The Birth of Brandi's Twins [COTW 8/8/11]

[SSE 4 2SS]

I mentioned the night pass above where we went 199.9, now on to the rest of the weekend...

Saturday was a complete bust as far as racing went though some records were set.

Justin Stephens of Our gang PHR (Pin Head Racing) had the fastest snow board behind a 4 wheeler pass on the pit road front straight... Three mph... The record would have Ben much higher had it not been for the security guy that almost melted down the horn on his ford puke up and finally got them stopped, simply yelling NO... To which Sean the 4 wheeler driver responded Oh Hell Yes...

The Promoters of the the event were quite familiar with this particular notorious group and awarded a certificate for the efforts...

[SSE 4 2SS]

The next event required a trip into town, specifically to tractor supply.. A creeper was purchased and the wheels were left off of it. Bare in mind it's been pouring rain all night Friday and all day Saturday. This group of type a personalities was cooped up with time to think and adrenaline to burn.. We were ready to race...

We were unceremoniously thrown out of the Texas Mile for this one...

We used the Albatross, a buss converted into a motor home owned by a Yogoslavian ferry boat captain from Aransas Pass Texas to pull the aforementioned creeper/sled. We tied a rope from the rear platform of the bus to the creeper and Sean with safety in mind, wearing a helmet and riding jacket, mounted the sled and off we went... I was in my truck behind them running blocker with Tia so no one would run over them. We started down the front straight of the pit area and were making great speed... 4 mph... We approached an intersection (taxi way cross) and the water there was approximately 4-5 inches deep. At a mind blowing 4 mph, the creeper actually got up on a pad and Sean was skiing across... Well back up just a second... As we approached, a Toyota truck crossed in front of the Albatross, pulled over against the grass and stopped to observe the happenings. The Albatross pulled past him and there is Justin standing on the back platform parade waving and then Sean does the same as he passes. The Toyota, owned and driven by the head of Security, and an off duty State Trooper turns in front of me and goes in hot pursuit... He pulls up to Sean who is 30 feet behind the bus and orders Sean to stop... Sean replies I don't have a brake... So the security guy stops, waits for Sean to pass and chases the bus down. He yells at Justin, who tries to flag down Mirko, the nutty Yugo Buss driver, and finally Justin jumps down, runs forward and flags Mirko to stop... The security guy gets out of his truck and tells the gang to pack up, we have one hour to leave the property... I almost died from choking laughing when Sean replied Dude, we've done way worse out here... The security chief replied not on my watch...

So, Sean and Justin climb in my truck for the ride of shame back to our pit area. I sit in the truck and run blocker, and Sean and Justin bail into Sean's RV and pull all the curtains. They dig through the paperwork and try to find the number for the race promoters. Mirko parks his bus. He walked up to me and with his drivers license and Maritime License asks if he should go pay a fine. Mirko doesn't race, he just makes every event to watch and participate in the shennigans. I give him the green light as the security guy is parked right in front of me. Sean and Justin try to call Mirko telling him to pack up and go to Walmart and park his bus and we'll pick him up. At this point the only known vehicles are Mirkos bus and my truck. So Mirko is standing about five feet from the security truck drivers door with his licenses and his head hung down looking sad and somber. The security guy is on the phone with someone and ignores him. As it turns out he is talking to the Promoter/owner of the event, who knows us Pin Head Racers very well.

Now 20 minutes or so before this escapade started an update email was sent out by the staff of the Mile that skiing and water boarding lessons were to be taught... "Just kidding". Weather blah blah blah...

So we weren't kidding...

Shannon giggles her ass off at the report of kicking us out and tells the security dude about the email and the type A personalities cooped up due to the rain and tells him to let us stay. So he tells Mirko who is jumping for joy and we all come out of hiding... The security guy leaves... To make further rounds.. We decide our fated luck is cause for giving him a peace offering..

At every event PHR gives out Patron Tequila to every staff member, security included... So, we get a bottle out, and wait for him to come by. He comes by about ten minutes later and completely ignores us, so I'm thinking he is really pissed... It turns out he was talking on the phone and didn't see us... So on the next pass, we flag him down and he stops to visit... "32 years of law enforcement he had never seen anything like that" we all introduced ourselves and stood around talking for 30 minutes or so in the rain. We gave him the Patron and then took a picture with him.. We've had run ins with him before but he didn't initially make the connection.. He now knows us very well, so we figure he will give those crazy baztards a pass next time... I mean, we are old friends now... He stated we completely caught him off guard...

The mile Staff printed out a Speed Certificate for 4 mph on a creeper...

[SSE 4 2SS]

Sean is a really good guy and a close personal friend. His Brother Patrick was a Command Pilot for an Air Medical company out of Florida. He flew patients all over the world.

About three months ago he was taken too early in life in a one vehicle accident in Florida.

When I mentioned earlier I was getting some signage for my car on the at to get the alignment, I was getting a vinyl print for the back glass. This was a tribute weekend to Patrick and the Gustin family. A great fun loving caring family.

Here is the print...

[SSE 4 2SS]

We had a dinner to celebrate and remember Patrick Saturday night. All of Team Pin Head Racing, Sean, Justin, Mirko, Myself, Tia.. Patrick's girlfriend, justin Lyons and Rachael Van Vleet as well as Corey Rob and the entire team of Valerie Thompson Racing were in attendance. Valerie is considered the fastest woman on earth.. She is a sponsored rider of motorcycles and a good person.

We had an amazing dinner after Justin's heart felt grace and finished it off with a toast to Patrick.

Patrick and Sean

RIP Brother Patrick.

[SSE 4 2SS]

Here is a picture of Sean with Patrick and an AOPA hat at my car during the rain out Portion of early Friday...

[SSE 4 2SS]

Our friendly security guy now that we are well known to him and on a first name basis... After....Sean, Justin, State Trooper, Mirko and myself...

[SSE 4 2SS]

So, on to my passes..

Sunday dawned with continued blowing rain... It finally stopped around noon and it took about three hours to dry it to a usable point. We had to wait til just after 4:00 to make our first pass.. I was still trying to hit the 205-220 window.

I ran up through the gears shifting out of 4th gear a bit early at 7300 rpm, but at 205 mph. And I missed 5th badly. I crossed the line at 199.5 mph. I was pissed at myself for missing 5th but it's racing. I had told Corey if I didn't make the needed pass and the car was ok I was going straight back to the grid. For us due to the weather lots of car had left so the grid wasn't completely packed. I got back in line and we packed the parachute, added a bit of fuel and got ready to go. Corey pulled the log and told me the speed and rpm to shoot for. 7500 in 4th, shift to 5th and ease through the finish box. No problem...

Uh, big problem... I rolled out after doing my burnout and staging. The car pulled harder than I have ever felt, baring in mind we are only on waste gate spring pressure at this point.. At 14 lbs the car makes as much or more power than my old motor made at 24 lbs.., I love high RPM's...so I roll up through the gears and I'll be damned if I didn't miss 4 th, got it in gear, watched the RPM's climb, started for 5th, missed that, pulled it back thought I was in 6th which we can't do under load, brought it back into 4th and stood on it... The problem is not only was I mentally lost at the moment, I got physically lost too... By the time I figured out where I was in the gear selection and fixed that I was well past the mile sign in the shut down area.

Upon realizing this I dumped the chute and felt the reassuring tug of it hitting and was comfortably slowing for about a half second, when I realized i was still about 140 mph and rapidly approaching the turn off.. I stood on the brakes and managed to slow just enough to make a 120 degree turn to the right with the chute making the back end bounce around the corner and I used all 150 feet of the turn off going all the way across it before getting her headed in the right direction.

My brother was at the mile mark and said I was under power way past the finish line, and he thought I was a goner... Sean was waiting to help me get my chute and he was laughing his ass off as the guy with my speed ticket handed me the awful truth I only went 204 mph... Yes I threw a bit of a tantrum at that moment... I cussed over the radio and Corey on the other end said no problem, get back in line. Hey, my car is good, hell yeah... So Sean dumps the chute in my pass window and I haul ass back to the grid. Everyone was picking on me and asking if Corey could do a driver mod. To which I replied by turning around and asking if there was a U.S.B port in my ass he could plug into.

We prep the car again and wait... I get ready and the sun is just setting... I pull into the burnout box and a starter ask if I want to run in the dusk dark with no lights.. I say hell yes... Oh, and back a moment, on my second pass some of the front end tape that had gotten water saturated blew off at speed and it looked like I hit a smurf with the blue painters tape under the black duct tape... I had retaped it by this point. I did my burnout and pulled yo the start line. The wind is blowing down track so my tire smoke completely obscured the starter. I stopped short until I could see him, then staged.

Now I'm in a full face helmet, with a HANS device, a full cage, gauges on the A pillar, and a window bet. I can't see to the left at all, which is where he is standing... They usually stand to the front of the car and just to the left so we can see them out the windshield.. Not this guy... He is next to the drivers door.

I'm waiting and anxious and in my head quite a bit due to missing gears so badly up to this point... It's hard hitting a speed window when I have no form of speed indication above 167. My GPS responds too slowly and the DIC stops at 167. The speedo needle stops at 180 and I need to go between 205 and 220. I'm also thinking about having gotten lost on my last pass... But I'm determined...
The radio pipes up and Corey tells me I was waved to go... I asked for verification as I wasn't going til I knew the track was clear... He told the starter to move up and wave me again... So I launched... And rolled out... The car gets into its happy place and away we go, speed building at a blinding pace, 1st, second, }%€}%*]{#, missed third, into third, pulling again, smoothly into 4th and I made a decision I wasn't going into 5th... I'm standing on the loud pedal and flying down track, Patrick, Sean, Justin squared, Rachael, Tia, My brothers and my dad, Glen Chris, Matt, Mike and a host of others riding along and pulling for me... I stayed on the gas and crossed through the speed trap at 7954 rpm at 217.2 mph on 15 lbs of boost. I licensed up... I am now unlimited... Sean had run five vehicles in front of me and he waited at the timing trailer for me... He handed me my speed ticket and I couldn't get out of the car fast enough... Corey told me good job via the radio as I'm bailing... Sean and I hug and scream at the sky. We are jumping around like a couple of idiots having a blast... He went 213.5 on his Busa... We rock our way back to the pits and wow, just wow...

In March there are now no limitations. I can do a shakedown pass and then turn it up. To finally determine what she will do. We have day of pulls to 27 lbs of boost, and can easily turn it up to 35-37 lbs... It's going to get real then...

Thanks for following along and stay tuned...

[Bad@ssCamaro]

Way to go Robert, congrats to you, Corey and everyone that helped build Brandi to get to this stage. I wish you continued success and that you reach your goals with Brandi.

[JusticePete]

Robert, Corey, Brandi and Company... to be continued in March.

[Merc]

Nice Work Bro!

[tramtwo]

Someone need to call Velocity... maybe in March they can do a mini series on PHR.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

[Mr Twisty]

I bet that's an incredible sound, 8 grand at 200+ mph!

[SSE 4 2SS]

Originally Posted by Bad@ssCamaro

Way to go Robert, congrats to you, Corey and everyone that helped build Brandi to get to this stage. I wish you continued success and that you reach your goals with Brandi.

Thank You Sir...

Originally Posted by JusticePete

Robert, Corey, Brandi and Company... to be continued in March.

yes it is...

Originally Posted by Merc

Nice Work Bro!

thank you bunches...

Originally Posted by tramtwo

Someone need to call Velocity... maybe in March they can do a mini series on PHR.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

that would be interesting... But IDK... Those shows require a lot of bs...

Originally Posted by Mr Twisty

I bet that's an incredible sound, 8 grand at 200+ mph!

my brother said it sounded very different from any of the other LS powered cars... I don't really hear that much with the custom fitted ear buds and helmet... I more so feel it...

We also ran this event with the full exhaust system on the car... Just pipes and mufflers... No cutouts, no turn downs etc...

[STONE SS]

I'm bummed I couldn't stay for your last pass, but am very happy for you and the team that you hit the target and licensed up! March is going to be very interesting. Congrats Robert!!!