SS3 Race Team

2009 Season Recap

We attended 10 Nostalgia events this year. Eight of them were NPCA events.  We won 3 events, took 2^nd in 2 events, broke in 3 events, lost 1^st round in 1 event and got rained out in 1 event.  We had rain at every event. One was a total rain out, eight had rain delays and the Kansas City event had a few sprinkles – enough to say we had rain, but not enough to cause a delay.

The first event of the year we blew a head gasket and torched the heads.  The second event we had tire shake so bad it drove the fuel pump drive out and stalled the car.  Not a good way to start the season.  But after that we were on a roll. We ended up 2^nd in points.  It came down to the last race, in Bowling Green, KY.

Steve had a few driving challenges – see the video of the Cordova “sideways” burnout and the picture of the sideways launch at Havana, a couple of red lights, and a breakout at Norwalk, but he also had some great reaction times, which included a couple of hole shot wins.

This was our first full year in the Pro Comp I class (7.00 index) and to come in 2^nd was a MAJOR accomplishment.

Even at the events that we lost or got rained out, we enjoyed ourselves.  This NPCA group just loves to party.  We eat, drink, laugh, pull pranks on each other and just have a great time.  We will be going to the NPCA banquet in mid November, and I just can’t wait. That will be a great party.

Steve already has the car in the shop, the tranny and torque convertor out.  Both went back to the builders for inspection and minor repairs.  Over the winter he will be replacing the 540ci Merlin block with a 572ci Keith Black Alum block. He will also be adding a new rear end and new slicks. Watch out King Richard, we are beefing up and coming after you.  As Steve completes these major renovations, I will update the “Tech Talk” section of this site, so check that out.

Goodguys Nostalgia Nationals

Beech Bend Raceway, Bowling Green, KY

October 16 – 18, 2009

 We had left the truck, trailer and race car in Indy after the Quick 8 race in Havana.  We flew back to Indy Thursday the 15^th.  We landed at 10:30 am picked up the rig and headed toward Beech Bend Raceway.  We had to make 2 quick stops first.  One stop at Dicks Sporting Goods for a propane heater ( the forecast called for nighttime temps in the 30’s) and the other stop was for food.  The food of course was a necessity and as it turned out, so was the heater.

 We arrived at the track late afternoon.  It was cloudy, breezy and only about 50 degrees with on again off again light rain.  We had two qualifying runs scheduled for Friday – one late morning and the other late afternoon, but the cloudy, breezy, light rain continued all day and evening, so those runs didn’t happen.  The NPCA gang got together Friday evening for food, drinks, and fooling around, so all was not lost.

 We again had two qualifying runs scheduled for Saturday.  It remained cloudy all day, but the rain held off, so we did get those runs in.  The first run put us in the #5 spot with a 7.24 and 182 mph.  The second run got us the #1 spot with a 7.12 and 188 mph.  With the cloudy skies and temps in the low 50’s, the track was cold. Most of the cars had a hard time going from A to B.  Our car made complete runs, but it used up the entire lane.  Steve came very close to crossing the center line on the first run.

 We came to this race in the #2 spot in points – only 34 points behind the leader.  To take over the lead we needed to go 2 rounds more than the leader, Richard Edwards.  There were 9 cars in our class.  Because we were the #1 qualifier we had a bye run first round and ran a 7.14 and 193 mph.  Richard won his first round, so for us to take the points lead we needed him to lose the next round.  We were up against a tough opponent the second round, but took the win with a 7.11 and 164 mph.  Unfortunately Richard won his second round also, so that made it impossible for us to pass him up in points.  Our third round we ran against Shawn Evans.  Shawn told Steve that his car was “hurt” and couldn’t run the number, so he gave Steve some advise – “Don’t red light and don’t break out”.  Steve had a .217 reaction time, ran 7.61 and 129 mph for the win.  Richard won his round also, so we were against him in the final.  Steve ran 7.04 and 190 mph to his 7.09 and 191 mph, but we lost due to that red light that Steve turned on.  So we came in second in the race and second in the points. Not bad for our first full year in Pro Comp I class.

Nostalgia Altered Quick 8

Midstate Dragway, Havana, IL

October 4, 2009

 This was a non NPCA race that “popped up” last minute.  The truck, trailer and race car were parked in Indy after the Kansas City race, so we decided to fly to Indy, pick up the rig, and drive to Havana. 

We arrived in Indy late morning on Saturday, collected the truck and trailer and got to the track by a 3:00 pm. It was cold, breezy and raining, and we were the only people there.  Finally around 5:00 pm more teams started coming in.  We set up our pit area then stood around a camp fire and talked until it got so cold we couldn’t stay out any longer.  Sunday started out cool, but it was sunny and cloud free, so it warmed up nicely.

Midstate Dragway is an eighth mile track, with a tricky shut down area.  We were there in August for an NPCA race, and we ran on a 4.50 index.  We won that event by running a 4.502 in the final round.  This race was not an index race, but a bracket race using a handicapped pro tree.  Because Steve had such a hard time stopping the car when he ran in the 4.50’s, we decided to slow it down to 4.75 or 4.80.  Steve put the biggest pulley he had on the supercharger.  One of the other racers remarked that it looked like we were using one of the trailer wheels for a pulley.

Our first time trial was at 11:30, we ran 4.752 and 146 mph.  Steve had a much easier time getting the car stopped.  That big pulley looks funny, but it did the trick. Our second time trial was at 1:00.  We went 4.748 and 148 mph.  We decided on 4.73 for our “dial in” time.

First round of eliminations was at 3:15.  We were paired up with a car that had a 4.48 dial in, so that means we got a .25 head start.  We ran a 4.779 and the other car ran 4.507.  He was closer to his dial in, but Steve had a much better reaction time, so we got the win by a .0278 margin of victory.  The second round was at 4:15, and proved to be our final round.  This time our dial in was 4.75, and the other car had a 4.87 time, so he got the .12 head start.  When Steve launched the car, it pulled the front wheels up fast and high, which turned on the red bulb, so we were done. 

We drove back to Indy, dropped off the truck and trailer and flew home.  We will fly back out 10/15 and head to Bowling Green KY for our last race of the season.

Muscle Car Reunion & Nostalgia Drags

Kansas City International Raceway

Kansas City, MO

September 11 – 13, 2009

This is a long haul for us – 1090 miles.  We left at 3:00 pm Wednesday 9/10, stopped for the night the other side of Columbus, and arrived at the track at 5:30 pm (Eastern Time) on Thursday 9/11.  Boy did it feel good to get out of that truck.  After about an hour eighteen of us went into town for dinner at Outback.  Then it was back to the track, hang out, talk for a bit and turn in for the night.

The weather for this event was great.  It was hot and sunny all three days.  During the day it was pretty humid, so the corrected altitude was high, but the evening runs had better air.  Sunday was the coolest of the three days, not quite making it into the 80’s.

We had a test run mid day on Friday, and our first qualifying run in the evening.  The test run, the car ran a 7.22 – not to bad for the heat of the day.  The evening run was a little better – 7.17, which put us in the #2 spot.  On Saturday we had two more qualifying runs.  Again one mid day, and the other in the evening.  Steve put on a smaller pulley for the first run, and the car picked up to 7.10.  Everyone else picked up too, so we remained in the #2 spot.  During that second qualifying run, Richard Edwards ran a 7.02, for the #1 spot.  He didn’t leave us much room to squeeze in, but Steve was going to try.  He made some changes to the fuel system, and we went for the 3^rd and final qualifying session.  We staged in the right lane, and Richard was right behind us waiting for his turn to go.  The car went a 7.011!!! We were #1 qualifier unless Richard could manage to run a 7.01 or under without going under 7.00.  Well, Richard had a problem – it seems that he forgot to put fuel in his car, so he ran 11.00.  So we stayed in the #1 spot 

We had an odd number of cars in the field, so first round we got a bye run.  The second round we were matched up with a car that had not been able to run in the low 7’s all weekend, so that was an easy win.  The third round, we were up against Richard.  I was pretty sure he would remember to fuel the car this time, so this was going to be tough.  Steve was ready for him. The car ran a 7.05, but the race was won at the starting line – Richard went RED!  The fourth and final round, we were up against a team that was using some borrowed equipment.  They told Steve that they were going to take it easy, so they advised him not to go red, and not to break out.  Steve waited until he saw green, and ran a slow 7.93 for the win.  It was very anti climatic, but it was a win.  

We gained a lot on Richard in the points.  We are just 34 points behind him, with the final points meet in Bowling Green, KY next month.  It will come down to that final race.

Once again we had a race team that had a major problem. Ronny Robinson’s car broke a lifter, and it caused some damage to a lobe on the cam.  Once again several guys started taking the car apart.  They got the cam out.  Richard Edwards took it to his trailer, where he has a welder.  He welded the cam lobe, then grinded it to its original shape and size.  The group put the car back together, and started it up (at 1:00 am).  They got a visit from Security for their efforts.  After the warning was issued from Security, they put away their tools and went to bed.  Ronny was able to compete in the race because of all the hard work.

Blue Suede Cruise

Summit Motorsports Park, Norwalk, Ohio

August 28, 29 & 30, 2009

This facility in Norwalk Ohio is top notch.  There are several pit spots that have electric outlets, and we wanted one of them.  We arrived at the track at 8:30 am on Thursday, August 27^th – the gates opened at 8:00 am.  We were #6 in line.  We got a spot with an electric outlet, and that is where our luck ended.

The weather was pretty good.  Temps in the 70’s and a mix of clouds and sun on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with some spotty showers mixed in – mostly at night.  Sunday was cool, only in the low 60’s, with mostly cloudy skies.

Our two daughters, and two granddaughters made the trip to Ohio, and two of our fellow racers were celebrating birthdays, so this was a big social event as well as a racing event.  On Saturday evening we had a “pot luck” dinner complete with birthday cake, gag gifts, and a lot of birthday toasts.

We had two qualifying runs on Friday, and two on Saturday.  Our first run on Friday was our fastest time ever – a little too fast.  The car ran a 6.92 and 196 mph!  We needed to slow it down.  The second run was 7.11 and 187 mph.  That put us in the #5 spot – now we need to pick it up a little bit.  Our third run we went 7.08 and 193 mph.  We improved, but so did the others, so we stayed in the # 5 spot.  The 4^th run the car only went 7.16 and 190 mph – we had our worst 60’ time of the weekend on that run.  So we stayed in the #5 spot.  Our class is an 8 car field, and we run a sportsman ladder, which means that #1 runs #5, so we have to run the #1 qualifier first round on Sunday, and that happens to be Richard (King Richard) Edwards, who just happens to be the #1 in points – we are #2. If we can only take him out first round, we would make a huge gain on points.

As I stated, Sunday was cool and cloudy.  The air was really good.  I knew the car would be fast, and I knew Richard’s car would also be fast.  I figured that this round would be a double break out, and I hoped we would be the slower of the two.  Well I was half right.  We ran a 6.976 and 180.98 mph.  24 thousands of a second to fast, but the slow mph shows that Steve got out of it early – just not early enough.  The problem is, Richard broke, not as in broke out, but just plain broke, so he coasted thru lights way after Steve, but got the win.

I have written on several occasions about the NPCA group that we run with, and how great everyone is.  Well, once again, the NPCA members proved me right.  After the third qualifying run, the team of Mark Vaight, next to us in the pits, had a big problem with their transmission.  Before you knew it, there were several guys helping get the tranny out and repair it.  One of the helpers was Richard Edwards, who just happens to be in the same class as Mark Vaight.  So as it turns out Mark Vaight won the PCI class, and Richard was not able to make 2^nd round, but that didn’t stop all the help from happening. I just can’t say it enough.  This is a great group. 

Nitro Blast

Midstate Dragway, Havana, IL

August 14-16, 2009

We arrived at the track mid-day Friday. By Friday evening the pits were almost full. This was going to be a big event. It was hot and sunny, and remained that way all day Friday and Saturday.  This is an eighth mile track with a pretty short shut down area and a hard right turn at the end. We could see that Steve would have to get the parachute out right at the finish line.

Because of the huge field of cars, we didn’t get our first qualifying run until 4:30 on Saturday.  We ran a 4.534 and 155.85 mph (the 1/8 mile index is 4.50). Our 2^nd qualifying run was at 6:15.  We went 4.64 and 149.49. Steve was all over the place-side to side-but stayed in his lane. We were supposed to get a 3^rd qualifying run, but because of all the oil downs and clean ups they cancelled the last one. We ended up the #2 qualifier. 

Our first round of eliminations was an easy win, as the other racer left early. The second round we ended up with a bye run. The third and final round we ran a 4.507 to a 4.717, so it was an easy win.  Our 2^nd NPCA win of the year!!!

Sunday was a whole different race.  We had our first qualifying run at 12:30.  The sky was cloudy.  We were the first pair of PCI cars out. We ran a 4.5539 and 148.48 mph.  By the time I got down to the end of the track to pickup Steve, the rain drops were starting.  By the time we got to our pit area, it was pouring. And it kept on raining for hours.  The race was called. SS3 race team won the first race, Mother Nature won the second.

On our final run Saturday, we didn’t notice, but the parachute lines were around the axle. By the time we reached our pit area, the lines were worn and frayed. We could not use this chute on Sunday.  We told some people that we could not run on Sunday unless we found a replacement chute. At this point we are #2 in points.  The #1 point team came up to us and offered us their spare chute.  You have to realize that if we do well racing with their chute, we could pass them up in points.  But this is how the NPCA group works. Everyone helps everyone – regardless of the outcome.  We can’t say it enough.  This is why we love racing with this group.

Niagara Reunion

Dunn Tire Raceway, Lancaster, NY

July 31 – August 2, 2009

This event is combined with the Willys Home Run, so I drove our 1940 Willys Coupe and Steve drove the truck and trailer.  It is also our only New York race and only one hour away, so many of our family members, neighbors and friends can watch us race.

Steve and I went to the track on Thursday afternoon.  We got parked then Steve went to help set up the tent for the Willys happening, and then we went into town for dinner with a couple other racers. There was a bracket race on Friday evening that we could have entered, but we decided not to do that.  Our two daughters and two granddaughters got into Buffalo late afternoon so we went to their hotel to see them, and take them out to dinner.  Steve and his Hells Belles just hanging out.

The Saturday race was a bracket race with 4 different index times – 4.20, 4.50, 4.80 and 5.10 (remember this is 1/8 mile). It would be a handicapped Pro Tree. We normally run 4.40’s in the 1/8, so we thought we would do the 4.50 index.  We had a test run at 11:30 and ran a 4.61 and 144 mph.  The 60 ft time was way off our norm.  The track just could not hold the horsepower.  Steve used up a lot of the lane on that run.  We decided to slow it down to the 4.80 index. Steve put a bigger pulley on the supercharger to calm it down.  Our second test was at 2:00.  We ran 4.72 and 146 mph.  The car held the track much better, but we still needed to slow it down some more, so Steve put on a bigger pulley – He said it looked like a garbage can cover. The first round of eliminations was at 4:30.  We ran a 4.83 and 130 mph and won the round.  The second run was at 6:38.  We ran 4.85 and 104 mph, a little slower, but Steve had a great reaction time, and won by a hole shot.  The next run was at 7:28. It was the semi finals.  We ran 4.83 and 141 mph, a great run, but we lost, this time Steve had a good reaction time and the other guy had the great one.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday we had sunshine and blue skies with temps in the low 80’s. Three days in a row without rain!  Well you just knew that wasn’t going to last.  It started raining at 3:00 am Sunday morning, and continued for several hours.  Sunday was the BIG race.  Our class was Top Eliminator, a heads up, pro tree go as fast as you can.  Steve put the small pulley back on the supercharger to speed things up. Because of the rain our first qualifying run wasn’t until 3:00 pm.  We ran a slow 4.85 and 139 mph.  This time I think Steve used up every inch of his lane – he was all over the place! Even so, we were the #5 qualifier after the round.  Our second qualifying run was at 5:04.  This time we ran 4.64 and 151 mph, better, but the track was still really rough. We ended up the #4 qualifier. And that’s as far as we got.  We were in the staging lanes for round one of eliminations.  The track official told us to start it up. We tried, but the starter drive came out and rolled around on the ground – it seems that the retainer clip came off. What a bummer!  I had a couple of disappointed granddaughters moping around for a little while. So we ate brownies – that made it better.  Then McKenna (the youngest) decided she would try on the car for size.  She put on Steve’s helmet, got in the car and strapped herself in.  She’s got some growing to do.

This was a one day event, but the track opened the gates for us on Friday July 24^th, so we could set up our pit area and have a Friday evening “pot luck” dinner with all the NPCA members. 

Steve and I arrived at the track a little after 2:00 pm.  We parked our truck and trailer and watched the others roll in.  By 5:00 quite a few NPCA members had arrived. The sky was blue and the temps were in the low 80’s, a perfect day.

The amount of food per race team was unreal!  We had enough to feed three times the entire membership of the NPCA.  Dave and Mary Schaffer brought a cake with the NPCA Logo on it – it was the hit of the party.

We ate, drank, and talked until long after the sun went down.

At 4:30 am we woke up to rain, thunder and lightning.  It was on again, off again, but never really quit.  By noon they event was called off. We never even got the car out of the trailer.

We all brought out our leftovers, ate lunch, then packed up and headed home.

Steve and I traveled 1040 miles to attend a picnic. But it was a great picnic! Plus we were given a trophy for the Cordova event. On the way home we drove thru rain in IN, OH, PA and NY. It just would not quit.

Sally’s Night

I got a phone call from one of our fellow members of the Rochester Street Rod Club reminding me that Steve and I had not been to one of the monthly club racing nights yet this year. I said that we would try to be there this month.

The last time I raced with the club I took my ’66 Mustang and I wanted Steve to take our 2007 Dodge Daytona Sublime Charger (5.7 Hemi). But Steve refused – if it doesn’t run 7.0 or faster he is not interested – so it was me and the Mustang.
I really wanted to see what that hemi would do in the quarter mile, so this time I took the Charger.

Well let me tell you that drag racing an automatic is a whole lot easier than a 4 speed! The car ran consistent 14.7’s and 94 – 96 mph.

       

The club racing is between 3 car clubs – The Rochester Street Rods, The Good Ole Boys and The Mopar Club. (Here I was driving a Mopar for the Rochester Street Rod Club). Every car runs 4 times and the Club with the most wins – Wins.
I won three of my four runs – two of them I really won – I had the better reaction time and ran close to my dial in. The third was handed to me – my reaction time sucked, but the other guy broke out. The fourth I went red. But I did OK, because our club won by ONE ROUND! So every member of the Rochester Street Rod Club did exactly what they needed to do.

It was a fun night, and I’m really happy with the charger. A 14.7 quarter mile is not bad for a car that weighs over 4000 lbs.

PS. We made the National Dragster. Look at page 14 of the July 17, 2009 issue. Under: Results – The NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series. We are listed as the winner of Pro Comp I.
Yeah – it’s tiny – but it’s the National Dragster!!!

NHRA Heritage Nostalgia Fest

Cordova, IL

June 26 – 27, 2009

Before I go into all the details, let me tell you that WE WON!!!   Finally – but it wasn’t easy.

Steve and I flew into Indy at 10:00 am on Thursday 6/25.  We picked up our truck and trailer, and headed to Cordova.  There was a lot of construction, our exit was gone (not just closed, but GONE!) so we had a long detour, but we arrived at the track by 5:00 pm.  Racing did not start until Friday afternoon, so we went to dinner with a bunch of the “guys”, hung out, and enjoyed the heat (98).

Friday morning we got to our pit area, unloaded the car and set up our pop-up’s for shade.  Because of the tire shake we had in Indy, Steve started to check every nut and bolt on the car.  It wasn’t long before I heard “oh no”.  I really did not want to hear that.  Steve found that the fly wheel bolts were loose.  At that point we did not know if it was the fly wheel or the bolts.  It turned out that the tire shake in Indy caused the bolts to “oval” the bolt holes in the fly wheel.  It is amazing what that tire shake can do.  Luckily, we had a spare fly wheel, so four hours later we were good to go.

At 3:30 we had a test run.  We were very optimistic, as we thought we had all our problems solved.  We ran a terrible 7.88. What the Hell!  We had the fuel system problems fixed – right? Steve made some changes to the fuel system, and told me that if that didn’t fix the problem, he was going to change the Mag.  He had mentioned the mag in Indy, but when he found the double main pill problem he figured that was it, and dropped the Mag idea.  We made our first qualifying run at 9:30.  The car went 7.56 – better, but not good.  Steve changed the Mag and the transformer.  Now we had to wait until Saturday morning to see if it made a difference.

At ll:20 am we went up for our 2^nd qualifying run.  The car went 7.10 and 187.55 mph.  What a difference!!!  It was the Mag!  That run put us in the #2 qualifying spot.

To make a long story short, we ended up in the final round against Richard Edwards, aka King Richard – the 7.00 NPCA Champion for the last two years.  Steve was ready!  He cut a .006 light, and the car went 7.024! The best we ever ran.  WE WON!!!  Finally – we won an NPCA race!

We had a long drive ahead of us, as we were taking everything home, a 13 hour drive.  In Cleveland, we blew a trailer tire.  Not a big deal, we were on the road in 20 minutes.  Then just east of Erie the truck started to lose power.  By the time we reached Buffalo we could only do 55 mph.  Then shortly after that we were down to 45 mph.  We ended up putting the trailer at a friend of a friends building, and having AAA flatbed the truck to a Dodge dealership near our house. We should have been home by 8:30, but with all the problems, we finally arrived home about midnight.

We started out elated with our victory.  That elation went away with the truck problems, and by midnight we were feeling pretty down.  We turned in our driveway, and found that the girls across the street put up signs, glow sticks, and #1 fingers proclaiming our victory.  What a LIFT!  Thank you to Julie and Tracy.  We needed that!

21^st Hot Rod Nationals, IRP

Goodguys Vintage Drag Racing

6/12/09-6/14/09

We flew into Indy at 9:00 pm Wed evening (6/10). We picked up the truck and drove to Jeff and Sugar Bear’s Shop. Thanks to Jeff and SugarBear, the repaired heads, gaskets, o-ring wire, etc was sitting on the bench waiting for us.  We were in line at the track by 9:30 am on Thursday morning.  Steve had the o-ring wire installed before we reached the registration trailer.  By 11:30 we had our pit area set up and we started to assemble the engine.

By 3:00 pm we had the engine assembled. At 3:30 we fired it up.   It sounded GREAT!  The temp’s  were in the low 70’s to the low 80’s Friday to Sunday, with cloudy conditions on Sunday, which changed to rain in the afternoon.

We had two qualifying runs on Friday, and two on Saturday.  Both were in the high 7’s – Not Good. We were looking at everything.  What is the problem?  Steve took apart the entire fuel system.  Finally – we found the problem.  There were two jets in the main.  So when Steve was leaning out the system, it was not responding – due to the lower jet that was in first.     

So – first run on Sunday, we go back to our last good run tune-up. Is it okay? No way to tell until the first elimination run.First round of eliminations.   We are at the line.  The car before us does the burn out, backs up. STOPS – Oil Down! 20 to 30 minute clean up.  Steve gets out of the car and takes off the fire suit.

After the clean up, Steve touches the track.  It is still oily.  He is not happy, but the track people tell him it is ok and he should get in his car.

Steve can see that the left tire grove is still very oily.  He will make his burn out to the right of the groove to stay out of the oil.

The burn out in the right of the grove causes tire the tire to shake, which causes the fuel pump to vibrate out of the drive, which causes the car to stall. End of Run.  He can’t back up after the burn out. We are done!!!

It is the end of a very frustrating race week end.

We head to Cordova on Thursday the 25^th.

Muscle Car Reunion & Nostalgia Drags

Gateway Int’l Raceway, Madison, IL

May 29 – 31, 2009

We left for Gateway on Wednesday 5/27 at 11:40 am.  We drove 10 hours which put us just west of Indy, and stopped for the night.  Thursday morning we hit the road about 9 am, and arrived at the track just before 2 pm.  It was cool and cloudy with a misty drizzle.  We got the car unloaded, went thru tech, and visited with fellow racers that we had not seen for months.

Friday we had one test run and one qualifying run.  Things were held up because water was seeping up through the pavement on the track, so our first run wasn’t until almost 6 pm.  On the test run the car ran a 7.447 and 170.15 mph. The 1^st qualifying run we went 7.29 and 183.27 mph.  That proved to be our best run, and put us in the #4 qualifying position.

On Saturday we had two more qualifying runs.  The #2 run Steve had a perfect .000 reaction time, but only ran 7.432 and 174.32 mph.  The air was really bad. The temp was 89 degrees, the corrected alt was 3250, and the water grains were 80.22.  At 8:30 pm we had the final qualifying run.  Steve had changed the supercharger pulley to give the engine more air, and hopefully close in on the 7.00 index.  The run started good, with the best 60 foot time of the weekend, but then things went bad fast.  At about the 1000 foot mark Steve’s visor got a coating of oil – not good!  The car ran 7.473 and 173.92 mph.  The coating of oil was due to a blown head gasket.  

We got the car back to the pits, and started to take it apart.  When we got the head off, at first glance we thought everything was okay, as we had a spare set of head gaskets.  But when we looked closer, we saw that the head was damaged – so we were done.   We held our #4 qualifying position, but we would not be racing on Sunday.    (click thumbnail below to see larger image)

We left the truck, trailer and car in Indy as planned, and flew home on Monday.  The heads went to a shop in Indy for welding and machining repairs.  They will be done when we fly back to Indy on Thursday 6/11, and we can start to put the car back together.  Then we can race the Indy Goodguys event on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

2009 Test ‘N Tune

New York International Raceway Park

April 18, 2009

Opening day at NYIRP was mostly sunny, breezy and  temps in the high 60’s.  The gates were scheduled to open at 10:00 am.  We got there just a few minutes after 10 and took our place in the very long line to get in.  Obviously Steve and I were not the only people sick of winter and ready to race.

Steve had made some changes to the car over the winter, (go to the Tech Talk page of this website to read about the changes) so we had some things that we needed to figure out.

We found a spot in the pits and proceeded to get ready.  The track owner announced that all the old rubber had been scraped off the track, and although he had put down a full drum of VHT, the track was very green.  He said that they would run some cars down the track, and then at 2:00 pm he would stop running cars and spray the track with more VHT.  We thought it would be best to wait until after that second spraying before we made a run.  As it turned out, we didn’t even need to think about that.  We had so much to do we weren’t even ready to make a run until after 3:00.

In one of Steve’s “buy, swap, sell” deals we acquired a set of pro jacks.  You just slide them under the car, hook them up to the air compressor, and just like that the car rises up.  Well it really isn’t THAT easy.  We had to do some adjusting, but got them figured out.  I think they are going to work out great – just takes getting used to. 

We also had to learn how to use the new data recording system.  We did have a couple of problems with it, such as one bad sensor, and one bad wire.  We have the new pieces in, and we believe everything is working as it should.

Steve tried to time the car, but with the bright sun he was having a hard time seeing the mark.  Matt Shaff tried to help.  He ended up touching the mag, got a nice shock, and jumped about 3 feet in the air.  Steve did that once, so he knows exactly what Matt felt.  Well we never did get the car timed, but it was starting up really good, and running good, so Steve and Matt figured it couldn’t be that far off.

We were finally ready to make a run.  When we left the pit area I had a feeling that I was forgetting  something.  In the staging lane I got Steve all strapped in the car, and then I wanted to test the radios.  That’s what I forgot – My radio headset. Oh well, that’s why you practice.  I needed to get back in the groove. 

As always, in the beginning, we start out with a really mild (fat) tune up.  Because the track was so green, Steve did not use the trans brake, but just started out like he was getting on the highway, nice and easy.  The car ran an 8.597 and 157.97 mph.  The second run Steve did use the trans brake, and got on it a little harder.  We ran a 7.994 and 159.63 mph which turned out to be the fastest run of the day.