This weekend The Titan Race Team will be making its way up to Virginia for the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags III at Virginia Motorsports Park. This weekend we are hoping for another successful showing, and hope to chip off a few tenths off our previous 3 second pass. If you can’t make the race, ADRL has you covered. Check out ADRL’s web page for their live audio broadcast of qualifying and eliminations runs.
Last weekend we participated in the ADRL US Drags II. After sorting out a few problems in testing, we were very optimistic about Friday night’s qualifying. “Friday night is always the best opportunity to make a good run in qualifying so we didn’t want to waste it” said crew chief Brett White. Indeed he was right, as Team Titan managed to make a career best run of 4.056 @ 181.25 mph. That pass landed us in the #2 qualifying spot and also broke the national elapsed time record in the XTF class!
On Saturday, we faced our first round opponent Randy Matlock. First round was run during the heat of the day so track conditions were the worst we would face all weekend. We made adjustments to soften the tune up to make sure we made a clean run. This turned out a 4.18 @ 177 mph which advanced us into the second round.
In the second round we faced Dave Hance. By this time the sun had begun to set and track conditions had started to get a little better. We decided to try to creep up on the tune up just a little bit while still making sure we didn’t over power the race track. The car responded really well to the small changes and ran a 4.072 @ 180 mph which backed up the 4.05 run. This set the national record at 4.056 for a few minutes before Chuck Ulsch reset the record again.
In the semi final round we were up against Joel Bayless. We were trying to keep the car consistent and managed to do just that, running another 4.07 @180 to win the round, and a chance to compete in the finals for the second time this season.
In the final race we were matched up with Chuck Ulsch, which proved to be somewhat of a David vs. Goliath scenario. Chuck has a brand new racecar with the most powerful motor in the class to this point and has been very tough to beat. At the drop of the tree, the cars left the starting line with Gary posting a .123 reaction time and Chuck a .160 reaction time. Both cars got really loose and slid around a lot in the middle of the track. Both cars were eventually corralled and we ended up running a 4.070 to Chucks 4.032. In the end Chuck Ulsch came away the winner by .001 seconds. It was another tough break for the Titan crew, but the quick and consistent times has advanced Team Titan to the #2 points position at just past the half way mark in the season.
