It’s not that I don’t like rain.  It’s more like that I can’t stand the stuff!  As a lifelong drag race fan, I’ve never enjoyed waiting out rain delays, watching the amazing staff of the Safety Safari do their underrated magic on a wet race surface.  Sure, I like jets as much as the next guy, just not when they’re mounted to a trailer and used to dry the puddles.  My point is, today we saw lots of long faces in the pits and DSR hospitality area.  Around 10:30 there should have been the thunder of 40 nitro cars warming up, not the thunder that warns of more precipitation.  Still, I can’t help but think that the long delays today actually improved my Sunday.

Whilst (I like to use old English {not the furniture polish} on occasion to sound intelligent…though it never seems to work) watching the rain drops falling, I was able to catch up with several of my friends.  Eric Gates, who I bracket and Super Comp raced with for years, came out to pay tribute to his father John, who passed away late last year.  They had attended many Indy’s together long ago, and we were able to do a tribute to a great drag racer and friend on our last qualifying run.

Air Force friend Ron Deering, who I last saw on February 4th, 1988 (the day I was discharged from active duty), got to spend the day with us.  Imagine seeing someone whom you saw nearly every day for four years, then 21 years just flew past before your next visit!  Yes, both of us have more forehead and less hair than when we were 21 (unless you count ear and back hair), but it still is good for the soul to see an old friend.

Back to the weather: The rain subsided, the Safety Safari took out their aforementioned jet and did their typical outstanding prep work, and we all got to run!  Had the session been rained out, we would have been in as the number 13 qualifier, but we knew we could run better than that.  Getting to run another session was the good news.  The bad news was that, once the fourth session commenced, we no longer were qualified, as only the top twelve times carried over.  There now existed the possibility that we could DNQ if we didn’t run well!  As the fourth pair, at least I wouldn’t have to be strapped into the car too long and wait through the first three pairs.  Or so I thought!  A couple of oil-downs, my buddy Bob Bode (say that three times fast!) launching the body off his car, and now I’m dripping sweat, trying to do all of the qualifying math in my head, and if I wasn’t wearing my gloves I probably would have chewed  off my fingernails! Fun stuff. 

Here’s the scenario: the bump is a soft 12.01…piece of cake.  However, Jerry Toliver, who is next to me for this pass, also isn’t qualified.  Assuming he runs well (which he definitely did), the bump now becomes Bode’s 4.29.  That shouldn’t be hard to eclipse, unless we shake or spin.  In a situation like that, pedaling the car usually adds roughly a tenth to the ET, meaning that any trouble on the run and I would have to react immediately, or I’m a spectator on Monday. On the launch, the car picks up the front end and heads right, necessitating some quick left steering.  From about 150 foot on I can feel a mild vibration, but it’s still pulling pretty good, so there’s no way that I can lift.  The run gives us a 4.166 at 297 mph, which is a two hundredths improvement from yesterday.  That’s the good news.  The rest of the story is that, with the way the other cars stepped up on this 98 degree racetrack, we actually lost a position, slipping to 14th and facing a pairing with one of the FAST Team Force cars in round one.

Here’s the way I see it: It’s Indy, we’re in the show, and we didn’t come here to admire the jet dryers or the Fram Girls (though they certainly are a lovely bunch).  Our goal is simple…Wally/pictures at the end of the day.

SATURDAY DIARY

It’s been a hectic Saturday here at Indy.  Sorry for the delayed entry for my blog, but I haven’t had a chance until now (it’s nearly midnight) to spend any time with the computer, and I’m beginning to wish things had stayed that way.  Three paragraphs into this latest installment, and suddenly I’m staring at a blank screen and the laptop decides it too wants to get some sleep.  I sure hope that I can remember most of what I had written!

Though our performance so far on the track has left much to be desired,  there still have been plenty of highlights that should help make the ’09 edition of “the Big Go” memorable for me:  Thursday night we headed over to the Olive Garden for dinner, and “Big Daddy” ended up three tables over from us.  No, I didn’t see what type of sauce he had on his linguini, but we did chat for several minutes about his exploits in Stock Eliminator.  Several times during this event I have been able to spend time chatting with Chris Karamesines, who, as an octogenarian, has given us all a high bar to shoot for in our “later” years!  I watched the Friday night Top Fuel qualifying session to see my legend friend make another run, one of thousands he has made during an all-star career that spans six decades!  Next to me in the stands was Walt Rhoades, who won Gainesville in 1971 driving the Freight Train, and again in 1987 driving a T/AD.  Cool stuff!

Good friends Brent and Staci Cannon have flown out to enjoy the Indy ambiance, and my dad is making friends by the minute up in the bleachers.  Many, many of the students I have trained at the Frank Hawley School are here, and trading racing stories with them is always fun.  In fact, Greg Mabe (a former student) even lets my dad stay at his house while in Indy.  I knew teaching could bring some fringe benefits one day!  I finally was able to sit down with Frank Hawley and catch up on several months’ worth of activities in both our lives, and the fans here have been unbelievable.  Nothing can cheer you up after a bad run like spending time “at the ropes” talking with the folks that make this sport possible: you, the fans.

Speaking of needing to be cheered up, our qualifying efforts have not been what we had expected.  Run one Friday night netted a burnt piston, a torched combustion chamber, and a less-than-we-expected 4.25.  Though that was, at the time, good enough for the top 12, we knew we needed a much better effort.  Run two wasn’t.  Several of our good connecting rods decided to stop connecting and join the Valvoline in the oil pan.  A toasty fire (I’m just fine, thank you) and a 4.32 didn’t leave any of us smiling.  The men on the Mail Terminal Services/ Valvoline Dodge not only replaced the engine, they did a fairly extensive tear-down on the chassis, lots of body cleaning and patching/reinforcing, and got us up to the line in plenty of time for the Saturday night session.  After two uncharacteristic (for us) engine-damaging runs, we had no choice but to take some “tune-up” out of the car.  Though run 3 was clean, it wasn’t nearly what we were looking for.  Our 4.184 tied us for the 12th position, but Jeff Arend gets t
he spot based on his higher mile-per-hour.  We will go into Sunday not in the program, but with the confidence in our parts and people that we can still get the job done.  We really need to qualify in the top half, but now we are going to be at the mercy of the air and track temperatures.  I’m hoping for clouds and a low teen run or better.  To do that we probably will need the track to be less than 105 degrees, which would require cool conditions OR cloud-cover to prevent the sun from heating the racing surface.

If you are coming out Sunday or Monday, please come by our pit and fill out a postcard for our Mail from Home program.  To date we have sent more than 200,000 of these supportive, personalized messages to our armed services members stationed in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.  As a former Air Force Sergeant I know how important mail call can be, and your small time donation (MTS pays all of the costs) can make a big difference in a soldier’s attitude.  For those that already have participated: thank you, and please do it AGAIN next time you attend an NHRA race. 

With any luck the computer won’t crash again (and no more fires for us), you’ll get to read this soon, and we’ll snag a good qualifying spot for this edition of the US Nationals.  After all, we need to be “in it” to “win it”, and we do plan on just that for our Monday “Labor Day”!

Stay tuned.

FRIDAY DIARY

Thank you, Mr. Miller!

When approached by Competition Plus to do this blog, I have to admit that I was very flattered.  Bill Miller, as a sponsor of CP, was allowed to offer recommendations as to which drivers he thought would offer some insightful reading, so again, thanks Bill!

I’m not new to blogging (though I have to admit that word kind of annoys me).  I write one that appears frequently on NHRA.com, and I have done many in the past for Competition Plus.  Heck, writing an Indy blog is sort of “old hat” for me, as I did a daily diary back in 2005 (I wonder if that can be retrieved and posted with my new writings?). 

Back in 2005 I was driving for Dexter Tuttle in a Top Fuel car, and here in Indy we survived the “bump” spot for three sessions, which caused a lot of anxious moments.  Though that was merely four years ago, so much has changed for me in that amount of time that it’s hard to believe:

In 2005 I was a part-time driver, earning my living as the full-time instructor at the Frank Hawley NHRA Drag Racing School.   Today I get paid a good wage to drive, and occasionally fill in for Frank if he needs me.

In 2005 the car I drove had never won a round of racing before I got the chance to drive it and, though we did have a reasonable year, there was never any question that we weren’t  a threat in the points.  Today I have a team and car capable of winning the championship, sponsors that  provide the finances for us to achieve that goal, and the ability to win each time we pull our car to the line.

Finally, in 2005 I was single, just over my chemotherapy for cancer, and basically thrilled just to be alive and in a nitro car.  Today, I am married to my love Jenna, we have the most beautiful son on the planet, Jason, and I am motivated to be the best I can be at my job.

Despite all that has changed for me over these past few years, much is still the same:  I still am as big a fan of the sport as I ever was, enjoying every moment of each day I spend at the track and the friendships and rivalries that have developed.  I still enjoy the support of Rodger and Karen Comstock of Mail Terminal Services, who have been on the side of each of my cars since 2005.  I still enjoy the Sportsman racing as much as ever (though I don’t get many chances to take my “Blackbird” dragster out and race the local SCEDA events) and treasure my time hanging around all of you guys at the track.  And, I still enjoy writing, so you guys are stuck with me for the remainder of this U.S. Nationals coverage!

We will make our first run in a little over an hour, and already my week has been packed with action.  Jenna, Jason and I drove here from California in the motorhome, covering nearly 2200 miles in four enjoyable days .  Wednesday I made an appearance at the Boys and Girls Club of Indy, giving a motivational speech and signing autographs.  Later that evening we did a promo for NHRA at a downtown sports bar.  Thursday my teammate Cory Mac and I made a special trip to visit four year old Caroline Symmes, who is battling a very tough form of cancer.  We met at her house and spent time with her brother, sister, mother, and grandmother.  It would take three paragraphs just to talk about the emotion, heartache, and hope that they are experiencing.   That afternoon we made our yearly trip to the Riley Children’s Hospital with all of the DSR drivers to visit as many sick children as possible and try to bring a little joy to their lives.  Again, you can’t imagine how enormous the feelings can get when experiencing thes
e peoples lives, if only for a brief time.   Today, Friday, I began my day by speaking at the Army YES program here at the track.  We talk to hundreds of area high school students about school, life choices, and opportunities available to them everywhere.  It’s very rewarding knowing that many of them are paying attention and learning things from us that can steer them in a positive direction and improve their lives.  Once I crank this blog out, it’s back to the pits to warm out Mail Terminal Services/ Valvoline hot rod, and hopefully crank out a stout pass.

Often we drivers are asked if we treat Indy any differently than the other 23 races, and in most regards the answer is, “no”.  However, even NHRA must admit this race has its’ subtleties that separate it from all the others.  Sure, there was a time that the Top Fuel show at Indy was one round more than any other race, and until fairly recently  time points were awarded at 150% of the norm for this race.  Though those anomalies have been put back in line with all of the rest of the tour stops, there still are very clear examples of why Indy is “the race”:  This one lasts two days longer than any other national event (twice the duration of most of the races), the pro competitors are given five qualifying runs instead of the normal four, and the pros get two night sessions, as compared with zero or one at nearly every other race. 

When the pits are cleared and empty, when the race is over and the last competitor packed and gone, it would be impossible to tell anything about the event that took place here.  But trust me, as long as an engine is running and vehicles are doing burnouts, Indy will always be “the race”!

Stay tuned.