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