2005 Pomona
Well …. It was a great
trip anyway.
First I want to say,
congratulations to 2005 NHRA Summit ET Motorcycle champion Roy Neely Jr.
and his team, they did a great job and earned a huge win.
Before we left I
decided I would be happy with the fact that Kelly, the kids and I were
going to go to Vegas and California, and we would have a great time
seeing things we hadn’t seen before, no matter what happened at the
racetrack.
I was worried more
about my 10 year old’s ear infection and what would happen with her
flying for the first time than anything else. I didn’t want her 9 day
vacation to start with a ruptured ear and a trip to the doctor in Vegas.
She came through it OK but it is just the thing that helps remind
everyone that there’s more to it all that if the win light comes on or
not.
Since I have made the
trip to Pomona on the ground before, I was trying pretty hard to send my
bike with someone else and fly in for the race. I tried Pat Herold, Jeff
Cheney, Chris Bishop, and a few others with no success.
Looking through the
Pomona entry lists a third time, I decided to check Alcohol Dragster
even though I don’t know anyone who runs one, and I saw John Haley from
Wayzata Minnesota.
Within three minutes
of our first phone call, Haley had agreed to take all my stuff to
Pomona, and he was genuinely happy to be helping someone. I had never
met him, but his enthusiasm made me look forward to the trip even more.
Haley has won the U.S.
Nationals with this same car, and qualified his dragster 14th
in Pomona. Toby and I went to the line with them during all of their
runs, and that was really cool.
So a huge thanks to
John Haley Motorsports for the help in getting to and from Pomona. Very,
Very much appreciated!
During the Brainerd
race, Toby Giese had pitched in and helped me get to the winners circle.
Like in every other class, the bike racers have some tradition in
helping each other out after they are eliminated, and Toby jumped in as
soon as he was out of the race.
Although he has a 4
month old baby girl at home, Toby agreed to go to Pomona and help at the
World Finals. Anyone with a new kid will tell you it is hard to leave
them behind for a few days. I think Toby enjoyed the trip, but I think
he enjoyed getting home even more.
My dad came out for
the race and hopefully had a good time. Like Kelly he spent his
days juggling watching the race, playing with the kids, running to the
store, and enjoying California.
Another guy that came
to Pomona to help was Curtis Spracklin from Omaha. Spracklin was the guy
on the other end of the Brainerd final, and was a great guy to have on
my side in California.
Curtis is very detail
oriented and that helped us quite a bit. Between the three of us, we had
some disagreement on delay box settings and dial-ins, and that was just
what you need when you are at that event. People on your side who will
challenge you and make you think about things you wouldn’t have on your
own.
Spracklin got his
first taste of Pro Stock Bikes in Pomona. Mike Berry let Toby, Curtis
and I help out and act like we were part of the team, and along with
Dawn and Denver racer Mark Faber we clogged up the starting line
whenever the Briggs/Berry Kawasaki made a pass.
Whenever we couldn’t
find Curtis, we knew he was over at Berry’s learning more about the
computer program, the clutch set-up, the Pro Stock motor, the Pro Stock frame, the trailer,
rule changes, 2006, ……
I think it is
commendable for the guy who lost out on being the division 5
representative by .0013 of a second, to come out and help the guy he
lost to try and win the world championship.
When the win light in
the final went on for the other side in the Pomona final, two of the
three RaceTeamOne girls cried, but even with that, they would all say it
was a great trip.
On the 9 day adventure
the kids got to go on their first plane trip, first visit to Las Vegas
and California, and first time at the Pacific Ocean.
Kelly took them to
Knott’s Berry Farm, and just like in “Vacation”, the park was closed.
They ended up at Disney and had a great time.
After the race, the
five of us went to Universal Studios, drove Hollywood Boulevard and
checked out the ‘Hollywood’ sign, and spent a few hours at the ocean.
We headed back to
Vegas and spent a day there before flying home.
We hit the New York,
New York roller coaster, the Stratosphere roller coaster, and tried to
hit as many of the sidewalk shows that we could in one day. The Eiffel
Tower was new to us all so we spent the money to go to the top, and the
general consciences is that we wasted our time with that. Our suggestion
is to stick to the stratosphere.
So our ‘race trip’ was
filled with plenty of non-racing stuff, and I think everyone had a good
vacation.
This is how we chose to
do this trip.
Fly to Vegas Tuesday
Stay overnight in Vegas
Wednesday - Rent a
ElMonte class A motorhome and drive to Pomona
Thursday – Tech –
attend NHRA Reception – stay in Motorhome at track
Two time trials Friday
– out to eat – stay in Motorhome at track
One time trial Saturday
– out to eat – stay in Motorhome at track
Race Sunday – eat -
leave for Pacific Ocean
Monday – Pacific Ocean,
Universal Studios, drive around southern CA
Tuesday – drive to
Vegas – turn in Motorhome. Get room and rental car.
Wednesday – return car
around noon – fly home
The RV was $320 less in
Vegas than LA. We chose to do it that way because the Vegas airport is a
very easy one to get in and out of, and we figured this way we could
include Vegas in the trip, which we wanted to do.
The cost was probably
a wash in the end, but we did get two days in Vegas!
The
race
I played the odds on
the whole race, especially the final and I lost.
In the six previous
Summit ET events the race had been full of red lights, bad lights, and
guys not running within a tenth of their dials. This is something I was
well aware of and had hoped to take advantage of, but this year it
didn’t work out that way.
In time trials:
.005 in the first
session with 1.030 in the delay box.
-.012 in the second
session with 1.040 in the delay box.
.027 in the third
session with 1.050 in the delay box.
.xxx Round one – other
guy rolls in and out of beam and threw both of us way off
.044 in the second
round with 1.072 in the delay box.
.040 in the final round
with 1.072 in the delay box.
IF I would have had
1.052 in the box all weekend:
.025
.000
.027
.xxx round one – who
knows
.020
.018
Basically, I tried to
cover the .000 light @ 1.052 in the second session by making it a .020 @
1.072. I believed the .020 light would come back around – probably in
the final and I was wrong.
I think this race
cured me of holding on to a freaky bad light and setting up the box for
it to come back. Next year – I plan to ignore it.
Another thing we
guessed wrong on was the dial for the final.
Round one was a
potential 9.59 so we threw it on for the semis. A lifting 9.590 on the
9.59 looked pretty smart but I killed about .005/.006 when I lifted at
the stripe so the run was actually a 9.584/9.585.
In the final I was
facing a pretty quick bike and decided to dial down .001 and run it out
the back, we picked a 9.57.
In the back of my mind
I could remember that Brian Johnson’s final round was a double breakout
race, and that Johnson had not changed his 9.10 dial all day. Johnson
had run fast in the final and I figured I would too. Add to that the
fact that Stinnett had dialed down his Super Stocker for the final and I
was convinced we were going to be right on the 9.57 dial.
I also remembered in
2000, Lanoue’s guy fouled in the final and thought that was a strong
possibility this time too.
My competitor had
dialed 8.60 for the semis and the final so we figured he was betting his
bike would run the same. What we didn’t know is that he ran a potential
8.58 in the semis before he lifted, and his 8.60 dial in the final was
his belief that he would run .020 slower.
After a near tie on
the starting line, both bikes went slower than in the semi’s. I was
wrong, it went slow, and that was the race.
I had gambled on
another bad Pomona final but Neely Jr. didn’t have one. Instead, it was
a good race that I needed to be better by .030 to have won, and I don’t
know what we would have done to get .030.
Spracklin tried to get
me to take out .010 from the box and go for a ten light, but I wouldn’t
do it. Toby felt it wouldn’t run a .57 but after the .590 run he decided
I knew my bike best. Spracklin felt the wind had come up a bit from
earlier, but since he had gone to the finish line for the final he
didn’t have any way to voice his opinion as we picked a dial.
If I would have been
.008 short or something like that I would be kicking myself, but since I
was sure I was right on both the dial and the delay box, I had myself in
a spot that the run I had in the final was about the best I was going to
produce.
Both semi finalist
Chad Berry and champion Roy Neely were great guys that I enjoyed
meeting, and both of them were good enough racers to have won out there.
Again, congratulations
to 2005 NHRA Summit ET Motorcycle champion Roy Neely Jr and his team,
they did a great job and earned a huge win.
That’s most of the
Pomona trip and most of what I think is notable.
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