Horne's First Time at U.S. Nationals

Thursday, September 3 - Douglas starts his Indy weekend early with another first, he enters the inagural Eric Medlen Memorial Golf Tournament at Eagles Creek Golf Club to benefit the Peyton Manning Children's Hospital at St. Vincents.  This is Doug's first attempt at Golf  (except mini-golf), but with the help of his team, Greg, Gutherie, Jerry and Mike he has a great time and gets some good tips to continue to learn the game.

Friday, September 4 - Douglas begins another race at a new track, this time the biggest race of the year, the 55th Mac Tools US Nationals presented by Lucas Oil.  With beautiful weather the first session of qualifying is set for 5:30 pm.  Doug runs a 7.087 at 186.92 mph landing him in the #8 spot. 

Saturday, September 5 -  Doug begins day 2 of his first trip to the "Big Go" at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianpolis.  In the second session of qualifying Doug runs a 7.11 at 187.13 to now sit 11th, the team is continuing to try to find the cause of the tire spin at the launch.  For the third session the team thinks they found the problem but have the bike set up conservative.  At the launch the bike bogs hard but with the S&S motor it is able to recover and still runs a 7.134 @ 187.31 mph, leaving him 12th going into Sunday's final qualifying runs.

Sunday, September 6 - After two days of good weather the day starts wtih rain around 5am and cotinues until early afternoon.  At approximately 4pm we are able to attempt another pass and are told that this will be the 4th and final pass in qualifying,  With the information gained from the third session the bike still bogs but the S&S motor tuned by Matt Gross runs in the back hafl to a 7.020 at 188.94 mph.  Doug has to settle for the 9th spot for his first Monday elimination at Indy.

                                   Doug starts from the bottom half of the pack

Monday, September 7 -  The day starts with driver introductions, the first time in three races due to rain at Brainard and Reading.  Being in the #9 spot, Doug and Eddie Kraawiec will be in the first pair out.  (At NHRA the number 1 qualifier gets to pick where they want to run, then #2 picks, and so on, but #8 & #9 qualifiers always get to start round 1 as the first pair out).  The team sets the bike up the same as the last qualifying pass.  Doug leaves first and runs a 7.048 at 184.22 mph to Eddie Krawiec who runs a 7.039 at 185.61 mph.  Doug's .031 reaction time to Eddies .049 was the difference at the finish by about a wheel length.  For round two Doug will pair up with the number on qualifier and former champion Mastt Smith on the Nitro Fish Susuzki.  Matt ran a 6.98 in the first roun to defeat Doug's teammat Junior Pippin on the Pirahna Z, Stone Mountain H-D Buell.  The team knew thier work was cut out for them.  Doug leaves first with a .008 reaction time and runs a 7.164 @ 182.55 to Matt's package of .111,  7.106 @ 184.47.  For two rounds Doug has done his job as a rider. 

For the semi-finals the team goes back to try to find the reason for the decrease in power in the bike.  Clutch tuner Gary Tonglet makes changes in the gearing and fuel injection, tuner Matt Gross attempts to make changes to the map.  In the semi-finals Doug runs Micheal Phillips and again leaves first with a .007 reaction time and the bike again runs a 7.166 @ 180.57 to Phillips 7.052 @ 188.15.  For the first time this season the bike slows even after several changes.  Doug remained #5 in the countdown and now the points reset for the final five races in Pro Stock Motorcycle. 

Doug stated "after my first time at Indy I can see what all the hype is about with people like "Big Daddy" Don Garlits in attendance, and all he's done for teh sport and the large number of car entries and fans that came despite the weather."  "I feel we made a good showing, met alot of new fans, stayed solid in the countdown and my reaction times returend from earlier in the season."  "I feel the team will figure out the power issue and we can head into Charlotte and the countdown ready to race to the end." 

Doug would like to thank all his crew members, Junior Pipin, Rick Maney, Chesapeake Harley Davidson, Maryland Portable Concrete, Denso spark plugs, and Cecil County Dragway for their continued support.