Once out of Wyoming, through Utah, and into Idaho, we just knew it would be smooth sailing. And it was … for awhile. You know how each state has it’s own slogan? For instance, Jersey is “the Garden State,” Florida “the Sunshine State,” and Nevada “the Silver State.” I think Idaho is “the Agricultural Sprinkler State.”I hope those guys don’t pay what us Californians (that would be “the DMV and government fees are ridiculous State”) do per gallon of water. I mean there were LOTS of those babies off the side of the road. At least I understood what those sprinklers did, as opposed to the weird fences in Wyoming (which friend Greg Stanley informed me actually do work effectively as snow breaks for the highway … who would have thought?) Anyway, I’ll take sprinklers over traffic any day of the week. Did I mention that we hit more traffic once we approached Boise?
Our destination was Nampa, Idaho and our friends the Vander Meers. We arrived Tuesday around 4:30 in the afternoon. I had enough time to wash the PT Cruiser (I had no idea a small car could collect so much dirt), hang out in the kiddies pool with Hannah and Jason, and run through the backyard sprinkler until soaked. (I’m really much more tan than the photos would have you believe ….apparently the filter on the digital camera must subdue my natural bronze coloring!) Then it was dinner time, and we ate well. Thanks, Dick and Kathi. After that we watched the first part of the ESPN coverage from Denver. We tuned in late to watch the show originally (Sunday at the track), so I thought we would catch up on missing the entire firs t round. Did I blink, or did someone edit out half of the first round? That was very odd.
Day two in Idaho Dick and I decided to tear my motorhome apart. Our fold out couch had stripped the bolts holding it down, so we made a hardware store trip after unbolting the sofa and cleaning everything. Dick’s such a pushover! We took a small detour over to Firebird Raceway (not the Phoenix one that would be too far). We talked with track owner Bill Neue, as I had always wanted to race at their facility. They do a great job packing the stands for their Night Fire races, and one day I want to make the trek up there. After we got back we fixed the couch (okay, we had to make one more trip back to the hardware store, but that could have happened to anyone). Next I cleaned the motorhome with Dick’s high-pressure washer, and Dick’s help (he’s such a pushover).
So here we were, 15 miles from Boise, poised (how cool was that, working those two words back to back in a sentence?) to cross another State Capitol off of our list. Jenna and I decided to take the short trip over without the little guy. While he was napping Kathi told us she could keep an eye on him (Kathi, too, is a pushover). We were pretty excited to do our “speed tourism” gig in Boise, but I’m here to tell you, this was a world record. Seems the construction crews that weren’t at work repaving the roads we had traveled decided now would be a good time to renovate the old capitol building. So we circled twice and snapped some shots. I guess we technically can cross Boise off the list, but we may have to have the governor send some interior shots to declare it official.
Once back at the Vander Meer camp we all piled on to their golf cart and headed down the street to a small residential park. We put Jason and Hannah on the swing set and watched them smile with each push back and forth. Jenna hopped on one and kept yelling at me to stop pushing her so hard. What’s wrong with trying to see if your wife can go horizontal on the swings? Jason took a rest and went to hang out with Kathi and Dick. About this time I was reliving my youth, stress-testing the chains on my swing, as well as the balance labyrinths in my inner ears. Kathi decided to take some pics of Jenna and me, and apparently Jason wanted to see what all of the excitement was. Hannah was still swinging away, and poor little Jason obviously hasn’t grasped the basic laws of gravity, physics, and the fact that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Need I mention that objects in motion (including little girls on swings) tend to stay in motion, and objects like toddlers can get knocked down very easily? He cried so hard that he went limp twice in my arms, forgetting to breathe in after all of the emotion. I was a bit scary for Jenn and me, but he obviously was more shocked than anything else. Hannah felt bad, so we had to make sure that she knew it wasn’t her fault. Jason certainly harbored no resentment towards his bigger friend. We had a nice barbeque and Jason decided that he wanted Dick to feed him, just because Dick is such a pushover.
Jenna, Jason, and I had such a good time with the Vander Meers that we wanted to show our gratitude. Jason decided he would mow their enormous backyard all by himself, but he apparently forgot something. Everyone knows you should wear shoes and good eye protection while mowing! It might have had something to do with the whack on the head from the swings, but I gave him a proper chastising on dressing appropriately.
Because it was an 8 ½-hour drive and we needed to be at the track in Seattle by Thursday afternoon, we figured that we should be on the road by 8:30 Wednesday night, allowing a sleep stop and some cushion. By the time we got done with laundry (did I mention that the Vander Meers are great hosts?) and filled the RV with water (their water), it was more like midnight, but hey, we’re night owls anyway. We managed 271 miles, and around 4:30 in the morning it was time to stop for sleep. We were now in Washington, so the last leg of the trip was a breeze once we woke. A quick stop for fuel gave me a reality check with mathematics: $5.139 times 94 gallons equals more than I paid for my first car.
Once we got the rig pitted and leveled I headed over to the Comstock pits to give Rodger “a hand” installing the engine diaper on his older Super Comp car (as opposed to the “new” car, which he also runs in Top Dragster). He is trying to sell the older car, so he decided to run it at Seattle. The “hand” I wound up providing turned into much more, and friend John Anderson helped me get the diaper secured. We’re not sure where Rodger disappeared to, but we’d get even later. Here’s when my big mistake took place: I should have left, fast, when I had the opportunity. Rodger told me the idle was staying pretty high since the last race, so I naively stuck around to check it out. Seems the engine had sucked part of the intake gasket, so off came the manifold, but not before Rodger paid for leaving the diaper install to John and me. We needed to drain some of the coolant, so naturally the diaper had to come partway off. I then had Rodger remove the block drain plug, but nothing came out. I told him to stick a zip tie into the hole, and stand back, as sediment will typically block the drainage until cleared. He cleared it, and it drained ….all over him! I continued to remove the intake hardware, and chuckle under my breath. About this time Roger Harper (he’s such a pushover) stopped by to say hello. He didn’t leave f or over an hour, and we used half of his tools and all of his silicon. Once we got the intake back into place and were tightening the bolts, I happened to glance at the rear rail of the manifold where it (should) mate to the block. Though we had used enough of Roger’s (not to be confused with Rodger) silicon, this engine for some reason had an extra large gap, and I could see a bit of daylight. If it had been 15 minutes before eliminations, we just would have squeezed some goop in and hoped for the best, but my conscience wouldn’t be right if Rodger (not to be confused with Roger) had problems the next day during time trials. Off came the manifold, and we repeated the process, this time with a Supersize on the silicon. It wasn’t pretty, but an 8.90 on his first qualifying run sure made us all feel good.
Karen, Rodger, and I visited the Seattle MTS terminal to thank Bennie Morrow and his staff on not only a great year of efficiency, but also on their support of the race team. Many of the staff volunteered to run the Mail From Home booth at the track, and I wish I had more time to spend with all of them.
Our Valvoline/MTS Dodge ran very well in qualifying, netting three consecutive 4.13’s, and a 4.17 in the heat. Though that only put us 14th, we had a good race day combo. First round Sunday we nipped TJ by .008, and we lost a close one to that darn Gary Densham in round two. That really was an important race for us, so we will have to find a way to get it done in the next four NHRA stops. We got bumped down to ninth (which is “out” for now) in the Skoal Showdown points even though John Force, who was right on our heels, failed to qualify. Teammate Jerry Toliver moved ahead of us, and we are definitely going to have to be in the top half for the next three races if we are to have a chance to defend our title. We did solidify our tenth place position in the PowerAde points somewhat, but we’re still not safe.
You regular readers know what a fan I am of the history of drag racing, and there were many of the legends on hand in Seattle. Good friend Wayne King had his car in the Cacklefest, as did four time Indy champ Hugh Tucker (with his mighty Hemi roadster). I got to meet Hank Johnson for the first time, as well as Clare Sanders. Clare drove Jungle Jim Lieberman’s car to the Winternationals title in 1969, and I got to interview him for ESPN. Jerry Ruth, Herm Petersen, and many other “hitters” from the day were on hand. While in the staging lanes for our last qualifying run a gentleman came up and introduced himself to me. He was very humble, and when he said his name was Rob Bruins I about jumped out of my shoes. Rob was the 1979 Top Fuel champion … how cool is my job? Rob was in Herm’s car during the pushstarts and Cacklefest, and the fans just ate it up.
Food was not a problem up in Seattle, as Karen’s brother Kenny and his family did their yearly salmon cookout in the Comstock pit area on Friday. Saturday was the Schumacher seafood extravaganza, and you couldn’t believe the size of the lobster tails and crab legs. Though not a big fan of seafood, even I had to go back for more both nights.
In addition to the Clare Sanders interview, I also did a segment for my “Flashback” series about nitromethane. If that weren’t enough, I was a guest on Sunday’s Raceday program, along with Gary Scelzi. Want more? They even miked me up after the first round for a brief interview, though it seems to go much smoother when you have a working microphone (you’d understand if you saw the coverage). I can’t wait until my SAG residual check shows up in the mail. Yeah, right!
That’s it, a pretty boring weekend, wouldn’t you say?
Yeah, right!