NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series
Pacific Raceways - Kent, WA
June 18-20, 2004
12:15 PM
We’re off to a much earlier start today, as we’re through the gates nearly three hours ahead of yesterday. And with the pits being a little less crowded (with some of yesterday’s non-qualifiers loaded up and gone), we’re able to park right in the pits today. Bonus: a nice shady spot with a direct route to the exit road when the race ends tonight.
Let’s start the pit notes with….
Tim Nemeth:
He takes a minute away from preparation for the first round of eliminations to introduce me to team manager Dale Finch. Big news out of this camp is the hiring of Steve Boggs (tuner for Mitch Myers’s A/Fuel car) as a tuning consultant for the balance of the season, starting last week at Woodburn.
Their relationship didn’t get off to the most illustrious of starts, as the car failed to get off the jackstands all weekend, with a series of small and some not-so-small problems plaguing them. Worst of their misfortunes was a rod bearing pin shearing off, letting the bearing shell spin and roast a crankshaft journal.
Tim feels that he’s got so much invested in new parts this year and the potential to run very well, and it would be a waste not to bring a man with Boggs’ talent onboard to get the team truly sorted out and ready to win.
Mark Hentges:
Yesterday wasn’t one of his best, as the team lost two engines, and barely completed the second swap in time to make the last qualifying session. They’ve had a decent season, running the all-time best speeds for a T/AD (at 271 mph) at Mission last month, and came within a broken blower belt of challenging for the win at Woodburn last week
But they’ve used up a bunch of parts already this weekend and have to fight their way through the middle of the win if they want to win tonight.
With lots of time to burn before eliminations, I take up Lezlee’s offer of a shady seat in their pit area and wolf down my Mediterranean Chicken salad (from Subway) and hear about what the Hentges family has been up to lately.
Lezlee (Mark’s wife) wasn’t here yesterday, as the family’s junior dragsters (all three of them) were at Bremerton for an ultimately unsatisfying day of first round losses. The 21- 25 mph headwinds made it nearly impossible to predict a dial-in and all the kids went down to defeat early.
But they’ve had some serious fun lately as a recent fishing trip netted a total of 72 trout. “Mark gets the fun of cleaning them, I just cook them”, says Lezlee, who admits that something like fishing or junior dragster racing has become so much more fun than competing in Top Alcohol Dragster.
The For Sale ad in National Dragster confirms what has been noted regularly in the last two years whenever I’ve visited this pit area. After the tremendous highs (and obvious lows) of the 2001 season, the team has reached a series of roadblocks in their quest for improvement.
Without the energizing head-to-head battle against the Santos-O’Bannon juggernaut, and with the cost of going fast (not faster, but simply fast) continuing to rise, the fun has truly gone out of the sport for the Hentges team. They’re not ready to quit the sport completely and forever, but a long break from the week to week grind of racing a top-flight alcohol car is getting closer all the time.
Lezlee sums it up succinctly, “The fun has gone out of it.” She reminds me that the race car is for sale, but they’re keeping the tractor-trailer unit. There’s no sale imminent, but at least one possible buyer has shown serious interest. More news as it happens.
Bucky Austin:
Set a record of sorts yesterday by using up three engines in two passes. The third one died on the jackstands while warming up before the final qualifying session (which they ultimately missed). This much damage is not totally atypical for Austin, but he’s usually at least at the top of the field, instead of an almost unheard of (for him) #3 spot.
Crew member Don Eason informs me that “we saw something we didn’t like in that third engine, so we skipped the last session” and provides proof that hockey-speak (upper body injury or lower body injury – and nothing more specific than that) has invaded the sport of drag racing.
Mike Cofini:
He’s not got enough healthy parts left in the trailer to make the first round of eliminations this afternoon. That’s not a good omen for the balance of the season, with the next two months seeing quite a few races on Mike’s schedule.
This weekend’s misfortunes started with a broken transmission in the second qualifying session yesterday, and lead to a dropped valve in the final session. If there had been time to change cylinder heads before that final round of qualifying, Mike might have avoided the engine explosion that followed the dropping valve.
The silver lining in that dark cloud of breakage is Mike’s chance to do “color commentary” on the p.a. and internet broadcast today (working with announcer extraordinaire Steve Wong) and promote his sponsors, Mopar and Dave Smith Motors.
3:00 PM
Right on time, the first round is ready to go and it’s almost time to let it rock. But first we’ve got a very moving ceremony as many of the friends of the late Bob Schapel gather on the starting line. Division Six chaplain Elvon Kauffman speaks as a military honor guard slowly parades past and everyone stands and bows their heads in memory of “Snap-On Bob.” There was definitely a lot of emotion on display.
Lifting the sombre mood were the national anthems, followed by the inevitable whine of starter motors and the roar of the first pair of funny car engines coming to life.
