The newest drag racer gears up!

[Chevy454]

Atta boy, Benjamin! And to his crew chief! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

Quick question: do you have a handheld weather station yet? NOAA shows that the High pressure front that had been hanging over your head slid further down right on top of you, going from 1016mb to 1024mb...doesn't sound like much change, but roughly 30.00 to 30.24, so definitely heavier air, and a pretty important variable. I always keep an eye on the surface analysis page on the NOAA-HPC site, especially if it's a multi-day event.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

No handheld weather station - yet! Now that we can run in a tighter ET grouping it might be time for one - but I'm not yet sure how to adjust the car for the weather. It's quite the learning curve, but a lot of fun.

I downloaded a weahter app to my BB while at the track, and was going by that - but not enough data to make race car changes. I will check out your link for sure.

This Jr Dragster racing is an awesome way to spend time with your kids and family. The soccer and baseball games are great, but this stuff is hands on, race talk, car talk, strategy talk, starting line &amp; finish line.... when else do you have the opp to sit in the box trailer and hash out the dial in with your 8 year old? BTW, our rule from jump has been that its his car, his run, and his dial - the final decision is his. Its really a great time, if you were wondering if/how/when - just jump in!

[Xplantdad]

Keep the info coming Marlin! It's gotta be a blast!

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

School started today, soccer is almost back in full swing, so we will slow down the racing schedule a bit. We plan to hit the PA State Jr Championship race at Maple Grove on 9/12, this will be the first time Benjamin will only race against other 12.90 cars. This is key, since thus far he's been up against other kids who have been racing for up to 8 years already and are running 8.90 &amp; 7.90's. The older kids are slamming the tree along with their dial-in's, and a big track like MGR has several really good racers. So, it will be nice to run against other cars that have just as much variability as ours.

We would like to race at South Mountain Dragstrip (just south of Carlisle, PA) in late Sept or early Oct since that is where I started racing with my uncle. Just a little 1/8 mile track, but its gotten totally refurbed - along with a name change.

They also have a special Halloween Race at Englishtown on 10/31, we might hit that as our finale.

Will take more pics next time, might have some from this past weekend as I saw the track photographer taking a few snaps, [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/naughty.gif[/img]

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Well, after two rain dates the PA Jr. Dragster Championship finally happened this past weekend! We were all geared up for some TnT Friday night, only to pull into view of the track and find it a ghost town! Apparently, there's no TnT on Friday nights this time of year. Benjamin was truly upset since he had convinced Mom to let us camp out overnight in the pits, we had little air matresses, sleeping bags, a small grill, plenty of food, water, his BMX Trick Bike, just about everything. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/frown.gif[/img] He was more excited about crashing in the pits for the night than he was about another TnT session.

So, my brain worked for a minute, and we checked out Maple Grove Park across the street! We got permission to camp out for the night in the actual campground, [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img] So, after getting a fire roaring, burgers going, and some R&amp;R we were able to have a fun &quot; guy's night &quot; afterall.



My 'little' buddy (who turns 9 on Saturday!) was burning everything!



Needless to say, we were first in line at MGR Saturday morning - even though about 10 motorhome rigs showed up overnight and camped out in the entrance lanes. It was nice to have the your choice of parking in the pits, and plenty of time to get through tech and prep for the first run. The first run was a 12.93 on the 12.90 limit - which is awesome, the r/t was a bit lazy at .281, but it had been awhile since our last race, so I cranked the launch idle up from 3,500 rpm to around 4,000. The next time shot was a 12.88 with a nicer r/t of .066. No changes necessary. But then, the track delays drug the day down, [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/frown.gif[/img] Between oil downs, and 2 long delays (1.5 hours each at least) for water coming up through the track in the shutdown area there was a lot of this:



My 'baby' Buddy Danny wore his favorite boots for the event, appropriate given the water situation! When we finally got the first elimination run in around 4pm, we ran a 12.93 on a 12.90 dial - but lost at the tree, [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/mad.gif[/img] Benjamin had another lazy light .236 to the competitor's .116 (also lazy), and worse yet the competitor ran a 13.033 on a 12.90!

So, there was room to make it up - Benjamin said that he lifted a bit at the stripe, not sure why, but nothing like a first round loss help us down the learning curve a little more. All in all, it was a great day, the weather was perfect, the car ran the number 3x in a row (this is especially amazing for a 12.90 car!), and Benjamin came out grinning after each run.

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

Anybody with an 8-16 year old who likes racing should give this a try!

[Salvatore]

Looks like you guys are really gettin dialed in Keep at it, its paying off. Water bleeding through the track.........I thought they solved that with the re-pave. HUH?

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Apparently not, [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/frown.gif[/img] It wasn't really a hard rain 2 days before either, can't imagine how that issue would fly if the Pros were here!

Yea, the car has really come around, but it looks like other activities will crowd the schedule for the rest of the year: soccer, school, piano, school, etc....

[Xplantdad]

Great for you and your son Marlin! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]


Looks like &quot;Bens-Jammin&quot;!

[ORIGLS6]

Great stories M.

[Chevy454]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"></div></div>
Love that picture, M! A couple of my kids had their favorite *interesting* footwear choices...one liked his snow boots, another one chose a pair of rubber boots like Danny's! Sad to say, but Benjamin had better get used to downtime in the lanes as he moves forward in his drag racing career...some days there's more action in the lanes [start/stop/start/stop] than on the track! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/frown.gif[/img]

Looks like y'all are right on track! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]