Dragracing Famoso Weekend

Update on Dragracing. Dustin is a little behind on his blog. I will update you all with this past weekend as soon as he types it up.

As written by my wonderful husband......


Summit Series 1-2 Famoso, April 26-27, 2008
The 2008 Summit Series at Famoso got started to great weather conditions, high 80's and not a cloud in the sky. Over the weekend we held a 50/50 raffle with the proceeds benefiting the Sgt. Benjamin Portell Foundation, which was started by his wife Michelle and his parents following his death in Iraq last December. The foundation helps the financially challenged kids be able to attend Hume Lake Winter Camp. With the help of my wonderful family, and the support of the great racers at Auto Club Famoso Raceway, and with a few last minute donations, we were able to raise $500 for the kids to go to camp. Thank you to all that bought a ticket and who helped out. Let me tell you, this drag racing thing, it plays with your mind and emotions. Just two weeks earlier in Fontana, I was runner-up after red-lighting in the finals, so one would assume, hey he's on a roll and is going to do good this weekend. HA HA.. if you only knew. Following two good practice runs, the old hot rod decided to crap out on me in the first round. Dialing a 8.28, and racing 2007 Pro National Champion Greg Dreher, the car took off stumbled, and shifted into 2nd gear and ran a 8.70, which of course was no where close to what it should have run and I lost in round number ONE. Sunday was going to be better day, right... NO not really. After making two runs in the morning, the car still was doing the same thing., and now it was blowing water out at the finish line. We played with the transmission, the carburetor and anything else that we could think of, and rolled up for first round unsure of what I had. I dialed a 8.70, because if it fixed the problem, then I could use the brake pedal and slow down, but if it did not fix the problem, there was no way that I could speed it up. When the car took off, and did not shift early like it had, I knew that we had fixed the problem, and I also knew that I was running 4 1/2 tenths of a second fast and needed to kill some e.t. So when I caught the guy, I started playing with the gas pedal, on and off 10 times, and even on the breaks as we went across the strip. I looked over, and no win light was on in my lane. I had run a 8.696 on my 8.70 dial, and broke out by .004 of a second. Not a good way to start the year in points, 2 races 2 first round losses. On the other hand, my brother Jeff, enjoyed his best outing of his career, advancing to the semi-final round where he fell to race winner. I will be posting my results from the Lucas Oil Division 7 in Fontana shortly, and those results will be better.