9-20-2004

Well, here it is the NSCA World Finals. We had an unexpected turn of good fortune before we even left. Team BBNOVA was notified that there would be a $500 check waiting for us when we got home if we could manage a #1 qualifier at the Columbus event. BRM PRODUCT SERVICES LLC, a local Product Evaluation Service, Product Assembly, Product fulfillment and Packaging company owned by Philip rowe and his wife stepped up and offered up the money if we our selves stepped up. Well, as it turned out we did. More on that later. Friday Sept 17 we showed up once agin to an NSCA race and rain. There was no chance of getting in our normal Columbus Friday qualifier. So, we spent the day goofing off with some other NSCA competitors. Saturday morning we showed up at the track, to blue skies. The track was in bad shape due to all the rain and didn't get our first qaulifier till mid afternoon. We wanted a base line. We made no changes from our last event and the car went 7.67 which put us #2, due to Golobo not making weight. With the $500 BRM and the $3000 Profiler #1 qualifying money on the line, we decided to step it up and see if it would take it. Our second qualifier got us closer to our 7.5 goal this year. After the second qualifier was all said and done, we were still #2 but with a 7.602 and only .01 out of first and oh so close to that 7.5 pass. We knew we were on the right track and made one more step in that direction and went up for our third and final qualifier. I let the button go and did my normal shifts, but this time my shift light came on earlier when I was going through the finish line which meant I was on a good pass. I made the turn and shut off the bottle and purged the extra NOS and got on the walkie talkie. One of my sons Alex was on the other end. I pushed the botton and said "so"??? Alex said "I LOVE YOU". I replied back with what? He said you just went 7.58. I couldn't beleive it. I reached my goal for this year with a personal best while out qualifying my competition. So, the qualifying was done. I was #1 with a 7.58, John Schroeder was #2 with a 7.592, team Orange crush was #3 with a 7.593 and team Ferrari was #4 with a 7.640. Team Ferrari and I were within 1 point in the points chase for 3rd place. This put us #3 in the points if we could at least go the same number of rounds as them on Sunday. Sunday came around and as we were doing our normal warm up, I noticed some excessive smoke be burned by the engine. We aslo made a change to help with the starting line tire spin since I had the 1st round by run. When I let go of the button the car bogged and then came on. I drove it to half track and lifted. Upon pulling the plugs I discoved #5 was running on oil. Not good news as it turned out we had Golobo in the semi's. We put things back to the way they were when we made our 7.58 pass the night before. I fired the motor to head up to the staging lanes. this time it was smoking real bad. I had no idea if the bog on our last pass was due to the change we made or having a oiled down hole or both. Golobo some arrived and made a comment about the smoke. I told him I was running it so be prepared. I did a shorter than normal burnout and staged the car and waited for Golobo. We final staged and I took a stab at the tree figuring I needed the edge with the motor being the way it was. I jumped the light and the motor bogged again. I lifted and watched Golobo run a 7.59 at 189mph. Still feeling I had a great weekend, I held my head high. This event gave us the energy we needed to know that we will have something for the 2002 Camaros that appear to definitely have an edge in this class. Please check back soon for 2004 recap and what is in the works for the 2005 racing season. BBNOVA