Pomona Progress: Winternationals 2014

The 2014 race season kicked off at the Circle K NHRA Winternationals in Pomona on February 7th – 9th. Team Litton Racing had successful test runs in Sonoma and was optimistic about the upcoming races. In preparation for the season, the team spent most of the day on Thursday getting a new seat poured for driver Bill Litton. Friday, the first day of the series, was a waiting game for all the teams due to the rainfall Thursday night. The rain created some moisture under the rubber on the track, which was causing a majority of the cars to have “tire shake.”

When Q1 came around, Litton Racing was prepared and ready to go. Crew Chief Anthony fitted the car with new parts to adjust for the new fuel combination and increase in power. During the first run the car experienced some violent tire shake around the sixty foot mark. Litton commented, “The shake was so intense that I saw three of everything, then fuzz and got out of it. A mouthpiece is worth an ounce of gold on a run like that.” The team was pleased with the data, despite the tire shake. “It just takes laps,” commented Dicero, “we just need to find a better way to apply all this new power.” The moisture under the track combined with the new fuel combination was not working in anyone’s favor on Friday. On the launch, the tire shake was so brutal that one of the crew members said he could see daylight under the tires.

 

The crew’s optimism paid off in Q2, where Litton set a new career best speed of 5.44 at 269.89 mph. “There’s the run we have been looking for… and there are good things to come,” exclaimed Dicero. Everything looked clean and dry from the starting line and the crew was anxious to see the condition the car was in after the run. Per Litton, “It is nice to feel a run like that… cheeks back the whole way,” this was a great way for Team Litton Racing and Anthony Dicero Racing to start their season together.

 

 

In Q3, Litton ran a 6.25 at 175.88 mph, the run was a little shaky and had some parts malfunction. The new cam is aggressive and the crew knew the tune up would be harder on the parts. With three runs in one day the crew was being pushed to their limits to get the car back in shape for the next round. “Bill did a great job of getting off the throttle and not letting it accumulate too much parts damage,” stated Dicero.

 

 

Litton Racing was then coming up to their first elimination run of the season and their third run of the day. It was a strong run of 5.47 at 266.48 mph, but Litton’s opponent had a 5.29. “Losing is always hard to swallow, especially when our team gives it all we’ve got.  But if winning were easy, everyone would be doing it,” commented Litton. The new combination is a step in the right direction and the car is making increasingly more horsepower than in previous seasons. Now the crew has to figure out how to get the horsepower down the track. “We wear twice the amount of clutch than we normally do; it slipped farther down track than it has in the past. That is the difference between whether or not you get the win light on the scoreboard,” explained Dicero. Team Litton Racing has some homework to do before the next regional race in Phoenix, February 28th – March 2nd. The crew and driver are not used to having this much horsepower and were playing more on the cautious side so they did not smoke the tires. The team made great strides in the right direction and that is all you can ask for in this sport. In drag racing one day you could be on top of the world and the next day you could be in the outhouse, which is where the phrase “from the outhouse to the penthouse” must have come from.  Team Litton Racing will regroup and make some changes and be ready to go for the Phoenix regionals in two weeks.