2015 Summer Race Season Update
I’ve been a bit slow updating the blog here, not only has business been quite busy, but we’ve also been racing quite a bit as well. Probably time to get caught up a bit..
July 10th, we raced Ozark Raceway Park’s Fly Your Flag Shootout in Drag Radial and runnered up against our friend Tony Phillips, Stanley & Goose Newbury. The transmission started flare shifting much worse at this race, but we ran it anyway banging the car off the rev limiter, when we made it to the final I decided to throw the kitchen sink at it so we could at least go down swinging. To my surprise, we got close, the Nova went a 4.8459@149.7 shutting the nitrous off and bouncing off the rev limiter at the shift bad and smoking the transmission, well kinda bad haha – Tony got it done with a 4.826 to take the win. Regardless of the transmission carnage, we had a great time and always love racing with the T&S Team. I had to wonder afterwards what that pass might have been had the trans been in good shape, it probably would have knocked the tire off it I suppose.
On August 8th, we won the MAKO race at Kansas International Dragway against my friend Mike Peters. The track was a bit challenging in the heat, we went a 5.17@146 in the final to take the win. Mike’s been still sorting his car out after a bunch of changes last winter and knocked the tires off at the hit.
We raced Tulsa’s Throwdown Makup Race on August 15th. We struggled in qualifying but Friday night got a 4.79 during Q2 so we qualified well. In eliminations we ran Tony Phillips and the Nova stood up then went right, had to peddle it. I got lucky on that one, Tony spun at the hit so we made it to the next round. We drew radial bad ass Taylor Lastor in the 2nd round, he edged us out in a 4.770@150.77 to his 4.74 race it looked close from the driver’s seat, but not quite enough. A new personal best for the Nova, but not quite enough to hold off Taylor, he went on to win the race.
At MAKO’s MoKan Labor Day Race on September 6th, we got to the semifinals and ran a 4.8622@148.8 against Mike White driving Brendon Russel’s Malibu. They ran a 5.15, but unfortunately I went red and wasted the pass. Since this was the last MAKO race of the year, it did get us enough points to win the very short points battle, if you can call it that. But hey, I’ve worked 10+ years to get a MAKO Championship so I’ll take it!
We qualified #2 at Ozark Street Machines September 18th, but transmission flare shift problems came back and caused us to quit early. Flip-O-Matic Racing Transmissions has been working with us to help fix this issue which has been plaguing us since last year, it’s been a bit difficult to figure out. We got three races out of it last time before it acted up again, this time the drum galled on the pump shaft, we think misalignment was causing this and also making the internal seals in the drum leak. New improved parts are on the way now and we’re getting ready for the Throwdown in T-Town.
