Route 66 - Race Your Ride #10

As we talked about in the past, one never knows what or who is going to show up at a Race Your Ride, AKA Test & Tune. That was the case again Friday night. The first indication was when I looked out the window from the Media Center and saw Dave Hirata checking out the track. As soon as I could, I meandered out to the pits and there was Miss Mia's (Tedesco) A/Fuel dragster. I learned that Dave was driving the car tonight. To my left sitting in his car was Dave's dad, the legendary Kenny Hirata. I spoke with Ken for a few minutes and he said they were trying out some new stuff on the car.

Looking around, I also spotted the Kleinhoffer rig with the Tremor Nostalgia Funny Car. Dana is continuing his licensing runs.

Bob Buckley was also on the property with his front engine dragster, Rock n Roll Express.

I knew Rocky Ausec was coming out with the Solid Rock One Evil Mach 1. Rocky never disappoints with some great burnouts. In his one run of the night, he ran 7.21_8, 186.77 mph. Unfortunately, after the run they found some metal shavings in the fuel filter. That was it for the night. Rocky was optimistic being that the season was at its end, so he didn't have to start thrashing immediately to fully diagnose the problem.

Also, the Route 66 Bracket Indy team was out in force testing for next weeks races.

We also had the Adler family out with both their cars, Randy - '57 Chevrolet Pro Mod, Randy Jr. - Junior Modified, crewed by Alisa.

In addition to the Adler JDRL car there were several other Juniors.

Including Hailey Becker. Hailey is six years old and making her licensing runs for the Sportsman Class.

While we have been talking about purpose built drag racing cars, the mantra of the Race Your Ride is to drive your car on the same track as the stars of the NHRA. To that end we had a contingent of street cars running down the track.

The scary ride of the night belonged to Jennifer Zolper. Her husband, the Velocity Channel's  Garage Squad lead mechanic Joe, had just put new rear tires on her Pro Mod. On her first run, the wheelie bars dug in throwing the car to the right. Jen immediately backed out of it and with some fanciful driving regained control of the car.

For the second run, they lowered the wheelie bars, settling the car down for a better run.

 All told, it was a very good night of racing.

To see all the images from Friday night, please click here.

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