COREY MICHALEK |
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“ When we show up at these races, we’ re very much aware that we’ re at a point where we might not qualify,” Michalek says.“ We’ re not a guaranteed car yet. We’ re not fighting for a top 5 position at this point – we just don’ t have the performance. A lot of it comes down to making sure we make the right run at the right time. So many times in my career, and even last year when we got this car, we wouldn’ t get qualified until the last session. At a place like this, maybe you only get one qualifying session. So we really needed to come out and put a good number on the board from the beginning.”
This is the first of just two confirmed events on the Michalek Brothers Racing 2018 schedule, so the weekend forecast – isolated thunderstorms all day Friday and Saturday – is especially puzzling for Corey and his brother and car chief, Kyle.
“ So much rides on every single time we start this car,” Michalek says.“ I know the whole‘ treat every run the same’ thing is a cliché, but that’ s something we’ ve really tried to drive home. I try to cut a light every single round. We don’ t really do any testing. We treat every single run like it could be our only run of the year. If the crank goes out of it or something like that, it really is our only run of the year.”
Adding to the pressure of the weekend is the situation surrounding the branding that appears on the dragster and matching crew uniforms. Energize – not to be confused with the battery people – is a motorsports marketing company owned by Bill Bader Jr., who happens to be the second-generation president of Summit Motorsports Park. This is the first time Bader has put one of his projects on the side of a race car, and he’ s clearly excited about the set-up when he stops by the pit area to see the car for the first time and give his best to the team. It’ s“ added motivation”, not pressure, as Michalek asserts.“ When the guy you’ re representing owns the literal surface that
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“ WITH THE TOP FUEL
CAR, IT’ S PULLING
HARD FROM THE TIME
YOU STEP ON THE
GAS UNTIL YOU LET
OFF AND PULL THE
PARACHUTES.”
you’ re going up and down – what I consider to be the greatest facility on tour – it’ s an honor and a really great opportunity for us,” he says.
As the announcer makes the call for the first round of qualifying, Corey and Kyle push their Spitzer-built dragster out of the pit area and roll up to the staging lanes, joined by co-crew chiefs Clay and Chase Copeland, crew member Cory Cox and myself, as I’ ve been asked to assist Corey with packing parachutes and clutch duties this weekend. The highlighter yellow Energize dragster snakes through a sea of fans in the nitro pits, slowly creeps through the staging lanes and pulls onto the track for its first hit on a track since Michalek drove it to a runner-up finish in its national-event debut at the NHRA Carolina Nationals last September. Expectations are modest for that reason, so the resulting 5.402-second pass at 249.72 is a welcomed surprise. The shower of nitro that Michalek received in the cockpit around 600 feet? Not so appreciated.
“ Anything within the low 5.4s would’ ve been great,” Michalek says after getting the car back to the pits.“ It didn’ t end up hurting itself, but it was a little hairy for a moment when the fuel line came off. We caught a break and didn’ t hurt anything there. That run was a good thing, but we were definitely surprised. Now that we’ ve got
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that first run out of the way, I think expectations have risen quite a bit. Now it’ s like,‘ OK, if we can get this thing to go to the finish line, we might have something for them.’”
Michalek will have to wait nearly 24 hours to see what the car will do under power through the quarter-mile mark, as the Friday schedule has been adjusted to put priority on the Mello Yello Series classes.
When it comes time to spin the starter and pull the wires for the second qualifying attempt Saturday morning, the 433 ci Alan Johnson engine sitting between the frame rails just won’ t turn over. Unfazed, the father-son Copeland duo run a couple checks and try again. Nothing. A third time – nothing. On the fourth try, the beast fires up, coming up to temperature on methanol before the primer bottle is removed and nitromethane starts flowing through its veins. Michalek rolls through the water box, lays down a short burnout and backs up. The Copelands make their final adjustments and send Michalek toward the prestage beam, where Kyle is waiting to bring him into position. The blue LED pre-stage half-moon lights up, then the bottom half illuminates. The ambers drop and Michalek stands on the throttle pedal, but the usually snappy A / Fueler lurches off the starting line. Once we return to the pits, a corrupt file in the car’ s command module is singled out as the culprit.
“ That was the first time we ever had any trouble trying to start it,” Michalek points out.“ It just kept fighting us. But I think that’ s a testament to who we’ ve been able to team up with. Both Chase and Clay knew exactly what they were doing out there when they were troubleshooting. Nobody really started to panic, nobody rushed and we still took our time. When we did get the car started, everything from there was business as usual until I stepped on the gas.”
A similar fate is awaiting Michalek in Sunday’ s first round of eliminations, which was pushed back from Saturday night, giving the team time to sort through an issue in the fuel system. The issue rears its ugly head again Sunday morning, though, when Michalek drives into nearly immediate tire smoke alongside 2011 world champion Duane Shields.
“ I did everything I could to get a little jump on the line, but Duane cut a great light, then obviously, we smoked the tires right at the hit,” Michalek says.“ We had a little too much power and we were able to look at the computer and see that all of the fuel system changes we made still had not really accurately addressed the problem.”
The team returns to the pits and goes to work removing parts and preparing them to be sent out to manufacturers for repairs and recertification. The Copelands finish up their work and head to Cleveland so they can fly back to their native Texas. The crew starts to pack up the pit area while the group of family and friends who came out to support the brothers begins to filter out of the pit area. As this portion of the weekend comes to a close, Michalek has time to reflect on the results.
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PHOTO: DAVID SMITH |