FRY RUNNER-UP AGAIN
AT SEASON OPENER
Expensive Gremlins Sandwiched
Between a World Record
Bakersfield,
CA - March 11, 2019:
Going into the
61st annual Good Vibrations March Meet, High Speed Motorsports
owner Tom Shelar was confident they could pick up where they
left off from a domineering 2018 season that ended in the Top
Fuel Championship.
At the end of the day it was
a new NTF ET world record sandwiched between new season gremlins.
Mendy Fry had to settle for her second March Meet runner-up in
as many years when a 50 cent bold vibrated loose on the throttle
linkage in the final. The previous two runs in eliminations were
the quickest in the classes history; a 5.51 and then the twilight
zone 5.49.
At the start
of qualifying the team was plagued with back-to-back catastrophic
parts failures beginning with a coupler malfunction in the first
session on Friday that destroyed the engine.
Fitted with a
new bullet, Q2 on Saturday was over early in the run when the
right rearend bracket broke, damaging the master cylinder which
causing brake failure. All Fry could do was take a trip into
the sand trap.
On the upside,
and there was a huge upside, in the first two rounds of eliminations
Fry ran the two quickest passes in Nostalgia Top Fuel history
setting a record that may stand for a while.
Much more on
these issues in the following coverage.
Records aside, due to the epic
problems experienced over the weekend the entire crew had to
come together time and again. They did so at every turn. Thus,
there are a lot of pit photos in this story honoring the extraordinary
hard work of all involved.
Special kudos to the HSMS Hospitality
gals who kept the crew and guests fed and watered all weekend.
Maria Stevens, Angela Reeves, Manda May Wakefield and Leslie
McMarrow.
That said, we hope you enjoy
this coverage from the 2019 March Meet.
QUALIFYING SESSION
ONE
Pair two of the first session
on Friday featured the 2018 Heritage TF champ Mendy Fry and 2018
March Meet winner Pete Wittenberg.
Shelar waiting for Wittenberg's
crew chief to give the nod to turn the cars over to the drivers
Fry launched hard, Wittenberg
blazed the tires before the tree. It was just the beginning of
a very frustrating weekend for the defending champ.
Fry was on a good one until the
coupler failed at the 300' mark. That instantly soared the engine
RPM to 12,493 before it dropped a valve which started a chain
reaction that resulted in massive carnage.
Blower askew, Fry's ears
ringing, the car came to a safe stop.
Amid all the engine chaos Fry
ran a 6.257 at 127.61 which was still better than Wittenberg's
12.82 at 86.74. Not a good omen for either team.
QUALIFYING SESSION
TWO
After working until midnight
on Friday to repair the massive damage from Q1, for the first
of two Saturday sessions Fry was paired with good friend Rick
McGee in the Tedford & McGee "Overtime Special".
Once again Fry launched
very hard but it was short lived.
Before the tree Fry felt a severe
vibration and shut off, a very astute reaction from a vet driver.
The vibration was a broken rear
end mount that took out the master cylinder. Fry was just along
for the ride. Without any brakes the only and correct option
was to go nose first into the sand pit.
The car itself was undamaged
other than every compartment that could be was filled with sand
- including the fuel tank. This led to a down-to-the-chassis
clean up which put all hands on deck again.
The cause of the brake failure
was obvious. Bruce Dyda concluded that the vibration from the
coupler failure fractured the mount and it broke when Fry left
the line.
Page
Two - Eliminations
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