2008; Racing in '08 rather a skimpy one. Now that the weather is cooler, it's time to hit the local tracks. 2007 RACES: September 8, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Pinks All Out. I, like thousands of other racers, have watched various showings of Pinks/Pinks All Out. I would never consider racing for pinkslips straight up, so the All Out format sounded like something fun to participate in. After waiting in lines for 4 hours, I was teched and got my free T-shirt--yeaaa. On Saturday, each racer was given two time trials, the 1st with a time slip, and the 2nd with no time slip, only the tower knew the ETs. Over 400 cars were entered, and I would guess only a dozen or so ran in the 11s and fewer in the 12s and the majority of cars were running in the 9s and 10s. I knew there was no chance Pinks would pick the 11 second bracket as their bracket of choice. The "war room" had some difficulty in deciding which ETs to run, sooo they decided to have a 3rd run of cars and choose 20 cars from each of the high 9 and high 10 second bracket. This meant 360+ cars were eliminated. It was hot in Vegas, making racing not-as-fun-as-it-could-have-been, (but not as hot as Sacramento the previous week at the all VW event). Now I can say I've raced on Pinks even tho I may not show up on the taped segment coming up in November. As usual as it is in V8 racing, Chevys and Fords dominated the event. I was the only air-cooled Bug to run, however there was a front engine Chevy V8 Bug running. March 9-11, FAMOSO AUTOCLUB RACEWAY, MARCH MEET This is probably one of the most favorite races of many racers and this meet was no exception. With the car count over 500, and over 200 in the Hot Rod bracket (12.99 & quicker), expect to go 8 rounds to be in the finals. To do this race, it goes like this..leave Arizona Wednesday afternoon, stop in Barstow for the night after fighting traffic on the I10 & I15, arrive at the track Thursday at 10 AM to wait in line to get parked and go through tech. About 2 or 3 that afternoon, drive to the hotel appx 30 miles away and be sure you get back to the track by 7 AM Friday for a time trial run at 8 AM. The past few years, one time trial was it until Saturday morning at 8 AM. We lucked out and got 2 trial runs on Friday with one run Saturday morning. Due to the large bracket size, they ran an elimination run at noon, Saturday.
I lucked out in the 1st round as a beautiful black 10.00 second Chevy rolled the lights and pulled the dreaded red bulb. As this was a free run for me, I stayed in it running an 11.739 on a 11.78 dial. Nothing to do now as the 2nd round would be scheduled for Sunday morning, so, I watched as the front engine nitro cars and many cool old AA gassers did their charm. Quite the show! An unbelievable 7 VWs showed up for this event! Looked like a PRA (VW) event.
Sunday morning, 7 AM, unload the car, make coffee, etc, and wait for the call to the staging lanes. The VW guys are always careful to line up such we don't take each other out of the race. Unfortunately, one Bug broke, and 3 lost in the 1st round leaving 3 of us to fight all the Fords and Chevys. In the 2nd round, 2 more VWs were taken out leaving me good to go for the 3rd round as I ran a 11.687 on a 11.74 dial, however I won as my comp pulled a red light. I'm never to proud to win that way! Round 3 was as wild as one could expect. I bogged badly, pulled a big time wheels up, ran 11.91 on 11.76, and remarkedly won as my opponent--you guessed it red light! 3 rounds, 3 red lights. Like I said, I'm not too proud. Rather be lucky than good I guess.
My luck ran out in the 4th round, I cut a bad light against a 64 or so Ford Rancho. His .025 light left me little room to win, but I sure tried. I ran 11.769 at 114.08 mph on a 11.76 dial. Oh so close. Finally got beck to Arizona Monday afternoon. Wednesday to Monday for a drag race..6 days of travel ! February 17, SPEEDWORLD, SURPRISE AZ. A fresh gearbox, with different gearing, new 7.1 inch slicks (I converted the stock rear brakes to type 3 which are much larger and the wider drums called for a somewhat narrower slick). Speedworld is a mere 8 minutes from my house. Since I was there, might as well stay for the bracket race, right? In the 3rd round of eliminations, I brokeout on a 11.89 dial with a 11.852 pass, letting off and tapping the brakes. Ton of fun racing the V8s. The temp at this time of the day was only 80 degrees, but wait until summer hits...ugh! March 10-March 19, 2006 Famosa, GoodGuys.
Yes, Over 9 days of racing, but more rain than racing. The event was put off a week due to rain. After making 2 trips to Bakersfield, the rain won out. I arrived on the 9th and got parked and teched, left the car at the track and went back home.. I returned on the 16th, ran a time trial on Friday, rain on Saturday. Sunday morning things looked good. My 1st elim round was 8am against a clean '55 Chevy and I won.
Later in the day, the A-Gasers got their turn. 2 races and 2 crashes near the finish line at the same spot on the track seemed too suspect and the race was called. The driver of a beautiful Willys was cut out of his car, and he appeared ok-I hope that was the case. A new vintage 'Vett was totalled in the 2nd round. It appears that water was seeping near the finish line. Contact me at: rich@vwdotcom.com
