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Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 Team OBI returns after 10 month hiatus
After a late season engine failure and chassis cert.
expiration sidelined activities, driver Joel Orme decided to take some
time off for family reasons. Upon Joel's return from absence, the Team
OBI crew sent their Wild Street 1988 Ford Mustang In mid July, the Team OBI crew (with new additions including the guys from A.R.E. Performance) set off for a weekend at the historic Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, Ca to get some shake down runs under their belts with all the latest updates. After a 1st run on the motor only to make sure all was good, the crew headed to the staging lanes for the next pass with a nitrous tune up in the car to "see what it could do". The result was a stout pass of 8.38 e.t. @ 171mph (career and car best mph). Unfortunately the nice easy pass turned to total disaster when a fuel regulator problem caused the Mustang to ignite at the top end of the strip and immediately turned into a fire of horrible proportions. The car suffered severe damage from the drivers seat forward to the front bumper before the fire crews could reach it at the end of the track. After the high of seeing the Mustang make an incredible first pass on a small tune up, the Team OBI crew was devastated with the thought that there season was over so quickly. Then in steps Tom Nelson with Team Performance Products. With the fact that the Mustang performed so well on its maiden voyage back to the strip as a sign of things to come, Team Performance Products stepped up as a new major sponsor and played a key role in the Team OBI crew turning what appeared to be a season ending fire into mad dash to rebuild and reassemble. Five days after the fire, the crew began the rebuild process dubbed “The Thrash from Hell”. In just three weeks time, and with help from friends, the crew was able to not only repaint the car, but also replaced the majority of interior components, installed a new windshield, freshened the engine, re-wired and plumbed the whole Mustang and restored it back to a competitive nature. With everything coming down to the wire, the crew got the engine fired back up the afternoon of the next race. With a complete lack of sleep and their fingers crossed Team OBI set off back to Bakersfield for Friday night qualifying. After working out some minor bugs with the car, the team managed one full clean pass to the tune of 8.40 @ 167 during Saturday night eliminations. Even though they suffered a loss to the Camaro of Bob Kopp in the first round, the crew accomplished what they set out to do and could head off to Vegas in another two weeks knowing they had a car they could compete with again. Team OBI would like to give a big thanks to the following companies that we welcome on board as new sponsors: A.R.E. Performance & Machine, Team Performance Products, Circuitz Custom Wiring & DJ Safety We would also like to give a huge thanks to: Tom & Heath Nelson @ Team Performance Products; Rocco, Tony, and Blaire @ A.R.E. Performance & Machine; Orme Brothers Inc.; Darin @ Circuitz Custom Wiring; Joe @ DJ Safety; Damon Rivetti; Tim Albiston; Bill @ Hawaii Racing; Jamie @ Fab-Tech; Danny & Tony @ Fast Intentions; Ken @ Milodon, Central Valley Auto Body, and Mark @ Bent Fabrication for the new custom wing. Without them all this car would not be back together so soon. Team OBI looks forward to attending the upcoming PSCA Fall Nationals in Vegas as well as the Street Car Super Nationals at the end of November. |
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