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Thursday, August 23
Brainerd was a disaster for Etchells
By Chuck Etchells
Special to ESPN.com
| |  | | | Etchells |
A week ago, I talked about how excited I was heading into Brainerd, and how good I felt about our chances. As those of you who follow the NHRA's Winston Drag Racing Series already know, our weekend performance was pretty much the opposite of what we expected. In plain English, it was a disaster, and I'll take a moment to try to explain why.
One of the variables I thought that could trip us up was the race track itself. However, the conditions were the same for everybody, and the quick numbers run by our competitors show that our problems were entirely car-related and had nothing to do with the racing surface. Simply put, our tune-up did not work out of the box and we never caught up to it.
After smoking the tires on our first run (which almost everybody did), we dropped a cylinder on each of our next three attempts. As competitive as Funny Car has become this year, that just won't cut it. The bottom line is that we have a lot of work to do before the U.S. Nationals, our biggest event of the year -- no pressure, right?
So what does a team in our position do at a time like this? It's easy -- put the past weekend behind us and focus on improving for the next race. Naturally, that's something that's very easy to say and much harder to do. Before the team even left the track, Terry, Larry, Roland and Dave started going over the data from our runs, checking the video and analyzing the information from the on-board computers, planning their next moves.
Even before getting to Brainerd, we had a three-day test session scheduled at Indianapolis Raceway Park. After our disappointing performance, it became more important that we knew what we wanted to do and how we would go about doing it before we even made it to IRP.
They've redone the racetrack in Indy, and I'd have to say it's now one of the best on the circuit. If the weather conditions cooperate, I believe we could see a high 4.80 bump -- that's hardball. Any slip-ups, and you could be heading home early from our biggest race -- not an enjoyable scenario.
We decided to attack our two cars from different angles. Roland worked on the engine in Jim's car while Terry got after the clutch in mine. After two days of testing, I'd say we had mixed results. Jim had an excellent test, running a 4.89 on a run where he clicked it off at 1000 feet, while my car didn't do well at all. However, in talking to Terry and Larry Meyer, they're convinced that they have learned more in the last two days about the clutch than they have in the last ten years, with Roland and Dave agreeing that it could be a huge find.
As of now, our game plan for Indy is pretty straight forward. Fortunately, we have five qualifying runs, so we'll go in on Friday night and try to make a run down the path that Terry wants to go. If that doesn't work, we'll have to switch and follow the other car. We don't have the luxury of being stubborn to try to make it work.. We're just lucky to have something on the other car that is working that we can use.
This weekend is an "off" weekend for us only in that we don't have to race. Although we'll all try to slip in a little R&R, I can assure you that every member of the Etchells Racing team will spend some time on getting ready for next week, because we want to make sure it's a good weekend for both the Sunoco/Matco Camaro and the Racing Champions/Matco Camaro. We'll catch up with you next week to let you know how we're doing.
Chuck Etchells, driver and owner the Sunoco/Matco Tools Camaro Z28 Funny Car, provides a diary to ESPN.com throughout the NHRA season. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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