Post by mario428 on Aug 8, 2011 9:19:56 GMT -4
Had a great weekend racing here on PEI, the crowd was small but sometimes that seems to be better. You see everybody who is there and it seems even friendlier than usual when all the Raceway Park diehards are in the house.
First thing and the coolest conversation I had all weekend.
Sun morning about 8:30 and I am wandering around delivering coffee and rallying the troops for track prep. I assume you were safely in bed at home Peter, just saying. ;D ;D ;D
Anyway I digress
going down the return road and came across some Junior drivers, Benjamin Gallant (Todd & Marie's grandson), Briann and Dawson Toombs (Brian's kids). Stopped for a chat, got some congrats on my gamblers win and gave Dawson some congrats on the awesome season he is having. Just a nod and a smile from him. ;D What was very cool was Briann and Benjamin talking about their season and how they knew they needed to work on their driving. Both of them knew it would come as they put laps on. Benjamin gave me chapter and verse on how Grampy was going to give him a few more tenths for the next race and he was really exited about moving up to a 12 sec car. Did my slightly jaded heart a lot of good in 5 minutes thanks to some young racers with their fresh eyes. 
Some congrats
My buddy Jensen Green on the double duck wins, very first win on Sat when he seriously packaged up his big brother (.03? package could have won 98% of the rounds in any class that day). No details on the Sun win but he cam thru again. Talked to him Sun morning after our wins Sat and he didn't think doubling up was such a great idea.
But he did a much better job of it then I did. ;D ;D ;D Jensen likes to tour the pits with me on my scooter so we went for a "victory lap" of the pits Sat evening after the racing was over. Both of us getting lots of congrats as we went thru but Jensen assured me they were all for him because he was a "first time winner". Good thing we were moving slowly when I heard this because I was laughing so hard I nearly wrecked. ;D ;D ;D The fresh eyes and ideas again, it is dam good for me.
Pug Smith for coming thru, not on the track unfortunately but for the "Green Boys" Randy and Ryan. Pug promised them some old Duster emblems he had and that was all Randy and Ryan talked about Sat night as the thrash was on to put the tranny back in Jim's dragster. Now Randy and Ryan are real night owls, get to sleep in the wee hours and don't get up before noon. Surprisingly I saw them out and about before 8 on Sun morning and thought "Pug you better come thru!!!!!!!". Pug really cemented his hero staus by delivering as he had promised and everybody that Randy and Ryan knew got to see the emblems at least once. I have them memorized saw them so many times. ;D ;D ;D ;D You need the patience of a saint but again good for the heart.
Congrats to the winners in Super Pro, Mike Sargeant on his first S/P pints race win, he won at the Team race last fall but this is the first points race he has won in S/P. Glen MacLean back in the groove losing a very very close race in the final. Glen put last years setup back in the car and it was back to being consistent again (unfortunately for the rest of us maybe?
? ;D ;D) Sucks when the shiny new parts don't work. 
Todd Myers on the 3rd place over Brian MacQuaid both have been struggling a bit, good to see them go some rounds.
I lost in the 2nd round and then got into an interview for a video Kevin is having done for the 40th anniversary. Kandy Mitton was asking the questions, she might make a good reporter or she knows me too well. ;D ;D ;D Really put the questions to me about what the racing means to me and how it affects my life. The guy doing the video still cannot get his head past there being several finish line strategies in bracket racing, can't understand how it came up in my interview though. The "drageze" as he called the terms Kandy and I were using did have to get explained too, "numbers in the bag" still baffles him. ;D ;D ;D
Did lose track of the other classes and have no idea who won what.
Did catch one class, my old nemesis "Mr Pokerface" Ray Bourque once again "King of the Ducks", 3 out of 4 this year in PEI, if I was Ray I am not sure whether I would laugh or cry. Ray of course is laughing as he always does. Congrats Ray!!!!!
Sympathies to Mike Stone on losing the engine, was having tranny trouble also so everyone assumed he had lost the tranny completly when he slowed but the oil and water running onto the track was not a good sign. Hope you get it fixed up Mike.
Joey Bonnar making the trip from CB also had issues with the Mazda, not sure if it was the steering linkage or the oil filter adapter that let go first fortunately early in the run. Sprayed a lot of oil on the track and ended up inches from the guard rail. Hope it is not serious and we see you in CB the end of the month.
Jimmy Rankin ruined the converter in the car Sun morning, anyone have an 8000 RPM stall for a glide. Yes 8000 rpm stall behind that Nascar dodge small block.
Jody Gallant ruined his glide Sat, Band adjuster came loose ruining the case threads, put a helicoil in but the boss on the case where the other end of the band sits was broken so about midnight Sat Jody and Carl Toombs packed it in for the weekend. They just ran out of time to get a new case prepped.
On the good side Mark Green was driving Jim's dragster on sat when the drive lugs came off the pump gears in the tranny. The loose pcs seized the pump bushing to the converter snout. So later in the afternoon Bruce Howatt and Travis Livingstone took the tranny to Travis's place and got it fixed up. I took the converter to my shop and put it in my lathe and cleaned the snout up. By 9:30ish Sat night the dragster was good to go. Mark lost in the 2nd round with a very close red light, killer on the lights just needed to get adjusted to the car. Just saying but can't understand how a Mopar guy can be so thin skinned, just saying. ;D ;D ;D
WOOHOO yours truly finally won one, took the Box Gamblers on Sat. Congrats to Josh Goodwin on the runnerup, rookie racer catching on real quick to this game. Gales whole family showed up to see what it was all about so I had a sizable cheering section on Sat. Cool when things come together on the day a bunch of people show up to check out drag racing.
Looks like I have my own thrash this week. My engine has some head gasket issues and uses a bit oif water very pass. Well the amount went up a lot over the weekend and the engine was running hot. The 2nd round loss on Sun may have been a blessing for the poor abused engine. ;D ;D ;D Have some better head gaskets so the engine comes apart tonight.
Hope to see everyone in Miramichi this weekend for the ADRA race. No pics this week, forgot the camera.
First thing and the coolest conversation I had all weekend.
Sun morning about 8:30 and I am wandering around delivering coffee and rallying the troops for track prep. I assume you were safely in bed at home Peter, just saying. ;D ;D ;D
Anyway I digress
going down the return road and came across some Junior drivers, Benjamin Gallant (Todd & Marie's grandson), Briann and Dawson Toombs (Brian's kids). Stopped for a chat, got some congrats on my gamblers win and gave Dawson some congrats on the awesome season he is having. Just a nod and a smile from him. ;D What was very cool was Briann and Benjamin talking about their season and how they knew they needed to work on their driving. Both of them knew it would come as they put laps on. Benjamin gave me chapter and verse on how Grampy was going to give him a few more tenths for the next race and he was really exited about moving up to a 12 sec car. Did my slightly jaded heart a lot of good in 5 minutes thanks to some young racers with their fresh eyes. 
Some congrats
My buddy Jensen Green on the double duck wins, very first win on Sat when he seriously packaged up his big brother (.03? package could have won 98% of the rounds in any class that day). No details on the Sun win but he cam thru again. Talked to him Sun morning after our wins Sat and he didn't think doubling up was such a great idea.
But he did a much better job of it then I did. ;D ;D ;D Jensen likes to tour the pits with me on my scooter so we went for a "victory lap" of the pits Sat evening after the racing was over. Both of us getting lots of congrats as we went thru but Jensen assured me they were all for him because he was a "first time winner". Good thing we were moving slowly when I heard this because I was laughing so hard I nearly wrecked. ;D ;D ;D The fresh eyes and ideas again, it is dam good for me.Pug Smith for coming thru, not on the track unfortunately but for the "Green Boys" Randy and Ryan. Pug promised them some old Duster emblems he had and that was all Randy and Ryan talked about Sat night as the thrash was on to put the tranny back in Jim's dragster. Now Randy and Ryan are real night owls, get to sleep in the wee hours and don't get up before noon. Surprisingly I saw them out and about before 8 on Sun morning and thought "Pug you better come thru!!!!!!!". Pug really cemented his hero staus by delivering as he had promised and everybody that Randy and Ryan knew got to see the emblems at least once. I have them memorized saw them so many times. ;D ;D ;D ;D You need the patience of a saint but again good for the heart.
Congrats to the winners in Super Pro, Mike Sargeant on his first S/P pints race win, he won at the Team race last fall but this is the first points race he has won in S/P. Glen MacLean back in the groove losing a very very close race in the final. Glen put last years setup back in the car and it was back to being consistent again (unfortunately for the rest of us maybe?
? ;D ;D) Sucks when the shiny new parts don't work. 
Todd Myers on the 3rd place over Brian MacQuaid both have been struggling a bit, good to see them go some rounds. I lost in the 2nd round and then got into an interview for a video Kevin is having done for the 40th anniversary. Kandy Mitton was asking the questions, she might make a good reporter or she knows me too well. ;D ;D ;D Really put the questions to me about what the racing means to me and how it affects my life. The guy doing the video still cannot get his head past there being several finish line strategies in bracket racing, can't understand how it came up in my interview though.
The "drageze" as he called the terms Kandy and I were using did have to get explained too, "numbers in the bag" still baffles him. ;D ;D ;DDid lose track of the other classes and have no idea who won what.
Did catch one class, my old nemesis "Mr Pokerface" Ray Bourque once again "King of the Ducks", 3 out of 4 this year in PEI, if I was Ray I am not sure whether I would laugh or cry. Ray of course is laughing as he always does. Congrats Ray!!!!!
Sympathies to Mike Stone on losing the engine, was having tranny trouble also so everyone assumed he had lost the tranny completly when he slowed but the oil and water running onto the track was not a good sign. Hope you get it fixed up Mike.
Joey Bonnar making the trip from CB also had issues with the Mazda, not sure if it was the steering linkage or the oil filter adapter that let go first fortunately early in the run. Sprayed a lot of oil on the track and ended up inches from the guard rail. Hope it is not serious and we see you in CB the end of the month.
Jimmy Rankin ruined the converter in the car Sun morning, anyone have an 8000 RPM stall for a glide. Yes 8000 rpm stall behind that Nascar dodge small block.
Jody Gallant ruined his glide Sat, Band adjuster came loose ruining the case threads, put a helicoil in but the boss on the case where the other end of the band sits was broken so about midnight Sat Jody and Carl Toombs packed it in for the weekend. They just ran out of time to get a new case prepped.
On the good side Mark Green was driving Jim's dragster on sat when the drive lugs came off the pump gears in the tranny. The loose pcs seized the pump bushing to the converter snout. So later in the afternoon Bruce Howatt and Travis Livingstone took the tranny to Travis's place and got it fixed up. I took the converter to my shop and put it in my lathe and cleaned the snout up. By 9:30ish Sat night the dragster was good to go. Mark lost in the 2nd round with a very close red light, killer on the lights just needed to get adjusted to the car. Just saying but can't understand how a Mopar guy can be so thin skinned, just saying.
;D ;D ;DWOOHOO yours truly finally won one, took the Box Gamblers on Sat. Congrats to Josh Goodwin on the runnerup, rookie racer catching on real quick to this game. Gales whole family showed up to see what it was all about so I had a sizable cheering section on Sat. Cool when things come together on the day a bunch of people show up to check out drag racing.
Looks like I have my own thrash this week. My engine has some head gasket issues and uses a bit oif water very pass. Well the amount went up a lot over the weekend and the engine was running hot. The 2nd round loss on Sun may have been a blessing for the poor abused engine. ;D ;D ;D Have some better head gaskets so the engine comes apart tonight.
Hope to see everyone in Miramichi this weekend for the ADRA race. No pics this week, forgot the camera.
