Mat Moran Motorsports


Event Report
NHRA Pacific division finals
Famoso Raceway, Famoso California
October 7th to 10th, 2004
Car # M752

The NHRA Pacific division ET finals were held at the historic Famoso Raceway near Bakersfield in California. It is one of the the birthplaces of drag racing and has been host to many epic races. Unfortunately it is also next to a fertilizer facility where all the spoiled produce from the surrounding farm land is allowed to rot away. This makes a revolting smell and breeds huge swarms of flies so you need to be a hard core enthusiast to attend a four day event here.

Here are some pictures of the pit area where I spent most of my time.



There were two races that I was able to enter. The first was a jackpot race but the main reason that I was there was for the street category finals so that I could test myself against the best street car racers on the west coast.

There was one other Jaguar there. An old XJ6 with a Chevrolet small block engine. You can read about it at www.draguar.com

First time trial - Thursday morning 

79 degrees
13.401 @ 103.02 mph
-0.011 reaction time. Oops.

Second time trial - Thursday afternoon

88 degrees
13.428 @ 103.11 mph.
0.078 reaction time.
Looking good.

Here are some pictures of my car and others in the staging lanes.

First round jackpot - Thursday evening

The temperature had dropped back to 78 degrees so I dialed in at 13.35 seconds thinking that I would probably be running against a faster car and so I aimed to be able to run it out without much chance of a breakout. My opponent was dialed in at 12.00 seconds.

I managed to get a magnificent 0.004 second reaction time against my opponent's 0.029. He was catching me fast at the finish but I slammed on the brakes a few yards before the line and crossed 0.126 seconds in front of him. Unfortunately this was way too much and my car had mysteriously got faster. I broke out and lost with a 13.311 @ 103.35. I should have hit the brakes earlier to take advantage of my better reaction time. I was really annoyed with myself.

Third time trial - Friday mid day

84 degrees
13.31 @ 104.52 mph.
0.027 reaction time.
Quicker than I expected but a very nice reaction time.

Here are some pictures of this pass.

Fourth time trial - Friday evening

88 degrees
13.466 @ 101.8 mph.
0.020 reaction time.
I think I must have warmed up the engine too much that's why it slowed down so much, but another very nice reaction time.

Fifth and last time trial - Saturday morning

71 degrees
13.356 @ 103.86 mph.
-0.020 reaction time. Another Oops.
This time I think I left it too cold. It should have been a little faster than this.

First elimination round (Street) - Sunday morning

It was 8:00 am and the temperature was around 60 degrees so this was obviously going to be a fast run so I dialed in at 13.22 thinking that my car would go just a little slower than this. My opponent was dialed in at 13.19 so we both started at about the same time. Within a few yards of the start, he was a couple of feet in front of me. I wasn't too concerned because my car is slower off the line than most and it's a relatively fast finisher. Unfortunately, he stayed a couple of feet in front all the way to the 1000 foot mark and I was starting to get worried. Then suddenly, he dropped back and finished a couple of feet behind me. I don't know if this was when he changed gears or if maybe it was intentional but anyway I got the win light. That makes me better than half the people there.

It turned out that we had both broken out. I ran a 13.168 @ 103.96 mph.
Fortunately for me, my reaction time had been a respectable 0.071 and his has been a less respectable 0.114 so even though I crossed the finish line 0.0197 seconds before him, he still broke out by more than me.

Second elimination round (Street) - Sunday mid day

It had warmed up quite a bit so I changed my dial in to 13.26 thinking that would give me quite a cushion. My opponent was dialed in at 12.55.

He was way behind as we approached the finish line so I was able to ease up a lot. It turned out that he had a 0.337 reaction time against my very nice 0.018. Judging by my 1000 foot time, I probably would have done about 13.23 if I hadn't eased up. Faster than I had expected.

Anyway, I got the win light.

Third elimination round (Street) - Sunday afternoon

It had warmed up a little more so I left my dial in at 13.26 thinking that this time surely my car would slow down a bit more and would run slower than this. My opponent was dialed in at 12.48.

I crossed the finish line about half a car length (0.06 seconds) in front of him but unfortunately he got the win light. I ran 13.228 @ 104.24. Again my reaction time had been better than his at 0.046 seconds vs 0.092 seconds but not quite enough to make up for crossing the line too far ahead in a double break out.

Final thoughts

I did better than 75% of the people there so It was really a good result. If I want to do better I'm either going to have to make my car a lot faster or more predictable as both the races that I lost were break outs against faster cars when I had the better reaction time.

Getting as far as I did, I won $30 which nearly payed for the fuel that I used driving home. Still, I got a great new picture for my home page and I can honestly claim that against the best racers on the west coast I did pretty well.