15 Mar 2014 Kent, WA – In the battle for traction Mother Nature has a bunch to say about it and she can mess up your best laid plans.

This week “Mother Nature” laid down a set of chilly weather temperatures for the track personal to overcome so racing could begin. The cool temps made it difficult to get the moisture to clear off the track.

In the end it was all hands on deck with whatever could be used to get the water off the track, including the grateful help from a bunch of “street” cars and trucks running a counterclockwise pattern around the “shutdown” end of the track to help getting rid of the water.

This grand effort was rewarded with time enough to get a lot of laps down the track for those who wanted them.  Included in this lapping was a first timer in the Jr. racing program. Jeff Warnke gave up his wheel standing Nova to oversee his son Ryan get his introduction to drag racing. Good Luck young man on your quest.

As all of this action was going on the track Kerry Jorgenson was conducting chassis certification in the upper lot at Pacific Raceways. This annual event goes over the chassis to make sure it was done to code and the rules. Some are pretty straight forward, but then there are those where the “interpretation” of the rules becomes personal.

After slow and thoughtful review of the rule book, there was explaining to those that some changes needed to be made in order to run under the rules that apply today and not ten years ago when you started the project.

Most of the inspections were racers making small changes to their current race car. Two that stuck out in my eye were about as far apart as could be. Kevin Gage shows up with a brand new project from what he raced last year. This time though I think there is some input from daughter Kelsey who is just one year removed from getting behind the wheel.  She is a force in the Jr. Dragster Lightning class and next year could compete in 1/4 and 1/8 mile classes, a tribute to her talents as a driver.

The car as it turned out was a first for Kerry, the “Wheelstander” – it’s being re-built by Jim Ronan. A mishap a few years brought out a flaw that has taken Jim quite a bit of the little spare time to get it back to the point of inspection. A labor of love and something he has always wanted to do – to “put on a good show”. With a range of tools and electronics Kerry gave the wheel stander a good going over not “normal” to other classes as “exhibition” has other rules. A few of small changes noted for Jim to take care of and Kerry was off to another inspection.

Spring is just around the corner with warmer weather more conclusive to drag racing will quickly follow.

Images from the event are now available – click here to go there.

08 Mar 2014 Kent, WA – After a couple of attempts in previous weeks to get a test and tune on the drag strip without mother nature interfering this day had some racers eager to go down the track. Bikes, trucks, and cars came to the track to get their first chance at the track.

A beautiful afternoon the day before enabled the track crew to get the surface prepared for the early season test and tune. The crew dragged the track and applied traction compound, then finished the prep for a 9:00am start. As anyone in the northwest can tell you the weather in late winter/early spring can change quite rapidly. Such was the case this morning as a total of seven passes were made down the track before a very light rain halted everything.

Not that it was raining hard but in combination with the temperature as the rain stopped that temperature prevented the evaporation of the water to dry the track surface on the shutdown area. Safety first will always win over any other when it comes to any event held at Pacific Raceways. Till next time.

Photos from the Test & Tune are now available – click here to go to the album,