First of all I didn't win but the way I was racing I might have.

It was a 2500km round trip.

Friday test and tune I had no consistancy with anything. Reaction times, 60 foot or 1/4 mile times although I did get my best 60' time.

Saturday I got into the Race of Champions in Pro ET class because one of our members didn't show up and my car doesn't have "electronics". One time trial run before eliminations. I got a .512 light and ran 11.178. First round of eliminations I dialed in 11.21. My opponent red lit giving me the win when I cut a .505 light and ran 11.265. Second round I go up against an 8 second, foot brake dragster. I dialed in 11.26, cut a .524 light, ran a 11.291 and won however I floated the valves, bent one and broke the guide in the left head. I couldn't make the call for third round but by then we already had the head off and I was out getting the repairs done. A local racer had a machine shop and I got a new valve and had the broken guide replaced. From the time I finished the last run till the time the engine was back together and fired up took about 4 hours. Racing was over for the day but I was ready for the team race on Sunday. Having a bunch of teammates who are also mechanics helps.

Sunday team race. 192 cars in Pro ET. No time trial rounds. I dialed in 11.16. My opponent was a slower car and was the first to leave and red lit while I cut a .501 light and ran 11.099. Second round I get a bye run for getting the best reaction time (free test and tune run). After waiting almost an hour in the staging lines to find out if there's an odd number of cars I finally get the bye run. I had dialed in 11.16 again but ran 11.243 on a .495 light. Crossing the finish line I floated the valves again and bent another one. No time to do repairs this time. Time to play games. Our team needs the points and I'm not going to give another race away.

Third round. The engine still runs but on 7 cylinders. I dial in 11.00 to try and be a quicker car. My teammates push me through the staging lanes. I'm paired up against an 11.5 car. I do everything second by allowing him to pull into the water box, do a burnout and stage while I skip the burnout and stage. Since he's the slower car he'll leave first. The game paid off, he red lit and gave me the win. I broke the starting beam and then backed out.

Fourth round. Win here and it's a money round. Tryed the same game but a little more convincing by doing a simple burnout. My opponent leaves first and cuts a .549 light so I break the starting beam and stop to wait and see if he breaks out and gives me the win.

Nope. He must have looked in his mirror and didn't see me. He backed off and got the win light.

Worst light in 4 rounds of elimination over 2 days where I actually made a full pass was .524. It would have been nice if I didn't keep floating the valves. That's the trouble with going to a lower elevation track. I was running out of engine before I ran out of track.

Less than 6 days to get the repairs done for the next race. Both heads are now coming off. They're going to be port and polished this time, bent valves replaced and stronger springs installed. Those 6800 rpm shifts are too much for the current springs.

 

Wow, that sounds like quite a fun trip. Looks like you were running pretty strong till you ran into those little problems

 

Not bad, all things considered. Breaking stuff is never fun, though.

I'll be doing the lower altitude thing this weekend. Except the difference will be 4700 feet lower elevation. The good news is my car is hardly optimized for 5800', so it should actually be close in Topeka (other good news is my round trip is only around 2000 km). Bad news is time trials start Friday morning, I won't get there until Friday evening since I won't get home from this business trip I'm on until Thursday night, so tuning will not be given much time.

Good thing there's always "next week" or "next season", huh?

 

The heads are off the car now and stripped down. It was the same valve that dropped. Number 5 intake. The guide is pushed into the combustion chamber. It looks like the second failure was caused by the new intake valve not having the correct clearance to the guide. There's a bit of gauling on the valve.

I'v got them both off because they now get some port work before sending them to the machine shop to be repaired and have stronger springs installed.

It looks like the piston survived again. There's some indents in the valve relief but nothing serious.

I don't want to wait for "next season". We only have 2 points races left. They're going to have a Big Buck Bracket race. $100 entry fee and $1000 guarenteed to win. I think it's going to be the first weekend in October (weather permitting)

Next year's Div 6 bracket finals will be held in Ashcroft BC. It's just west of Kamloops. That should be nice. It's only an 8 hour drive instead of the 13 hour one I just did.

 

Let me know when you're there, it's only about an hour from my parents' place.

 

Racer out here with a back-halved, Powerglide, mini-ram 406, carbon tilt front end '88 Vette was in the money in four different classes two weekends ago at the "Mile High Bracketnationals" - in the finals in two classes, champ in one. Oh, these are all street classes.

He showed up at last Friday's Club Clash (DOT, muffler-required, trophy-only series) having changed from 4.88's to 4.56's. He admitted it slowed down a little (11.70's instead of 11.65's), but his reasoning was, "It's running out of steam at the top end." Well, he's going to Topeka this weekend, too, so that helps explain his action (even if he didn't say it).

 

I haven't done the calculations but I think if I go to lower elevation tracks my 4.56 gears should be 4.33.

That means picking up another carrier, spool and gears to do a quick swap.