The newest drag racer gears up!

[cook_dw]

Thats great man.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

It was the Division 1 Finals at Numidia this past weekend, always a fun event! Racing got started on Thursday, where Ben went to the semi finals in a 77 car field Gamblers Race - it was not to be!

Friday was 2 time trials for the Div 1 event, and then another Gamblers Race where he got down to 12 cars - but the car backed out of the beams on the hit. This happened to several cars, not just us - very frustrating, but he went 5 rounds.

Saturday, he was on at both ends. He went to the semi finals in the Div 1 Finals, but the car slowed up a tad and he had to settle for the small version of the 'Tree Trophy'. Jumped right into the High Rollers Race ($1,500 to win, $700 RU, $250 Semi) and went yet another 6 rounds to the semi's where he gave it back at the stripe with his .006 light. In all, Ben had 15 runs on Saturday alone, with 13 in competition - his slowest light all day was a .026, then a .019 the rest were under .010. Look out Benny!

It was an exhausting weekend, especially since we got Danny into his car for the first time and I pushed him down the track with the golf cart!

A few pics:



Staging lanes, this is an awesome track!


Ben was surprised that he got such a nice trophy while Danny was trying to give him 'bunny ears' for the pic!


We made a lot of runs this weekend, and its about 10:00PM in these pics - and we went out 2 rounds later...


He was starting to really get sideways on the burnout, traction was completely gone once the track temps went down


Off into the night with a .008 light!


Danny in training, we pushed him straight, then had him make turns, then pushed him with the engine on but belt off so he could feel what it was like. Then I pushed him down the track - engine off. More training this coming weekend, then it's licensing passes!

[RPOLS3]

Cool!

[bergy]

Great time with he fam - way to go Marlin!

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Thanks! I am very aware of the passage of time, and while Jr Dragster racing is far from inexpensive I can't think of a better way to spend time with my boys. This is very hands on and interactive, and requires a lot of communication between driver and crew chief - everything from technical and strategy stuff to sportsmanship - even politics!

[Xplantdad]

Thanks for continuing to share all of this cool family stuff with us, Marlin! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Ben went out 2nd round on Saturday by .001 at the stripe, tough - it's his 7th round loss this year by .001!

Ben went to the semi's (again!) on Sunday, but was a little late on the tree with a .037 light - that's all it took! He was .001, .003 and .008 and was afraid of going red...oh well, that's racing.

His friends have nicknamed him 'Ben Semi'! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

No pics of Ben this weekend, it was all about Danny!

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Ben was back on his game at Maple Grove this weekend, making it 2 in a row! We hit the Test n Tune sesson on Friday night because we really needed some run data on this combination in late evening weather, given that Saturday's race was a Twilight session where first round of elims starts at 4pm. Car was 'spot on' during Friday night testing, even after waiting it out in the staging lanes for street cars puking anti freeze...





Saturday was a completely different story! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/frown.gif[/img] The car couldn't 60' to save it's life, likely due to drastically different weather and traction conditions. So, we tuned, and tuned, and caught a break in first round when the other kid went red - since he was #2 on the ladder that gave us a bye run in round 2 - so we tuned some more. By now it's 7PM+ and the weather is coming right back to where it was on Friday night - the test data was invaluable! Ben was hitting the tree and driving the stripe, and 3 rounds later was hauling the hardware at 10PM! Danny was moral support the whole way. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

Final round staging, we were up against our friends / neighbors (we got them into this mess!)


Another 4 foot trophy!


Victory Lane:


Back to the pits to pack it up:

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

So ends another season of Jr Dragster racing! Benjamin was riding high after back to back wins at Maple Grove, but racing is an exercise in humility and a trip to Englishtown on Labor Day weekend made that clear. He went out first round by giving it back at the stripe by .002, and then lost first round of the consolation race...

Wanting to end the season on a high note, we went to South Mountain this past Sunday for a much hyped Jr Dragster special race with a $500 winner payout. The older kids were in a 7.90 index race with a .500 Pro Tree! We hurried out there right after Church, but missed both time shots. We scrammed to get the car out of the trailer and warmed up, checked our setup data from the last time we were there - factored in the weather and got a no punch run where Ben went -.003 red! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/mad.gif[/img] Really, red on a pro tree? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/dunno.gif[/img] Well, if that's where he's at on that particular day, I have to bring the car to him. So, we quickly threw on an offset spindle, let some air out of the front tires and I set the launch rpm a little lower - mathematically those 3 adjustments should have put him into the .01x's. First pair out for Rd 1 and he goes -.0001 red on the Pro Tree to the girl that eventually won it all! Quite frustrating, but....that's racing! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img] Ben will need a new car for next year as he's grown a little too wide for this 18&quot; cage, he can't wait!

Danny went down the track on 2 solo runs to get some seat time. He's really getting the hang of it now, ran a 12.25 and a 12.18 - the difference between the 2 runs was entirely in the 60' solely due to the track being stickier on the first run! Good data to have....

Some pics:

Ben used to be Danny's height - just 4 years ago!



Danny heading up for a run



All loaded in



He gave the double thumbs up



Goofing around with his friends

[Xplantdad]

Thanks for sharing Marlin! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]