Finals in the Season Opener

With rain on and off all day Saturday the Lucas Oil Raceway crew and NHDRO staff rose another level trying to get the track dried so we can scream down the 1320. Luckily the rain held off just enough to get two of the three qualifiers in. We ran a 7.21@194 in the first qualifier just to see the bike get from point A to point B and check out track conditions just before the rain came. Amazingly the rain stopped just long enough to get the track dried off and another qualifier for all racers. We stepped it up by running a 7.11@ 196. attacking the eighth mile hard and turning the boost down on the big end to save wear and tear on the motor. We ended up #3 qualifier and were confident about eliminations on Sunday if the rain could hold off.

Well low and behold mother nature heard all our prayers and sent the rain else where. In the first round of eliminations we were attacking half track hard and playing it safe out the back door for a 7.01@196 mph. Second round we stepped it up even more running 6.98@197 mph. This was our best numbers to half track. All we needed to do now was to put all the power down the entire 1320. We made a slight clutch change before the semi-final. Unfortunately our opponent and friendly rival Mark Paquette blew the oil filter off his bike in the burnout giving Frankie a bye win to the finals. We slowed to a 7.04@198 mph. The bike didn’t like the clutch change. We really had to step up our game to beat Bud Yoder in the finals. He was running record numbers all day. In the finals Frankie cut an awesome .020 light and peaked at a 6.95@201 but wasn’t enough for Yoder’s record tying 6.84@211 mph. Running our best 1/8 mile times to date we are certain this is just the beginning to an amazing season and next time we will prevail on top.