First Round Racing

After shanking it at the PSCA finals in Fontana by going out in the first round, and only holding on to third place for the year by a scant 40 points, it was sweet vindication to capture a runner-up finish (as well as an undeserved but still gratifying round win against Mustang Madness champ Dan “Clobbersaurus Rex” Marciano) at SCSN.

I’m not going to say that I plan on taking racing “more seriously” in 2010, because that might be misinterpreted as a chop on the many very good, very dedicated MM racers that collected fewer points than I did this year. But I will be stepping it up a bit, fixing a few things on the car and taking a run at moving up from #3. First on the list will be setting things up so I no longer have to use the parking brake to hold the car against the converter, and taking care of my pegleg diff. Basically, I want to start the year with no excuses - if I pooch it in eliminations, it will be because I didn’t do my job, not because of the quirks of the car.

Just two races left in the season, and amazingly I find myself in possession of third in the points chase. The last regular 2009 points race in Vegas turned out to be an interesting one - #2 qualifier, made it to the semifinals for the first time, and got to hang out with some old friends from Bothwell Motorsports.

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Please excuse the shitly formatting…

The third PSCA race of the season was a mixed bag - my best qualifying performance so far (sixth out of 25) and two round wins, but both were thanks to broke byes rather than any particular skill or effort on my part. Third round was the end of the road, up against #3 Kirk Bouchard.

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This is what it looks like when you put a bullet in your own brain at the dragstrip…

The good news is that I didn’t take myself out until the third round at the second PSCA event of the ‘09 season, and that I seem to have my reaction times figured out. After trying to intentionally redlight in the third qualifying session by going deep, bumping a little farther in, then giving it one more nudge for good measure, I pulled a -.030. In eliminations, going deep plus a single bump resulted in a .073, a .089, and a .032, which seems like about as much as I can expect considering I’m using both the foot brake and the parking brake to hold the car against the converter.

I also discovered that just bringing in the nitrous 400 or so RPM earlier is more than enough to give me three or so tenths cushion, so I won’t be on the brakes through the traps in qualifying any more. Going from a best of 15.825 in quals (resulting in a 15.72 index), I got a no-show single in the first round and ran it out to a 15.379 - almost a half-second quicker. Against Carl Gagnon’s much-quicker 3.8 in round 2, it worked out OK - On the brakes hard through the traps, I ran a 15.824 and still crossed first by .338.

Third round, it bit me in the ass. Taking nothing away from Dan Hale as a driver, I had him covered. I was a hundredth quicker at the tree, and by the 1000-foot mark I was wondering why he wasn’t catching me. I was hard on the brakes again in the traps, but I misjudged it and broke out with a 15.702-on-15.72, while still three and a half tenths ahead of him. Live by the sandbag, die by the sandbag, I suppose…

Well, lesson learned. I got three rounds worth of points, made it to the quarter finals, and worked out a bunch of stuff that I’ve been messing around with since the end of last year, so hopefully I’ll be able to do a little better next month in Fontana.

Got a little love from KJ at 5.0 in his blog…

The first event of the PSCA’s 2009 season found First Round Racing in the house, looking for some precious round-wins in the hunt for a top ten finish this year in Ford Racing Mustang Maddness. A lofty goal, when you’re devoted to getting home before the sun goes down on race day, but I think we can achieve it.

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Well, it seems that the FRR sticker is the lucky charm I needed - Since I put it on, I’ve gotten out of the first round unscathed every time. On 1/25/09, me and Donut went up to Barona for the Wicked Stangs “Mustangs vs the World” event, and I ran in the “10 seconds and slower” index. With the newly-installed Zex wet kit and 50-shot jetting, the car went from 10.60’s to 9.80’s; perfect for sandbagging. Since there were only four cars in the category, it only took two rounds to claim the winner’s trophy, but it’s the first podium finish for this car, so it’s all good…

Just a brief update to recap some of what’s been going on. First of all, I quit my job as editor of Race Pages at the end of December, and am now experiencing the joys of being a freelancer. So far, so good. Second, I spent some time at PowerTV doing a Zex wet nitrous kit and K&N FIPK installation on my ‘04 last week, followed by swapping on some Steeda upper and lower control arms I had laying around, along with an Eibach Drag Launch spring kit. I’ll try to get some pics up in the next couple of days, and as soon as the video goes up on PowerTV, I’ll get a link going.

Some photos and videos from our Saturday afternoon at Barona…

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