Bruce Hemminger R/S 2 from Columbus, OH

Debbie and I left the dealership that I work for on Thursday night. We arrived at about 5:30am friday morning. With about an hour of sleep we worked our way through friday the best we could. First round of qualifying I ran 1.31, 3.95, 6.17 @ 110.6, 8.09, 9.712 @ 138.81. This was good for the #2 qualifying spot. The #1 qualifier at that time was .001 quicker then I was (9.711). I looked at all my data from the run and made adjustments to my to hopefully overtake the #1 qualifying spot. I felt there was room for improvement to the 330. We then worked on the car and made all the changes I decided to make.

Saturday was a new day for us. With the track as difficult as it was on friday, we were hoping that the changes would bring quicker et’s and get us the #1 qualifying spot. Second round I ran 1.30, 3.93, 6.14 @ 110.83, 8.06, 9.688 @ 138.34. My changes showed to work .02 quicker to the 330 and .03 quicker to the 1/8 and 1/4. This put me in the #1 qualifying spot!!!!! Lets see if I can improve again in the third round. I looked at all my data and made some changes again. In the third round I ran 1.31, 3.94, 6.15 @ 110.91, 8.067, 9.688 @ 138.87. 9.688 AGAIN!!! This thing is a bracket car!!! The changes I made were to help the back half this time and they did, but I need to work on the front half some more. Every pass I analysed the plugs to see if there was room for more timing. It looked good.

Sunday was a great day. The DA was about 300-500 better then friday or saturday. Looks like it is going to be a faster day of racing!!!! First round I ran 1.32, 3.95, 6.15 @ 111.31, 8.05, 9.67 @ 139.34. The better weather conditions helped to improve my et’s. Second round/Semi’s was a very important race for me. This would be the second time this year that Jim Breese and I would race against each other. The first time was in the finals of the Joliet race were Jim red lighted against me. Once again Jim would red light!!!!! Lucky for me because I broke the 3-4 slidder in my transmission and costed to a 11.50 @ 73 mph.

I stopped the car on the return road. Since the car was not driveable I waited for my JPC teamates to tow me to the scales and then give fuel fuel check. It took 20 minutes to get back to the pits, and we still had to swap in another transmission. Once we arrived Justin Burcham, Eric Holiday, Mike Washington, Rich Groh, and Danny were all waiting to assist in changing the transmission. Justin removed the shifter, Mike and Eric were taking the transmissions in and out, Danny and Rich got the new transmission ready, and Deb and I were doing our normal in between round duties. Before the broken transmission was even removed they were calling the final round racers to the lanes. I looked at Justin when they called us to the lanes and he said ” Don’t worry, we are going to make it”. Mike and Eric finshed getting the new transmission bolted in and ready. I jumped in the car and everyone pushed me up to the lanes. As they were pushing me to the lanes I was filling the transmission with fluid through the shifter hole, installed the shifter, and set the shifter stops. As soon as I finished bolting down the shifter the car came to a stop and we were at the front of the staging lanes. I got out of the car, turned on the nitrous bottle and put on my fire jacket. After i zipped up my jacket, I got back in the car, strapped down my 5 way safety harness, put on my helmet, my gloves, and my neck brack. I then looked up and Factory stock was doing there burnouts. WOW!!!! We made it with only seconds to spare. That is just incredible Team Work!!! I did my burnout, staged the car and away I went. The car did the biggest wheelie of the weekend going passed the 60 ft clocks and into second gear. I had my opponent by .04 reaction time and I never looked back. I ran 1.33, 3.93, 6.12 @ 112.67, 8.00, 9.59 @ 141.43 giving me my third win of the season!!!! I am truely blessed by God to have such great teamates.

Without the help of my JPC Teamates this win would not have been possible.

Thank You Team JPC

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