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The BME Bulletin
Bill Miller Engineering's Top Fuel Blog #9 SNAKE EYES IN LAS VEGAS, GREAT EXPECTATIONS FOR POMONA Las Vegas may be the city that never sleeps, but it's also the town of broken dreams. For every jackpot there are dozens of disappointments. While the BME Top Fuel team didn't roll the dice on the gaming tables, at the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals they did come up with a losing hand in the first round of eliminations at at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. After a brilliant first qualifying run on Friday afternoon, the remainder of the weekend became a struggle for the never-say-die, BME team. Driver, Brady Kalivoda, ran another personal-best elapsed time which put the yellow-and-black machine in the field at 4.619/323.58 mph. Unfortunately, Lady Luck gave the BME crew the cold shoulder for the next three qualifying runs. A first-round match with newly crowned Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher saw the U.S. Army car march to victory while the BME dragster disappeared in a cloud of tire smoke. FAST OUT OF THE BOX "We were excited to go to Las Vegas because we had guests from Okuma, their distributors and customers," said Kalivoda. "You always want to make a good showing, but we had some extra incentive last weekend. Our guests were impressed by what they saw at the track - the access that our sport provides, and the pure excitement of Top Fuel racing. "We came out of the trailer with a 4.61 at 323 mph, which was another career-best e.t. for me," he continued. "That was a perfect way to start off the weekend because you want to get a good A-to-B run to establish your baseline. We made our best run of the year, so it was an outstanding start. "With the 4.61 in our back pocket, we thought we could turn the knobs a little bit and run in the 4.50s in the ideal conditions we had on Friday night. When I did the burnout, I felt a vibration I'd never felt before. I told Bill on the radio that the car didn't feel right and we shouldn't attempt this run. Without hesitation, he told me to shut it off. It's very reassuring for me to know that we have that kind of two-way trust and communication." AS THE WHEEL TURNS The source of the vibration turned out to be an egg-shaped pair of slicks. They were replaced with new rubber, but two, tire-smoking runs on Saturday left Crew Chief, Bill Miller, scratching his head. "We ran the new Goodyear 1430 tires for the first time in Chicago, where the track was so good you could get away with murder," Miller explained. "But our lack of experience with this tire was apparent in Las Vegas. The teams that had run the new tires in Reading were a step ahead of us. "We set up the car for the first qualifying run much like we had raced it in Chicago," he noted. "I compensated for the higher altitude in Las Vegas by raising the compression ratio and increasing the supercharger overdrive. By the end of qualifying, it looked like we had a one-trick pony - the first run was great and then we couldn't get down the race track on the next three runs." UP IN SMOKE "Sunday morning I faced Tony Schumacher, the first time I've raced him all year," said Kalivoda. "I worked on Tony's car as a crewman, and now he's the new champ, so it was a neat deal. We had a lot to gain if we beat him, but that didn't mean that we too aggressive with the setup. We really felt that we were on the safe, conservative side, but when the lights flashed and I hit the loud pedal, it went up in smoke. That was our weekend. "It might be that we're on that razor-thin edge," Kalivoda conjectured. "When we run low 4.60s, we could be at the threshold of what our setup can take. Then when we turn the knobs to try to run quicker, it goes over center and smokes the tires. We need to find where that fine line really is." THE END IS NEAR The BME Top Fuel team will wrap up the 2004 season at the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., on November 11-14. The race will mark the 40th anniversary of the season finale. "I love racing at Pomona because it's hallowed ground for drag racers," said Kalivoda. "Southern California was where drag racing was born. I was nine years old when I went to Pomona for the first time. The crowds are tremendous, and I love racing there whether it's the beginning of the year or the end of the season. "The Auto Club NHRA Finals has a very relaxed atmosphere because the pressure is off. I'm looking forward to this race, but it also makes me a little sad that it's the last event in 2004 because I'm having so much fun driving this race car. I wish we could race every weekend and on Wednesdays, too, like they did when my Dad was driving. I'm very excited about going to Pomona, but personally I don't want the season to end." BME RACE RESULTS ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals, Las Vegas, Oct. 29-31, 2004 Qualified: No. 11 at 4.619/323.58 mph First Round: Tony Schumacher (4.581/322.19 mph) defeated Brady Kalivoda (12.465/74.51 mph). NEXT RACE Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, Pomona, Calif., Nov. 11-14, 2004 TV Schedule: 11/14/2004 Qualifying 12 a.m. - 1 a.m. (ET) ESPN2 11/14/2004 Eliminations 6 - 9 p.m. (ET) ESPN2 11/19/2004 Repeat Eliminations 3 - 5 p.m. (E.T.) ESPN2
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