April 24 - 27

On the way to Atlanta, we decided to stop over at Bristol to test. Bristol is one of the upcoming stops; it’s a good time to gather some data for that race. Last year, when we left Bristol, we noted that the track had some pretty good bumps in it and we were hoping that those were fixed. Well, we were too early as the track operator told us that the grinding and smoothing would take place the week after next. Two days of testing give us a lot of new data plus we broke in a couple of new sets of tires. A lot of people asked us if we learned much in testing and the answer is a little more complicated. We try to run only proven parts and combinations at National events but we are always wondering if this or that would work better. The only way is to go to the tests and try them out. Normally, the answer is that what we had for a race combination works better. Once again, you don’t know unless you try and it keeps us from trying things at national events where every run is so important. On this test session, we also broke in our race motor that was rebuilt at Larry Morgan’s shop. A rebuilt motor requires a few runs to seed in the parts.

Then we were on to Atlanta to contend the Kendall Oil Dodge Stratus in the sixth race of the NHRA 2008 season. We are still sixth in points so we really need to win some rounds. Our luck hasn’t been too good lately. The first session we ran a ninth quick with a very tight clutch that didn’t allow the motor to freely accelerate as it should. We ran a lot better in the second session but so did the pack and we managed to hold on to the 10^th spot.

Saturday the weather turned hot and no one really improved much. We went into Sunday’s session still as tenth qualifier. We put in a fresh batch of Kendall oil and prepared to face Greg Anderson. Greg had been struggling at this race and we felt confident that we could beat him, especially since our Kendall Dodge leaves the line so quick. And, as we predicted, we were first to leave the line and build up a little lead because Greg struggled to get a hold of the track. But that’s where it ends as the Kendall Dodge breaks a push rod about half track and we watched as Greg took the stripe about a half a car length ahead of us. Wow, talk about bad luck again. We felt dejected as we packed up and headed for St Louis for the seventh race of the season. The loss puts us down to seventh place and we need some round wins to get back towards the top. Tune in as the Kendall Dodge runs for the Wally in Jazz town in just 5 days from now.