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HIRATA MOTORSPORTS START LINE / FINISH LINE NOTES
HIRATA MOTORSPORTS DALLAS START LINE
The Hirata Motorsports, Skull Shine, Torco Racing Fuels, NGK, WyoTech, Friction Unlimited team’s 2007 schedule is taking on a few additional traveling miles as they are making the trek to Dallas for the upcoming nationals. This race has been somewhat on the schedule, in our minds anyway. But after the past 3 weeks of racing, we have to keep going. 1999 is the last trip to Dallas. We qualified #1 there, but a broken input shaft ended that race early for us. We are bringing the Torco / Skull Shine monster down south to seek and destroy. We try to do the people proud at Torco; Evan Knoll, Latrell Preston and the whole group. They deserve it. I am still pouting about Indy. Thanks again to the best crew and friends in the world: Pete Brady, Chrystal & Zach Ingram, Carolyn & Dean Davies, Dale Bollerud, Byron Inouye, Jim Courson, Lori & Kevin Rowand, Jesse Marlow, Kim & Devin Halm, my Mom & Dad & my girl Molly. Support those who support us and drag racing: Torco Racing Fuels, Skull Shine, Skull Gear, NGK Spark Plugs, Friction Unlimited, WyoTech, Fram, R&R Racing Components, Full Bore Products, NAPA Service Auto Parts, Rose RV Sales, Nitroplate, Goodridge Hoses, and Impact. They make our racing possible.

HIRATA MOTORSPORTS START LINE / FINISH LINE NOTES
HIRATA MOTORSPORTS BIG 3 RESULTS - The Hirata Motorsports, Skull Shine, Torco Racing Fuels, NGK, WyoTech, Friction Unlimited team’s 2007 Big 3 could be considered highly successful to most teams. It was for sure although the runner up at Indy still hurts. We sandwiched Indy with wins before and after so it’s healing the wound. My competitive side says there is no other option than a win. I owe that to my crew and partners. But, it has been incredible. We have moved from 5th to 3rd nationally and 21st to 9th in the nation. It has been a fantastic last three races. A win at the Bowling Green div 3 the week before, making to the finals at the most prestigious race, and follow that up with another win is something we really can be proud of. We tried to do the people proud at Torco; Evan Knoll, Latrell Preston and the whole group. They deserve it. Low qualifying at Bowling Green and re-setting our track record twice and winning set our standards high for Indy. We finished up Indy qualifying in the 5th position. Being in the top half is so important because of lane choice. The crew worded hard for this one. We had to change an engine Sunday night. I had a cylinder issue since the Bowling Green win but the car ran so good I wanted it to show me more of a problem. I changed exhaust probes, jetted the cylinder but the car kept running good. We found the problem Sunday which forced the engine swap. I hated to do that. It’s a superstitious issue. But Monday we cranked out a .28 2nd round. The next two runs the car fell off too much and we’re trying to find out why. That cost me the Indy win. The Earlville, IA div 5 race after Indy topped off our final 3 weeks of craziness. We invaded div 5 and brought wall back to div 3. All and all, FANTASTIC 3 weeks. I am still pouting about Indy. The competitive side of me is; there is no option but a win. We defiantly are having a blast. Thanks again to the best crew and friends in the world: Pete Brady, Chrystal & Zach Ingram, Carolyn & Dean Davies, Dale Bollerud, Byron Inouye, Jim Courson, Lori & Kevin Rowand, Jesse Marlow, Kim & Devin Halm, my Mom & Dad & my girl Molly. Support those who support us and drag racing: Torco Racing Fuels, Skull Shine, Skull Gear, NGK Spark Plugs, Friction Unlimited, WyoTech, Fram, R&R Racing Components, Full Bore Products, NAPA Service Auto Parts, Rose RV Sales, Nitroplate, Goodridge Hoses, and Impact. They make our racing possible.

HIRATA MOTORSPORTS FINISH LINE NOTES
 HIRATA MOTORSPORTS Bowling Green / INDY BIG GO
The Hirata Motorsports, Skull Shine, Torco Racing Fuels, NGK, WyoTech team had its best performance at the right time, peaking at the Bowling Green, KY div 3 race. It was a wire to wire job for us. Resetting our track e.t. recored twice, low e.t. and bringing home the Wally.

It was a really great race for our crew and especially the folks at Torco; Evan Knoll and Latrell Preston. They deserve it. The patience they have all had with us is incredible. The crew worked hard for this one. We had to change a couple rods after the first round. We smoked the tires on the hit and pedaled it 7 times. The motor was not happy, but we were with the win. We had a fuel leak on the right side of the motor that caused the tires to smoke. That was our "GIMMY" for the weekend. The second round 5.32 was a great surprise. We just wanted to test on that run after our thrash, since we had a single. I was ready to click it off if it did not feel good. We changed the other 6 pistons and rods for the finals just to make sure the motor was fresh. Our final round 5.32 against Bill Reichert was the cake icing on the cold beer. I told him at the end of the track, "You are my motivation." What a great way to go to the "BIG GO."

Bowling Green was really a test session for us. We tested new clutch plates for Bob Malek at Friction Unlimited. He asked us to so we slammed 4 of his plates in. Results? 5.39, 5.39, 5.32, 5.32. Special thanks to Bob and his group Friction Unlimited.

Thanks again to the best crew and friends in the world: Pete Brady, Chrystal & Zach Ingram, Carolyn & Dean Davies, Dale Bollerud, Byron Inouye, Jim Courson, Lori & Kevin Rowand, my Mom & Dad & my girl Molly.

Support those who support us and drag racing: Torco Racing Fuels, Skull Shine, Skull Gear, NGK Spark Plugs, Friction Unlimited, WyoTech, Fram, R&R Racing Components, Full Bore Products, NAPA Service Auto Parts, Rose RV Sales, Nitroplate, Goodridge Hoses, and Impact. They make our racing possible.



HIRATA MOTORSPORTS Joliet Nats finish line / Joliet Div start line
The Hirata Motorsports, Skull Shine, Torco Racing Fuels team Joliet Nats race handed the team a first round defeat for the first time this year. Redemption is the goal as the team will race at the Div 3 race at Joliet this weekend.

We solved a huge problem this past weekend. We have had trouble getting our car to make a move at the hit of the throttle. Our 60 foot times have been way down. We made a few changes and dramatically changed that part of our run. Unfortunately if provided a different problem. I was concerned our change might make a few issues farther down the track, and it did. I did not compensate for it cause it did not show a reason to change anything. I have a saying, “make it do it twice.” The first 3 qualifiers were good base line runs. All of a sudden our car decides to drop a cylinder 1.5 seconds in to the run. That did us in. I hope to be able to correct this at the div race. We sure wanted to do better at the Torco Nats race. Key word: REDEMPTION.Thanks again to the best crew and friends in the world: Pete Brady, Chrystal & Zach Ingram, Carolyn & Dean Davies, Dale Bollerud, Byron Inouye, Jim Courson, my Mom & Dad, my girl Molly.Support those who support us and drag racing: Torco Racing Fuels, Skull Shine, Skull Gear, NGK Spark Plugs, Fram, R&R Racing Components, Full Bore Products, NAPA Service Auto Parts, Rose RV Sales, Nitroplate, Goodridge Hoses, and Impact. They make our racing possible.

HIRATA MOTORSPORTS Topeka finish line/Joliet start line
The Hirata Motorsports, Skull Shine, Torco Racing Fuels team travels to Topeka netted a quarter final finish and are hoping to better that with the up coming Joliet nationals at the our major partner, Torco Racing Fuels, at their event.
It has been 3 years since we were last at Topeka. The pits are awesome and so was the weather this year. We are working on that 96% tune up for the up coming summer races. We were the 3rd best qualified a/fuel car. We ran our best e.t. at in our second round. Unfortunately we got stuck with a loss. We improved every pass and tried new things for the 96%. I am hoping to take that info and keep improving at what I call my 2nd home track. Joliet is a fast track. The best in the country will be there since the Jegs All-stars race is also this weekend. This is the 2nd of 6 races in 7 weeks for us. Thanks again to the best crew and friends in the world: Pete Brady, Chrystal & Zach Ingram, Carolyn & Dean Davies, Dale Bollerud, Byron Inouye, Jim Courson, my Mom & Dad, my girl Molly.Support those who support us and drag racing: Torco Racing Fuels, Skull Shine, Skull Gear, NGK Spark Plugs, Fram, R&R Racing Components, Full Bore Products, NAPA Service Auto Parts, Rose RV Sales, Nitroplate, Goodridge Hoses, and Impact. They make our racing possible.



HIRATA MOTORSPORTS Division 3 opener nets semi finish.The Hirata Motorsports, Skull Shine, Torco Racing Fuels team opened up there 2007 “Land of the Winners” division 3 points chase with a semi final finish at Norwalk, OH. With 3 semi final finishes at the last 4 races, the team is looking for that Wally at Topeka.
For the first div 3 and Norwalk, OH. race, it fun. The facility is great and had a great crowd to race to. These laps will give us some data for the national event in a few weeks. The track threw us a few curves in the # 1 and 2 qualifiers, so we got behind. We got in at the 5 spot and were fairly pleased. A first round win came at the expense of 2 right side body panels flying off. Being we’re in the body business, we beat, screwed and cut the panels back on for round two. I just wanted to see if my dad could still massage a panel back out. It looked good despite black racers tape. We were able to step up in round one, but for some reason, we dropped 2 holes at the hit of the throttle in the semi finals. I’m still looking for that answer. We still need a tenth of a second. We are just a screw turn away. As always, the crew performed flawlessly. We also had 2 honorary crew members on Saturday. Deb and Bart won a local radio contest and we got to abuse them for a day. Hopefully they got to experience drag racing from a different perspective. We enjoyed their company.
As I have always said, I got the best crew and friends in the world: Pete Brady, Chrystal & Zach Ingram, Carolyn & Dean Davies, Dale Bollerud, Byron Inouye, Jim Courson, my Mom & Dad, my girl Molly.
Support those who support us and drag racing: Torco Racing Fuels, Skull Shine, Skull Gear, NGK Spark Plugs, Fram, R&R Racing Components, Full Bore Products, NAPA Service Auto Parts, Rose RV Sales, Nitroplate, Goodridge Hoses, and Impact. They make our racing possible.



HIRATA MOTORSPORTS SEMI FINAL FINISH AT GATERS
The Hirata Motorsports, Skull Shine, Torco Racing Fuels team started their 2007 season with a semi final finish at the 2007 Gaternationals at Gainesville, FL. The team feeling is very positive going into their next race at Indy for the opening division 3 race.
We got a nice baseline from the Gainesville race to start out with. The great air quality threw us a curve. It was so good we took a stab at the tune up. We probably should have taken a bigger stab. We will take that tune up, tweak it a bit and hopefully bring our performance level a notch up. To be competitive we need to step it up about a tenth. With the info from the past weekend, we got a great feeling about how to do that. We will see how smart we are. That car has made us look very dumb before so I am ready to kick its butt. Almost “last out of the pits”. That’s 2 races…2 semi finals. We are going to get that Wally soon.

Thanks again go to my great crew: Pete Brady, Chrystal & Zach Ingram, Carolyn & Dean Davies, Dale Bollerud, Byron Inouye, Jim Courson, my Mom & Dad, my girl Molly. They are the best in the class. They performed flawlessly. The winter did nothing to stale everyone out. We did not hurt a part the whole weekend.

Please don’t forget my buddy, Eric Medlen. His severe crash in testing Monday after the race puts life in perspective. We race hard for us and our partners, but, it’s for the love of the sport, the competitive drive we all have and for the great friends we have met and continue to meet that bring us back. Keep him in your prayers as we all do here.

Big thank you’s again go to the great partners we have in Torco Racing Fuels, Skull Shine, Skull Gear, NGK Spark Plugs, Fram, R&R Racing Components, Full Bore Products, Service Auto Parts, Rose RV Sales, Nitroplate, Goodridge Hoses, Impact . They make our racing possible.

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