Slobalt

[Ellis V Buth]

Originally Posted by JP1738

Would it be too much to ask to get a full race recap? The race wasn't streamed and I would really enjoy a round by round break down from the race!

Also I know it's getting a head and cams, but could you recall for us what all has been done to it so far? I know you've tuned it and put some lightweight oil, but all the little stuff adds up too!

Round by round recap will be a little tough because I wasn't physically at the track with the car this time. I was in Brainerd for the double divisional, but I'll do my best! We did have a phone call before each round to discuss weather data and dial ins so I do have some insight:

In qualifying, the car ran a 16.070 Friday night and a 16.067 Saturday morning.

Round 1- Saturday afternoon. Weather was a little worse than the runs we had so far. We dialed 16.10 thinking we were running a 10 or 11. Blake hit it .036 to his opponents .003 but opponent drove behind and ran 11.67 on his 11.56 dial at 109 mph. Blake dropped late, killing very little, to run 16.133 at 84.15 mph.

Round 2- Saturday late afternoon/early evening. From the previous round data, we think the car is running a couple slower so we put a 16.14 on the window. Opponent is dialed 10.85 and Blake doesn't want to have to try to judge the stripe so we are trying to be honest. Blake hits it .010, opponent is late, Blake runs 16.196 at 77.95 mph for the win.

Round 3- Sunday morning. Best weather we've seen so far for the week. 16.04 dial in against a 10.80 dial. Again, hoping to not try to judge the stripe too much. .016 light to her .030, and a 16.053 at 84.91 beats her 10.840 at 113.90. Tight race against a former division champ!

Round 4- Late morning/early afternoon. 16.08 dial in due to deteriorating weather. Opponent dial is 12.37, so Blake feels slightly better about driving the stripe. Blake cuts .028 light to her .040, and takes .001 stripe on the brakes to win a double breakout. This was the first time this weekend that we were on a breakout, so we felt fortunate to get this win light.

Round 5- Car is starting to retain the heat, as we don't have a switch for the fan to be able to cool the car between rounds it is still run by the computer. 16.07 is the dial, and the opponent pushed through the beams and Blake elected to lift at 1000' in order to build less heat. Blake was .028 on the tree and the car was slowing down due to the built up heat in everything. Run completion suggests we were running 16.10-16.11. This run earned the bye in the semis!

Round 6- There was an incident on the track that delayed this round by a bit. We were able to get the car back to cool like it was in the earlier rounds. Blake decided to do 1000' drop again on the bye, so he puts a 16.27 dial on the window (ran 16.241 previous round). Blake is .044 on the tree and runs 16.246 on the run. Now we've got to get the car as cool as possible before the finals.

Round 7- Final round, the first one for the car as a stocker. Its only other final was its 2nd race as a bracket car which was 2 weeks before we started "Project Slobalt". This is the only round where Travis and I were unable to talk to Blake before the run, as dad and I were still in round 3 up in Brainerd and dad was literally pulling onto the track when Blake ran his final in Indy. I was watching on Live Timing towards the end of stock up north. Blake hits the tree .034 but misses his dial, as the 16.130 at 84.93 is all out against his 16.09 dial in. We believe the inability to properly cool the car between rounds is the main reason for this, so we are going to address that before the next race. Opponent was .023 and ran .015 above, leaving Blake only a .004 window even if we had the dial in right.

I know this got long winded, but this should give you some in depth round by round breakdown like you wanted. Opponents throughout the day included Randi Lyn Butner, Mike McGinley, Rosalyn Gresens, and event winner Brian Rogers of course among others. Blake was pretty happy with his RT spread and the overall predictability of the car. He felt like he missed on both ends significantly in the final which resulted in the loss.