My LX NAts and Beyond write up! ***No 56k**

Discussion in 'LX and Beyond Nationals' started by Trojan, Jul 26, 2009.

  1. Trojan

    Trojan Trillions Bro! Right on!

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    So where do I start! For one it was a must for me to go back East and run the big boys! Seeing how I got sabotaged last January I saw this as a perfect opportunity to redeem myself. :pleasantry:

    Cam had alot to do with the decision to go. At first I was gonna go run N/A but Adam at S.T Motor sports wasn't having it!

    The full factory Kenne Bell support made it all the sweeter! I gotta thank Adam for getting it all together, Installed, Tuned and ready to go. :rockon:

    I have so many friends across the country and back east as well that Ive never met personally, this again was a perfect opportunity to kill 2 birds with 1 stone so the plan was set! Adam and Cam made sure the Challenger was up to snuff even if it was gonna be shake down runs we were confident the car would run well!

    So we set out Wednesday morning at 4am and I met up with Cam, Ozzie and Braxton some wheres off the I15 around 5am and we headed out towards Flagstaff on the I40 to snatch up MagFX "John" as he really wanted to go and was gonna visit his folks on the return trip. Thanks John for the great converstaion and the help with driving dutys!!

    First stop after that was in New Mexico to see Ron and Maureen, 1bad4dr, We had a great visit there and a nice dinner with them ,
    From there John drove my rig for some hours and I slept, Cam and Ozzie alternated drivers as well and we rolled into Ohio friday morning 5:00am, Man that's a long haul! Just glad it was done, At least for 2 days.
    We all passed out tell noonish and then it was on!

    Spent most of Friday chatting with friends and prepping the car for Saturdays racing, Actually MagFX prepped the car, Thank you Sir you did a great job! Ozzie was in charge of stickers and did a fine job as well. Come to think of it I don't know what i did?

    Every time I turned around another screen name turned into another name! lol!
    I wont even try to name everyone because for sure I will get it wrong and forget some folks. Im terrible with names. Feel free to pm me with your name and pic so I can put 2 and 2 together because I would really like to know!! Friday night was a blast hanging out and I did manage to get to bed around 12:30am.

    Saturday morning I lost my wallet for 10 mins and just about had a heart attack, Could you imagine teching without a drivers license? I would have died!
    Well I found the wallet and the Tech folks never asked for it after all!! Got several runs in prior to qualifying which was a good thing because I have a whole new set up and wasn't sure what to expect. First pass out I ran a 10.7, New PB right out the gate so I was pretty stoked, Second run limp mode for some odd reason. Adam tweaked my tune and the problem was solved. Continued to run in the 10.6 10.7 range all day, a few 10.8's as well. Ran a new 60' best of 1.59 twice. So the Challenger
    didn't disappoint me once again. This Car has always improved with each track day to date and as long as that's happening I cant complain one bit. We all no how hard those lasts tenths can be. I'm addicted for sure! Ive tried to quit but here I am again!

    Saturday night we had a excellent dinner at Red Lobster with a bunch of folks then went back to the parking lot M&G for the SRT engineer session that was very very interesting! Erik and Lafrad really had them boys/girls on there toes and it was great to see them acknowledging us and answering q's on the fly!
    I believe the next SRTchat session will be at LXForums which is awesome news! Big thanks go out to all the SRT Engineers for there help.


    I also got to hang out with some local Ohio folks as well as Ohio members and I must say I really enjoyed it! Everyone is really cool and I really like Ohio as a place. Also need to mention I did manage to mend a few online personal conflicts and toasted with the best of them. You guys know who you are and Cheers!!

    Ive driven threw more states and city's since owning a LX then I ever did prior. All my long distance trips have been with Cam. No better guy then to travel with by car, He's a navigational wizard and we all know he can fix anything that happens to a car. Plus he's funnier then chit! Braxton who officially needs his own screen name btw, was right there with us the entire time. Thank you Dude!

    Braxton crewed for me, rode shotgun a few times on the road, and we had some good conversation as well, He drove threw "Tornado Alley" with me while it was raining sideways and the radio station kept giving us Tornado warning's. Kids tuff as nails!!


    Sunday was finals and I showed up at the track around 9:00am, I was paired with Lou and Adam was paired with Hemi~C~. Chris was gonna be impossible to beat but I had the smallest of chances in the world to maybe catch Lou on a bad pass. Chris and Lou had lane choice and they chose the RT lane as it was hooking better the whole weekend. I tried running the left lane in practice a few times as its always best to run in the bad lane a few times so that if you get the good lane the times should get better.

    Adam ran Chris first with Lou and I sitting in the burnout box waiting are turns. I staged shallow and gave it my best shot but a mishap at the tree with the 2nd amber threw my reaction off and Lou was way way out ahead! After a brief discussion with the track and Lou, it was agreed to do a re run! I had another shot! At this point I had but one option, Cut a perfect light and hope Lou was sleeping, that was all I could hope for! I did my burnout and got them sticky as I could. Stalled it up to 2500 and concentrated hard. Were off! This time I don't see lou's taillights? WTF is going on? I can hear that jet fighter close by but I cant see him?
    At this point I figured I may have won the race. I cant imagine what Lou's thinking, Losing the rematch would have been a hard one to swallow and I was already feeling like a schmuck! Well that didn't last but 1 minute as the time slip clearly show's I red lighted!
    Lou is a true sportsman and beat me hands down twice! So third place was were I stood! I got no issues losing to Lou and Chris, There the baddest of the bad and just to be close to them is enough to make my head spin! Congratulations Chris and Lou for putting it down. Props to the East Coast Heavyweights! Next time Ill bring more, Alot more! LOL!

    Our doors are always open if any of you wanna make the trip!! Nov, Dec, Jan is gonna be good this year around here. Ill be taking advantage of it for sure.

    After the finals I wanted to run some more but for some reason they shut the track down? Spent some time walking the show and meeting folks and then we did the event ceremony. Congratulations to all the winners in the Car Show and all the Bracket racers, Everyone did a great job!

    For some reason, LX Navigational reason's the 17 miles to the hotel took 1.5 hrs LMAO! Ok Ill admit my Iphone Nav had me driving in circles to! That Highway 62 is everywhere in Ohio? I think you can pick any road and at some time you'll see that sign. 62!!

    At 1 point we were 4.2 miles away and 10 minutes later 7.4 miles away. I swear the hotel is supposed to be right here!!!
    We made it back eventually. Funny you can cross the nation and not make a wrong turn but you wanna go 17 miles and you end up drive in circles.

    I learned alot last weekend and really enjoyed myself. We set out Sunday night for the big trip home at 12:00am, Drove all thru the night and got to St Louis in the morning at about 8:00 I think, Stopped at a waffle house with Ozzie and got the third degree from the Missionary Waiter over the Diablo t-shirts we were wearing, LOL!, Once we explained we were not the devil we had a good breakfast!! Then back on the road thru Missouri and then Kansas, which was nuts! Raining sideways for hours it was crazy, We just missed the report of golf ball sized hail that stacked 8" high prior to our run thru there. We also managed to catch back up to Adam and Courtney and do the rest of the drive with them as well.

    Colorado was Beautiful and so was most of Utah, Stopped in Cedar City for food which was quite a experience to say the least, Nothing like 10oz's of gristle!!
    About this time Im starting to get delirious from white line fever!! The last leg of the trip thru Nevada was the worst. With all the weight in the Truck and the trailer on there my headlights were shining up so high I could barely see anymore. We finally pulled off for a couple hours to sleep and I rolled into O.C at 8am
    on friday!

    Not sure when and if Ill be doing that again anytime soon. Had a blast for sure though. I wanna thank everyone at LX Nats for there hospitaility and send a special shout out to Anthony for the event and everyone that made it possible for me to go. I know I probably forgot half the story but Im still not 100%!!

    First my Crew:
    Cam, Ozzie, Mag FX, Braxton, Adam and Courtney!

    And my sponsors:

    Crank This Performance
    S.T. Motorsports
    Kenne Bell
    HHP Racing
    Diablo Sports
    Pedders
    Billit Tech
    BES/Tony Bischoff
    Paramount Performance
    MnH tires
    SMS
    Moroso
    Bob at SVS
    Bogart Racing wheels
    Edge Convertors
    Kooks Headers
    Corsa Exhaust
    Mesa Hose
    LXForums
    SRTConnection
    ChallengerTalk

    Heres a few pics from the trip:

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    Last edited: Jul 26, 2009
  2. HalV48

    HalV48 They Call Me Patron

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    Great writeup Chris. Thanks for sharing

    I hope I can make it next year.
     
  3. Bud

    Bud GG EVO IX MR

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    Jeezus Chris....that's a hell of a writeup. That would have taken me all day! LOL

    The LX community is unique for sure. I'm glad you guys had such a good time!!
     
  4. 1bad4dr

    1bad4dr Mr. Meany

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    Excellent write up brotha. I will MAKE Maureen get you the NM pix today. lol

    yea, that took Chris ALL weekend. hahaha
     
  5. Trojan

    Trojan Trillions Bro! Right on!

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    Thanks guys, I could have kept writing and writing, Im thinking howmuch crap do these people really wanna read! It was fun though and Im almost back to normal!
     
    Last edited: Jul 26, 2009
  6. NorCalSRT-8

    NorCalSRT-8 Performance Consultant

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    Ditto Chris!

    Maybe John, Mao, and I can make the trip out there with you guys and our cars next year.
     
  7. Brad Jones

    Brad Jones New Member

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    Trojan:

    Okay......let me start off by saying that was an EXCELLENT write up! Never have I read a write up that made me feel like I missed out on a hell of an adventure....BUT this one did it for me!!

    I really liked how you kept the "nuts and bolts" to the back and concentrated on telling us about the people and the "good times" and made it about the fun!!

    Shit, this forum might have found it's Earnest Hemingway!! hahaha

    You have tasked me into getting my ass in gear and making strong headway on my car this year so that I can start making my own Hemingway moments!!

    Good job, dude!! And thanks for the pics and first hand reporting.....:D
     
  8. HEMI911

    HEMI911 Platinum Supporting Member

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    Awesomeness dude, thanks for sharing the experience!!!!!
     
  9. LegMaker

    LegMaker LMI - LegMakerIntakes

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    great rundown on your experience!!! it is funny how these cars can have such an effect on us! my drive back to cali for sf 08 gave me similar experiences and stories. the chance to put names and faces together is priceless!!! i know for sure that i will be heading up that way next year!!! maybe with a car that could at least be included with some of the "big boys"!!! lol
     
  10. NetNathan

    NetNathan Not the Momma

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    Great story Chris.
    Glad the trip went so well. I have made a few cross country drives and in the west, Colorado and Utah are on top for the views.

    Great that your car was so reliable.
    Wish I could have gone....Maybe next time.

    ..
     
    Last edited: Jul 26, 2009
  11. mrssrt10

    mrssrt10 New Member

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    I'm glad you guys had a good time!! Guess I should have taken Cam up on his offer to ride along!!

    I am SOOOOOO glad you didn't miss the cross!!! :D:D It is a little hard to see!! :stars:


    I will start downloading the pics now.... sorry for the delay!
     
  12. LegMaker

    LegMaker LMI - LegMakerIntakes

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    weeeeellllllll maureen????? pics????? lol
     
  13. Trojan

    Trojan Trillions Bro! Right on!

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    I wanna see to!! You and Ron shoulda hopped in for the ride! It was short and sweet!! :whistle:
     
  14. 1bad4dr

    1bad4dr Mr. Meany

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    lol You forget, we have already made that drive back in 07. lol
     
  15. mrssrt10

    mrssrt10 New Member

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    Alright! I fed Ron, the pics are downloading now!!! :friends::D
     
  16. Quick

    Quick Mgmt. - I can't help you

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    The MORE the better.
    we didn't get to go :crying: and Cam can't write so you're all we got.
     
  17. mrssrt10

    mrssrt10 New Member

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    Sorry it took so long Chris!! Ya know, I thought Ron took more pics, but this is all I have!!!

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  18. Trojan

    Trojan Trillions Bro! Right on!

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    Sweet!! Those are great Thank you! I thought we had a group shot, Maybe that was somewhere else! Some of the trip was just a blurr!! :headspin:
     
    Last edited: Jul 26, 2009
  19. Stretch

    Stretch Silver Supporting Members

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    That must have been a blast! Long drive, but worth it!
     
  20. mrssrt10

    mrssrt10 New Member

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    Yeah, I thought Ron had taken some group shots... And, he thought I had taken some! Guess that's what happens when I turn the camera over to him!! Hahahahaha :D:D