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June 3-5, 2011: Hot, Hot, Hot Norwalk, Ohio AHDRA Ohio Bike Week Nationals |
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The Team was very excited to return to Norwalk, Ohio for the AHDRA Ohio Bike Week Nationals after having to miss it last year due to the engine blow up (do y’all remember that?).
Since we were rained out at our local track for most of May, we were unable to change our tune-up to accommodate the hot weather, and so we decided to participate in the test and tune session on Friday night.
We made six passes and made a lot of progress with the help of David Stanley of Top Fuel team Grey Ghost Racing. We never hit real close to the elusive 11.50 second pass, but we did manage an 11.589, an 11.465, and an 11.346. |
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Above, Chip points out a few things in the DEI catalog to a fellow racer. |
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Above, Chip signing autographs |
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Saturday morning was bright and sunny and we knew it was going to be a hot one. At 10 am it was already 80 degrees. By 3 in the afternoon we were at 98 with a heat index of 111. OUCH!!! Water, and lots of it, kept us going all day long. AHDRA doesn’t have morning Time Trials before Qualifying, so we went immediately into qualifying for our ET and SEP (11.50 class). Our first ET run was 11.604—we bogged the motor at the launch. We’ll have to do better than that for our SEP run. One adjustment and thirteen minutes later on our SEP run, we ran an 11.553. We believed that to be a pretty good number that would get us into the field. For our second run in ET, we spun pretty bad, causing an awful 60 foot, and we ran an 11.668. Our second run for SEP, however, was a stellar 11.536. This would be our best run of the day. For our last ET run of the day, we had made some adjustments but went the wrong way, so we ran a dismal 12.241. Thankfully, we turned it around for the last run of the day for SEP and ran another 11.554—it would have been even better, but we were fighting a stumble after the 60 foot. Our 11.536 from our second SEP run put us in the #6 qualifying spot in a field of 16. |
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Team Half Fast’s Chip Sutinen (right lane) getting ready to stage. |
Chip (left lane) about to stage against Greg Best |
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Race-day Sunday— the morning was hot and the day got hotter, but not as hot as Saturday. It started out at 80 degrees just like Saturday, but it only got to about 93 (98 with the heat index). “Only.” The first round of eliminations was for the SEP Class (11.50). Our opponent was the formidable Greg Best—a champion rider who has gotten the win light against us a couple of times over the years. This time the win light went to Chip with an excellent run—11.559 to Best’s 11.788. In our first round of ET eliminations, we dialed an 11.50 (it had been working for us). Chip peddled at the stripe to ensure he wouldn’t break out. Chip ran an 11.536 and got another win light for Team Half Fast! For our second round of ET, we dialed an 11.49 against Reggie Mackay and earned yet another win light! Our next round was in SEP, and again we had the impressive Reggie Mackay! Reggie broke out with an 11.492, and Chip got the win with an 11.539. We’re going rounds!!! Our third round of ET eliminations had come after a long series of hot-lapping (racing and getting back in line to race again) without any cooling of the rider or the bike, so we were down on power for that round and could not eke out the win against Jason Phelps. Alas, the toll of the incessant back-to-back rounds and the extreme heat took its toll on bike and rider and the last round of the day was the semi-finals in SEP. Chip ran an 11.557, but was unable to get around Lane Boger, Jr. Boger ran an impressive 11.530. That toll on Chip was serious. We even had to let the paramedics take a look at him. He suffered a bit of heat stroke after several hours in his leathers with no break to “air out” and cool off. Needless to say, we waited until Monday to drive home. We did have a great time at Norwalk, enjoyed a little bit of that dollar ice cream (Moose Tracks: Yum!), and had a blast moving Half Fast!
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Team Half Fast’s pits showcasing Lucas Oil, Z1R Helmets, and Design Engineering, Inc. |
Chip discusses Lucas Oil Products with fellow racer. |
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We look forward to seeing our friends again later in June at Bowling Green’s Beechbend Raceway Park. Look for more updates on our Main Gallery Page. |
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