"Next Stop - Fontana"

On Thursday, March 1st I got on a plane headed for Bakersfield to meet up with the team and do some testing over the weekend.

On Friday we were a little short handed and only got in one run. We had planned on working on short numbers and trying to get this thing to stop eating pistons like candy! I drove the car about 200 ft. on Friday and shut it off. Whe we came back and took the engine apart, everything looked great....maybe we were on to something! Saturday we had our full crew at the track so we were ready to make some big progress over the next two days. We headed to the starting line for our first run looking to get the car to the eighth mile and shut it off. The car left great and was really pulling hard. I shut it off at 4 seconds posting a 3.85 at 207 mph eighth mile. The best eighth mile numbers ever for this car. As soon as I lifted though, the blower decided it did not want to be part of the engine anymore and exited the manifold. This ended our weekend early unfortunately damaging our only manifold.

So we qickly loaded the car and got the guys back on the road to Anaheim so Tom could get some rest and start on a new manifold for next weekend.

I got back to Oklahoma early Monday morning and had just enough time to wash some clothes, celebrate my 31st birthday with my family and get back on the plane Thursday morning with Lara, my dad and my brother and head back to Bakersfield fo the March Meet. Our weekend got off to a slow start with our first two qualifying attempts resulting in early shut offs. After each run our download was showing us that our fuel flow was taking a huge dive at about 1.5 seconds, coincidentally, about the same time my head was hitting the dash! After checking the whole fuel system and replacing some parts (thanks to Chuck Neal and Rick White for loaning us a fuel pump and drive), we finally got the car in the show in the number 8 spot with a "just ok" 5.92 at 244.

Sunday morning came and we were paired with Jason Ritchie in the Nitrofever car. We were the first pair out so we got to fire right after the national anthem....really cool deal! Jason and his guys came to fight! In what was arguably the best race in top fuel all weekend, the Nitrofever car just clipped us in the lights by .006 of a second. Our starting line advantage had been spent by the 1000 ft. mark and Jason's 5.86 out ran our 5.91.

Our team will head to Fontana on April 21st to do some more testing. I can't wait to get back in the car!

We want to send a huge thanks and congratulations to the Bowsers and Famoso Raceway for putting on a first class race and drawing a huge crowd for this 3 day event. It was awsome just to be a part of it!

Til next time, Troy & Lara

E-mail: Top Fuel Troy