I learned to never give up
….. AS a result of this activity, four cars were left to race. Then one car, a restored GNX could not run due to a powermaster malfunction. Despite the best efforts to remedy the problem, it could not be fixed, and he was therefore unable to qualify. That left three cars to compete in TSA.
I was the GNX that The Colonel is referring to.
First let me say that the racers in this class definitely went "fast with class". I had help with getting shoe polish for the glass, swapped stories of earlier nats, and had offers of help by providing empty cans to empty my pump gas, etc etc. It was as if all the drivers truly wanted as many cars as possible in the class. Either that or everyone wanted to embarrass a GNX:smile:
Prior to arriving at the nats, I had no intention to run TSA. What attracted me was the payout for first thru FOURTH place. The opportunity to take home a win and some scratch was appealing. As I pulled up to tech I was hoping for a low car count.
I hadn't read the rules and didn't know about the 13.20 or quicker mandatory qualifying pass. My car had a full tank of pump gas, Michelin street tires that spin at heavy tip in, a real catalytic converter with brick in place, and the wastegate setting was off. The car and I weighed in at 3770lbs (I weigh ~200). Several funny comments were made as I waddled off the scales. After which we headed toward the staging lanes.
As I was in line for the car show award parade lap, the dreaded brake light illuminated. Meanwhile the other four TSA racers ran their qualifying laps, the slowest was a 12.4 which I knew there was no way I could get close to that.
So there I sat with a powermaster problem, no race gas, and street tires. I did make a small attempt to find a set of drag radials, but according to the rules the front and rear wheel styles had to match. During my short search I didn't uncover any GNX wheels with drag radials. I mentally threw in the towel and gave up hope of a fourth place finish and $1,000.
On Saturday I stopped by Bill Thompson's trailer and found out about car #4 being disqualified the night before. Bill also showed me a set of GNX wheels with drag radials for sale sitting two trailers away. I could have gotten my hands on a PM switch which would have probably allowed the brakes to work. However, at that point it was too late to qualify. Ugggh! Lesson learned, never give up.
TSA is an exciting class to watch. The times that these stock appearing cars are turning amaze me.