For the Adventure – How Jordan Boudreaux’s Sick Week Was Saved on Day One by a Fellow Competitor and an Unlikely Solution
“Along comes a really unsuspecting savior. Our pal in his completely stock Silverado, a kid more stary eyed than even myself and Jordan Boudreaux were a couple hours ago after running our near perfect 8.502.
Frustrated and spent, from wracking our brains on what we were going to do, Eric in his 17-second 2009 Silverado had exactly what we needed on board.”
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This week’s “For the Adventure – Stories from the Road” comes from Dylan Peacock, co-pilot on Jordan Boudreaux’s 2002 Ford Mustang that competes on Sick Week’s 275 Street Race class. Sidelined on day one of Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive 2022, Dylan and Jordan thought their week was over, until fellow competitor Eric Cowell got them back on track with an unusual fix:
Here’s a story of how a kid, sleeping in his 17-second truck for the week, on the inaugural Sick Week 2022, saved our week entirely after our scavenge pump died within eyesight of Bradenton Motorsports Park on day one.
Here’s us (Dylan and Jordan), the tried, proven, experienced, raced, and prepared 8-second street car at the absolute mercy of a kid just living his dream alongside us. All thanks to his ring sizer, we are now three-time podium finishers in the tightest finishing class in drag-and-drive right now.
What started as any two stary eyed friends, myself and Jordan Boudreaux, striking out for a hopeful 8-second anything average in the 275 Street Race class with his 2002 Mustang Cobra.
It was nearly ended as quickly as it began when our turbo oil scavenge pump died. Rendering us immobile right outside the gates of Bradenton Motorsports Park after running a fantastic 8.52 to start the week, and setting our competitive bar for what would be the following two years of Sick Week 8.50 racing to come.
So as described, our day started out great. Hoping just to really participate, and instead finding ourselves in the second position after racing Day one with our 8.505 behind on only RC Flint's perfect 8.500. With a car that Jordan Boudreaux had driven many, many times in the weeks leading up to Sick Week, we felt the drive was going to be the least of our worries. Oh how we were wrong.
After a short trip east into town for fuel; a little 87 octane for the car and a couple hundred milligrams of caffeine for our duo (we had no idea how bad we would need it), we hit the road west to Orlando. This is where our troubles began.
It was about halfway between the gas station and Bradenton Motorsports Park when the car first bellowed its first load of oil out of the bullhorns, scaring us, the regular traffic, and every mosquito in Manatee County to this day.
We hit a shady spot on the side of the road, at first thinking we had managed to scatter our entire operation just idling through the series of round-abouts we were in. It didn’t take long to use our highly calibrated noses and taste buds to identify we had oil in places we shouldn’t.
We began trouble shooting, and really couldn’t find anything wrong. All vitals were fine, fluid levels were acceptable (despite what had made it through our turbo and bullhorns), and the electrical connectors were all moving electrons as expected.
We stood around, decided maybe it was some sort of fluke and decided we should hit the road again, noses out the window ready for the first hint of some free smells. Wouldn’t you know, the problem didn’t fix itself.
After probably another two miles and another smoke out, we were within eyesight of Bradenton Motorsports Park again. We shut our freight train, disguised as a 2002 Mustang Cobra, down and coasted into the pits.
By this point, we figured we had a scavenge pump problem. The turbo relies on a scavenge pump in order to pull used oil from the turbo, back into the engine. It seems that despite all the previous street miles Jordan Boudreaux had put on the car, the pump was simply not down to pump no mo'. Our suspicion is that after a brief drive of constant running, the pump was heating up, losing tolerance inside, and locking up.
This would explain why during the day, racing was no issue and after cooling on the side of the road, it operated as it should during our initial troubleshooting. So we got our lambo-feeties and Chevrolets fired up, and went around to the remaining racers in desperate search of a new pump.
With no luck, we began racing mentally on how we could replace or repair the pump, and make a band aided situation to get us headed west. We certainly weren’t going to take no for an answer. We went through a barrage of ideas and suggestions before settling on trying to simply move the return line, bypass the pump, and let gravity to do the rest.
With the sun setting and ideas along with it, the turbo LS fired up and pointed its nose and our sights on Orlando ‘Sick’ World Dragway. We hoped that gravity would get the job done despite the turbo's placement, front and center of the car's grille not being ideal sans its oil pump.
As the car warmed up, cruising along the highway, we eyed for signs of more oil overflow out of the turbo’s seals and back into the exhaust closely. Nearing the one mile mark, things were good. Then the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th mile came. We had now made it further than the failed pump had allowed us thus far. Maybe we were onto something! Wrong.
As we passed the likes of Tom Bailey himself, also broken just outside Bradenton Motorsports Park on day one, and had finally settled down a little ourselves. Our freight training mosquito Cobra returned.
This time we knew were in a bit of a bind. We were now behind the calvary of other racers, so parts would be even less available. During our efforts, the idea of blocking oil flow to the turbo had crossed our minds several times, but you can't simply starve a turbo of oil, can you? But one thing we knew was, the drain can’t overflow past the turbo is there’s no oil draining into it.
As the sun got lower, we furiously tore apart the front of the car and began unloading the trailer for any MacGyver solution we could come up with. We had one or two racers stop by, but with nothing viable to help, and their own delays to deal with, they hit the road while we basically pounded sand in the field we had stopped in.
We had a limited set of AN and brass fittings to work with, and seemingly nothing was going to play nice to stop the flow of oil to the turbo. So our last best idea was also not looking great. But wouldn’t you know, after a little "ah-ha" moment, the spare CO2 bottle we had brought along had an odd, but exactly the assortment of fittings we needed to block off the oil feed using the CO2's regulator itself.
By this time it is nearly dark, and almost no racers or traffic are left to give us the final pieces we would need to make this a viable fix. The biggest of which was something to block the turbo from spinning. With the CO2 regulator blocking oil flow to the turbo, we figured that the only reason a turbo needed oil was because it spun. If it didn’t spin, it wouldn’t need oil.
So backwards thinking says if we take away the oil, we need to take away the spin. We had our entire trailer of tools strown about, looking for something that we could block the turbo fins with, without blocking it off entirely so the engine could still breath and chew up the miles we still had ahead of us. Everything we had seemed too small, too large, no way to secure it, etc.
Along comes a really unsuspecting savior. Our pal in his completely stock Silverado, a kid more stary eyed than even myself and Jordan Boudreaux were a couple hours ago after running our near perfect 8.502. Frustrated and spent, from wracking our brains on what we were going to do...Eric in his 17 second 2009 Silverado had exactly what we needed on board.
After some rustling around his tool box, out comes a ring sizer of all things. Now, I can’t say I have ever seen a ring sizer anywhere except places that sell rings. This dusty field was far from a place you'd expect to find the perfect piece to secure Jordan Boudreaux's giant 94-millimeter PTE turbo from burning itself up with its oil feed cutoff.
The ring sizer was key, though. Small enough to fit between the blades of the turbo, sturdy enough to chalk the turbo, long enough to reach the grille support where we needed to attach it, and not a key component of someone’s operation that we could freely borrow for a week if needed.
Such a simple, random, but perfect item from the unlikeliest of people and vehicles on the tour to save our week. With Eric's ring sizer stuffed in the turbo, secured by the finest Harbor Freight race fasteners, we were finally on the road to Orlando ‘Sick’ World Dragway, where we had a new pump waiting for us if we could just get there.
Mile after mile, Redbull after Redbull, we churned through the checkpoints and made it to our hotel and our new pump. Adam Mednolla with Midnight Fabrication, another guy we had never met or raced with, decided that instead of waiting until the morning and performing a race track repair, we should just swap the scavenge pump that night.
Now, that "night" was being generous, as it was well into the AM hours by this time. But sometime still before breakfast, we had the car apart, pump swapped, couple of well deserve beers shared, and the car back in action.
So this ring sizer may just seem like it was a neat little fix on the side of the road, and Adam just another stand up racer ready to help. But for Jordan and myself, just simply making it to day two was huge for us. As success on days 2, 3, 4, and 5 of year 1 would set us on a path to some of the most enjoyable racing, adventures, and friends that this sport and wild flavor of drag-and-drive can offer.
Jordan's Cobra has found itself in the top three of the 275 Street Race class for three years consecutive, since that day Eric's ring sizer saved the day for us. The final round battles with Lujan, the Busch Latte bets with Jackstand Jimmy, Hooters dates with the "S2000 guys" (RC Flint and Adam Bronson), none of that comes around without Eric's contribution.
And if you're wondering, yes, we keep the ring sizer to this day. The car doesn’t go anywhere without this crucial piece of memorabilia onboard.
We had considered tracking down Eric and returning this, but turns out he didn't need it anymore. Because if you'll recall, it all made sense on why he had it in the first place. Eric proposed to his girlfriend and co-pilot that year at Sick Week. So, placing a ring on her finger was a little more important than his savior sizer he gave us.
Sometimes, I am more jealous of Eric than I even am appreciative. To have such an appetite for happiness and simplicity in racing a 17-second truck, his mind only on having Dr. Tune Em All load up a nitrous tune for him so he could finally spray the truck on the final day of the week.
Thanks Eric; thanks for saving our week, and enabling many more memories than we ever could’ve imagined.
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