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I passed with only one little thing they wanted me to do and I want to let all the other racers out there know this as well. NHRA does not want to see any wires that are not connected to something in the car, period. If it is an old wire that used to go to something but now is just folded over or tied off, it needs to be removed. My problem wire was one that used to go from the MSD to the Mega 450 rpm port. This is not allowed now and, although I had it shortened and tied off, they had me remove it. Good idea anyway as I don't want to lose to a cheater so I appreciate their inspections.

First round I cut a decent light, .417 to my opponent's .424 but then I could only run 8.920 flat-out and he went 8.903 (of course) to end my day. Again the timer changes just didn't work on race day.

We loaded up and left Saturday morning with the intention of getting to Eddyville Raceway in time for their two-day $2000 bracket races. THEN THINGS GOT INTERESTING.

Rolling along I-35 about 65 mph I get a flicker on my dash panel and "BAM" everything GONE! No power steering, no engine running, which means no more air brakes in short order and a major problem. We got pulled over but only had about six inches of room on the either side of the rig between the ditch and Interstate. To say we were nervous would be an understatement.

Barb came up with the best idea, call 911 and have them send a State Trooper to set up behind us to let the traffic know there a problem ahead. They did that and I owe our safety to the Missouri State Patrol. Thanks, guys. Then we needed to get the motorhome and trailer off the Interstate as soon as possible. I have bought Good Sam RV Emergency Road Service for about 10 years and never needed it so I hoped it worked when I did. I gave them a call from the cell phone and they located a wrecker that could handle the motorhome and although the trailer wasn't included in their service (we knew that) they arranged for the wrecker service to bring a pickup with them to move the trailer. It took about 45 minutes from our electrical failure to when the wrecker arrived (if we hadn't been on the Interstate I would have probably started slammin' some beers to calm myself down!).

I want to thank Don Kritzky, a friend from Minnesota who was towing by and pulled over to see if we needed a ride or if there was anything he could do. He put himself and his rig in danger just by stopping and I really appreciated it. Scotty's Wrecker Service out of Cameron, MO did a great job of getting our entire rig safely off the Interstate and to a truck stop about four miles away. Just getting the motorhome hooked up was a project that took about an hour and that was after he slowly towed me to an off ramp so he had some room to work under the motorhome to get it hooked up properly.

Scotty had to crawl under the motorhome to get the air suspension tied up. This is dangerous if done incorrectly. Be careful and be safe under a truck or motorhome with air suspension.

Scotty gave me a little warning I want to pass on to any of you racers with diesel or gas tow rigs that have air suspension. DO NOT CRAWL UNDER the chassis to hook up chains or anything else WITHOUT BLOCKING UP THE FRAME. If you snag an airline with a chain or tool and tear it off the coach is COMING DOWN and probably will be your last day on earth. He said you can't stop it and almost no hydraulic is big enough to lift the coach off of you fast enough. He blocked to rear of the coach up with his 80-ton wrecker lift while he tied the air suspension up.

Next up was getting it running. The Good Sam Emergency Road Service will tow you to the closest repair facility capable of repairing you rig. In our case it was four miles but it could be 150 miles and it is covered. This is a great service and I recommend it to every racer out there. Call them at 800-842-5351 and join today it's the best $99.00 I ever spent. It saved me over $400 in towing costs.

Anyway, back to getting the motorhome running. Good Sam found a mechanic who was actually willing to work at 4:30 on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. He was a great guy and it took him about an hour to tear out the burnt up relay board and hard wire in three new 30-amp relays. When he cut into that Freightliner harness I thought I was going to pass out but he knew exactly what he was doing and we have had no problems since.

So, back on the road and, while we thought we should head home after that traumatic event, we couldn't pass up a $2000 to win bracket race. To keep it short I got "caught" by a starting line reflection problem with my wheels and the Eddyville infrareds. Not sure what happens but it has happened to me three times there this year. I tried shoe polish on the rims but it didn't help. I was red by .08 and my 60-foot was about .09 slow. This indicates the timer started off the reflection and not the car movement. I am going to get some very dull purple paint on the front wheels or some flat black.

It was nice to get home, knowing the next race was exactly FOUR MILES from our driveway at Cedar Falls Raceway. I decided to let my son, Andy, drive that weekend and he did a great job. He got a runner-up, semis and went rounds in each race. He may have earned the job of replacing me but NOT YET! The interesting part of this weekend was we made 17 runs and all of them were between 7.93 @ 169 and 7.96 @ 168. The "Project 4-Link" had NEVER run a seven-second pass before and now it won't quit. I also got a chance to put my youngest son, Ryan, in the car on Sunday afternoon. He made a 10.30 easy pass; then we talked about a faster run. He decided to make a high gear only footbrake run (he never did like delay boxes) and he went 8.98 @164! He had a BIG SMILE when he got back and that seemed to cap our month off just right!

Thanks for reading this month's column. I know a lot of you can relate to what I have told you. It is a lot of work and I have come to the conclusion that will change my racing in the next few months and probably years. I am going to pretty much quit traveling to 8.90 races and change the "Project 4-Link" over to race in Top Dragster, Quick 16 events and bracket races. I really enjoyed my time in Quick Rod and Super Comp, but I was lucky enough to win an IHRA point's race and an IHRA National event. The NHRA national event still eludes me and I want one so I will return someday.

The 8.90 racing is so competitive that is has taken some of the fun out if it for me and I think it is time to move on for a while. We will be updating the "Project-Link" with some equipment changes for Top Dragster and some engine modifications to get us a little more power.

Stay tuned, as we should have the Top Dragster setup installed and the "Back-2-Basics" Vega on the strip by next month. See ya at the drags!

jok@racingnetsource.com

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