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The BME Bulletin
Bill Miller Engineering's Top Fuel blog #5 The Left Coast Swing The Bill Miller Engineering Top Fuel team went on the road for the second and third events of NHRA's annual Western Swing. The first event at Denver's mile-high Bandimere Speedway wasn't on the BME team's dance card, but back-to-back races in Seattle and Sonoma, Calif., found the black and yellow dragster racing on the edge of the Pacific Rim. And while a win light proved to be as elusive as the fabled Sasquach ape man that's said to inhabit Washington's forests, the team successfully tested a promising new engine combination. For the feisty BME team, the hunt for horsepower takes priority over the search for Bigfoot. Charting the Changes The world of Top Fuel shifted on its axis following the tragic death of driver Darrell Russell in a racing accident in St. Louis. In the aftermath, NHRA officials mandated a new tire design, modifications to the roll cage and a reduction in the maximum percentage of nitromethane rom 90 to 85 percent. The full-time touring teams raced under the new regulations in Denver, but the Carquest Auto Parts NHRA Nationals, held at Pacific Raceways near Seattle on July 25, was the BME Top Fuel crew's first foray into competition with the new rules. A new track surface at Pacific Raceways was a welcome change, providing the grip and parity between lanes that had been lacking. Adding to the degree of difficulty was a rare phenomenon in the Northwest: a heat wave that produced temperatures in the 90s during qualifying. "Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't rain all the time in Seattle and we do get nice weather occasionally," said driver Brady Kalivoda, a Seattle resident. "It was unseasonably hot and that created some tricky tuning conditions. Bill and the team did a great job adjusting to the heat. We did have a real two-lane race track, which was good for the racers and great for the fans because they got to see side-by-side competition." Setback in Seattle When is a setback a good thing? When it's a new supercharger manifold that relocates the blower rearward on the engine. The setback supercharger feeds fuel and air through a spider-shaped intake manifold that ensures that each of the eight cylinders gets its fair share of nitro. The heavily funded teams have demonstrated the advantages of the setback supercharger, so now the BME crew is adapting this technology to their nitro-burning behemoth. "We started the weekend with our conventional blower combination and made a solid, conservative pass right out of the box," Kalivoda reported. "Then Bill turned the right knobs and we came back in the Friday night session with a 4.86-second elapsed time that put us in the No. 8 spot. That's our best qualifying performance this year. "Our plan was to use Saturday as a test session for the new setback supercharger since we were securely in the show," he continued. "We had an engine problem on the first run, and the guys really worked their tails off to change the short block and swap all of the parts for the new blower setup in the sweltering heat. Their work was definitely worthwhile because we made a good half-pass on Saturday night and Bill got the data he wanted. Then the crew had to change everything back to our conventional setup for raceday. They can hold their heads up high after all the hours they put in that weekend." Now, for Something Completely Different Raced day in Seattle dawned with typical Northwest conditions: cool and crisp. That meant that everything that had been learned in the two previous days went into the trash can before Kalivoda's first-round match with Rhonda Hartman-Smith. "The air temperature dropped 20 degrees on Sunday and the density altitude was 2,500 feet lower," said team owner Bill Miller. "We were in the first pair of cars to race, and I chose the left lane. I hopped up the engine because I knew we had some tough competition ahead of us. When the clutch locked up, the car smoked the tires and that was our day. "It was a good weekend," Miller concluded. "The car ran well in our first race with the new rules package, and we got a feel for how the new setback supercharger works." "I had a .05-second advantage on the starting line, the car left strong, and then it spun the tires," Kalivoda recalled. "It was a disappointing loss because we had such high expectations. My friends and family were there, and you want to do well in front of your hometown crowd. We felt like it was our race, and we let it get away." Like Father--Like Son One week later, the NHRA traveling road show arrived at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., site of the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals on August 1. The scrappy BME team again ran with the big dogs, qualifying 10th at 4.719/312.13 mph. The first round of eliminations featured a contest between two second-generation Top Fuel drivers, with David Baca edging Kalivoda, 4.613/314.30 to 4.841/306.95. "Our plan for Sonoma was the same as Seattle - qualify with our conventional setup on Friday, test the setback blower on Saturday, and then go back to the standard setup for race day," Kalivoda explained. "And that's exactly what we did." "The car left the starting line hard, then it shuddered the tires and I pedaled it," he said. "I tip my hat to David Baca and his team for running a great 4.61. But it was a tough, tough loss, because we had such an advantage at the start that a 4.72 would have beat his 4.61. "It was cool for two second-generation racers to meet in the first round," Kalivoda continued. "My Dad had such a good time in Seattle that he drove to Sonoma to join us. I have a photo of my Dad racing David's father in the late '60s in front-engined dragsters. I think they only raced once in Seattle, and my Dad got the win. I guess it's even now between the two families. "Infineon Raceway is the home track for Red Line Oil, one of our valued associate sponsors," Kalivoda added. "We enjoyed seeing the folks from Red Line and we appreciate their continued support." Memphis Commitment "All in all, I have no complaints about our two races on the Western Swing," said Miller. "The teams ahead of us on the qualifying sheet are touring professionals with multimillion dollar budgets. They race every weekend, while we race on a budget. This BME team is getting better with every event, and it's only a question of when the breakthrough is going to happen." The BME Top Fuel team's next race will be the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals in Memphis, Tenn., on August 20-22. "We're committed to racing the new setback supercharger exclusively in Memphis," Miller declared. "Even if we struggle a little, we must be ready for the U.S. Nationals. We hope to have at least four test runs in Memphis before we go to Indy." Kalivoda concurs: "I'm completely comfortable with Bill's decision. Sometimes to take a step forward, you have to take half a step back. The top teams have the new supercharger setup, and we need to match their technical advances. We've tested at the last new races, so now it's time to step up." BME Race Results
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