AJ Powell SSO #2397 Columbus!

The weekend started off great we rolled into Columbus late Thursday evening and got a good night of sleep. Woke up Friday morning and got teched in and setup everything for the weekend I was trying to make up some ground for the points and I thought we were going to be able to do it too. We warmed the car up and went up and made a test hit and smoked the tires so I came back checked a couple things over made some adjustments in the tuneup and went out for the first round of qualifing and went 7.52 at 186

I was very happy with that because of the air and the track. The air was 3500 DA and the track temp was 141deg. that makes things very tricky on a 28×10.5 tire. After the first pass we looked it over and everything was in good shape so we put it away for the night and ate supper, right when we got done the sky decided to open up on us and it rained hard and soaked everything. Oh well Saturday was looking better. Woke up bright and early Saturday and got the car out and warmed it up and waited for the call for 2nd round and made some small changes in the tuneup, we went out and went 7.51 at 187 wich made me happy because we ran the same number.

The last round of qualifying brought a little worse conditions and we went out and went 7.53 at 186. We got our 2nd number 1 qualifier we were very happy, we had to race Chris Burlenson first round and he runs pretty well and you can’t take anyone lightly so we put a little more power in it and tried for the best the air and the track conditions were a little better Sunday morning and I was nervous ( I always get that way before first round) So we went up and did the opening ceremony went back and buckeled in the car and went out and it went 7.460 and we went low E.T. of the race.

We came back looked at the tuneup and I pulled a little power out of it and got ready for the semi-finals we had to race Perry Santini. I went up and staged and when I let go of the trans brake the car moved very well but it started drifting a little left so I drove it and then about 100′ out I had to peddle the car when I did it picked the front end back up and went right towards the centerline, I peddled it again and it started sashaying back and forth I didn’t know where Perry was so I tried to keep the car out of his lane and then all of a sudden it was way up on 2 wheels and It felt like it was going to go on its lid. I drove in to it a tapped the brake and it set the wheels back down and made another move towards the wall needless to say I tried to keep it off of the wall but I didn’t! The car came to a stop and I got out shut the power off and looked the car over and It banged the fender and bumper cover up but it didnot hit hard enough to move anything else and we pushed it off the track and in to the trailer. I got it home and unloaded it and pulled it apart and what we saw was amazing there is no damage at all it was just cosmetic and we will have it ready to go by next weekend so we can be in Bowling Green for the Finals. This was the first time I wrecked a drag car and I am glad that it was not as bad as it could have been and I get to come home to my family and get to race another day I have some pictures that I will post tomorrow of the damage after the sequence Mark took. Thank you to all the NMRA and National Trails saftey crew because you were there in case it was worse than it was!!!!!! See ya in BG and be ready to see some exciting racing!

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