Redneck Express

Race 4 of 2010 Report Portable Shade Summer Nationals

The crew for this race consisted of Steve Legendre, DJ Plesser Chuck Huneycutt(Barber Motorsport) and his brother Mike were guest crew,and Dick Boxell.

Lets start at the MTC Elmer Trett race at Atlanta. Friday Steve and I are at the track awaiting the arrival of the Redneck Express, and get in contact with Chris Friday about noon, and the bad news is that the tow truck made as far as the end of the lane at the Redneck Express compound and decided it wanted to stop. Chris worked all day Friday to no avail and decided to make another attempt Saturday. Saturday the truck decided to not cooperate for most of the day until Chris located and installed a genuine Ford part late Saturday afternoon, the truck is running and after a 10 mile test run, it is too late to make a run for the track and make a qualifying pass Saturday. Chris calls Steve and pulls the plug for the Atlanta race.

The Spring Nationals at US 131 in Michigan is a planned bye for the Redneck Express. Now to the most recent race, the Portable Shade Summer Nationals (hereafter known as the sweat nationals) Chris has 2 motors ready, Galahad is in the frame rails with Robert E. Lee for backup, the head for Merlin is getting repaired, and not back yet.

Chris and Sharon arrive Friday afternoon and the setup begins, stupid Yankee (me, not used to 98 deg and 99% humidity) flakes out on the operation and have to take a break as work progresses. Chris Sharon, Steve, DJ finish up the setup. I finally get cooled off in time to start getting the bike out and ready for Saturday.. Saturday arrives and although it is still hot and humid (the water grains per pound of air reads 127). We get the bike ready for the first qualifying pass Chris after reading the air quality makes changes to the fuel system, Sharon mixes the Nitro, we fill the tank and get ready to test fire the bike, and set the timing. The timing is set so we back the bike down and put it on the stand to run on Nitro. The motor fires up but we get the cutoff signal from Chris as fuel is leaking from a fitting. That gets repaired, and we clean the motor out, then refire on Nitro, the bike sounds decent for the weather and tuneup, Chris runs it up easy for a couple of times then hits it to seat the clutch, all is good so we shut it down, clean it out and get it ready for the call for qualifying.

The decision is made that we will be running 1/8 mile for this race..

The call goes out and we pull into the staging lanes, perform the last minute preparations for our first hit at the Montgomery Motorsports Park track. Sharon rolls the motor over as I run the squirter, the bike fires and is running. Steve and DJ go down track to wait for Chris while I go the the waterbox to wipe the tire and set Chris for the burnout, as I walk around to the back of the bike I see that I once again placed Chris too far back in the waterbox, and as a result the bike zings when Chris hits it at the start of the burnout. Chris again recovers for my dumbass and continues the burnout and rolls it out to where Steve and DJ are standing to push him back,

Steve and DJ push Chris back as I guide them, we actually get him straight Chris straightens the bike out a little as he rolls to the line, prestages, Sharon Pulls the tape from the vent on the injector hat, Chris stages, the lights flash and the bike moves off the line, and runs straight with a little correction by Chris The bike seems a little lazy but not too bad but the time slip tells the tale not at all what the bike usually runs in the 1/8 at all. During the run it seems fairly clean until the 1/8 mile then the dreaded smoke screen again, not as bad at Valdosta but bad enough. The Redneck Express holds #1 spot until the last qualifying run.

We get the bike back and #4 is totally dead, as there is only one other complete motor in the trailer the decision is to take the rest of the day and rebuild the motor from the cases up..We take the top end apart and the head and valves are OK but the pistons are NOT ,during this process of setting ring gaps and the cleaning of everything it runs into evening and Chris tells up to go get something to eat and he will finish the rebuild, Steve and I deliver Sharon to the motel grab some eats, and return to the track to help Chris finish up, Chris is almost done so I go back to the motel to catch some sleep and Steve and Chris finish up.

Sunday AM I get up and arrive at the track it is evident that the bike is repaired so with help from the Plessers get the bike up on the stand and set the clutch gap and cannon. Steve arrives shortly thereafter and we finish getting the bike ready.

Chris and Sharon arrive and it is evident that something is not right, Chris get out of the truck and said that Sharon had a fall and is hurting, he asks if I have seen the medics yet and I had not, I told him if they were there they should be at the starting line area, Chris takes Sharon to the medics to have her looked at and they say nothing broken but when Sharon tried to get down out of the truck Chris lifts her back in and heads for the closest hospital. A couple of hours go by and Chris calls and said they are heading for another hospital for surgery. Chris calls up after her surgery and all went OK and tells us to pack the trailer, we tell him we have already started..

Racing is racing but family is everything.

We would like to recognize and thank our sponsors.

Rod Rance 
Generac 
Vanson Leathers 
Performance Machine 
Sam Wills/Racing Innovations 
PR Factory Store 
Mickey Thompson tires 
Ferrea Valves 
CP Pistons 
WebCam camshafts 
Friction Unlimited 
World Wide Bearings 
MSD ignitions 
BME connecting rods 
Hand's Performance 
Simpson
Red Line Oil 
Fram/Autolite
PECO Foods