Kar is still sore from the surgery on her left
wrist but she has a good launch and runs a 10.17ET on her first qualifying pass. Bike is still
running well and Kar made a great pass. It started to heat up a bit here in Phoenix for Karen's
second pass and she got a little squirrelly on the launch. She stuck with it all the way and ran
a 10.37, good for the #2 qualifying spot. Still in the heat of the day for pass #3. Karen's
launch is a little squirrelly again but she reels it in and runs a 10.60. Unfortunately another
rider came in and took the #1 qualifying spot and bumped Karen down to #3 but she's still in good
position on the ladder. We had a little trouble with holding air in the air shift system, but not
enough to cause any shifting problems.
On Sunday, Kar's hands are still sore. Her first round win was an adventure with the centerline,
but she kept the bike in her lane for the win. I decided to turn down the launch RPM for the
second round to try to control the excessive wheel spin she had been having. It worked great,
maybe a little to good and the motor hiccupped slightly at the launch. Her ET was down and she
wasn't able to catch up and lost the round.
I had a pretty good weekend. Made 4 passes on Saturday
to find my dial-in. I was getting some pretty good reaction times on Sunday and won my first 2
rounds easliy. My reaction times were good enough to earn the #2 qualifying spot on the ET ladder
behind Dan DeGood. (The ET ladder is based on reaction times, not ET as in other classes.) I won
the third round and got a bye in the 4th round which put me in the semi-finals. I don't know what
happened in the semi's, but I red-lit and gave the win away. Too bad since I really nailed my
dial-in.
|
Organization: AHDRA
Track: Texas Motorplex
Location: Ennis, TX
Date: April 17-18, 2004
Saturday qualifying: Karen's hands are still
bothering her some on her burnout and launch. Seems to get too much tire spin or hooks up
really well and she runs under the index. Karen best qualifying pass is her first round
run of 10.517 which qualifies her 15th in the field.
Eliminations: First round Karen is up against Charlie Walker. We know he is fast as he runs the
same bike in Super Gas and Super Sport. Karen has a great 10.306 ET but is slow on the tree
and loses on her reaction time.
Saturday qualifying: I just couldn't get my 60 foot
times where they normally are and all of my runs were slow. However, my ETs are pretty consistent
with just 0.058 seconds between the fastest and slowest.
Eliminations: First round in the morning my 60 foot times return to their normal range and I
know I am on a fast run. I'm off and on the throttle a few times but I am still way too fast and
break out by 0.147 seconds.
|
Organization: AHDRA
Track: Famoso Raceway
Location: Bakersfield, CA
Date: May 1-2, 2004
Saturday qualifying: Karen is hooking up pretty good
here in Bakersfield and runs well under the index. First run off the trailer she runs a 10.10;
second pass is 10.20, getting closer to the 10.30 index but still too fast. On her final
qualifying attempt, Karen lets off the throttle really early and runs a 10.432 which puts her
in the #7 qualifying position.
Eliminations: First round Karen is up against Dave Pope. She has a good clean launch and runs
a 10.360 ET vs 10.38x for Pope. However, Pope crosses the finish line first and wins on reaction
time.
Saturday qualifying: The 60 foot time on my first run
was slow and I was thinnking "Here we go again". But I was able to do better on my next rounds.
I ran a few 12.1xs and knew was happy knowing that I could run there consistently.
Eliminations: We ran 2 rounds of eliminations in the morning to bring the ET field down to 16
bikes. I was able to survive those rounds and move on to the afternoon program. My first round
was a red-light, but my opponent red-lit first which gave me the win. I was lucky in the first
round of the afternoon program. My opponent had a great .005 reaction time and was ahead the
entire track. As soon as he crossed the finish line, I dumped the throttle and hoped that he would
break out - and he did. I won my next round also which put me in the semi-finals. I guess I got
a little ansy and red-lit. Too bad since my opponent had a bad .4 reaction time. So out I went
in the semi-finals.
|
Organization: AHDRA
Track: Atlanta Dragway
Location: Commerce, GA
Date: May 29-30, 2004
Saturday qualifying: Karen is hooking up pretty good
here in Commerce and runs well under the index.
Eliminations: Karen advanced to the semi-finals before losing to David Hope. Hope went on to win
the event.
A bit of a dissapoint outing for me. I red lit in the
second round and lose early.
|
Organization: AHDRA
Track: Norwalk Raceway Park
Location: Norwalk, OH
Date: June 12-13, 2004
Saturday qualifying: Karen is hooking up pretty good
here in Norwalk and runs well under the index.
Eliminations: Karen has a dissapointing outing a loses in the first round to Julian Seaman.
A dissapoint outing for me too. I run a 12.10 on
a 12.20 dial-in and lose on a break-out.
|
Sunny skies and great weather in Seattle! What a
great weekend we had. Karen qualified in the middle of the field in Super Sport. She also
entered the Super Eliminator class and qualified 3rd with a 10.93 on a 10.90 index. She ran
a 10.897 in the first round of SE and lost due to her .003 second break out! Still a money
round with a low SE bike turnout. In Super Sport, Karen advanced to the semi-finals.
A really good outing for me this time. I was able to
survive enough rounds to win the ET class. This is my first AHDRA win and positions me really
well in the points standings.
|
Organization: AHDRA
Track: Brainerd International Raceway
Location: Brainerd, MN
Date: July 31 - Aug 1, 2004
We were met with partly cloudy skies in
Brainerd and Karen ran the test-n-tune and ran great, hitting a few 10.3s. We woke up
Friday morning to light rain which delayed the start of qualifying until early
afternoon. Karen ran great, qualifying second with a 10.336 pass. In eliminations she
did great and advanced to the finals against Wanda Poff. Karen had quite a bit of
wheel spin on the launch and gave up too much ground, giving Wanda the win.
A decent outing for me. I advanced to the
third round when I was eliminated on a break-out loss to JP Hendrzak. Hes beaten me
4 times outta 4 and I really thought I had him this time. Crap. No shame losing to
the number 1 plate holder.
|
Organization: AHDRA
Track: Bristol
Motor Speedway
Location: Bristol, TN
Date: Aug 14-15, 2004
Karen ran the test-n-tune of Friday evening
and the bike ran great, easily under the 10.30 index. In the second qualifying pass,
Karen ran a 10.391 for the #6th qualifier. First round of eliminations, she was paired
up with a racer that couldn't quite run the index and Karen won easily. In the second
round, she was paired up with Curtis Talbott who was running well, but Karen won. In
the 3rd round, Karen was paired up with the #1 qualifier, David Hope who had beed
right on the index on weekend. The bike bogged badly on the launch and Karen lost.
We're still not 100% sure what caused the bog, but the doesn's seem to be any damage
to the Sporty.
A great outing for me. There were over 80
riders in the ET class and I won 7 rounds to win the event! I earned a boat load of
points and am currently in second place in the points chase, trailing Dan DeGood by
just 7 points. There was a TV crew filming the event so hopefully I will make it on
the TV program. During eliminations, 5 of my 7 round wins came when the opponent red
lit. Don't know what was going on in the other lane, but I will galdly take a ref
light win any day. Woo Hoo!
|