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Jack Harris
Qualifies #2 - Forced to Bow Out After First Round Win
For the 37th
time the Ignitor Opener marked the official start of the 2007
racing season at Boise, Idaho's Firebird Raceway. Following three
days of time trials and qualifying under very hot conditions,
Sunday revealed superb air for all the racers. Temperatures just
barely hit 70 degrees on the final day of eliminations, a nice
change following the 90 plus degree heat wave on Saturday and
a large turnout of racers and fans loved every minute of it.
As they plan
to do at several races this year, the Nitro Thunder camp brought
both team cars to Boise with Brett Harris in the red car and
Jack Harris in the blue car. In spite of the hot temps Jack qualified
# 2 with a 5.941 at 243.63 and Brett # 3 with a 5.961 at 254.16
(top speed of the event). However, eliminations didn't go as
hoped with Jack suffering a huge supercharger explosion in his
round one win. Due to the extensive damage car owner, John Rodeck
opted to not return for round two which opened the door for eventual
winner Mike McClennan to get back in on the break rule. Ironically
McClennan was paired with Brett Harris in round two and got the
win by the slimmest of margins with a 5.90 to Harris' 5.91. The
race was the quickest side-by-side Top Fuel race in track history.
More of the
story and Rich Carlson photos below.
On Friday the team elected to
make a test run as this race was just that for the Paso Posse
team, a test session. They didn't get any testing done over the
winter months due to a busy work schedule preparing a new toterhome
and stacker trailer, so this race became their first chance to
try some new things.
Number one on the test agenda
was the new M&H spec tire. They ran this tire after eliminations
at the March Meet, but under the conditions requested by M&H.
Here they wanted to try some things that they thought would work
better with this car. They were experimenting with rim widths
and tire pressures. Since they also had some new ideas at work
in the engine they planned to keep things safe and only make
a half track pass.
The crew waits for the signal to start the car prior
to Friday's qualifying session.
Harris heats the tires.
Henry Walther guides Jack back to the starting line.
They were running against
Scott Mason and his ever improving Chevrolet top fuel car. With
both cars running the newest M&H tire they both left hard.
It was fortunate they elected the half track pass
as the car hit a bump at 2.5 seconds down track that was just
enough to knock the fuel shut off valve part way closed. Jack
shut off the engine before the loss of fuel pressure caused any
serious damage. What was encouraging was that in spite of this
the car recorded a respectable (for Boise's nearly 5000' density
altitude) half track time of 4.03 @ 194.84.
Racing aside, the Ignitor also served as multi-car
test ground for the newest generation of M&H "spec"
tires. This is a tire that 92 year old Marv Rifchin (the M in
M&H) has been working on for three years. It's design and
the way they are constructed is very different from previous
releases. This will hopefully solved the "chunking"
problem the NTF cars have been experiencing the past. Here Marv
(red jacket) poses with Jack Harris, Brett Harris and Firebird
Raceway's Bill New.
For the first round of qualifying
on Saturday they were paired against their old friend Mike Fuller
and his new driver Mike McLennan. They were still in test mode,
this time with some new pistons.
Car owner, John Rodeck
fires the engine with the remote starter.
With no other changes
to the tune up (but with the fuel shut off valve reworked), the
half track numbers improved to 3.96 @ 198.80, and a quarter mile
time of 5.941 @ 243.63. This put them in the number one qualifying
position. They encountered some tire spin at a couple of places
on the track and felt that if they could avoid that they could
step the car up even more.
For the second and final round
of qualifying late Saturday the weather was at its worst. The
ambient temperature was up to 86 degrees and the density altitude
was a whopping 5341 feet. In spite of this the car was on a pace
to at least equal the previous run's numbers until it got 712
feet down track. At that point the engine backfired and the blower
belt went sailing into the air. That usually signals some bad
things have happened, and this was no exception. A rocker arm
shaft had broken and the chain reaction it set off broke the
supercharger. Jack coasted across the stripe with a 6.30 at just
173.81 miles per hour. Once the cause of the problem was diagnosed
the Posse crew went to work on the car and by early evening it
was ready for Sunday's eliminations. The same short block remained
in the car as it wasn't damaged.
Rich Carlson caught the new tire at the hit and these
shots, among many others, will help the M&H engineers evaluate
the tires characteristics.
Sunday's weather was
a pleasant surprise. The ambient temperature dropped 24 degree
from the previous run to this one, and the density altitude plummeted
to 3542. Everybody was looking for big things.
For the third time in
three runs they were paired with Fuller & McLennan.
At the hit McLennan left
on Jack (.097 to .145), but Jack started reeling him in. McLennan
ran at great 5.995 / 235.84, but the Posse came up with the horsepower
to drive around him at 5.937 / 245.70 and take the win. That
was the last of the good news. As Harris cleared the last light
there was another supercharger explosion. This one was violent
enough that a plate that sits between the fuel injector and the
top of the supercharger blew out and flew up and nailed the scoreboard
at the finish line.
Back in the pits the team performed
a quick post mortem. What they found was that the engine has
burned number 2 piston, and some aluminum had lodged between
the intake valve and its seat. This allowed the flame in the
cylinder to travel past the valve, up into the intake manifold
lighting off the charge under the supercharger. When that happens
things get real ugly real fast. The car was fixable, but the
team didn't want to just throw it back together to make the next
round. They wanted the time to look everything over in great
detail. Team owner John Rodeck concurred with that idea so the
car was withdrawn from competition. This allowed Fuller &
McLennan back in on the break rule as the low ET loser of the
round. They went on to win the event.
In spite of the damage that was
done to the two superchargers the team went home with some satisfaction.
The new M&H tires were performing better than any they had
run before. None were showing any sings of chunking. Also, on
all three runs where the car was under full power to half track
the 660' ET was in the 3.9s. That has been an area of the track
where this car has previously been slow by comparison with other
cars. This has made them anxious to continue their testing with
some better weather conditions to see if they can continue to
improve in this area.
Next stop is Sacramento June
9th.
Nitro
Thunder Photo Archives
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