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Another "HOT" one in Ohio...Long.. #1045158
08/01/11 07:43 PM
08/01/11 07:43 PM
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 3,544
Syracuse,NY
CompWedgeEngines Offline OP
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CompWedgeEngines  Offline OP
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Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 3,544
Syracuse,NY
After our last outing in the Frigon Racing, Competition Wedge Pro Top Outlaw dragster, we were ready for some cooler or at least cloud covered racing. Or so we thought. We were in 97* temps a few weeks ago at Empire Dragway in Rochester, NY. This weekend we decided to head to Thompson Ohio for the Asphalt Wars series there. We set the track record there last year, but we already had a new gauntlet laid down by Paul Molnar this past Fall when he reset it just one one hundredth faster!

Bob Frigon headed out late Friday afternoon after we found a bad lash cap on one of the intakes. ( More on that later). He got a late start and rolled into Thompson around midnight, I left at 5AM Saturday for the 5 hour drive, with my son and the other crew member. It appeared that we might get some good weather, maybe low 80’s and reduced ( from like 100%!) humidity. Sounded like a great plan. Well, as luck would have it, it was nice for a few hours, and then the humidity and heat started taking over. First round of qualifying was at high noon, and of course, they were running about 45 minutes late, which only made it hotter,. The track was still fair however, with the starting line not looking too bad and we thought it would hold some fair power. First qualifier rolls around, and we run a safe 3.88 at 187MPH. Our ole buddy Molnar runs a 3.89 right behind us. We also knew Jeff Chatterson would be hot on our heals as well in another PTO car, and sure enough, he wasn’t too far behind as well. We decided to sit out the second qualifier, and thought Molnar would have to put a real good run together with the existing conditions, especially as its now about 2:30 or later, and the track was getting a sunshine bath. Well, Paul lays one down at 3.86 for the #1 spot, which we didn’t mind, as it would put us on the other half of the ladder and hopefully against him in the final. In retrospect, we thought maybe we should have ran, but it really didn’t matter, and we couldn’t see the sense of just going out and going thru the motions. It wasn’t really going to tell us anything we didn’t know at that point. The track was going to be hot and greasy.
Round one, I think around 5:30. ( was supposed to be 4:00PM). We get Keith McLellan in the Koffels Place Lake Erie Monster. They were pitted next to us, and we enjoyed chatting and hanging with Scott Koffel and Keith. Bobs a little late ( especially for him) on the tree and Keith gets out on us till about half track and then we power on thru for the win. Us 3.90 @ 186 and Monster 4.06 @ 174 .Not stellar, but a safe pass in the soup. We look at the data and graphs and decide to not make any real radical changes, but we do make a one degree timing change for early in the run. Next round we get only blown Ford entry of Jeff Chatterson out of Canada. These guys are the real deal and they will always bring their A game. They have a very very light car, and it always 60’s well. We had been doing ok in the 60’s, but we knew these guys could bring it. We make another minor fuel and timing change, and it paid off. We 60’ .937 and Chatterson goes .913! It’s a dogfight till the finish and Bob pulls it off in a [Email]3.92@185[/Email] to 3.93 @ 181 contest. ( you can see the weather and track now affecting MPH) Whew, that was close. Bob did his job on the tree and we had the MPH advantage at top end. As it progressed, it was going to be us and Molnar in the final. Pauls opponent blew a head gasket prior round, so he had the bye into the Quick 8 finals. We knew he was running exceptionally well in his brand new Spitzer PTO car. He had a power advantage as well with his 526” engine, vs our 451” plant. He runs a SSI blower with fuel management, we run a PSI roots blower.We make some changes, but we weren’t feeling good about the previous few, as the car wasn’t responding as we thought it should have. Oh well. No guts, no glory. We head to the line and off we go. It looked like we’re out on him ( and we were) and I had my fingers crossed, but to no avail. Paul runs [Email]3.84@195MPH[/Email] ! We only run a 3.88 at 183MPH and assume the worse, that we broke something. We get back to the pits, look at the data, and we find out that our car went from over 2.5 G’s to almost .6 tenths, ( yes TENTHS) of a G for almost a half a second and driveshaft RPM went on a big spike. Yep, we smoked the tires at about 400-500 feet, and our efforts were in vane. No one, door cars or otherwise made a fast pass in the left lane, which we now know. Paul has a fast machine, and we wont sit around and cry about it. We got beat, but we’ll be back! Bob called me Sunday night to inform me we did in fact have a wounded rocker arm, and we will get that fixed and get back in the saddle. We had two exhaust valves with a minor lash issue and a intake rocker arm roller went bad. The EGTS were showing some erratic cylinder EGTs and now we know why.
The show was great, with 17 cars qualifying on each side of the show, and the door cars were real bad indeed. Some bad hombres there for sure.
We prepped the car, trailer and gear, and head back East only with more desire to kick it up a notch for the next event. Hopefully better results, but it aint ever easy against these guys. We arrived home about 3.30-3.45 AM, and we wasted no time hitting the pillows!
On a side note, I got to meet Mr Super Satellite ( modified1090? On Moparts) and I saw him going deep into what I think may have been the finals. I also hooked up with Roadhazard( Greg) as he and his wife and the new addition, the Superdog himself “ Charger” for a few hours of BSing in between rounds. It was great to meet a few people, as my schedule hardly ever gives me much time to do any of that. It was a pleasure and also having my 13 year old son there with me, starting to help “ crew” a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smbPlzvOCjE&feature=channel_video_title


RIP Monte Smith

Your work is a reflection of yourself, autograph it with quality.

WD for Diamond Pistons,Sidewinder cylinder heads, Wiseco, K1 rods and cranks,BAM lifters, Morel lifters, Molnar Technologies, Harland Sharp, Pro Gear, Cometic, King Engine Bearings and many others.
Re: Another "HOT" one in Ohio...Long.. [Re: CompWedgeEngines] #1045159
08/01/11 08:00 PM
08/01/11 08:00 PM
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 7,348
Mt.Vernon ,Ohio
VernMotor Offline
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VernMotor  Offline
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 7,348
Mt.Vernon ,Ohio
First thing is ..Thank you for a very good read !

Second Paul Molnar He use to have a funny car and ran in the IHRA ? Is this the same Paul ? I sold him a JR dragster flew years ago. sounds like the same motor he had then ?

Third What is a PTO car ? dragster ? I thought He had took the funny car body off and was running a alter body on it ?

Re: Another "HOT" one in Ohio...Long.. [Re: VernMotor] #1045160
08/01/11 08:54 PM
08/01/11 08:54 PM
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 3,544
Syracuse,NY
CompWedgeEngines Offline OP
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CompWedgeEngines  Offline OP
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Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 3,544
Syracuse,NY
Same Paul. He just got a new Spitzer chassis last year, and still has the funny car chassis and body( ies). The car was just too crazy to try and get down the tracks. He has very strong power, and I am sure there have been some changes to that motor. We know some of the people helping him and they have given him some good parts and advice. We enjoy racing against him. Right now its Us 2- Molnar 2...the rubber match has been set up...lol

PTO is the Pro Top Outlaw circuit. Its being revived by Ron, Bob and others who were in it a few years ago. Around the time when Laurie Cannister was going fast in the SBM car etc...


RIP Monte Smith

Your work is a reflection of yourself, autograph it with quality.

WD for Diamond Pistons,Sidewinder cylinder heads, Wiseco, K1 rods and cranks,BAM lifters, Morel lifters, Molnar Technologies, Harland Sharp, Pro Gear, Cometic, King Engine Bearings and many others.
Re: Another "HOT" one in Ohio...Long.. [Re: CompWedgeEngines] #1045161
08/01/11 08:59 PM
08/01/11 08:59 PM
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 52,972
Romeo MI
MR_P_BODY Offline
Master
MR_P_BODY  Offline
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Posts: 52,972
Romeo MI
Nice passes... to bad it broke the rocker.... good reading

Re: Another "HOT" one in Ohio...Long.. [Re: CompWedgeEngines] #1045162
08/01/11 09:15 PM
08/01/11 09:15 PM
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 6,446
NJ-USA
H
HPMike Offline
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HPMike  Offline
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 6,446
NJ-USA

Re: Another "HOT" one in Ohio...Long.. [Re: HPMike] #1045163
08/01/11 09:35 PM
08/01/11 09:35 PM
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 7,348
Mt.Vernon ,Ohio
VernMotor Offline
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VernMotor  Offline
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 7,348
Mt.Vernon ,Ohio
Ok I know Paul was not happy when IHRA pull the plug on allky funny cars. I glad to hear he is racing and doing well

Re: Another "HOT" one in Ohio...Long.. [Re: VernMotor] #1045164
08/02/11 01:06 AM
08/02/11 01:06 AM
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 1,414
Stow ,Ohio
D
demon440 Offline
pro stock
demon440  Offline
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Joined: May 2006
Posts: 1,414
Stow ,Ohio
Paul and Dave are friends of mine.
Yes they got a dragster chassis now.
Sounds like he has got it running pretty good.
I don't have a pic of the dragster but I got
one's of the Altered and the Funny car.

Re: Another "HOT" one in Ohio...Long.. [Re: demon440] #1045165
08/02/11 08:17 AM
08/02/11 08:17 AM
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 20,116
PA.
pittsburghracer Offline
"Little"John
pittsburghracer  Offline
"Little"John

Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 20,116
PA.
Congratulations Todd on another good race. One of these days we will get a break from this heat and make it a little more enjoyable. Thanks for taking the time to share your weekend with us as its always some good reading. Good-luck at your next race.


1970 Duster
Edelbrock headed 408
5.984@112.52
422 Indy headed small block
5.982@112.56 mph
9.42@138.27

Livin and lovin life one day at a time




Re: Another "HOT" one in Ohio...Long.. [Re: pittsburghracer] #1045166
08/02/11 09:22 AM
08/02/11 09:22 AM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 25,851
United Socialist States of Ame...
T
tboomer Offline
Too Many Posts
tboomer  Offline
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 25,851
United Socialist States of Ame...
Great read,Todd!! You guys are getting right with the program!!


The end is near.....
Re: Another "HOT" one in Ohio...Long.. [Re: tboomer] #1045167
08/02/11 06:11 PM
08/02/11 06:11 PM
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 3,544
Syracuse,NY
CompWedgeEngines Offline OP
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CompWedgeEngines  Offline OP
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Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 3,544
Syracuse,NY
We're sneaking up on it....we made some changes this year and we need to get some data to evaluate better, which we are now getting after sitting out all Spring due to weather. You'd be surprised at what you see and adjust for after reading the data graphs. Bob called me today with some more things, and we have a new plan for the next outing....dont know till ya try, cause there aint no instruction booklets that come with this stuff....


RIP Monte Smith

Your work is a reflection of yourself, autograph it with quality.

WD for Diamond Pistons,Sidewinder cylinder heads, Wiseco, K1 rods and cranks,BAM lifters, Morel lifters, Molnar Technologies, Harland Sharp, Pro Gear, Cometic, King Engine Bearings and many others.
Re: Another "HOT" one in Ohio...Long.. [Re: CompWedgeEngines] #1045168
08/02/11 06:19 PM
08/02/11 06:19 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 25,851
United Socialist States of Ame...
T
tboomer Offline
Too Many Posts
tboomer  Offline
Too Many Posts
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 25,851
United Socialist States of Ame...
You got that right...No instruction books at my lowley level either! Things just didn't work out so I made the decision to step away from chasin points. Dwayne Porter said one time that if it isn't fun anymore,it is time to quit! You guys are doing good!! Keep at it!


The end is near.....






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