoring at home  Lucas, Hight, & Line finish atop Pomona qualifying fields for the pro's .Thanks Kenny Speed

A new video from Pomona

Day one in Pomona

Jason adding a new decal to the draster

Well here we are in Pomona, after a late night bumpy ass flight courtesy of Southwest Airlines .Howerver all was not lost I did have A01 on my boarding pass , first time ever . So that was good first one on and off the plane . Up bright and early Thursday morning, Dave and Jason had everything setup as you can see in the first picture . After reviewing our Phoenix test session runs we decided to run the same setup that produced a 8.939 on our last pass just to get an idea of the difference between the two tracks . Our first run came at 1030 am and our setup produced way to fast 8.789  on a class index of 8.90 seconds . The next few hours were spent watching the first Pro qualifying session where we got to see John Force's daughter Courtney Force make her first pass in NHRA Funny Car competition driving her Traxxas Ford Mustang with a 4.210-second pass at 303.16 mph, which was good for the provisional sixth spot, not bad . Jack Beckman in Funny Car , Morgan Lucas in Top Fuel and Mike Edwards Pro Stock were all in the number one spots after one round of qualifying . Then we stopped by Simpson Racing Equipment to pick some new gear for my first race in to weeks at Firebird . Unfortunately I was unable to pull enough strings to get in the nationals next weekend and Bryan's Vett has some engine damage he just discovered while doing some routine maintenance so next week Dave's dragster will be the only car I'll be working on . It's now about 4pm and time to get ready for the second round qualifying in our class,Super Comp . We head back to the trailer to do the math and set the car up . Dave offers up a little wager for dinner and drinks for who is closer to a better run , His reaction time (The time it takes a driver to react to the green starting light on the Christmas Tree, measured in thousandths of a second. The reaction-time counter begins when the last amber light flashes on the Tree and stops when the vehicle clears the stage beam ) or how close 8.90 we get the car to run . I.ll let you figure it out we ran 8.903and dinner was great . Thanks for checking us out . Kenny Speed

ZO6 Corvette / Top Fuel Dragster Comparison With one week to go

      I thought maybe between races and testing I'd try explaining Drag Racing and the different classes for those of you who like the sport and would like to know more about it  . Of course we have to start out with what they call the King of the sport , Top Fuel Dragster. These are 300 inch long rockets with wheels . Without wings for down force they would fly away . Drivers pull about 6g's the same as the space shuttle launch .They produce 7000 plus horsepower while weighing in at only 2250 lbs . That adds up to 3.1 horsepower per pound  . To give you something to compare that with a 2012  Z06 Corvette makes 505 horsepower and weighs in at 3132 pounds or a measly .16 horsepower per pound . The dragster goes 0 to 300 mph in 3.7 seconds . The Corvette 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds .1/4 elapsed time for the dragster 4.4 seconds at 330 mph . The Corvette 11.5 seconds at 127 mph . And then the only thing the Corvette is better at , fuel mileage . The corvette averages 21 miles per gallon . The dragster , check his out , 60 gallons to the mile . That's right it takes up to 15 gallons of Nitromethane to make one 1/4 mile run . That means , at a cost of about $16.00 a gallon it cost $240.00 for enough fuel to make one run. I'll leave you with one more T/F fact . Counting all expenses , crew , engine parts , tires , fuel etc it cost and average of $5000.00 per run.                                                                                                                                                                                Next time I'll check out Funny Cars .As far as our team we're just a little over a week away from the opening race at Pomona . We have one car entered and that's Dave's super comp dragster  .Wish us luck . I'll keep you in touch .  Thanks for checking in .                                                                                                                                                            Kenny Speed
                           

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First test session a success ?

Saturday at Firebird Int Raceway was our first test session of the new year . The  reason for the question mark in th title is we really won't know until we hit Pomona in two weeks if what we learned yesterday gets us close at the first race . I should probably explain how the class David runs  works . It's called super comp and it's a little complicated . The object is to run as close to 8.90 seconds without going faster or in racing terms( BREAKING OUT) , Under the carburetor is what they call a throttle stop. It's a device that's adjustable and is used to slow the car down  . In order to make sure these cars can run at least 8.90 at all different tracks under all different weather conditions everyone builds there car to run faster , then  they use a throttle stop to get it slowed down to 8.90 whats known as the ( CLASS INDEX) .Pay attention there's going to be a test at the end .Now here is where it get complicated . Since the idea is to run 8.90 on the nose the way you get the advantage is by leaving the starting first or getting a  ( HOLE SHOT ) . You see since the two lanes are timed separately if you hole shot you opponent you can cross the finish line first even if both cars run the same 8.90 ET or ( Elapsed Time )Today we ran 9.19 on the first run  ( to slow ) . We went back to the pits ,took a little throttle stop out of it went back up and ran 9.08 ( still to slow ) . What's next ? Back to the pits to take out some stop then back up for run number three .It's been about 4 hours since we started , you have to remember there are about 150 other cars doing the same thing  This time 8.85 ( to fast , my bad ) Back to the pits now we add a little stop . Time for one more run .  8.93  closest run of the day . Overall I give us a B . I would have liked to get a closer but not bad . Here's the bad news in Pomona we only get two runs to figure it out . Now even when we run 8.90 it has to be constantly adjusted because there are a lot of things that make the car  faster or slower . Here are a few , out side temperature  ,  hotter means slower colder means faster , Track elevation , higher slower ,  lower or  (closer to sea level  ) faster . Wind speed & direction head win slower , tail wind faster . Those are just some of the variables so I think it's amazing we can dial these cars to within thousands of a second . Well that's Drag racing 101 for today . Hopefully I didn't bore you guys . Let me know what you think . If I get some good feedback I'll share some more of my 40 years at the drag strip .

Where the heck did the offseason go.

• As we prepare for the upcoming race season I had an idea. At work a lot of our customers and friends ask about the race car and how things are going at the races so I decided to start a blog about our race team and the 2012 season. Lets start by telling you what we race. I race in a class called Top Sportsman . It is NHRA's fastest sportsman door slammer class. ( Door Slammer means race car with doors) . I also work on or crew chief on two other cars . One is Bryan Laflam's corvette also a top sportsman car and the car above which is David Londagin's  super dragster. As of now my car is in the chassis shop having some safety updates and we should have it back this week so we can finish getting it ready for our first race . Today is the first test day for one of our cars Dave's dragster . Check back for updates . Thanks Kenny Speed