December 7, 2008 we were back at Speedworld Dragstrip for another Club Day. The weather wasn't a typical Valley of the Sun day. We were met with overcast clouds all day and temperatures in the 50's. The weather and some regular participants who suffered some mechanical troubles in the weeks before today seem to limit the car count this time. We really thought the cooler temperatures would have really brought out the racers, given how hot it was at our last outing in June. Gates opened at 9 in the morning and we started making runs at about 11. The cold track and limited rubber laid down made traction some what limited for most racers. I know my 60' times were off 2 tenths from the previous weekend without any changes to the car.
Steve and I showed up early Sunday morning. We were getting the cars off loaded when Donnie Henson showed up in his 97 Corvette. Donnie ran some 14.0's during the 1st PVHR meet, even making it to the finals. That was his first experience bracket racing. He was back again with two goals, break into the 13's with a bone stock Corvette with the 300 horse engine, and go a few rounds. (Sorry Donne, the picture came out fuzzy!)
Steve Curry had his Olds Starfire out for more testing. This was only the second time Steve's had the car out to make some full track passes. This is an ex-Pro Stock car from the mid 70's. Steve built a big block Olds that makes about 600 horsepower. Not having his license yet, he's limited to 10.0 passes. Even with the traction issues Steve did still make a few mid 10 second runs. We're looking at some more testing right after the first of the year.
I had my GS out for the second time with slicks. Last weekend I went 12.12 at 108 mph with 1.63 60' times. This weekend I was held in the mid 12.20's with 60 time in the 1.70's and one dip into the 1.6's with a 1.69. The MPH was still at 108, even hitting 108.6 mph which was the best mph from the two weekends. My standard leave was to stage at idle and hammer the throttle. Sunday I was getting a dead spot bog at the launch. I guess it's time to start playing with the timing and the shooters in the carb for the next outing.
Mike Schuur showed up with his 2000 Mustang GT. Mike recently swapped in a Ford crate motor, one of the Aluminator motors. Essentially an aluminum four cam Cobra motor set up for forced induction. This was Mikes first time with the combo at the track but it still yielded some 12 second time slips. Mike says next time he'll be there with real slicks to work on the launch times!
Hank
Watson was out again running his 2007 Eclipse. Hank said he was only going to
make a few time runs and wasn't planning on running the bracket. After a little
good hearted razzing, Hank kicked in his 20 bucks and ran the bracket. Hank said
he's be gone after the first round, but actually made it to the second round!
The 74 Vega was driven by Ron Shelly. This car can run into the 9's, but because
he didn't have a current license he had to keep it in the 10's. The Vega uses
big block power to get down the track.
Rules
also kept Jim Perry Jr. at a 13.50 max ET due to the drop top on his 05 Mustang.
With the centrifugal blower, this car can easily run deep in the 12's if not
further if he wasn't restricted. Convertibles have to have a rollbar to go
quicker than 13.50.
Hank Mager read about our gathering on the High Performance Stangs web site. He just moved out here, coming from Illinois and figured he see what was going on. Hanks 427R Roush was putting down some mid 12's on a set of well worn drag radials. Hank and I met in the first round of eliminations. I'm sure both of us impressed spectators and racers alike when we both turned on the red light! I was lucky enough to be dialing a 12.30 to Hanks 12.60 which meant his red light came on first handing me the unearned victory. But not wanting to be inconsistent, I did the same thing again in the second round racing Ron's Vega.
Rambo got out to the track late and only made one run before eliminations. Rambo dialed an 11 flat against Ron's Vega, but turned on the big red eye in the process.
We had a brief drivers meeting at about 1:15. Since we had an odd number of cars we drew names out of a hat to see who got the first round bye run. Mike Morales and his SS Trailblazer were the recipient of the bye.
Well, Donnie reached his first goal of breaking out of the 14's on this day, he ran a best of 13.94. However, dialing in at a 14.00 he again turned on the red light in the first round, handing the win to Hank and his Eclipse. Hey look at it this way Donnie, I did it twice in eliminations!
We were at an uneven number of racers by the time we reached the semi-finals. We used the winners time from the previous and whoever was closest to their dial in received the bye, and once again, Mike took the solo into the finals after making a low 14 second run in his 400 horse Trailblazer. Ron and his Vega raced Jim and his Mustang. Ron came out the winner on this round.
Ron gave up about a 4 second head start to Mike but cut a good light and managed to run Mike down to take the win. While the fastest car won today, that's not always the case. If you can cut a good reaction time off the line and run close to your dial in, the slower can win.
Steve gave me a lot of these pictures as well as some video. Once I get that edited, I'll post some of those as well.
Well, we'll probably look at doing another race sometime in February or March, but until then we're thinking about doing a few Test & Tunes that are more laid back then the racing. We can pit together, make a bunch of time runs and work on the tune up. With no race to worry about, we can even break out a couple of grills and burn some lunch!
