Posted 05 August 2007 - 07:57 PM
Alright, here is your update...
I painted my car flat black the morning of the derby in between rain storms. Tied up most of the loose ends that i had (yes, i forgot a couple of things) and transported my car to the fair grounds for the derby. I passed the inspection without too much hassle, and enjoyed the eye of the storm right before the derby for about an hour.
The things i forgot to do were...i forgot to pick up a belt for my alternator, and forgot to fill the rea end with gear oil. Neither thing was a super big deal, just made it so i needed to charge my battery in between heats. There was still some gear oil in the rear end...enough to keep things lubed.
Anyway, the derby started up and the first heat was an endurance run. The above mentioned rain and the cars mixing up the dirt turned the arena into a 6 to 8 inch deep mud soup pit. People were having issues with traction/speed/stopping, so the hits were weak. Everyone ended up lasting forever, and their wasn't a whole lot of nasty damage to their cars.
Second heat was my heat. The moment i have been waiting for. I drove in and squared up against a late 60s buick (not a very strong car) As they started the heat, i thought to myself..."i'm not going to hit this guy hard, i'll save the mean hits for later" which was a mistake because with thinking this, i didn't jump off the line, just took my time. As this was going on, i saw the buick start to move...but he was going the wrong way. He had missed his gear, and started driving into the barrier instead of towards me. Had i jumped on him, i would have been able to push him out of the arena, putting him out of the derby. This was the worst possible thing to have happen to me, because i got mad at myself for missing a prime opportunity. I decided to not miss any more, and let loose.
I ended up having better traction than most, so i used every bit of it. i started following people as they would get close to the barriers, then hammering down as they started to stop. Using their poor traction to their disadvantage, and pushing them out of the areana. This worked perfect to put out 3 other cars, but they let one of them back in for some reason. The action slowed down a bit towards the end of the heat until one of my buddies and i started ganging up on the others. It came down to the point of it being me, my buddy, and 2 other cars. We would take turns pinning them in, and holding them while the other made a strong hit on them. At this point, i kind of came out of my derby rage and realized that i was about to move on to the winners heat. This would be only my second time in the winners heat so far in my derby career. My friend and i made quick work of the last car so that only 3 of us were running...ending the heat. I drove up to my buddy and gave him the thumbs up, then motioned to spin some cookies. It was pretty cool, my buddy and I slinging mud over the field that we had just dominated...crowd going crazy, all on top of an excellent adrenaline high. Oh so sweet.
My car was hardly damaged. The trunk was packng in just fine, and the front was bending up in the right spots. Things were going as expected.
In the winners heat, i ended up stacked up against some fine cars. There were 12 cars in this heat (3 from each heat, and 3 from the loosers heat) Out of those 12 cars, 5 of them had once been owned by my older brother (he is way into this sport and had brought those cars into the valley from all over) The competition was steep to say the least. I ended up using my car alot more than the others. Ended up being by far the most agressive. I was able to push one more car out of the areana, and made some neck stretching full arean hits. My car started having some issues shifting between forward and reverse, and the motor started having issues making higher revs. Heat would end up killing me. I was able to stay in and make 5th place for the second year in a row. But i took out alot more people this year.
Last minutes of the derby, the announcer piped up and told everyone that some local businesses had chipped in to double to pot for the winners. Instead of 900 for 1st, they would get $1,800. Not bad money for a stupid redneck race. Maybe i can get a peice of that next derby.
My car is still in pretty good shape. I may be running it again this coming tuesday...but if not, i will run it the first part of september. Can't wait for that, it's going to be a blast.
Oh yea...i am sore....very sore.
And after the tire went flat you could see the rim spining inside the tire and there's what seald it's fate!
Would that work?? Oh wait scratch that! I guess if you have a welder anything is posable.. Hahaha!!
