BLOG CENTRAL - V. GAINES
UPDATED 11-03-2008
In its never-ending quest to bring the entire world of drag racing to its readers, CompetitionPlus.com has added V. Gaines, one of drag racing’s more interesting Pro Stock racers on the NHRA POWERade tour.
Gaines brings a unique personality to the sport and the corporate world. A man of many business ventures, Gaines finds the time to drive the highly competitive Kendall Motor Oil-sponsored Dodge Stratus on the NHRA POWERade tour. The three-time winner on the tour most recently scored a victory during the NHRA CSK Nationals in Phoenix, Arizona.
Gaines serves as the CEO of Western Distributing, one of the largest trucking companies in the Western United States, and in of his rare moments resembling a break will share with the readers of CompetitionPlus.com life through his eyes on a weekly basis.
UPDATED 11-03-2008
The 23rd race of the 2008 season and the crunch time for the Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus as we have lost the previous 3 races in the first round which hasn’t helped our chances of a top five finish. The only thing we can do in the last 2 races of the season is to try to go some rounds and hopefully we can do better than our current number 9 position.
We arrive at Las Vegas with a plan that rose from our past outing here in Vegas and we load the car with the combination from that plan. The weather here in Vegas is usually a lot drier and at an elevation of over 2,000 feet above sea level. These big 500 cubic inch motors have a hard time getting enough oxygen to burn with the fuel as we get in the lower tracks. But we think that with enough gear ratio that we might be able to overcome some of that loss. We are also confident that after Richmond we have some more horse power that we have been seeking all year long.
First pass out Friday afternoon we card a 7th best run that looks promising and with the goal of qualifying high on the ladder for a good shot at some Sunday round wins. The second session comes after a lot of fuel car delays as they are having a hard time getting ahold of the track. But for us it looks like the delay might work in our favor as we race in the better left lane. And it does as we tie Allen Johnson in ET but with a little lower speed as we get the 4th spot.
Saturday morning is like Friday in that it is warm and pleasant but not very fast for the Pro Stock group as our motors like a little cooler conditions along with some more barometer. First round Saturday we make the burn out but the starter, Rick Stuwart notices some oil under our car and shuts us off. Too bad as we thought that we could improve some and we’re pretty sure that the after noon session will be much warmer and hard to improve on, still we only slip one spot to the #5 position.
Sunday morning is a little cooler with some pretty good wind and we set up our Mopar Dodge with some fresh Kendall oil for the crankcase. Our first opponent is long time friend Ron Krisher and we feel confident that with lane choice and a better performing car that we can take him. Well, we cut a safe light of .041 but Ron turns up the wick and cuts a .011 giving him a 3 thousands lead, we hustle down the track making up 2 thousands but it’s not enough and we suffer our 4th first round loss throwing us deeper into the bottom of the top ten points battle. Not in our game plan we leave Vegas with a hot car but the victim of another racer better starting light. Two weeks off and it’s on to the World Finals in Pomona and the end of the 2008 season.
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10-14-2008
The 22nd race of the season and the 4th of 6 of the countdown is a must for the Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus to do well. We are 9th in points and desperately need a few round wins to try to stay in contention for any hopes of winning the championship. As it is now we need not only a couple of win but we need some of our competition to stumble also. Jeggie is running away with the lead at this point. We are unable to test before this race as our race motor needs some tender loving care and hopefully it will go the rest of the year on this rebuild. Richmond weather promises to be cool and this track under these conditions can produce very fast runs.
Friday we prepare to run and as promised the weather is a balmy 75ish but the barometer is quite high which these Pro Stock motors just love. The first run we naturally go out a little conservative and produce a 8th best of the session at 6.61 seconds and are encouraged. The second run we make the necessary adjustments and even though we run 7th quick for the session we end up 9th overall. The track is producing record runs and with the 6.59 run we set our personal best during competition. All the classes are also producing records and it’s a very fun time to see all the great runs.
Saturday Morning we arrive at the track and are greeted by even better conditions with once again high barometric conditions. The adjusted altitude for Friday was around 1500 ft and Saturday it is around 1200. Three hundred foot better air is bound to produce better runs than Friday’s session so it should be another exciting day. Our first run we improve with a 6.58 run again another best ever for the Kendall Oil Dodge and we move back up to the 8th spot as every else runs well also. The second run even though is in a little warmer conditions allows us to tune up a little and we run a fantastic 6.56 run to again set a new low for the team. Some said it was the 5th fastest run ever by a Pro Stock car. The run was 3rd quickest for the session and moved us up to the number 6 spot overall.
Sunday morning we tune up the Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus for what we hope to be a long day of racing and our first opponent will be fellow engine customer of Larry Morgan’s, Johnny Gray. We tune up the Kendall Oil Dodge as the weather is still as cool but this morning we have a much higher humidity factor which will off set the cooler conditions a bit. Johnny has been doing a good job of driving this season and after the sting of the last races red light we want to be sure not to give away the race again with another red light. Well, we play it a little conservative with a 60 light but Johnny goes in fast and hard with a 39 light and takes the stripe even though we out ran him with a 6.59 to our 6.58 second run. AAAUUUGGG not another first round loss, how can this class be so competitive and yet so unpredictable? This one really hurts any chances of our title hopes, the best we can do from here is to improve our 9th position by winning some rounds in the last 2 races. No matter what happens at this point we will still have done better this year than we have ever done, it just seems that we can’t catch a break in the countdown to one series. Well, a week off and its off to Las Vegas for the second to the last race of the season and a attempt to improve our standings.
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9-29-2008
After just a few days off we head to Memphis where we will contest the 21st race of the season and the 3rd of the countdown to the championship. This is a very important race for us as we fell out of contention by loosing first round last week in Dallas. The weather promises to be warm with no moisture in sight. Normally this race is very hot and miserable but this year the highs are predicted to be only in the mid 80’s.
Friday we ready the Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus with some new ideas to rid our car of the gremlin that has plagued us for 8 races now. The first session we score a 9th best run but with a lot of improvement. The Friday night run we think we have the best set up when my foot gets stuck between the gas pedal and the brake pedal immediately when the car launched and all the while we were going down track trying to keep the gas pedal down to the floor I had visions of Ron Krisher crashing in Seattle last year when the same thing happened to him. Fortunately we didn’t crash like he did but my shifting was thrown off while I was preoccupied in trying to keep control of the car putting us in the 14th spot. The good news is we finally got rid of our gremlin.
Saturday morning we looked at our runs from Friday and made some adjustments to try to improve our position but the weather was much hotter and the track wasn’t as yielding so we go into Sunday stuck in the 14th spot. We feel good about our chances as the Saturday runs were both very fast and we ran with the best of them.
Sunday morning we woke again to bright sunny skies and the promise of another warm day. We put a fresh batch of Kendall oil in our Dodge Stratus and checked every thing over twice. Our first opponent would be Warren Johnson who has been running very well, starting out the day in the 3rd spot. We turned on the red light by leaving .013 of a second too soon and then to make matters even worse we were running better than Warren when the motor sputtered and we had to abort the run. It’s very important to shut these motors off quickly at any sign of trouble to minimize the damage from a part failure. Some times you can destroy an entire engine by not doing so and at the cost of over $250 thousand dollars apiece, it’s better to minimize the damage and be ably to come back soon rather than loose a valuable motor. Besides, you probably lost the race anyway at any performance hiccup. Well, a week off and it’s on to Richmond for the 4th race of the play offs and it will be very important for us to do a little catch up as we have slipped another spot to the 9th position, ugh!
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09-24-2008
After just a few days off the Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus headed for Dallas, Texas for the second of six countdown series races. We are lucky enough to be in the 5th spot after a pretty good showing in Charlotte.
Dallas has been good to us in the past as we have won this event twice. The track once held high standings as it was the first all concrete track and ahead of its time. Since then many tracks have emerged as better and newer tracks which leaves Dallas as a very challenging track. The track also has a real reputation of being a dangerous track as there always seem to be a lot of bad accidents there so we will be extra careful to watch ourselves.
The first day of qualifying, Friday we look at some high temperatures and humidity conditions as being the most challenging part of our set ups, but coming from Charlotte they can only be better. The first run we score a 9th best for the session and we look forward to our next session to hopefully pick up a little. As the day cools off we run our second session and pick up quite a bit but we still remain 9th overall as so did some of the other cars.
Saturday morning we prepare the car for a better result working especially hard on our tune up as this seems an area for the biggest potential for improvement. The weather is much warmer and it becomes one of those Saturdays that become almost impossible to pick up on. Our fears are realized again during the afternoon session when it is especially hot and once again there is almost no real improvement by any teams. When it’s like this we just work on our Sunday setup as Sunday’s weather is supposed to be even hotter than the previous two days.
Sunday morning and the weather warms up fast as we prepare the Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus for battle by giving it its usual fresh batch of Kendall oil. Our first opponent will be that ever tough Kurt Johnson who beat us in the semi finals last week in a quicker race. Well this week Kurt gets a bit of a starting line advantage on us and continues to starch out the lead all the way down the track putting an early end to our day. Fortunately the loss is not going to hurt too badly as some of our competitors too last in the first round. Next week we go to Memphis and we have to do a better job of tuning the car as our effort this week really hurt us. It looks like we will end up in the 7th position going into the 3rd race of the countdown so don’t wander too far from the TV as we continue our quest for a championship
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9-15-2008
After our disappointing showing in Indy the Kendall Oil Pro Stock team took a quick trip to Denver for a quick restocking and check over of the equipment. It’s been almost 2 months since the rig was home and it will be almost 2 months before it comes home again. We still are chasing our electrical gremlin and a quick rewire job on our shock control module we hope will help us overcome the glitch. With Clyde, our crew chief, still recovering from surgery we aren’t able to test on the way to Charlotte but the guys, Matt and Duane took the burnout car out and broke in a couple of sets of tires at the Bandimere race track
Arriving in Charlotte at the inaugural zMax race, we were pleased to see the wonderful new facility. This is another Bruton Smith wonder, and like all his tracks the facility is just the best. The track was completed in less that 10 months from start to finish and being located in the heart of NASCAR country is bound to be a smashing success. First run on Friday we set up the car conservatively since we have no data on the new track and being so new there is not much rubber on the track. The run was 7th for the session and we happy with our selection. The weather was incredibly hot and humid and we definitely in uncharted territory with the new track and weather. The second run we again set up the car conservative again and failed to improve. The session wasn’t much better but a few racers picked up and we lost 2 spots to the 9th position.
Saturday morning we decided to be a little more aggressive with our set up to see if the track would hold the power. The first run on Saturday we were a little too hot, spinning excessively and loosing our spot and dropping down to the 13th spot. The weather was even hotter and more humid than Friday. The second session we tried another aggressive set up but were the victim of some worn clutch parts and had to shut off after the car spun and shook hard off of the line.
Sunday morning we prepared the Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus by putting in a fresh batch of Kendall oil and looking over the notes from the weekend. We decided to set up the car much like the set up we had on Friday’s runs and since the weather was still hot and humid we figured that would help us. First run we ran Richie Stevens who is trying to return to driving a Pro Stock car. We left on him and never looked back. Second round we raced relative new comer to the Pro Stock category, Steven Spiess. We beat him and look to race veteran Kurt Johnson in the semi finals. We leave on Kurt with a .007 light to his .027 one, but he run a stellar run edging us out by a door handle. It was a great drag race even though we lost, and best of all we move up to the 5th spot in the countdown to the championship. We had a little fun this weekend hosting Randy Winberg’s NASCAR’s customers on Friday and Windshear customers on Saturday. Winshear is one of the newest high tech wind tunnels in the racing world and we were delighted to see some of their customers. Next week we will race in Dallas and try to go some more rounds in the chase to the championship.
9-06-2008
Friday is our only run of the day and we score a 9th best run of the session, not too bad of a start considering we have a lot of room in the run to improve. Saturday morning we make a better run but so does every one else and we end up 9th again. Saturday afternoon is a hot session and most of us don’t improve except Warren Johnson who makes a monster run leap forging ahead of us and dropping us to the 10th spot.
Sunday morning the temperatures are much hotter and sunnier and the day promises to be pretty warm. We need a good run here but we face the notorious right lane in the first session and the only way we can avoid this lane on race day is to move up to the top half of the qualifying order. We unfortunately goof up and make the wrong call and fall out of the program to the 17th spot almost an identical situation as last year in Indy where we failed to qualify also. Well we look over the books of information and we make some changes to try to qualify in the last session which also happens to be in the heat of the day. We fail a second year in a row to qualify at the prestigious race as the Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus spins wildly out of control.
Race day we have the opportunity to spend more time with Pat Hartigan from ConocoPhillips and a lot of Kendall Oil customers from around the Midwest area. We always enjoy seeing some of the folks from Quality Oil drop by, as many of them have been coming to this race for a lot of years. The truck will head for home to restock and get some repair issues taken care of. The truck hasn’t seen home for about a month and a half and will be out on the road over a month after it leaves again next week. Then we will head for Charlotte and the start of the Countdown to one series where we’ll be starting in the 8th position. The points will be re figured with the top 10 positioned well ahead of the pack with only 10 points separating each competitor. Once we start these last 6 races it will be key to win some rounds and a really big hit to win a race or two. Buckle in as we race to the finish in the 2008 NHRA racing season.
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08-22-2008
After only a few days off it’s on to Maple Grove in Reading, Pennsylvania where the Kendall Dodge Stratus will compete in the 17th race of the 2008 season. We ran really well there last year losing in the semi final against Dave Connolly after enduring 3 days of rain. This year the weather promises to be a lot warmer and drier. We feel that we have lost our electrical gremlin and are optimistic about our chances for a win.
Friday we prepare the Kendall Dodge by studying last years notes. Our first run is a little bit of a disappointing 8th best for the session with a lot of potential left. Our second run, the Friday night run turns out to be really disappointing as our electrical gremlin re-appears and we drop to the 13th position. This makes the 5th Friday night in a row that we have been denied a good qualifying position. This is an unbelievable string of events which have really hurt us in points and positioning. Well, we work late that night to replace the suspect areas in our electrical system and make a plan to eliminate all unnecessary systems for the balance of the race.
After a short night, we get our Kendall Dodge ready for the 3rd and 4th qualifying session. The first session we run a very good 6.64 which puts us 6th for the session and 6th for the qualifying order so far, a welcome relief after Friday’s disappointments. Saturday afternoon turns hot and no one really improves so we stay 6th even after running really well again.
Sunday Morning we fill our Kendall Dodge Stratus with a fresh batch of Kendall oil plus we ready the place for Lou Carey and 75 of his Conoco Phillips guests. It’s a beautiful day and Lou’s turn out is outstanding as his guests pack the tent with some new guests as well as some old time fans. Our first opponent will be Jeg Coughlin who we red lit against last week in round 2. We know that we can beat him but we don’t want to press the tree like last week and red light. We cut a .027 reaction time but Jeggie cuts a .025 light to get a 2 thousands advantage off the line. Well it was a good race door handle to door handle all the way down the 1,320 feet. We ran identical 6.675’s but Jeggie was still 2 thousands ahead if us at the stripe. Good race but tough loss as we need the points to advance our position. Strangely enough our combination of reaction time and ET would have prevailed in any other race that session, but that’s drag racing. Unfortunately the loss drops us to the 8th spot after Dave Connolly goes around both Mike Edwards and us to the 6th position even if it’s only by 6 points that separate the 3 of us. The US nationals will determine the final order. So a week off and it’s off to Indy for the last race of the regular season and hopefully we can find our electrical glitch by then.
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08-12-2008
A week off after a grueling three race swing was just what the doctor ordered. Not only did the crew get a couple of days off but we actually got a chance to go over the car in the comforts of our shop. But this didn’t last too long as we desperately needed some test time. The shock absorbers that we have been working on lately were banned by the NHRA so this is another agenda item for the testing schedule. Chicago turned out to be a place where we gathered with about 6 other Pro Stock cars on a really good track and we spent the day there sorting out our most pressing problems on the Kendall Oil Pro Stock car.
After our brief testing in Chicago the truck turned north towards the picturesque Brainerd. Its always fun to go there but it would also be fun to spend a little extra time fishing or golfing as they have some of the best of both there. Friday we completely overhaul our cars electrical system since the testing in Chicago told us that we still had a gremlin in our car that has plagued us for almost 4 races. This ‘bug’ has cost us some valuable points and opportunities but with Clyde’s perseverance and the help of some of the racing world’s greatest minds we add and subtract items to our system in hopes of de bugging the car. Luckily Clyde is an electrician by trade and it helps him to understand the many intricacies of a complicated car. The first run Friday we bolted on a smaller than normal set of tires that seamed to work well in Chicago and card a ninth best run for the session. The second session we were bit by the smaller tires which just didn’t seam to have enough ‘bite’ and we spin wildly out of control and sank to the twelfth spot. Saturday morning we realize our mistake and but a bigger set of tires on that have more bite. Unfortunately we didn’t adjust the car enough for the extra bite and we sank further to the fourteenth spot. Desperate to try to find a set up for the car for Sunday eliminations we make further adjustments and card a sixth best run but in the poorer session but we remain in the fourteenth spo
Knowing we have a good set up for Sunday we filled the crank case with Kendall oil as we ready the big Hemi for action. Our first opponent would be Warren Johnson who has an exceptional car this weekend and qualifyied third. This track is one of those that has a tendency to have one better lane than the other we can only hope to have a good light and a good run in order to beat him. And we do, cutting a 33 light to his 83 is just the ticket to beat his hard charging Pontiac. Second round we face Jeg Coughlin once again in the bad lane where we know we have to cut a better light in order to win. Well we pressed it a little hard as my clutch foot started shacking while we were trying to stage the car. A -11 light isn’t too bad but it’s enough to hand over the easy win to Jeg who scored the first round win on his opponents red light also. Well, still seventh in points as most of our competition scored as well as we did, we head for Maple grove for the seventeenth race of the season and with only 2 races to go till the countdown. Stay tuned as the Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus fights for the 2008 NHRA championship.
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7-30-2008
‘Some times you eat the bear and some times he eats you’ phrase
can describe some of the adventures of our Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus 2008 race
season. In Denver, we didn’t perform as
well as we wanted so we looked forward to redeeming our selves at Seattle, but
a problematic ignition box hurt us in the key qualifying session, Friday night
.
Our first session on Friday promised to be a better start, recording a seventh best run with a lot of opportunity for improvement left in it. The first run at a race is a combination of experience, history, and educated guesses after looking at the weather, the track, and examining the availability of engines, transmissions, tires, rear gears, tune up, and more. So if we can come fairly close on this first run we can start the weekend off fairly close and just improve from there eventually looking to the Sunday elimination set up. Of course you must first qualify and the Friday night session is usually the best opportunity to make your best run of the weekend. Well, our Friday night turned out to be a disaster, not only did we drop a valve in the motor, but we encountered another failed ignition box and also dropped from #7 all the way down to the 15th spot. Along with Larry’s guys we put in a few extra hours that night to remove the head and insert a new valve.
Saturday morning we replaced all the electrical components to try to find the cause for the failures. Saturday first run was a lot better and it showed the potential of the new engine we were trying out, however since it produced so much more power that we blew threw the clutch which means we could have run better. The last qualifying run we had a piece of trash blow threw the electric eyes at the end of the track which muted our run, but the real tragedy was that we also dropped another valve and this time it was too far gone to fix, so we put in our back up motor for Sundays eliminations.
Sunday we put in a fresh batch of
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6-23-2008
With one week off to lick our wounds from our first DNQ event of the year we headed to Englishtown, New Jersey for the 11th race of the season and hopefully a chance to redeem the Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus. The guys got a week off because we left the truck at Larry Morgan’s shop in Ohio, and while it was there Larry Morgan took apart our motor and confirmed that it was worn out and down enough horsepower to warrant our failures in Chicago. So we approach Englishtown with new found hope.
Friday we set the car up when Larry comes over to tell us that he stuck a new motor under our bench that seems to be a lot better on the dyno than our race motor. Even though our rule of never racing and untested piece lurks heavily in our minds we are seduced by the possibility of this better motor. Now, ever racer knows that dyno horsepower is only a measure, but the real measure of a motor is on the race track. First pass on Friday show fairly well for the new motor with an 8th overall for the session. Encouraged we go into the all important night session still, a long way off of a tune up for the new motor but worth the risk. Well, it wasn’t the motor that bit us in the night session but we lined up slightly left and pointed a little left, so when we launched the car it went left and with the front wheels in the air for almost 400 feet we were quite a bit out of the grove. By the time we were able to correct the direction and then realizing my shifting was thrown off because of the attention we were paying to stabilizing the car. Yikes! All in all it was a bad run in an important session that dropped us to 14th.
Saturdays weather as advertised was hot and humid, not much of a chance to improve, but it was a chance to work some more on the tune up of the new motor to try to realize some of the power that it was supposed to have. We ran a couple times more running 8th each session, but improving each time.
Sunday morning we fill the motor with a fresh batch of Kendall oil and face Warren Johnson, a racer we have faced many times before. We beat Warren off the line where he was a little slow. We then prepared to face Jason Line our next opponent whom we seam to trade wins with. Well, it was our turn as Jason spun hard off the line and we were able to win. Our next opponent would be Dave Connelly who is known to be one of the best leavers in the business. Dave gets a fairly safe light but we have our worst light of the season at .066 and hand the easy win to Dave. Well, any time you can go to the semi finals you have done fairly well. We did a lot of damage control by getting back one position to the 6th spot and still only a few points out of 5th. This will be a short week as we go directly to Norwalk Ohio where we will contest the 12th race of the season and the last of our east races for a month of so. So tune in just a few days for more ‘bits’ on the Kendall Dodge Stratus as we make a bid for the championship in NHRA’s professional drag racing series.
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6-15-2008
No time off this week as we go directly from Topeka to Chicago for the 10th event of the season and our Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus is fired up and ready. Climbing back to 5th in the NHRA POWERade Points in Topeka and defending the 8th and last position in the K & N Horsepower Challenge. We are approaching Chicago with high expectations. Our long time crew chief, Clyde West is back with us after a long recovery period from surgery. Clyde will still be assisted by Tom Martino as the doctors still have him on restrictions.
The weather in Chicago is supposed to be in the upper 80’s with a lot of humidity and wind in the weather forecast. Of course, this time of year always brings the sudden thunderstorms and a tornado or two. Well we certainly got all of that as Friday opened up with 25-35 mph winds and even though it was very warm and humid the biggest factor was the wind blowing directly across the track. It felt like the wind just wanted to blow you right off the track when you cleared the grand stands. The first run Friday we carded a disappointing 13th spot and looked to the second run to improve. The second run we adjusted the car and even though we picked up, so did everyone else and we fell to the number 20 spot. Saturday morning we thought that we had found the culprit in our tires, they were a brand new set that had a lot of initial bite and also grew a lot on down the track. These tires would be very good on a really hot greasy track but they won’t work here. So we pulled out our combination from Topeka where we ran great but couldn’t improve. For the first time since Indy last year we failed to qualify our Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus and it also put us out of the shoot out and the 5th spot that we worked so hard for. We think that the motor was going sour and we will go to Larry Morgan’s shop Monday morning to test it out.
Well, a week off then it’s on to Englishtown, New Jersey where we will have to make up for this slip. As it ended up we lost two positions in the points to seventh but Alan Johnson and Mike Edwards only managed to get ahead of us by less than 5 points, so we didn’t suffer as much as we could have as they both lost in round 1. We’ll freshen the motor and be ready for Englishtown in two weeks.
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UPDATED 6-09-2008
On our way to the 9th race of the season in Topeka Kansas, we stopped in Tulsa Oklahoma to do a little testing in our Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus. Even though Clyde still hasn’t been cleared to travel with us yet, we still needed to stop and break in some tires and Clutch discs. The weather forecast for Topeka is supposed to be hot and humid and Tulsa proved to be an ideal stop because it was that way for our test session. Some of you wonder why there is so much fuss over the weather in our ‘Bits’, and the reason for that is that it is an extremely important factor in how we set up the car. This weekend proved to be a very good example of that. Topeka, at almost 1,000 feet is one of the higher altitude tracks we run at and we start out handicapped because of that plus the expected warmer humid weather.
Friday we started out with 90 degree humid weather and completely missed the set up to end up 19th for the session. The 2nd run we adjusted the car a little better and ended up 10th for the day which was much better than the first run. Saturday morning we woke to some cooler conditions with the sun going in and out of the clouds. The weather confused us all by its fickle behavior, causing us to change the transmission and rear end gears 3 times before the first qualifying session Saturday. We weren’t the only ones as we looked around and saw most teams were doing the same thing. Well, thanks to a sharp crew under the guidance of Tom Martino we guessed it pretty good as our run was 6th best of the session and moved us up to that spot for the weekend. The 4th session was just too hot and even though we ran good, it wasn’t good enough to improve our spot.
Sunday morning we woke up to clear and hot conditions again. The first warm race of the year reminds us of up coming summer racing season. We prepared our Kendall Dodge Stratus for a good long day with the usual fresh Kendall oil and went out first round to face Jason Line. Jason didn’t qualify well here but has been much better this year on reaction times and certainly is one of the top runners. Well we had a really good light, .011 to his .032 and needed most of it because we spun pretty hard off the line. Second round we tried to calm the car down a little as the conditions were getting hotter and slicker. This second round was pretty bad as only about half the cars made a decent run. We were a little hot out of the gate and our opponent, Kurt Johnson shook, spun, and had to shut off but it still netted him a win as we left a little too quick and turned on the red bulb. Shucks and darn as the guys really worked hard in the changing weather conditions to keep us in a winning form. Not all bad as by our calculations we moved up a spot in the points to the 5th position and we keep our competition in check, too bad, as we had a good shot of winning this one. Well it’s only a few days as the guys head for Chicago where we will contest the 10th race of the season in just a few days.
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UPDATED 5-21-08
With our crew chief, Clyde being still laid up in the hospital we were unprepared to do any testing so we took the Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus to Bristol armed only with our notes from a few weeks earlier when we tested there. We also had last year’s notes but considering our less than stellar performance last year in Bristol we opted to study the more recent test notes. Weather for the weekend was supposed to be with challenges from thunderstorms especially Friday and Sunday.
Friday morning we prepared the Kendall Dodge for a tough 28-car field, more cars than we have seen so far this year. The first round is still the most important round of the weekend since it sets the tone for the direction we want to go and any head starts are very valuable. We ran fairly well carding the 6th best run of the session, but a lot of top name cars were still out. Second run we picked up the car a bit and moved up to the fourth spot with a pretty good run considering the fact that a number of the top points leaders were still struggling and the weather had turned very cold for this time of year.
Saturday morning we were promised a better and warmer weather forecast but it took most of the morning to burn off the thick fog cover, so by the time we ran it was still pretty cool. Most of the cars picked up in this session even though the adjusted weather was higher than Fridays sessions. The reason they picked up is that the track improved so much with a couple of fuel sessions being run on it. We were knocked clear down to the 10th spot by the time our turn came up and we ran second quick in that particular lane to re-up our spot to the 4th spot again. Saturday afternoon got a lot warmer and not many cars picked up but Allen Johnson had an excellent run to go from just behind us to just in front of us, putting us into the 5th spot for the total qualifying efforts.
Sunday morning we woke to some sunshine and prepared our Kendall Oil Dodge for battle. Then the rains came and it spit rain on and off for almost 3 hours while we waited our turn and the track. We sat most of that time waiting in line at the head of the staging lanes getting hungry and bored. Finally we had a break and our first opponent Max Naylor took too long to stage his car and timed out. An easy win, but it didn’t leave us with much data for the second run. The second run we faced John Nobile who we faced second round now, for the second race in a row. John broke something but it didn’t matter as the Kendall Dodge streaked to a 6.74 run maintaining lane choice again. Then the rains came again and at almost 9 pm we got the chance to go another round when Greg Stanfield ended our day by cutting a .002 light. Our light was no slouch at .022 and we ran quicker but we were unable to make up the .020 starting line difference. Still number 6 in points we had a good weekend and look forward to a week off before heading to the 9th race of the season in Topeka Kansas. Special thanks to Tom Martino who is on temporary loan from Larry Morgan and filling in for Clyde while he is recuperating from his recent surgery. Enjoy Memorial Day and we will return to Topeka
5-6-2008
This is quite life-threatening and very painful. We decided to race in St Louis any way with the assistance of Tom Martino, who works for Larry and is certainly a valued crew chief.
Friday we started with our Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus by running 10th quick with a much below par run. Friday night we ran much better, but so did every one else and we slipped to number 11 spot. The weather was warm and windy and we felt that our performance was below par so before we left the track that night we put in our back up motor as we felt it was every bit as good as our primary motor and just in case we had something failing as we thought it was good insurance, besides we have been wanting to compare the two motors for some time.
Saturday we woke up to much cooler temperatures and gale force winds. The surrounding country was full of tornadoes and as soon as got to the track it begun to rain. The rain didn’t last too long but the winds lasted all day and at a high of 54 degrees it was down right cold. Our first run wasn’t too spectacular and we slipped to the number 13th spot with a number of good competitors knocking on the door. We decided to put our #1 motor back in since we had more data on it that the back up motor. And that turned out to be a good decision as we bounced back up to the #9 position and of course Clyde was coaching us on every move from his hospital bed.
Sunday morning was a little warmer but still only in the upper 60’s and low 70’s. We put in a fresh batch of Kendall oil and prepared our Dodge Stratus for a good day of racing. We had a front row seat to watch John force win his 1,000th round wins as something funny happened. Since there was a little break in the action the track committee decided to over prep the track, at least much better than any of us were prepared for and as the first pair down were faced the brunt of the condition. Both Greg Stanfield and us immediately spun, shook, and headed for the wall. We were better able to recover as both Tom and Matt were yelling into the radio “GO GO GO”.
Well, we survived that one but destroying a clutch and transmission in the process. The rest of first round was pretty much a disaster. The second round we beat John Nobile and ran second quick for the round at 6.62 seconds. The third round we raced Kurt Johnson who arguably has the best hot rod on the premises and we knew that we had to have a perfect lap in order to win. We pushed it a little too far with a .003 red light, all in all it was a good day, moving us back into 6th position. With a week off and hopefully getting Clyde well we will resume the NHRA tour in Bristol, Tn. Tune in as the Kendall Oil Dodge fights for another win.
4-29-2008
On the way to
We traveled on to
Saturday, the weather turns hot and no one really improves
much so we go into Sunday’s session still as tenth qualifier. We put in a fresh batch of
4-14-2008
We had a week off before headed to the fifth race of the 2008 NHRA season in Las Vegas. We bring our Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus to Las Vegas with out any testing except that we were there in January at the Pro Stock Shootout. Vegas it a tough track at over 2,000 ft in elevation and usually with very little humidity, which makes it unlike almost any other track we race on. Before we arrive, Larry Morgan, who supplies our engines called to tell us that he has maybe discovered a breakthrough bolt-on that could be worth as much as thirty horsepower. Needless to say we also got very excited as 30 horsepower is hard to accumulate over a year’s period of time much less this quick. We have been down a little on horsepower this year and this is just what the doctor ordered.
Friday we readied the Kendall Dodge with the updates that Larry sent and we ran a miserable 14th best for the session run. In looking at the data we determined that our particular engine didn’t like the updates and we quickly changed back to the old parts. Fridays afternoon’s session was a loss as the engine made so much more power after reinstalling the old parts that we failed to adequately compensate for them and virtually blew the tires (spun) off the minute we left the line. Again, we were reminded why we don’t try to test new things at National events, but save those testing times for when we are truly testing. We sadly broke our own rule again.
Saturday arrived and full of confidence, we loaded the Kendall Dodge for a conservative run as we wanted to be sure to qualify rather than risk a run that might result in another mistake. Well, we ran sixth best for the session with that combination but it only put us into the 12th spot, better than not qualifying but going into Sunday’s race we really wanted to be in the top half so that we could have lane choice as this track was showing signs of being a one lane race track in the heat of the day. The second session Saturday was equally as good but once again the session wasn’t as good in the heat. Once again we were reminded why it’s so important to start out strong on Friday, avoiding playing ketch up on Saturday.
Sunday we put in a fresh batch of Kendall Oil and knew we were going to have a tough opponent with Allen Johnson. Allen was number five in points coming into the race and we were number 6, so the winner would take the lead for the week. Unfortunately, the Kendall Dodge got defeated by a lane that was very inferior to the better left lane. We beat Allen out of the hole for a decisive advantage until the car encountered the poor track conditions and lost all traction sending us straight into the wall. We were quickly able to shut it down and watch as Allen streaked by for the win.
Well a few days off then we will do some testing on our way to Atlanta Georgia for the sixth stop on the circuit and hopefully a better turn out for the Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus.
4-7-2008
On the way to Houston, the fourth race of the season, we stopped off in Tulsa, Oklahoma for a day of testing. Tulsa is a very good track to test at since it is smooth and the operators there are always glad to help us. We were able to get a lot done and had a great learning experience. Some of the new ideas we had been working on would help us in the future.Houston looked to be real warm and humid for this time of year with both temperatures and humidity in the mid 80’s. Friday’s first session proved good as we qualified 2nd for the session. Anytime you can do well right off the bat is a great way to start any race as you have less distant to go to get better and you can fine tune instead of making big adjustments. Fridays second session we tried to improve but we actually did worse, still we were ahead of the game because we knew what direction not to go. Still we were 6th over all going into Saturday.
Saturday’s weather was a little warmer and the time would be hard to improve on but improve we did, even though it was by only one thousands of a second it was enough to move us up 3 spots, from 6th to 3rd. Saturday afternoon session was even hotter and we actually lost a spot when Ron Krisher improved one thousand of a second and bumped us down to 4th.
Sunday we woke up to a slight rain that cleared up, but the humidity was very high. We had the Kendall Oil folks for hospitality, with Pat Harlan hosting some of his customers and other guests. Also Phil Sontag and Monica Ray joined us from the headquarters just across town. We filled the Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus with a fresh batch of Kendall oil and went out to face our first opponent, Kenny Koretsky. Kenny was celebrating his 50th birthday but we blew out the candles by going right by for the win.
Secondly we faced Jim Yates who is another long time racer. Even in the bad lane we treed Jim and took the win for an invitation to the semi finals where we would face the No. 1 qualifier Kurt Johnson. As we let out the clutch to do our burn out against Kurt, the transmission popped out of gear, probably breaking in the process. It probably didn’t make much difference as the track became a one lane race track and every one in the left lane lost traction almost immediately.
Still No. 6 in points we head off to Las Vegas in 2 weeks. Don’t miss that one as the Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus streaks to the winner’s circle.
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