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Francis
Creek Saturday Night Pull
OK last I left you all we had everything fixed from Friday nights
pull and ready to go for Saturday nights pull at Francis Creek Days.
We made it there in time to get the el’premo parking spot at the
end of the track with the trailer for good seating for the people
who wanted to seat on it. Made it over to the food tent for the
world’s best Truck Pull burgers for Supper before the drivers
meetings.
At the drivers meeting it was the usual stuff, But I brought up
about the cool off time needed if there was a malfunction with the
sled or a 2nd pull off situation like we had the night before, And
it was agreed upon to give the trucks the needed time to cool off.
OK So for the first three classes I got to be the flag guy and track
boss. They had sprayed the track down earlier in the day after the
tractors pull that took place in the Early after noon. But the track
was hard and dusty, So the guys with the Fire Truck Put a light
sprinkle of water on the track in between the first class and the
2nd class and actually made the track some what softer and more user
friendly. Had the boys on the tractors and Skid steer make a few
passes up and down the track and it really came around fast. But we
had a pretty good wind and lots of sunshine to deal with so the
moisture game was pretty tricky.
Daddy had picked a late number in his class but to say the least it
wasn’t his day, the Sled guys where keeping the sled set tight for
everyone tonight. Someone said they had to many full pulls the night
before so they where shutting everyone down early. For the most part
Daddy had a good pull but it was only good enough for a 5th place
finish and we where able to drive it on the trailer with no major
breakage.
As they finished up the heavy Open stock class they had two trucks
pull it out the end. And after resetting the sled for the pull off
they both yanked it out the end again, So they where told they’d
have there re pull off after the light Super stock class to let
there trucks cool off. Seeing how I voiced my opinion at the drivers
meeting about how the flag guy should have control of the track as
far as dust control, the head sled boss asked me if I think they
should water down the track a little to hold down the dust. I told
him I‘d prefer if they didn’t because the tires where really
hooking good on the clay in the last class and they weren’t really
spinning a lot of clay up in front of the sled. But if he really
wanted to go ahead just make sure not to put to much water on it and
have the tractors guys work it up good afterwards.
OK on to the light Super stock class..
Seeing how I was the first puller in this class I had the free pass
if it gets to slippery.
After they got done with the watering and Scraping I hooked up to
the sled.
I went thru my normal per pull check list, set the play back tech to
record the run, took up the slack in the chain and waited for the
green flag to go.
As I left the line there was very little grip and the tach zinged up
to 8000 Rpm’s way to easy, so I back peddled it and eased into
again still nothing there so as soon as I hit the 100’ mark and
pretty much drove the track with my tech trying to hold the r’s at
7400.
When ShaZam stopped I was at the 226’ mark, knowing the rack would
get better I turned the pull down and headed to the back of the
line. With 11 trucks in the class I was hoping the track would come
back around. But with each truck no one was getting even close to my
pull. Everyone was 190’ to 200’ range. Then my buddy Dean and
his Truck Burn’in Desire pulled up to the line. I figures we been
going back and forth all season so far so he should be close to my
pull. From my point of view he had a really good run going and then
boom he stopped. 206’ and change. I made a stop up at the
announcer booth and Mary there said She thinks I might have screwed
up seeing everyone was stopping short, But I told if I did then oh
well, it’s just something you have to do when you feel the pull
wasn’t right. So Jack Peters was the last truck in the class and
he seemed to be having some issues with his truck so they called me
up to pull and to give Jack some time to fix what it was that
wasn’t working.
I got hooked to the sled and took up the slack and found my focus
point at the end of the track. As I eased it out of the hole there
was a little bit of bite there, but nowhere near what I was hoping
for, So when it came to the point of no return I nailed the go fast
peddle down and watched the tach hit 7900 Rpm’s and then it came
down to 7600 by it’s self and I was off to the races. When I hit
the 190’ mark I felt the weight box hit the top of the sled and
ShaZam sat down and really began to dig for traction. I felt the
front end was chattering and ShaZam just didn’t want to give up
going forward, and then a big Bang and it was all over, ShaZam was
sitting at the 260’ mark and I shelled out the ring and pinion. As
I limped off the track the rear end would lock up every so often, So
I’d have to back up a little to let the pieces fall out that
jammed up the rear end. After I made it back to my pits I went to
the announcers stand to let Mary know I broke and I wouldn’t be
able to pull in the Heavy class. So my day of pulling ended with 5
classes left to pull.
So while I was at the announcers stand I ask if I could help out
with the announcing, And I was handed the mic and they said sure.
I’ll tell you I hate to have my truck brake during a pull, but the
last half of the pull I had a Great time letting the crowd know just
what was really going on out there on the track.
To most people in the stands they just see Trucks come out there and
hook to the sled and pull it down the clay track. Some trucks are
just noisier then other truck. They don’t know the differences
between Stock, Open stock, and Super stock. Or the different between
the stock Diesel and the Super Stock diesel trucks. So I impaled all
my wisdom onto them and pretty much kept the mic on and talked for
the last 2 hours of the pull.
When the pull was over I had lots of people thanking me for doing
what little announcing I did that night. They said it made the pull
make more sense to them.
So even thou I didn’t get to pull in the Heavy class I still had a
really good time.
I guess that’s why I write these books of mine. So everyone can
enjoy this sport call Truck pulling.
Dan
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