Saturday morning seemed to start fine:  I warmed up the Dart and Chloe changed her oil in the Jr.  When we went to fire the Jr up, oil came shooting out of the hole where the oil cap should have been.  This was bad since it had already been towed to tech and the cap had fallen off somewhere along the way.  Thankfully, Ray Bollinger, who has two daughters that race Jrs, bailed us out.  When we went to fire it up again, we noticed that the motor had been left loose on it’s mounts.  So, when we finally got it to fire up, we were able to warm it up and it sounded fine.  After Chloe’s first run, we noticed that the a piece of the clutch was hitting the motor when it shifted up, creating alot of shavings.  So Justin and I fixed this.  Chloe made it to the second round in the Jr before going -.001 red.

The first time trials for the Dart seemed to go fine until my inside power-kill switch quit working.  I had to tape it together in the lanes to make my run.  I didn’t have another switch, so I by-passed it and got it running like that.  The car really didn’t like having the 750 carb back on it for some reason.  Not only was it 5 -7 tenths slower, it didn’t really seem to be repeating.  Either way, I dialed my way through first round and used a .020 light to make it work.  2nd round I treed my guy .039 to his .050 and then the car lost over a tenth for no reason.   I went in to the Gamblers race and went 2 rounds there.  Justin changed the carb back to the 835 for me, and I did a couple of time trials with it before calling it a day.  Rose made us a very fantastic dinner of steak and pasta salad.  Justin was in heaven because he says this is way better than he eats at home.  The people pitted next to us were also from Quesnel so we hung out with them and had a few drinks.   

  Sunday morning seemed to go alot smoother.  I took Justin for a warm-up ride in the Dart which he thoroughly enjoyed.  I was double classing in Pro and Sportsman today, so it was busy.  We got 3 time trials in each class and the Dart was running the 13.0s in Sprotsman and 12.70s in Pro.  In the first round of Sportsman, I was able to race my current nemesis Martin Jackman and promptly dispatched him.  I made it to the final where I met Carson Barlow and he red-lit by -.009.  I collected $400 for the win.  In Pro, I was sounded beaten by former Jr Dragster star Holly Clarke who put a light on me and then fendered a .020 stripe for the win.  Oddly, the Dart lost a bunch this round - almost a tenth again.  I went into the Gamblers race and made it down to the final 3 cars.  I raced another guy from here, Andy Preston, and cut a .001 light but broke out trying to stay ahead of him.  I put 16 passes on the Dart that day. 

  Chloe went 3 rounds in the Jr with much help from Justin.  But today was not going well for him.  The quad kept dying and leaving him stranded.  Luckily Chloe was able to get towed back by other people.  Chloe ended up having to run-off for third against Travis Clarke and lost.  The car really seemed to be working better today, at least it was a bit more predictable.  The quad was still being a pain, and left Justin stranded about a mile from the motorhome and he had to push it back.   

  It was SO cool to be staying at the track on a sunday night knowing that we were racing the next day.  A lot of people had to leave, but a few new people rolled in as well. 

  Monday morning I made a late decision to double class and went and paid the entry fee.  Pretty much as soon as I did this, the car started running like crap.  It had a terrible miss around 5000 RPM.  I changed plugs and that was no help.  So I re-jetted richer and bypassed the ballast resistor that feeds my coil.  This was before first round, so I didn’t know what the changes were going to do to the ET.  I was in Sportsman first and my opponent didn’t show.  I used this as an opportunity for a Pro time trial.  The changes seemed to help because the car pulled hard to 6000 and then ran 12.66 at 108.58.  A new record for Ashcroft.  I made it through first round of Pro because the other guy red-lit.  I lost in 2nd round of Sprortsman because of an un-heard of  .134 light.  I was disgusted and felt that I didn’t deserve to take a shot at the Gamblers race.  I made it to the semi-finals in Pro where I red-lit by -.004  and then lost the run-off for 3rd on a HUGE breakout - 12.58 on the brakes on my 12.66 dial.  Very weird…..

  Chloe lost in the 2nd round of Jrs and it was all my fault.  I thought she should change her dial in from a 10.80 to a 10.87, and she then ran a 10.83….. Ooops.  She went into the Jr Gamblers, and it started raining so we all went back to the pits.  When they were called up again, something weird happened.  I had to be with my car because we were going to run right after them, so Justin was going to run her through her burnout and stage.  For some reason, she got held back because the starting line crew were waiting for me.  Her opponent did his burnout, staged, and left.  Chloe ran a single right after that.  When we came up for the next round, they informed us that she had lost because she wouldn’t stage in the last round.  I tired to say that she was held back but they other guy argued so I let it drop.  It wasn’t for points or anything, so it wasn’t a big deal, but it still annoyed me.  We got everything packed up and headed for home.   

  So….. we packed up and headed home.  I haven’t counted all the time slips yet, but I bet it was a ton.