The question is, "What service do you do on the car /engine between rounds?" The answer to this starts long before we get the car back to the pits. By the time we get to the top-end, Nate will be out of the car and will have already begun to roll up the parachutes. Nate will finish that while Ray and I lift the body up to turn off and secure all the safety needs. Mike and Michelle double check everything to make sure the mag is grounded so we don't have the engine try to start and then it's off to the scales. We need to weigh the car after each round to make sure it falls above the minimum weight of 2250 pounds. Anything less and the run is disqualified.

Back to the pits, lift off the body and get the car up on jack stands. I log the time slip into our records and evaluate our pass. Ray will leak test each cylinder to determine if we have a problem with a piston or rings. Michelle and Mike take the side tin off, remove the engine diaper and drain the oil; Nate drains the fuel from the tank so he can check to make sure the percentage of nitro was what we thought it was and then down comes the oil pan. Mike and Michelle open the clutch can and put a small fan on it to cool it down while they are removing the oil and pan. A quick check of the bearings, both rod and main, to look for possible problems and it all goes back together. Meanwhile, Mike and Michelle have torn into the clutch, checking to see if the wear is within parameters. If changes need to be made, the transmission will come out, along with the entire clutch system and be replaced. We generally put a new pack of discs in the clutch every third pass. Given we don't have to replace any rods or pistons or any engine pieces, we will tighten up the motor and drive train. By this time we have decided whether to change the tune up to be more aggressive or keep it the same. While all this is going on, Nate is mixing more nitro. Fill the fuel tank, put in 14 quarts of oil, stab some new spark plugs in it and fire it up to make sure we have no leaks or problems. If everything is good, check the tire pressure, replace the body and we're ready to go again !

Good Guys rules call for some ninety minutes between rounds; this is subject to change as we get closer to the final rounds. Now, if we have problems, as most all of us do at one time or another, we may have to replace entire cylinders and rods and pistons, possibly a cylinder head. How long does it take to pull the entire engine and drive train down to virtually nothing? In Las Vegas a couple of years ago we replaced two rods and pistons, the entire clutch, both fire bottles and had it running in ninety-one minutes and thirty seconds. Quick huh? Remember I said we had ninety minutes, yep missed by 90 seconds. We had Nate in the car and I was hooking the tow vehicle to the racecar when an official shut us off.

Thank you to Paul from Santa Maria, Ca. Hope we answered your question !