I finally accomplished a longtime goal - and celebrated solo

Back around 10 years ago, before I even owned my IROC, my father and I built a motor that at the time was intended to go into my firebird. The motor was built with the hopes of achieving 13 second 1/4 mile times at the dragstrip. The motor wasn't built for the purpose of drag racing, but your 1/4 mile time is the way of measuring how fast your car is. Back then 13s were fast. The most affordable new car that could accomplish such a feat was a $40k Corvette. Of course now you can buy a brand new Dodge Neon that can do the same thing, but that's not the point. So anyway... 10 years ago I built this motor with the hopes of running 13s. When I finally got it installed into my IROC and went to the track for the first time, I ran a best of a 16.1. That's a fairly pathetic time, especially considering that the good running motor that I took out of the IROC to put this one in was capable of a mid 15 second time. Getting that motor to run right has been a very long, frustrating journey. It's still not "right" but it's not too bad right now. I've slowly chipped away at it, and a few years ago when I finally ditched the original 85 computer and installed a newer style computer and started burning my own chips for it, I started to see some real gains. I got the car down into the mid 14-second range, which was at least an improvement over the stock motor. A couple years ago I ran a 14.3, but had terrible traction due to tires that were almost 7 or 8 years old. I started to see that I was getting close. Last fall in nice cool weather I ran a 14.1 with bad traction. I knew I was close. A few weeks ago I got new tires for the car, so I couldn't wait to get back and try again. I just had to wait for a nice cool night. Last night I went back, and was soooooo close. My first run was a 14.043. I spun off the line but still had a much better launch than I ever did with the old tires. On my next run I launched differently but had similar problems spinning the tires. I improved slightly to a 14.021.. 19 thousanths of a second away from my goal!. My third run sucked. I had time for one final run, but bogged hard off the line and figured that was it. I experimented with shift points to see if I could salvage my run, and wound up with a 13.997 at 99.50 mph. 10 years after building the damned motor, I finally ran my 13 second 1/4 mile. What a great feeling to finally meet a goal that I set 10 years earlier! The fact that I got outrun by a kid in a Honda Del Sol in the lane next to me didn't even matter. I finally met my goal.

Then it was time to come crashing to earth. I wanted nothing more than to be able to share my accomplishment with somebody and maybe even get a little pat on the back. I called my father, all excited, and about all he had to say was "did you break anything?". Thanks dad. When I got home, I couldn't wait to tell Kristin, and then study my time slips to help best understand the dynamics of the 4 runs I made. I wanted to let the moment last a little longer. I was only home about 1 minute and I was already getting yelled at for not folding clothes and noticing that the house was clean. My mind was a hundred miles from "chores" but nobody gives a shit. It's not easy being a gearhead when none of your family and friends are. Sometimes you just want somebody to share your accomplishments with.

Next time kristin comes home all excited about something new she bought, or my father is all excited about something for his truck or camper, instead of paying attention and pretending to give a shit, maybe I'll just find something to complain about and watch the twinkle in their eye disappear.