Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow! The last few weeks have been incredibly busy. The crew and I tore the car down to the bare chassis and the last few weeks have been spent putting it back together. For a large chunk of the time it has been a labor of frustration. It seemed like everytime we took a step forward there were two steps backward right afterwards. The shop was a complete disaster. Parts, pieces, tools were scattered everywhere. There wasn't a flat surface that wasn't covered. I couldn't find anything. Damn that was frustrating all by itself and it seemed like we would get one part put back together only to find two other parts that needed reworking, rebuilding or just flat replacing. The number one engine and heads were torn down completely and sent to Bob Miner for machine work. Then the transmissions were rebuilt including waiting weeks for the parts. But before you blame Bob Miner or Lenco or any of the other manufacturers for the delays it is important to know that they were all pretty well johnny on the spot with the parts once I ordered them. Therein lies the rub so to speak. I wouldn't order the parts until I had the money in hand. And contrary to popular opinions there really aren't all that many people willing to buy my kidneys these days. I am just kidding but as a self funded racer it is really important to manage cash flow. A person can really go hog-wild and get in over his/her head ordering parts and pieces. I know this fact because I have been guilty of it several times myself.
But things are coming together and we aren't too far from being able to start it. It will be reassuring to hear it run again. I built a aluminum box to contain all the electronics to protect and keep them clean so all the wiring had to be redone. The rearend was gone through with fresh seals and bearings put in. The transmissions were gone through. The heads and block were gone through and all new valves, rods, pistons, cam and lifters put in. So here's to starting it in the next couple of days- I can't wait. Dave

Finally........

Well the 2012 racing season has started…..without us. The Winternationals has come and gone and here we sit at home. Not because we wanted to, not because we lacked the ambition and energy to get the car ready. It’s really much simpler than that. MONEY. This is a subject that I hate more than anything else in my world. I feel as though I dwell on and harp over this one particular subject more than it could possibly ever deserve. It depresses me.
I find it amazing how much the non-racing community overlooks the fact that money makes more decisions about who is actually racing and who isn‘t. It’s not a matter of desire, it’s a matter of money. Do people truly think Don Prudhomme and Kenny Bernstein lost their desire to race? Nope, they lost the funding. There is a cliché about drag racing- “if you want to make a small fortune drag racing just start out with a large fortune”.
I had a very good friend mention on face book how we had missed the race- he said it as though I had somehow forgotten the dates. Forget the Winternationals? No way, won’t happen. I am sure what he doesn’t understand is the financial side of the issue.
The winter is one of the worst times of the year for the lower funded teams. While the demands for money are fewer because we aren’t actually paying to go racing on the other hand this is the time of the year when everything has to be recertified. Under the guise of safety there are thousands of dollars of ‘recertifications’ that are due every year. Some are every two years and some are every three years. Things like the helmet, fire suit, seat belts, transmission blanket, clutch, bell housing, blower restraint, lower engine restraint, blower, and the chassis all have to be sent back to the manufacturer and inspected and certified.
Recerts are only a small part of the off-season expenses. My friends who race in T/F tell me their costs are about 100K per weekend. The first time I heard that figure it started the automatic accounting feature in my head- “Hmmmm……16 spark plugs…..10 gallons of nitro?……4 or 5 clutch discs…. I couldn’t come up with 100K for 5-8 runs for one event. Thankfully one of the more patient crew chiefs explained it to me. They total up the costs for the entire season and simply divide it by the number of weekends they race. So under that formula it means it costs 2.2 million a year to race a top fuel dragster. We are back to making small fortunes out of large ones again. I think now I see why Don Prudhomme retired. If a sponsor isn’t picking up that tab how long do you think his retirement nest egg is going to last?
Clint Thompson, a very good friend of mine shared a spread sheet with me a few years ago that detailed maintenance and replacement schedules for the various parts in the race car. It was a very valuable piece of information that I try to adhere to. His schedule showed that parts like valve springs and crankshafts were expected to last a certain number of runs. It factored in the costs of the parts new and divided them by their life expectancy. With this schedule I could actually figure out what my costs on a per run basis. Not the simple formula the top fuel guys use but nevertheless a number that still told me one thing- without sponsor help I couldn’t really afford to do this right. Now here is the key word right. A crankshaft should really be replaced every 25 runs, connecting rod s should be replaced every 15-18 runs if a person is going to do this right. Maybe Frank Manzo replaces his crankshafts every 25 runs, I bet he does because no doubt about it-he does it right.
His record shows that.
How do the lesser funded teams compete? They stretch that replacement schedule out. Maybe those connecting rods are going to have to stay in the motor for 20-22 runs? That 25 run crankshaft becomes a 35 or 40 run crankshaft. They hope those parts can handle that and maybe they run the car just a little softer? That has been the story of my top alcohol racing career. I have always had a pretty good idea of what it takes to run fast. And the fact of the matter is that it takes money. It takes good parts, new parts, fresh parts and more importantly it takes a willingness to lean on those parts. To push them hard enough to make the car run the number.
Does this mean that the lesser funded teams can’t compete? No way. We can compete, we just have to be smarter. There are teams out there who don’t bring boat loads of money to the track. Look at Joey Severance- he and his father are a pair of my heroes. They compete without tons of sponsor help. They are the kind of racers that keep guys like me coming to the track. I look at their success and it inspires me to keep trying. Thanks Joey and Joey

Updating

I have been terribly remiss on making periodic updates here. Those of you who know me know that I retired on a disability from the Tacoma Fire Dept. I had several on the job back injuries resulting in four-yes 4 surgeries. The last one was on April 1 2008. Since my retirement life has changed rather dramatically for me. I took close to a 50% cut in pay but maybe more importantly my abilities to work have been very severely curtailed. My back and the pain resulting from those injuries prevents me from working any length of time. This has made working on the race car really tough and more than ever I am depending on my crew. Thankfully they have filled in the gap that I have left and the car is gradually being prepared for the season. At this point the 201o season is still up in the air. One thing I have found is the willingness for insurance companies to take the money for the premiums and their complete UNwillingness to live up to their ends of the policy. A word of warning to all my friends-The Standard Insurance company has shown itself to be a company to avoid at all costs. I truly wish I had never heard their name. My advice would be to find ANY other long term disability carrier for your insurance company. Take care and hopefully I will see you at the race track again-Dave

Next chapter

Wow!! Am I behind the eight ball or what? I have been busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs the last few weeks. So let me catch you up-The weekend after the Spokane division event we went to Pacific Raceways in Kent for the next Lucas Oil Darg Racing Series Division event. There were 12 cars for and 8 car field. The weather wasn't particularly cooperative all weekend. Rain on and off with fairly cool temperatures inbetween showers. The first pass resulted in a ok 5.94 time at 241 mph, leaving us in the number nine spot. The next and last qualifying shot resulted in a hard shaking run that didn't help our cause a bit leaving us in the 10th spot for an 8 car show. We hadn't hurt anything but didn't really get a chance to sort anything out with the weather restrictions.
Our next weekend found Kim and I back in Spokane as crew members for Lee Crosselin's car. it is a nice little altered body with a blown Keith Black Hemi motor. Long long ago I sold the block that is powering that car to Lee so it's nice to see it out at the track as Lee works towards getting his competition license.
The following weekend brought us back to Woodburn for another Lucas Oil Division event. This time there were 13 cars for an 8 car field. Our tuning efforts were finally rewarded with a 5.80 at 248 mph. That got us into the 8th spot facing Jay Payne in the first round. Once again the dreaded first round against the number one qualifier. We ran a 5.82 to his 5.71 but again our mph was over 248. So all in all- I would consider it a definite improvement in performance. I set career personal bests in elasped time and speed. I was very happy to have gotten into that tough field although going a little further in competition would have been great.
The following weekend was the Seattle Northwest Nationals. Nineteen cars were on hand for a 16 car field. I had the car loaded for bear on the first run. As soon as I dumped the clutch the engine RPM went right for the moon. Once the car settled back to earth I legged it on through to a 8.88 et at 232 mph making us the worlds fastest super comp car. The next qualifier went into the dumper when the transmission broke on the burn out. The last qualifier was again in the dreaded left lane and although the car left the starting line this time it still spun the tires about 20 feet out. I again pedaled it and it ran 6.32 at 242 launching the burst panels 300 feet into the air when they let go. Thankfully no truly terrible damage happened to the motor so we will be able to regroup and fix it soon. Kind of a dissappointing end to a too long weekend. But nevertheless I learned a ton about tuning the car and maybe our next outing will benefit from these hard taught lessons. So for now- "I'll be back" is all I can say. Or maybe-"I need a weekend off" Dave

Well good news- We went to Spokane last weekend for the Lucas Oil Division event. * cars showed up for an 8 car field so we were in just by passing tech. That took the pressure off somewhat. But I still wanted to run well to avoid the dreaded bump spot because the number 8 qualifier gets the number one qualifier in the first round of eliminations. Right out of the box we ran a 6.03 at Spokane's adjusted density altitude of 5000 feet. The car ran well although the motor was way too rich to make optimum power. So I started leaning it out on successive runs which resulted in a 6.11 then a 6.07- whoops- not getting quicker. Then for first round of eliminations I tossed the book at it. I changed gear ratios in the transmission, leaned it a ton, changed compression ratios, added timing. Way too many changes at once but the car liked it- it ran a 5.96 at 239 mph. I treed the opponent (the #1 qualifier) but just didn't have to power to hold him off at the other end of the track. I am not dissappointed though, we had a great weekend. Didn't really hurt anything, the car started coming around peformance-wise. I made four straight passes down the fantastic Spokane dragstrip. All in all a very nice weekend. This weekend we go to Seattle, not quite as good of a race track but lots of air so the power will be there. I am hoping for a good showing but there are 12 cars preentered so it will be a tough show to get into. Like the guy who invented the frisbee said "lets give it a fling and see if it flies". Dave

Well another season has started. We went to Woodburn Dragstrip last weekend for the season opener there. I would love to tell a fairy tale with a happy ending but unfortunately it wouldn't be true. The weekend started on Friday when myself, Robbie and Trina (new crew guys) got to the track. We were setting up our pit space when I couldn't get the generator to start. We absolutely depend on having electricity to run our computers, lights, and air compressor. Two years ago I bought a Cummins/Onan diesel generator specifically with the idea that it was the best on the market and they would provide 7 days a week/356 days a year anywhere service. Well........that service promise is a fairy tale. No matter how much money I offered they wouldn't send a service guy out to fix our generator. My exact words to the Cummins NW office service manager was "I need that generator more than I need the money". They made every excuse possible to not come out and fix it. No wonder some companies are going under when they refuse customers money.
Ok, we borrowed another generator from one of the other racers so despite the rocky start we got past the generator and lack of service from Cummins. Our first run was a planned half pass. The car was all over the track forcing an even earlier shut down. The next two runs weren't much better including one run that resulted in hitting the wall, this time on the left side. So now I have matching crinkled headers and another side of the car to fix. Witnesses said that 100 feet before the wall strike they could see I was turned away from it but the car just drove into it. Apparently I got out of the groove and the tire with traction overpowered the one without traction. Wahoooooooo. So between the generator going T/U, the racepak not working for most of the weekend, the car running badly, the crash, and finally the AC on the Freightliner taking a dive I was awfully glad to get home alive. Due to the overwhelming amount of frustration I decided to take next weekend off so we are skipping the Mission BC division event. I believe they call this a "safety standown". We need to figure things out before I really hurt the car badly or it hurts me. But in the words of my hero -the terminator- "I'll be back" Dave

April 1, 2009

Hey it's April 1st. One year ago today I had a career ending back surgery after my fourth and fifth blown discs. The surgery went fairly well but the left over deficit and disability prevented me from going back to work as a Firefighter/Paramedic Supervisor for the Tacoma Fire Dept. This has caused some significant changes in my life, not to mention a deep dark bout of depression. But like all human problems this too will pass. The team has been working hard to get ready for the 2009 season. I have had crew guys down for the last two weekends working on the body and paint work for the car. I had done sort of a slap dash job to get us back on the track last year after the altercation with the concrete wall at Woodburn Dragstrip. The new crew guys have some training and experience in body and paint work- good thing too. Andy Buchanan and Trina Eplett are redoing my not-so-good body work and repainting. It looks wonderful so far. The easy way would have to just redo the entire right side of the car but I was hoping to not add too much weight with paint and body work. So it has become the world's largest spot repair. Speaking of weight- I am down 29 pounds as of this morning with a goal of losing another 17 pounds. I want to try to run the car as close to the minimum weight as possible. The theory is that ten pounds equals a hundredth of a second. Although a hundredth of a second sounds really quick, at the dragstrip it is an eternity.
The winter while cold and rainy wasn't without a lot of effort towards the upcoming season. During the winter I whittled off all three axles from the trailer and replaced them with new ones. As it turns out the trailer had three torsion-flex axles which caused all sorts of tire and wheel bearing issues. Whoever originally installed the axles didn't do it as was suggested by the axle manufacturers. They were welded solidly to the frame which made for a major league hassle to replace. But it is done and the trailer now has three brand new leaf sprung axles now. Well its time to take a break and spend some quiet time with Kim- See yah all soon- Dave
PS. Check out the new t-shirts- they look great- D