Going rounds at Cayuga Dragway and a surprise phone call from John Force for the Castrol Team!

Cayuga, Ontario (Sept 2011) The 2011 season has been one of the most up-and-down seasons the Castrol Syntec Team has had since it began in 2001. Since my last update, we’ve had quite a few technical upsets, but the season evened out with some positive moments at the track.

As you all should know, I could not be more happy about my new 565 Chevy engine that brought me into the seven-second range for the first time this year. I reached my fastest-ever speed of 176 mph with an E.T. of 7.54 seconds, but have since had to put that engine away for the rest of the season. After going through one transmission this year already, I exchange my spare transmission for a Dedenbear to make for my third swap this year. Unfortunately, we still seemed to have some problems with this transmission at my race at Cayuga Dragway of Toronto Motorsports Park (TMP) on June 25th. My transbrake did not hold at the line and when I took off, the car came to a stop as fast as it had taken off! Nothing a few trips to the chiropractor can’t fix.

Shawna warming up the hides before her run

We made a few alterations and tested the transbrake back at the pits and everything seemed to work fine. On my second time trial, we had the same problem happen at the starting line again. This was not only a big upset but also a big stress on the new engine since the car came to a stop so quickly on two occasions. Once we were back at my pit, a plethora of racers came to inspect the situation and help figure out what the problem was. At one point there were a total of 16 racers surrounding the back half of my car! After several tries of a number of different strategies, no one was able to get it working. We had no choice but to pack up for the weekend and try to figure out the problem at a later date.

Shawna's pit full of fellow racers and crew, always willing to lend a hand

My Dad and I ended up back at Carl Spiering’s shop to test out the car and come to a conclusion about the problem. We had narrowed it down to an incorrect setting in the delay box or an internal pressure problem in the transmission. Turns out it was both of these combined! Unfortunately, after we finally got the car to take off properly, we realized that the engine did not sound right. Carl and my Dad spent the day at his shop taking the engine out of my car and opened her up to find that the crank was damaged. This was a huge upset for the Castrol Syntec team and made for a total of three transmissions and one entire engine that went this season.

We have since put the old 468 Chevy engine back in my car, which we like to call the “happy motor.” It has been very consistent and I’ve been able to win quite a few rounds. Of course, the difference of going from 1050 hp back down to 760 hp is huge, but I can’t complain because I’m back on the track. The only problem is that now I have so much to look forward to for next year because I know what going faster feels like and I have to wait the whole winter to experience it again.

Even though we have had some upsets this year, I had probably one of the best weekends of my life on Labour Day weekend at Cayuga Dragway. It was the DSE Sportsman Racing Series put on by Andrew Stirk and I knew it would be my last race at TMP this season. I had originally received an invitation to go see the Mac Tools US Nationals in Indianapolis by Jim Katis who is a Mac Tools distributor that represents my Dad’s shop, Classic Radiator. Unfortunately, I knew I had a race that weekend and my race schedule comes before any other summer plans.

 As it turns out, I would have had the opportunity to be pitted beside John Force himself! Had I of known this at the time, I would have definitely accepted the invitation. I would gladly miss a race if it meant I got to meet such a big drag racing legend because I’d love to learn some tricks from the pros. But, since I already declined the invitation, it was too late to go back on my word and I turned my disappointment into excitement for the weekend ahead of me. On Saturday, I had just returned from my third time trial and headed to the motor-home to do my routine cell phone check. Yesss, I know I should not be focusing on my cell phone at the track but come on, I am still a gossipy teenager at heart! So when I picked up my Blackberry and saw 16 missed calls from a Private Caller I was a little worried! Within minutes, my cell phone was ringing again and the caller-display read Private Caller. I answered the phone and was greeted with an unmistakable voice saying “Hello, John Force Here!” You’d have to ask my Mom what my face looked like, but I can only imagine I was a mix between a deer caught in headlights and a child on Christmas day. After I stuttered out a response and ran outside to my dad yelling “DAD, JOHN FORCE IS ON THE PHONE,” his next statement was “why aren’t you here?” I could not believe I was speaking to John Force on the phone, let alone that he was aware and concerned about my existence! Unfortunately we were both at a race track, which as you know, is a very loud place so it was hard for me to make out every word of the conversation but I was on speaker phone with both John Force and Kenny Bernstein. I told them I had just come back from my last time trial and that I wish I was able to be at their race. They totally understood and the conversation ended with John Force saying “I cannot wait to meet you in the future.” I told him it was my dream to be out there racing with the pros and that hopefully one day I’d be on the track with them! It was an absolutely thrilling experience to talk to my heroes on the phone and it’s amazing to think that they took the time out of their day to make mine. Even though I didn’t win the weekend, I was able to make it to the third round on both Saturday and Sunday, but my weekend was already complete when I hung up my cell phone. A huge thank you goes out to Jim Katis for making it happen!

Editor's Note: As I was at the track when Shawna receivied the call from John Force and Kenny Bernstein wishing her well on her race, it was all smiles as you can see in the photo above all weekend long for Shawna!

The call from John Force will be in my memory forever, but for now the Castrol Syntec team will be heading to Pittsburgh Raceway Park for the Silver Mine $10,000 race this weekend, September 16-18th. I’m also hoping to squeeze in the Halloween Classic at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk in October. Other than that, it’s back to school for my third year at the University of Guelph to keep me busy again over the winter. It’s going to take a lot of studying and distractions to keep me from thinking about that seven-second rush!
    
Shawna

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