The early Arkansas summer is taking a toll on this old guy at the strip. Yesterday, the air temp was hovering around 100, blazing sun and 60% humidity. Had good fans under our canopy, but when in the staging lanes, Lucifer himself would pi** and moan like I did, shot the asphalt with the digital pyro thingy, and it read read 150 deg. Shot the inside of the Fairmont with the drivers door open and it read 125 deg. With door closed and engine running, helmet and belts on, had to be somewhere around 140 or 50. Do have a small fan on the cage bar to help on the return road. Mavman in the alcohol Maverick, is required to wear a full fire suit on top of it. He heads for the camper after a run and sits in the AC to cool down, we took 48 bottles of water and only a six pack or so was left at the end of the day. I went two rounds. beat a Camaro that runs pretty much the same numbers I do, got a high five second trans am pro type funny car, had a little better light and he lifted at my rear quarter panel and I also lifted, ten feet from the finish line, and I beat him by .024 sec. Then came the third round and I was very hot and tired, ran another very fast alcohol Camaro. Tried the same thing on him and should have stayed in the throttle. Got spanked by .022. Mavman went to the quarter finals(this was a 1000 payout race) had to run a former track champion (as is he is with his tried and true Maverick), in a very fast Mopar. They both slept at the tree(the Mopar a tad less) and sent him to the house too. The man went on to win the 1000 with his 488ci, 68 Charger. All in all it is still fun and I will still bit** about the weather, but in the coming real summer, will be there at the start line, along with Mavman, no matter what. Do you think I like to race and compete?, oh yeah.
Yes, those jammies do get a little warm sitting in the car, but hey...better than being barbecued in case of a fire! Those of you who have witnessed an alcohol fire--you know what I'm talking about. Can't see the fire itself...almost totally invisible. Thats one reason they make you wear all the "jammies". When I got to drive the sprint a few years ago, I had everything, underwear, sock, firesuit, everything....hot, yes, but in an open wheel car, it wasn't too bad at 120 mph.
damn, i think it was cooler in tucson this weekend. 108, but only about 10% humidity.made it to the semi's then the big red bulb lit up. out of 4 races so far i've made it to the semi's 3 times. then i seem to hit a wall. i think i'm 1 point out of first place.
Hopefully the weather here will let up a little for the RoundUp. It's pretty nice today, but for the last week, it's been miserable! Temps were 94-96, but with about the same 90-95 percent humidity! It was BAD! I haven't checked the extended outlook yet, but hopefully, it will cooperate. If not, some folks are going to get a rude awakening. High heat is one thing, but until you've had high heat, coupled with high humidity, you haven't really been HOT! Here's to hoping it works out.... Later,
