My engine was just picked up the other day, upon mock up found i had to have pushrods custome made, so she's behind schedule even further now. Regardless we had our first points race this weekend, so buddy offered up his 66 GTO so I could try and get some points to stay in the chase if I rewireed the fuse box that got burnt last Sept.

Anyways, no T&T fri night, so basically walked into full race weekend in a new car with nothing to go on in a so-so street car with no trans brake. Once again I got burnt using his button hooked to his 2 step and line lock. These cars just dont react nearly fast enough since you cant turn up staging rpm without pushing through...I was literally stuck staging at only 2600rpm and that was ragged. best light of the day was a -.013 and average was .062 on 2 time shots and 2 rounds going 1-1.75 pumps into beams after lighting stage lit. both time shot car ran 12.155 and 12.168, air about the same, but wind died down-cross wind-, so dialed a 12.14. by 1000' mark my opponent was nowhere in sight so I let out of the gas, and then pushed the brake the final few feet to emphasis my braking effort-result-HIS win light came on Even scrubbing 7mph off I broke out by.4

bought back in, bumped in the 1.75 pumps past stageing light getting lit, dialed a 12.10 since everything was about the same......this time I got treed, bad .017 to my .054 and the stupid car ran a 12.05????WTF!!!!

I've come to the conclusion after running my car in pro/modified/no-box there is just no way a typical street car stands a chance...they just leave too fricken slow with no set way to fine tune R/T to be competative in this class....sucks cuz I already entered/paid for the 2 day...wishy I coulda had the guy that owns the car there tomorrow to drive it since I dont even want to waste my time anymore...so stink'n mad right now, dont expect I'll see the track again until mines done so I can actually tune to compete instead of having to do all kinds of crazyiness hoping it's gonna win me a round....this no idea where your at on the starting line is a joke, but these cars react so slow what are ya supposed to do

 

What ever happened to the truck you used to drive? How many points races in the next while before you expect to be running?

 

The truck is my uncles, he's a little different to put in nicely. Unless Hot Rod magazine prints something, he wont do it. Right now in the truck it's geared waaaay to low glide+31" slick+4.30 gear= 5900rpm across the stripe and we should be trapping at 6800rpm instead. But what is happening is soon as I let go of the tbrake button the tires will hit, and then unload. I'm lucky if the 60's are within .04-.06 per pass....been trying to tell him to put at least a 4.88 or if he wants optimum 5.13 gears in it, but it wont happen. "That's way to much gear" he tells me LOL!!! heck he was bound and determined to run a VS carb until I convinced him to ask the guys building the engine-"but we're running an automatic" he says....so yeah, that wasas a lost cause that first year and he wont make the changes needed for it to be be competative, so I want nothing to do with it, and the truck has set idle for 3 yrs now and will for the next 10yrs just like all his other cars....dang shame.

Our next points race is literally 1 month away. We now have 3 tracks owned/operated by the same guy, so this year he started a "alliance series" where you travel to all the tracks chasing points, then the winner of super pro and pro each get a $18K makeover on their car from big time sponsors plus the rounds we accumlate go towards our home track points so your racing for that money as well. Let's just say the track was friggin packed yesterday since guys from all over the state are dreaming big and running this thing LOL!! Best part is the races are only once per month....good for family life, bad for racing life...but the weekends in between they have combo races for $1K all summer so you can get seat time.

Hopin to be on track by next race (May 26-27), but time will tell. Lots of little things to do, and we're getting ready to start putting mud in the ground for some really big jobs we have this year so free time during the week will be hard to come by.

 

I was really surprised by how many of the bracket regulars were still at CDP saturday, last years track champion was even there for T&T. I figured that he would have been all over the MBA.

 

I haven't been to the track since the beginning of last October. It's a long off season. I'm sure I'm going to be rusty when I get back to the track and forget all the procedures. Our entire 2007 season will consist of 5 double header weekends. Those are long breaks between races. I may travel this year for more track time.

Don't count out street cars in the Pro class. Although their chance of winning is low, some drivers just know enough about their cars to make them competitive.

It's like saying a footbrake car can't win in SuperPro/Box/Top ET. Normally they can't but many still do.

 

We've had several guys in the last few years finish 1-2 for the season in Pro with their Sportsman cars.

 

I agree with the "anything's possible" thinking since it is bracket racing and there are some very very talented drivers in our mist, but the honest way and literal fact of the matter, these drivers are very few and far between and it'd be like hitting the lottery so to speak-it can be done, but all the lucky stars need to shine on them to make it happen. just like this weekend, I look at my car, what I've done on track to date, and then look at how the races ended up in the end yesterday and today...all 4 finals (the super pro and pro, and then the king of the hill) the cars in line were minimum $40K race cars....minimum since I know exactly what most of the stuff they run generally goes for. Your average 9-5 working stiff cannot and will not be able to afford to have the best of everything to compete at this level unless his on track driving is in the top 5%. All my parts are getting worn out as i street drive, these track only cars see maybe 125-150 at most rounds/passes per season so the parts are just getting broke in so to speak, and it'll have all new for the next season....hard to financially keep up with that.

I know the shoe polish is the "equalizer", but I watched the last 3 rounds in super and pro have .001-.008 MOV....that's tight in anybody's race when it comes down to running your number as closely to 0 as possible. It was pretty neat watching the king of the hill races-they hade the S/P car dialed in at 8.56 running a dodge mini van dialed in at 17.76.....156mph vs 75 mph....how the S/P guy knew to start whompin at the 1/8th mile mark is beyond me LOL!! but he won the whole show and took home the extra coin.

Today was another bad one. First time run was a .089 on the tree shallow staging, second time run I tried going deep and was -.054 red, 3rd time run you have to pay $10 to get and your entered into the best R/T contest which pays $200 for the best R/T....but the whole track just wants one more shot since it takes about 2 hours to get all the classes run through and nobody wants to chance on what to dial sitting for 3hrs before elimins start. Anyways, went to pull out of pits for 3rd time run, car wont start....buddy I pit with is best freinds with the owner of the car I was running and he tells me, oh, his alternator has'nt worked right for years, so you probably shouda been charging between rounds anyways, did my burnout, car dies, I got pushed out...guy towed i back to my trailer, I was ready to winch it up and go home, my friend pulled the battery out of my traielr, put it in the car and said go make 1st round and get your points....I know whaen the cards are stacked against me to just call it a day since it never gets better. 1st round comes up, running another frined that's very solid on the tree and usually hits his dial (knowing my best light was .062 all weekend I went in a lil deeper staging) I goes and see my win light come on...he red lit and I got a give me but I ran .09 slower than the previous runs at every interval.

track was getting hotter/slower so I jsut kept the 12.19 dial on it (I had a 12.10) 2nd round I have to run a 3 time track champ, pulled in extra deep, left, and by the 1000' he was just coming on me, stood on the brakes, crossed first by .015 and broke out by .09...hmmm. It was done at the tree, he broke out by .006 but it was alot less than mine obviously. oh well, yet another lesson learned this weekend. I will not ever run another car unless it's set-up in a race car format with a tbrake....just too hard after all these yrs and passes to get back in a slow leaving street car. I got a few points, but not worth what I spent obviously since the players going rounds yesterday were right there agin today until the end....in real race cars hopefully i can get my junk running like it used to so I can smack them boyz around some more this season and screw up their points dream..we'll see.

 

If he was womping that early, more than likely he had some sort of driveshaft counting in relation to RPM's box. Like a "Matty Box". Lets you know if your fast or slow in relation to your first logged pass. Thats why I don't bracket race. Too many high tech computers on cars reading your speed instead of good ole fashion driver judgement.

 

I agree...the guy/team with the most money wins...they can afford the cheating devices that are not easily detectable..but these guys are normally running the big money races $10K-50K per weekend...not a local low paying $1K. Most is just seat time, and the fact he was closing at twice the speed and most guys hold .02-.05 anymore, they were all romping to shed speed so they did'nt break out. Could they/he have been running a Matty Box...sure, but like I said, for what that thing costs for the good one...seems like stupid to be running for only a grand.