Green Valley WI Pull

06-15-08

Green Valley WI.

Well Folks I have to say Thank You to the people that put the Green Valley track together, they did a great job. They put a 35’ wide track that was 380’ long in where their uses to be the Railroad yard and Feed Mill in Green Valley. Next year the parking should be better after they remove the old building that took up most of the parking space this year.

As far as pulls goes this one had to be N.E.W. best showing for trucks. There where 9 Open Stock trucks there and 11 Super Stock trucks which the Open Stock Guys jump up into Super so they had a field of 20 trucks in Super Stock. And we had 10 trucks in Modified.

I pulled a 18 out of the cup for Super and that put me in the middle of the class on the roster following my Buddy Dean and Burn’n Desire. The class was moving along at a great pace and the track guys where doing a great job of leveling the track spraying a mist of water on it and then running it over with a wobble wheel to pack everything in. The one thing I noticed was the leveler wasn’t pulling to much clay with it as it went up and down the track, so it had a hard time filling in the ruts that where developing in three spots on the track that seem to be soft spots in the clay. Can’t blame anyone for this due to it being new clay and it wasn’t totally packed into place yet. But the ruts there where enough to upset most of the trucks and give then a good bounce when they went through that area, Next year it will be better.

 But then with 2 trucks to go before it was Dean’s turn to run they had some trouble with the laser acting up and didn’t want to give the measurement. So there was a 5-minute delay as they worked on getting it to read right. Then it acted up again with the next truck and this time it took them like 20 minutes to get it to work. All this time the Sun and light breeze was sucking the moisture out of the track as everything came to a stand still. When they finally got it to read and got the show back on the road the track guys did there leveling, watering and packing like they had before, but I feel the track lost to much moisture after the 20 minute delay to have kept it a level playing field, and it showed when Dean took his turn.  With the 1^st place truck, Bad to the Bone sitting at 339.05’ and the 2^nd place truck Midnight Cheater, was at 338.18’ the next truck at that time was Jack Peters with 331.7’

 When Dean left the line he had a good run going, kinda went around the holes in the track and didn’t bounce that bad, but fell short on the big end of the track with a 322.76’. Then it was my turn I asked the sled operator to try and place the sled to the right of the soft spots and he put it where I asked him pretty much, but could have been right another 2 feet then I’d had missed those holes for sure. But I tighten up the chain set the tach and had all the other switches on. (NO goofing up this time). Eased it out of the hole got thru the first two bad spots in the track before I put the hammer down, and then as I hit the last soft spot I nailed it and I was make tracks at a pretty good pace. The Mid track run I had felt very good with the tach showing a 8000 to 7800 Rpm float as I was heading down the track. When my wheels stopped spinning I was sitting at 337.63’good enough for 3^rd place but for some reason they announced me as the new leader. But I knew better cuz I had a friend on the side line that I used as my gauge and He told me I was a little behind Bruce.

 But hey 3^rd ant bad at this point of the game and being the 12^th puller of the class. So with 8 more trucks to pull   I watched one or two trucks make there run and they where falling back as the track seemed to be going away. I went back to my trailer to start changing tires for Mod, but I heard that my three Chevy buddies where coming up to play. Tory, Cory and Donny, At this time I felt if anyone was going to go by me it would be one of these guys so I headed back to watch them pull. But Tory for some reason took the scenic route and fell way back in the pack. They call this a Hero or Zero run, where you go where no man has gone before. He got out in the unused clay and pretty much lost traction and finished at 301.37’, Next up was Cory and he stayed in the groove pretty much down the track except at the very end he took a left turn looking for better traction, but only found 329.84’ So Now we had Donny and American Outlaw up next, Donny put a S10 body on his truck over the off season and it looks really nice with his new Paint Scheme. But here again he’s learning all over again what his truck will do down the track. The one thing I see he got rid of was his truck always seems to lunge as it went down the track. This first run he put on it was a nice steady Run no lunging or hopping just putting what he had to the track and finished at 327.21’.

So OK Mod Class

I was the 6^th puller in Mod out of 10 trucks.

 Bruce Wagner was the 1^st puller in the class, As they reset the sled Bruce tightened the chain and took is 530 Cube BBF up to 4500 rpm’s and started to slip the clutch out and at the 70 foot mark it bogged and came to it’s knees. Opps to big of gear he said to himself, the track had really came around since Super Stock and it had lots more bite now. So they pulled him back for his one retry and he got all set, This time he brought the R’s up to 5500 before he started slipping the clutch out, when he hit the 3^rd soft spot he nail it and it stuck the rear end hard in the clay and he put down a run like I seen him do many times before planted Bad to the Bone at 311.25’.

 Now with him being the first puller he turned his pull down thinking if he dropped a gear or two he could do better. Silly Boy .. Well the next truck to pull was Jack Peters And Jack laid down a very nice pull, which was everything he could expect out of his truck. Jack has really got it going on this year, probably knows his truck better then the most of us do seeing he didn’t make any big changes over the off season. Ended up at 284.87’

 When Bruce heard this he though he may have messed this pull up and then the next truck Mike Kauss pulled 281.43’ then Tory must have broke something in his truck he stopped at 144.7 after he hit the 3^rd soft spot and it Launched his truck big time with 2 feet of air under the rear end.

  So now we have are only true Mod truck in the club up next Cold Ethyl he calls her, with Craig Emmes in the driver seat. Craig manages to make it thru all the soft spots and lays down a very nice run, making out to the 285.02’ mark. Now Bruce knows he screwed up. With the track getting better with each truck that pulls I know I have my work cut out for me.

 I was up next and once again I had the sled operator put the sled as far to the right as he could, Got all lined up, all the switches are on, I get the green Flag And Out I come hell bent for high water. I float thru the soft spots with out bouncing at all, Put the hammer down and look at the end of the track where I wanted to finish. With the tach floating between 8000 and 8300 ShaZam was giving me everything I asked of her. After I dug some really nice Holes in the end of the track ShaZam and I was sitting at 288.63’, which at that time was, 1^st place seeing Bruce turned his pull down. But I had 3 trucks behind me seeing we had 2 truck break in the earlier class, so Cory was up next then Donny and then Bruce for his repull, I made it back to the track just in time to see Cory spin out at 293.75’. Well so much for being in 1^st place, Then Donny got a good run on me too with a 290.71’ Run. So now Bruce comes back to the line after he dropped his gearing some. This time as he comes out of the hole he runs it like he usually does 4500 Slip get it to hook then mat it and hold on. This time though he only manages 297.46’ so he loses 13 feet on his first pull but keeps his 1^st place Standing over all. He said afterwards at the trailers, That’s the tightest my butt cheeks have been in a while not knowing if he could back up his 1^st run.

So folks there you have it another weekend of pulling with ShaZam and his friends. This Friday Night we’ll be pulling in Oconto WI for the Copper festival and then on Saturday I’ll be going Golfing with some of my buddies. This is something I haven’t done in 10 years. So I have some dust on the clubs I have to blow off, But I figure a case of beer and 18 holes should be a fun day.

Dan and ShaZam