A long trip ended the Hitchman Racing team at the NHRA AC Delco Gatornationals, in Gainesville, Florida.  Darryl and Justin headed out Monday afternoon and arrived Wednesday morning.  Cindy and Tim headed out.  Tuesday morning, stopped over in Lafayette, Louisiana for several hours waiting for Rex.  Cindy drove and was stopped in Texas for “driving on the shoulder” when the 18-wheeler passed.  The unanimous decision was that the highway patrol officer assumed she was drunk because the wind was blowing and wobbling the motor home.  She definitely did not even cross the white line and furthermore how could he have seen it when the 18-wheeler was between Cindy and the officer.  The officer was very nice and talked about everything but still gave a warning ticket.  Never heard of something so ridiculous.  The second time on I-10, five trucks were passing and one was tailgating.  The officer said she was “driving to close” which was another fabrication.  The trucks were passing and leaving her behind so how could she have been “tailgating.”  These were the first time she was pulled over after driving 60,000 miles in the motor home.  There was just something in the air!

About 20 miles from the track, the motor home decided to shut off.  Cindy pulled over and assumed it was the computer getting hot.  Cindy walked the dogs and Tim and Rex decided to check out the trees.  Luckily Cindy took the dogs the long way around, because Rex saw a 5 ft rattlesnake.  Of course Cindy immediately put the dogs in, but Tim and Rex taunted the snake until it crawled off.

The motor home stopped about 6 times before actually making it to the pit.  It was decided to change the fuel filter first and see if that corrects the problem.

The first pass down the track landed the team in the 10^th place with a  .643 @ 256.

After a few changes, the Darryl laid down a 5.620 @254 the put the team in the 14^th position.  Third and final qualifying, Darryl ran a 5.51 remaining in the14th place HOWEVER he put a hole in the block while doing it.  The team got busy and changed the engine.  The mag on the new engine went bad and the crew had to change back to the original one but then they were ready first round against number 4 seated John Fink who ran a 5.31 in the third qualifying pass.

Darryl did his burnout but could not back up.  The crew plus a few extra hands ran out and pushed the car back.  It was very hard and went very slowly.  Of course everything moves slowly when you are talking seconds.  He finally got back and went directly into the staging lights.  Fink came in second and they were off.  Fink had the led when all of a sudden Darryl shot forward, past him and won the race.  It was a fantastic run at 5.43 at 267 mph. The team was ecstatic.  That is what they were looking for.  Darryl was not so ecstatic as he pulled the brakes after pulling the chutes and found none.  He immediately shut off the fuel and hoped Fink would not pull in front of him.  Everyone was very thankful that the Gainesville track has a long shut off.  It was found that the parachute cable had hit the brake cable and broke it.

Darryl had a little flashback when he pulled the brakes to the time in Sonoma when he also did not have parachutes and hit the sand traps at full speed.  He flipped front over end and landed coming back down a hill.  It literally tore the car up.  Darryl was beat up a little but he got right back in the saddle!  He probably was thinking about that when pulled the brakes and there was none!

After looking at the computer, it was found that the engine rev limiter had come on dumping the fuel at the time the car was moving slow at the leave, but when the rev limiter stopped dumping the fuel is when the car shot forward.  Hopefully with the rev limiter set a little higher, the car will run in the 30’;s.

Darryl did his burnout at the next round and the same thing happened, the car would not go in reverse and the crew had to push it back again.  It is time for a new reverser!  Darryl was up against Duane Shields who had run 5.38 previously.  When Darryl hit the pedal one cylinder dropped and halfway several more and then latter it was discovered a wrist pin broke.  Unfortunately that took the win right out of the team’s hand.

The crew packed up and headed home.  They were happy that the car is capable of running fast but not happy about the two hurt engines with lots of work to do before the next race

Update on the return home with the motor home, the in line fuel filter was not the problem.  The fuel filter inside the fuel pump was the problem.  So after 30 minutes the motor home quit on the on ramp to interstate 10.  Of course it always stops on one lane and tons of traffic

After a few minutes, they were off again.  Darryl had sent the two TOP mechanics with Cindy just in case.  Well after another stop, they pulled into a truck stop and waited for the trailer with the TOOLS.  The crew unloaded the storage area, pulled up the floor and took out the fuel pump.  Darryl and Cindy headed to the nearest auto parts store and purchased the fuel filter however to save time, the crew just took off the filter and replaced the pump. The filter was installed at home later that week.  No more problems after that.  Thankfully.

Next race is in Baytown, Texas at the national event there.