Fed Ex - not the tightest ship in the shipping business

I feel a warning to my blog readers is in order. I mentioned the damage that occurred to my parts in the last post. I filed a claim with Fed Ex for the damages. They picked up the packages from DRE Racing and had an "Inspection Team" look them over. They then brought them back to DRE and when John opened them they were more damaged than before and to top it all off the inspection team reported no visible damage to the parts! UNBELIEVABLE! I called the Fed Ex claims manager and expressed my shock and dismay. She told me to send pictures - well we had plenty of them before and after - so I emailed them to her hoping that she would see the obvious damage and overturn the verdict of the inspection team and pay my claims. Please keep in mind that I paid extra money when I shipped these parts for insurance to cover their value! Miss Goldia Smurda, (Fed Ex claims manager)sent me two nice letters yesterday stating that my claims had been denied because there was no visible damage to the outer carton or contents. I guess unless the box has a huge hole in the side and the contents are in a hundred pieces there is no visible damage.
The morals of my story are:
1. Don't think because you buy insurance when shipping things that you are covered.
2. If you are shipping something valuable build a wooden crate for it. It'll be cheaper than the worthless insurance.
3. Use UPS whenever possible.
I posted before and after pictures of the manifold at the top of this page . Please comment on this post and tell me if you can see any visible damage.

Brad

Thoughts before the last race of the season.....

We are most of the way through getting the car ready for Bowling Green. The engine is back together and in the car. The clutch is in. We just have a few final things to finish up and we should be ready a week or so early. Fed Ex threw us a curve when I shipped the manifold, injector and fuel system to John for inspection and flow testing. The boxes arrived crushed and mangled and the stainless steel fuel lines and Y nozzles on the manifold were badly bent and twisted. Nothing that we can't get repaired but it definately slowed us down. I had the packages insured and I have filed a claim with Fed Ex but for some reason I expect a fight to get reimbursed for the damages..........
We are all very excited about Bowling Green and we really want to let it all hang out at this one. We've learned a lot this year and progressed at each race. I am hoping it will all come together for the last race of the season but this is top fuel racing. There are a million ways for things to go wrong and only one way for things to go right.
As the team owner thoughts of the winter and next season start to work their way to the forefront of my mind. I have been diligently making contact with potential sponsors all year long but as of yet I haven't found that "right" one for this team.
My "other job" which I have held for 13.5 years is coming to an end Dec. 15. Big changes loom on the horizon for Susan and I. I could quite likely end up going to college again for the next 2 years. The days of racing out of my own pocket will have to end. That puts a lot more pressure on me to find a sponsor. We have a lot to offer and would work our tails off to make sure they got their money's worth but there is a lot of competition for the sponsor's dollar and as we all know times are tough and the budgets aren't being expanded. I will not give up. I will work harder. I will succeed or die trying. I have great people around me and a LOT of determination.

Brad

More pictures from Norwalk

These were taken by our own Randy Compton and Randy Baker who helped us on Sunday.
Brad

Pictures from Norwalk

These photos were all taken by Louise Kunkel. She and her husband Frank were on the grounds all weekend with Frank video taping and Louise taking still shots. They are great friends and we look forward to seeing Franks videos of Norwalk and Indy when he gets finished editing them. Thank you Frank and Louise!

Runner up in Norwalk

Well race fans, the race in Norwalk was a mix of highs and lows for us but overall was a very successful weekend for the Speed Merchants team. Friday's qualifying was rained out, imagine that! So that meant 2 qualifying runs on Saturday and eliminations starting Sunday morning. We ran a 6.35 at 205 mph out of the box on our first qualifying run Saturday. Not what we were hoping for BUT it was a very clean run and definitely nothing to be ashamed of AND was good enough to put us into the #1 qualifying spot!!! That was great but we knew there was a better run in the car the way it was set up. Back up to the line and this time she rips off a 6.18 @ 221 mph! That's more like it!!! Back to the pits for a long Saturday night, motor comes completely apart and clutch comes out for a new one to go in for eliminations. By about 11 pm Saturday night we had the car ready to go for eliminations - the good news is that nothing was hurt from the 6.18 run.
Sunday morning rolls around and we are at the track by 7 am and it is raining........forecast says it'll clear up and it does sometime around noon. The crew is out with the jet drying the track and the sun comes out. It's time to go racing!!!! We are #1 qualifier so we are paired with the #6 qualifier Rick Rogers. The car sounds pretty good but it has a large dead spot when David pushes the throttle to do the burn out and the car almost dies but it quickly recovers. It is very lazy off the starting line and then finally takes off about 80 feet down the track. We get the win with a 6.89 - way off the pace from our qualifying but a win is a win. Back in the pits the engine will not turn over! We've been down this road before at Bowling Green and sure enough it was the same problem - the blower was locked up. Over to our pit comes the owner of the car we had just beaten - Art Dromgoole - and he offers to loan us his spare blower! We begin the chore of trying to make a different blower work on our manifold and injector system and we have to get it finished and do our regular between round maintenance in an hour and a half! When the call is made for the semifinals we are ready. Up at the line we are up against Joe Krepenski's car who had run a 6.44 in qualifying - by far his best time ever and definitely good enough to beat us if we didn't improve from the last run. We fire and David stomps the pedal for the burnout and again the huge stumble - we are really scratching our heads trying to figure out what is causing this! As David backs up from the burnout we see that the other car has not fired yet and we get the signal from the starter that we will be making a single run!!! We are going to the finals!! Again the car is LAZY off the line - even worse than before but then takes off and runs down the track to a 6.88. We are going to our first final round of the season and we are happy but our minds are still churning trying to figure out the problem of the car stumbling at the hit of the throttle - and it seems to be getting worse.
In the final we will be facing Kevin Brewer who is having the best day of his racing career. He has been running low sixes in eliminations and shows no signs of slowing down. Back in the pits we do our maintenance and everything looks good but again our main concern is the stumble. There are about a hundred years of racing experience in and around our pit and nobody seems to have an answer for the large dead spot at the hit of the throttle. We only have about an hour to be ready so all we can do is try a few things and hope for the best.
We fire the car and David rolls through the water and the car will barely even spin the wet tires and it bogs over the starting line. I run out in front of the car to back David up and he signals to me that he can't work the throttle- the butterflies are stuck closed! I tell John and as David is sitting behind the line to stage John walks over to the car and adjusts the linkage on the injector hat and signals David to roll in and stage. The lights go green and Brewer is gone- our car rolls out about 100 feet lazily and then roars away down the track. Brewer gets the well deserved win with a 6.08 to our 6.79.
Congratulations to the Brewer's and the whole Midwest Threat team. They've been struggling for 2 years and they finally had their day on Sunday!!!
We've got a lot of work to do before Bowling Green in October. We'll be taking our fuel system apart for a fine tooth comb inspection to find our stumbling problem. I have all the confidence that John will find it. I think we'll be cocked and loaded for the last race of the season in Bowling Green!
I want to say how extremely proud I am of my whole team. We worked great together all weekend and overcame some huge obstacles to reach two milestones - our first final round appearance and our best yet time and speed of 6.18 @ 221 mph.
THANKS GUYS!!!
I want to also thank Susan for being such a great wife and supporting me in this crazy passion of mine. I love you baby!!!
A huge thank you to DRE Racing (what can I say - you guys ARE my team!, Denso Iridium spark plugs, Taylor plug wires, and Green Cylinder Heads

I will be posting more pictures as soon as they become available.

Brad