Yesterday was the 2nd points race of the season for us. My father loaded up the trailer saturday, and we raced yesterday. Dad didn't do much. Went out 2nd round. My other car ('84 Mustang coupe-306/c4/9") was driven by a friend of mine and his new girlfriend showed up to cheer him on, so he was a little distracted. He went out 3rd round on a bad light.

My day started out crappy. The track was COLD and damp. Traction was nonexistent. My first time trial netted a 6.02 on and off the throttle about 3 times with a 1.36 60'. A fellow racer's truck got away from him and he hit the rail, took out the 60' photocell on the right lane. Another guy got crossed up, also left the track but didn't hurt anything but his pride. The track owner got wind of cars being loose and did what he could--dragged the track, sprayed, dragged again. It was better for my 2nd time trial but still not 100%. It ran a 5.99/115 with a 1.35 60'. I put a 5.98 on the window and figured I'd be out in first round. I was right. I got took out by my own Mustang, but bought back. There was another wreck, but I didn't see it...don't know what happened as I was back in my pit fixing a broken intake manifold stud. 2nd round of elims, boy the track came around! I watched a few cars, all were breaking out by as much as a tenth. So I dialed down to 5.94. On my 2nd elim round, the opponent red lit and I had a while to sit there (his dial was 9.06). Light came down and I put that size 15 shoe to the wood. Front wheels came up out of the beams, carried them a long way out and set it down nicely....looked at my slip, car ran a 5.941 at 117.2 with a much better 1.28 60'. The rest of the day went like that....the last 3 rounds I dialed 5.95 and ran 95 or 96. Got the bye into the final. The qtr final round I had .007 light, ran 5.960 on 5.95.

In the final I drew a $100,000 ex-prostock 2000 firebird. VERY nice car and very consistent, so I knew I had my work cut out for me. Long story short, his light SUCKED and I took the win. But I didn't take it easy on him. Dialed 5.95. Ran 5.9501. Reaction was .00014, 60' time 1.282. He was going to have a hard time beating that anyway....he ended up running 5.82/127 on a 5.81 dial...and his reaction time was .146.

Sure felt good to take out a car of that caliber! It is absolutely beautiful, fast, pulls like mad on the top end, and the driver is usually GOOD. I don't know what his excuse was for losing, he avoided me when I went to shake his hand and I didn't press the subject.

Now, I have a question for you racers. What is considered a "fair" payout? We split $300 in yesterday's final round. It BARELY paid for diesel, alcohol, gas for the generator, and normal wear and tear. I think that this is going to continue to be a low payout because of the costs to the track operators....I know they need their money to survive. But what can be done to increase payouts? Our track pays based on the car count. 100% payback. I run a footbrake class, but the electronics class also pays 100% payback....and usually their car count is lower than the footbrake classes.

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record breaking '75 Maverick bracket car 2 time track champion, '84 Mustang LX bracket car, '78 Fairmont Futura, '86 Merkur XR4Ti, '95 F250 PSD, 00 F150, '03 SVT Lightning (DSG) #888