AHDRA Mile High Nationals June 16 and 17, 2001

The weekend in Denver was great for some and for others it really got bad. The accident with Rocky Mann and Dale Nungesser left everyone feeling very sad on Saturday night and Sunday people were obviously exhausted from a sleepless night.

Before I go any further I'd like to say that both Rocky and Dale will recover from their injuries but not for many, many months. The positive thing about this thing is that they will get better. Their injuries were bad, even life threatening and their recovery is going to take a very long time. I encourage everybody to send a card to Rocky & Dale and continue with the thoughts and prayers for them. I believe the AHDRA has set up a fund for financial help for these two racers and any contribution will be appreciated. We have a link to the AHDRA if you would like more information.

So, our weekend was a lot better than some. We did ok. Our qualifying rounds on Saturday were not great, but it's hard to tune for Denver and lots of people were having problems getting the bikes to run out past 800 or 900 feet. We have the Data Logger working again so we are able to tell if it's me or the bike who isn't acting right (mostly it was my clutch at this event), so that was good to get it working again. Looks like we need a little work on clutch management for the next event.

During the burn-out for the second round of qualifying I bent a push rod and had to shut the bike off. We did a quick top-end job and found zero damage inside the top end. Those McClure parts are holding up very well for us. As many of you know I have a reputation for being able to break just about anything. So far, this push rod is about the worst damage I've done.

Just before I was scheduled to run the 3rd round of qualifying was when Rocky and Dale crashed. I'm not going to say a lot about the wreck because that information can be found on the AHDRA web site or on www.stripbike.com. Dave O'Hara and I were the next pair out after the wreck and neither one of us was feeling very aggressive for that pass. We had to wait about 30 minutes before the track was cleared and we could do that last pass and both of us had slow passes. We both just wanted to get down the track and be done with it. Once you see a wreck like that you just want to go sit down for a while and relax and work it out of your system. It was good that we made that last pass, good for us and good for the spectators who were patiently waiting for the event to continue.

The weather was decent on Saturday with temps in the mid 80's. Sunday started out hot in the morning and just stayed hot all day. I recorded 90 degrees in the shade on Sunday. Bikes just don't run as well under those circumstances with the air so thin.

My first round of eliminations was against Dale Nungesser, who was in the hospital. I felt bad about that as no one wants to win a round under these circumstances. I wanted it to be a good pass, I wanted to give Dale a run for his money even if he wasn't there. I didn't know my front exhaust pipe was going to break off halfway down the track. When the motor bangs like that I just shut it off. There's no reason to hurt it worse and I wasn't going that fast anyway so I just stopped and waited for the Safety Team to arrive. I was disappointed in that pass but glad there was no damage in the motor.

The second round of eliminations I was up against home-town hero Tony Drexler. I knew I had to really do it this time and felt like I had very little chance of getting around him. He's from Golden, Colorado and is probably the only one who can really tune for the Denver track. I would give it my best shot, as I always do and hope for the best. This time when I hear the bang I kept on the throttle (not a smart thing) but I was in the elimination round and wanted to give it my best. As of this writing I don't know what the story is on that exhaust pipe but it busted off this time and Tony took the round. At least I broke into the 8's.

I was done for the day. It's hard to compress the whole story into a few pages so I try to hit the high-lights and then see what I have left. Denver was hot and it wasn't such a great weekend for my friends and fellow racers Dale and Rocky.

What I discovered (I actually already knew this) is the drag racing community has a big heart. During the day on Sunday over 800 dollars was collected for the immediate financial needs of Diane Nungesser and Linda Mann. We handed out quite a few applications for DRAW (Drag Racing Association of Women), which is a non-profit organization that helps injured drag racers. I have always encouraged people to join and support DRAW and on Sunday I bet we got 50 people interested in joining. DRAW costs 20.00 a year and provides financial and emotional assistance to drag racers and their families who were injured at any NHRA member track, including AHDRA and IHRA events.

Please contact DRAW at 3221 Rosewood Court, Davie, FL 33328, attn: Joan Gwynn (Treasurer) or on the web at www.drawfasthelp.org

We are pleased with the Wildkat's performance and continue to look forward to that day when Kris can really ride that machine. For now it's practice, practice, practice.