Well I am finally back home and rested. It was a long weekend and I will have pictures and videos up soon. Like Wade said, tech was a nightmare and literally took all day friday. When I finally got in the gate and found a pit spot it was around 5:30pm. By the time they called me for a test run it was like 6:30pm and the jeep was hot from running and idling most of the day and I was just not prepared as well as I would have liked. I made some test runs the night before and obviously didnt realize my bottle pressure was way down. Before I realized this I was already in the staging lanes and was PISSED. The jeep was sitting at about 215 temp, manifold was scalding hot and I had 600psi bottle pressure...FANTASTIC:angry:. Needless to say I knew it was not going to be a good run. Finally got up there and noticed they were using a pro tree which I have zero experience on and let me just say that thing goes from yellow to green in like a millisecond. I ended up bogging out of the hole from it spraying like all fuel and no nitrous. Ran a 12.8 at like 104:sleep:. I was so angry I drove back home right after and got out a sheet of paper and wrote down everything I needed to do or check before I went back saturday and embarrassed myself. We ended up trailering it back down on saturday for qualifying and I filled the bottle up on the way, got the window switch set up right and had a lot more confidence that I would do well. It went pretty quick on saturday and I was called up about an hour after I got there for qualifying. The first round used a pro-tree again and I was ready this time. I staged up and purged the line...yellow...green...I punch it and shoot off like a rocket...pulling hard all the way through with a 1.67 60' and a 12.1 at 111 (gtech showed an 11.9). I was happy to see the .7 improvement over friday...haha. Went back to the pit and waited for the second round of qualifying which would be done off Rich's arm drop. Now this is more like real street racing. Got back up to the line around 3pm and I could tell Rich loved the jeep. He was giving me a thumbs up and smiling when I pulled up:clap:. The I purged and blew a nitrous cloud and it really got his attention...he pointed at me and smiled. So this is it....my final chance to do good. He pointed at both of us and we were ready....arms up....arms down and we are off....this was an awesome launch....pulled like a train all the way to the traps. I was excited since gtech showed an 11.7 but they did not display the time on the board or give us a timeslip for the run:bottom:. I guess that is how they judge if you are consistent or not. I figured it must have been an 11.9 run which should have been acceptable. I was happy overall. I know if it would have been a little cooler and the DA was better, solid 11's would have been no problem. We waited around a few more hours for the deliberation and they ended up picking the 11.35-11.45 class:wacko: Maybe with a 2 stage 200 shot I would have been closer but I had a lot of fun and I got tons of compliments and support for the jeep:clap:. I have a lot of pics and some videos I will upload later. I want to thank all you guys for your support and tech help along the way. I wouldn't have made it without it.
Well, CONGRATULATIONS are in order Chris. It must have been very nerve racking to say the least. Your write-up was great. lol I was on the edge of my seat wanting to go straight to the finish of your documentary. lol No worries on their selections. You represented well and have shown the general public what a 5,000lb Jeep is capable of doing. Well done Chris. You should be very pleased with yourself.
Contrats on a good showing. It's show biz and they select the class they feel will make the viewers happy. To bad they didn't go into your group as you would have raised some eyebrows. Can't wait to see it on speed, maybe they will include your run....
Way to go Chris! You got there, you sorted everything out after the first run, and nothing broke. What more could you ask for? Must have been an awesome experience.
way to go chris!! you ran your hardest and thats what counts. im sure alot of people there were like wtf is a jeep doin here, and in the end you showed them they are not to be taken lightly! kudos to you!!!
Thanks guys. My buddy got the run on his camera. I will try to get it from him asap so I can upload it.
Way to run a brick on wheels!!! Gotta respect that Can't wait to see pics & vids Your gonna be at the Srt Exp on the 10th right!!!
We should get some cheap a$$ trophy's made up for it Like biggest F%$k up Best this Best that and have the instructors hand them out to our group
Congrats! I know you represented the Jeeps well! I loved hearing the story about you purging and catching Rich's attention. Hopefully you get your 5 seconds of fame when they air the show. To that end, do you know when they're airring this episode? Not to be missed!
Chris buddy congrats man I think I was just as excited texting you back and forth as you were being there, well probably not but for us here on the Connection we all felt as if we were apart of it becasue of you not matter the end results you made it there and represented the HEMI community and were all damn proud of you sir.
Thanks guys I think the episode will be aired May 17th. I'll keep you up to date if I see anything else about it.
Mucho congratulations Chris. Definitely an experience you'll remember for the rest of your life and damn good representation of a modern day Mopar. I will set the DVR for the Pinks episode (wouldn't miss it) and look forward to pics and a video! You da man!
Here is one of the videos. My other friend has another thats a little clearer. I'm working on getting that one now. http://youtube.com/watch?v=n98ZoxH-U5U Once again I would like to thank Ron (and all of SRT/C), Werks racing, and Total-Lighting Solutions. More pics coming later.
