Monday
First Day Qualifying Wrap-Up
click here for
Monday images
As the sun
set on the first day of qualifying more
than one team seem ready for a leisurely
week of watching and waiting until the
top qualifiers race on Friday. Some other
teams will not have it quite as good.
As we
began writing this update at 10:00 PM, we
were pulled from the hanger by the sound
of an engine run-up out on the ramp. Not
necessarily noteworthy at this point in
the week at Reno, ramp run-ups are fairly
common as teams ready for qualifying
sessions and check repairs made during
the day. In this case, the sound of
September Fury’s engine drew us away
from our effort to get this update
written and us off to bed.
Not good
would be the quick description of the way
the engine sounded.. Not good would also
sum up the assessment of the situation
for the September Fury Race Team. No one
on the team seemed to have a good handle
on just what the problem might be and as
of this writing, a subsequent run-up,
with a similarly rough sounding engine,
would indicate the team hasn’t
gotten a finger on the problem yet.. We
will check in with them tomorrow and see
if a good night’s sleep helps the
situation. (for them and us!)
Earlier in
the evening, a bit further down the pit
lane, AAFO.COM reporter Naomi West found
the Strega team chasing gremlins also.
The comment from one crewmember "it
keeps heating up for some reason"
would indicate they too are in the
unenviable position of having a problem
but not knowing the cause. Not a good
thing with two days of qualifying time
left.
In the
"good to go" column we find
Critical Mass running better than ever
"fat and happy" with a second
place 448.308 qualifying position 10mph
behind first place Dago Red. Likely, both
teams will sit on these times and save
their engines for the upcoming heat
races.
Dago
Red’s relatively conservative
458.882 either reveals a different
strategy for this year, or, could they
have angered the "engine gods"
with their "somewhat" premature
posting of a 2001 win on their race
trailer? I doubt well know much more
until racing begins for the top
qualifiers on Friday…
Another
team sitting pretty is Merlin’s
Magic. The airplane sounded VERY good on
the course today and the 432.733 third
place slot should put them in with the
top qualifiers who do not have to race on
Thursday.
Good
showings today also from Sherman Smoot,
Stu Dawson and Art Vance… Miss
America, though sounding very good and
looking fast, fell somewhat short of what
many have expected from the new race
motor. It is doubtful that
"Doc" Hisey will be satisfied
with this speed, watch for another effort
from this very competitive team.
There is
much more news in ALL the classes but our
candle, burnt quite short at both ends
tells us it is time to jump into some
image processing and get our crew off to
bed for the evening here at Stead…
Stay tuned
for MUCH more from the On-Site team at
AAFO.COM!
-Wayne
Sagar
|
