OK. Thursday. Packed my bags, a tool bag, some fluids, a bag of safety gear, my ipod with a little external speaker system, extra jackets and two coolers full of ice and water. I cranked up the engine and let it warm up a little. My wife put my boy on the bus then sat in front of my Burb 'cause she didn't want me to go. I leaned out the window and told her, "I built this thing, do you really want to sit in front of it??" Play time was over. Time to go.
I hopped on the California freeway system and.....sat in traffic a bunch. Yeah, I shoulda left real early. A lot of stop and go traffic. Everything was working good. Music was cranking. A good test for the cooling system which passed with flying colors. Didn't really have any issues except when traffic speed picked up and I went to merge in to the lane to the right of me. I looked to the right and when I looked back, my lane was stopped. I had to swerve to the right to avoid hitting the guy in front of me. Next on the "to do" list, a rear sway bar.
I got to the Castaic area when my 2 cups of coffee started talking to me. Stretch time! I stopped at a McDonalds and figured I would get an Egg McMuffin or such. Duty done, time to climb the Grapevine. When this thing drops in to overdrive, the RPM's are pretty low. The whole vehicle buzzes! You start noticing when you climb the grade and it drops out of overdrive. Climbed the hill, no problem but felt like horsepower was dropping off near the top. Anyway, up the Grapevine, through Gorman and back down the other side. Good time to see if the brakes work well. They do!
Got to south of Bakersfield and figured it was a good time to check fuel. Remember, the gas gauge isn't working just yet. The Suburban has a 16 gallon tank. I put 7.5 gallons in. That makes me feel good! I should be able to do the whole weekend AND drive home. Onward and upward. Through Bakersfield and on to the track. I actually took the wrong off ramp and had a nice drive through some groves. Got to the gate and called my people for my credentials and passes. In I go. I install the pushbar and kick back, take in the place. Not much going on in the place as it is move in day.
Friday. Some more move in going on. Some cackling. Some testing. Some racing. The Burb is parked in a designated push car parking area. Early, we fire up the dragster to do some tuning and make sure everything is working well. Our driver arrives. By late afternoon it is time to try a push start. The dragster is one of the longer ones made back in the day. I bring the Suburban around, we push the dragster out of the pits and I get behind it. We haven't even made the right turn out the pit road yet. They need to push it backwards. I need to back up. Pit road is full of racers trying to get to the staging lanes. I have a golf cart right on my back bumper and they aren't moving backwards. Chaos multiplied. We finally get the dragster around. I get behind it. We finally start moving towards the staging lanes. http://www.bunchobikes.com/chrrstaging.jpg After getting up through the staging lanes, we finally are waved forward to do a push start. The dragster roars to life with a bang like an M80. http://www.bunchobikes.com/1952suburban159.jpg All works well. We push back to the pits, park the dragster and I park the Burb. The big show, Saturday night is next!
