Patience Is A Good Virtue
CORDOVA, IL – It took an extra day to complete the event as rain interfered with qualifying on Friday and refused to 
let up for any racing on Saturday but Jake and the Allstar Dodge Challenger NFC team persevered. Friday, the track appeared to be in great shape for racing. It was a brand new asphalt surface with this event being the first test of its quality adding a new “unknown” to the tune up and chassis set up.
Needless to say the first round on Friday caused the Nitro teams to keep a close watch on how the Pro-Mod and Pro-Stock classes hooked up on the new surface. With St Louis getting rained out, the fact was that we hadn’t made a clean pass since late summer last year if you recall our challenges at the end of last season. Well racers don’t just watch other racers, they get strapped in and punch the pedal for all its worth.
Jake did just that with a strong launch but really (I’m mean really) drove the car the rest of the pass. At about mid track the car pulled to the centerline enough that an inexperienced driver would lift out of fear of crossing the line. Jake pulled hard to the right and kept his foot fully to the floor to finish the pass. Unfortunately that slight bit of maneuvering does add time to the run and scrub off some speed. After the first round Jake was just outside the qualified field looking in with 6.14 s run, as it turned out missing the eighth and final spot by a mere tenth of a second. What stood between making the show or going home early was a waiting game with hopes that the weather would clear and time was available in the day to get another chance in the second round of qualifying. With reasonable high hopes we made several visits to the staging lanes on Saturday but Mother Nature proved stubborn and the second round of qualifying was postponed until Sunday.
Sunday proved to be worth the wait form a weather perspective. Full sun, cooler temps, lower humidity, and higher atmospheric pressures combined for near perfect condition for generating horsepower but the question was would the track hold all that power. Time for some additional adjustments with the objective to run a pass of no more than 6 s. Let’s not forget that everyone had the opportunity to take advantage of the weather and improve upon their times. In reality, we predicted we really needed to run close to a 5.9 sec pass so we turned up the wick a little more in the lanes. Our decisions proved worthwhile… Jake nailed the run posting a 5.95 s/ 241 mph pass and after all second attempts were done, landed us in the 7th qualified position. As it turned out, of the eight qualified cars, 7 had a time of less than 6 sec …in fact the bump ended up being 6.01s. Its really getting tough out here. Normally we’d have overnight to think about the car, its condition and the tune-up for the next day…not this time…need to be ready in an hour and a half so time to go to work.
After a quick assessment in the pits, the decision was made to leave the motor together make necessary adjustments to the clutch with a plan to repeat our last performance. We were paired up against the 2nd fastest qualifier, Paul Romine who had made a 5.63 s pass in Q1 and chose not to try again in Q2. We had our work cut out for us but we were ready to run our race.
The burnout and staging were all normal. At the launch both cars left the line strong and it appeared a good race was on. At the 330 ft mark tire smoke rose from our competitor’s lane and the evident “lift” of the throttle by the driver was heard with the car definitely out of shape. Jake steadily motored ahead with his foot planted firmly on the floor crossing the line well ahead taking the win. The winning time, 6.16 s, was not what we had tuned for nor expected but a round win is a round win. On to the semi-final round? At the top end after Jake finished his interview with the IHRA reporters he turned and said, “something’s wrong with the clutch!” Enter that sinking feeling. What he described as happening was not something we’d experienced before. “Lots of sparks from the clutch can and a vibration at the top end,” was his description.
Back in the pits immediate focus was on getting the clutch inspection covers off and see what was going on. It didn’t take long to reveal the situation…a well damaged clutch head, significant metal “erosion” and lots of very small metal parts. Needless to say, not something we’d planned on replacing and so we didn’t have spare parts with us to repair it. Our weekend was complete. The best way to describe what happened is to think about a blender comprised of only metal parts. Spin the blender at 8200 rpm and drop in a few metal pieces and stand back. The internal damage to the clutch can with nothing visible on the outside is a testament to the safety and design of these critical parts. If you recall, Jake straddles all this equipment as he’s driving.
Overall, performance wise it was a good weekend for Jake and the team. A fourth place finish out of 13 cars that entered. Of course failures of this nature are always a setback but nothing that can’t be recovered from. Expect to see us on the track soon.
Our next race will be at Cedar Falls Motorsports Park, Cedar Falls, IA., 18 – 19 July, attending the annual Night of Fire event.
We extend special thanks to all our sponsors for your continued support. Our sponsors: All Star Dodge Chrysler Jeep, Hotshots Bar and Grill, AMT Racing Engines, Vital Signs, Kodiak Equipment, Vinyl Images, Nu-Way Construction, Reese Kittle, Victory Performance Parts, and David Zientara Racecraft. Special recognition goes out to David Zientara for his immediate help and response in repair and replacement of the clutch components. Thanks David!
