Daves Blog...

Updating

2010-04-01T22:25:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-22T18:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-20T23:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

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

2008 Summary

2008-10-10T21:29:00.000-07:00

I know that I have been terribly remiss in not keeping up the blogs this season. It started wonderfully and went south after that. A preseason testing session in Las Vegas was cancelled after we got there and after a burglary cleaned out the trailer of all the tools and computer and a ton of parts. Then in March our major sponsor changed management teams. The change effectively killed our deal. So after buying enough parts to go the season there wasn't any money coming back in to cover the costs. We went to three events before the money ran out and we were forced to park the car. Somewhere around there I suffered an on the job back injury that required emergency surgery to repair it but the left over nuerological deficit precluded my return to firefighting. Because of that I was forced to retire. So lots of changes and things happening- most not for the better. But before you are completely overcome with gloom and doom, we did get the car back out for the Fall Funny car Classic. We rolled a sprag on our only run Saturday but managed to fix it for Sundays run. The first run was a 6.13 at 240 and the second run in the heat of the day was a 6.10 at 239. So to finish a very rocky year with a win was great. Now I can't wait for next year- it has to be better. See yah soon at the track- Dave

Las Vegas

2008-02-09T15:00:00.001-08:00

It is very rarely that I will ever be found speechless but the trip to Vegas has done that. I am still shaking my head over this one. Kim and I drove 13 hours to Stockton, Ca to meet with engine builder Bob Miner. We had a nice relaxing dinner and spent the night in the Best Western, Stockton Inn. We hit the road at 6 am the next morning. On our first stop of the day Kim checked the load in the trailer and remarked "hey, some of the cabinets are open". So I went into the trailer only to find out that not only were they open but they were empty. In addition so was the tool chest, the computer station and my suitcase was gone too. Missing were the hand tools, the air tools, the power tools, the desktop computer and my clothes. So now the scramble was on to find enough tools to run the car with for the weekend. After several phone calls (thank god for cell phones) I found a Snap-On dealer in the Vegas area and the local guy from my area. Between the two of them they could get us enough tools to work on the car over the weekend. But alas fate stepped in- I called the track at Vegas to inquire about parking only to find the event had been cancelled. And to think I had already decided the weekend vacuumed? So here I was, flying 6 people into Las Vegas, two rental cars, rooms for the weekend and food all for nothing? Thankfully Rocky came up with a brilliant idea- Lets take some pictures of the car at the strip? Good call Rocky. I was so busy wallowing neck deep in self pity that I hadn't even considered that idea. The team left early Saturday morning and Kim and I left Saturday afternoon. We probably should have left in the morning also. The storm that had caused the event cancellation had moved north and we caught it full force in the Siskiyous on Sunday. It took 11 hours to cover the three hundred and eight miles across the state of Oregon. Nothing but snow and ice all the way. Did I tell you I am NOT a professional truck driver. We drove a total of 23 hours that day to get home, running on the edge of a major winter storm. Waaaaahhhhhoooooo.
So now we are at home, regrouping. Working to replace the tools and equipment that are so vital but apparently easily packed off. New locks are in order also. But there is a positive side to this- Las Vegas seems like a very pretty place although I only saw if from a windshield. I did get to eat way too much at a buffet though. I got a chance to practice driving the freightliner in snow and ice and didn't crash it. So despite my whining things could have been worse, we all got home ok, the truck and trailer survived and I can't wait to go again. Dave Germain

2008 is starting in Vegas

2008-01-27T11:53:00.000-08:00

The car is out of the shop, after a monumental three week long thrash the new body is mounted. The paint came out fantastic, the sign shop did a beautiful job. The team wants to also announce several new associate sponsors- Victory Performance and Welding. They are the west coast metal fabrication specialists. Don Richardson Custom Auto Body, winners of too many to count awards. Jacknut Apparel, the real, raw apparel people. Lucas Oil, the oil suppliers to the champions and Torch and Regulator repair from Tacoma, WA. And of course our primary sponsor- Quinault Beach Resort and Casino.
We are leaving tomorrow morning at 0-dark thirty for the preseason testing session at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. If the car runs as good as it looks we hope to be the talk of the west coast drag racing scene. And if all the news wasn't good enough, Germain Motorsports wants to announce the hiring of crew chief Mike Austin. Mike has run the Miner Bros. motors in his Top Alcohol Dragsters for years. He has been a force to be reckoned with for years in the dragster class. With many event wins to his credit we hope he will the final piece to our performance puzzle. Thanks to all our supporters and there will be more news to report soon.

See yah at the track- Dave Germain

Winter=vacation? No way

2007-12-03T20:54:00.000-08:00

I one time thought that the winter months were a time for a vacation from racing. Nope, no way. We had about a month to lay around and now we are getting ready for the new season at mach one speed. Since September I have bought a new/used carbon fiber funny car body. It is a 2002 Pontiac Firebird that weighs 67 pounds less than our current fiberglass Dodge Avenger body. It has a all titanium interior framework, the spoiler plates are carbon fiber. It is very very nice. With this and other changes we are making we should be right at making weight. The TAFC class is required to weigh 2300lbs and we should be right at that this season give or take a cheesburger or two. I went on a serious diet in the spring and summer and lost 45 lbs. Unfortunately a late season back reinjury slowed me down and I put back on 25 of those. Dang it- oh well, I can fix that. I am planning on taking that off and maybe a little more before the season starts. And speaking of seasons starting- We are planning on attending a preseason testing session at the strip in Las Vegas on the last weekend of January.
The race car transporter was in the shop last week getting the vinyl wrap applied for our marketing partner the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino. It looks great and we should have pictures on here soon. Stay tuned for the changes- things are moving at supersonic speed around here. Dave Germain

Woodburn Fall Funny Car Classic - Sept 2007 - The end of an amazing season

2007-09-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

On September 15 and 16 the Germain Motorsports team ventured back into competition at Woodburn dragstrip. The event was the Fall Funny Car Classic, it included funny cars, dragsters, jet cars and a full complement of the sportsman classes. Over 700 cars were entered for this event. Saturday started off sunny with weather conditions that were as close to ideal as the team has seen all year. A checkout pass at 1 pm was successful with a 6.28 time at over 230 MPH. I originally had planned a half pass only but with things going well at the one-two shift I decided to run the car all the way through.
Sunday dawned cloudy but warm and dry. After talking with engine builder Bob Miner by phone I took another three fourths of a gallon of fuel out of the motor leaning it down. The first pass was a personal best for me with this car at 6.05 at 229 MPH. That is the quickest this car has gone with me driving and the quickest I have ever gone at Woodburn. It was also the quickest that the team has gone with the Miner Bros. motor. We attempted to lean the motor another 2 tenths of a gallon before the last qualifying pass of the day. Unfortunately the clouds had become rain which ended the event. I can assure everyone that although the rain dampened the event it didn't dampen my enthusiasm. I was really enjoying the weekend at a great racetrack with great weather. The density altitude had been under 1000 feet all weekend giving us a ton of air to run the car with.
And so ends our season, years before i was ready for it to end. It seems like we were just getting started when it was over. Our year started so terribly with a rain out at the first Woodburn event and the motor explosion on the first run at Mission. I truly thought our year was over before it had even started. With a monumental struggle the money was raised to buy the new MBR motor and we were again off and running. I want to thank Kim for her patience and belief in our struggle. Her willingness to allow me to bet our home on the race program was instrumental in our season coming back together. Then with the help of our newly acquired sponsor and marketing partner the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino we were able to finish our season strongly. I absolutely can't wait till next season. This is the first year in quite some time that we have ended the season with a running intact race car. This will enable us to start next year off in great shape. If our progress this year is any indicator then next year will be a breakout success. I am including a crew "in action" picture with this blog. Another great picture is behind the DGM Team tag on the website. I want to thank them for their help-nothing would have been possible without their efforts. As always, a big "Thank You" to the friends and supporters of the Germain Motorsports team and I want to encourage you to support our sponsors.

" I'll be back" -----Dave Germain

Billings Div 6 race

2007-08-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about how I would describe this last weekend and in one word- WOW. What an adventure it was. We left on Tuesday morning, Aug 14. While on SR-12 crossing White Pass a passing log truck kicked up a rock the size of a baseball that struck the driver's side windshield of the Freightliner. It pretty well went right through, showering the entire interior of the truck with shards of glass. Thankfully both Kim and I had our sunglasses on which shielded our eyes from the flying glass. We checked our vitals and after finding them intact continued on. A few hours later while on I-90 in Spokane a trailer tire blew, tearing the fender on the trailer apart. It was then that I found the spare didn't fit. Wahoo...... Two hours later we were on the road again. We arrived in Billings at 4 am on Wednesday morning. A quick four hours of sleep later and we were heading to the Rimrock Mall for a car show. I had been contacted the previous week about a car show publicizing the upcoming race and asked to appear. I am glad I agreed after seeing the thousands of people who came by the cars on display. Autographs and handshakes were in plentiful supply. Wednesday afternoon we took the car to the track and set up our pit space. The Yellowstone Dragstrip facility is without a doubt first rate. If it was at sea level it would be home to many national records. After getting our pit space set up our tow rig was delivered to us by Menholt Chevrolet. They supplied a 2007 Chevy 3/4 ton crewcab truck for us to use for the weekend. The folks at Menholt are truly nice people. I don't think I can say enough positive things about them. There is no doubt in my mind that if I was in the market for a new truck that they would be my first choice of where I would buy it.
We had three qualifying runs, one on Friday, and two on Saturday. Unfortunately we weren't able to get into the field. Our best run managed to get us into the ninth position out of ten cars. But it was a eight car field. We weren't last but we did fall short of our goal of qualifying. In retrospect though it was an allstar group of cars with the heavy hitters of division five, six, and seven. Maybe my goals weren't realistic? When I consider that this was only the third time out with the new Miner Bros motor and only the fourth time out with the new car I shouldn't have chose such lofty goals?
Now for the good news- We didn't hurt anything substantial and learned a ton about how to run this new combination.
On friday night after qualifying we put on a salmon feed inviting everybody I could find. Kim and Marlene did a fantastic job of barbecueing the salmon brought over fresh from Quinault Pride Seafoods. We must have fed fifty or sixty people including many of the track workers and the announcers. When we ran Saturday they couldn't say enough about how good the dinner was. I was hoping the goodwill our dinner had brought would be remembered and I apparently underestimated how big of a splash it had made. I see now that I have started a welcome tradition. I wanted to repay the people of the Billings area for their hospitality. They treated us wonderfully and I can't wait to go back. The track is great, the people are some of the nicest I have ever met while racing and I still have that goal of getting into the show. So in the words of my hero- "I'll be back". Dave Germain

Nitro Extravaganza

2007-08-17T14:41:00.000-07:00

The Quinault Beach Resort and Casino team ventured out into the heat of Eastern Washington on the weekend of Aug 3-4. It was the Nitro Extravaganza event, formerly the AHRA World Finals. There were 22 cars entered in the Top Alcohol Funny Car field. We took to the Spokane track for the first time with the new Miner Bros engine at 8 pm on Friday night. It was the second of 4 qualifying sessions scheduled. Right out of the box the car ran a 6.17 at 232 mph. Almost a full 3 tenths of a second quicker than the number two qualifier. With the number one qualifying spot firmly in hand the QBRC team skipped the last two sessions of qualifying during the heat of the day on Saturday. First round of eliminations was at 8 pm Saturday night. The first round was an easy victory as was the second round that was ran at 10 pm. The finals were at 1 am with the grandstands still pretty well full of fans watching the action. This is where we ran into a bump in the road. An untimely red-light caused by tuning decisions that I made ended our march through the field with a runner-up position. I recall thinking earlier that this was our race to lose- a thought both arrogant and unfortunately true. But a very nice runner-up trophy and an absolute ton of great exposure for our sponsors made it all more than worthwhile.
Our next event is Aug 16-19 at Yellowstone Raceway in Acton, Mt. - right outside Billings. We will be going over a day early to participate in a car show at the brand new Billings Mall after being requested by the race promoter.
For all of you who have contributed so much to the Germain Motorsports team and I appreciate everything you have done for us from actual money, products and most importantly friendship. Thank you.

Dave Germain

Checker Schuck's Kragen NHRA Nationals in Seattle

2007-07-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

This is a short report on the Germain Motorsports team results from the Seattle National event. The new Minor bros motor didn't actually get fired till Friday Morning. We hit the race track for only the second pass on the new car and the first pass on the new motor Saturday. The motor was intentionally set soft with the idea of working our way to a competitive tune up as the weekend progressed. Thanks to intermittent rain storms we only got one qualifying pass but that one got us in the show with a 6.90 at 212 mph. That pass was good enough for the 16th spot in the field which gave us the number one qualifier Sean Bellemeur for the first round. We tuned the car up incrementally and the car ran a 6.35 at 222 mph. I am hoping that at this rate of improvement we will be competitive in a few more runs. The first round ended our weekend's competition but it didn't dim my spirits one bit. We improved, the car is still running and we will be out there again. In the words of my hero "I'll be back" .

Dave Germain (the Germinator)

Photos courtesy of Scott Hammett