Tigges Talk - Indy

Indy. The Big Go. The U.S. Nationals. For a drag racer, Indy is like the World Series, SuperBowl & World Cup rolled into one. Getting a Wally from Indy is like having the Stanley Cup in your living room. There were 885 cars pre-entered in this year's Indy, and 11 Wallys to be handed out. Winning at Indy is a big deal. Even qualifying for the Top Alcohol Funny Car field was impressive with 24 teams going for 16 spots. An international field with all the top cars from the U.S., Sweden, Canada & Australia all on the property, loaded for bear.

Indy… I had always dreamed of going there, but had never been. For my first time I was a fly-in crewmember, another first for me. Fred & Mark drove the RV & tow rig out earlier in the week, with the balance of the crew arriving later in the week. My flight from Portland to Detroit to Indy was uneventful, as flights should be. Mark & Dave picked me up at the airport at 11PM Thursday night, and it was off to the races.

Our pit was midway down a long line of alcohol cars, Mickey Ferro to our right and Ulf Leanders to our left. We had a nice grassy area at the rear of the pit, and across from us were some pro nitro teams and more alcohol cars. When I showed up the pit was set-up with the brand new DMP awning looking great on the trailer. After some socializing Dave & I turned in for the night in our bunks in the race trailer. I was at Indy!

Friday morning greeted us with low clouds & persistent misty rain. We had two qualifying sessions scheduled for 1PM & 4PM, but the rain pushed back the 1PM session to 4:30 and cancelled the second session completely. It was one of those 'hurry up and wait' days, as you never knew when the call to the lanes would come. When we did get the call the clouds had opened a bit, and we were treated to a somewhat tricky racetrack. We were the first of the 5 second or better class to hit the track, and came out of the run with a fairly clean 5.73 - 256 pass that seemed soft down low, placing us in the 9th qualified position.

Saturday looked more promising, with a beautiful sunrise which promptly turned into more on and off rain. We had one scheduled qualifier at 12:15PM that was pushed back a few hours and netted us a 5.78 - 254, which dropped us to the 13th position, certainly not safe with six of the non-qualified cars within a tenth of a second of getting back into the field. The car shook pretty violently on the pass, shearing the battery box mounts & cracking the fuel tank, so we had some extra service to do back at the pit.

Actually being at Indy had yet to set in on me mentally. There were certainly many more cars, the facility was huge, with pits on both sides of the track, but the 1/4 mile was still the 1/4 mile and the focus on performance and qualifying was still the same. Indy started to sink in when I realized virtually everyone you have ever heard of was there, not only drivers, but suppliers & tuners, not to mention the legends attendees for the 60th anniversary celebration. Everyone from Don Garlits & Shirley Muldowney to Brad Littlefield & Dennis Taylor. Retired TAFC World Champ Frank Manzo dropped by for a visit and spent 45 minutes talking about his farm and Dairy Queen. The part that is the same at any race is the pressure of not being safely qualified. It eats at you all the time. For us, the coolest dog on the planet, Chelsea, provided some much needed hilarity by donning Mark's shades and going for a walk up and down the alcohol pits.

Late Saturday night new crewmember Kevin & I walked down to the stands to catch the end of fuel qualifying. After the fuel cars went, they ran some exhibition jet cars… lots of fire, smoke, noise and speed. They are pretty impressive, especially at night. After they made their pass I looked over at Kevin and said 'You know the amazing part… you worked on a car today that ran 2/10ths quicker than those guys!' The look on his face said it all, alcohol racing is the best.

We were up at 6:15 Sunday morning, preparing the car for a scheduled 9:15 qualifying session to be followed by first round of eliminations at 5:30PM. It started to shower yet again around 8:30, and continued on and off all day, leaving us trapped in the pit waiting for the call until they finally announced we would be getting our last qualifying pass at 5PM. Eliminations would all be run on Monday. Waiting is exhausting. We spent the day with busy work, servicing the race trailer, processing used oil, transferring methanol from the 55 gallon drum to fuel jugs (the brand new barrel was delivered to our pit and was empty when we left), double checking and cleaning things, whatever it took to keep your hands busy. Mark had found the cause of the soft first half numbers in Q1, and finally at the starting line at 7PM, we put down a good solid 5.69 - 254 pass for the number 11 spot. Good thing too, our previous best pass in Q1 would not have qualified us for the field. Back at the pits we did an extensive service, changing all the rod bearings, checking everything over and putting in fresh oil and a new blower belt for eliminations. We would be racing elimination rounds at Indy on Monday… at 7:45AM!!! Another 6:15 wake-up call ahead, we took late showers and tried to slow the adrenalin from the day before bedding down for the night.

There is nothing quite as surreal as being up at 7AM hearing alcohol dragsters & funny cars warming up in the pits all around you. The weather had finally broken, and we towed up to staging at 7:30, the third pair up for a day of eliminations. Standing there in staging, with Andy Bohl & Tony Bartone doing there burnouts ahead of us, it really hit me for the first time… this is INDY baby! It is so special to be a part of. Every drag racer will tell you that you need a lucky round every now and then, and we got ours in round one. In a heartbreaker for our pit neighbor Ulf Leander, a battery problem prevented him from firing the car, and NHRA starter Mark Lyle gave Fred the single pass signal. The car ET'ed exactly what Fred & Mark had tuned it to, the 5.65 - 246 pass advancing us to round two against Steve Harker, the Australian who eliminated us in Norwalk earlier in the year.

Back in the lanes for round two just after lunch, we stepped it up again running the best ET of eliminations and defeating Harker on both ends with a solid 5.58 - 258 pass. There was some serious celebration on the line which continued as we flew down the return road to pick up the car.

Two hours later, after a standard service turnaround, 15th qualifier Todd Robertson had the luck round against us. We stood at the line, had the thrill of victory as Todd had an .007 redlight, followed by the agony of defeat as we ceded the win back to him by crossing the centerline and clipping one of the timing blocks, disqualifying our run. The computer showed well over 3G's acceleration on the run, and it is difficult to steer when both front wheels are off the ground at 330 feet. Some chassis adjustments are in order. Back at the pit, we packed it all up, then headed over to Avon for a great dinner at O'Charleys.

Tuesday morning was yet another 6:15 wake-up call to finish breaking down camp and to head out on the road, for the short trip to the airport, or the much longer drive back to the plant in Massachusetts. All in all, a great first Indy experience, although we didn't get what we came for, one of those eleven Wallys. We had the only 5.50 pass in eliminations, and the second quickest pass of the event, but that's drag racing folks, on to Maple Grove to try again. Congratulations to Jay Payne & Chris Demke for their alcohol wins.

Pictures of our weekend (including way too many travel pictures) here:

http://chrisofmaine.smugmug.com/Cars/Drag-Racing/TiggesTAFC-Stuff/Indy-2014

Watch coverage of our race Sunday, September 7 at 9:30PM EST on ESPN2. Check listings as they often are wrong or late.