I've been waiting for a day like this for a LONG time!

What a good day for racing. There was plenty of traction and the temperature was somewhere in the mid to high 60s so the car was making more power than last month's import event.

My first time trial run I had a 2.166 60' time, with a 15.210 at 90.55 mph. I had to look at the slip for a long time to make sure it was correct!

Second time trial was even better:

60' 2.131
330' 6.212
1/8 9.686
mph 69.87
1000' 12.669
1/4 15.178
mph 90.03

I knew the car had it in her (and it is STILL NOT TUNED! This is on the stock ECU!) but that it just would take the right day and a good launch. I have been holding the RPMS at about 6000 and giving the throttle a good stab before letting up on the clutch. The launch was smoooth, no wheel spin.

Then the competition began in the slick class (bracket racing). First run I though I would have to line up against the resident ringer (excellent racer, great guy by the name of Fred Simmons, he knows his stuff and I've had close races with him before) and he is running a gutted all motor Cavalier which runs high 13s instead of the old one which ran high 15s (which his cousin has been racing - and winning with, his cousin won the street tire class)

But, instead because one other guy in line went into the wrong lane, I lined up against a 11 sec civic which was another gutted race car. He broke at the line and I cruised to an easy victory. I only had a 15.4 run since I took it a bit easy (ONLY a 15.4 run.... never thought I'd say that!)

Second run was versus a turbo and nitrous sentra, I dialed a 15.15 to his 12.70. I cut a 0.043 light (that's essentially a 0.543, they are occationally measuring perfect lights at the track as 0.000 instead of 0.500) and I ran a 15.27. He was catching up fast at the end but I just had a better reaction time and I was a bit closer to my dial in time. That put me into the finals....

.... where I lined up against Fred in the Cavalier. I guess I just could not avoid him. I bumped my dial to 15.20 and hoped for the best. Unfortunately I bogged the launch a little (I backed off on my RPMs a bit too much and I think I launched at about 5000 instead of 6000) and my reaction time for this run sucked at a 0.146 because I was concentrating more on what my right foot was doing than the tree.

You aren't going to win 1st place with a 0.146 reaction time and running a 15.33 on a 15.2 dial in... and I didn't win. If the reaction time was better even with the bogged launch there was a chance, but 2nd place isn't too bad either Fred had told me at the 1/8th mile he didn't think he'd catch me as my car was keeping ahead of him, but just before the 1/4 mile he got about a car lenght ahead.


As for other happenings at the import event, New England DSM dominated the street shootout class (head up racing, street legal tires) with a 1st, 2nd, and top 4th place finish. There was some tough competition too, a fast civic also in top 4 and there was this Lexus with a supra motor swap which could not get many clean runs but when it did it was running at least 10s, if not 9s in the 1/4 mile. I think some said it dynoed with 900 or 1000hp one time too. There were some very fast slick tire cars too, a 10 sec civic in that class. The winner in the street tire class (Leon, from NEDSM) ran 10.6, and another NEDSM owner running time trials got his car to 10.6 as well.


Overall, 2nd place, a nice new trophy, and a huge (relatively speaking) drop in the 1/4 mile which was stuck at 15.3 all last year, I'd say that's a damn good day!

"Tutto fa brodo."

Todd Scungio
98 RS
15.173 @ 90.70 MPH

And also a 2011 Ralliart