How lucky was I on this 9 sec pass????
08-31-2008, 07:12 PM
#1
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How lucky was I on this 9 sec pass???? Okay little background info.... All night we messed around with suspension settings, put the car damn near on the bumper two passes prior and then spun on the next pass after tightening the front shocks too much. So for the final run of the night and after running several 10.0 passes, we swapped bottles for a fresh full bottle, put the shocks back where they were and hoped for the best.....
So during the burnout everything felt normal. My crewchief has me turning back and forth on the line to get me perfectly in the groove. Pressure looked good, all gauges good... Unbeknownst to me at some point either during the burnout or launch the bolt that holds the tierod to the steering knuckle coming from the madman rack came out. So at this point i'm accelerating downtrack and NOTHING is holding the left front tire from turning 90 degrees in the wheelwell..... I ran it up all the way down, trapped 139.7 and ran 9.79.... turned off the return road, picked up timeslip and then bam tire turned and the car came to a RAPID halt..... but I was going like 4 MPH instead of 140...... everyone that saw what had happened and after finding the bolt at the starting line was shocked I had lived thru it without anything happening..... Moral of the story CHECK ALL YOUR BOLTS PRIOR TO RUNNING...... here's the video... Keep a very close eye on the left front tire on the launch.... when it hits the ground after a pretty good wheelie the tire shimmies in the wheelwell and then straightens out once the weight is on it..... stays straight all the way down..... crazy....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIHJ1HvVjH0
So during the burnout everything felt normal. My crewchief has me turning back and forth on the line to get me perfectly in the groove. Pressure looked good, all gauges good... Unbeknownst to me at some point either during the burnout or launch the bolt that holds the tierod to the steering knuckle coming from the madman rack came out. So at this point i'm accelerating downtrack and NOTHING is holding the left front tire from turning 90 degrees in the wheelwell..... I ran it up all the way down, trapped 139.7 and ran 9.79.... turned off the return road, picked up timeslip and then bam tire turned and the car came to a RAPID halt..... but I was going like 4 MPH instead of 140...... everyone that saw what had happened and after finding the bolt at the starting line was shocked I had lived thru it without anything happening..... Moral of the story CHECK ALL YOUR BOLTS PRIOR TO RUNNING...... here's the video... Keep a very close eye on the left front tire on the launch.... when it hits the ground after a pretty good wheelie the tire shimmies in the wheelwell and then straightens out once the weight is on it..... stays straight all the way down..... crazy....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIHJ1HvVjH0
Glad you're safe. 
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08-31-2008, 07:38 PM
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wow....only thing i can think of was that the straight ahead position was like the "home position" of the tire and once it got a lil weight on it, it just went back to where it had the least resistance...straight ahead....either way glad it turned out ok
08-31-2008, 08:17 PM
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wow....only thing i can think of was that the straight ahead position was like the "home position" of the tire and once it got a lil weight on it, it just went back to where it had the least resistance...straight ahead....either way glad it turned out ok
thanks guys. I definitely prayed that night and thanked god I didn't wad up the car into the wall.... funny thing was that I was in the left lane.... If that tire had gone left I'd had ZERO room to keep the car off the wall...
and thanks for the congrats on the 9..... hopefully it's the first of many...
