[HR9121]

Great stories by all and a great way to kill some time since I know everyone is about to go crazy. My first national was Charlotte, I don't remember what year it was but it was the year they changed it to March for one year. North Carolina can be a little unpredictable weather wise in March and I thought this might be a mistake by NHRA when I saw the schedule for the year the first time.
A week or so before the race the weather forecast looked terrible, cold and rainy Thursday and Friday and then just plain cold the rest of the weekend. Quite a few dropped out but I was determined and for the most part I think it was close to a full field for quota. We got there and parked late Thursday and by luck we got parked behind the grandstands where the Pro Mods normally park even though we got there late. If I remember correctly Friday was a complete wash but they had started drying the track several times even though it was only about 42 degrees. None of the usual "Live" reporters were there that weekend so my buddies Greg and Steven Rowe talked me into starting a "Live" from thread so I did and that was how I got started in the Reporter business.
It was determined late Friday that we would get one hit on Saturday morning and then into eliminations. This is where it gets good, the week before I had put new disc brake conversion on the rear of the car. One and only qualifier the car didn't feel like it wanted to leave initially and I had like a .120 light even though I felt like I nailed it. Car runs about .90 under in -200 of DA but wasn't that concerned because I was trying to slow it down. Get back to the trailer, jack it up and pull the rear wheels. After inspection can't really find anything and someone gets in the car pumps up the brake and releases them but for a split second you can't turn the axle then it finally frees up. Must be air in the system so we decide to bleed them and this is when we find out how smart I am. I had installed the breeders on the bottom of the caliper. Genius, pure genius! Get it straightened out and ready for first round.
First round I'm running like a Q/SA can't remember who it was but neither one of us is particularly great on the tree and he wanted the stripe awful bad so I dumped hard and win the round going like a 11.43 which is 1.02 under the index.
I didn't really understand the AHFS at the time and thought I need to slow this thing down some more but one of my friends says well you already flagged it one time so it really doesn't matter now and it was flagged earlier in the year. So I thought he's right and it will be hard to dial it if I change anything.
I had some good rounds and was able to make it to the quarters before finally losing a good race to Jeff Strickland.
So at my first national I became Live reporter for Classracer, won 3 rounds and got to race on Sunday and looked like an idiot making 4 passes more than a second under the index.