The Plot Thickens…
Jason Hurley is out, Thiessen runs deep into the 7s and Goldstone continues to go fast late at night!
The heat is intense, with interiors getting to 160+ degrees and oil temps in the mid 230s, the racers that made it to Texas Motorplex were true road warriors!
As I made my way around the pits today, many racers were doing their best to stay hydrated after the 350 mile drive from Tulsa Raceway Park through backroads and countryside of Oklahoma and Texas. One of the benefits to RMRW, is the use of “Drive Days” to help alleviate the struggle of covering the 350ish miles between the first two tracks for this year. Brian Robbins, copilot for Bryant Goldstone, showed me a picture of the temp gun pointed at their feet and the firewall with a reading of 166.4 degrees. I don’t know the melting point of shoe soles, but that’s probably well past that level. Other racers discussed seeing oil temperatures above 230*, even with huge oil coolers and dedicated fans. Jason Hurley wants me to remind everyone to change your oil regularly this week!
The track had nearly no instances tonight, except for the occasional bit of debris that would fall from a car after a hard launch from the 2-3 miles of surprise gravel road we were routed down. Chad Reynolds took some flack for the route, but as of two weeks ago, there was no road construction on the directions we were given. Hey, that’s just part of drag and drive right?
The track performed well all afternoon, but after the sun went down, so did the ETs.
The Quick and the Dead
For the first time since having the new car out, Jason Hurley had to bow out of the race because of a lifter. Luckily, there was minimal damage to the camshaft and he plans to have it out of the car in a few days so he can make the needed repairs and still race at the Havlik’s Fastest Street Car Tribute Race in August.
Goldstone ran in the second class call of the evening and put down a 7.28x, which would put him at a 7.047 Average after the two days. He laughed and said he wanted to reset that Unlimited Class ET Record….. Larry Larson in 2015, the first year of RMRW, ran the only 6 second average to ever complete the event. His 6.911 record has stood as the barrier since the beginning. Bryant came back to the lanes at nearly 10pm for his second pass of the night. With a stall on the line and tensions high, Bryant left the line easily and poured it on later in the run to run a 6.761 at 218MPH! He currently is the Quickest Overall in his class and the overall event with his 6.786 Average from the two days of racing.
The race in Ultimate Radial continues to heat up…… Brad Thiessen moves in to First Place in his class with a 7.677 pass, to Ricky Daniels 7.855 pass! These two are separated by just 0.07 seconds in their averages.
Other tight races include Hot Rod class, with Walter Doyle leading Tim Meyer by just 0.0035! Rowdy Radial has Donovan Linwood’s 5.219 ahead of Aaron Shaffer by just 0.069!
Gasser has Joe Grier’s 10.8965 leading Eddie Wilson by 0.0655!
Big Block Bob Ruppel leads John Daugherty in the NA Big Block by just 0.019 with Bob’s Average at 10.522!
The 9.00 Index is lead with Jeremy Wilson’s 9.002, 0.011 ahead of Shawn Slaughbaugh’s 9.02!
The Mach-E Mustang is giving the 13.00 Index class fits, as husband and wife swap driver seat for racing duties of their own! We do not have Alex Rops ET from tonight but Alan Ledesma has moved ahead of his wife Nicole Ledesma with his 13.015 timeslip tonight. His average currently is 0.0095 ahead with a 13.041 Average.
14.00 Index is very close across the Top 3 with Jennifer Burst’s 14.061, Josh Odom’s 14.079 and James Daly’s 14.085.
The drive to Thunder Valley Raceway in Noble, MO is going to test these racers. Who is making good choices? Who is living right? Who conserved energy today to drive tonight when it was cooler?
We’ll find out tomorrow if their plans worked as we move to Day Three of Racing in what will be an event for the history books!!
