Was a really wild and fun day! We had considered moving the thing to Sunday earlier in the week, but the forecast had changed to predicting no rain or wind. By the time the guys helping with setup arrived, we knew that the "scientists" had blown the forecast, badly. On the plus side, the track owner very generously asked if we wanted to setup and run on the dragstrip (I had run there a few years back and it was fun), so we opted to do so.
We got set up, and not five minutes later, the wind suddenly picked up from being dead still to 30+ mph straight in our faces. We were forced to pull the covers off of the tents and wait it out.
Then the rain started, periodically. It would spit for five minutes, then dry off, then repeat, over and over. My poor wife was struggling getting the grill lit for cooking the burgers and dogs, and doing any testing was almost fruitless. Almost. We squeezed it in as much as we could to get used to the surface which was a little challenging. There were good grooves where there was no prep remaining (the owner also dragged the track for us). Running on what is basically a rubber surface in 50 degree, windy weather, not as easy as it sounds!
The rain and wind stopped. We got the Cash Day's list set - 15 cars, so potentially around a 500 dollar pot was there, depending on buybacks. It was 3:30 when we got started. Halfway through the first round, rain again.
At 5pm the rain stopped, and the sun came out. Within minutes we resumed. There was definitely some frustration with some drivers with the weather, and not having had time to test to figure out the surface. However, as the track warmed quickly, guys started making extremely fast passes, both nitro and electric. Personally, my cars both got knocked out. Hissed Off, which had been seemingly having some issues, failed to shift into second gear on my second-round pass. In previous passes it sounded like it was going in and out of second gear, but this time I was running a guy that had just made a 2.4 (dry tire) pass, so that car probably wasn't going further. I wound up facing him again in the quarters with Invader II, and I had not yet made a nitrous pass, so I left it all motor. That turned out to be a mistake, as he edged me by half a car length. Eventually he would take home the bacon and the hardware
But not without some minor drama! He and Big Moe were the finalists, and their first attempt wound up like this:
The car in the right lane did not trip the light - because it flew over the beam. I looked at the video I took, and there was no way I could tell who won. You can see in the still frame, it looks dead even, or even if the airborne car may have crossed first. We talked, and decided to re-run the race, and the blue Vette (right lane car) wound up with a decisive win, which was deserved because he was the fastest all day.
That is, until the grudging started
I immediately called him out, as well as the other very fast brushless car (both had run 2.4 passes multiple times). This time, I put in 90 psi of boost, and (with the track owner really wanting to see a nitrous hit), and I smoked both of the brushless cars for a bit of cash, and revenge. What did I run? Well, it was faster than 2.4
Next day, after sleeping very late, I took Hissed Off's trans apart, and did discover the source of it slipping out of second gear - a rounded catch tooth in the 2nd gear primary hub.
Apparently, this is a wear item that I should be changing at the start of each season according to my teammate
All in all a good day though. The team turnout was good. The outsider turnout was non-existent, due to another local group that is much larger than us, deciding to reschedule an event to the same day. Pretty upset by it actually, because he knew full well we were running this day, and that a lot of the same people would have been going to ours. We try in our region not to step on each other's toes, but for some reason the organizer didn't care.
