My 2014 DragWeek Adventure

[Dino98T/A]

Hello all! I am currently going threw my notes that I kept throughout 2014s Dragweek. I want to try to make a day to day posting of my DragWeek14 experience. The cheeky shenigans that took place must be shared...and I couldn't think of a better bunch of individuals to share it with. Stay tuned... Dino Cardella 1998 Pontiac Trans Am (97P) Cat Face/Meow

[ksj2]

Tie dye style? WTF no Purple cat? Bob pick your wardrobe. LMAO!

[Dino98T/A]

Tie dye style? WTF no Purple cat? Bob pick your wardrobe. LMAO!

Lol. Bob was not a fan of the cat shirt. Anyone can pimp the cat/tie dye shirt for 7.50 plus tax from a local walmart. Kinda confused why I don't see more of them..lol.

[ksj2]

Glad you,Tom and Bob etc had fun.

[Dino98T/A]

I forgot to mention a new friend joined us that day. His name is Ryan Shaughnessy. Great guy!

[Dino98T/A]

How we doing Dragweekers? Got some spare time and thought I would sneak another day in...

Sunday 9/7/14 Registration/Test and Tune Tulsa OK

Was up early to get some breakfast.The goal was to get to the track early..

Good morning selfie at the Holiday Inn Express!

Got at the track about a hour before tech/registration. Line to tech filled in quick! This was my time to wander around and look at all the kickass rides. Some pics of my walk around..














My ride aka "The Lady"




Dustins Ride..



Always had a soft spot for AMCs. I had a 1974 AMC Ambassador in highschool. That car did not help my geek/nerd status...lol.

[Dino98T/A]

Sunday 9/7/14 Registration/Test and Tune Tulsa OK :continued:


Kevin(left) and Dustin having a chat



My bud Kelvin Poe(left) who owns Autobody Unlimited in Wamego KS. Cool oldschool wagon, that has my old 10bolt rearend out of my 98 Trans Am..Awesome!




Love this trailer. Cool as hell!

Tech Area...
After registration/tech we found a pit spot and made some runs. My car ran 11.2s and 11.3s threw 8 or so runs(playing with fuel/nitrous jets). Kevins nova was in the low elevens(still messing with the tune/car was untested before dragweek). Dustins T-type ran low 14s. Overall a good day and a lot of fun. I will end the day on this picture...

Beer. Not sure why my shoe was off. I really dont remember taking this picture....
Good night Guys/Gals...More to come.

[Firechickenman]

Waiting for the next episode...

[Dino98T/A]

Monday 9/8/14
Good morning pic at 6:30am/Holiday inn Express parking lot..

Got a little dew on her..

Another early morning pic..

Pitted and getting ready to go. My bud Kevin brought 2 turbos. A 78mm and a 76mm. He wasnt feeling good on the 78mm so we did a quick change out to the 76mm.


Went very smooth. Took about 40 minutes or so...

Walking up for the Drivers meeting





Some pictures of this wonderful facility. I really love this track!








Some pics from the line..

http://youtu.be/pKyNY1hiGDE

Vid of Kevins run..unsure of time(I fail).



This Lemans caught my eye at the staging line. Super nice guy that owns it! Clean!!!
It gets a little shaky for me at this point. My nitrous system would not work. I run a wet system, it would spray fuel but no N2O. Assuming I had a restriction at some point in the system, the race was on to find it before they had last call for time slips. We could not find exactly what was plugged/damaged so I went up and ran a bad NA run. I ran a [email protected] good. The car has run 12.1s to 12.3s NA. Discouraged and slightly pissed I turned in my slip and we hit the road to Topeka. The plan was once we got to Topeka, Kevin and I would dig into the Nitrous system and figure out what was wrong.
Some pics from the road trip to Topeka..






Dustin(left) and his co-pilot/my new friend Ryan..




Monroe Kansas 8:40pm
We rolled into Topeka KS about 10pmish...We ended up staying at Kevins Mom and Dads house. Wonderful people, they fed us and helped us with trouble shooting the nitrous system. We ended up finding a wad of teflon tape in one of my nitrous solenoids. Purged all the crap out of the feed lines, and put her back together. Not sure how teflon got in my nitrous system, as i always use blue locktight to seal up connections-oh well, all better now! By the time my head hit the pillow it was 1:30am. Dragweek!
More to come!

[moter]

Very cool!

[Dino98T/A]

Waiting for the next episode...

Cool pic...I will add it to my DragWeek library!

[Dino98T/A]

Been dragging my feet on updating. Work has been kicking my ass as of late..

Tuesday 9/9/14- The beginning of the "Hot" Carl chronicles..

Morning came way to early for this guy. Kevins Mom made breakfast for us and brewed a pot of Kickass strong coffee(much needed). Got all loaded up and said our goodbyes. I offered up some money to Kevins Mom and that was quickly declined. Great-Great People. You have a wonderful family Kevin! We needed to stop and get some fuel before getting our runs in at Heartland Park. As we were about ready to pull out and head to the track- we get approached by a odd dude (in Daily Driver) driving a white early 90s Chevy Caprice. He was a little confused on how to get to the track and asked if he could follow us. That moment was recorded in history as the beginning of our interactions with "Hot" Carl. Now get your minds out of the gutter..The nickname "Hot" was given to him because of the legendary wingman(bringing up the rear of our group) as we traveled. We would always say "Carl is coming in hot' over our walkie talkie/2 way radios. Guy drives like a honey badger on bathsalts! Seriously..Hilarity.
Pic of our group. Left to right-Dustin, Bob, Kevin, Yours truly, "Hot" Carl, Ryan and Gary.

Pic of the lady at Heartland park

Wives(Mine and Garys) were able to make it down to watch us run, I also got to see Garys Mom again(been a few years since i seen her last) real nice lady!
Pic of the cars


Made my run and was pretty happy. Nitrous system worked and clipped off a [email protected]. We quickly loaded up and got on the road to Noble OK.
All was well till-

Dustin had a little/minor issue with his tranny. The tranny was overfilled and the fluid boiled out causing a big smoke show. We were able to get him flagged down and pulled over. We drained all the smoked fluid out and replaced with fresh. "Hot" Carl jumped out of his car and took a leak in the ditch and didnt try to hide at all when he pissed..kind of weird? lol This picture was taken by Cassoday KS on Kansas Turnpike.
Not much to report after that. Made the motel in decent time and tried to catch up on sleep!
More to come!