Wild Cherry Racing : Test And Tune

Wednesday, December 31, 1969, 09:00 PM

This post's for David White

Tuesday, June 12, 2007, 01:12 PM

This last Saturday I stopped in at Buccee’s down the street for a cold beer. I noticed a caravan of pick-ups and race cars on trailers in the parking lot, as one of them was gassing up. I recognized them as I got closer and went over to say hello. Then the chastising began….”WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, MAN??!!?? What’d you do, quit racing?? You don’t even post anymore on your website!!”….. I didn’t have a leg to stand on. So David, this post’s for you.

Catching up…….
March 10th – Our niece Bonnie became Mrs. Marcus Keesler. They had a nice wedding at Varner-Hogg plantation and a reception in Freeport, and partied in Las Vegas for their honeymoon.

March 23rd – finally put the N20 into our lil’ pony at HMP. The first pass was a 6.40 w/1.41 60’ time, but the car popped and crackled all the way down the track. I adjusted the fuel pressure up, and as I was checking the plugs, I pulled the clip off the end of the %#@(*&!!! #8 plug wire. Repairing the wire took some time & by the time I got it fixed it was around 9PM. I wasn’t aware that 9PM is when the rice burners come out of the wood work, so I got in line to make a 2nd pass. The rice burners drug burn-out water up on the launch pad, which made it slicker than a flounder’s belly. As I launched the car, I broke the tires loose with a 100HP initial nitrous shot. I peddled the car out of the gate, and ran a 6.52. Knowing that things weren’t going to improve that night, we loaded up and headed for home.

March 25th – Veronica & I added a new toy to our toy box. We purchased a 19’ ProMaster center console fishing boat! We’ve been having a lot of fun with it….And yes, I’ll admit it, my racing hobby is diluted to some extent.

April 27th – We made a trip to HRP to do some practicing for the upcoming Fun Ford Weekend. Again we got busted by all the rice burners about dark. It was however, both Beth & Carrisa’s first drag race to attend, and they both seemed to enjoy it!

April 30th – Naphtha fire at work…. Burned up a process area that had significant impact on Dow Chemical……. Lots and lots of recovery work, lots & lots of overtime that kept us out of Fun Ford Weekend.

May 19th – We had a crawfish boil at our house for my birthday. We cooked up somewhere around 320 lbs of “Mud Bugs” and hardly any were left. We had a great time with family and friends. Thanx to Dwight Cahanin for cooking!

Well, that’s about it. Joey finished his training and is now in Tendall AFB in Florida for about a month.

He & Loni will be coming to visit on the 21st and stay a few days, whereupon they’ll go back home, pack up, & and move to Seymour Johnson AFB, Goldsboro, NC where he’s been permanently assigned. We’ve been doing a little fishing now & then, but after talking to David White & Chris Hurta, we plan on participating in the S&S Index race, held on every 2nd Saturday of the month (hopefully beginning 7/14).

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Happy Gas

Wednesday, March 7, 2007, 12:11 PM

We’ve been foolin’ w/the nitrous system a little lately, and are on the verge of debuting the “happy gas pass”.
It isn’t because we haven’t tried in the recent past, but we’ve been plagued with electronic problems….WOT switches out of adjustment, burnt up RPM window switches, & defective fuel pressure safety switches to name a few. These are all necessary evils in a nitrous system ( at least to me), and when one’s not happy, ain’t nobody happy.
Hence, you pucker yer butt up to get slammed in the seat and instead make a leisurely motor pass down the track.

I’ve been doing a little “homework” lately, and have come to understand that a lil’ shot isn’t necessarily nicer to the engine than a big shot. The lil’ shot tends to have unequal fuel/nitrous distribution to each cylinder, and the fuel pressure is sometimes difficult to manage. However, a bigger shot can burn up pistons and create a “highly technicolor hood removing experience”, if not tuned right……not to mention blowing the back tires off at the hit.

Sooooo, the man in the brown truck dropped off a lil’ package yesterday…..a NOS Mini Progressive 2 Stage Controller. This little jewel allows you to program a portion of a big hit to come in on the launch (or delay to some time after), and then bring in a portion or all of the remainder over a programmed ramp time. It also has a second separate channel for a 2nd nitrous kit (future) w/the same features. I already have a similar controller, but it won’t control due to the high amp load requirements of the Cold Fusion Nitrous solenoids. The only problem I see w/the new one is the fact that it has a remote hand held programming module about the size of a match box, so I’ll wind up losing it in about a week. Nevertheless, I’ve pilled our lil’ pony up to a 250 HP shot, and it’s time to do some tweekin’. Now all we’ve got to do is find an open day to do this………looking at our calendar, I’m looking at March 23rd. I'd better write it in there quick.......

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"Mini" Catch-up Post

Monday, March 5, 2007, 10:10 PM

It's only been a couple of weeks since we posted last, but a lot seems to have happened in a short period of time. On February 24th, our grand daughter celebrated her 1st birthday! It seems like only a week or two that she was a newborn! She's now walking, and mom & dad seem to have thier hands full keeping her out of stuff. We attended her birthday party where she recieved all sorts of goodies. She blew out her candle and when dad gave her a bite of cake, she gave us a subtle hint that cream cheese icing wasn't at the top of her list.....

This last weekend, she went to her first rodeo. I "leveraged" (that's what we say at work instead of "stole") a pic from T&J's website, but you should go visit that site (Travisandjonda.com/blog) for more pics & videos of Carissa.

While Carissa & crew were at the rodeo, Veronica & I & our friends Jim Johnston & Laurie Montgomery went to a different kind of rodeo... we went to the anual ADRL "Dragapalooza" at HMP, where we watched Pro-Mods, Pro-Extreme, & Pro-Nitrous class cars zip down the track. We got to see the track record set with a 3.85 second pass at just under 200mph! This is in a 1/8 mile (660'), folks! We spent a lot of time on our feet and on Sunday, my body was telling me that I'm too old to play that hard, as my back was killing me. It still hurt this morning, so a day of work was missed and a heat pad & couch was utilized for the majority of the day.
The last pic is what Jed & Granny Clampet drug down the road to Houston a couple of weeks ago.....I NEED a box trailer, Veronica!

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"Snowed Out"

Tuesday, February 20, 2007, 03:55 PM

…Went to the track this weekend. We were set up to race in the “Clobberthon 34”, but our nitrous electronics had other ideas. We loaded everything up (golf cart in the bed of the truck and the ‘Stang on the trailer) and we looked like the Clampets en route to Beverly Hills. Once there at Houston Motorsports Park, we tech’ed in, added a little fuel, & set out to make a pass. Veronica & I thought we had all of the bugs worked out of the NOS, as we ensured continuity with the WOT switch, and all was a “go”. Under the advise of Mike Hurta, I increased the shot of spray from a 150 shot to a 200 HP shot, so I don’t mind telling you that I had some minor anxieties prior to the run, especially being back in the car for the 1st time since late July of '06. I was unsure how the car was going to react to the extra power. The lites came down, I released the trans-brake, and the car & I went straight down the track. The pass felt like good one, but the time slip on the other end revealed just another motor pass (less nitrous boost)…… back to the nitrous drawing board. I attempted to TS the problem, but had neglected to bring along my wiring diagrams and I was a little short handed on trouble shooting resources…..long story short, the car went back on the trailer, we became spectators in lieu of participants, & the #5 Street King (6.20 index) was safe again from the wrath of WCR. It’s probably just as well, as we found out later that after we had left, a fight broke out between some disgruntled racers. I awoke at 3AM, trying to mentally trouble shoot the car there in the dark in bed. Sunday AM I unloaded the car off the trailer, jumpered some safeties, yanked the defective RPM switch out of the loop, and had all 4 solenoids clickin’ up a storm! We’ll test again real soon, but based on the calendar, I’m unsure when. This Saturday is Carrisa’s 1st birthday and Veronica has declared this weekend a “YARD WEEKEND”….at least for me.

As I write this post, Veronica & I have just returned from the funeral of Buster Rice. Buster , the father of my close friends Donnie & Dennis Rice, went to see the Lord last Friday morning. Buster was a good man, who put himself second to the needs of others and always put a smile on your face. Buster was one of a kind….no, I’ll take that back – there were 2 of them. My dad was one of those rare people, too.

Last Thursday morning it snowed at my office building at Stratton Ridge………That’s right, two different 15 minute “flurries” about twenty minutes apart. We almost “snowed out”, just so we could say we did.

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