Photos from Indy....

Here are some shots that Jimmy Johnson took when he wasn't busy working on the clutch.
Brad

Indy results............

Wow! Murphy's law was in full effect this last few weeks. Having to find a stand in driver at the last minute, a stripped wheel stud, leaking blower snout and front main seal, crew chief stuck in the Dallas airport for 2 days and I'm sure there is more that I have already forgotten in the whirlwind. My guys did an AWESOME job and we managed to keep it together and overcome the obstacles. We ran a 6.16 Friday with the new driver, Jason Richey, shutting it off early at around 1100 feet. That put us in the #4 qualifying spot. We knew we'd get bumped down Saturday morning and we wanted to stay in the top half of the field so we decided to make a second qualifying run Saturday morning at noon. The valley cover gasket blew and covered Jason with oil and he had to shut it off really early into the run which left us with a 6.46 so we were not able to better our qualifying position and we ended up in the 6th spot with our 6.16 time.
We had to get the car serviced and ready for first round of eliminations by 3:30 PM and we had to put new clutch discs in and pull all the mains and rod caps to check the bearings since we were having some oiling problems. Sadly as the time rolled along we were not able to make the call to the lanes at 3:30. The Goodguys officials offered to bump us into the "B" field (not running until the next day) and put the first alternate in our place and we accepted which gave us all night to get the car ready properly and safely.
First round came Sunday morning for the B top fuel field and we won the round with a 6.14 time again shutting off a bit early to save the engine for the final round. We got everything ready early and waited for the call. A brief rain shower passed through and caused a 1 hour delay. Time came to pull into the lanes at 3:45 and there were 6 cars ready for their final rounds of the event:
two A field TF dragsters, two B field TF dragsters (including us), and two funny cars. We were ready to win this! Our car would have run a 6 teen something and our opponent had not run anything better than a mid seven second run all weekend. But alas the winner's circle once again eluded us as rain drops began to fall on us behind the starting line. The one obstacle the Speed Merchants would not overcome would be the rain as the race was called and the finals in all 3 pro classes were called a draw due to the rain out.
I wanted to scream in frustration but that would not have changed anything so back we went to get the fuel drained and everything loaded for the long trip home. Did I mention by the time we were loading the car in the trailer that the sun was out??? Ha ha......... how cruel!
That's the way racing goes so there is no point in lamenting about what might have been. I want to thank my wonderful wife, all my great crew guys and especially Jason Richey who did a great job driving for us. I also want to thank "Digger" Dan Horan for the Torco oil and Joe Hendricks for giving us his spare front main seal so we could make first round Sunday morning.
Now it's time to get the car ready for our match race in Denton,TX Sept 26th. I'll keep you updated and post some pictures from Indy as soon as they come in. Thanks for checking in!
Brad

A prayer for David Pace

I know he doesn't want the attention but please keep our driver David Pace in your prayers. He apparently pinched his sciatic nerve in his lower back. He is in extreme pain, has numbness in his toes on his left leg, and can't get any sleep. He called me last night and said he couldn't drive the car at Indy. I know it was a hard call for him to make but it is the right thing to do and that's what he does - the right thing.
There will be a big hole on our team without him this weekend. Jason Richey is going to do the driving duties for us. David will be there in spirit and we're going to do our best to make him proud.

Brad

The Big Bang.........

This coming weekend is the big one for the Speed Merchants. Due to our limited schedule this season our first and only big race is the 21st Hot Rod Nationals at Indianapolis June 12 - 14. We fired the car up yesterday and after a minor glitch with the oil filter she is ready to go racing.
We are going to be loaded for bear for what looks to be a great event. There are so many Top Fuel cars coming that they are going to have an A and a B field where the top 8 qualifiers will run in the A field and the second 8 in the B field with the B field paying out half of what the A pays.
Our team is extremely excited and we think we are ready to run with the best of them. Lets pray for good weather and safety for everyone.
Corey, Randy and I will leave out with the rig 6 am Thursday morning while David, Bob and John are flying out. A special guest Jimmy Johnson, who was a great help at Bowling Green last year, will also be helping us at this race. Allen Webb can't make this race and we will miss him but we will do our best to make him proud.
I'll have a full race report next week. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers this weekend!

Brad