Well the season has come to an end, and it is time now to start getting ready for next year. While the Fire & Ice team did not have a spectacular season, we tried our hardest each time we went out and improved throughout the season. We are starting to figure out what we will try doing over the winter to improve the truck more next season.

The last point's pull that we had of the season was in Trumansburg on Aug. 23, 2002. We surprised a lot of people when we pulled in to the pull since we had missed the pull in Bath the week before due to the blown head gasket. Everyone thought that we were done for the season and were very surprised when we pulled in. The engine sounded real strong after the valves were adjusted up and we were hoping that the truck would run as good as it sounded. The pull started out good, the engine was coming up like it should, and then the truck veered to the left of the track. The left front axle broke; somehow Paul managed to pull the truck back to the right so that he kept from going out of bounds. Because of the axle breaking we ended up finishing last. This was really disappointing because the engine was finally there like it should be. We think that this was part of the reason why the axle broke, for the first time the power was to the wheels and it put too much torque on the axle.

This finished out the point's pulls for the season. Overall we ended up finishing 16th in points for the ATPA Sportsman Series for the Central New York Pullers Division. After Trumansburg we had a day to get the axle fixed so that we could take the truck to Brookfield. So that Saturday in the rain Paul and Fred replaced the axle. When they pulled the broken axle out, they discovered that it had broke off clean. Fred thinks that the axle was weak to begin with since it broke so cleanly. The axle was fixed so we went to Brookfield on Sunday August 25, 2002. When we got there it was to find a bunch of mud all over the place. We pulled in and it reminded us of the scene of Sharon Springs all over again, mud, mud and more mud. They finally decided when we were going to run and Paul was test puller so he was first. He eased the truck out and about 50 feet started to get into the throttle, and the unthinkable happened. First the front passenger wheel started to wobble and then the driver's side. The next thing we saw was the truck sitting still with the back wheels spinning, but the truck wasn't going anywhere. Paul managed to back up to get unhooked and drove off the track. He figured that he would see what was wrong and that he could re-hook later in the class. Well he pulled into the pits and saw that the wheel u-joint on the axle was broke, he originally thought it was only one side so he was thinking about trying to pull in 3-wheel drive, but we decided this might cause more damage than it was worth. So he went to drive the truck to the trailer and it wouldn't move. Not only did he break both wheel u-joints (1 on each side) the transmission went also. The only thing that worked was a little bit of reverse, but drive was gone. So for the second time this season we had to winch the truck onto the trailer. At least this time it was during the day and we were only an hour from home!

Due to this breakage we were really thinking about just calling it quits for the season and starting to rebuild for the 2003 season. However we had a bunch of people that wanted to have the truck at the Wild Wheels Weekend Pull in Mt Upton September 21, 2002. After a lot of searching we managed to find a new front end for the truck, and the transmission went back to Dave. The truck finally got back together the week before the pull, between swapping front axles and getting the transmission back in it got finished up on the morning of Sept. 20, right before it went to Mt. Upton for the weekend. Friday we had the truck on display after Paul did some test runs on the track with the sled. He discovered that with the track conditions and the sled that was there he could not run the 5800lb classes because he bounced too much. This wasn't too much of a concern since for the points we run 6200lbs. Friday night Paul ran the truck at the test & tune, it was running real good down the track and about the 200ft mark something came flying out from underneath the truck. The bolt for the harmonic balancer broke and that is what allowed it to come shooting out of the truck, luckily no one was hurt when this happened. Paul not knowing what happened continued on down the track further until he was stopped at the end.

This of course brought the problem of trying to find another bolt to fix it before the pull Saturday night when we were going to be busy all day with the pull. On top of the balancer coming out we needed to replace the water pump belt that broke. Friday night other committee members and Fred were calling around or looking for parts that would fix the truck. Saturday morning Bill (Beth's brother) ended up running around and finally located a bolt and a belt from an old Maytag washing machine that would work to fix the truck. Fred started working on the truck after 3pm and had it fixed to run that night. Paul ran in the 6200lb classes and went 266.1 the first class and 253.5 the second class. He had to take it easy since the bolt was still loosening up for the balancer and we did not want a repeat of Friday night to happen. These were probably the best runs we had all year. It looks like we might finally be getting things to come together like they should.

This was our last pull of the season. We are displaying the truck for a couple of sponsors on October 19, 2002 and then we will probably start taking the truck apart to work on it for next year. We are currently in the process of getting the proposal done, and will have it too you as soon as possible. We would like to give our current sponsors first chance to come back with us next year. We are hoping to get the engine freshened over the winter, and we will have Dave check the transmission and transfer case to make sure everything is good to go for next year. We also hope to get a new set of tires for the truck, since the ones we have currently are getting badly weather checked.

We hope that you enjoyed having your name on the side of the truck for the 2002 season, and would welcome you back on next year. That is all for this season, it is now time to look towards the 2003 season. Thank you for your support this season, without you what we accomplished this season would not have been possible. If you have any questions, comments or concerns please feel free to contact us.