Friend in need, another ET Finals, and the 5-Day at Moroso Motorsports Park
10/9/06
his month I will surprise some of my readers and actually cover the topics of the title of this month’s Dead-On column. I know, it’s shocking but trust me you’ll recover.
I’ll start with “a friend in need” and “a friend indeed”. Some of you know that I have recently had another surgery in my battle with some cancer that so far is in remission. What that means is I cannot get in and out of my dragster until November. I was the Summit PR Points leader in Box at Cedar Falls Raceway and was automatically entered in the Summit Super Series Run-off for Division 5 at the ET Finals. The problem was, I needed a car to drive that was easy to slide in and out of and, of course, had to be a car that gave me a chance of winning. I was looking locally for someone who was going to the ET Finals and would “loan” me the car for that race. I want to thank Gene Wurtzel and Dan Seeger for offering me their car, but the tube chassis Beretta involved too much twisting and bending to get in and out of. Thanks guys, I appreciate your trust in me.
Then I heard from longtime friend, Eddie Hall. He said he could find me a car. His home track is U.S. 131, site of the 2006 ET Finals, and he just knew he could come up with something I could fit this not very flexible body into. He mentioned that his dad raced a very competitive Camaro that had a low side bar and a 6-point cage. Before he finished I had to ask him, ”Eddie, I hope it has a delay box!” He said it did but I would have to brush up on my “thumb-wheel settings.” If you have ever used the older style Digital Delay Boxes you know what I mean. He told me about the car and the more he talked the more I was ready to give it a try, even if it meant a 1,000-mile round-trip and one time run before the race. My wife asked one time if I REALLY wanted to go that far, drive a new car for one chance to win. Without a hesitation I said “yes” and she understood.
I called Eddie’s father, Louie, and we went over what my plans were and if we could work something out. He was super helpful and when I showed up I wasn’t surprised to see the car was even nicer that they described it to be. If you know a little about me you know I could count on one hand how many Chevrolets I have raced being the Mopar freak that I am.
I hopped in the car about 30 minutes before our only time trial to see where the controls were and the first two things that had me worried were: It had a KEY to start it and the trans-brake button was over by the passenger seat next to the shifter. OK, no big deal right? Well, number one, I have never owned a racecar that had a key to start it but that was pretty easy. The trans-brake button on the other side of the shifter is completely new. Every car I have raced had the trans-brake button on the steering wheel. Oh well, I had a whole thirty minutes to get used to it.
Here I am with the "main man" Louie Hall. It was a great car that I wish I would have had a few more "hits" at. I think it could have ended up putting me on my way to Rockingham.