Howdy folks, Mark II, Silky, Jeana Carey, myself ( Chuck Etherton's son) and Lynn arrived at the track on Thursday afternoon . Ashley and Grant were suffering a bit of a hangover from the $1 beer night at the local pub. Mark II and I pulled the blower and heads, so we could do a full service on the motor. We had to change the compressions a bit since Salt Lake City was at altitude, and now we were a bit closer to sea level. Grant's sister, Mellissa, who works full time on Gary Densham's car came over to our pit and put a clutch in. (photo) . We all had an early night .
Friday , and the weather was beautiful. nice and warm , with a light breeze. A far cry from the blistering 90+ degrees we endured last year along with the incredible 92% humidity. With some Dave Dobbyn, and 25 Years of Kiwi Rock on the CD player , sets of plugs were gapped , for the qualifying passes, the blower was gone through , and stuff just cleaned and organized so we could service the car. The new "hydraulic cylinder head lifting device" ( also known as a fucking big fuel pump) was installed, and a few new fuel lines made up. With the cooler night air starting to come in , the call came from CSK 's pit about an hour before we were due to run , to change the head gaskets to thicker ones , as with the current tune-up in the car , it wouldn't have got to the other end without running over the crank. We pulled it apart , and back together , and warmed it up. The thinking was to run the 2 night sessions in the cool night air and sit on that number if we made the field. The first round of Funny Car Qualifying was set for 7 PM, so we rolled up. The car left good , and went straight-ish but about 1000 ' , all the flames on the left side went down a lot. The autopsy revealed 5 trashed pistons , 3 rods, a broken main cap , and the LH head was torched. Del Worsham came over and reviewed the computer info. The exhaust gas temps ( EGT's) on the left side were really high." It's almost as if the head nozzles were in backwards" . A quick check of the tune up sheet from CSK showed that the sizes had been written down in reverse , so the front was running really lean and the back richer. That explains why we have been torching heads off it lately.( along with a fuel pump that was too small). We decided to put the car away , have a few beers , and get an early start tomorrow.
Saturday, now it's AC/DC , Cold Chisel, and some Sammy Haggar. The motor 's out and stripped , washed and delivered over to the CSK pit. Grant did the rounds, and Cruz Pedregon had a spare used cap that he bought. Big Tom, with the CSK blue team , line honed the block and we got it back at 2 PM, so we got to work again. 5 o'clock we were ready to warm it up. With " fuckin' A right there COCK" and " this cranks got more cracks than Paraparaumu Girls High School" it was clear that Silver Fern had "jelled" back to it's usual self. With the fuel nozzle situation fixed, we were resolved to the fact , that if we were going to make the field , this was going to our last chance. Trying to run the big numbers in the only other sessions tomorrow, during the heat of the day , is difficult enough for the Pro's let alone our underfunded effort. With some more blower overdrive this time , and a more aggressive clutch tune up we awaited 7 PM again. Now the car is sounding really strong. It sounded a bit crisper in the burnout , and was "hunting" a bit while backing up. It left good ,(photo) ran our best ever 60' time ( .899) ran 246 mph @ the 1/8 mile ( about 4 mph faster than the 305 mph pass at Pomona) the clutch locked up, the tires stuck and it was on a mission. But at 4.2 seconds ( thanks to computer info) the shaft in the blower snout broke clean in half and "slowed " to a 5.19 at 219 . Everyone was convinced including Chuck Worsham and all the CSK guys at the start line, that it was well on its way to be a solid mid 4.80 pass. The service revealed 3 more dead pistons and 3 rods, but that was about it. At this level of tune up , it's normal to kill about 3 rods a run. The new tires now had 2 passes on them , but had chunked really bad. Grant went over to the Goodyear trailer and told them of the problem, but getting another set of tires for free didn't sound too promising. The car went in the trailer , and the red cups were filled up, many times.
Sunday , (John Mellencamp, Dire Straits Steely Dan amongst others. ) The Goodyear guys came over to our pit and checked out the tires. After some negotiations , they agreed to give Grant one free tire, if he bought the other . A 2 for 1 deal I suppose. A new rack of pistons & rods go in, and since we had plenty of time , II and myself taught Grant's wife, Lynne, how to install a rack.(photo) Another set of heads are bolted on , and we readied for the warm-up. Ashley still had a gut feeling that the timing wasn't right, even though everything seemingly checked out on the timing light. He once again got Mark , the crew chief from the CSK blue team to re-check his set up. It all seemed OK ,so things were readied for the 4 PM qualifying round. As we were waiting for NHRA to groom the track for the fuel cars, the announcer was saying how Grant is "the fastest kiwi" , and even though he has no major sponsors , has consistently run low 5's and is slowly but surely getting his program together and sorting the car out, and could be a driver not to be taken lightly in the near future.
We were given the signal to fire , and went through the normal routine. It left good , for about 20 ft. One of the new fuel lines blew apart at the hose end , spraying fuel under the tires. The car went HARD right , and I mean 90 degrees , not just a little bit off course. It slid around , changes lanes a couple more times , and rolled through the lights ( a low 9 @ 31 mph) the crowd went wild! Everybody at the start line stood in silence for a few seconds, then, "Damn that mother fucker can DRIVE ! !" and the like.
With that being our last hope of getting in the 16 car field , we just pulled out the spark plugs, and oil and put it in the trailer . Lots of red cups ! ( photo) Gary Densham even came over for a couple of cold ones.
Monday. Ashley still wasn't convinced there wasn't an issue with the ignition, so asked the guys from the MSD trailer to come and look at the car. It was quickly discovered that with the new MSD timing computer box that everyone has to run, you lose 5 degrees of timing. It's not a problem with everyone else because they crank trigger , but we don't run one. A 5 degree loss is huge on a fuel motor apparently. So with that factored in too , the car was definitely making some power as was still running some respectable numbers, with those problems.
I noticed it , and Ashley mentioned it too , that Grant is starting to take charge of the car now. He rolls through the water and it jumps up on the tires now instead of rolling in to the throttle. It's still rolling forward when clicking in to reverse , and backing up a lot faster. It seems he's getting a bit more aggressive with the car. Comes from having 40 odd passes in it now I guess.
Anyway , it was a good weekend. Only running once a day meant the crew could stop and have a sausage off the BBQ now and again or a sandwich. Jeana and the girls cooked up food all weekend, which was nice. With a new pair of tires in the trailer , a drum of nitro in stock , and at least $5000 in sponsorship lined up , it looks like we are going to do the World Finals after all. The 10 grand for qualifying at Indy would have been nice, but such is the way it goes.
Story By: Golly
GRANT DOWNING AT THE US NATIONALS 05