What a weekend

What a weekend

Well this was my first 3-pull weekend of this season.
I had pulls in Amherst WI on Thursday, Rosholt WI on Friday, and Shakey Lakes MI on Saturday. And it was a very trying weekend for ShaZam and my Camper RVT.

So Took off for Amherst WI at 3:00 p.m. and it was 2 ½ hour drive there US 41 to 441 to hwy 10 into Amherst. Got there at 5:30 pull started at 7:00 p.m. but seeing this was the first Super Stock pull for P.I. we had to have the trucks tech in. ShaZam came thru with flying colors. So with that out of the way it was time to get some dinner and take a look at the track. This area of Wisconsin got like 4 inches of rain the day before, so the track was really moist but it’s good thing here. Usually the track is really dry here. As I made my way back from the food booth one of Gary’s Track bosses asked me if I’d like to get paid for pulling tonight. I said I sure would, Well they asked me if I’d like to announce this evening seeing there regular Announcer had something come up and could be there this evening, So I told them I’d help them out for the evening no problem. I fueled up ShaZam took her over the scale and set the hitch then parked her over by the fence out of the way so all I had to do was jump out of the announcer booth and pull onto the track when my turn came up.
Well some of you may know I have a hidden talent with a microphone and I also have a gift for gab, along with a few stories to help keep things rolling thru out the night. So I headed up to the announcers Booth and got situated for this evening pull.
For this being the First P.I. pull for the Super Stock trucks I expected they’re to be more Trucks then there was for this evening pull. We only had 11 Trucks tonight this year, where last year we had 28. Well I told the crowd it might be that the economy kind of sucks this year and some of the pullers might have took the year off.

But anyway we had 4 Tractor classes and one Truck class for this evening pull. The line-up was 10500 Farm Tractors, 6500 Naturally aspirated Tractors, 8500 Farm, 6200 Super stock trucks and 12500 Farm Tractors to finish the night out.

So I explained to the crowd how this track has a history of getting better as the night goes on and how it’s almost customary that the first hook puller turns there pulls down to come back at the end, and then better there pull as the last hook. So I kept track of how much better the first puller did as the night went on from their first hook to coming back as last puller. Well it came true for all the classes but the Super Stock Truck class. There a Truck called Bam Bam that was in the middle of the class and just in front of ShaZam put a whooping on the rest of the class by 5 feet when it was all over with. My run there for the night was a bit interesting to say the least. When my turn came up I jumped out of the announcers booth and pulled ShaZam out on the track. Got all lined up and was holding the engine r’s up some to build some heat up in the motor. When I saw the temp gauge move off 120 I hit the fan thru it in 3rd and left the line with a steady roll and played tractor trying to keep the tires hooked to the track, When I hit the first set of cones I gave ShaZam hand full of throttle an we had a really good run going but then at the 200 foot mark I felt ShaZam loose some power and I checked my oil pressure gauges to make sure we had good pressure and they where at 80 psi at 7700 rpm’s so that was good. But ShaZam was stumbling badly and as the last stage hit ShaZam came to a stop at 306.24, I could see I was a good Ten feet behind Bam Bam pull, and then I couldn’t get ShaZam Fired back up so I needed to be pulled off the track and back to my trailer. So I made it back to the announcer’s booth I told the crowd I was sure what happened with ShaZam but I’d get it fixed seeing I had to pull in Rosholt the next night. I also told them with there only being 11 trucks here tonight one Truck was going home with out a pay check seeing they only pay down to 10th in this club and that I would probley be that Truck seeing I felt my pull was short for the class. And then I looked to see where I was in the class and to my amazement I was sitting in 3rd place and there was still five trucks to run yet in the class. So simple math says the worst I could be was 8th place bingo I’m getting two paychecks tonight for sure. Well as it turned out ShaZam took 6th place for the night in Super Stock. But I was still in the announcers booth till the pull was over and by the time I got back to my trailer after it was all done there was no one to drink beer with, Bummer everyone had left all ready. Well I jumped in ShaZam and hit the start button and she fired right up. So I loaded her up and got all chained down. Now all I can figure is my needle and seat stuck open on the float bowl and I flooded ShaZam out going down the track. So I called for replacement parts to show up at Rosholt and we’d get this problem fixed before the pull on Friday night. So now I tried to fire up my generator on the camper and it won’t stay running unless I keep the switch in the start position. That’s not right but ok for the time being I guess. So with everyone gone there was no reason to camp here over night, So I plugged in Rosholt which was only 15 miles away into my gps and headed there to spend the night. Rolled into the park at 11:00 p.m. found a good level place to park and headed to bed.

So OK Friday morning find breakfast, then I have a few things to keep me busy today. I have one Mod tire with a 3 piece rims that don’t seem to hold air any more, So I found a service station in town that could help me out with this. All I needed to do was find a tube of Silicon to reseal the rims where they bolt together. And the local Lumber Company has all kinds of it on the shelf. So it took about an hour and a half to pull the wheel apart and reseal everything. I gave the owner 5 bucks for the use of his shop, and headed back to the park.

Now my Generator don’t want to start now at all, seems the Solenoid **** the bed on me so I’ll have to get a new one of those. I felt running around town with a big *** trailer wasn’t an option for me today so I left it parked where it was and hoofed back to the service station which was only a mile down the road. I figured I could try to have them order me one from the local NAPA store, but as it turned out they had one there, Hot dam where on a roll today, back to the park we go. With tools in hand and a make shift ladder out of my mod tires cuz the generator is in the gooseneck part of my trailer I started to pull the old Solenoid off the generator and install the new one. Well when I got it all hooked up and put the positive cable back on the battery the fuel pump would start running when it wasn’t suppose to and the switch wouldn’t engage the start cycle of the generator. So ok lets look things over here a little. Well as it turns out the Solenoid I picked up was not the right one. I though all Solenoid where the same but there not. So I pulled it off and hoofed back down to the service station to see if they could get me the right one.
Seems the one I have on there was back *** words of a normal one. As it turns out it’s a continues use type also. So the owner of the station tested mine and yes it’s no good, but he couldn’t find me what I needed either due to it being a RV Generator and it has special parts. So back to the park I go. Now had the generator been running the AC would have been running and then I could have took a nap till the boys showed up at 5 p.m. but it was 105 in the camper and there was a nice breeze out side so I took a walk to the dance tent for the shade and a place to seat for a while.
Bruce and Craig finally made it there around 5:30 so I got my parts I needed and went to work on the carb. I changed out the needle and seats with some I had in my jet box, but these where from years back and I didn’t know how good they where. Well I got the fuel levels set on the carb’s to where I though everything was good. Put air in the mod tire after letting silicone set up all day then got washed up and headed for the food tent for something to eat, Chicken beast sandwich sounded good.

Well the pull started around 7 p.m. my first class was 6th one of the days order. But once again the Truck count was down some over last year’s numbers. But Super Stock finally got up to the plate at 9 p.m. As I’m heading for the scale ShaZam seem to be flooding her self out again So I took and lowered the level just a bit on the front bowl and everything seem to level out good again. Over the scale and into staging we go and ShaZam is running good. Well I ended up in the middle of the pack again tonight. I was 8th out of 15 trucks. The sled operator said he’d work with us tonight to make sure we have a good show. With a track of 350 feet we didn’t need him stopping us at the 250-foot mark like he did at Pound a few weeks back.
So the first truck in the class was an Open Stock truck that jumped up in class, he went 310 so I figured the Super Stock truck should be the 330-foot range. Well as the line up worked it’s way to me Dean was sitting in the lead with a 321 pull then his Brother Bruce pulled a 325 putting Dean in 2nd place. Then after few more truck it was ShaZam’s turn to put a spanking on the sled. So we head out onto the track to get hooked up to the sled back up get all hooked up and get the green flag to pull. Turned all the switches on hit the tach record and off we go tying to keep the tires hooked but feeding ShaZam steady throttle till we hit wide open and then ShaZam fell on her face an lost all power at the 147 foot mark, ShaZam was still idling but I knew I had Fuel issues once again. So I’m sitting there waiting for them to unhook me and then all of a sudden the sled started to pull me back to starting line. Now I know I was done for the night but hey they gave the chance and I took a second crack at this track with the same results stopping at 147.9 on the second run. So back to the trailer to see where I goofed on the needle and seat. What I found was in order to get the right float level I had to dame near shut the fuel flow off. So I pulled that needle and seat out and tried a different one I had in the box. This one worked better and I changed tires for Mod. Now I called Jodi and told her my problem with the float levels and seeing how I was the 1st puller in Mod if I have any issues with ShaZam I’d come back at the end of the class if I had too.


Go to Part 2

Dan