Dan Fletcher -The End of the 2021 Season!

What up Peak Squad

The 2021 NHRA Drag Racing season has come to a close, and while I didn’t have as good of a year as Team PEAK head honcho John Force, Dan Fletcher Racing didn’t do too badly! We were fortunate enough to escape from Upstate New York and make our exodus to North Carolina right before last winter, so that meant the racing season started for us in February at the local tracks. February, like the month that comes after January. When I’d generally be ass deep in snow and out plowing the mean streets of the city of Rochester, instead we were out doing smoky burnouts at tracks as close as 30 miles away from the house. I don’t think my PEAK antifreeze even had a chance to open the truck’s thermostat!

And I’m not kidding when I say 30 miles; this NC deal is truly a mecca for the racing enthusiast. We landed in a suburb of Raleigh where we have super nice local tracks that are super convenient to get to. The local tracks run excellent bracket racing programs, and I’m glad to ride over and take my shot whenever scheduling permits. Well, here is where it’s going to sound like I’m bragging, but we’re even pitted in a great location for many of the NHRA national events. The Bellagio of drag strips, Z Max Dragway is the host of the two Charlotte events, and it’s a mere 2 hours and 45 minutes away. Richmond is even closer at a smooth 2 hours, its Bristol Baby is four and a half and the Gator Nats at Gainesville Raceway is a nice, flat 7 and a half ride down I95. Heck, one of my closest races at 6 hours was Maple Grove when we lived in NY, and that’s only stretched to 7 and a half!

But enough of that rosy picture scenario BS; in true Dan Fletcher form, please allow me to get back to the crying and complaining I’m known best for. One track that went the wrong way for the travel deal is Summit Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. And I mean way the wrong way!  This used to be our closest race and nicest tow at about 5 hours and 300 miles. This is now virtually our furthest away race and most miserable tow at 11 hours and 650 miles. And when I say miserable, I mean miserable! Route 77 through West Virginia has to be the worst road ever for towing. Up and down cliffs with no opportunity to get a head of steam, traffic, tolls, and not so well maintained to say the least. But even with all that said, I was actually looking forward to the 2021 event this past summer. Just my bride of 32 years and I were making the trip, and for once we were leaving early, so it was going to be a nice, mellow, not in a hurry whatsoever kind of trip.

Well that lasted for a hot minute. We had left in the afternoon on a Tuesday, not needing to be to the track till sometime Wednesday afternoon. We pointed  85’ of motor home and trailer into the Walmart located in, believe it or not, Ripley, West Virginia, and called it a night. At that point, the most rugged part of route 77 was behind us, so we were in good shape for the next day. As I said, we were in no particular hurry, so after fluffing the pillows for a few extra winks Wednesday am, we toddled inside the store to buy a couple of things. I thought I noticed some moisture under the front of the truck when we walked by going in, but when we came back out I was sure of it. I was hoping for a radiator hose, but no such luck. My 2003 Freightliner’s original radiator had decided it was time to call it a career.

Well now. As I have far too many times in my tenure of being a traveling drag racer, I found myself in quite the pickle. We were still several hundred miles away from the track, but already several hundred miles away from the house. Given that we were in a safe and secure location, filling it up and trying to get to one destination or the other didn’t seem like the brightest idea. But then again, as hard as I searched, I couldn’t find any Freightliner radiators for a CAT C15 engine on the shelf in the Wally World. A quandary I say.

Well, somehow, someway, like most of my disasters, things always seem to work out. Somewhat unlucky to have the radiator go south on a trip instead of the driveway, but super, super lucky that a Fleet Pride 30 miles to the north somehow had one in stock. Moreover, the counter guy there had a mobile repair guy recommendation that wasn’t too far away who was able to come to the rescue. I gave Fleet Pride a credit card that somehow went through and mobile repair guy picked up the radiator and came to me in the Walmart parking lot. By the time he got there I had the radiator ready to come out, and he and I handled the swap over the next couple of hours.

And while Walmart might not have had the radiator I needed on the shelf, they did have the coolant I needed, PEAK Final Charge Global. I don’t know if I was the only guy at the checkout that day with 10 gallons of antifreeze in his buggy, but I can damn well tell you I was the happiest. Calamity struck that morning in the form of a large, green puddle, but by later that afternoon the new PEAK coolant was pumping through the Big Cat like no one’s business. I could have been stranded there for days waiting on parts, but we were on the road and at the track by the end of the day. All things considered, it could have been much more worser for sure. Worser, bad. Gooder, good, lol?

So while I don’t know much, I know this much; the actual on track racing is hard, and race cars can and often do break parts, but I promise you with this gig, getting there is half the battle, and most of the time the other half is just getting home!

Until next time, #PEAKSQUAD out…