New Year's Eve... Happy New Year

I just wanted to say Happy New Year to you all.
And to say THANKS for all of your encouragement and support.

A couple of the other contingency sponsors have stepped up.. I had previously forgotten to acknowledge VP, and I have also received payment from Moser for the National Performer award.

There still are a lot of folks who owe for Columbus, and and even more who stiffed me for wins last year, when Class was supposed to be paid.

Once again, Happy New Year to all!

David

Merry Christmas

In my last post, full of anticipation, I said I would report on the Indianapolis Banquet and our awards.

Initially, when the award was annouced, and we all started chasing it, there were several things that we were told.

So we spent a lot of money and won a lot of races, and ultimately won the award.

But guess what, the really big championship sized trophy, wasn't all that big. In fact it was a standard Class winning sized trophy. But I have it now. I was also told that I would get our Class trophy from Vegas at teh Banquet, but nobody there had a clue about that.

Initially, we heard that a Gold Card came with the win, but later heard it would be a Jacket, and that was apparently later to changed to .....absolutely nothing.

There were other promises and to date, they  are still unrealized. But who knows...

Well at least we would get the Program card for the Banquet to keep as a souvenir. The only problem with that, is there is no mention of our award in the Program. I don't t think this was the fault of the Division people, as they just didn't get the news in time.

So it was all of the Junior dragster winners that got their awards, and spoke their thanks, and a bunch of other awards as well, and then... they called the three winners, Super Stock Automatic, Stock Stick, and Stock Automatic, handed them their trophies, and that was that.. Wham bam, thank you maam.

At least we got a free dinner. We had two tickets, one from Division, one from NHRA, and the kind folks at Milan Drag Strip gave me one too. Thanks friends.


The food was quite a bit below average, and they ran out of the chicken, and  and other stuff too... we stopped at a restaurant afterwards, to get some real food.

So, all in all, the whole thing was pretty much disappointing all the way around.

The only good part was seeing  a couple of old friends, and meeting a couple of new ones.

I would have posted a picture of the trophy, but it same as the others, and if you have seen one, you seen them all. 

As you can tell, I was more than a bit disappointed about the way the whole program was handled. That last trip West cost as much as we won from the Contingency Sponsors, so now I can only hope that the Contingency Sponsors actually pay up. Mopar, and Comp Cams are the only one to pay so far, and quite frankly I am still owed by many for the Columbus Sports Nationals win. It is sad that when you support a product, and win, these contingency sponsors are either very slow pay, or no pay at all, except for a couple.

Next year, my car will have a lot fewer stickers on it. No, I will leave them on but put a big red NO in a circle over them so folks know they don't pay.

To everyone who follows the blog, even the competitors, I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas, and happy New Year.

God Bless, and Safe Racing.

David

Innovations list...

I have repeatedly said that Drag Pak #24, the Mega Maniac has more innovations than any other Drag Pak. Well, the list is pretty well complete now, although I am sure that when I talk to Keith again, he will be able to add one or two more, but the number is well over 40.

I had previously said that I would post the list here, after redacting (a political term for hiding things I don't want anyone else to know) the Secret Squirrel items.

But frankly, I am finding so many things on the list, that really are Secret Squirrel items, and so many others that simply are the things that give us our edge. So, I just can't do it. At this time.

If this list were public, and people realized how different my car is from all of the others, I am sure that we would be awarded the "Best Engineered" award.

Even members of the Drag Pak #24 Secret Squirrel Club are not able to implement all of these innovations. However they are able to benefit  from quite a few of these of them.

You might ask why they can't implement all of these changes. And that would be a pretty good question. I am impressed that you are so insightful!

Drag Pak cars are built by several different chassis builders. The is the original one, Mike Pustelney at MPR Race Cars did the prototypes for Chysler (and for Ford with Mustangs, and also now for GM with the COPO Camaro) and there are other less well known chassis builders.

So the Drag Pak cars, although they all have to "fit the mold" of a Drag Pak as approved by the NHRA are not all the same.

So, some of our innovations simply won't fit on some Drag Pak cars. Does that mean they don't need them, you ask? No. It just means that someone who has a 727 transmission can not do exactly what we have done in my 904. And if someone's chassis is not set up exactly the same as mine, those innovations would not necessarily apply.

So, you ask, is there something Secret Squirrel about your 904, and your chassis?

Yes, I answer emphatically! But I am not telling you.

More later after the Division 3 Banquet/awards ceremony.

God Bless, and Race Safely

David

Innovations.....

Just a quick thought about innovations:

I have, on a couple of ocassions, said that Drag Pak #24 has more innovations than any other Drag Pak car. And I stand by that statement. But I thought it only fair to expalin what I mean.

Innovations are ways of doing something, that are different from the way others do them. And they provide some kind of convenience, performance, or appearance advantage. Or, at least that is my definition of it.

What motivates innovation? Innovation is often the answer to a gnawing problem, or it is simply something that nobody else has yet seen the need to do.

So, some of our innovations are the result of addressing problems, and some are simply a better way to do something, which we think gives us some kind of advantage.

Better, is only "better" if there is some kind of an advantage provided by it. Doing something just to be different, while it might stroke your ego, is no better if it doenst present an advantage.

After my last posting, I opened a spreadsheet and started tabulating (counting) the number of things that we did, either before anyone else, in spite of everyone else, or that others have not yet done.
My list of innovations totals around 40 individual items.

A few of these items are the result of decisions that we made to save weight, or because we couldn't get something within our timeframe, so we went a different direction. And some others have now made some of those same decisions, so they are no longer unique to us. But that doesn't mean that they still aren't innovations by us. And there are some items where our decisions solved a problem. And then, there are the Secret Squirrel innovations. And it seems that we have at least 10 of those.

Once I reorganize the innovation list,  I will also redact the Secret Squirrel entries, and then publish the entire list here.

God Bless and Race Safely
David

Happy Thanksgiving..

Today, I am going to hoodwink you...just kidding....

Actually, I am just going to go back into the past and explain our hood issues, and solutions..

First the problem with the dzus fasteners was obvious from the beginning. They were difficult to attach, tough to release, and you often slid the tool off of the fastener and scratched the hood. So they were a pain in the tail, from day one. When you needed a fuel check, or had other reason to pull the hood after a race, you had to make sure that the driver had help. Lining the hood back up after taking it off, often led to just attaching 3 o4 of the fasteners until you got the car back to the pit area. So Chris and I both hated those fasteners right from the start.

But sometimes you have enough to do, that you don't fix a problem, until you have no choice. And that was last year in Las Vegas. It is hard to believe that it has already been more than a year. But we were going through the traps at 135 mph, and it happened. Our hood left the car, went up into the air about 40 feet, fluttered around, and fell to the side of the track. I caught it on video, but unless you know what it was, it would be hard to know that is was our hood. And it was lucky indeed that the hood lifted clear of the windshield and really didn't strike the car.

Yes, it did tear out the Dzus fasteners that didn't release, and broke a couple of brackets. And when it hit the ground,  the scoop separated from the rest of the hood. But all in all, it could have been a lot worse. The only damage to the car came when we tried to push the inner fender back down, and dented the fender on top.

And we caught another break too. Because we had time, since we had the lousy Division 7 stock schedule of starting our first run at around 6:00 in the evening, but this time, we could use the extra time to try to get the hood back reattached.

First thing in the morning, we made a couple of stops. One was was at a body shop supply house to get epoxy to re glue the lousy glue job Rousch had done on the scoop. Their bead didn't even go all of the way around. So it is no wonder that another Drag Pak also lost his scoop. that day. Chrysler committed that we would get a new hood. But for now, we needed this one to work. We were in Vegas, still racing, and had Pomona the next week.And we went to Lowes for Pop rivets.

Then, we hustled, drilled, epoxied, and pop riveted the scoop in place, and we repaired the torn out Dzus fastener locations and pop riveted washers over all of the holes to reinforce them, and we installed traditional hood pins to replace the dzus fasteners. Here are Keith and Jim Marshall installing the washers.

And the hood went back on, and looked like this:

Not too bad. It was funtional, and for a little while, it was fun pulling pins, lifting the hood. Sitting it back down, and having it center easily on the pins.

But then it became an issue. Where are the pins? Do we have them all? What do you do with them while the hood is off?

In Indianapolis, a guy came though the pits, and showed me the Qwik-Latch connectors. I was impressed, but we had just put the hood pins in, so I thought we had a good solution. But in time, the Qwik -Latch pins looked better and better.

So I called them, got all of the info needed, springs for pins, 10 mini latches. So I ordered them, and they sat in the tool box.

Until, we had to rebuild the engine on the car. And I drove down to Dayton to help on the engine. Once we got the engine back together, I turned to the hood. I only had to remake a couple of brackets, and before we knew it, we had the new latches in, and they worked like a charm. We didn't need to leave the large washers in place, but it was just easier that way.

Just push the buttons, and the springs under them push the hood up, and off comes the hood. It can even be done by just one person.

But then, what do you do with the hood?

We added dense foam blocks to the underside of the hood, so you can sit it on the top of the car, and it sits nicely without scratching the top...

Innovations upon innovations. Once again, I will say it unapologetically. Drag Pak #24  is the most innovative Drag Pak in existence. We have done more things to make this car faster, easier to drive, and more convenient to race than anyone else has done. And we have won awards to prove it, from the Best Appearing Car, to Class wins, to Stock Eliminator Winner, to Stock Automatic Champion, to holding the National A/SA record.

Do I have a lot to be thankful for? Yes, I do. I got tospend more quality time with Chris because of this car, than I would ever have been able to spend previously. And we have accomplished everything we set out to accomplish.

So I thank God for absolutely everything!

OK, now back to turkey day football....

God Bless, and Race Safely

David

A bit more about the teardown...

I just happened across some pictures from our teardown in Chicago that added some things that I didn't capture in Las Vegas..

I talked about the fact that they cc'ed the heads, etc. But unless you see it done, it is a little abstract. So here are pictures and some explanations.

To measure the combustion chamber, they put a piece of plexiglas, with a small opening in it, over the combustion chamber in the head.  They put some substance around the opening (not sure what to call it it) to be sure the plexiglas seals.

Then they take a graduated tube filled with alcohol, and with a spigot to dispense it, mounted on a metal stand, and open the spigot until they fill the combustion chamber with liquid through the aforementioned hole in the plastic, measuring how much liquid leaves the tube.

And they also do a similar procedure on both the intake runner, (that is the part between the intake valve and intake manifold),

 and the exhaust runner........

And that is how they measure these things.....

As mentioned before, they also check how big our piston is, total bore, and how high it goes from the bottom of stroke to top of stroke, for total stroke. But that is pretty easy, and done with a simple dial caliper.

The real interesting, and often most problematic, measurement is the cam lift on both the intake valve and exhaust valve.

First, you need to install a solid lifter in the intake side of a cylinder, and one in the exhaust side of that same cylinder. Oh, you don't have any solid lifters? Of course not! Our car uses hydraulic lifters. So how are we expected to come up with a solid lifter, when they aren't even made for our car?

Simple, take one of your spare hydraulic lifters, dissasemble it, and fill it with washers, that bring it up to height you need, put the top back on, and you have it. So make sure you carry a variety of different thickness washers to use for this purpose. If you don't have spares, you can use on of your running lifters, and then return it a hydraulic when done. But these lifters aren't expensive, and once you get one lifter together, you won't want to take it apart again. So pick up some spares, and have two ready for use in teardown.

As an alternative, you can cop an attitude, and tell the techs that don't have onem and there is nothing you can do. But in my opinion, throwing down a gauntlet is not a good idea. These guys have no agenda, and just want to make sure that you are legal. But if you get snarky with them, or they think you do, at best, they will be just a little more thorough in all of their tests. And one time through is quite enough, thank you.

What makes this measurement interesting is the necessity to get everything exactly perpendiular to valve, and to do this a steel plate (small) is bolted to the head. Then a magnetic mount for a dial indicator is secured on the steel plate. Then the dial pointer is placed on the top of the spring retainer. And this is all done while the head is on the block, and bolted down.

But, this is place where if the dial indicator is not perpendicualr to the valve, an error in the reading can be introduced. And frankly, it is hard to get it all lined up properly. If you have been cooperative and haven't upset the techs, you can gently help them see if they aren't lined up right.

As you can, there is an awful lot to getting torn down, and there are specifications for all of these things, and more. Like the wheelbase of the car. And the height of the front end of the car, and making sure that the drive shaft is steel, and the center section of the rear end is steel. (except in the case of the 2011 V10 Challenger which can be aluminum.)

And I never mentioned that when we are getting "teched in" at any track, they check the brand,  the SFI rating,  and the expiration date on the seat belt harness, and the racing suit (pants, and jacket) and the helmut.

Rules, rules, and more rules. All intended to promote safety, and to assure a level playing field.

God Bless, and Race Safely

And mostly, have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and tell everyone you love, that you love them!

David

After the transmission...

Well, actually, before the transimission...here is a copy of the Record for A/SA that we won in Las Vegas..

That was for all of those out there ,who have never seen one, and don't own one.

Now, back to the car. What comes after the transmission? The drive shaft. But ours is nothing special.

When we got the transmission, the rear end was already in the car. So to connect the two, we needed a  drive shaft. So we called Mike P, and said "Help!!!"  Mike told us how to measure for the drive shaft, and we measured it about 11 times, each time wondering if we had gotten it right. So then, we pretty much just averaged the numbers. And that is how long our drive shaft is!

But next to the rear end, or differential. Once again, conventional wisdom said Dana 60. Tough as nails, and downright bulletproof.

But by now, we were pretty sure that bulletproof wasn't necessary at the cost, in terms of dollars, and weight, and inconvenience of the Dana 60.  So once again, we go against conventional wisdom, and instead of the Dana 60, we went for a Mopar 8 3/4" rear end.

And so far, we have not regretted that decision one bit.

The 8 3/4 is a Moser aftermarket assembly approved by the NHRA, and yes, there is one small issue that exists with it, rather than the Dana 60.

The rear end ratios available for the 8 3/4  is not as broad as for the Dana 60. For example, the steepest gear we have found so far for the 8 3/4 is 4.86 while there is a 4.88, and even a 5.00 available.

I know of at least one other Drag Pak that has run the 5.00, but it isn't necessary for us, because we already have a better 60 ft time than most other Drag Paks..

And, on the same note, changing a rear end ratio on a 8 3/4 is much easier than a Dana 60. So, if we ever need to change it, we can change it quickly.

God Bless, and Race Safely

David

Recognition...

It is always nice to be recognized for your performance, and it is no different with our accomplishments with Drag Pak #24.

I have recently received a number of congratulations from many Drag Pak owners, and other friends of our racing endeavors. To all of you who have been so kind and gracious and such good friends through all our efforts, I say, from the bottom of my heart; THANK YOU!

A recent article about our latest accomplishments just appeared at http:.www.mopar.com/speed

And when we accept our rewards in Indianapolis on December 10 at the Division 3 Banquet, I expect that there will  even more public recognition.

But the best recognition, is to me, the vindication I feel in my heart for Christopher "Drooze" Wertman, and me. We knew that we could do it. And we knew that it wouldn't be easy. And while we had the encouragement of some, (we appreciate every bit of it) we also had the condemnation of many others. And for that, I also, say "thanks".

Nothing drives me, and nothing could drive Chris more than having someone tell us that we can't do it.

Well, it certainly wasn't easy, but as you can now see, we sure as heck did it.

I have been asked by a number of people, what is the difference between us, our performance, and the other Drag Paks? 

First, let me say that they are some Drag Pak yet to hit the track, that will indeed be very successful. So our performance so far, is just that, it is only up until now.

But there definitely are quite a few differences between a lot of Drag Paks, and Number 24.

As I said previously, I will talk about a lot of the things that we have done to make Drag Pak #24 a consistent and exceptional performer. Once again, I caution you though, there are some things that Chris and I considered to "Secret Squirrel Information". And that information is available only to members of the Drag Pak #24 Secret Squirrel Association which boasts a limited, but enthusiastic membership.

Going back to the beginning. Our goal was to have the lightest Drag Pak. And we largely accomplished that even though some cars that were not put together by Mike Pustelney at MPR Race Cars, used lighter weight frame and cage components, giving them a distinct over most other Drag Paks.

But not ours. No decision that was made early in the process, ignored the weight component of that decision. Chris and I spent a lot of time just brainstorming about where we lose some weight. I remember them like it was yesterday, even though it was now over two years ago.

Transmission: Everyone we knew was recommending, and installing a 727 Pro Trans in their Drag Pak. 

We knew two things that helped make this decision easier. First we knew that we couldn't get a 727 Pro Trans by the time that we thought that we needed have one. And we knew that a 727 was 40-60 heavier than a 904.

So, even though I was already familiar with the 727, and had one apart in the shop, we went to Paul at Turbo Action, and told him what we wanted, and when we wanted it. When he got done telling us he couldn't do all of that, he did tell us what he could do, and it was still very good, and he did it.

And whenever we called, Paul was always patient and ready to answer questions of any kind, even stupid ones. That 904 which was built on a 904 Truck case that has extra ribbing to strengthen the case where 904 are believed to be weak. So our decision to use the 904 was a good one. And our case is as strong is as good as we need it to be be. We have replaced clutches, and added a lightweight sun shell, having rebuilt the transmission twice. But when you have hundreds (approximately 190 by our count) of runs on it, and are pulling 1.28 sixty ft times, some maintenance is indeed necessary from time to ttime. And this transmission, before being rebuilt, was run behind six different engines. There were two 6.1's, and a total of four 5.7's. We  are now on 5.7 engine number five. This engine is still in the car, and still sealed from our record run, and unless we discover something requiring it, will remain sealed until after we run a few more times.

More to talk about next time.

God Bless and Race Safely

David

What happens in a tear down...

Here, I will try to give you a sense of what happens in an NHRA tear down. We have now been "torn down" three times in total, and it appears pretty obvious that there is no typical tear down.

 

First off, the name implies that someone tears you down. That couldn't be any more wrong, as they tell what they want, and you tear it down. So, you either take teh car to them, along with your tools, or they come to you. This depends on the Race Schedule, the Division, and the Event itself.

 

In Charlotte, they selected the Class winners, and told us to bring our cars to the tech area, and the only thing that we had to take off of the car, was the Throttle Body. They also measured our wheelbase, and body height.

 

In Chicago, they came to our pit area, had us pull a head, measured bore, stoke, piston dome height, combustion chamber size,  cam lift, valve sizes, intake and exhaust plenum sizes, wheelbase, and car height.

 

In Las Vegas, it was very similar to Chicago, excpt for two things; One, they invited us to to bring the car to the Tech area for tear down. And, it ws our decision to go to tear down, as we had done nothing yet to warrant a tear down. But we did want to go for a Record, and that would result in a tear down, if we were sussessful. But the schedule was not all conducive to normal orderof things, make a record run, tear down, then run again and back up the run. We were to run late evening, and would have only a few hours in dimming light at best, and probably in the dark, to tear down , and get it all back together for the next run. So we went to the Division Tech Director and asked how he saw it happening. He said, would you like to tear it down now before the first round? We had about 6-7 hours before the run, so we said :yes". It really wasn't a matter of whether or not we could set a record. We knew we could so, we went back to our pit area, loaded up all tools that we thought we would need, and put them into the back of the Ram 3500 we use to tow the car. Then Keith drove the truck, and I drove the car, and took it to the Tech area. Then I started the car, (yes, I do know how to drive the car) and moved it into position for the tear down.

 

This first picture is what the motor looks like before tear down.

 

The first thing to come off the car, is obviously the hood.

Next is the black bar that you see at the top rear of engine on body (4 bolts).

Two things happen at once next. The exhaust header on driver's side is removed (5 bolts)

But did I mention that you also need to jack up the car, and set set jack stands for safety?

The next thing was to drain the water out of the block, so it doent fill teh cylinders when teh head is removed. We put a petcock in the block so opening that, and opening the drain at the radiator, pretty much empties it all out. The header comes off first, so they we don't have to lay in the drained water while removing it.

 

And then, the "hat" the seals the throttle body to the hood comes off (4 bolts)

Since the car is jacked up, I stand on my tool box so that I can reach the bolts.

The throttle body is removed for measurement. (4 bolts)

Next are the fuel rails fule line connections (2 fittings)

Throttle cable is disconnected, along with two return springs. (3 connection and 1 bolt.)

Intake manifold is removed, (6 additional bolts)

Coil Packs are removed on driver side headand passenger side head. (16 bolts)

Valve cover removed on Driver side. (10 bolts)

 

Although we used a folding table from the trailer to hold working tools and parts,

We used the bed of the truck to hold parts when they were neither involved in tear down or assumbly.

 

Rocker arm assemblies are removed from driver side head. (8 bolts)

Next the head bolts are removed (5 small ones,, 10 big ones) and Head is removed. 

You can see the pistons, and the coil packs form the passenger side. The reason that the passenger coils packs are out, is that we need to remove one spark plug from each odd cylinder so that the engine is easier to turn over manually when checking stroke, and valve lifts. (4 spark plugs removed)

  

Her you see the head with valve springs and gasket on work table.

Next the head goes into the trailer to have things checked.

The gasket is measured on the table.

In the tech trailer we were told to remove one intake and one exhaust valve from the head. 

This turned out to be the biggest pain in the whole process.  The valve compressor, which squeezes the valve spring, so the retainers can be removed is almost right, but not perfect.

The tech guys said their valve compressor was even worse. So we struggled on, and finally,

after a good 30 minutes of hard work, the valves were both out,  and measured. 

Getting the valves back in and getting retainers and clips back in place took about the same time as removing them (ouch, and I say that quite literally as Keith smashed his thumb doing it). Compressing two springs, removing two retainer and four valve stem half clips sounds easy enough,

but trust me and Keith, it really isn't!

The head is replaced on the motor, solid lifters installed in place of hydraulic lifters which would require engine to actually run while being measured, and that isn't at all practical. So here are the Divisional Tech Director, and Tech measuring things. You dont see us in this picture, but considering how difficult it is to properly measure the lift, getting measurement tools properly horizontal and vertical at time, we watched intently to make sure the measurements were right. And they were.

So, once again, all measures OK,  and we hear the magic words. Looks good, put it back together.

The first thing to do, is to remove the head and remove the solid lifters, replacing the hydraulic lifters.  

We heard the call for stock to the lanes as we were putting it together again, and we were pretty confident that we could have it back together in time to make the run.We also heard that it was possible that there would be a make up run available in case we didnt finish it.

To consider how long it took to get things back together, factor in time to find the right bolts, and right tools. Also include the extra time to get at some bolts, that were not tighened, as Keith did the big head bolts, tightening and torquing, and I assumed that he had done the small head bolts too. He had not, so once the intake manifold was on, we realized it, and worked around teh intake to tighten the five small head bolts. Then, we also realized that we misplaced, one bolt. It was a common metric bolt and we knew we could pick one up at Lowes, and if necessary run without it. And for teh total time, you can also factor in the extra time required in about 6 trips back to the trailer for "something" we forget or simply didn't anticapte being needed. Tonya, Keith's wife, made several trips, and I made a few more. In some cases it was simple, like a few more rags and carb/brake cleaner for cleaning up the heads for measurement. And in other cases it was in a desparate search of an elusive socket, or a wrench that had somehow been missed.

So, here we were almost back together, and I felt a drop of rain. Then another.. and another...and we decided to just put the hood back on theh car without the brace at the back, and get back to the pits before the rain really comes. So Tonya drove the truck, Keith drove the race car, and I drove the gold cart/pit vehicle and we all scurried back to the our pit.

The rain was starting to really come down now, so I jumped off of the golf cart, and I directed Keith into the trailer with the car. The rains really started now, and it was immedially obvious that there wouldnt be any more racing tonight. So we went to Lowes, got our exhaust manifold bolt, went back to the Hotel, got a bite to eat, and waited for the morning racing. We didnt know what time we would race, but it made sense that it would be early, and it was. Our first run was around 8:30 am, and our second run went at around 11:30 am.

We ran a relatively slow, but "safe" time on the first run, And for the second run, we needed to run within a 10th of second over it,  to back it up, or a 10th under it to be the new record with the slower run backing it up. But any other number under it, would back up the slower number. So we ran a 10.02 which was much faster and backed up the record run of 10.23+ in Las Vegas,  which when converted to sea level came out to be 10.05.

So that is what tear down looks like...

God Bless and Safe Racing my Friends.

David

 

 

Finally Home...

Just arrived home from Las Vegas...

Time to look at all of the trophies (not exactly all of them as we have one class trophy and one really Big  trophy yet to be received, and to grace my mantle) and reflect......

After all of the anticipation, hard work, blood (Yes, real blood, from Chris, from me, and some from Keith), and the ultimate resulting victory, it is all finally ours...

We won the NHRA Class Stock Automatic Performance Championship. And we have a NHRA National record in A/SA..

Drag Pak #24

Driving home from Las Vegas at a roadside stop...

Inside Drag Pak #24,

Special Aluminum Steering wheel,

one of many enhancements that make this car a winner.

Not only is the Wheel lightweight,

It comes off for easy driver entry and exit.

In time, I will recap the changes that we made to Drag Pak #24 that either made the car lighter, easier to race, or gave us some other benefit that allowed us to win all that we have won. Still won't give away a few secret squirrel secrets though, as they are saved for those special people who really deserve them.

God Bless and Race Safely

David

Well, we did it!!!

Just as Chris and I had planned, predicted and expected, the Mega Maniac now holds a National Hot Rod Assocation record.

We are now the A/SA National record holder at 10.05 seconds, and 130.55 MPH.

We could have run faster, but were somewhat cautious about running too fast, and getting horsepower.

More later, right now I am just happy that I have been able to continue and reach all of Chris' and my goals for the car that we both worked so hard to build and all of what he ever said about it has now come true.

God Bless, and Race Safely

David

What a day at the Divisional in Las Vegas

We took a couple of test and tune runs on Thursday, and the car ran OK. Not great, but the air here in Vegas is not really conducive to running great. So we were only a little dissapointed with the run.

Today, Friday, we  were scheduled for a run about 5-6 PM.

Then the schedule changed to about 4 PM, and we met the Divisional Tech Director, who said we should tear down this morning. Tear downs are usually reserved for cars who go really fast, and either win a big National Race, or those who go for a record... We have not even gotten in a run yet, so what is the deal?

I guess word had gotten out that we might run for a record. And the way the schedule exists for the next couple of days, getting a tear down accomplished would be next to impossible. There was just no good time to do one, except for this morning.

So, we started around 11:00AM and off came the throttle body and intake manifold. Next were the headers, then the coil packs, valve cover, rocker assemblies, and the head.

Then we got the head tested to make sure our combustion chamber was the right size. Next the intake runner was measured, and then the exhaust runner measured, then we had to remove an intake valve which means removing valve spring keeps, retainer, and spring. Next was the exhaust valve. All was measured, and all was found to be well within required limits. The head casting number was also checked and found to be good.

The throttle body bores were measured, and the intake manifold number checked. Again, all good.

Then cylinder bore checked, and piston dome checked, and stroke checked, and all were good.

The we had to put solid lifters in one intake and one exhaust and check cam lift. That meant putting the head back on the engine, and measuring the lift on intake and exhaust, and then taking he head back off, putting our hydraulic lifters back in to replace the solid lifters used for testing, and putting the head back on.  All measured, and as we knew was the case, all measured to be completely legal.

Just as we were starting to put things back to gether, we got word that Stock would run earlier than the modified schedule. We would now run at 3:00PM which was less than two hours from now. It will be close, but Keith and I have put this engine together, and ones like it, enough times to know that we could do it.

We started to put it all back together, and there are plenty of things that two people can work on at the same time that we went after it big time.

Stock was called to the staging lanes. We were still a ways from finished, but Super stock has about 80 cars, and they were before Stock and hadn't started yet, so we had a cushion. And we just continued, no need for panic, it wouldn't help, and might cause a problem. So we just kept at it.

Close now, still need to put the header back on, but everything on top is good, so the motor was sealed. We got the header on, and it began to sprinkle. We didn't put the cowl support on the car yet, and the rain started coming down, so we tossed the support in the truck, and all of the tools, threw the  hood back on the car, and drove back to our pit space.

We only lost one one exhaust header bolt, and if necessary could have run without it. We did pick up one later at Lowe's. And it will only take a few minutes in he morning to get it tighten up.

What I didn't mention was the number of trips we made from the Tech teardown area back to our pit, for a variety of items from, tools, to water, to a funnel. I would guess there were about seven of these trips total in the golf cart, the our Drooze Mobile pit vehicle by either Tonya, Keith's wife, or me.

The rains came hard now, and the whole day of racing was canceled. So, although we would have been ready, we now race tomorrow.

Our first run tomorrow will be about 8:00 am and next run will be about 12 noon.

More information on our runs tomorrow, tomorrow.

Anything we do tomorrow, and no matter how fast we go, we won't have to tear down, because the motor is legal, and sealed.

God Bless and Race Safely!

David

Nationals in Vegas all over, now waiting for the Divisional race

The big deal is all over.

We came, we saw, and we got lucky enough to complete our goal of becoming National Stock Automatic Class Champions.

We won A/SA Class. We beat a couple of cars, got a bye run based on our qualifying position (this is why running a good time when qualifying is important, it can get you a bye run somewhere in the race), and then our opponent in the finals broke.

And in Stock Eliminator, we won our first round, but lost in the second round by only a few hundredths of a thousandth of a second. Approximate 3 inches, after running a quarter mile, or 1320 feet. And, the reality, is that we got to the finish line first, in a double breakout. And as usually is the case, in a double breakout, the first one to the line loses, because they are usually further under their expected time (called a dial).


So nothing is left now but to wait until Thursday and get ready for the Division race where there is virtually nothing at stake, but it would be nice to do well there too.

And then we come home.

We have absolutely no idea when we get out Trophy for winning Class in Vegas, nor the Trophy and other items won for the Stock Automatic World championship. Apparently the sanctioning body, is not real big on planning and communication.

I was told that when we ran in Class here, that nobody had a program to run the Ladder sheets, where it takes the competitors and assigns them to whoever they are supposed to race. So they had to do it by hand. This is really clear evidence of confusion and a lack of communication, at best. This ladder sheet has been printed out at every race we have run from East Coast to Pomona, but  here in Las Vegas, it is a problem. Go figure. You really do like to know ahead of time who you race against, and the delay in getting the ladders out is just another indication of the condition of the NHRA.

But for us, right now, it is the only game in town.

Will update you after we finish up the divisional.

God Bless, and Race Safely

David

Friday, and Stock Eliminations start today..

Seemed like a very short night as we had to get up at 5:30 AM to get breakfast and get to the track knowing that we will called to the staging lanes before 7:30 AM.

After a nice but quick breakfast here at the hotel, we hit the road. We got to the track, and started undoing some things we had done yesterday getting ready to go battle in the classic David vs Goliath battle that never happened.

By the way, I really do feel bad for the Teutons who needed a couple of things to go right for them for the National Class Champion, and beating us was the first one. But due to a starter failure, we won without the bloody battle that surely would have ensued. With so much on the line, both of us were willing to do what was necessary, within the rules of course, to take down the prize. So, I honestly feel bad for them. But on the other hand, winning it, is what we wanted. And it isn't like we cheated, or sabotagued them. This time, is their bad luck, and not ours...And that folks, is racing.

But back to today. We had put weight in the car, add some oil, charge the battery, and a few other things to get ready.  But we got it all done just as they called Stock Eliminator to the staging lanes.

Our first round run, and only run today, was scheduled against an E/SA car. The driver cut a pretty good light (.006) to our light (.022) and got more than a second head start. But we ran him down, took the stripe, and we didn't break out. We had dialed 10.08 and won with a 10.13. So the first round of Stock Eliminator is over, and we are still racing.

Tomorrow, again starting at 7:30 AM, I think we run a C/SA car, so he wont get such a big head start. But we still need to get a good light (reaction time) and and run close to our dial. We think we have the car figured pretty well out, and will try hard to pick a good number that we can run. So tomorrow we again go racing and will see what is in store for us.

And it has been interesting as the many of Keith's children came down Salt Lake, and even in from Hawaii to visit and root us on. It was great to see many of the them again, and to meet those that I had not yet met. Talk about a contingent of builtin fans! We have ours for a couple more days, and it is fun being around so many fine young people. The Lynch Mob is alive and currently inhabiting the Las Vegas Drag Strip!

God Bless, and Safe Racing!

David

Class Winner A/SA in Las Vegas

We have now won Class in two consecutive NHRA events in which we have been entered. Two weeks ago, we won A/SA Phoenix in admitting that it was a pretty limited field, but that was divisional race. And this week was a National race with a much larger field, and faster cars .But we had one of those rare and unique combinations of good racing and good luck.

This week in Las Vegas, there were 11 cars in A/SA and as I have previously noted, every one them has a bigger engine than the one in the Mega Maniac.

Our first round was against a Camaro, and we won that race.

Next round we were pitted against an old Hemi and we fortunately won that round.

The Semifinal round, we had a bye.

The finals was poised to be a pretty interesting race. The other car in the finals is also a 2009 Dodge Challenger Drag Pak. It had previously been campaigned with a 6.1 Hemi and a stick shift transmission. But now it had a 6.4 Hemi in it, and an automatic transmission.

In fact as we readied to run the final round, many of the other racers were intently watching to see what promised to be a really good all-out race. There was a lot riding on this race because both drivers were locked in a tie (along with a few other folks) for first place in the National Stock Automatic Class Champions. And the one who won Class here, would clinch the first tie Breaker.

And a Class finals with two Dodge Challenger Drag Paks, both with different engines, but very much the same attitude, of race to the line, and may the best car/driver win attitude would mean that at least one, and quite possibly both cars would likely run fast enough to get horsepower.

As we approached the starting line, I could see that the other car, was still back in the staging lanes and had the hood off.

We pulled over at the starting line, to wait for the other car. I told the NHRA tech who was sending the cars to the starting line, that we would hold for the other car. At that point, another NHRA tech came from where the other car was in the Staging lanes, and said, "they cant start it. Run a single."

So everyone was cheated from seeing one heck of a race. But the good news is that nobody got hurt, and we won Class, giving us also the National Stock Automatic Championship too.

Tomorrow or sometime soon, I hope to have regained my balance. I am truly feeling beyond just being blessed. God has given me a great gift, of being able to accomplish a most impossible dream that Chris and I shared.

God Bless and Race Safely.

David

On the way to Las Vegas

Well, actually I leave tomorrow morning, so I thought I would post tonight. I actually don't think I will be posting again until I am in Las Vegas in a couple of days.

I stopped by the Summit Racing store nearby yesterday, and found something interesting.

I found a metal, beautifully Chromed pair of valve covers. I think they will look great on the Mega Maniac. But it is possible that they wont fit those Drag Pak heads. And if that is true, so be it.

I am in the process of putting a 5.7 Hemi engine together for a project that Chris, his son David, and I started before we even got the Drag Pak.

The car is 1968 Pontiac Lemans convertible. Chris and I had built a supercharged 454 Chevy engine for the car, but we sold that when we knew we wouldn't be getting back to this car for a while...

So why not put a 5.7 Hemi in the 1968 Lemans? Chris was going to put one in his 72 Challenger, and put dual turbo chargers on it. I always thought that was a good idea, and so that may be the way I go on the GTO clone Lemans.

So, if the chrome valve covers don't fit the Drag Pak, they will look just fine... well actually real fine on the 5.7 in that car.

Las Vegas, here I come... again.. Can't wait to get down to Fremont Street for the light show on the ceiling and Queen tribute.... Always a good time hearing several thousand people singing "We will, We will...Rock You!" at the top of their lungs.

And I can hardly wait to accomplish what we need to accomplish at the track. We currently are tied for first in the National Stock Automatic Class Championship race. And the way I calculate things, we hold a whole lot of the tie breakers, and if we can nail down one last one, that should clinch it, and then we are the Kings.

Like all things in racing, it isn't done, until it is done. So please root for us.

God Bless, and Race Safely!

David

Lost in first round of Stock Eliminator, and more news ....

We lost in the first round of Stock Eliminator to a very good car/driver combination, in a double breakout.

We dialed 9.89, and ran 9.88. He dialed 11.23 and ran 11.228, so although we both ran under our number, he was closer to his number than we were to ours. If we had run above our number, and he had run under, we would have won, because only he would have broken out, or gone too fast.

And that is racing in Stock Eliminator, some of these driver/car combinations have been together for years, and hit their numbers, or come awfully close as this one did, time after time. We are still getting a handle on our car, and every time we think we have it figured out, it runs a bit faster than we thought it would. And this is racing too!

Another interesting thing happened this past weekend too. There is a certain 5.7 Hemi Drag Pak (not ours...) who is known for doing stupid things, because his driver is a kid who doesn't understand racing, and doesn't have any investment in the car or the class, and is just out showing off.

In Columbus last year, when we were not running very well (before we found our coil pack problem) we ran him in the class finals. And in that race, he blew past us like we were standing still. In fact he passed us at about 800 feet out of 1320, and could have then just kept ahead of us, and won the race. But because he is an idiot, he ran the car all out through the traps, went too fast and got a horsepower hit.

When we get assigned more horsepower, that means that we have to add more weight to compensate for the additional horsepower. But this lug nut, has gotten more horsepower hits for the 5.7 than everyone else combined.

In Indianapolis, a month ago, and in a couple of previous races, his car was driven by a professional driver who knows that if he gets more horsepower, it affects HIS CAR TOO!  So he drives to win, not to try to embarrass anyone and/or just show off. Unfortunately for him, In Indianapolis, he had engine trouble like we did. And he doesn't do his own engine work, as we do, so we got our engine back together, and competed in Indianapolis, and he was unable to. Frankly, I was rooting for him to be in a race with us, as I think we owe him one. And I like our chances against him heads up any day of the week. But as it turned out in Indianapolis, we had problem upon problem,  and he didn't get his engine back together in time, so that is that. Not this time.

Well, his car showed up in Columbus again this past weekend, and he had the same joke of a driver as last year, who promptly went out and ran too fast, again getting horse power for the 5.7 combination. This time, it is 14 horsepower, and we are in a class where we have to carry nearly 8 pounds per horsepower, so that would mean that we need to add about 100 pounds, actually 8*14 = 112 pounds.... And frankly, that would pretty much force us out of A/SA, forcing us to run in AA/SA against supercharged Mustangs.

Now we can be competitive against most naturally aspirate (not supercharged..) cars. But just how is that fair?

So it really would take someone who doesn't care if the ever car runs competitively to do something like that. Or he is simply flat out ignorant of racing the NHRA.  Because it isn't just my car that is affected, it is his car too! Man, talk about a  death wish. That just isn't smart.

However, in the end, there is also good news.

If you go too fast and get horsepower for your combination, you get torn down(they ask you take your engine apart to show that everything matches teh specifications and tolerances) to see if you are legal or not. It happened to us in Chicago, (And in case you are thinking that we are the pot calling the kettle black because we have also gone too fast and gotten a couple of horsepower hits, when we did it, it was done during races, or in situations when we didn't have any idea that the car would go that fast. And if you total all of our horsepower hits which I think were 3, they all don't add up to his single last one.)

But my point is that we went too fast, got torn down, and we were legal by large margins.

So, they tore him down. And guess what? He was illegal! His piston dome height was too high. If protocol holds true, he will get a six month suspension, and frankly he really does deserve it. Not because he built an illegal engine, since I don't know whether he even knows which end of a connecting rod goes on a crack,  but because he wasn't smart enough to drive sensibly enough to win without getting torn down. But it is normal that if you get caught cheating, as he was, you get a six month suspension from racing. And the result of him being declared illegal is that the horse additional power is not in effect.

OK, my rant is over... He is a moron, who got caught while doing something stupid. There is justice, and I will let it go at that.

Our next race will be the Nationals at Las Vegas, and I just looked at the current entry list, and saw something that I find interesting.. Can you see it?

25	A/SA	Kevin Helms	Schriever LA	10 Challenger	Dodg 392	SOUTHLAND DODGE, M/T, VP
71	A/SA	Rusty Hall	Chandler AZ	67 Shelby	Ford 428	HALL BROS RACING
383	A/SA	Larry Hill	Hickory KY	71 Plymouth	Plym 440	AARP CUDA
575	A/SA	Les Norton	South Jordan UT	10 Dodge	Dodg 392	NORTON RACING
1044	A/SA	John Shaul	Fultonham NY	64 Fury	Plym 426	MR. 426 RACING
213A	A/SA	Anthony Bertozzi	Ashland VA	69 Camaro	Chev 427	NITROPLATE
3610	A/SA	Leonard Mattingly Jr	Coxs Creek KY	00 Firebird	Pont 346	LEONARD MATTINGLY
5035	A/SA	Keith Lynch	Greenville OH	10 Dodge	Dodg 345	NEW HEMI RACING
6413	A/SA	Jon Percy	Pocatello ID	64 Plymouth	MOPR 426	BLACKFOOT RACING
6633	A/SA	Joe Sorensen	Woodburn OR	69 Camaro	Chev 427	JIM SIGEL B.A.M, II.
703D	A/SA	Kyle Rizzoli	San Luis Obispo CA	69 Camaro	Chev 427	BRIDGEWATER EQUIPMENT
7063	A/SA	Brian Sanderson	South Jordan UT	63 Plymouth	Chry 426	SANDERSON RACING
7446	A/SA	Chuck Rayburn	Castro Valley CA	64 Belvedere	Plym 426	CHUCK RAYBURN RACING
7911	A/SA	Clark Holroyd	Chino CA	69 Nova	Chev 396	FIRE ESCAPE RACING
T700	A/SA	Paul Cannan	Devore Heights CA	69 Camaro	Chev 427	BRIDGEWATER EQUIPMENT

My car has the smallest engine of any of the cars running currently registered in A/SA. And in some cases it smaller by nearly 80 cubic inches. So, considering that each cubic inch equates to more horsepower, it would seem that we are significantly over matched in Las Vegas.

But I guess that how things look on paper isn't really all that important. You still have to go out and run the races. So we all will just have to wait and see.

See you in Las Vegas.


God Bless, and Race Safely!

David

First round of qualifying is done...

The first round of qualifying in Phoenix is done. And the weather is hot, hot hot...

So it doesn't look like we will even run the second round of qualifying. I explain that in a second.

But later in the day, some time around 11:30 to noon Phoenix time, with the temperature even hotter, we will run the first round of Class.

The reason we won't run the second round of qualifying is actually pretty simple. We really don't need to make another run. Our first run was at 9.88 seconds, and 133.5 mph.

There are no results posted anywhere yet, but I have to expect that we are Very, Very close to being most under index at 1.112 under. So there is no need to beat up the car with another qualifying run. We can just go back to the pits, relax, charge the battery, refuel the car and get mentally ready for the Class competition. And we are far enough under, that if someone wants to get further under index, they will be flirting with horsepower on Monday.  Top qualifier is good becuase it offers a possible bye somewhere along the race. And we really want to win Class.

This is a really big deal my friends. If we can take down just one more Class win, then we are sitting pretty for National Class Champions. And because I am not at the track with Keith and the car, it is like waiting for a baby to be born.

HERE IS NEWS: 1:22 Ohio time.

They finally posted the first round, and we are not first as I had hoped. Drew Skillman wheeled his AA/SA Mustang to 1.119 under.

So we are currently qualified at number two, sandwiched between two AA/SA Mustangs.

MORE NEWS: 3:30 PM Ohio Time

The second round of Stock Qualifying has been posted and nothing changed at the top.

In our Class A/SA , there  are only three cars. Seven were "signed up" or at least they were listed on the NHRA Entry List for Phoenix, but at least one changed to B/SA, and I don't see a couple of them including Big Daddy Don Garlits, who I thought would be there, but do hope is in Las Vegas.

But here is how we stand. So now, all we need to do is go race and win.

A/SA 5035 Keith Lynch, Greenville OH, '10 Challenger      9.888 11.00  -1.112
A/SA   71 Rusty Hall, Chandler AZ, '67 Mustang           10.356 11.00  -0.644
A/SA  726 Dave Gertschen, Glendale AZ, '01 Firebird      10.562 11.00  -0.438

MORE NEWS: 4:05 Ohio Time

First round of Class is over and we are still alive.

We had a single run (BYE) as a result of being a higher qualifier than the other two. Keith took it easy on the car and ran 14 something. So we run Rusty Hall who beat Dave Gertshcen. The Finals will be run in about an hour.

Once again, we just need to go race and win.

MORE NEWS: 5:00 PM Ohio Time

We did it!   We ran Rusty Hall, and we won the race. We won A/SA Class in Phoneix and have another Wally for my Mantle. And we are now in the points lead for National Stock Champion. So now, we just need to go some rounds in Stock in Las Vegas, and we clinch all of the tie breakers too.

God Bless, and Race Safely.

David

Parked in Phoenix

Some distance from Phoenix, in small town Arizona, we broke a trailer axle. I told you this in my last post. So that part isn't a surprise.

On Wednesday, after talking to a lot of people, and making a lot of phone calls,  Keith managed to locate a replacement axle about 100 miles away.

So off he went, and about four and a half hours later,  he returned to that small town in AZ with the axle. The spring perches were different than the existing axle, so a bit of welding done by a local trailer shop, and Keith was back on the road with the trailer around 8:00PM AZ time.

Life is just an endless string of hurdles. Jumping them is  only way to get to your destination. And even when you knock one down, and need to set it back up. But once again, the hurdles between us and our next adventure are completed.

The car, trailer, and Keith are currently safely pitted at Firebird International Raceway.

Stock runs at 8:00 AM AZ time, and I will be watching and rooting via 1320go.com.

Definitely not like "being there", but it better than not knowing. This is only the second time this car has run that I was not present. The first was a few months ago, when we tried out our backup motor at Stanton MI, Keith and Tonya went alone as it was a last minute decision, and I couldn't make it. This one was also kind of last minute, or at least it sneaked up on me. I already had a Cat Scan scheduled, and an appointment to hear what it shows. So I needed to miss this first phase of the trip.

More tomorrow after qualifying.


God Bless, and Race Safely

David

Another Broken Trailer Axle.....

Last year, we managed to break a trailer axle in Wytheville, Virginia, and got totally ripped off by Complete Truck and Trailer.

They did a crappy job, charged too much, and didn't even hook the trailer brakes up on the new axle. And I hate getting ripped off.

So now, as the car is on it's way to the Phoenix National races, in Arizona, the other axle broke. 

I got the trailer at a good price just before we took delivery of the car. Around $4000, and I have spent an amount equal to what I paid for the trailer, in getting it refurbed and the new axle in Va. 

I feel badly that I didn't make this part of the trip with Keith. But I have confidence that he will get it back on the road, before the race this coming weekend. He is probably only a few hours from the track. So he has a couple of days to get something done. We talked today, and have a couple of options, some good, some not, but still have a little time, so we can only hope.

So the real question is, can we get an axle that fits well enough, that will get the car to Phoenix, and on to Las Vegas..

I will keep you posted about what is happening. 

God Bless, and Race Safely!

David

More Drag Pak information that you won't find anywhere else...

There is still a lot of Secret Squirrel Information about the Drag Pak in general, and our car in particular, that will be withheld, until I decide that we are either done racing, or just don't care anymore.

So don't expect to see that very special stuff here soon. But there are  a lot of other things that we know/have done, that I will happily share as a contribution to the Drag Pak Community.

Did you know?

Did you know that you can change your Cam without pulling your heads? You Can!

Chris and I first discovered this when our second cam arrived. We had originally had LSM do us pretty aggressive Cam, but they couldn't do the grind that we wanted as they didn't have a proper core available. So we put that cam on back order, and it was finally done. Gun Drilled core, and more duration than seemed possible. We were ecstatic about receiving, but didn't have a spare set of head gaskets, so we started trying to figure out how to change the cam without pulling the heads.

To solve a problem, And Chris and I were both pretty good at that, you need to break the problem down, and question all assumptions.

First assumption: You need to remove the heads.
Question: Why do you need to remove the heads?
Answer: To get at valve lifters, and remove them.

Next Assumption: You have to remove valve lifters to remove Cam.
Question: Why do they need to be removed?
Answer: Because if not removed, they will drop down and interfere with Cam removal.

Next Assumption: The lifters will fall down and interfere with Cam removal.
Question: What makes them fall down?
Answer: Angle of lifter, and gravity.

Next Assumption: The angle is such that gravity will cause lifter to fall.
Question: Is that true in this engine?
Answer: Nope, these lifters are almost horizontal.

1. So, you do remove the rocker arm assemblies, and push rods, so that nothing is pushing the lifters down to the Cam.
2. Then you take the cam removal tool, screw it into the end of the Cam, and turn it slowly, 360 degrees.  This causes the lifters to be pushed back into the block at the highest point on the cam lobes.
3. Then you slide the Cam out, and slide new cam in.

What happens if one or more of the lifters slides back down in the block, and interferes with Cam removal or installation? 

You can buy small telescoping magnetic tools at Harbor Freight, and a lot of other inexpensive suppliers. You insert this magnetic tool into the lifter bore, through the push rod hole in the head, and because the heads are aluminum and don't mess with the magnetics, you put the magnet on the lifter and pull it back. It probably will stay, now that you have actually pulled it back further than the Cam lobe. Then you can do the same to any others, two is the most we have have had, and you are good to go.

We have changed Cams without removing heads no less than four times. You might ask why so many times? But the truth is that what seems like the best today, may not be the best tomorrow. And in one case, we sheared the Cam alignment pin, and replaced the Cam for that reason. So, there are reasons to do it. And it isn't as bad as it is on a lot of other engines.

God Bless, an Race Safely!

David

Temporarily All Quiet on the Racing Front...............

Lots happening, but just not much on the racing side of things.

An idle thought: After the Class Win in Columbus, we stopped the Jegs team trailer, to chat with Jeg about his car.  He is one terrific nice guy, humble and just plain a good guy. I am glad I finally got to meet him.

The car will be going to Phoenix for the Nationals on October 14-16. Keith will be alone for that race, except obviously for all the racing friends he has. But I have some health related things that will keep me in Akron for that week.

After the race, Keith will take car to Las Vegas for the Nationals there on the 27th thru the 30th. After dropping the car and trailer in Vegas,  Keith will attend his youngest daughter's wedding in Salt lake City. And I wish the young couple all of the best.

Once the wedding celebrations are complete, Keith will return to Las Vegas, and I will fly in to join him for the races there.

I say races, because there is a National one week, and the a divisional the next week. And we will likely attend both.

For those who wonder what has been going on with the car, we are currently ranked number five in Stock Eliminator rankings. And interesting enough.... at least for me... we are positioned to take the who thing down... If we have one more Class Win, we are Number One and hold all of the tie breakers...

Obviously, we still have to "git er dun", but we have a couple of chances... So, I think we have a shot at it. Stock Automatic National Champion is pretty cool.

Then, at the Divisional, we will try to do something, that Chris and I believed we could do, and had as a goal from the very beginning. We will run in Super Stock (running in Super Stock isn't the goal), and get a World Record  in some NHRA Class.  That, a World Record, always has been the goal! Chris and I talked about it, at great length. We dreamed, and we laughed, and we knew we could do it.. So now is the time to do it.

Because of the way the NHRA punishes you for going fast, we will not try it in Stock where our Horsepower rating is over 400, and will go for it in Super Stock where our Horsepower rating is still 305. So in Super Stock, even though we will break the index, and be penalized with more horsepower requiring us to carry more weight in Super Stock, we can afford that hit.

Chris said it originally, and when he said it, the lights went on, and I immediately agreed with him. The New Hemi, the 5.7, the 6.1 and now the 6.4, all the same basic engine, is the LAST GREAT PUSHROD ENGINE that will ever be produced.

And it is about time that the Mega Maniac, the most successful and best known Dodge Challenger Drag Pak car running that engine,  takes it proper place at the top of the list, amongst the greatest race cars in the NHRA with a Stock Championship, and a Super Stock World Record.

Even if we dont get either or both of these accomplishments, the Mega Maniac is a winner.

God Bless, and Race Safely

David

Columbus - Just another adventure.....

We arrived at National Trailways on Thursday morning. The plan was to take advantage of the Thrsday Test N Tune, and find out what kind of times the car will really do.  But, there was a program running early in the day, as a rain make up. Well, that program ran into teh night, and so there was no Test N Tune.

OK, so we missed the Test N Tune, on Friday, the Sports Nationals starts!

Except, it rained most of the day, and ultimately, the three day event was turned into a two day event. So, we ran a 9.85 time, and were qualified #1 for about half an hour. Then Charley Bob Downing in his Mustang went for a record run, took the number one qualifier position, and also will get some horsepower on Monday. But we went into Class Eliminations, and after running our 5.7 Hemi against some pretty fast A/SA cars, including a 6.4 Hemi Dodge Challenger, and a 6.1 Hemi Challenger DragPak, won the A/SA Class.  The winning run came at around 11 PM. Our Class win came against the 6.4 Hemi, and it was late. The temperature was dropping fast and there was dew on the race track. Needless to say we, and the other car spun our tires on the wet track. But we recovered, and won. Yeah! Another Wally! A very good day.

After the scale check to make sure our weight was legal, and the fuel check to be sure our fuel was legal, we were told that the photographer had already left, so we drove back to the pits, and we could get the pics take Sunday Morning... But wait, a tech rep came and got us, and we drove the car back down to the photography backdrop for pictures. I will explain in the next paragraph why I even tell you this.

Keith started the car to drive back to the pit area, and the car made noises that we didn't like. He immediately shut it down. We started it again for moment, to try to identify the noise, and after a moment of only concluding it was bad, shut it down again. We drove the our pit cart back to the trailer and got our tow strap, hooked up the car, and towed it back, up a pretty big hill, and to our pit. Our little cart, like the car, may not look big, but it does a nice job.

We pulled the oil filter out of the car, and began to tear it apart. It was now about 11:30PM and after struggling with it got the filter apart. If it shows us bearing material, then we have a big problem. Almost anything else, is still a big problem, but other things aren't as destructive as spinning  a bearing like we did in Indianapolis. The pit area is well lighted, and we are trying to figure out exactly what might be wrong.

We start pulling plugs to see if there are any symptoms there. Cylinder number spark plugs, are clean whereas all other plugs are black for running too rich. So what does that mean? Black, running rich is the norm for us. So why are the plugs from number 3 clean. Maybe a bent valve. Maybe a broken rocker arm. Lots of maybes. It now midnight, and suddenly the lights go out, and it is as dark as a cave at night. Apparently the track shuts the light off at midnight. Rats! What now.

A Super Street guy pitted next to us, came over with a flashlight, and I found my flashlight. We messed around for another half hour, and decided that we couldn't see things well enough. So with the help of our neighbor, we pushed the car into the trailer, fired up the generator and turned on the fluorescent lights in the trailer.  But the lights flickered too much, and was driving us crazy, so we got our two trouble lights and had a little light. We did a compression check and decided that cylinder 3 had too much compression. That could be caused by several bad things.  But our best guess was a bent or broken valve. It was about 2 in the morning by then, and we decided the problem was probably beyond us right then. So we went back to the hotel. At the time we left the track, we were sure that we had a really big problem, and that we would be leaving early Sunday morning

We got back to the track at about 7:30 AM. So there we were, with four hours of sleep, back trying to figure out what was wrong.

After taking about the symptoms, and possibilities, being short of sleep, and pretty testy from that lack of sleep, we kept asking each other: What could it be. Now it was getting late and soon Stock would be called. There is no way, we can get things fixed, and get reading for Stock Eliminator in a little more than an hour. But one way or another , at the track, or back in the shop, things need to be taken apart, so even if we cant get it all back together in time, we can find out what caused the problem.

One possible thing that could cause the problem might be a collapsed lifter. To find out, we need to pull coil packs, intake manifold, calve cover, rocker arm assemblies, push rods, exhaust headers, and the driver side head. That is a couple of hours work, so although we knew it was absolutely assured that we couldn't get it apart, fixed, and back together in  time to run, we still needed to get it apart to find out if that is our problem. And if we find almost anything else, we couldn't get it done anyway.

So apart it all came. The car was still in the trailer, and that made it hard for more than one person to do a lot of things. But since it is now daylight, we pushed the car mostly out of the trailer, drained the water, and shortly had the manifold off. Then came the coil packs, the valve covers, the rocker arm assemblies, and we decided to try pulling the head without removing the exhaust headers. As I recall, Chris and I pulled that driver side head with header still attached. So to save time, and effort, decided to try it again. It worked, we moved the head just enough, with header still attached, to remove the lifter cradle, and the lifters. And guess what we found? A collapsed lifter. We have spare lifters, so we could replace it. They had just called the left side of the Stock Elimination Ladder to the Staging lane. No way we could get it all together in time before we are called, and cant make it.

But wait, we have come this far, and I hate giving up. I will not quit!!!!!!!!!!!

And there was no resistance. Both Keith,  and Ed, who joined us for this trip and was extremely helpful, were in synch with me. Lets just try! And we did.  The new lifter went in, the head went back on. The rocker arm assembly went in, the rocker cover went back on, intake manifold went back on, spark plugs in, coil packs on, everything was connected, we put water in, and hoped for the best. The car was started, and it sounded great. We backed it out, drove to staging lanes, and got there right in time.

We actually won our first two rounds of eliminations, and in our third round, we ran a 9.91 on a 9.3 dial. That is bad. You cant run faster than your dial in, so we lost that one, and were done. But in my mind, we won just by getting the engine diagnosed and fixed in time to compete.

God Bless, and Race Safely!
David