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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312882
11/12/12 09:59 AM
11/12/12 09:59 AM
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Phoenix, AZ
MoparBilly
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As we were thinking about unloading our stuff, Ray walked over and told us that he overheard a conversation about another rain cell moving through, so perhaps we should hold off on prepping the cars for running, regardless of all the positive, "We're going to get this in" rhetoric blaring over the speakers.
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312883
11/12/12 11:21 PM
11/12/12 11:21 PM
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We waited around as the HotRod staff beat each other up trying to figure out what to do, last year's 4 day race had really left everyone dissapointed, so the decision was made to come back on Saturday to finish up.
Obviously for some people this wasn't an option, so they had to pack up and go.
Below is a pic of Rick Callahan's Black 69 RR, which was well into the DD field with an 11.68-117.25 average after thursday, but he had to leave Friday night.
Don't see a black 69 RR? Me niether, but that's the specs listed for car number 1 on HotRod.com!!
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312884
11/12/12 11:33 PM
11/12/12 11:33 PM
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His buddy Rod, with the immaculate 68 GTS had to call it as well, he was solidly in the quick 32 DD bracket with a 12.28-110.59 average after thursday.
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312885
11/13/12 01:34 AM
11/13/12 01:34 AM
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Another 11 second DD that couldn't stick around was this 99 Camaro, we spent about 100 miles on one leg running with them. Father/Son combo if I had to guess, with Dad along for the ride, nice guys. 11.69-117.9 for 4 days.
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312886
11/13/12 01:45 AM
11/13/12 01:45 AM
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Tom Dziengel, Hot Rod class winner to BBR:
Wasn't it cold and rainy like his last year when we were in Tulsa?"
BBR to Tom,
"Yeah, but I was sitting in my white Durango with the heater running!"
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312887
11/13/12 02:08 AM
11/13/12 02:08 AM
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Since a small quantity of people were leaving, Hot Rod went ahead and opened up the impound lot, and allowed racers to once again have access to thier rigs. Basically what this meant to the big hitters was, they had 18 hours more prep time, and a full compliment of tools and parts! Meaning Saturday was going to be the knock down, drag out, heavyweight battle we had all been rooting for. We had considered leaving our cars in the pits, and just all piling in Dale's 1 ton, but at the last minute we just decided to drive them back to Dale's house. Once we parked the Valiant at Dale's, I jumped in the Belvedere with Rachael and we went over to Boone's. Everything from then until Saturday morning is a complete blank, seriously, I was that worn out!
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312888
11/13/12 03:03 AM
11/13/12 03:03 AM
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Topeka Kansas
ksj
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Quote:
Tom Dziengel, Hot Rod class winner to BBR:
Wasn't it cold and rainy like his last year when we were in Tulsa?"
BBR to Tom,
"Yeah, but I was sitting in my white Durango with the heater running!" [/quote
Poor James.  
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: BBR]
#1312891
11/13/12 11:39 PM
11/13/12 11:39 PM
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Phoenix, AZ
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Drag Week ingenuity: Luther Duncan's high Rpm stick shifted Maverick trying to keep the rain out.
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312892
11/14/12 01:13 AM
11/14/12 01:13 AM
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Saturday morning, we arrived at Dale's, and he quickly built a new coil wire for the Belvedere, so hopefully we could avoid the difficulties of Memphis.
When I fired the Valiant, the idle jumped to about 2K and hung there, so I shut it off, and checked everything out. The thing had developed a horrible header leak on the last two days, and now I was wondering if I had burned a valve or something. We backed the idle screw off, and as it warmed up, it settled down, but now I was feeling a little nervous!
Dale and his 10 year old son loaded up with me in the Valiant, and his daughter and stepson Cody jumped in with Rachael. We cruised by a local car show in a store parking lot on the way to the track, and the guys responsible for parking the cars were waving us in, we had to move into the center lane to avoid them! The other particpants looked a little dissapointed that we didn't join the festivities.
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312893
11/14/12 01:36 AM
11/14/12 01:36 AM
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Once at the dragstrip, everyone seemed to fall into the practiced routines of prepping the cars. It was going to take a little while to get the track dry and ready, so everyone seemed relaxed and in much better moods, just a really fun day for those of us not in the midst of a tight race.
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312894
11/14/12 01:58 AM
11/14/12 01:58 AM
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When the call was finally made, Darryl waisted no time getting into the lanes, 21 minutes after the first pair completed thier runs, he pulled his Dart into the water box across from Jake Stelter's 67 Chevelle, which was leading the class Darryl was currently 5th in, SR SB/NA.
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312895
11/14/12 02:06 AM
11/14/12 02:06 AM
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His 11.431-117.12 was no match for the Chevelle's 10.083-131.0, but he drove it onto the trailer, turned in his slip, and decided it was a successfull Drag Week, when he received his 11.34-118.2 Final Average slip from Tonya.
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312896
11/14/12 02:26 AM
11/14/12 02:26 AM
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Dale had re-jetted the Valiant, and dropped the pipes. I fired it up the next time and it idled fine, but as I prepared to go to the staging lanes, it jumped back up again, and the exhaust had an odd smell. I quickly shut it off, we messed with stuff, re-fired, seemed to be fine.
The owner of the mystery Camaro that was holding down 3rd in my class came over to explain that he had been talking to the FAST guys, and felt sure he had his dialed in to go 11.50 today.
Great, now I was doing the math in my head to figure out how slow I could run today, and still hold onto second place!
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312898
11/14/12 02:38 AM
11/14/12 02:38 AM
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I fired it 4 times in the lanes working my way up to make my pass, 2 times it idled fine, the other two 2k-2500, and I just shut it off as quick as I could. I was 2 cars from running, about 12 minutes behind Darryl, when the big red nitroused 57 Chevy stood it on the trailer hitch, unloaded the suspension, then lifted.
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312899
11/14/12 02:43 AM
11/14/12 02:43 AM
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Phoenix, AZ
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You can just see my car, with the door open, in the background of this shot. It took quite an effort to get the poor 57 removed from the lane, all while I was pacing around the waterbox!
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312900
11/14/12 03:29 AM
11/14/12 03:29 AM
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Finally, I pulled up beside a Red '93 Trans Am, that was in the SS/PA class and had been struggling all week running 12's at anything from 89 mph to 127 mph! The small block idled fine, nice burnout, stage...whack! The Valiant left hard, and I treed the Trans Am by a mile, smooth to 6400, 2nd gear, 6400, drive, felt great but when I looked in the mirror, the Trans Am was charging down on me like the Valiant must have stopped pulling! My 11.337-116.94 reached the finish line a fraction before his 10.804-130.38, apparently he had finally figured out the problem!
Back in the pits, Dale was ready to tear into the carb, "I promised you a .20 before this week was over, now we are going to get it!"
"Nope, I'm done, I've never driven the Valiant on the streets of Phoenix yet, and I'm loading it while it's in one piece". I shook my head.
He looked dissapointed, "I understand, if you're happy with that, that's good enough I guess."
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience
[Re: MoparBilly]
#1312901
11/14/12 07:50 AM
11/14/12 07:50 AM
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Posts: 6,445
Missouri
68KillerBee
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Quote:
Finally, I pulled up beside a Red '93 Trans Am, that was in the SS/PA class and had been struggling all week running 12's at anything from 89 mph to 127 mph! The small block idled fine, nice burnout, stage...whack! The Valiant left hard, and I treed the Trans Am by a mile, smooth to 6400, 2nd gear, 6400, drive, felt great but when I looked in the mirror, the Trans Am was charging down on me like the Valiant must have stopped pulling! My 11.337-116.94 reached the finish line a fraction before his 10.804-130.38, apparently he had finally figured out the problem!
Back in the pits, Dale was ready to tear into the carb, "I promised you a .20 before this week was over, now we are going to get it!"
"Nope, I'm done, I've never driven the Valiant on the streets of Phoenix yet, and I'm loading it while it's in one piece". I shook my head.
He looked dissapointed, "I understand, if you're happy with that, that's good enough I guess."
Check around the 11 minute mark, your valiant is in there. 11:30ish your buddies cars.
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At least I remembered to bring a jacket this year!
