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First Win for my daughter at Pinks 2015

5K views 56 replies 33 participants last post by  Preacher's Kid 
#1 · (Edited)
I will try to keep this as brief as I can.

We got to Rockingham Tuesday night about 7.30 pm. Found that the motel did not have parking for my trailer. I had to put it in a gravel lot across the street and down a ways for the night. I have an open trailer which is bad enough, but my pick up was packed with everything that thought I could possibly need. Did not sleep worth a damn worrying about my junk.

Arrived at the track Wed morning at 7.00 am. Line was all the way to the front of the track. I did meet Pirate Dan, from Long Island NY, and two of his MOPAR buddies. You guys were fun to hang with and hope you had great luck. Finally got into the track at 9.30 am. Got through tech and started some test and tune. Hot and humid. Car was .4 off from last trip to track. Met lots of nice racers and made a day of it.

Thursday morning, got to the track at 7.00 am. Hurry up and wait Finally get called to 1st round Qualifying for 11.0 cars. Lose first Qualifier to Orange Fox body. Get called for 2nd round, was supposed to be arm drop but was not. Don't know what happened.
Raced a beautiful '62 Ford Galaxy and lost. I know that you do not win or lose time trials but they matter to Tricia (daughter/driver) , killing her confidence.

Go back to the pits and wait. Finally they call the first 16 numbers and we are not included. Sweating bullets. They call the second 16 and we are the first car called. Every one, on our side of the pits i am sure heard us hollering, we are in!

I have raced cars since I was 17 years old. I know how things happen and you have to guard against getting too excited because things happen. At this point my only thought was, please let her win at least one round so she would not be crushed.

1st round we race a black Chevy Nova that lo and behold if from our home track. Rich drops his arms and they are gone....looked like he had her by a little...WE get the win.
Wow.

2nd round we race fellow YB member for Durham in Yellow Chevelle (1slowSVO). Tricia is on her game an gets a great arm drop start. We win round 2. Wow again.

3rd we race a short bed ford back half pick up. Rich drops his arms and Tricia is gone.
WE win, I am a mess. one round to go.

Final round, we race a Turbo Dodge Neon. He's have touble getting it started and keeping it running. Pinks crew wants to hot lap. Tricia does her burn out and waits for him to pull in. Finally they both stage. Tricia is gone. Neon limps down the track to finish.

Her mother jumps into my arms going crazy. I later tell her that I almost dropped her on her ass and was scared I would go down with her. That would have been great TV.

Now we are on the starting line with Rich and Sarah Boyce, winner of the other 11.0 class. Rich asked up if we want to run for all or nothing against Sarah. Tricia tells him she is done. (most of the $2500 is going towards her college loans) We could not chance going home with nothing after having 2500 buck in our hand. Sarah's dad says "lets run for 100 bucks" Good by me. let line them up. Rich states that that is not a fair race, Sarah is .3 faster than we are. I say give us the back tire. They want to know why I don't want more. I thought the one car length would put them side by side and I have faith that Tricia would cover the arm drop. They say I should have asked for 3 lengths. I wanted a GOOD race. Ask for three and win by two, look like a jerk. Rich puts up $500 for the winner. Either way they line us up on the back tire, arms drop and Tricia is gone and so is Sarah. Sarah gets by and pulls away for the win. Great kid, nice dad EVERYBODY is happy.

I am so proud of what Tricia was able to accomplish, to not only win her first race, but do it at an event as big as Pinks.

This is for the Hatters: The Pinks crew, the track crew and all the racers we raced against were GREAT! So many came up to Tricia and Myself with congratulations it was unreal. We will be back next July 4th to try again!

This is one of the best days of my life.
 
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#33 ·
Aluminum heads and I will try to remove a little more weight. I would like to go with tubular K member and a rack but that's a lot for me to come up with at one time. I think the motor has enough cam. The heads just won't make any power above 6K.
 
#36 ·
What size motor are you running and which cam and heads? I have a howards cam in mine now but I am going with a bullet cam next. They are telling me that it will do fine with the heads that I have now and then new heads that I will be putting on them. Which heads are you looking at? Profiler makes great heads and are really cheap and I have found a guy who ports them for not a fortune. If you are interested then PM me and I will let you know the details.
 
#35 ·
They didn't give out time slips once you got into the hot laps. That was what I was told when I passed the guy that directed people back to the winners lane.

For weight reduction, try getting rid of extra weight in the bumpers. There is a lot of metal support in those. Also the collision bars in the doors are almost 30 to 50 pounds.

I know what you means by affording. This isn't cheap and especially if you are trying to go fast...lol I will have to buy a new camshaft. Then get my intake worked and then save up for heads.
 
#39 ·
I finally got to down load my Go Pro videos. Did not get many but will post links to you tube once they are downloaded.

Also: Does anyone out there know how to get in touch with Sarah Boyce's Dad. I need a phone number or I will PM mine. Any members around Pittsburgh that can help I would greatly appreciate it.
 
#53 ·
I still don't fully believe we won our class. I am so proud and exited for her at the same time. Can't wait for next year.


I have been racing cars since I was 17 and I believe that this was about the best event I have ever attended. It looked to me like every one enjoyed themselves.
 
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