From Chico Kodama:

This year’s World Final was the best condition I’ve seen in years. Temperature was mid 60s, course was smooth and hard. It was just Tim and myself this time. We packed everything we could in the Duallie and headed for Bonneville.

We tried overdriving the blower by 18%, so we went back to straight Methanol to start, to be on the safe side. Wednesday first run, couldn’t find 4th
gear, so I turned out before mile 2. Ran one more time in the afternoon. Still couldn’t shift into 4th gear. 185MPH at 4th mile. It was running too rich.

Thursday, made another run after leaning it out a little. This time I was able to run through all gears, but still 201MPH. Still way too rich. I was lost in tuning since we went back to Methanol. So we’ve decided to go back to 9% Nitro. You can really tell the difference in tuning. She came alive and pulled hard. Seemed I was going fast enough, but didn’t pull any more from 4th mile to 5th mile. 217.960. little short of record.

Ran so good and I was confident we could get it on the next run. Came back to pit and checked the valve train. Found rocker shaft nut backed out all the way and broke a shaft. Damaged push rod and rocker arm. That ended our attempt for World Final.

Every time we go, we think we can do it this time, but it’s always something gets in a way of getting it done. People say that’s racing, but…

We’ll have to wait until Speed Week next year.