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Post by wheelzman on Jul 19, 2019 8:48:38 GMT -4
It is not fit for man nor beast out there now. 77/93 today with no chance of rain. I've had about enough of this high heat and no rain but we will like this in January.
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Jul 20, 2019 7:17:42 GMT -4
Good Morning 18C(66°F) Sunny, light winds and a forecast high of 28C(83°F) with a 30% chance of showers. Totally awesome day for my fellow Cape Breton Islanders(Capers for short) at that NHRA National Open in Miramichi yesterday with wins(and Wallys) in Top Sportsman, Top Dragster, Super Gas, plus the winner and runner-up in Super Street. Three of the final four in Stock/Superstock were from Nova Scotia and the No Box winner as well so I would say we were well represented. They're doing it all over again today and I'm hoping our Capers do as well as yesterday. Small Engine Repair guy was AWOL since Thursday, not answering his phone and his place was deserted when I dropped by yesterday so Dad might not get his lawn tractor back until Monday at the earliest. I finally gave up on trying to find one darn 215/60/14.5 to replace the one we destroyed a couple weeks ago so I bit the bullet and picked up two new 8/14.5s to match the two I put on the trailer's rear axle. I checked every tire store between here and Toronto and most of them didn't even have a listing for those 215/60s. I HAVE TO have that trailer ready to roll by Thursday at the latest so waiting around for a tire even if I could find one is out of the question. Today's plan is a little complicated. Lorne is coming shortly to pick up Marie and take her with them for the day, I'm going to pull some more deck board nails and try to get a few more rows replaced before it gets too hot to work then I've got to make a new plan.
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Jul 21, 2019 7:51:56 GMT -4
Good Morning 24C(76°F) Cloudy and windy with a forecast high of 27C(82°F), showers this AM then thundershowers this afternoon. Started pulling deck board nails yesterday AM but my arm was too sore to do any more than a half dozen nails. So I went out to Dad's and swapped out the trailer tires and was going to remove the Ranger's carb to bring it home when I decided it was too hot at 30C(88°F) to be stuck under the hood of the truck even for the ten minutes it might have taken to remove the carb. Locals took 1st and 2nd in Super/Street, 2nd in Super/Gas, 2nd in Top/Dragster, 1st in No Box Gamblers and 2nd in Box Gamblers so it was two great days in a row for Cape Breton Racers. Brother Spencer out in round one when his transbrake screwed up and he rolled the beams(LB3 fault) and ended his day. Conditions were horrible there - Miramichi Dragway's actual elevation is around 100 feet above sea level but the DA yesterday was mountain-like and the heat was intense. He sent this pic of his weather station just before round one and it shows just how bad the air was. Already too hot for an old fat guy with a bad wing to be torturing himself pulling stubborn nails out of deck boards. AC is only on for 10 minutes and my office is nice and cool so I might spend most of the day right here in my chair.
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Jul 22, 2019 7:11:45 GMT -4
Good Morning 20C(69°F) Sunny and light winds now but we had major rain overnight. We hit 31C(90°F) yesterday afternoon so needless to say I spent most of the day in my nice cool air conditioned office. Watched the LODRS from Pomona and the NASCAR race from New Hampshire then the movie "The Rose" with Bette Midler that I saw for the first time back in the 70s. No physical labor yesterday so my bad wing doesn't feel half bad this AM.
I think once the back deck dries off I'll get out there and start pulling nails on another few rows of deck boards. I've got 10 of 30 rows replaced now so progress is slow but steady. If I had two good arms the job could have been done in one day, the Ranger would have had all it's upgrades done long ago and I wouldn't be in constant pain and feeling useless. 15 more days before I get my ultrasound and find out just what the hell is wrong with my shoulder and what they plan to do with it.
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Jul 23, 2019 7:24:30 GMT -4
Good Morning 17C(63°F) Light winds and raining steady since around midnight. Got Dad's ride-on mower back from the small engine guy yesterday(kinked cable), pulled nails from four rows of deck boards then filled the truck with all the old deck and inside railing boards for a dump run this AM. That is going to have to wait until this rain clears up because if it takes as long to unload as it did to load I'm going to get good and wet doing it.
Looks like all the parts for the Ranger are finally here so I've got to go pick those up today although whether or not I'm going to get them all put on before the weekend is anyone's guess. Lorne and family are done with their visit and are flying back to Toronto this evening so Marie is going to take the day off from her Tuesday rug hooking group. Also the damp weather seems to make my arm hurt more than usual so I'm not sure how much I'm going to be able to do today after I unload all that old wood at the dump.
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Post by wheelzman on Jul 23, 2019 19:39:11 GMT -4
I think I may chill out for a while and see what the weather is going to be. They told me it's going to be okay but I don't think that it may be Centigrade or Thermostat weather? ?? I have to be that it may be Thermostat weather may just be Centigrade.
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Jul 24, 2019 6:03:02 GMT -4
Good Morning 15C(60°F) Light winds and still raining since about midnight last night. Made a trip to the dump in torrential rain then home to update all our backup computers - two of them get turned on about once a month to synchronize my main tower and Marie's laptop to their backup counterparts and our shared Chromebook. If either one of our units die then we can go right to our backup computers without losing any more than a few pics we might have saved between backups. If both of mine and both of Marie's and the Chromebook all fail at the same time we've still got a Windows 7 Netbook and an older laptop to fall back on. Once a week out two main units get backed up to the home server so it's next to impossible for us to lose files or even programs.
Today is Dad's Wednesday ritual - Blood work every 2nd Wednesday, a week's worth of groceries, gas for the ride-on mower and his weekly batch of lottery tickets. When I get him back home I've got to hook on to the car trailer and bring the Ranger home because tomorrow morning we set up the track for the weekend and tomorrow evening's Test and Tune session.
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Jul 25, 2019 7:23:36 GMT -4
Good Morning 17C(64°F) Cloudy, light winds. Slept in big time - a quick check-in here and I'm off to the track. Got to drop the trailer in my pit spot then get to work setting up for the weekend. Test and Tune session this evening, another one all day tomorrow then Quick 16 and Gamblers Racing Saturday and ADRA + track points Sunday. Full report when I get back home this evening...........
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Jul 26, 2019 6:20:32 GMT -4
Good Morning 18C(68°F) Sunny and light winds. Spent a lot of yesterday wiring new speakers at the track. Dashed home briefly for a snack around 4:00PM then back to the track to meet up with brother Spencer. We installed the 50cc accelerator pump, power valve blockoff and went up 8 jet sizes to compensate. We fiddled around with shooter size and pump cams and it seems like we're finally going in the right direction with this carburetor. Didn't make a pass because we were low on fuel because I forgot to fill the gas can before I went to the track(DOH!!) Drove up and down the return road and the bog seems to be way less than it was but we still need some tweaking with pump cams and shooter size. Got all day to play with it so I'm hoping we get it all figured out.
It is so nice to have a charging system now - No more panic over low voltage to the MSD during a run or having to leave it run in the staging lanes and the battery charger and generator can stay in the white truck. Today we have to concentrate on getting the Ranger to launch properly. If it bogs at all I will just abort the run rather than beat on it with a full pass that gives no real data. This is a "learning season" for me because all I want to do is get it working properly before we tackle the gear change, roll cage, disc brake conversion, etc. Not serious about chasing points so hopefully by the last event of the year we'll get it all figured out.
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Jul 27, 2019 7:38:19 GMT -4
Good Morning 20C(70°F) Sunny and zero wind and forecast for 30C(87°F) Quick check in again this AM - We're making progress with the Ranger's carburetor but we still have a few more things to try today. Three runs yesterday and showing improvement with every pass so we're on the right track just sneaking up on all the variables like jet size, shooter size and trying different accelerator pump cams. Problem there is to test small changes you can only change one thing at a time and with only three runs yesterday we didn't make many changes other than the new 50cc pump and the swapping in a brown pump cam instead of the yellow one that came with the new pump.
Going to try a few more things today, maybe make 3-4 runs to test it out then I'll park it when the Gamblers Races start. No point in trying to compete when we're still tuning but we'll have to try to muddle through tomorrow when there's points on the line so there will be zero tuning changes made tomorrow.
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Jul 28, 2019 6:25:34 GMT -4
Good Morning. 16C(61°F) Cloudy and light winds. Made three runs yesterday and we were getting the carb better every pass until we lost the alternator belt which led to an almost two hour search for a new belt. Still - we've almost totally eliminated the bog and now we're spinning on launch because the higher I take the launch RPM the more the whole truck rises up and tops out the rear suspension because it unloads and spins on the launch. We think the rear suspension is way too soft so I'm going to switch to a set of 9 way ART coilover shocks(minus the springs) after this race to get some control over the compression and rebound.
Biggest story of the day yesterday was the heat. At one point mid-afternoon the mercury hit 36C(97°F) so we so hid in Spencer's trailer because there was a little breeze coming through the side door and guzzled water continuously. Still testing today so I'll get at least 2 time trials, a qualifying session and round one to do some more tweaking. Not concerned about points this year so a round win would be just another opportunity to test my launch RPM.
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Jul 29, 2019 7:14:43 GMT -4
Good Morning 16C(61°F) Sunny. light winds. Starting to get a handle on the Ranger's carburetor now and it seems the more fuel it gets the better it likes it which is a bit of a surprise given it's less than optimal 9.5:1 compression ratio. Qualified #7 out of a 38 car Pro class then drew my buddy Chris in round one who fortunately for me decided to have a little nap at the tree LOL. Round two it was another pal Donnie with the only other blue Ranger in this part of the world. That was a barn burner for sure with the double breakout going to Donnie as my break out was .00005 worse than his and the girls in the tower told me afterwards that was the first time they ever saw the winner determined by that many decimal places.
First round of eliminations had a weird twist for both me and Spencer. I drew one of my best friends Chris and Spencer got his buddy Mike who lives only a few hundred yards from him in Brookside. We were all sitting in Spencer's trailer and it looked like we were a set of quadruplets LOL - all "old fat guys with black T-shirts and black suspenders". I was the first one to use the phrase and we had a great laugh about it. Every time someone else would ask who we had in the first round that's the term we all used.
Back to work on our rear deck today until it gets too hot then we're off to pick up Nancy and do our month end grocery expedition.
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Jul 30, 2019 6:47:19 GMT -4
Good Morning 22C(72°F) Sunny, light winds and a forecast high of 30C(87°) with a "feels like" temp of 37C(100°F) which NEVER happens in this part of the world. Went for a trail walk with the dogs early yesterday AM then we did the month end grocery expedition, got back home just after lunch, turned on both AC units and did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day.
Marie has her Tuesday rug hooking group and I'm going to try to do a little work on the back deck until it gets too hot to work. Arm is pretty sore so it's a toss-up whether the heat or the bad arm makes me stop for the day.
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Jul 31, 2019 6:57:20 GMT -4
Good Morning. 22C(72°F) with a forecast high of 31C(90°F) and a "feels like" of 100°F. Was watching Superstock Mopars yesterday on YouTube when it triggered a "lightbulb" moment so I went out in the heat long enough to go to the spring shop for 4 hammer clamps. I'll just put them on the ends of the Ranger's 2nd leaf and that should stiffen it up. Right now they are separating on launch and it's only that soft main leaf doing anything. Heading out to Dad's now to take him for groceries then back to my air conditioned office for the day.
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Aug 1, 2019 7:09:34 GMT -4
Good Morning 24C(76°F) Sunny and light winds at 7:45AM. Warmest morning yet so it's likely going to be another scorcher. Got Dad all fixed up yesterday morning then retreated to my air conditioned office for the rest of the day. Today we've got to take Nancy to get a prescription and make a couple other stops at WalMart and the pet store. I'm not able to do much the past couple of days because my shoulder is really bothering me and I'm also losing range of motion instead of getting better. Still a week to wait for my ultrasound then who knows how long to actually get something done about it.
Right now I can't do carpentry work, spin wrenches or even use the lawnmower without a lot of pain in my upper arm. Up until a week ago I was making progress but like a dummy I aggravated it somehow and right now it feels as bad as it did those first few weeks after I got hurt. TWO WEEKS before the next race and there's a couple of things I would like to do to the Ranger but unless this arm improves it's going to have to wait until my brother Spencer comes for two weeks between the next couple of races.
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