Welcome to the third edition of “On The Road with Kenny Racing,” the bi-weekly newsletter featuring the Landa Pressure Washers Super Comp Dragsters of Al and Jason Kenny.
As everyone knows, family and friends come before racing. With that in mind, both Dad and I promptly put our cars on the trailer after round one of the Matco Tools Supernationals in Englishtown, New Jersey. My exit came compliments of Jack Sepanek, who ran 8.904 on the 8.90 dial. Ray Skipper defeated Dad.
Keeping with Englishtown tradition, Sepanek (who beat me) went on to the final. Last year, Jean Campagna beat Dad in round one and she went on to win. And in 2000, Skipper put me out in the opening round and he followed that up with the event title.
Following E-Town, we decided to hit the test & tune at Maple Grove before the Lucas Oil race that weekend. The main reason for the test & tune was to mess around with our throttle stop rpm. Currently @ 4000 rpm, we slowly lowered it in order to regain some top end speed. After the fourth run, we were happy with the setting. We then made a fifth run for two reasons. One, we wanted to get the cars close to the 8.90 number. And two, we wanted to get a good idea of the throttle stop timer ratio.
Going into the Lucas Oil race, we knew we were scheduled to get three time trials. However, Friday featured a special Top 8 race that we wanted to participate in. Therefore, using Thursday’s data, we thought we had a better chance of qualifying for the show. The Top 8 occurs after the two time trials are over. In order to qualify, you must be among the closest 8 racers to the 8.90 dial in those two sessions, without going too quick. For example, someone who runs 8.95 is qualified higher than someone who runs 8.89.
For my first run, I went 8.94. Dad saw this, and sped his car up. However, his 8.918 was still not what we were hoping for, knowing it probably wasn’t enough to get into the show. Dad was right in front of me for the second time trial, and ran 8.901, putting him solidly in the show. I took a conservative approach, only wanting to run about 8.905. That ended up hurting me, as I slowed to an 8.914. Had I left the timer alone, I would’ve run 8.908 and qualified. The bump ended up at 8.912.
Dad then went .397 red in the opening round, and lost to Gene Arrigoni. Saturday started out well, until a Super Streeter took out the christmas tree. Replacing the tree wasn’t the difficult part … the re-wiring is what took a while. This delay caused some shuffling of the schedule, including the moving of Super Comp round one from 1pm to 8pm. Having undergone a pretty substantial weather change, both Dad and I were very confident in our first round strategies. Unfortunately, Super Comp was again moved in the schedule order and we were thus caught off guard. I hurried my warm-up and tried to get up early in the lanes. When I arrived, I found that lanes 1 through 6 were already full. 6 full lanes at Maple Grove equals about a 40-45 minute wait.
By the time we ran, many of the racers had picked up on the fact that everyone was slow. One of those racers was my opponent, Wally Roberts. I went into the race wanting the finish line, and I got it by .008 seconds. Coupled with my .417 light, I liked my chances of getting the win light. However, Wally was .415 on the tree, and ran almost dead-on with an 8.904. I went 8.894 and lost the race. That was a tough loss, mostly because I know if I cut a .417 and took .008 stripe, I would’ve beaten almost any other racer in that round.
Dad saw my result, and slowed his car a little. But, he too wanted the stripe, knowing that the majority of cars were very slow. His opponent, Todd Hickey, was not slow. In fact, Hickey followed Dad through the top end, running 8.902 with a .413 light. Dad went .422 on the tree and ran 8.881. We were informed later that Hickey, as well as the rest of the Bullet Motorsports team, are members of the IHRA “Terrible 12”, a group of racers that were banned from IHRA racing. Several racers came up to Dad after the round and were asking him what he thought … if he noticed anything weird, etc. Rumours fly quickly. Several people found it strange that Hickey would not dump, knowing that he wouldn’t get the stripe. Some even noted, “he must have known he was not going to breakout.”
Back at Atlanta three weeks ago, I also lost to a member of Bullet Motorsports. Both cars in the Atlanta Super Comp final were members of the Bullet team.
We’re now going to try and end this losing streak by going to a national event in Chicago, Illinois. This facility is one of the nicer stops on the NHRA tour. After the race, we’ll stop by T&E Auto Haulers for a few trailer repairs, as well as to discuss our new stacker trailer for the Super Gas Corvette Roadsters.
As I write this, I am sitting in the unhitched trailer, as Dad takes the fifth wheel pin to get repaired. The tube in the gooseneck hitch had severely cracked, and Dad claims we were very close to losing the trailer all together. We’re somewhat relieved we decided to stop and eat when we did. Maybe this is our lucky week.
Tentative 2002 Schedule
May 30-June 2 = NHRA National Event @ Chicago, Illinois.
June 7-9 = IHRA National Event @ Grand Bend, Ontario.
June 20-23 = NHRA Divisional Event @ Atco, New Jersey.
July 4-7 = NHRA Divisional Event @ West Lebanon, New York.
July 12-14 = IHRA National Event @ Rochester, New York.
July 20-21 = Bracket Race @ Grand Bend, Ontario.
July 26-28 = NHRA Divisional Event @ Numidia, Pennsylvania.
August 3-4 = Bracket Race @ Grand Bend, Ontario.
August 9-11 = NHRA Divisional Event @ Englishtown, New Jersey.
August 17-18 = Bracket Race @ Grand Bend, Ontario.
August 22-25 = NHRA Divisional Event @ Rising Sun, Maryland.
August 31-September 1 = Bracket Race @ Grand Bend, Ontario.
September 12-15 = NHRA National Event @ Reading, Pennsylvania.
September 26-29 = NHRA National Event @ Chicago, Illinois.
October 10-13 = NHRA National Open @ Reading, Pennsylvania.
October 24-27 = NHRA National Event @ Las Vegas, Nevada.
October 31-November 3 = NHRA Divisional Event @ Las Vegas, Nevada.
November 7-10 = NHRA National Event @ Pomona, California.
November 13-17 = Bracket Race @ Bradenton, Florida.
November 20-24 = Bracket Race @ West Palm Beach, Florida.
