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