2008 News and Updates

PHOENIX PRA April 13, 2008

A little sticker than expected.  Good for a nice photo though.

The sneaky Dennis hard at work.                         Jeff and Dennis enjoying the sun.  

        Back to the pits after a pass.             Staging lane shot in Phoenix.


After the long trip down to Phoenix, FT2 ended up taking 2nd in the PRA Super Comp class.  Not a bad way to start off the season.

YAKIMA NIDRA May 03, 2008

Event was canceled due to rain.  I thought it was always sunny in Yakima?

SACRAMENTO PRA May 24-25, 2008

Cookin the tires on Sunday.


        Running the car downtrack.                           One smokey burnout.  
 

In the middle of an in-between rounds transmission swap.

Another shot of the quick-fast transmission change.



First round qualifying = a very sticky Sacramento track

Wheels up during qualifying on saturday evening.




The whole crew in Sacramento.  Left top- Brian, Bob, Dennis, Colin, Jacki, Mary, Jeff, Hiding John, and Susan.  Bottom left- Bonnie, Joel, and Melvin.  Not Pictured- Nick and Dan.

Spring Sacramento ended up very good for FT2.  We ended up qualifying 3rd and Winning the S/C class.  During eliminations we ran a 10.908, 10.905, 10.904, and a lesser breakout, winning pass.  Thanks to all our supporters for making it out to the track and everyone who pitched it to help change the transmission and get us off to first round of qualifying. 

Big thanks to M-Spec Motorsports for putting up additional prize money for S/C.
Huge thanks to Nick for some of the great photographs of the weekend.

 


WOODBURN NIDRA May 31,2008

Transmission problems plague the day again.  We qualified second out of 20+ cars due to a decent 0.012 RT.  However second gear was not functioning properly so with only three gears, dialed in at a 11.70.  Won first round, but lost in the second due to the transmission hockey stick mis-aligning and getting stuck in first while trying to go to third/fourth gear.  

Secret DYNO Session June 20, 2008

After planning and collecting parts for almost two years our big motor is finally together and running.  So off to the dyno to get some tuning in.

After a few fitment problems it went in and barked to life.



The beast in action on the dyno.


The masters talking about the plan.


 Aside from work there is always time for a picture.


And thats the face he makes when he has a wacky/good idea.


Just after making a Dyno pull

Crazy deformation of the tire while making a pull.

As for numbers, well that might just have to be saved for another day.  And when that other day will come i will have probably forgot. So for now the horsepower numbers are somewhere between 10hp and 450hp.  The torque numbers, yep they lie in that range as well too.  In all a fantastic experience and a great tuning tool.  Now when are we going to run this beast?   


BREMERTON NIDRA July 5th & 6th, 2008

Day 1.  After waiting a good portion of the day due to rain, racing finally got started at around 2 pm.  In the end, glad we waited out the rain because the day finished very well.

Ripping up a good set of tires




At first not all too exciting of a picture.  But if you look closely, the first pre-stage bulb is turned off and the green light is starting to come on as the car is in action.

Final Round action.  Joel took the win over Mark in the left lane.

After a long day of waiting for the rain to clear, Joel and FT2 won the Bremerton Bug in.  Not only was the day a success, we were able to dial in the suspension on the car a little bit more and get the 60' back down to where it needs to be.  Also Joel was able to clinch the closest to dial extra points for the NIDRA event.
 

All smiles for the winning photo. 

Day 2.   For day two Joel threw in the Super Comp tune up to get a little practice for the upcoming Fontana PRA event.  The first pass netted a 10.898 and the second qualifying pass netted a 10.897. 

One of the best thing about racing is getting to hang out with all of your friends.  Here Joel and Elliot, friends, about to be enemies for the next 10 seconds.

Another burnout picture.  Notice the teamwork going on in the water box.

Another very good shot of the launch.  I think the rear suspension setup is coming along nicely.



After another long day, Joel took FT2 to its second finals in one weekend.  However this time didn't work out quite as nice.  Due to transmission 3rd gear issues Joel ended up taking 2nd for the day.  However once again Joel snatched NIDRA's closest to dial for the day.  Currently Joel is sitting second in points for the NIDRA series.  Congrats John for the win on Sunday.  Next time you are actually going to have to work for the win though ; )



Joel and his Mom smiling for the camera on Sunday.


Just In..... July 8, 2008

We finally got our new team shirts done.  If you would like to show your support for the Flying Turd 2 and are interested in purchasing one (or multiples) you can contact us and i can send one out.  Or just come by out pit area at the track and ask, we will have them.

                                      $15.00 for a shirt plus shipping 

                                          We have sizes, XXL, XL, L, & M


Website email   flyingturd2racing@gmail.com
Joel's email   joel.carter86@gmail.com


FONTANA PRA July 20, 2008

After 21 hours we made it down to Fontana.  Jeff and Melvin were the only two of FT2's crew in attendance.  Joel unfortunately got a super sickness as soon as we left town, heading to California.  Not feeling quite on top of his game, we still made it to the track Sunday. 

Jeff and Melvin posing or something.

First round of qualifying didn't go as well thank to a fuel spill and a sub par starting line cleanup.  But it was good enough to make a tune on the car and make it to the next round.  There a pass of 10.941 was made which ended up holding for the number one qualifier. 

Number one on the ladder.

The number one qualifier with the bye was much needed as our performance was slowly declining as the track was getting hotter and hotter.  So a different tune was put in and the bye was ran out, netting a 10.91.  Next pass the meeting was with Shawn Bergeson.  Unfortunately this didn't go quite as well as the previous passes.  Due to the wind or what have it, a breakout time of 10.897 was shown putting FT2 on the trailer.  However according to some rough calculations i think we are still number one in points which makes the weekend and long ride home somewhat better.  Big thanks goes out to Melvin for his two thumbs up cooking over the weekend. 



Something Cool to Share...

Thanks to Jason Culley of acdrm.com, FT2 made a magazine cover shot.  (Photograph courtesy of Brian Watts).  Check out the website acdrm.com for current VW racing news and a future story on FT2. 

PORTLAND NIDRA August 3, 2008 



Getting a little sideways in the burnout box.


Rear shot of a launch in Portland.

Track was preped pretty well, however the tires seemed to make a huge difference.
 

The unfortunate redlight in the finals.

Another fantastic weekend went down in Portland.  FT2 took second place out of roughly 20 cars due to a little too quick launch in the final round resulting in a red light by -0.020.  We did learn a valuable lesson about tires that made the trip very worthwhile.  Currently Joel is sitting number one in points after this outing. 

However...


The broken coupler hanging on by a thread.

On the way home, while doing a routine car check, we noticed that the trailer was sitting unlevel.  The culprit ended up to be a broken coupler on the trailer.  We got very lucky to make the routine check as it was about to rip right off.  With a night on the highway to wait for a portable welder FT2 made it home safely.

BREMERTON NIDRA August 23 & 24, 2008

Not too much to report for the weekend.  FT2 went out first round on the first day, the 23, due to DE.  The second day, the 24, started out very good.  Joel qualified number 1 with an 0.020 RT and got the bye the first round.  However the 70% chance of rain came true and the race was canceled and first round never got started.  Fortunately the first round loss on the 23rd didn't hurt FT2 in the points very much.  Joel is still number 1 in NIDRA points with only one more race to go.


OTHER FT2 NEWS

In the current National Dragster Joel got a mention for winning the VW race in Bremerton earlier this year (July 5th).  Its always cool to get a mention in any magazine.

SACRAMENTO PRA August 30-31, 2008


Another awesome shot.  Definitely a different photo as the sun is going down.

 
A good way to use a set of tires.

Got to love the teamwork going on in this picture.  (Thanks Jeff)

Good times to be had in Sacramento, even though it didn’t turn out quite like the spring event.  First round, was up against the man, Muffler Mike (due to a bad qualifying time on our part).  This was going to be the make or break round for both drivers going into Vegas.  Fortunately Joel was able to take the win over Mike due to a breakout pass on Mr. Muffler's side.  Now the day just got better (sorry Mike).  Next pass was against John Meade which was also a very close race but in the end, resulted in a win.  Then came the semi-finals pairing with Allen Wiess.  Both drivers need the win, however Allen was able to out run FT2 in a double breakout pass which ended our day.  Fortunately after this outing we are only 4 points out of the number one position which will make for an exciting final race in Las Vegas. 

YAKIMA NIDRA September 13, 2008


                  WE DID IT!!!!!

After weeks of going through scenarios on how the end of the NIDRA season could potentially pan out, everything worked out perfectly for us.  At the beginning of the event FT2 was 62 points out on top with John trailing.  So there was potential for either him or myself to take the whole season.  First qualifying round comes up, and out we go and pop off a .010 light.  It holds through second round of qualifying and number one qualifier is awarded to us.  Sweet now the two points are still above John plus whatever was just awarded.  That makes it hard for a tie for first now.  Next, an odd number of cars were trying to qualify which would result in a bye for us in the first round, even better, now the odds just got even more in our favor.  To our luck, and Johns un-luck he ends up breaking a pressure plate in first round which resulted in a loss.  WE TOOK THE CHAMPIONSHIP in the first round.  Now the pressure is off and we can just have fun.  Second round resulted in another win for us however the semi-finals wasn’t what we wanted, an on the brakes breakout.  Oh well still a fantastic night, got to try out a few new additions to the car and find out which ones need adjusting and most of all took the whole NIDRA season.  A BIG thanks for all of the hard work by everyone and mostly to Dad (Jeff) for the help getting the car ready for the weekend and all of his other help this NIDRA season. 

The big #1!!! 

The top five season finishers showing the one off trophies.  Left to right: Joel, James, John, (missing Tony), and Elliot.



LAS VEGAS PRA October 5, 2008

SATURDAY  Planning ahead for the event we decided to head to the track on Saturday for a little test and tuning.   The first pass netted a 0.010 RT along with a 11.20 pass on a 11.10 corrected Vegas index.  Sweet, this means we are pretty close.  Go up for another pass which resulted in a 11.16 with a .025 RT now we are getting even better.

SUNDAY  Same exact setup as Saturday went into the car.  However the track had DRASTICALLY changed overnight, thus resulting in a ET of 11.23.  Now, since there were so many oil downs, we were only going to get one other qualifying pass.  Quite a bit more was put into the car and a go for broke pass was attempted.  This pass ended up at a 11.08 ET just a little too quick for the index.  Because of this now we are stuck qualifying only 7^th.  First round comes and we are first to the hit the track.  Burnout was good, then stage the car slowly bring up the RPM but……the RPM don’t come up, leaving us stuck at the line to lose in the first round and end our hopes at taking another S/C championship this year.  Instead we ended up second in final points of the PRA year which was very disappointing as a driver, but to most, not too bad. It appeared that the carburetor on the 1-2 side was flooded or not operating correctly which wouldn’t allow the RPM’s to climb.   Congratulations to Allen Weis on taking the championship, all of the crew knew you would be the one to watch out for the whole season.

END OF SEASON STATISTICS

Overall FT2 had a fantastic year.  Winning the Championship in NIDRA, as well as taking 2nd place in the PRA is quite an accomplishment.  Thanks to everyone who helped out this year, it is very much appreciated.  As for next year.....well we have some plans.  What they are you will just have to wait and see.