Once again Greg Sharp, Sam Jackson,
Steve Gibbs and the entire NHRA Motorsports Museum staff gave
us yet another unforgettable weekend. CHRR 14 was three days
of hot weather filled with non stop action and events punctuated
with a 49 car Cacklefest on Saturday night. Emotions ran high
as old friends were reunited, fallen comrades remembered, legends
honored and some incredibly close racing contested. Everyone
is way done saying, "It can't get any better than this."
Because every year it does.
The CHRR is way
more than a race - its THE social event of the year. When he
wasn't tending to his cars Ron Johnson was tooling around the
pits visiting with friends like Ron Miller.
On Friday night
everyone goes to the CHRR Honoree presentations and once again,
have fun, enjoy some adult beverages and see old friends. Here
Ron gets shot with the infamous John "Tarzan" Austin.
Our race experience at CHRR 2005
was both good and bad, like our entire year, which has been mixed,
highs and lows. The high of the year was when we went to the
semis at the 1st Northwest Nationals in Seattle.
Camp
Big Yohns
Shoobie
to and in "The Grove" where it spent its weekend when
not out cackling. "The El Camino suffered an engine failure
on the way back from Inyokern in April. It now has a McKray massaged
460" big block with roller cam and etc's, an overdrive automatic
transmission and a set of Boyd's Billet wheels. It doesn't even
know Shoobie's back there on the trailer."
Saturday afternoon the
S&H car with Zane Shubert in the seat waits to do a test
push start prior to Cacklefest.
On
the racing side, Kol Johnson's first qualifying pass on Friday
netted an disappointing 8.258 at 141.64.
Johnson
heats the tires for his second and last qualifying attempt on
Saturday
Big
Yohns makes final adjustments before sending Kol to stage.
Johnson
picked up a ton running a nice 7.628 at 176.71 to qualify # 6.
Back in the pits the car is serviced and prepped
for the first round of eliminations on Sunday.
Engine builder Bob McKray checks out the injectors.
Saturday
night was all about "Cacklefest". The word alone sparks
excitement in the heart of any drag racing fan. Since it was
first coined five years ago by Steve Gibbs, this strange word
has spread all over the world and spawned dozens of "spin
off" events at race tracks big and small. Although you won't
find it in any dictionary, Cacklefest has become one of the most
alluring words in drag racing vocabulary. Since its inception
at the 2000 CHRR, Cacklefest has grown from 9 cars to 50 entries
in 2005. Any and all superlatives have long been used to describe
this phenomenon so I won't try to make anymore up for this one.
Without further ado, here is Ron Johnson's Shubert & Herbert
recreation in the fifth and by far largest edition of the "Original
Cacklefest" with first hand commentary by "Big Yohns".
We have been gradually stepping up the percentage
of Nitro. I had Meyer build a new larger fuel tank so we could
run longer and at this event we had 35% in the tank. Considering
that Zane and Chet ran 15% and maybe on occasion upped it to
two-bits, I feel we are being pretty daring.
Zane joined us again. He spent the whole weekend
at the track and had a great time! He came through the Chemo
last year with flying colors and has his strength back and is
having the time of his life, literally!
Prior to the Cacklefest all the participants were
paraded up in front of the stands while Dave McClellan introduced
the drivers and gave a brief history of the car.
The new tank is about 4 1/2 gallons and we kept it
a little rich on the barrel valve. We did put a fresh plug in
#1 which has been dropping, and that stopped. It ran clean on
all 8 and just ran and ran. I kept checking it but it didn't
get too hot. I finally shut it off because I figured we were
getting close to empty and I didn't want to run out.Zane is agitating
now, about letting the clutch out with a head of steam! We'll
have to find a friendly venue and let that happen.
Cacklefest over - Shubie at rest as the fans swarm
the track.
In the
first round of eliminations Johnson was paired with the eventual
class winner, Bud Hammer. Below is a rare look at the entire
sequence of this race from the staging area to down track. Unfortunately,
in spite of a huge holeshot, Kol lost with a 7.552 at 177.93
to a quicker 7.335 at 182.14.
Kol Johnson waits for
the signal to fire up and move into the water box.
Kol
follows Ron into the burnout area.
With
the tires wet Kol starts his burnout.
Ron
guides Kol back into his "tracks".
Final adjustments.
Moving
into the staging beams.
Johnson
drills Hammer at the tree with a sterling 0.035 reaction time
(to Bud's 0.096) but it wasn't enough.
Our race
efforts have been hampered somewhat because Marc McCormick, our
crew guy now has his own car and we are trying to run both our
car and his "A" field Junior Fueler with little extra
help over what we had to run our car. It's hard to say how this
will all resolve itself, but it will continue to be interesting.
At least, to us! See ya at the races. Ron
Update: My El Camino is working pretty good now,
both as an occasional driver and a tow/push car for Shoobie.
Since I got it, we have put disc brakes on the front, new master
cylinder and booster, new suspension bushings, rebuilt the radiator,
installed new air condition condenser and compressor etc. with
new type refrigerant, rebuilt 460 Big Block motor, R 700 overdrive
automatic tranny, new drive shaft, new mufflers and tailpipes
and a month or so ago, a set of Boyd Coddington billet wheels
and caps. We also added a new 1000 watt amplifier for the sound
system, new steering wheel and a custom built receiver hitch.
Now, it's worthy to tow Shoobie. But the mileage is crap. Big
Yohns
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