National Trails Raceway, UMTR

The week leading up to this race was just amazing to say the least. A couple of weeks prior to this the car was running fast! Decided to go out and make a few runs the weekend before the event just to make sure the car was right. Well, it did not go well at all! The clutch had worn so much all the clearances were way off. Figured I'll check it at the shop early in the week, had a ton of work come in so that did not work out.
Thursday came around and finally got some free time to check it. Get it apart and everything look to be worn but not to bad, clutch is glazed, flywheel and pressure has a few hot spots, and notice the pilot bearing is worn. Clean the entire unit up, reassemble and install. Removed (boy was that a task!) and replaced the pilot bearing, get the bell housing on and notice there is no clearance between the T/O bearing and the fingers on the pressure plate??? Do some adjusting to the pivot ball and check the finger height and all is well. Installed the trans, go get the trailer to get loaded. Start the car pull off the hoist and I am told to shut it off, there is oil everywhere!!! Seems when I was catching hell removing the old pilot bearing I hit the center of the crankshaft and put a very small hole in it and it pump oil all over the clutch assembly. (I never knew a crank is so thin in that area) Everything is soaked in oil, now I have to remove all of it again, weld the crank, and clean every part. Remember its 6 P.M. Thursday and I am leaving Friday afternoon. Okay, we can do this,no big deal. Around 9 the car is back together, get loaded and we are ready to race!
Now during this week, my buddy Tom is putting his engine and car together to go racing also and it was going to the last minute. He was up until 4 A.M. Friday morning and just finished about an hour before we left.
Traveling is always a good time especially with friends and family. Arrive at the track in time to catch some Head UP racing. Time for some sleep! The next morning things are going as normal as can be, car seems to be fine, I'm trying to get focused and talk with the rest of the UMTR class. First round of TT, the clutch slips hard, uh oh. Get back to the pit look in the bell housing and notice a lot of clutch material and it is very gummy with oil. Put a few turns in it to try and save it but that did not help. The disc absorb the oil and when it got hot it started to come out. The race was over for me, but I had a good time regardless. What a week!
NTR concession stands are only open if there are selling a lot of food, they were closed by 3 P.M. this made no sense at all. They ran Jr. dragsters all night long and this slowed the program down a ton. When the jrs were done, everyone thought the pace would pick up in the staging lanes, instead NTR decided to run a JR quick 330, so all the jrs came back up to give it a go. I have no problem with the jr cars but they have to fit in just as we do. I don't show up at a jr dragster event and expect to race, and the same should go for them.

Milan dragway NO ET. What a joke!

Racing at the NO ET Milan race is a complete waste of time and money! The track is not prep correctly and the staging lanes are a mess. To tell me to pay more to be VIP is not the answer. The spectator parking on the pit side is just nuts, while waiting hours to make a pass in the staging lanes these spectators will block your trailer where you can't get to it. I had to wait 2 hours to leave the place because I was block in?? WTF! Milan dragway is all about the money, don't kid yourself....