Hot Rod Drag Week - The Journey

[nicolas]

hey, should be a 'easy day' the track in Byron is pretty downhill 

[AZOfftheWall]

Car didn't sound so good on that pass. Can't they use race gas? all the cars have Rocket stickers on them, isn't that a race fuel company? I know that green fuel altered runs on pump gas and switches to nitromethane at the track.

[gkeeton@zbzoom.net]

With the exception of Nitromethane, I'm pretty sure you can run any fuel you want. You just have to have a source to buy it from at each venue, or you get to carry it with you over the entire trip.

[vwhelmot]

Report on fartbook, Ritchie's gearbox is stuck in neutral and out. 

[leec]

That's rubbish news. I'm hoping he may be able to fix it

[AZOfftheWall]

With the exception of Nitromethane, I'm pretty sure you can run any fuel you want. You just have to have a source to buy it from at each venue, or you get to carry it with you over the entire trip.

There's a guy running Nitromethane in this competition, it's a green altered & it is awesome to watch 
Every track in the country has a guy there selling race gas, all he would need is 100 octane, who cares who makes it.
I've watched hours of the live feed over the past couple of day, hundreds of cars are sporting Rocketbrand fuel stickers, they must be at each of the tracks.
Sucks about the tranny, hopefully he can fix it, it's been great seeing a fast bug in the competition, I'd love to see him lay down a low 9 sec pass.

[gkeeton@zbzoom.net]

All the classes the VW's are in are prohibited to run Nitromethane.

This is from the Drag Week Rules...

•Vehicles in all classes other than Unlimited must be primarily fueled by gasoline, diesel, or E85 (“E85” includes similar ethanol blends available at local gas stations on the Drag Week route, or Rockett Brand E85 race fuel).

Looks like the only fuel available at the track from Rocket is their brand of E85 Ethanol. I suppose if someone is selling C16 along the travel route at a gas station, you could stock up then, but you're still carting around fuel.

vwhelmot, could you please link the Facebook page you saw the info about Richie's trans issue?

[Chip]

vwhelmot, could you please link the Facebook page you saw the info about Richie's trans issue?

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2018192941751710&id=1960025337568471

[gkeeton@zbzoom.net]

No Wednesday time for Richie, so he is officially out. 

I'd like to see/hear what actually went wrong, but I guess they won't get it apart till they're back to CA.

Steven, and Prescott are moving on to Thursday.

Steven 10.945 @ 120.70
Prescott 12.863 @ 105.04

[gkeeton@zbzoom.net]

Turning it up heading into Friday!

Steven 10.565 @ 127.65
Prescott 12.530 @ 106.18

[Neil Davies]

Richie explains more on the 1320 Video Hot Rod Drag Week day 3 highlights on YouTube.

Can't link it now but will do it later!

[Trond Dahl]

7:45

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cx6lSlOed58" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Cx6lSlOed58</a>

[NoBars]

Bummer.

[gkeeton@zbzoom.net]

Final day....

Steven 10.597 @ 126.93  for a week average of 10.778 @ 125.876
Prescott 12.660 @ 105.84  for a week average of 12.783 @ 105.288

Here's the final posting...
http://st.hotrod.com/uploads/sites/21/2017/09/HRDW-Friday-PM-5.pdf

Awesome job guys! Sorry to Richie for having issues. It would have been a fun last few days to watch with the Vert!

[Airspeed]

Indeed an awesome achievement guys! HUGE respect running those average ET's!

[gkeeton@zbzoom.net]

Indeed an awesome achievement guys! HUGE respect running those average ET's!

No more props from anyone else.....?

Sure, some may have vehicles, or may have seen a faster single occurrence from the E.T.'s these guys were running, but only they have shown to have the balls to drive 1000+ miles across the state of Illinois beating on their cars at each track. Haven driven my car to 5 different tracks within a 140 mile radius from me in about a 6 year period when I was actively racing, I can't even imagine the bunny factor driving MUCH faster cars across state.

Hopefully I didn't steal Jo's, or anyone's thunder by posting daily results. Haven known those that have completed Drag Week in the past, social media is usually the last thing you think about at the end of the day rolling into the hotel. Those guys aren't even home yet to give a summery of their event, so hopefully there will be more to come from the participants.

I figured there would be more activity in this thread, but I guess Facebook is taking over the world.

[Jo Clifford]

Indeed an awesome achievement guys! HUGE respect running those average ET's!

No more props from anyone else.....?

Sure, some may have vehicles, or may have seen a faster single occurrence from the E.T.'s these guys were running, but only they have shown to have the balls to drive 1000+ miles across the state of Illinois beating on their cars at each track. Haven driven my car to 5 different tracks within a 140 mile radius from me in about a 6 year period when I was actively racing, I can't even imagine the bunny factor driving MUCH faster cars across state.

Hopefully I didn't steal Jo's, or anyone's thunder by posting daily results. Haven known those that have completed Drag Week in the past, social media is usually the last thing you think about at the end of the day rolling into the hotel. Those guys aren't even home yet to give a summery of their event, so hopefully there will be more to come from the participants.

I figured there would be more activity in this thread, but I guess Facebook is taking over the world.

No problem updating results, we have started the journey back but are taking a longer route so we can do some sight-seeing.
So it will be next weekend before we are back in SoCal and even then Richie's focus will be on tearing the car down to try and get the trans fixed and the car back together in time for Unlimited Street West the following weekend.

Sent from my SM-T820 using Tapatalk

[RichardinNZ]

It was bad luck that the transmission let you down but even with that happening it looks like you have had an adventure that we are all envious of. 

Being part of drag week, surrounded by  the other particupants and cars must have been fantastic.  Plus on top of that the road trip to get there and back....

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[gkeeton@zbzoom.net]

Have fun on the trip back! Yes, we are all envious of your adventure! Half the racers I know that have completed Drag Week cashed in all their remaining vacation days, and were back to work on Monday, then ate Ramen Noodles till the next payday from the money spent on the adventures.

Hopefully Richie will give a full run down on what happened to the trans. I've fixed quite a few Type 1, and Type 2 trans with odd issues from off-roader's that seem to be able to break a crow bar in a sand box, but never got one that was stuck in neutral.

[Jo Clifford]

Drove across the remaining part of Tennessee today, just got to West Memphis, Arkansas.
Tomorrow we start the drive to Oklahoma City.

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[modnrod]

My favourite show ever.
 

[Andrew]

Reminds me of the seventies....Yeeehaaa

[Eddie DVK]

Richie man,
if I was you, would be proud as hell.
Only being there is a great accomplishment in my book.
So hat s off.

Edit:
Was on holiday, but man have been watching the 1320 video s on YouTube this morning.
Looks like a lot of comradeship going on, love it.

[gkeeton@zbzoom.net]

Cool! Looks like you guys are hitting all the hot spots! To bad Mike wasn't around at Antique Archeology. He is a die hard VW enthusiast, and really would have enjoyed talking with you about the car, and adventure.

Drag Week used to let you have a NASCAR style pit crew to tag along with you to help repair/service a race car. This had changed a couple years ago to only having the driver, and one other crew person, although other registered racers are able to help. Everyone involved in the event knows the challenges everyone faces, and realize what's at stake. Most help out on anyone's issue because they, themselves know they may need the favor returned the next day. There are other competitors that favor victory/defeat during competition, as opposed to mechanical failure, and will lend damn near anything to a close competitor to get them down the track the next day. Did anyone noticed on the final results page from Hot Rod, the first pic is of last years Unlimited winner Jeff Lutz helping line up this years winner Dave Schroeder?

[nicolas]

sad to see this trip end sooner then expected for you Richie. but a big thumbs up and cheer for the 3 of you and doing this. the times that have been run for street cars are quite impressive. thanks!

[slowlearner]

Thanks so much for flying the ACVW flag. I wish I could afford to do it. However, Street Machine magazine over here has a similar event. I'm looking into doing it next year.

...and I've yet to even race the car over the 1/4 once! 

[richie]

 This had changed a couple years ago to only having the driver, and one other crew person, although other registered racers are able to help.


 Did anyone noticed on the final results page from Hot Rod, the first pic is of last years Unlimited winner Jeff Lutz helping line up this years winner Dave Schroeder?

Yes, and its very controversial 

[richie]

Thanks to everyone for the positive comments

It was an amazing experience and we enjoyed it a lot, the trans failure really sucked but these things happen, the positive were the engine worked perfectly, it ran with good temps on the roads and maintained good constant oil pressure the whole time so all the planning & work building that was worth it , I had to do some tuning on the road and had one side intake manifold come loose enough to get an air leak but that was it for any on road mechanical issues.

The other problem I had was a injector driver problem on the drive Monday evening which fried the 4 injectors it runs on  normally [it has 8 injectors total] I did have some spares but they were smaller so had to create a new map by guesswork Tuesday morning to be able to make a pass but could only get the first 4 to work so this limited boost I could run hence only running 10s. Having done the 2 big drives Monday & Tuesday I was starting to think we had overcome the worst of it but the startline on day 3 was tricky and it being only my 4 pass on this type drag radials I didn't have any data for settings so went with what worked the other 2 days but had real bad wheelhop as it struggled for grip and as I shifted to 2nd something bad happened in the trans and that was it.
We did try fix it but finally conceded we couldn't in the time we had and then were informed we were excluded anyway as I was towed back by the track crew, this was something I wasn't aware of but learnt a lesson for next time


I now already have the car apart and trans is supposed to get taken apart this weekend, 1st inspection is that the shift fork opened up and failed, you can grab the 1/2 shift rod and twist it side to side a fair amount which it shouldn't do.
There is a VW race at Fontana next weekend which includes Unlimited street class so trying to get it done for then

cheers Richie

[leec]

Glad you are already thinking about next time
How does it work, do you just re-apply?
Lee

[richie]

Entry will open sometime next year online and you have to be really quick, it sold out in 6 minutes this year!!!!!