Liquid Quiker - Oklahoma City 2009

Oklahoma City, OK 2009

The first race for 2009 is quickly approaching, motel reservations and plane flights have been made as the Bob & Ron Show continues for the season opener in Oklahoma City.

The truck and trailer are packed and loaded. Ron, Bob & Sue head for Oklahoma City on Wednesday night. The 13 hour trip was uneventful, except the lack of air conditioning inside the truck camper, thank goodness for the spare fan and driving in the evening.. They arrive at the race site in the early morning and find a high pit spot in case of rain. Jeff is already in Oklahoma City so he is on hand to help with the setting up of the pits. Ron located a dealer for the air conditioner for the camper and brings it back for installation. With the help of Jeff and Bob the air conditioner is lifted to the top of the camper and installed and working by the end of the day. Only $700.00!

The first race out is always a good time to see the familiar fans and friends and catch up on what’s happening in the drag boat racing world from over the winter months.

Since the rest of the crew won’t arrive until Friday, Thursday night becomes the traditional “Outback” night for Ron & Bob, Looking forward to the “Melbourne” steak dinner, Ron heads to what he remembers the location of the Outback is in Oklahoma City. We arrive at the destination and no Outback. So he calls for direction from one of the racers and after 45 minutes, and 2 more phone calls we arrive. A quick review of the menu by Bob & Ron and they realize Outback has changed their menu and no longer offers the Mel borne. Ron settles for the 20oz T-bone.

Friday morning the rest of the crew arrives and helps with completing the pit set up. A cook out of hamburgers with all the fixin’s for supper and the team leaves the pits early for a good nights sleep.

Next morning the team arrives early in anticipation of getting ready for the first round of the year. They are all anxious to try the newly built 3rd motor on the 2nd pass of the day. Unfortunately the wind blew hard all day. With the combination of the wind and the location of the course on the river, it made it impossible to make a pass. It reminded us of all the days we sat and watch the wind blow on a beautify course in Dayton, Ohio. So the crew past the time by working on the 3rd motor, sleeping or touring the race site.

During the day the large fan used to cool the pits decided to quit, Jeff volunteers to make a trip into town to purchase a new one. A mere $300.00 later the pits are cool again.

Finally the call to the ramp came about 5:30pm. Warm up went well and the motor sounded good. The team was hopeful for a good run since this will be the only qualifying run of the day. Even though the wind had died down, there was still a good breeze on the course. Ron made ready for the run and some how shut off the motor and had to restart it. By this time the boat was pointing towards the right and when he took off was headed to the bank of rocks, Ron quickly steers the boat out of the rocks but ends up crossing into the opposite lane headed for the bank of rocks on the opposite side. Ron drives the boat out of the path and manages to slow the boat down and only hits the timing lights.

If you are all familiar with the rule book, crossing the lane disqualifies the run and thus no time is recorded or given out, but it was one hell of a run and we have to commend Ron on his driving skills that saved what could have been a very bad crash. The boat only suffered minor cosmetic damage on the front of the hull, fixable by duct tape. The crew spends the rest of the evening going through the motor and boat and finally heads back to the motel around 1AM.

Sunday morning starts off as another windy day, not as bad as Saturday so the Top Fuel Hydro’s are called to ramp around noon for the first round of eliminations. There are only four boats in the class, so it will be only be 2 round show.

As we make ready to go to the ramp, Bob has decided he needs to remind Ron how to drive the boat down the course, so he draws a map and tapes it to the windshield of the capsule.

After the long winter and only one past on Saturday, the team was anxious to see the boat make a good pass and try to at least run the ET’s from 2008 repeated. The clock starts, the boats fire their motors, the clock counts down and Liquid Quiker is still sitting at the holding rope. Bob radios to Ron to find out the problem. A disappointed Ron replies back “I turned off the mags when I closed the lid to the capsule.”

And that is drag boat racing’s” agony & defeat”. But in 3 weeks the team heads for San Angelo, Texas to see what adventures it will bring.

Don’t you just gotta love the sport!