Richard, Mike and I rolled back into the valley in the wee hours yesterday morning. I don't know what time Richard crawled into the sack, but Mike and I called it quits a little after 3.
I don't have the ladders. Andrew bought a new soft-tail custom something or another with one of those 100+ cubic inch v-twins while sitting in the comfort of his race trailer. Probably comfort spending after having ripped the leaf spring perch off the car during a particularly violent launch, wheels up. That was in the semi against me Saturday. I raced Mike in the final, but he was just a tad early. So I won Saturday, Mike was Runner-Up, then Andrew in third. Four rounds.
Sunday, Mark Murray fried his tires in the semi, and couldn't catch Glen Terry. Glen took first when Richard Bjerklund's rail finally decided to stop running 12 flat, and went on an exploratory into the 11's.
Don't hold me to it, but IIRC the numbers on that run were 11.96 @ 113 something. He came back up the return road with a big grin on his face!
Mike and I discovered a tuning issue with the Hooptie at the last Nostalgia event up at Woodburn, so my first qualifier was the first pass with that tune. The Hooptie responded favorably! The first pass was quicker than the car had ever gone, and was the slowest pass it made all weekend! Many runs were made in the 14.67 to 14.7 range.
Other notable news from Samoa; The BBQ at the Howard Family Racing Bed & Breakfast was excellent, with many tall tales told around the table on the Howard Family Racing back deck!
Allen Dutra managed to obliterate the driveshaft just after the first qualifier. Parting it at the rear weld, and tearing the metal to unrepairable bits. Andrew lept into action, sending his trusty crew back to the Howard Family Racing spare parts warehouse. With tools perloined from various sources, Doug and Allen affixed a U-joint, and got the car back together in time for the first round!
The weather was marvelous, the track side comaraderie was stellar, and the track personnel were wonderful! We had a blast!
CJ
PS: Photos will invariably follow!
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