The 2012 trek to the Eastern Conference Finals is in the book! Another great trip - can't think of a better way to spend time with my son Benjamin than 8 days of racing, [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]
We pulled out at 5:30am Friday for the 9 hour pull to TN
We got there on time and got right to work setting up - boys went to work on their cars
Heading to the lanes - a ritual for the next 8 days [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] Car count was 625 for the big event, but total count for the week was even more as some folks could not stay the whole time.
Trying to keep the sun from baking the driver!
Rolling up....
We went out the first round on both Saturday and Sunday with lazy lights, (at least they weren't red!). Rain postponed the TnT scheduled for Monday, which pushed the drag racing school to late in the afternoon. So, we had Randy & Eric from Halfscale Dragsters work on our car for a few hours in their trailer - replaced the entire throttle pedal assy, cable, added a heel stop, cable adjuster, steering coupling, etc... Next was the school - Ben listened intently during the class session, and then put it to work. We had 5 runs inside of 2 hours Monday night, I was exhausted! But the school was good as Ben had 5 green lights in a row with the slowest one being .077. We had trouble repeating this performance later in the week, but at least they weren't 'red'. We learned a lot in the school, too bad it was jumbled up with the Doug Foley Racing Experience and we did not get a lot of track time / feedback. But what we did learn, Ben used in the final event [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/naughty.gif[/img]!
School session - 10pm!
Ben won first round on a pedal-fest. Both cars dialed 8.90, Ben treed the other kid and then played the stripe to perfection running an 8.96 vs. the other kid's 8.97.
Ben won second round at the stripe by pushing the other kid under, this was a difficult round as Ben was up against the Al-Anabi Jr Dragster and was trying to cope with the intimidation factor of running against a such a well sponsored car. They had equal lights, Ben was just .001 better so it was a race to the stripe where Ben ran him down to the stripe and then dunked 'em. Once the other kid got over his temper tantrum of throwing stuff and beating on his car Ben was able to shake hands and go across the scales - then through fuel check.
Ben trying to stay calm before round 2!
Going through the scale and then on our way to Round 3 - our first time!
Unfortunately, we went out in the 3rd round with a lazy light to the kid that eventually won it all. But it was a super fun time, and we can't wait to go back next year.
Ben with the starting line favorite known as 'Cowboy', the kids love this guy because he truly loves the kids [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img] There was a line to have your kid's picture taken with him:
So, the 20th Anniversary event is over, more to come!!