Mat
Moran Motorsports
Event Report
NHRA Pacific
division finals
Speedworld Raceway Park,
nr. Phoenix Arizona
October 6th to 9th,
2005
Car # M752
For 2005, the division finals were held at Speedworld in Arizona about
750 miles away. I left on the Tuesday so that I could get in some extra
practice on Wednesday at an unfamiliar track. The track is at an
altitude of 1250 ft and the temperatures over the 5 days that I was
there ranged from about 80 to 102 degrees. My car ran from 12.8 to 13.2
in these conditions.
There were two races that I could enter. The first was a jackpot race
and the first round of eliminations was on Thursday evening. I was
matched up against a car that was dialed in at 10.71. We didn't race
until about 8pm and the temperature had dropped quite a lot so I dialed
in at 13.03. I really had no idea how fast my car would go because
conditions were quite different from anything that I had experienced
before. I got a good 0.035 second reaction time and as I approached the
finish line I saw that although the other car was catching me really
fast, he wasn't going to pass me before the line so I stepped on the
brakes and crossed the line at 94mph just before the other car came
flying past me (at 124mph). Unfortunately I broke out with a 12.898 and
didn't get the win light. It turned out that the other driver had a
0.016 reaction time and ran a 10.721 on his 10.71 dial in. I went back
to my hotel feeling thoroughly outclassed.
The main event eliminations started on Sunday morning. The weather was
cooler (around 80 degrees) so lots of people were struggling to know
what to dial in. I was fortunate in the first two rounds as both my
competitors fouled out with red lights. In the third round I ran an
almost perfect race. I got a 0.023 second reaction time, caught the
other car and positioned myself just in front of him. Even though he
tried to throw me off by braking at the end, I stuck just in front of
him and crossed the finish line 0.024 seconds ahead to take the win
light. In the fourth round, the situation was the exact opposite of the
third. My opponent in a faster car, got a better reaction time than me,
caught me early and positioned himself just in front of me. I only had
one chance, I waited until about 10 yards before the finish line and
slammed on the brakes as hard as I could. He crossed the finish
line 0.11 seconds ahead of me and broke out. My Brembo brakes finally
paid for themselves. I was now down to the last 9 cars out of a field
of at least 144 but unfortunately that was as far as I got. In the next
round I fouled out with a
-0.008 reaction time.
This was a very good result, especially considering the standard of the
competition. With just three or four more wins I would
have been going to the national finals.