Nothing but problems for the Dan Myers Racing team in Oregon

Coutesy of Dan Myers Racing

San Diego, Ca – Dan Myers got the long haul award as he drove 24 hours total to get from his home in Ramona, Ca (near San Diego) to Woodburn, Oregon (near Portland). He was the first Pro Mod team to roll in the gates and the first to leave…Sunday morning.

There were three qualifying passes scheduled for Saturday. On the first pass the team wanted to get from A-to-B under power to acquire some data for a race track they had no data for. They successfully made it down on the first pass with a 6.68, nothing to write home about but it was a starting place to go forward from.

On the second qualifying pass is where the problems started. Dan was on a low 6.40 or high 6.30 pass when he started to feel a vibration from the engine, which is never a good thing. He was quick to lift off the throttle but not quick enough as a rod had exited out of the side of the block.

When the crew got back to the pit everyone was in a “load up lets go home” mode, except Mark Henry who was helping Dan for the weekend since his family’s nitrous Pro Mod Firebird was not ready to make it to this event but Mark still wanted to come. He had lived in that area of Oregon growing up and still had a lot of friends and family up there. The block was actually not damaged as bad as everyone initially thought and Mark had a local machine shop ready to make the repairs.

The crew got to working on getting the engine apart and out of the truck. With all the fuel/oil lines, wires, supercharger, manifold, etc off the car it was ready to lift it out of the chassis and load it in the back of a pick-up truck…and this is where things went really bad. As Mark Henry was ratcheting the engine up one of the bolts broke that was holding the chain to the engine. The motor then fell to the ground and one of the chains recoiled back and hit Mark square in the nose, cutting a good size gash on his nose and breaking it in the process.

The racetrack safety crew came to help Mark and then transported him to a local hospital where a plastic surgeon had to reconstruct his nose and a doctor stitched him up. After the incident Dan Myers was no longer in the mood to get his truck back on the track, he was more concerned about his injured crew guy than his injured engine. The rest of the crew cleaned up and loaded everything up in the trailer.

Mark was released that night and flew home the following day. He was actually quite lucky the chain didn’t hit him in the eye or the engine didn’t fall on anyone’s foot. For what it was, it happened the best way it could have went and thankfully Mark Henry, and the rest of the Dan Myers Racing crew, is okay.

Dan will have the engine fixed and will head to Boise in August with the West Coast Outlaw Pro Mod Association and then Denver on back-to-back weekends with his “guns loaded”.

Dan Myers would like to thank his sponsors for the support given to allow him travel and attend each of the WCOPMA events this year:
Pacific Repair Services
Red Line Oil – www.RedLineOil.com
Tom’s Differentials – www.TomsDifferentials.com

Also, Dan would like to thank the following for their help given to get his racing program back on track this year:
Bob Bunker Jr. – Bunker Race Cars
Lonnie Houde – www.LHPRacing.com
Darren Mayer – www.DMPEInc.com

For more information about the Dan Myers Racing team check out their website at www.DanMyersRacing.com.