Michael
Comp Diesel Sponsor
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2006
- Messages
- 3,411
I arrived on Friday evening, and promptly met up with Timbeaux and a few other guys out at the track. We were checking out a diesel dragster (I think there were 3 of them there running, plus Scheid's on display). Tim directed me over to the TS Performance pit area, where I was given a warm welcome from Dennis & Sheila. They really made me feel at home all weekend. They had a brand new 53' trailer with living quarters up front, plus a big long open 5th wheel trailer, plus an enclosed trailer for additional parts and gear (which happened to be Kenny Bernstein's old clutch equipment trailer).
They invited me to stick around for dinner, and their crew whipped up a phenomenal dinner. We were treated to a visit by "Amish Hannah", who was actually Renee the photographer (who looks like she should be on the other side of the camera).
After we headed into town around midnight, I noticed a large gathering of trucks behind the Motel 6 (which I could see from my room in the Hampton Inn). I grabbed some beer and headed over. I heard that I missed the impromptu strip show in the back of someone's truck (including the requisite stripper pole). Apparently the motel owner had told the police earlier in the evening that she didn't care about the ruckus as long as it was over before 2:00. She came back out around 12:30 and started complaining to the cops, but they weren't intervening since she had previously given her permission. Then someone started trying to shake and knock over a small tree, and the cops went into action. Actually it was kinda funny, because you probably couldn't pick three weenier looking cops unless you held a séance and channeled Barney Fife. They came down and threatened the guys who were abusing the tree, and took one of them off supposedly to arrest him (they later let him go). Then the guy next to me called one of the cops by name (apparently he knew him), and told him he was a p#ssy. Said cop immediately pulls out his taser and starts threatening to shoot the guy next to me, then pulls him away and says he's going to jail. I have video of much of this action. It ends up calming down a bit, but there were still a few more good burnouts over the evening.
Saturday morning comes awfully quickly after staying up late, but I manage to get to the track as the gates opened. The Liberty still hasn't arrived, so I spend time chatting with Earl Stuckey (owner of last year's World Champion Pro Street truck).
Once the Liberty arrived Dennis proceeded to add a TS Performance sticker to the windshield. I drove it around the pits to get used to it, and tried a couple of boosted launches to see how it felt.
We got a ton of time passes on Saturday, interspersed with the qualifying passes of the big boys. Unfortunately there seems to be a curse on our pit area, as both the TS Performance and Stuckey Racing Pro Street trucks went through more than one turbo.
Here is the result of turbo shrapnel passing through the walls of the downpipe on the TS truck.
Here is the last turbo.
I managed to get some decent reaction times in the Liberty, despite never having driven it before. I opened with a 0.013, and had a couple of 0.00x lights as well. The announcers (Eric and Timbeaux) hyped me up much more than I deserved, but it made for a fun time.
I headed over to the vendor booth areas, and spent time with the various ISSPRO dealers. Then I headed over to the Diablosports Hot bodies contest (and I'm sure everyone has seen my photos from that). I also have some uncensored photos from the contest, but they have been given to the administrators of this website for inspection and safe keeping.
Saturday night-
We had another fantastic dinner at the TS Performance pit area.
Phil (Wideopen) came by LOL. We also looked at some photos of him giving others rides on the golf cart. There is some discussion of blackmail.
Phil then proceeded to introduce Sheila Perry to the guys with him, this is the initial response after a bad Joke.
And this is the retaliation…
And this could only be described as Stuckey's drunk transportation service…
As I headed back to the hotel, I noticed a distinct LACK of trucks running around hotel parking lots. I thought about heading for the warehouse, but did not know how to get there.
Sunday morning: It was a lot easier getting up this morning, having gone to sleep at a decent hour (only 12:30). We ended up getting 2 quick time runs in, then off into eliminations. Once we got down to the 3rd round (and I was the first truck in the staging lanes each round, always in the left lane), nobody would pull into the right lane. As there were two TS Performance trucks in the rear of the lanes, it became obvious that they would have to run each other if they stayed in the same lane. They flipped a coin, and I ended up racing one of them. I laid down a decent pass (0.009 light), knowing that these "hired gun" drivers were killers on the tree. I felt bad putting a teammate on the trailer. On the next pass I cut a good light (0.021, IIRC), and even heard the announcer mention that I had treed the guy, but didn't hit the brakes hard enough and broke out by 0.012. I had the other guy covered by over 2 tenths on the tree, and took over 0.27 at the finish line while on the brakes for over 11 mph. I just wasn't prepared for the Jeep to pick up that much between rounds, but one of the TS guys had previously warned me that it could happen. Of course this was the money round, and I would have probably had the single the next round into the final.
I hung out in the TS Performance VIP suite for the tractor pulls. It was a great view from up above, and nice to be able to duck into the air conditioning intermittently. I could have even watched from inside, but then I couldn't hear the trucks or the announcer.
Overall it was an awesome weekend. I wish I had taken more photos of trucks and racing (though I shot plenty of the bikinis). Thanks again to Dennis and Sheila (and the whole TS Performance crew)!!!
They invited me to stick around for dinner, and their crew whipped up a phenomenal dinner. We were treated to a visit by "Amish Hannah", who was actually Renee the photographer (who looks like she should be on the other side of the camera).
After we headed into town around midnight, I noticed a large gathering of trucks behind the Motel 6 (which I could see from my room in the Hampton Inn). I grabbed some beer and headed over. I heard that I missed the impromptu strip show in the back of someone's truck (including the requisite stripper pole). Apparently the motel owner had told the police earlier in the evening that she didn't care about the ruckus as long as it was over before 2:00. She came back out around 12:30 and started complaining to the cops, but they weren't intervening since she had previously given her permission. Then someone started trying to shake and knock over a small tree, and the cops went into action. Actually it was kinda funny, because you probably couldn't pick three weenier looking cops unless you held a séance and channeled Barney Fife. They came down and threatened the guys who were abusing the tree, and took one of them off supposedly to arrest him (they later let him go). Then the guy next to me called one of the cops by name (apparently he knew him), and told him he was a p#ssy. Said cop immediately pulls out his taser and starts threatening to shoot the guy next to me, then pulls him away and says he's going to jail. I have video of much of this action. It ends up calming down a bit, but there were still a few more good burnouts over the evening.
Saturday morning comes awfully quickly after staying up late, but I manage to get to the track as the gates opened. The Liberty still hasn't arrived, so I spend time chatting with Earl Stuckey (owner of last year's World Champion Pro Street truck).
Once the Liberty arrived Dennis proceeded to add a TS Performance sticker to the windshield. I drove it around the pits to get used to it, and tried a couple of boosted launches to see how it felt.
We got a ton of time passes on Saturday, interspersed with the qualifying passes of the big boys. Unfortunately there seems to be a curse on our pit area, as both the TS Performance and Stuckey Racing Pro Street trucks went through more than one turbo.
Here is the result of turbo shrapnel passing through the walls of the downpipe on the TS truck.
Here is the last turbo.
I managed to get some decent reaction times in the Liberty, despite never having driven it before. I opened with a 0.013, and had a couple of 0.00x lights as well. The announcers (Eric and Timbeaux) hyped me up much more than I deserved, but it made for a fun time.
I headed over to the vendor booth areas, and spent time with the various ISSPRO dealers. Then I headed over to the Diablosports Hot bodies contest (and I'm sure everyone has seen my photos from that). I also have some uncensored photos from the contest, but they have been given to the administrators of this website for inspection and safe keeping.
Saturday night-
We had another fantastic dinner at the TS Performance pit area.
Phil (Wideopen) came by LOL. We also looked at some photos of him giving others rides on the golf cart. There is some discussion of blackmail.
Phil then proceeded to introduce Sheila Perry to the guys with him, this is the initial response after a bad Joke.
And this is the retaliation…
And this could only be described as Stuckey's drunk transportation service…
As I headed back to the hotel, I noticed a distinct LACK of trucks running around hotel parking lots. I thought about heading for the warehouse, but did not know how to get there.
Sunday morning: It was a lot easier getting up this morning, having gone to sleep at a decent hour (only 12:30). We ended up getting 2 quick time runs in, then off into eliminations. Once we got down to the 3rd round (and I was the first truck in the staging lanes each round, always in the left lane), nobody would pull into the right lane. As there were two TS Performance trucks in the rear of the lanes, it became obvious that they would have to run each other if they stayed in the same lane. They flipped a coin, and I ended up racing one of them. I laid down a decent pass (0.009 light), knowing that these "hired gun" drivers were killers on the tree. I felt bad putting a teammate on the trailer. On the next pass I cut a good light (0.021, IIRC), and even heard the announcer mention that I had treed the guy, but didn't hit the brakes hard enough and broke out by 0.012. I had the other guy covered by over 2 tenths on the tree, and took over 0.27 at the finish line while on the brakes for over 11 mph. I just wasn't prepared for the Jeep to pick up that much between rounds, but one of the TS guys had previously warned me that it could happen. Of course this was the money round, and I would have probably had the single the next round into the final.
I hung out in the TS Performance VIP suite for the tractor pulls. It was a great view from up above, and nice to be able to duck into the air conditioning intermittently. I could have even watched from inside, but then I couldn't hear the trucks or the announcer.
Overall it was an awesome weekend. I wish I had taken more photos of trucks and racing (though I shot plenty of the bikinis). Thanks again to Dennis and Sheila (and the whole TS Performance crew)!!!
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100% persistence!