Bakersfield,
CA - March 09-11, 2007: The 49th edition of the March Meet was
everything you could expect from the premier drag race of the
nostalgia season. John and Blake Bowser - with a lot of help
from the Famoso Raceway staff - put on a drag race for the ages.
From the full pits on Thursday to the Winners Circle shots on
Sunday this was an event blessed with Chamber of Commerce weather,
an accommodating facility, incredible racing surface, friendly
staff, full bore fans and upbeat attitudes throughout.
The 35,000+ fans
that packed the facility over the three-day event were treated
to over 500 race cars including 20 of the countries best Top
Fuel dragsters including Troy Green and the Highspeed Motorsports
team. Unfortunately the guys got behind the 8-ball early on when
they lost the first two qualifying runs do to mechanical problems.
Green did get into the show on the last attempt but the team
lacked the data to tune the engine to its potential and lost
a very close race in round one.
photos
and full story below
FIRST QUALIFYING SESSION
Under sunny skies and ideal track
conditions the first session of Top Fuel qualifying went off
at 2:30 p.m. Friday afternoon. Ironically Troy Green was paired
with Jason Richey who he would end up meeting for the first round
of eliminations on Sunday.
As usual, Walt Sevens backs Green
up while Roger McMartin observes the engine functions.
Crew Chief Brett Johansen
brings Green up to the staging beams.
The car left good and
appeared to be on a decent run.
Then before half track the car
inexplicably nosed over and Green wisely shut it off coasting
to a 9.204 at 98.41.
After getting back to the pits
the crew went to work full bore to find out why the car literally
stopped running under power.
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Debris was found in the
supercharger raising more concern.
They worked into the night checking
and testing everything that could have caused the problem. The
magneto was checked and replaced, the fuel pump was flowed and
the blower replaced. By the time the car was back together they
were confident (or at least hopeful) that the car would do what
it was suppose to the next day.
Saturday
The car comes out of the trailer
at 8:00 a.m. to be readied for the second session scheduled for
11:00 a.m.
The car is filled with
nitro prior go heading for the staging lanes.
As usual Johansen checked out
the track and its temperature before the session started. On
the other hand, Brian Kono practiced for his role in Swan Lake.
Saturday - Qualifying Session
Two
1:41 p.m. Weather conditions:
air temperature 68 degrees, relative humidity 33 percent, barometer
30.14 inches, track temperature 84 degrees. Very nice racing
conditions.
For his second shot at the superb
Famoso track. In the other lane was Pete Kaiser.
The burnout was an omen for the
run - the engine didn't sound right and Green cut the burnout
short.
The car was soft at the
leave - only running on 7 cylinders.
Once again the engine quit running
and Green had to coast through with a 8.592 at 127.69. This left
the car on the outside looking in with just one more chance to
qualify.
Back at the pits the crew focused
on anything that could cause the engine to seemingly run out
of fuel early in a run. Process of elimination pointed a finger
at the fuel shut off valve. They were pretty sure that it was
vibrating shut thus cloaking off the fuel delivery to the engine.
The valve was fixed and the car was prepped for session three.
Saturday - Qualifying Session
Three
Running 2 hours behind schedule,
the final session got underway at 5:46 PM.
With the sun
falling in the West and the track cooling off Green was paired
with Brendan Murry for this do or die effort.
Johansen
pulls the idle plug just before Green puts on the first light.
This
time the car sounded better and left harder. Fingers crossed.
Still under power
at the 900 foot mark Green knew he would qualify. The only question
was where.
Sacrificing some
pistons to card a nice 5.927 at 244.10 which would land him in
the # 8 spot for Sunday's eliminations.
Needless to say the entire
crew was elated.
After qualifying the crew worked
into the night to overhaul the engine, change the clutch and
get the car ready for Sunday. This is the part of drag racing
that most fans never see and what makes it not quite as fun as
it looks.
On any give day at a race, the
last person to usually leave is Tom Shelar who's life away from
his business, MasterCam, seems consumed doing cylinder head repair
and maintenance. Shelar, who machines the teams heads from billet
aluminum, makes sure the car has a fresh set every run.
Sunday
Eliminations
Sunday
morning is spent making sure the car is 100%.
About an hour
before round one the engine is warmed up and checked for any
leaks or potential problems.
The first step
is to use methanol to get some heat in the cylinders before switching
over to 92% nitromethane.
At the change
over most of the crew puts on gas masks and the air fills with
the yellow "nitro haze".
When all is good,
the fuel shut off is pulled and Brett Johansen squirts methanol
into the injector as the stops running.
Round One of Eliminations
10:59 a.m. Weather conditions:
air temperature 67 degrees, relative humidity 38 percent, barometer
30.18 inches, track temperature 78 degrees. It's time to race.
By virtue of being the # 8 qualifier
Green would race the # 9 car, Jason Richey, and were the first
pair to run Sunday morning. Both cars were staged behind the
water box during the pre race ceremonies so the could start at
the end of our National Anthem.
High Speed Motorsports CEO Dale
Singh with Players Network Chairman Mark Bradley and Michael
Berk who is President of Programming for Players Network. Bradley
and Berk were at the race all weekend gathering material for
a new website they are going to launch in conjunction with High
Speed Motorsports that revolves around nostalgia drag racing.
Richey, who does extremely
long burnouts went first, Green followed.
At the flick of the starter switch
Green did his job strapping a 0.058 to 0.105 holeshot on Richey.
Early on Green had a palpable
lead and Richey was left to play catch-up for the next 1317 feet
but right before the ET light Richey literally nosed ahead for
the closest win of the event... his 5.864 at 247.25 denied Green
with a 5.917 at 245.03. His margin of victory was a mere 0.0061
seconds (approximately 2 feet). This was a text book drag race
and unfortunately the High Speed car came up a wheel short.
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