Mark Maxwell made his debut as the new team driver and showed the team would pick up where they left off in 2003...After qualifying 31st with a 7.75 and tire spin problems on everypass the spin bug hit again in the 1st round...

 

Mark Maxwell has been named the driver for 2004 and expectaions are high after the initial test session scored a 7.67 and a 7.60...Mark has ran in Jr Fuel for the last 2 season as well as having many years of bracket racing experience and Mark stepped right in to the team as a wonderful replacement for Jerry.

 

After some controversy due to only 1 qualifying session the team was placed in the field #31...From there we went 3 rounds and finished the season # 7 in points...This was the last race for Jerry as the full time driver as he had accepted an offer to move up to A/Fuel.

Well the team began to get ready for the Hot Rod Reunion, we updated some valve train gremlins that have been around for a while and wanted to prep for the big NHRA Hot Rod Reunion. There were a couple of pieces of news to go around this race, we were of the mind set to go to Bakersfield with 1 goal, WIN...Additional Jerry would be driving a 2nd car. I got the opportunity to upgrade my license and run A/Fuel for Bill Faultner. This was truely a dream come true on may levels, since I was 12 I wanted to drive a Blown Alcohoil Dragster and being as I grew up around the "Spagetti Bender" cars this opportunity was truely special in that Bill has the last front motored Steve and Mario San Paolo ran, basically I get to race I car I sat in when this dream began and I would be racing again Steve SanPaolo who still runs in the class...How cool is that???

So we took out the "Broke Dick" digger the Friday night before the Reunion to get dialed in..1st pass 7.52 at 181. We look to be set, except why is there oil under the car???  We get back to the pits and pull the oil pan, 2 broken rods...We are done No Reunion for us...

We get the car back together with some SERIOUS help from Bob Santolini and Richards crew who were up til midnight on Thursday to get ready for a Friday nite test session...1st run 7.55, we fatten her up a touch and take a bit of mag out, 2nd run 7.74 we are set, put the mag back in her and lets rip, GoodGuys Finals Here We Come!!!, this is our statement race, we are just out of the top 5 going in, the goal qualify on top and win it all, let the points fall where they will...

It was awesome to be racing at the Fairplex in Pomona, just the history of who has gone down that surface. Well we struggled in qualifying and with loosing the last session due to time constaints we ended up #21 with a 7.82. So we went into Rd 1 making some serious changes but being a bit blind. The changes worked and the car ran 7.65 but Tony Lemmon ran a 7.64 so we were a first round runner up. I do need to take the time to recognize the AWESOME work put in by John Villierme, the kid is only 17 but he made tuning decisions and some critical calls and I could not be prouder of him...This young man is gonna do alot in this sport and I hope I get to be around him as he does. Also on a sad note our buddy Jim Moore was involved in an incident on the top end Friday when his opponent got oiled in and lost control putting Jim's car into the wall destoying it and having Jim taken out in a helicopter, he is doing much better but it put a damper on the entire weekend. We have some down time for a while and look forward to the Hot Rod Reunion and the GG Finals...

Well I guess you have to have those rough weekends to appreciate the good ones, like Sears Point was...We ran 8.02 in both qualifying passes and the car was popping and spitting fuel. We changed out mags, ignition boxes and everything we could could but it still was not right, so we took her up for round 1 with our fingers crossed...Oh well we got beat in the 1st round for the 1st time since Jerry started driving. We plan on switching our ignition system with some help from Steve Tanzi at Mallory for our planned assault on Pomona!!!

We started out Saturdays 1st qualifying pass and the car was still slow, so we leaned out the fuel system a touch more and it jumped right back up to where it should be, 7.65 # 5 qualifier

Sunday Eliminations, the car was totally consistant and set to run about a 7.62 every time out but due to either tire spin or big time skating we ran in the high 7.60's to 7.70's but managed to keep winning rounds. In the finals we matched up with Don Taros, last years NE champion and I for one know how he got to be the champ, he is tough and ran mid to low 7.60's every pass. I did get the jump off the line .420 to .453 but he ran me down as I had tire spin at the launch and he took the stripe 7.66 to our 7.79...Congrats to Don on the win and taking over the points lead, Next up Sacramento's  Fremont Reunion June 6-8.

 

We were fortunate enough to make 2 passes on Saturday, the weather was good, probably close to what we will see at Sears Point next week. 1st pass, it seems like it is down on power, runs a 7.92 at 172 mph WAYYY too slow, it did skate around on me so I am sure we gave up a 10th or so there, we make some changes and it runs 7.86 at 173...We are 2/10ths slow and a good 3+ mph down...The guys get her back to the shop and with some consulting help from John Kirschman they figure out where the problem is and we should be looking good for the Point!!! STAY TUNED....