I’m done walking through their doors — at least after I pick up my generator and take somewhere else.

I swear — the last five or six times I’ve been down there I’ve walked back out completely dissatisfied and without what I came there for. Mostly simple items that they should stock — and that I’ve indeed found down the street from them.

Exactly a year ago I bought a portable suitcase sized Honda generator from the Katy, TX store for $1000 — and was talked into buying a 2-year extended service contract that would swap out my generator if something went wrong with it.

So I rarely use this generator — and have it as a backup for my motorhome when were on the road racing — but when I last tried to use it, the motor runs and the generator doesn’t work. On 5/2/13 I take it to the Camping World — and a Service writer by the name of Austin Goodwin asked me if I had an appointment. I tell him that it is less than two cubic feet in size — why would I need an appointment to drop it off? He takes it and tells me that they’ll look at it and call me that afternoon — but will most likely just swap it out.

I never get a call on 5/2, and so I called back on 5/6 and leave a voice mail. That call was never returned and on 5/9 I call and Austin tells me that their guy looked at it and can’t figure it out — and that I’ll need to pick up and take somewhere else. I remind him that not only does the Honda site list the Katy service center as an authorized Honda service center — but that they’d bent me over for and extended warranty — and that Camping World’s site says to take it there. He replied that the Internet is mistaken that they don’t repair Honda, and that I never had an appointment too bring it in the first place.

Don’t buy Honda generators and don’t buy from Camping World. They’re run by idiots and they lie (when selling extended warranties).

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While the Big Red Ram has been performing very well for Dallas, the Texas Whale sustained engine damage at our last race in Atlanta. We’ll never know the exact sequence of failures but the engine sustained a broken push rod, three bent push rods, a broken roller lifter, a pair of damaged roller rockers, and the three bolts on the geardrive to the camshaft loose.

Despite the engine having but 11 passes on it since a cam and head change — the decision was to completely tear down for further cleaning, inspection, and bearing replacement. Dallas tore the engine down and cleaned the parts; I order a set of beefier push rods from Smith Brothers, rockers from T&D, lifters from Bullet, and timing set/gaskets/timing cover,engine bearings/cam button; and Damon has assembled the short block. However, we’re still waiting for the rockers and Cometic Head Gaskets — so the Texas Whale was not ready for this race.

So the Vitamin C was pressed into action. I bought this slower (mid 10-second) car 4 years ago, and ran it for a couple of years while the Whale was getting finished — and Dallas was getting use to maintaining a mid 9-second car. A pin hole found it’s way through a cylinder wall two years ago — and the 426 block was just too worn to spend any more time as a race engine. A 440 block was machined and new dome-top pistons were attached to the old rods, crank, cam, heads, … for the new engine – and the car is scheduled to be completely rebuilt next year when my youngest daughter will start racing it in 2014.

Since we hadn’t driven the car in two years or tested the new engine, we took it to San Antonio and I entered it in the bracket race – something I’ve never done. While I went a few rounds and made 5 passes, the car was running a very slow (but consistent) 11.3s. The day we left for the Mopars at the Motorplex — we made the call to change the distributor with one having advance. That appears to be a good call.

We left the shop at 7PM on Friday night and arrived at the track at midnight. At 7 AM we started setting up the pits. I only had one chance to Time trial the Vitamin C, and it ran a 10.9 in horrible weather that had other cars 2 to 3 tenths off. I felt like I could get it to 10.7s or 8s with more timing — but since there was only 1 time trial — I had to leave it where it was. Dallas was able to get the Big Red Ram to run a 9.45 — which is about 2/10 slow, but still good enough to declare the B/FX index.

Even with 30 pounds of weight I (7601) was too fast with a 10.98 for the first round of qualifying. Dallas (7602) spun and was a little too slow with a 9.58.

For the second round I bolted in 50 pounds and ran a 11.03. Dallas was a little too fast. That had me as the #5 qualifier and Dallas #6 of the 13 racers.

In my first round of eliminations, I ran Tony Smith, who is a tough draw. He’d beat me the first time we’ve run each other, but I have come out on the better end in the Semis last year at both the Mopars at the Plex and the NMCA race — both events I had won. I cut it way too close with a perfect light (.000) and a perfect ET (11.000) when I lifted at the MPH cone and let Tony take the stripe to breakout.

Dallas had also won his first round. In the second Round I turned the stupid light on with a .009 red against Mark Buchanan, and he had a bad light and a poor run to add insult to injury. Dallas won his second round with a hole-shot win. I’m guessing I must have staged a little too deep.

In the Semis Dallas again won with a hole shot against Frankenwagon — giving him a chance to avenge my loss against Mark Buchanan for the Finals. Dallas ran a near perfect 9.501 on his 9.50 Index — but was caught snoozing at the lights — handing the win to Mark Buchanan. We were shooting for Back(2012)-to-Back(2013) Schultz wins at the Mopars at the Plex — but Dallas still scored a $500 check for first worse. We were loaded up and passed through the track’s gate at 6:30PM, arriving home at 10:30 after driving through a bad storm.

We’d like to thank our sponsors Royal Purple, Fuelab, TTI, Texas Motorcycle Excursions, Crew Chief Software, and Mancinni Racing for their help with our racing. Their sponsorships are very much appreciated – as are their products important for our success.

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The following is a recap of the most recent race that we send to our sponsors, and prospective sponsors.

The second race in the NMCA’s Championship series is the NMCA/NMRA/NHRA combined race at Atlanta International Dragway, in Commerce, GA.

Dallas and I left the shop at 9AM (Central) on Wednesday and arrived at the track’s motorhome staging area 900 miles away at 2:30AM (Eastern) on Thursday. The trip was relatively uneventful other than driving through very high winds, which caused the 11′ corner trim on the stacker to come loose — having Dallas on the roof in 40MPH winds to cut it loose for me.

We set up the pits (high winds — so there were no awnings or banners this week), established credentials, and took the cars to get teched in. While teching in we looked at the track, which was was yellow/green from a thick coating of pollen. In fact we’d use a California duster on the cars three times a day for the whole weekend — and the below photos are about 4-5 hours worth of pollen on cars. It also was all over the inside of our trailer, in the tool box, in the motorhome, on the weather station computer — all over!

A bad storm was due to hit Commerce Thursday night, and so we put everything up for the night. The storm had strong winds with driving rain during the night — rocking the coach pretty good. In the Morning we got the cars out and set up the pits again.

Friday morning was off to a late start for the track. The Atlanta track crew has to be the worse at a NHRA track. They’re slow, arrogant, and inept — and they were about as bad this year as they’ve been in years past. Frankly I hate going to this track — and have the worse luck there.

Time trials were suppose to be from noon to 3PM, but they called us to the lanes an hour late. We waited in the staging lanes for 2 hours before being able to make the first of the three passes we had hoped for. Dallas and I were able to be fast enough (for any extreme weather change during the weekend) when we made our base run.

I (7601)  wanted to run the C/FX (9.75) Index, and Dallas (7602) wanted to run B/FX (9.50 seconds), so we were in good shape. It was to be the only Time Trial we were to make as 84-year-old Willard Kinsler flipped his car at the 330′ cone — and it took hours to get that all squared away.

The first Qualifying runs were to have been at 3PM — but wound up being at closer to 6PM. I always try to set my car to be 2/100 a second slower (9.77) than the index, so I can get in the show immediately — then use the next two qualifying passes to get closer to #1 Qualifying position. We do the same for Dallas’ car.

Dallas and I ran each other in the 1st qualifying pass, the photo of which is the top photo. My car felt good, and the time slip with a 9.769 showed that I had my car right to within 1/1000 a second of the planned 9.77. Dallas was 32/1000 a second off his — which we consider good for a first round. It was good enough for me to be the #3 Qualifier and Dallas #5 out of 15 NSS cars.

The saying is that your car always runs best before the engine blows — and as I was coming back from the pits the engine started to not sound right. A quick look showed a broken lifter, a broken pushrod, two bent pushrods, and a pair of hosed rollers. We carry 11 tubs of parts — but not enough to fix this — plus I was certain we’d find more damage. So I was out, but at least I got qualifying points.

After three qualifying passes — my single pass held up for a #5 Qualifier and I believe Dallas was #6. Dallas won his first round — but had a minor mechanical problem while moving into the burnout box — and so he lost his second round.

The rain came after the second round — and so the Semis and Final will take place in Joliet this July.

We left the track and 3PM Sunday and arrived home at 4AM Monday. My engine has since been torn down (other issues found), parts ordered and it will be ready for the Hot Rod Reunion in June. We have a pair of non-points races in Ennis and Memphis before then — that I will run in the back up car – Vitamin C.

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