Not the start of the season we were hoping for. As you all know at the end of last year the UPS Top Fuel Dragster was running pretty quick and very fast. Unfortunately it had a short fuse! A 330 mph plus run was usually accompanied by a blown up engine, a problem we needed to get fixed over the winter and one we tried to address in pre-season testing.
As part of our preparation for the 2008 season we were handed some new rules by NHRA, the back half of the cars were strengthened by utilizing larger diameter tubing, and we were also allowed to increase the percentage of nitromethane we run to 90% from last year's 85% .
As we spent the off season getting our car ready we contemplated some changes to fix the engine damage - a reduction in the amount of compression we were running seemed to be the logical fix to remedy the short fuse. We also figured we could make up for the power loss from the compression reduction by the increase in nitro percentage. With this in mind we headed to Phoenix for pre-season testing to see how close we were.
As we began our testing we realized the increase in nitro percentage overcame the compression reduction by a lot more than we anticipated. We continued to have problems calming our car down enough to successfully go down the track, and to top it off we lost a day of testing due to rain. With Pomona rapidly approaching and not enough time to get the new combination figured out a decision was made to put it back as close as possible to the way we ran it at the end of last season. While this seems like a simple move it actually isn't. Not to bore you with too many technical details, but when we reduced the compression in the engine it was done with changes to length of connecting rods, piston heights, etc. And since we blew up everything we had at the last race, we did not have any of the old pistons and rods available to put back in the engine. So we had to adapt a few things such as the thickness of head gaskets to try and get back to square one.
The last day of testing brought some progress and we finished up by running a rather conservative 4.53 elapsed time at a whopping 334.48 mph - the fastest run I have ever made. At least we would head to Pomona with some momentum.
In Pomona we learned that the new combination we were running, even taking into consideration that we tried to get it as close to last years as we could, still made more power. Run after run we continued fighting a loss of traction as the motor was way stronger. We made it into the field on a last ditch effort. We just wanted to go down the track so we detuned the engine a huge amount and ran a 4.59. That would have been a 4.53 had the blower belt not come out at 1000 feet, once again showing us that while we thought we had backed the motor down it still was making great power and showed us that we were still probably over center all weekend.
Our first round opponent was Morgan Lucas, and he had been running pretty good and very consistent all weekend. We decided to take it up there just as we ran it on the last qualifying run and unfortunately the track was warmer and we smoked the tires once again. The car made too much power for the conditions and we got beat. In talking with several other crew chiefs we all came to the same conclusion: with the new rules in effect the changes that we make to the motors have to be bigger than before. I listened to the same story time after time - we made changes to slow the car and down and it didn't even matter, the engine was just stronger.
As we head to Phoenix this weekend we are already adjusting our mindset to the changes we make. They will have to be bigger to have any effect and we know we need some more runs to get a baseline. I am hoping that can be accomplished quickly and I am optimistic about our chances in Phoenix. I can tell you it won't be for lack of effort. The UPS Racing Team is the hardest working bunch in the pits and will do whatever it takes to get us in contention. Keep your fingers crossed for us, and watch this weekend on ESPN 2. Once again thanks for all the support, I got to see a large UPS employee base in Pomona and look forward to meeting everyone in Phoenix.
Thanks for reading,