This was a one day race, and it’s a long haul to Indy for a one day event. But there is another event in Lyons, IN, which is about two hours southwest of Indy July 23 – 24. So this is one of those leave the truck, trailer and race car in Indy, fly home for ten days, fly back and head to the next race.

When we left the house on Friday afternoon it was getting cloudy, and looked like rain was on the way. We hadn’t been on the road for ten minutes when that rain started, and in another ten minutes it was pouring! It rained all the way through NY, PA and into OH – sometimes so hard we had to slow way down. But despite the rain, and the construction, we made it to Columbus before stopping for the night. The next day we were in Indy before noon. It was a beautiful day, sunny and temps in the mid 80’s. We had the time, so we stopped at Rooman’s Chassis Shop. It’s always cool to see what Keith has going on there. Then we went over to Freedom Engine Shop to see Al, and all kinds of big money race engines. Man is it ever scary to let Steve in there! After all that we went to the track, parked the rig and set up our pit area. Then, because we didn’t have anything better to do, a whole bunch of us racers went to Union Jacks for Pizza and a few drinks. As always we have a great time with this NPCA group.

Sunday was down to business – We had two qualifying runs, then into eliminations. Again, it was a beautiful day, sunny and the temps creeping up to the high 80’s.

Our first run was at 10:00 am. We ran a 7.128 and 188.15 mph. Most of the other cars went under 7.00, which is no, no. So we were #1. The second run was @ 11:30 – a little hotter and more humid. Steve adjusted the tune up, and we ran a very nice 7.034 and 191.87 mph. With that run we held onto the #1 qualifying spot.

At 1:30 we went up for the first round of eliminations. We were up against the #8 qualifier, who never did make any runs that day, but was able to qualify as there was not a full field of cars, so we had no idea what we were up against. Steve had gone red on both his qualifying runs. That does not matter during qualifying, but it costs you the race during eliminations, so he wanted to make sure he didn’t turn on that red bulb this run. He needed to wait just a little. Well he waited too long. His light wasn’t that bad, but the car slowed down to 7.121 and 190.22 mph. The other car only ran 7.27, but he had the better reaction time, for a .07 margin of victory.

After the Goodguys event at Indy, we left the truck, trailer and race car in Indianapolis and flew home. On Thursday the 17^th we flew back to Indy, picked up the rig (after a quick stop at the grocery store to restock) and headed to Bowling Green. We got to the track in time to set up our pit area and get the car through tech.

The weather was hot and sunny except for a brief rain Saturday morning. The temps ranged from 89 to 98 with high humidity, so the heat index was 102 to 105 – IT WAS HOT!! Friday and Saturday we had a nice steady breeze, so it was bearable – but Sunday was brutal.

Friday was an easy day – we only had one qualifying run scheduled, in the late afternoon. At the time of the run, the temp was 96 with 44% humidity. The corrected altitude was 3640 feet. Steve changed the pulley to give the car more air. After the burnouts were complete, the car in the other lane stalled, and could not start and backup. When that happens, the driver is supposed to get out of the car, and go over the wall, along with all crew members. But, the driver never got out. The track starter pickup up the control box, so Steve assumed that they were going to tell him to stage the car. The starter never even looked at Steve or I, never gave us a sign of what to do. Finally Steve just staged the car. At that moment, the tow vehicle for the stalled car started to go down the track, toward the stalled race car. The track officials stopped him – now Steve is ready to go. The lights activate, and Steve hits the throttle – problem is, in all the confusion, he didn’t press the tranny brake button. The car left before the tree was fully activated, so we didn’t get a time slip. From the information I got from the data recorder it looked to be about a 7.10 run.

Our second qualifying run was scheduled for Saturday at noon, but because of that rain in the morning things were about an hour behind schedule. Still, at 1:00 it was “only” 88 degrees and the corrected altitude was 3175. Somewhat better conditions than the first run. We ran a 7.19 and 187 mph which put us in the # 1 qualifying spot. 7.19 for #1 – that tells you how bad the air was. The third qualifying run we again didn’t get a time slip. When Steve staged the car, the tranny brake gave a little, so the car rolled back – again we didn’t get a time slip. This was a problem with one of the bands in the tranny – which has now been fixed. What else can go wrong? The good news is none of the other cars moved up, so we are still the #1 qualifier.

This was supposed to be an 8 car field, but there were only 6 cars. As #1 qualifier, we should be up against # 6, but #6 was a no show on Sunday. He must have broke and gone home – so we have a bye run. Steve ran it out to the eighth mile and let it coast – remember we are running with rods at the end of their lifespan. The second round, there is an odd number of cars, so as the #1 qualifier, we get the bye run. Again Steve ran it out to the eighth mile and let it coast. Now we are in the final run. We are up against the #3 qualifier. We have the faster car. Steve has the better reaction time, the better 60ft time and the better eighth mile time, but he falls off at the 1000 ft time. We ended up losing by .0091. We really didn’t understand what happened until we got home and Steve took the blower off. Come to find out there was a 4” gap blown out of the blower gasket. That kind of explains why the car died at the top end of that final run.

This was a really strange event. We had trans brake problems, confusion problems, but still ended up #1 qualifier. Had two bye runs, and still only managed to runner up.

We arrived at the track early Thursday afternoon. It was sunny with temps in the mid 80’s. We spent the evening eating, drinking and chatting with our racing buddies that we had not seen since October 2009. We had good weather (for Indy) only a couple of brief thunder storms – but the high winds during those storms had people scrambling to gather in their awnings and pop-ups. A few didn’t make it on time and the twisted remains of pop-ups were piled up against the trash cans. Luckily ours were not among them.

At this event we are running with our backup engine. The rods in this engine are at the end of their life span, and they have to last for this event and the next event at Bowling Green, KY – so that means they need to go another 12 to 16 runs. We know that we have to baby them, so we are running with a very soft tune up.

On Friday, our first qualifying run, the weather is hot and humid. The corrected altitude is 3643 feet. We ran a 7.147 and 187.52 mph which put us in the # 3 qualifying position. Saturday we ran a 7.148 and 187.08 mph. One of the other cars moved up, so we ended up #4.

On Sunday – 1^st round of eliminations we were up against Dave Dupps. We went a 7.04 against his 7.48 for the win.

We have been going to Indy for FIVE years – some of those years for two events – and we have NEVER WON A ROUND!!! So this win was HUGE!! We finally won a round of eliminations at INDY!

Okay – That is the good news. The bad news is that we lost in the second round. Steve ran a 7.097, the other car ran a 7.094 – but Steve went red – so it was lost at the starting line.

We left for this event a few hours early so we could make a stop in Carlisle PA to get the chassis inspected. That was done by early evening and we drove a couple of hours and stopped for the night. The next morning we headed out, stopped for breakfast, and got to the track at 9:00 am.

The forecast was great for Saturday and Sunday, but called for an evening thunderstorm on Friday. Friday was only for tech and test so that was not a big deal.

We unloaded the car, got our pit area set up, and took the car up to tech. While the car was waiting in line for tech, I walked out on the track. What a beautiful facility. The track was flat and looked like it went for miles. I couldn’t wait to get the car out on that track. All went well and we had the car warmed up and the timing set by 3:00. Test runs were allowed until 5:00. We had the time so we decided to go up for a test run.

I got the car started, and Steve did a nice burnout with lots of tire smoke. It sounded great, so I had no clue that something was wrong. But, the car was not backing up. I thought it had stalled, so I started to run down the track, with the primer bottle to get it started again. Then I saw Steve stand up and start to get out of the car – Okay something is wrong. I head back to get the tow vehicle – then I notice all the metal shavings on the track – Not Good. When I get to the car I see a huge puddle of oil. The first thing I ask Steve is “What happened to the diaper? Isn’t it supposed to catch all this oil?”

To make a long story short, the mallory metal that was used to balance the crank shaft was not welded in properly, so under the high revs it came lose – two of them. One went right through the diaper, and allowed all that oil to drain on to the track. The other one spun around in the engine and ate up pistons, rods, block, heads, valves, etc. A lot of damage!

We have our spare engine – the one we ran all last year, so we will put that one in until we decide what to do with the KB block. We will not make the May 21-22 event at Muncie Dragway, but we should be able to make the June 10-13 Goodguys Hot Rod Nationals, at Indy.

We arrive at the track at 9:30 and get set up. It is a really nice day – sunny and temps in the high 60’s.

We need to start the car with the body off to check the transmission fluid level. We also need to look for leaks and check the engine timing. We start the car and I look things over. Sally is in the driver seat and her job is to watch the oil pressure. After about a minute she sees the oil pressure dropping. NOT GOOD! We shut the engine off. The oil pressure should be 130 lbs. It dropped to 40. I check the oil filter first and it is ok. We had the oil pump relief valve stick open before, so we decide to drain the oil, pull the pan and remove the pump to check it. All looks ok, so what is up? I decide to reinstall the pump, pan and oil and remove the supercharger to get the pump drive out so I can install the tool to drive the oil pump without the engine running to see what we find. I borrow an electric drill from Gary Antinora, whose son Tim is helping me remove and reinstall the pan and now the supercharger. The pressure comes right up and I stay at driving the pump. After almost a minute the pressure starts to drop and I can tell the pump is emptying the pan of oil. A lot of oil is going to the heads – more than needed. There is nothing I can do about that now, so we decide to just keep adding oil until we have enough that the oil will drain back from the top of the engine before the pump will empty the pan. It takes 6 more quarts. So now the total is 19 quarts. Tim and I reassemble the top of the engine and we start it. Good oil pressure now!

I check the tranny fluid and the timing. Both are ok. We put the body, wing and parachute on and get ready to make a run. It is now 3:30, so we only have time for 1 run. Hope we remember how to do this!

We start the car and I do the burnout. Sally backs me up by giving me directions over the radio. I stage the car and leave. The car launches ok then goes into tire shake so I pedal it to recover. The car stays hooked up for a good first pass – 7.29 @ 181 MPH. Not bad for the first pass with a new engine that was tuned up soft. Now it’s time to pack up and go home to plan changes to the oiling system.

I call Keith Black Racing Engines (they made the block). They tell me I can try oil passage restrictors in the rear of the block and front in ¼ NP plugs on each side of the cam.

So, I remove the body, seat, drive cover, shifter and driveshaft, unbolt the torque converter from the flywheel and move the transmission back 5 inches to give me room to remove the flywheel and access the plugs. The supercharger needs to come off to access the pump drive so I can test the changes. Then I take the front of the engine apart to access the front plugs. I install all 4 restrictors and do not gain much. The pump empties the pan in 90 seconds now. So I only gained 30 seconds. It needs to NEVER run out. So now I call Bob at TITAN oil pumps and he suggests lowering the relief pressure from 135 to 90 psi. That will also cut down on the volume of oil per minute.