Mishicot, Denmark, West Bend, Cedarburg, Green Lake, Depere Pulls

Well Folks I seemed to have fallen behind on my stories.

So I’ll recap them to what I can remember.

 OK I Pulled Bad to the Bone and ShaZam to Mishicot WI on Friday July 25 And Bruce met me there to have a fun night of pulling there. They asked me to do the announcing there which I didn’t have problem doing. But I tend too not do as good when I do announce then if I was the flagman watching the track for changes during the pull. So any ways I sucked in the light class and took 4^th and I think I took 2^nd in the heavy class. Made enough money to put fuel in the tank, I then dropped the trailer off at Donny Skinkis and headed home to get some stuff done in the shop on Saturday morning and headed back down to Denmark on Saturday night to Pull in the P.I. Super stock class and take registration for the WUMPA Open Stock class that was there. We ended up with 10 Open Stock trucks there and two of them broke early in there pulls But the rest of them put on a good show for the crowd that was on hand.

 Then came the P.I. Class and once again I picked a early number for this pull out of 16 trucks I pulled in the 5^th spot. And pulled the sled 285.80 Feet good enough for 5^th over all that night and a paycheck. So while we where at the drivers meeting I heard there was a pull on Sunday down in West Bend and seeing how I was on vacation this week I figured I head down that way seeing I was half way there already, So I slept in my Super duty Ramada Inn at Denmark that night and headed to West Bend in the morning at 7:30 with Mike Kauss in tow. I should have known it wasn’t going to be a good day when we hit the freeway and one of my Straps broke and my ramp fell down doing 75. We no sooner got that fixed and then Mike’s truck kept bouncing off his weight bar jack stand stops. But we finally did make it to West Bend at 11:30 in time for the pull that was going to start at 2:30.

 Well once again I pulled a early number in the class I pulled a number 2 and I hoped that they goofed on the sled setting and I’d get to be the 1^st puller, but that didn’t happen I pulled 288.xx and I was Leading the class as I pulled off the track, But by the time I made it back to the trailer I heard. “ We have a New Leader at 289.xx “and then the next truck went 304.xx and I sat in 5^th place for a few trucks and by the end of the class I was sitting in 17^th place out of 23 trucks. So $100.00 in the fuel tank and I was heading home with a 3 hour drive in front of me. Now all this time I have been pulling ShaZam and Bad to the Bone on my Two-truck hauler getting 9 Mpg. So once home I looked and I put on 630 miles on over the weekend so there was 320 bucks in fuel used up.

 OK so now I have a 4-day pull coming this week, which is why I was on Vacation in the first place. We left Wednesday at 3 p.m. for Cedarburg WI just a little 165-mile jaunt down the road. Got they’re with plenty of time to spare and once again I picked a Shitty number for myself a 5 and picked a great number for my buddy Bruce number 1. So the plan was Bruce was going to put a small gear in and run his pull turn the pull down and put a bigger gear in to get a feel for how his truck handle the change.

Well with the little gear in he pulled 304.xx so the sled operator reset the sled and then my other buddy Dean who pulled the number 2 spot got to be the first puller. The Luck sucker. So with the sled reset he pulls 289.xx and he turned down his pull seeing he was off the chip at the 100’ mark. So both Dean and Bruce got to come back around to the end of the class. And I’m sitting here with two trucks in front of me wondering if I had the right gear in my truck for this sled. Well when my turn came I got set, hit the record on the tach and rolled the sled to the 75’ mark and rolled into the throttle and ShaZam Started to get this sponge tire hop going down the track and I stopped at 288.xx good enough for 2^nd place at that time. But had it not hopped I could have been further. When I got back to my trailer I checked the tire pressure and it was right where I usually run it so go figure. Well the track got better with each truck and I ended up finishing in 10^th place for the night. And a small check for fuel to get to the next pull in Green Lake WI the next day. So we had a little beer drinking session over by Camper and called it a night at 3 a.m. and headed to bed. UP at 8 a.m. we loaded up and took off for Green lake WI a mirror 80 miles northwest from where we stood.

 Stopped for some vittles in Fond Du Lac WI and we got to Green Lake by 11 a.m. for the pull that starts at 7 p.m. With tons of time to kill we did some weekly maintenance on the trucks, with valve lash checks and spring checks. Thru on a new set of valve cover gaskets and we where good to go by 2 p.m. Only 5 hours to waste now. Nappy time,   Soon the other pullers started to arrive and now you at least had some one to bullshit with.  Well went to pick numbers for the nights pulls and wouldn’t you guess it, I picked a 3 out of 40 chips. Oh well it’s not looking good here either. Well with 10 minutes left to register I was still number 1 on the list with my 3. Then Pat Bosch went and picked the 1 chip. So after the pull starts I said well if they reset the sled then I’m good, other wise I’m toast.

 Well our class Started and Gary had the sled dialed in to a tee. With Pat pulling 289.xx he turned it down and came back around. I hooked up and got everything all tighten up and as the night before I rolled out to the 75’ mark and gave ShaZam a Met full and this time I didn’t get any of that wheel bounce but I felt the sled coming down on me fast and I came to a stop at the 288.xx and I headed back to the trailer. I had figured I should have run 8000 R’s with the gear I had but I only hit 7500 when I replayed the tach. So went over and relied the message to Bruce that he might want to drop down from what he was planning on running and then went to watch the rest of the field pull at the end of the track. Well when It was all set and Done I finished 17^th out of 20 trucks. Well no payday here. So over to the trailer to lick my wounds and suck down a few beers. Well before you know it, it’s 12:30 A.M. and time for me to hit the sack. Boy the time seem to fly by faster when you have a Cold bottle of Bud Lite in your hands. So with the birds chirping at 5:30 I rolled back over to let the sun come up some more before I left the camper. By 8 a.m. we where loaded up and on the road again heading to DePere WI. which was 84 miles due east with half the mileage back tracking from the day before, We stopped in Fond Du Lac again for some Food and then back on the road we went. Pulled into the pulling ground in DePere At 2 p.m. and got the registration table set up in the nice Air conditioned office Corrigan’s had set up for us and had the boys get the clubs banners up to show off all the businesses that help to support WUMPA this year.

I set up a New random number sign up sheet this week and it worked slicker the snot.

After everyone was signed up I sorted the sheet by class then by number and got the running order posted by the scale. Even with me punching in the names you think I’d get a better spot on the roster but nope. I was 3^rd from the end in Super, which would have been nice the night before, but tonight the track was going away fast with each truck that pulled. Mike Kauss was the 6^th truck to pull in our class and Mike had his perfect night at the pulls. He had the right gear, he got on the track at the right time and he had the best run his truck could have given him. All the way to 294.05’ every truck after that kept falling behind just a little it seemed. Ben Was next with a 258.05 then Jack had a 258.44 then Scott Kickbush stopped in to pull and couldn’t find any traction what so ever with a 226.01 Now I was up next and I knew I had to do better then 294.05 to beat Mike and I had the Wagner boys still behind me, and Bruce always seem to be able to throttle his truck past me by a few inches. And Dean was out to pick up a few wins on me yet so I had to pack my lunch tight. I got all hooked up and tighten the chain up and I only rolled this red sled about 5 feet before I gave it everything ShaZam had to offer. We pulled the sled at Pound a few weeks ago. And the pan is really light on the starting line and lands at the 75’ mark so I use it all to my advantage. This time the sled felt heavy right from the get go though and I came to a screaming halt at the 260.48’ mark. So off to the trailer thinking I blew another pull. With Bruce up next I went to the announcer booth to watch the last trucks pull in this class. Bruce had a real small gear in and his truck came to a stop at 246.52’ mark. Hot dame as I looked over the standing sheet I see that I’m holding on to 2^nd place with only my buddy Dean left to pull. By now the track is all chewed up and dusty as all hell. Seem the sled boys told the tractor guy to shut the water off during the class before us and I didn’t see it in time to have them turn it back on for this class.

But I did make the note that the water was to stays on the rest of the night or until I the president of WUMPA says turn it off nobody else. Dean had a big gear in his truck and broke the tires loose and never caught up to the track stopping at 238.11’ so Mike Kauss took 1^st I was 2^nd and Jack Peters was 3^rd and Ben Holtger was 4^th. So over to the trailer to change tire for the Mod class. Now to this point I never even seen where I got posted in Mod class, so up to the announcer booth and look at the computer and there in bold letters was Craig Emmes was 1^st and I was 2^nd Oh just great I said to myself.

There where two classes in between the Super Stock and Mod classes so the track was coming around nicely at the end of the diesel Class we ended up with 14 diesel trucks spanking the track and it was getting that nice glisining to it from the leveler.

 So while changing tires I dropped down 2 gears put the cover back on and when I turned around Dean was standing there and said oh ya as if that’s going to help on this dust bowl of a track. I told him I was only going off my records from the last time I pulled here. So as we all watched the 6200 Street open class and then the 8000-Pound diesel class I stuck to my guns with my gear choice thinking maybe I had a chance in hell to do this right.

We have a floating finish from 300 to 325 anything over that and they’d reset the sled

So in Mod class Craig went and hooked up to the sled knowing that if he hits the 325’ mark they where going to reset the sled and that would make me the first puller then.

So Craig lied down a Dam nice run and stopped at 301.89’ With the mark set I let the guys get there smoothing of the track done and went and got lined up and pulled the chain tight. With the green flags waving I started the tach to record slammed the shifter into 3^rd gear and gave the sled a ride from hell right out of the box. No fancy rolling into or nothing just get it tight and wind it up to 8200 and let the tires hook at the 100’ mark and hold on, at the 220’ or so I felt the box hit the top of the sled and then the rakers started to dig into the track and ShaZam started to hop a little at the end of her Pull but didn’t stop till the score board read 303.93’ well as I was heading back to the trailer I said to myself ya the tracks going to get better with each truck now. So I headed back to the announcers stand to watch and see where this ends up.

Well Dean was next and you remember he had a big gear in earlier he left it in and pretty much did the same thing as his last run and stopped at 287.06’ then next came Jack and he knows the gear game to well now and he had the right gear in the box on his run he also had one of those really big rear end in his truck H172 I think. Well Jack was putting it to the track at a really good pace when the rear end let go and he stopped at the 299.01’ mark. Next up was Donny Skinkis and we had been doing some testing at a few of the other pulls in the area a few weeks ago and Donny must have taken good notes from the testing. As he laid down a pull of 303.72’ that’s only .21’ Holy Cow that’s close. Next up was Bruce and he slipped in a bigger gear in-between classes and as he left the line at 6000 it held his motor down until he hit the 100’ mark and it came up a little more but then hooked to the track really hard and sucked the life right out of the motor he did make it to the 295.59’ mark but it wasn’t pretty.

 And the last truck to run tonight was Mike and you remember his prefect run he had earlier well he couldn’t repeat it in mod tonight He fell short at 276.01’

So final class standing Me 1^st Donny 2^nd Craig 3^rd Jack 4^th,Bruce 5^th Dean 6^th and Mike 7^th 

So we finally had something to celebrate and the beer was flowing at the trailer then we went across the road to the local saloon till closing and then back to the trailer for a nightcap. We all got to Bed by 4 a.m. back up at 9 a.m. and back home by 11 a.m. today.

It was a good week after all I guess, we logged 448 miles in the four days which had we not taken Bruce’s Camper would have been double, sure we had some time to kill each day but it worked out for everyone cutting the fuel cost in half for the week.

Next week where close to home with the clubs Equity pull just 25 miles down the road from me. So I’ll post the play by play from Equity next week.

Till then have a good one