10-12-2005

OUR 2005 NSCA NPS CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON

What a season for team BBNOVA. Brian and I finally wrapped up a championship and met our goal from 5 years ago. I remember Brian and I showing up at Silver dollar raceway 5 years ago getting our first real taste of heads up competition. We were a green team then and it showed. The chassis was also a challenge as it was not built for the punishment we put it through.

After a brand new EC1 25-5 back half and a new Lukovich 632 engine let us fast forward to the year 2005 and the long track to Belle Rose, La. back in March. The weather was beautiful and so was the track. We showed up with a motor that hadn t been fired and lots of work to do. After working all day finishing everything up and firing the motor on Friday we looked forward to qualifying on Saturday. We ended up qualifying #1 dipping into the 7.5 s. We went to the finals where we met Dave Beeson. If you are not familiar with Dave Beeson, he is a hitter in the NPS class. We got lucky enough to put some tree on him and got our 1st NPS victory ever. Our heads were in the clouds as we made the long journey home.

That brings us to NSCA race #2 in Atlanta, Ga. Unfortunately John Schroeder and team BBNOVA were the only NPS cars to show, so we made the best of it. With the motor mods that were made over the previous off season, I made a change to the motor that unknowingly allowed oil into the intake runners. During our last qualifier, we hurt the motor. We qualified right behind John with a 5.57 to John s 7.55. We were unable to make the call on Sunday and John took the win.

After we got home, we pulled the motor and I tore it down. I found it needed a set of pistons and still hadn t figured out why the oil was getting in the runners. I did everything I could to try and seal the runners and set out for NSCA race #3 in Cecil County, Md. There were as usual the East coast big hitters there. We qualified 4th. On the 3rd qualifier, I had a brain fart and downshifted as I went through the traps at 180mph. I rounded the corner and looked the car over to see if there was any fluid or visual sign of failure from my mess up. Everything looked good. I fired the car and drove back to my pit and everything seemed good. We drew Henry Jackson first round. As I staged the car and stabbed the gas peddle, the car lurched forward and I stabbed the brakes as hard as I could and waited for the tree to come down. The car left hard in first gear. As I grabbed second, the motor zinged on me and I lifted as I had no 2nd gear. Still leading the points, we headed home and pulled the trans. Hutch of Hutch s trans did his magic on it. I got my hand slapped and said I would try and never do that again.

That brings us to NSCA race #4 in Milan, Mi. Milan is our home track and we wanted to do well there. We qualified #1 with Rob Golobo right behind us. We made it the finals to meet Rob. Wow, de-javu, we met Rob in the finals in Milan back in 2004. We red lit against him in the finals then. Unfortunately, this was de-javu to the 2nd power. As I left, I saw the red light come on and felt that I wanted to drive the car into the wall for doing that again. The runner up finish gave us enough points to give us a commanding lead in NPS.

That brings us to the 2005 CFSC shootout. We have attended this event every year and fully enjoy ourselves. This year was no different other than this year it was held at Toronto Motorsports Parkway instead of Grand Bend. We ended up qualifying #3 and went to the finals against Sandra Grella. We didn t have enough steam to get by her and we ended up runner up. We made the journey home and prepared for the next NSCA event.

We showed up at Quaker City in Salem, Oh. for the NCSA s 5th race and qualified #2 behind John Schroeder. We showed up on Sunday for eliminations only to have rain cancel the day. That was actually a good thing because that oil problem had showed its ugly head again. We pulled the motor once again and found 4 pistons had lost their eyebrow, totally gone down the top ring. After getting the motor back together and finally realizing what was causing the oil problem and correcting it, we were on our way to Mid Michigan Motorplex for the 6th race in the NCSA series. We had a new big hitter show up for this race. John Baio and his wonderful wife were looking to put the rest of on the trailer. John went out first round of qualifying and laid down a #1 qualifying pass with a mid 7.5 pass and hurt the motor doing so. We qualified #2 and looked forward to eliminations on Sunday. Sunday came and we managed to get to the finals were we met John Baio. We staged the cars and waited for the tree to come down. Unfortunately, John didn t wait long enough and gave me the win.

After Mid Michigan and having a commanding lead we looked forward to the Finals in Columbus Ohio. We had the championship wrapped up and could relax and have fun. Unfortunately for our team, a few days before departure, Brian, my crew chief called and said he would not be able to make it. I was devastated. Our winning season, everything we had worked so hard for. I told him I understood and if there was a chance for him to make it to please show up. I put out a post on this site for help. Glenn and Bob answered the call and we were off to Columbus for the 7th and Final NSCA race for 2005. After our first qualifier and some motor popping, we got the car back to the pit and found the positive wire going to the coil had come lose and the fastener was backed out so far as I grabbed the wire, the fastener fell out. I tightened the fastener down and went out for another qualifier, which was the first round for the Salem make up race. We had Doug smith first round and as it turned out, he had something for us. He treed me with a .004 light and ran a 7.54. That was enough to send him to the final round for that make up race. Unfortunately, team BBNOVA was still having ignition problems and went over everything once again. We had one more qualifier and went over everything and went out for another try. The motor still popped and banged down the track. I found a coil thanks to Dave Laurer and replaced mine with his. We went out first round on Sunday and I did my normal first round long burnout. As I was backing up, there was some confusion on our team as to backing me up. Unfortunately, we were out of the grove as the car left and made a hard left turn and sent us home with a bittersweet 2005 NPS championship.

This 2005 season gave us another year of learning and experience. The older I get, the more I find out I don t really know. There are so many people to thank for this 2005 Season. First Mr. Tony Depillo for giving all of us a place to race and for the lead on the 2005 Norwalk Night Under Fire Show, The other guy didn t stand a chance HE HE HE . I would also like to thank Brian Mullaney; it has been proven this season that without you none of this would have been possible. Thank you Glenn, Rita, Colleen, Shannon, Bob, and Jeff for all of your support this year. Thanks to my two sons Alex and Brandon for putting up with a dad that loves this sport maybe too much. Thanks to my dear friend Hutch. Without you my friend, we would still be hurting parts and running high 7 s instead of a consistent 7.5 and 7.6 car. Thanks to Ernie of EC1 race cars. You built me one of the badest hot rods out there. Thanks to Jeff Lukovich for all you have done. It goes to show that sometimes friendship and business can go hand in hand. Thanks to all my sponsors. Lukovich racing engines and parts, Hutch s trans service, DTS parts and service, NOS brand nitrous, Mickey Thompson tires, Corteco for sponsoring our organization, Moroso for their parts that just keep doing their job, Neal Chance racing converters, Patrick at Pro systems, Powermaster for their starter that just keeps cranking, and lastly RPM performance products for the data logger that unfortunately I only got use this last race. It did help me narrow down my ignition problem and worked flawlessly. It is a very nice and easy to use tool at a very affordable price.