St. Louis was a draw in my book. Its a Dragstip/Nascar Track in one facility. And all the sportman have to park in the infield of the circle track which is a mess. The facility is nice but not well laid out for us. Friday was beautiful for about 2 hours until a severe thunderstorm rolled in.  We took advantage of the downtime to get some decals put on.


http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/DSCF0063.jpg


That was followed by a MAJOR cold front the next day. I ended up only getting one qualifier which was ugly. The car was way over clutched due to a sketchy track/bad weather and it still had a bad vibration lingering from Great Bend. Come to find out one of my new slicks was egg shaped. The Mickey Thompson guys were good enough to replace them for me. We raced class Saturday morning at 8:30 and I now have a new wally to add to the growing family!  Then we sat untill that evening and ran 3 rounds of competition. I spun 2nd round and couldn't run the number. Many were having trouble/compaints with the track surface so I didn't feel too bad about chasing a dialable tuneup that I usually have a handle on.

But we still had a blast ;)  Everyone is digging the car's new suit but the thinner runs are starting to show in the clear. Hopefully we'll get it recolor-sanded and buffed to knock it down. My Duramax I bought over the winter got it's first work out and I should be getting an enclosed trailer soon to put behind it. 

The last couple of months have been full.  Robin and I moved to Wichita, I started a new job and have been trying to find a house outside town.  I picked up a bigger truck to pull the car and am currently trying to find an enclosed trailer to put behind it.  We got the car back together for the first Div 5 race and did well with a 3rd round exit.  Not bad considering my hot rod was a shell 3 weeks before!  Thanks to everyone that came out and put up with the crazy weather!  There is still more to do.  I have new gauges to add along with a fuel system, water pump and contingency decals.  This next weekend is St Louis so I'll try to get an update out with some pics.

The paint actually polished out really well!  Let's just hope the clear won't do anything weird in the sunlight this summer.  We got most of the car assembled last weekend.  Still plenty to do but I wanted to send a quick update.

Well, the car got the final coat of clear last weekend.  It looked beautiful!  Every panel was stripped, reworked and block sanded a number of times from start to finish.  It really looked incredible.  Here are some pics from last Sunday.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/Before1.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/Before2.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/Before3.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/Before4.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/Before5.jpg
 

Unfortunately, the shop was broke into the very same evening.  The vandals stole a bunch of tools, spray painted on some trucks in the shop and dumped thinner all over the car and uncured clear.  Why someone would do something like that I'll never know.  There were several people that helped on this project during the winter and put their heart along with many hours in and it makes me sick.  With the season starting for us in just a few weeks there is no time to strip and repaint so we'll polish it and hope for the best.  Here are some pics from the next morning

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/After1.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/After2.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/After3.jpg

To end on a good note though take a look at the new vid in the video section ;)

Well were getting close!  Painting will be finished this week.  It will take next week to get it color sanded and buffed.  I had high hopes of getting the airbrushing done but we've ran out of time so for right now the car will be solid in color.  The next several weeks will be busy reasembling and hopefully getting some testing in.

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/?action=view&current=IMG_1085.jpg

Here's a pic of the car partially sanded before getting some new doors fitted. 

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/?action=view&current=Ebay110.jpg

It's been really busy so far!  I met many great people at the P.R.I. show and am currently working on getting some  help for the car.  The first order of business was to work up a Sponsor Prospectus which I posted as a Power Point slide on the Sponsorship tab.  From there I'm working towards some great support for next year!  Also I finally got around to posting up a few pictures from the Vegas to Pomona swing to check those out.

Merry Christmas!!!

We'll I've decided after aboout 17 years of service red is getting repainted and hopefully much updating.  A few weeks back we stripped all the decals, trim and exterior parts to get it ready to sand.  Also there was some spot welding to do on a cracked quarter panel.  Alot of the paint pulled off the bottom in the process.  I had a couple pics but they wouldn't upload.  I'm tossing around the new paint job, should be awesome if it turns out ;)

 

Hey Everyone we made it back alive! We managed to completely demolish Bradley's semi and empty his fridge but he was still smiling with a Chapagne in hand when we pulled in to Oakley, Ks.

Thanks everyone for all your messages while we were out there it was fun to hear from you all! Wish we could have you all there with us. The Magic Cookies Mrs. Jones sent to us were to die for! It was like Christmas in Vegas when we got them! I think I ate half of the box :o

Troy this entire trip was a blast! It was an honor to watch you go down Vegas & Pomona tracks and claim your spot at # 10! You are truly an amazing driver! I can't wait for next season :) :) :)

Robin

Well I reached my goal with a top ten finish in the Nation!  Here's the final points standings for 2007.

http://www.nhra.com/stats/points.html

Unfortunately I was the recipient of a near perfect reaction time by my oponent the 3rd round (again) who then red lit the fourth round (again!)  If only...woulda coulda shoulda...lol

Any more rounds would have moved me up higher in the standings but I'm just thankfull for the great year I had.  One thing to note though is that I'm the only guy who finished top ten who still had the ability to claim points.  I could take my best 3 of 6 National event points towards my points total but only attended 4.  A couple more events could have made a nice impact on everyone above me ;)

Dad, Brad and Robin were great support.  My buddy Paul flew in Thursday night from home and Matt drove down Friday.  Matt is a fighter pilot finishing up his training in California with the Navy and had some crazy stories of some of the things they can do with our $55 million dollar aircraft.  Here's a shot of us getting in some qualifying Saturday.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/DSCF0270.jpg

Another college friend Lynsey made it down Sunday as well as Matt Levonus who works with NHRA in my Division.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/DSCF0272.jpg

I've got a great picture of Lynsey crying from getting her first hit of nitro fumes but it had to stay on my computer.  There were so many things that made this race special.  Just going to the Pomona Finals chasing points for the first time rocked.  With the new points system introduced by NHRA this year it also meant that I got to witness all the Professional level champions being decided at this event.  We got a great spot at the starting line Sunday to witness all the history taking place.  Here is a picture of Tony Pedregon as he was crowned early in eliminations.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/DSCF0286.jpg

And just a few minutes later some really nice guy and his son recognized me as the famous kid from Kansas driving the A/S car and asked for a picture.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/DSCF0290.jpg

Ok I can't really back that up but when I turned around to see Chip Foose standing there ya better believe Paul and I were getting a picture!  With the unfortunate passing of Wally Parks there were celebraties of the sport on hand for a pretty emotional "cackle fest" of all forms clear down the track and return road of Pomona Raceway.  I tried to take pictures but it doesn't come close to capuring the majic of around 50 race cars spread over the last 50 years running at one.  The nitro was thick in the air but it wasn't needed to get a little teary eyed at what they accomplished.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/DSCF0295.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/DSCF0293.jpg

I've made a ton of new friends as well as valuable contacts on this trip.  I was pretty proud to find out there were alot more people then I knew cheering for me to put a stick shift car in the top ten.  It's a tougher car to race consitently against the red-fluid cars for sure but I wouldn't change it for the world.  I'm looking foreward to the winter to work on some projects and get caught up on everything that's been on hold lately.  This will probably be my last blog on my trip but I am going to periodically post updates here from now on.  Anyone who would like to come to the division 5 banquet this winter is more than welcome to join.  I'm hoping to have a "thank-you" to everyone on the friday night before.  I garantee it to be a good time ;) 

http://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCPhoto.asp?ID=149988&Filter=100#indextop