The Orange racing team just got back early this morning from an
unexpected whirlwind trip to Memphis, Tennessee where we filmed two new
segments for the upcoming Speed Channel show "Record Breakers" on
Wednesday night. I got confirmation on Monday that we were invited to
a special day of taping and racing for two new shows - "Blow em UP" and
" Record Breakers". We started early and worked till 8pm to prep OJ
and to finish putting the new 4 motor AGNS together. We got in a few
parking lot launches by 8pm, loaded up and left for Memphis at 9:30,
drove straight through and got to Memphis Raceway at 8:30 AM. The
track was prepped beautifully, The weather was perfect, the sun was
hot, and to top it off Top Fuel driver Clay Millican was on hand and
greeted us with a handshake. We were scheduled to start filming at
11:00 am so we wasted no time setting up, charging, etc.... We needn't
have hurried. Our time slot got pushed to 1pm, then 4pm, then 7pm.
The delay was due to a variety of problems with the cars brought to
film "Blow em up". Such is show business. We spent the entire day
basking in the 95 degree heat, tweeking AGNS and OJ and checking
everything over 10 times. We were told to have everything ready to go
for sure at 7pm but found out that the crew needed a dinner break so we
waited some more. Hey we drove 12 hrs to get there so there was
nothing to do but wait. I was watching the beautiful sun which had
kept the track so sticky all day that you could hardly walk across it
start to set in the west. I could see what was coming but I couldn't
stop it.
At 7:30 we started fiming with interviews etc... We got OJ on the line
at 8PM for a warm-up run. A quick burnout heated the tires, then we
did a last second interview to set the stage. I explained our first
goal of besting the 7 year old NEDRA 240 volt dragster record of 10.55
@a 115 MPH, and our second of getting into the single digits. OJ
launched perfectly on the hot track and ran a 10.26 @ 130 MPH on her
warm-up run. Holy Cow!!!! This was worth the wait. I headed back to
the pits for more interviews and to get AGNS ready to run. While I was
there OJ came back and they decided we would film a debriefing on the
run before sending AGNS down the track. As we are doing this a track
official comes by and says we have till 9pm to wrap everything up.
WHAT!!!!!, WHAT!!!! Are you kidding me? We have less than 1 hr to
make record runs for 2 vehicles, recharge, repair, etc... Ok let's get
started. But wait, we have to continue the interviews. Meanwhile the
sun has gone away and our beautiful hot track is going with it. I know
AGNS' batteries are not 100% yet but we need the charger for OJ if we
are going to have her ready before they shut the lights off. At 8:49
pm the lights come on as we get AGNS to the line for the first time.
Another last minute interview is done to explain that we are attempting
to break the 192 motorcycle record of 12.95 secs. The tree lights up
but does a yellow/green drop like they do for top fuel. Denis is
expecting a standard setup and gets confused for a split second. He
initially hits the accelerator, then lets off, then decides he may as
well go and heads down the track. AGNS completes her warm-up run of
12.26 @ 99 MPH. Not back considering the launch. I head back to the
pits where Eric has completed his post run inspection and found a fried
brush gear on motor number 5. He needs a few minutes to change it out
so I use the time to charge AGNS as fast as the little 11K generator
will let me. Rudmans green box does the job and we get AGNS back up to
90% + in under 10 minutes. We are now operating at warp speed. Time is
running out. I yank AGNS off the charger, plug in OJ, and push Dennis
back to the line for run 2. It's now 9:03 pm and dark. Through heated
negotiations we were allowed till 9:30 before they shut the lights off.
I tell Dennis to forgo the burnout because AGNS didn't have a full
charge and we needed to save power. I was wrong. Full charge or not
AGNS' brand new DEKAs were just waking up. The tree went yellow/green
while Denis was still positioning himself. After what seemed an
eternity he hit the accelerator. AGNS's 2 new rear tires went up in
smoke. He let off and got back in it. It spun again. This was not the
track we had seen just 15 minutes ago. AGNS finally got hooked up and
ran a 13.26 @ 103 MPH. There went our back up run. I ran back to the
pits where OJ was charging. The brush gear swap was complete but there
was a catch. The new gear was a never tested, prototype unit sent to
me from the UK. I knew that the design had issues and we had a list of
things to change before we were actually going to start testing it but
we only had one day to prep before the trip and it was all we had in
stock so we "run what we brung". We set OJ on the ground. Eric
prepared to climb in when we noticed that the tech had not finished his
work installing the cockpit camera. While they went to find him, I
stole the charger again from OJ and dumped everything I could into
AGNS. 5 minutes later I swapped the charger leads back to OJ and
pushed Dennis to the line, the smell of abused batteries in the air.
I'm thinking to myself, "This is INSANE! But, This is definitely the
most fun I've ever had a racetrack!". Denis does a nice burnout and
has the tree figured out. The light turns green and AGNS goes up in
smoke again. We have lost the track. He gets back into it easy but
pulls away hard. The board shows 12.77 @ 106 MPH. Denis has NEDRA
record number 5 in the books even with a 1 second delay at the line. 5
minutes later I pull OJ off the charger, Eric lays the camera battery
pack in his lap, and drives OJ up to the line. It's 9:27 pm. Eric does
I nice burnout but I see a few sparks coming from the new brush gear at
high RPM. Looking for single digits I have cranked up the power on OJ.
If she hooks up she will fly, if she doesn't she will fry. I suspect
what's coming and share it in my last second interview. There was
nothing to do but watch. OJ launched hard for the first few ft then
lost traction and spun the tires for at least 200 ft. She finally
hooked and managed 107 MPH in the 1/8th. At 3/4 track the new brush
gear had had enough and put on a fireworks show Plasma boy would be
proud of. They wanted something spectacular and they got it with 2
minutes to spare. Eric hit the brakes and went through the lights with
a 12.16 @ 69 MPH. I went down the track and picked up OJ. Other than a
torched motor everything looked good. We loaded up and did some final
interviews.
No single digits for OJ, no back up for the NEDRA record of 10.26, but
man it was AWESOME!! After waiting over 10 hrs we spent the next 1 1/2
hrs like Rosie O'Donnell at a Golden Corral. AGNS got another record
with a previously untested 3 wheeled setup and is poised for the 11's,
we shared some cold beers with the crew, and the track officials were
completely impressed and invited us back and offered to open the track
just for us. It would have been nice to have some more time to "sneak
up" on the 9's, you know, baby the batteries, save the brush gear and
motor, turn up the power gradually over 5-6 runs. NAH, That's not our
style.
Shawn Lawless
________________________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free
from AOL at AOL.com.
unexpected whirlwind trip to Memphis, Tennessee where we filmed two new
segments for the upcoming Speed Channel show "Record Breakers" on
Wednesday night. I got confirmation on Monday that we were invited to
a special day of taping and racing for two new shows - "Blow em UP" and
" Record Breakers". We started early and worked till 8pm to prep OJ
and to finish putting the new 4 motor AGNS together. We got in a few
parking lot launches by 8pm, loaded up and left for Memphis at 9:30,
drove straight through and got to Memphis Raceway at 8:30 AM. The
track was prepped beautifully, The weather was perfect, the sun was
hot, and to top it off Top Fuel driver Clay Millican was on hand and
greeted us with a handshake. We were scheduled to start filming at
11:00 am so we wasted no time setting up, charging, etc.... We needn't
have hurried. Our time slot got pushed to 1pm, then 4pm, then 7pm.
The delay was due to a variety of problems with the cars brought to
film "Blow em up". Such is show business. We spent the entire day
basking in the 95 degree heat, tweeking AGNS and OJ and checking
everything over 10 times. We were told to have everything ready to go
for sure at 7pm but found out that the crew needed a dinner break so we
waited some more. Hey we drove 12 hrs to get there so there was
nothing to do but wait. I was watching the beautiful sun which had
kept the track so sticky all day that you could hardly walk across it
start to set in the west. I could see what was coming but I couldn't
stop it.
At 7:30 we started fiming with interviews etc... We got OJ on the line
at 8PM for a warm-up run. A quick burnout heated the tires, then we
did a last second interview to set the stage. I explained our first
goal of besting the 7 year old NEDRA 240 volt dragster record of 10.55
@a 115 MPH, and our second of getting into the single digits. OJ
launched perfectly on the hot track and ran a 10.26 @ 130 MPH on her
warm-up run. Holy Cow!!!! This was worth the wait. I headed back to
the pits for more interviews and to get AGNS ready to run. While I was
there OJ came back and they decided we would film a debriefing on the
run before sending AGNS down the track. As we are doing this a track
official comes by and says we have till 9pm to wrap everything up.
WHAT!!!!!, WHAT!!!! Are you kidding me? We have less than 1 hr to
make record runs for 2 vehicles, recharge, repair, etc... Ok let's get
started. But wait, we have to continue the interviews. Meanwhile the
sun has gone away and our beautiful hot track is going with it. I know
AGNS' batteries are not 100% yet but we need the charger for OJ if we
are going to have her ready before they shut the lights off. At 8:49
pm the lights come on as we get AGNS to the line for the first time.
Another last minute interview is done to explain that we are attempting
to break the 192 motorcycle record of 12.95 secs. The tree lights up
but does a yellow/green drop like they do for top fuel. Denis is
expecting a standard setup and gets confused for a split second. He
initially hits the accelerator, then lets off, then decides he may as
well go and heads down the track. AGNS completes her warm-up run of
12.26 @ 99 MPH. Not back considering the launch. I head back to the
pits where Eric has completed his post run inspection and found a fried
brush gear on motor number 5. He needs a few minutes to change it out
so I use the time to charge AGNS as fast as the little 11K generator
will let me. Rudmans green box does the job and we get AGNS back up to
90% + in under 10 minutes. We are now operating at warp speed. Time is
running out. I yank AGNS off the charger, plug in OJ, and push Dennis
back to the line for run 2. It's now 9:03 pm and dark. Through heated
negotiations we were allowed till 9:30 before they shut the lights off.
I tell Dennis to forgo the burnout because AGNS didn't have a full
charge and we needed to save power. I was wrong. Full charge or not
AGNS' brand new DEKAs were just waking up. The tree went yellow/green
while Denis was still positioning himself. After what seemed an
eternity he hit the accelerator. AGNS's 2 new rear tires went up in
smoke. He let off and got back in it. It spun again. This was not the
track we had seen just 15 minutes ago. AGNS finally got hooked up and
ran a 13.26 @ 103 MPH. There went our back up run. I ran back to the
pits where OJ was charging. The brush gear swap was complete but there
was a catch. The new gear was a never tested, prototype unit sent to
me from the UK. I knew that the design had issues and we had a list of
things to change before we were actually going to start testing it but
we only had one day to prep before the trip and it was all we had in
stock so we "run what we brung". We set OJ on the ground. Eric
prepared to climb in when we noticed that the tech had not finished his
work installing the cockpit camera. While they went to find him, I
stole the charger again from OJ and dumped everything I could into
AGNS. 5 minutes later I swapped the charger leads back to OJ and
pushed Dennis to the line, the smell of abused batteries in the air.
I'm thinking to myself, "This is INSANE! But, This is definitely the
most fun I've ever had a racetrack!". Denis does a nice burnout and
has the tree figured out. The light turns green and AGNS goes up in
smoke again. We have lost the track. He gets back into it easy but
pulls away hard. The board shows 12.77 @ 106 MPH. Denis has NEDRA
record number 5 in the books even with a 1 second delay at the line. 5
minutes later I pull OJ off the charger, Eric lays the camera battery
pack in his lap, and drives OJ up to the line. It's 9:27 pm. Eric does
I nice burnout but I see a few sparks coming from the new brush gear at
high RPM. Looking for single digits I have cranked up the power on OJ.
If she hooks up she will fly, if she doesn't she will fry. I suspect
what's coming and share it in my last second interview. There was
nothing to do but watch. OJ launched hard for the first few ft then
lost traction and spun the tires for at least 200 ft. She finally
hooked and managed 107 MPH in the 1/8th. At 3/4 track the new brush
gear had had enough and put on a fireworks show Plasma boy would be
proud of. They wanted something spectacular and they got it with 2
minutes to spare. Eric hit the brakes and went through the lights with
a 12.16 @ 69 MPH. I went down the track and picked up OJ. Other than a
torched motor everything looked good. We loaded up and did some final
interviews.
No single digits for OJ, no back up for the NEDRA record of 10.26, but
man it was AWESOME!! After waiting over 10 hrs we spent the next 1 1/2
hrs like Rosie O'Donnell at a Golden Corral. AGNS got another record
with a previously untested 3 wheeled setup and is poised for the 11's,
we shared some cold beers with the crew, and the track officials were
completely impressed and invited us back and offered to open the track
just for us. It would have been nice to have some more time to "sneak
up" on the 9's, you know, baby the batteries, save the brush gear and
motor, turn up the power gradually over 5-6 runs. NAH, That's not our
style.
Shawn Lawless
________________________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free
from AOL at AOL.com.
