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Welcome to the September 18th, 2002 edition of "On The Road with Kenny
Racing," the bi-weekly newsletter featuring the Landa Pressure Washers Super
Comp Dragsters of Alan and Jason Kenny.
We pulled into the gates at Epping for the first time in many years on
Wednesday afternoon. Special thanks to Mike Sawyer for recommending we get
there early. The pits at Epping could be described as somewhat dusty.
The qualifying at Epping went fairly well with the exception of some strange
scheduling by IHRA. IHRA has been described by many, including IHRA
themselves, as a sportsman-friendly organization. Well, I'm not sure what
was so sportsman-friendly about their Saturday schedule. Whenever the
"professionals" are scheduled to run, they will be run. If they have to
cancel the sportsman, and have 45 minutes of downtime, they'll do it in
order to start the pros on time. Is that sportsman-friendly?
Modified, Quick Rod and ET had their first round cancelled Saturday, and
moved to Sunday morning. Rich & Karen Dorr arrived Saturday morning, so we
watched the Top Fuel cars with them Saturday night. I have never seen a
track so packed. People were literally two-three deep along the fence.
There is a hill beside the track, near the top end, and there had to be
2,000-3,000 people there as well. We found a spot, the only spot, with room
for the four of us. We then sat there for almost two hours, and saw five
Top Fuel cars. Three of which oiled the track.
As someone who has raced both NHRA & IHRA, I have never been disappointed in
the treatment of sportsman racers by NHRA. I guess there is a reason we'll
do about 21-22 NHRA races next year, and only 2-3 IHRA events.
Anyway, back to the racing. Dad was the fourth pair in line for first
round, and defeated Mike Mitchell in a close race 8.901 to 8.907. I then
tree'd my opponent, pedaled the car several times, and ran 8.98 to his 8.91.
Dad lost in round two to local racer Eric Cabral.
Dad had lost right in front of me, so I was sure I was set-up for about an
8.905. Sure enough, that's exactly what I was on, forcing my opponent to
breakout to get the finish line. In round three, I faced NHRA-regular Chuck
Rothermel, running 8.903 to his 8.88. I then made a mistake in round four.
Dad told me what happened in the first two pairs of the round, so I decided
I wanted the stripe. I set-up fast, didn't scrub off much, and ran 8.889.
What's aggravating was that I was set-up for 8.885 and I knocked off about
.005. Translation ... I was on exactly what I had dialed and should not
have paid attention to the two pairs in front of me.
After the race, we parked right outside the Epping gate, and spent the night
there. Monday morning, we headed for Maple Grove, for the Lucas Oil
Keystone Nationals, arriving around 9pm that night. Along the way, we
stopped at a service center in Pennsylvania, dumped our tanks, fueled, and
tried to do a quick rinse job on the truck and trailer. We spent the entire
8-hour trip looking for a truck wash. However, since we were only about an
hour or two from the track, we decided we better clean it now. It was about
95 degrees outside, so we found a hose and scrubbed away, losing several
pounds on that workout.
We later took care of that weight loss thing when we stopped at McDonalds.
American McDonalds are way better than the ones in Canada as we don't have
mozzarella sticks on our menu.
We got parked Tuesday at Maple Grove, and did some maneuvering to get parked
with our friends, the Dorr family. Another good thing about NHRA is that,
if it's possible, they'll let you park beside friends. More so at
divisional races than nationals, but forget about parking with friends at
IHRA races.
Wednesday, after completing technical inspection, we all loaded up into
Dick's truck and headed for the annual S&W Open House. A very nice deal ...
we saw our roadsters and talked with the painters as well as the
manufacturers of our shocks and headers.
Thursday featured our only two time trials for the event. Dialing off of
the first run, Dad & I both ran the 8.90 number on the second shot, and felt
good going into eliminations. I had a .467 reaction time on the second run,
and that had me a little worried going into Friday.
Dad took out Mike DePinto in round one, and I followed later eliminating the
high mph dragster of Doug Fellenbaum. I also had a .402 reaction. What
made this day even more fun, was that both Dick & Rich Dorr also won, as did
our friends Ernie Kendall and Bill Krug. I had mentioned to Dad earlier in
the week that there was never a race where both Dad & I, and both of the
Dorr boys had all advanced to round two.
For second round, NHRA creates a ladder to determine who races who, and that
ladder showed my opponent to be Bill Krug. We had almost 24 hours to talk
up that round, so that was fun. Bill was very generous in his offering of
beer the night before. As far as everyone else goes, everyone but Ernie was
on the "right side" of the ladder. At the time, we didn't think this would
be an issue.
Ernie and Dick lost in second round to Dan Northrop and Shane Carr, two of
the heaviest hitters in Division One. Dad defeated Ken Kissinger, and Rich
defeated Dave Muller. I got lucky when Bill Krug sheared a ground wire from
the fuel pump, giving me the bye run.
In round three, Rich, myself, and Dad were all lined up in three consecutive
pairs. Round three was run around noon on Saturday, and it was "stupid
slow." Everyone was running in the 8.95-9.00 range. I saw this from the
staging lanes, and set-up for an 8.84 with the intention of taking the
finish line. I was racing a slower car, so it was easier to wheel him. I
took .006 stripe, running 9.00 to beat his 8.98. Rich & Dad also won
setting up an interesting fourth round.
If Dad defeated Jimmy Morrison, he would face the winner of the race between
Rich and myself. There is nothing worse than running a good friend in
eliminations. When my win light came on against Rich, all I could think
about was that my friend had just been eliminated. Dad then lost to
Morrison, meaning I would match-up with Jim on Sunday.
Sunday rained out and the race was postponed until Monday. We had been
experiencing idle problems with my dragster since the round three run. In
the staging lanes on Monday, I had Dad lower the idle from 2,000 to about
1,700. Then, after my burnout, the idle died, dropping to 400-500 rpm. As
I was backing up I started tapping the throttle to keep the car from
quitting. I then motioned for Dad to come re-adjust the idle.
NHRA starter Rick Stewart then went crazy. Dad couldn't find the right
wrench in his pocket, and Rick had a fit. Morrison had already lit the
pre-stage bulb, while I kept tapping the throttle and Dad tried to raise the
rpm. Rick started screaming at me, and after about 15 seconds Dad motioned
me forward. I activated the "pro-stage" system and then mistakingly hit the
reset, which de-activates the pro stage system. So, when I hit the
throttle, it was active and the car took off. Thankfully, I caught it just
as I lit the prestage bulb.
We both cut .423 lights, and Jim won with a 8.906 to my 8.909. An eventful
60 seconds.
As I write this, we are parked at S&W having them add a wing to Dad's
dragster for IHRA competition. For future IHRA races, Dad will run Top
Dragster and I will stay in Quick Rod. This will make it more fun in that
we can see each other run, and we'll never have to run each other. After
this weekend, I now know I don't ever want to race friends again.
Tentative 2002 Schedule
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.
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