Bullard's gettin' old!
Tuesday, May 23, 2006, 01:59 PM
A friend of mine called me while I was in NY last week and left a message wishing me a happy birthday. Joe Paul Bullard grew up with me. We went to sunday school together as kids, went to high school together, and as grown-ups, we worked together at Dow, coached little league together, and lo & behold, now we see each other at the race track.
You see, Joe was the first guy I ever met....literally. I've known him all my life....literally. My mom & his mom shared a semi-private room together when we were born. I believe he's 4 minutes older than I am.
Damn, he sure is gettin' old!
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The Big Apple: A Contact Sport
Monday, May 22, 2006, 01:00 PM
We just returned from taking a few days off to visit our daughter in NY, NY.
We made the trip to watch her graduate with her masters degree in Computer Graphics & Design from Parsons School of Design, & Veronica & I are EXTREMELY proud of her.
Beth toured us allllllll over New York, & we covered quite a bit of ground in 4 days. Our main mode of transportation was the subway, but we walked our butts off (that’s why you see very few fat people there). We visited the Metropolitan Art Museum, Grand Central Station, "Ground Zero", Times Square, Broadway, Geenwich Village, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, China Town, & Soho. We saw everything from an Aircraft carrier to a fist-fight between a door man & a delivery guy. We saw a really cool Broadway Production, “Mama Mia”. Parts of New York are really cool, & some parts are just down right nasty. Beer was expensive, and Miller Lite was a rare commodity. I like crowds, but there was somewhere in the neighborhood of a trillion gazillion people that exceeded my comfort zone. All in all, I had a great time, but I wouldn’t want to live there.
On the flight back Veronica & I sat next to and visited with a very nice lady who lived in Houston AND New York. She said her husband worked in NY and she worked in Houston. Her name was Nancy Holland and she was a reporter for the Channel 11 News.
Ever hear of her?
When I got home, I got an ice cold Miller Lite out of the shop fridge, fired up the ‘Stang, and walked around bare-footed in the yard for a while………Wide open spaces – don’t take them for granted.
One more thing - I turned 50 while I was up there.
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Maybe that's why they call it Drag Racing
Sunday, May 14, 2006, 12:43 PM
FRIDAY NITE RESULTS:
Pass #1: 6.92 @ 100.24
Pass #2: 6.88 @ 100.32
Pass #3: 6.95 @ 100.20
Pass #4: 6.99 @ 98.74 I hit a *#@&%**!loose piece of asphalt the size of 1/2 a brick on the big end - what a drag. The track needs some work!
Pass #5: 6.89 @ 97.28 I entered a $500 bracket jackpot wit a 6.90 dial-in. Actual ET was a 6.8996. I broke out by .0004 seconds (that's 4 TEN THOUSANDTHS of a second)-- what a drag. Maybe that's why they call it "Drag" Racing
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Back on Track….Literally
Friday, May 12, 2006, 01:34 PM
I just loaded the Mustang back on the trailer at Coastal Transmissions. They reinstalled the tranny, and replaced the existing cooling lines with #6 braided lines & AN fittings.
I purchased all the materials to replace the lines, and Lenny’s bunch were nice enuff to do the work. However, trying to describe & order the right fittings from the Jeggs “technical experts” (loosely used term) is like ordering them from my 11 week old granddaughter. They screwed the order up not once, but twice!
In spite of all that high blood pressure BS, the car is now once again race ready, and I hope to make a few passes tonite at ARP. I’ll let you know how things turn out.
On another note, I went with my oldest son, Travis, to the Houston Grand Prix last nite to watch a couple of qualifying rounds. The race course is set up in the Reliant Stadium parking lot and covers a lot of ground. It was a lot of fun! Those drivers must have a lot of “testicular fortitude” as I was impressed with their G force management skills on braking, accelerating and negotiating turns. The ticket package also included 6th row floor tickets to 4 different boxing matches in the Reliant Center. We’d never been to a live boxing match, so after the qualifying was over, we checked out the last two fights.........Ho-Hum…. Travis & I both agreed that this was our first and probably the last time we’d go to a boxing match.
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SOWHATHAHELLSGONNAHAPPENEXT??????
Monday, April 24, 2006, 09:21 PM
OK…. It’s somebody else’s turn. I’ve had it.
I was in a kinda “grumpy” mood Sunday, as Saturday nite’s outing at the track proved to be yet another disaster.
The track rained out Friday nite, so I loaded the Stang on the trailer for some more “Driver’s Ed”, on Saturday at Angleton Raceway Park. Fun Ford Weekend was just around the corner, & I was behind the 8-ball getting used to the trans-brake & practicing on a .5 second Pro Tree. This type of tree is not the norm.....usually a .5 second “bracket” tree (where the 3 amber lites fall individually before green) or a .4 second “Pro” tree (where the 3 amber lites fall simultaneously) is the order for the day. But noooooooooo, “Ford Has A Better Idea” (if you haven’t heard that one). They designated a bastardized .5 second “Pro” tree for the particular class (Mod Comp) that I’d signed up to run in at FFW. … Sooo, a lot of starting practice was in order. I ran 5 passes with the RT’s REALLY sucking & progressing to sucking “just a little”. However the car was pretty consistent on the ET’s: 7.08, 7.08. 7.13, 7.05, & 6.99 (nite temp cooling off on the last one).
About 9:30, I decided to make one more hit, then put it on the trailer and get ready for next big weekend. I made it around to the burn-out box and warmed the tarz up. Then I staged. Because I was test & tuning with this weird tree set-up, I was the only car in both lanes, making a solo pass. What happened next was to say the least, unexpected.
After I lit the 2nd stage bulb, I engaged the trans-brake and loaded the car up for the launch….the lites came on, I released the TB, and the car launched and went 90 degrees from the track & straight at the tree! I always heard of “chopping the tree down", but somehow didn’t think this was what was meant! I lifted as quick as I could, straightened the car up to miss the tree & it sort of rolled down the track a ways. Every time I tried the brakes, it seemed to be on banana peels. I finally got it shut down just past the 60’ mark, & realized I had really screwed up, when I climbed out of the car and saw the trail of ATF I’d left on the track (and my tires). It took about an hour to clean everything up on the track & resume racing. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the most popular guy at the track that nite after that.
So, it seems that the front seal decided to blow out of the brand new $2K Art Carr C-4 tranny that I just purchased & we installed a week ago. Installing/removing this tranny (in our shop)ranks up there with getting a root canal & a colonostomy simultaneously, so I’m looking into getting a transmission shop to pull/reinstall the transmission. I spoke with the Art Carr Folks, as the tranny’s under warranty. They agreed to pay shipping to/from Abilene, and they will repair everything in addition to looking into making some converter adjustments. It seems there were some miscalculations made, & they’re gonna recalculate & tweek the converter to hopefully improve the launch & ET’s.
Bottom line, no Fun Ford Weekend in Houston for WCR this year. That’s OK though, as I just keep thinking about what kind of ride it would have been, had the seal blown out on the other end of the track at say, 100 mph……. pretty catastrophic, one would think. I am however, more than ready to pass this bad luck baton to some other poor unsuspecting soul. I wish the racing bunch would give a new truck away as a hard luck trophy like they do at the rodeo. If so, I’d be toolin’ around in a new F-150.
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