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Sunday eliminations began at 11 a.m. and we
were feeling good. In the first round we raced
against Larry O’Brien. We had a staging
problem when one of the crew accidentally re-tripped
the first bulb with his shoe while I was pulling
in. This caused me to light up both the pre-stage
and staged bulbs. The first I knew I was in
the beam was when the second bulb came on.
I actually tried to get my car into reverse
to back out for a second but it wouldn’t
do that without me releasing the clutch and
I couldn’t take the risk I would roll
through and go red. Once both drivers are pre-staged
(one bulb lit) they must stage (light the second
bulb) within seven seconds of each other or
the auto starter will go off. Initially
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we
thought this led to Larry O’Brien fouling
out that round. Later we found out that wasn’t
the case, and we didn’t cause Larry any
problems. Still, it was not a pretty scene
at the far end of the track, as Larry was pretty
upset. We talked down there and our relationship
was fine, although more than one IHRA official
asked me what happened.
The thing we learned about eliminations on
Sunday was it is hectic. By the time you get
the car back to the pit you have about an hour
to turn the car around and head back up to
the fuel lines. The team worked superbly in
these conditions and we were ready in time.
Second round we had Richard Penland who went
red, advancing us to the semi’s. Third
round we raced Steve Speiss. He shook the tires
and we advanced to the final against John Nobile.
I’ve not given a lot of numbers for all
these rounds but it is important to say we
were consistent when the track conditions were
not. We ran consistently in the low 6.50’s
throughout those rounds of eliminations and
that is due to the phenomenal tuning of the
team. As good as it was; we could see that
Nobile had been running a little faster than
us so we needed more.
For the final, Richard Bertleff of Hutter
Racing Engines (again working with us all through
the event) put a great tune up in and we made
a transmission ratio change. As I said before,
this all needs to get done within one hour
so we were really grateful when Carl and Christopher
Baker jumped in to lend us a hand when time
got short.
We went up for the final at 5 p.m. with John
Nobile. The wait for that final round seemed
to go on forever but then it was race time.
We lost to Nobile by a mere 0.001 sec. They
tell me that’s about 4 inches. I’m
sure that everyone knows by now that John had
an emotional weekend, losing his best friend
to a 15-year battle with chronic illness, and
wanted that Ironman badly for his best friend
to take on his journey. If I had to lose that
race, I can’t imagine anyone else I’d
rather see get it that day then John Nobile.
John paid his dues and it was his turn. We
want ours and can’t wait to get to Budd’s
Creek to try again! P.S. Thanks to Howie and
Bob from IHRA for the victory cookies. Who
knew, you win a round in IHRA and the guys
give you a cookie? 
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