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PARTYTIME/CHEVRON 7.01 sec @ 200.13 mph in CURACAO (fastest time and mph for the meeting)
First of all, the Mintcars and Partytime Racing teams would like to thank all our supporters and sponsors for making this endeavor a success. This trip was a joint effort by the racing teams, their sponsors and well wishers. We were individual racing teams that happen to be from Trinidad. We did not ask for or received any financial help or assistance from any sporting entity. Now that we know what it takes to undertake a project of this size, we will be approaching the powers that be on our future trips for assistance (financial and otherwise), with the hope of being able to represent Trinidad and Tobago.The teams learned a lot and gained some valuable information on this weekend. The most important lesson we learned was that in this sport anything can happen, even if you think you are well prepared. On Friday night, a special bracket was included for the Dragsters and Altered. However this was dial-up bracket racing with a full tree. On Saturday there were no races for Dragsters but they were allowed to enter the 8.90 to 9.20 sec. dial-up bracket with full tree. On Sunday there was an 8.0 to 11.0 sec. bracket racing on a full tree. There was no heads-up racing for the dragsters. The pit announcements were made in Spanish or the local dialect so there was a problem knowing when we were to get to the holding bay for racing. Some of the announcements were made in English after repeated complaints from us to the control tower. The starter, the race director and the officials at the track had little knowledge on what it takes to run Dragsters and treated the cars like full body cars. They did manage to understand the cars a little better by Sunday. The program is planned by the officials and the Race Director (who is the person in charge for the whole meeting) printed and distributed to all the racers. You have to follow this program (your bracket and the times of the races are listed here). When you miss the call out over the PA and is not in the holding bay at the time the races are to be run off you are considered a no show and lose your round and is knocked out if already in competition.
Our team lead by Sheldon Bissessar, again experienced what it was like to operate in the big times most of the team having been to Puerto Rico some years ago. Our set-up was well received by the locals who at once noticed a professional attitude towards the racing. On Friday night we ran the car with little change in the tuning from Trinidad. However we had to install a delay box to try to make the car competitive in Curacao. This car reacts so fast that on the full tree and an additional 6 hundredth second added to the launch the car still red lighted but ran a 7.5 sec (with the second fastest 60ft of the meeting at 1.05 sec) while backing off and some tire shake in the middle of the track. We also found out we had a broken valve spring. With the help of racers from Aruba and Curacao we were able to get a spare spring and repair this problem. We had some tuning adjustments to make on the car so we were unable to compete on Friday. On Saturday we did some additional tuning and decided to see what the car can do before we competed. On our trial run there was tremendous tire shake at launch, the driver having to pedel the car a couple of times as well as down the track. He had no choice but to back-off on the throttle. When the car came back into the pits it was found that the converter was leaking oil and the Nitrous Bottle brackets were broken due to the tire shake. We took ourselves out of competition to repair the car we took down the converter and found that the seal had blown. This was a problem for us as we had no spare seals. On Sunday we managed to get a couple of seals and selected the best one of the set and installed it on the converter. We were given a single pass by the Race Director to check the car’s performance. We did this with a .400 pro tree. The 60ft was a little slow (1.07), the 1000ft was 5.8 secs. There was some tire shake in the middle causing a slow time of 7.01 sec at 200.13 mph. We were on-track for a six second run next. We immediately asked the Race Director (who was very accommodating to us) for another single pass, to try for a personal best and he agreed. In the pits some tuning was done to increase the power and some additional adjustments were made. We started the burnout at the starting line when we heard a popping noise and oil was all over the starting line. The converter seal blew again. We had no choice but return to the pits without completing the run. We loaded the cars in the containers the same night as repairs will have to be done in Trinidad.
We did however manage to win the fastest Time and Speed for Sunday. We received a trophy for this. We were invited to return later this year for another International meeting as well as to visit Aruba for their International at the end of August. We have some repairs to do on the car first and test it in Trinidad. We will be preparing the car and the team for more international racing in the near future in Aruba and Puerto Rico. There were some international racers there and they were all impressed with the car and thinks we still have a lot to see from it. We thank them for their support.
GRENADA The cars (both Partytime and Mintcars) were all prepared and functional for the races in Grenada. The cars arrived the week of the races from Trinidad and on Saturaday they were taken out of the containers and preparation for the day was started. The team was there from Friday trying to get things moving but the red tape held things up until Saturaday. The track was inspected by Sheldon (owner/driver) and some serious observations were made. The Partytime Rail had too much hp and torque for this track. We decided to try and use as little power as possible to run here. Both stages of Nitrous were disconnected and the limiter , shift and launch rpm limits were reduced. All this still did not prevent the car from wheel-spinning and leaving tyre tracks down the quarter. We still managed to put down a 9.22 secs., winning the open bracket and setting a new track record in Grenada. |
On the line purging nitrous in Curacao.
