starts tomorrow! And its going to be HOT here in the PNW. Weather reports are calling for mid 90's all weekend. I'll be posting pictures and commentary here on what we find on our journey.

NW Drag tour is a 3-day "drag week" type of event, starting at Woodburn, OR, then moving a short drive to Portland Raceway, then a decent drive to Bremerton Raceway in Gorst, WA. I believe there's about 50 cars registered, and we'll try to caravan as much as possible. Since its a straight line, not a loop; I'll be driving the satellite all the way there (180 miles) before starting the tour and making my way toward home. I think the Satellite is ready for this journey, and my goal will be to complete the tour with an 11-second average. I anticipate its going to be tough to post good times with the heat and humidity we are expecting.

Here we go......

I think it is cool that you are going to do this. Grass roots drag racing is where any future growth in our hobby will be and the idea of starting at Woodburn, going to PIR and then to Bremerton over a 3 day period makes a lot of sense. Now if only the operators of "The Ridge" in Shelton would get off their Porches and finish the drag strip, this could be a four day deal

There's a lot of options we could look at up here. Yakima is closer than most think, and the drive through Mt. Rainier National Park over HWY 410 is epic. I hope we continue to grow this thing. We'll see if I still feel this way after this weekend.

Too bad you couldn't figure a way to race your way back, if that makes sense. For you, the race starts away from you and comes back your way. If you live near WB, the race starts with you and races away from you. Either way, you have to drive somewhere to start. I would bet temps of 10102 at WB, probably 100 at PIR. Bremerton may be a little cooler.

It's all freakin' HOT HOT HOT.

HOT day! And while I planned to update this thread throughout the day, I quickly found out why Billy does it all after he's done. This day flat wore us out, and I'll expand on some details when we're done. For now, I'll just say that the Satellite performed like an absolute champ today! time for some sleep!

I know you have earned your rest. I will be very patient in waiting for the results...actually I was planning on being at Bremerton to see the "Road Warriors" when you guys get there. I have been talking up the NW Drag Tour to anyone that is willing to listen.

Years ago I drove my '64 Polara to Reno for "Hot August Nights" and had a great time on the road and at the final destination, but the trip itself was probably the best part. A whole lot of cool rides ran with us down and back.

Well I'm sitting at home with nothing too do, so I think I will cruze on down and watch the show.

Heck on Drag week 2012 the first day was 385 miles from track to track that's if you do not get lost, so it was over 400 miles for me. I ended up stopping and talking to a police officer that was sitting on the side of a two lane road. This was after midnight mind you.( Come to think of it I did the same thing on DW 2013).
When you find yourself on a dark road that you have never been on before at 1 o clock in the morning the car starts making all kinds of new and strange sounds and the solid roller lifters become twice as load as they where when you rolled away from the last fuel stop.
Good luck on your trip, hope you have a great time.

yup its hot up here, have fun and keep us posted!!

I was up at the Bremerton track, left about 4pm. I saw a few Mopars running hard, got a nice sunburn on the back of my neck.

Anxious to hear about this. Mike Eagy (Yellow F100) is a friend of mine via BBF sites. Fantastic (and fast) truck!

Well???

First off: I know this will likely get flamed as a cheap ripoff of MoparBilly's drag week experience..... Well, I'll own that. Sorry Billy, But with the gas bill coming in the mail next month, I got no cash for royalty fees; you're gonna have to write me a pass on this one. This was a pretty cool event that I hope can make it to year two with better car count and perhaps eventually grow and spawn other events around the nation. Since NW Drag Tour is a mini version of HRM drag week, you'll receive a mini-version of the experience.... here we go.

Intro:

NW Drag Tour was a mini drag-week(end) style of event put on by some local Hot-Rod guys here in the Northwest. A big thanks to Darren Hall, and his lovely significant other Mandy for all of their efforts with this deal. It wasn’t perfect, but it was fun! 3 days of driving and racing was enough to give me a new respect for ANYONE that has even attempted HRM Drag Week. To all the guys that bailed with a lame excuse at the last minute….. You suck! To all those that trailered at this deal….. Come on, man!!, grow a pair! To those that DROVE IT and finished….. Great job, you rock!

Getting There is half the fun:
NW Drag Tour Friday AM arrived and I had the car already packed. A quick shower & some coffee, and I was out the door by about 6:30 AM. First task: pick up my Buddy Ken Clements (Chevy guy, every enlightened Mopar guy needs one) at his house. After packing his stuff into the trunk, we were off to meet Brian Henderson and his Gorgeous Plum-Crazy ’70 Swinger with fellow Hot Rodder Scott Overby playing role of navigator in the A-body. We met at the 76 Station right off the highway and as I’m filling up, I get the evil eye and a stare at the wrist from Brian. Message received…… apparently I’m already running a few minutes late, and we haven’t even hit the road yet. It’s notable however, that this would be the only time on the trip the A-Body team would be waiting on Team Satellite, as Brian’s car proved to be the slowest vehicle on the freeway for the rest of the trip. Not just between the two of us, but on the ENTIRE FREEWAY!!! Good lord, Brian…. Can we let the small block sing a little!?

Brian’s car sports a 408” LA Small Block with with a modest juice cam, Eddy heads, a 727, and 4.10’s packed into the 8-3/4”. It’s a solid 12.30’s car that he’s owned for 32 years! He’s a member here at Moparts, but rarely checks in. What Brian’s car also has is an electric water pump. One that we found did not keep up with sustained freeway RPM’s. It was Hot on Friday, I’m thinking we saw 100 degrees, and the 180 mile trip was 100% interstate. Brian was pushing 230 before stopping multiple times. Kudo’s to him for continuing when mere mortals would have thought better of continuing the abuse.

The Satellite was not without its own issues on this leg. Back at the 76 station, I filled it until the tank leaked out of the top, which it will do. No big deal, it’ll stop real soon I said as we pulled out. Well, twenty five miles into run when it was still spewing, I feared I may have an issue. I’ve never checked fuel mileage on the Satellite, but I had a feeling by watching the guage that I was dumping more than I was burning. By the time we got to Centraila, we pulled in for more gas and I had Ken watch real close as we filled. Immediately upon triggering the pump, it started spewing. Looking more closely, we found that the filler grommet was completely loose laying at the outside of the tank, with the inside portion ripped and apparently floating inside. Knowing this wasn’t a part we were going to find at the local O’Reilly’s, I feared we were looking at a real problem. Enter Chevy guy….. Gotta hand it to Ken Clements, his shade-tree knife work with the spare radiator hose Brian had packed didn’t stop the leak completely, but it got us back on the road. As long as I stayed out of the throttle, we could keep the leak to a slow dribble. I got on the phone and called Laysons Restorations in Tacoma. They had the part and next day’d it to our Motel in Woodburn, OR. At this point, we thought we had a plan that would work, and the repair only cost us about 45 minutes laying on the pavement of a Shell station in 100 degree heat. This deal was ON! Albeit, we left a trail of premium petrol from Puyallup to Woodburn that certainly threw my gas budget out the window. Screw it…. We’re going racing!

While the Dart was struggling in the heat, especially through mid-day Portland I-5 traffic, the Satellite was shining! I don’t think I ever saw the temp guage pass 190, which just gets the stock guage into the normal range. I was tickled with the way the big-block purred on this leg, especially in the heat. And there was more good news on the way.

This is WAY cool to read about and sounds like fun for sure. Looking forward to reading about your journey and the end results.........

[img:left]http://s117.photobucket.com/user/gnensrud/media/NWDTKG_zpskwnljc4q.jpg.html]

Mike's truck was a man among boys this weekend! That thing is awesome, and hauls the mail..... Like, literally!

AWESOME!!! I would love a Div 7 similar event. Well nor cal anyway. Race Sonoma, Sac and Famoso maybe?

Maybe schedule it around the Eagle Field or Kingdon events to really make it fun!

Woodburn passes.

As we pulled into woodburn, it was flat-out cooking! We had navigated our gas situation pretty well, so that the Satellite’s guage was at about 1/8, below the leak line. None the less, were nervous about getting through tech with a section of zip-tied radiator hose stuffed into the fuel tank. We needed a trusting tech inspector! We found a pit spot and unloaded the cars. Man, they used to make cars with TRUNK SPACE! Between the Dart’s generous rear space, and the Satellites cavern, we had (2) pop-ups, multiple bins of tools and “car stuff”, a jack & stands, two big coolers,… the list went on. By the time we had set up camp, we marveled at how much stuff we had drug down here.

While Ken uncorked the exhaust and tended to the tires on the Satellite, I took a rag and some zip-ties and tried as best I could to put a diaper on the fuel situation. I knew that even if I got through tech, when I launched the jig would be up! I did the best I could and headed off for the tech line. This is where I got my first real look at some of the other cars that had showed up. The first thing that struck me…. Where are all the Chevy’s? There were at least as many Fords as bow-ties it seemed. Plenty of Mopars, and a couple of Pontiac’s. All told, it seemed as though things were about dead even (Mopars – Fords – Chevys). It seemed clear right away that the class of the field would be Greg Rachel’s powder blue 65 Mustang. Packed with a modular 4.6 and a huge turbo, this car was up from California, and looked the part of a drag-week contender! After a quick walk through, I was also surprised at the lack of Nitrous Oxide bottles. By my count, only one car was packing a plate system…. That’s it!?? As usual, the Satellite blended into the crowd like a tree in a forest. The interior of this car gets more attention than anything else, and that’s just fine with me. Under-hood of my 67 is clean, but even a trained eye will most likely see a stock-ish looking 383. It does a great job of portraying the part of a 13-second street car.

I had almost forgotten about my fuel tank issue when the tech guy walked up, but we got our wish in spades. Tech Guy: “you have a favorite number?” Me: “Uhh, why’s that?” Tech Guy: “We’ve got to put a number on your car” Me: “oh…. How about 98, that’s the year my youngest was born”. Tech Guy: “98 it is…” And with a swipe of his shoe polish bottle, we were through tech with the most lax inspection I’ve ever witnessed. I don’t even think he knew what kind of car it was??!! Perfect!

Into the staging lanes I roll trying to keep the car as cool as possible. I think I entered the burnout box for the first time on our trip with the outside temp in the triple digits, but the 452” B underhood was at a comfortable 185. Through my routine and into the beams. The car dead-hooked and made what felt like a solid pass. With the NWDT format, you have to turn in your 1st three passes each day, so the shakedown run counts! The timeslip confirmed my smile, as it read 11.89 @ 110 with a 1.64 60-ft. The MPH was down from normal, but considering the heat, and what the car had already done today on the highway, I was happy! The next call came and we made no changes. Same routine, slightly better result: 11.86 @ 112, but with a slightly slower 60 @ 1.65. The car was definitely “doing what it does”.

After two passes, another thing began to come clear….. There weren’t too many cars here that were too much faster than the Satellite. And after a couple of solid 11 second pulls, I had a few people drop by and stare under the open hood and ask things like: “is it really a 383?” and “How much does this thing weigh?” The blue Mustang was as advertised. On the return road, I got a front row seat to the top end charge this thing was capable of. Mid 9’s at 143 were what I saw. One other thing became clear…. Mike Eagy’s Yellow Ford F100 hauls ass!

We decided to try some jetting changes to see if we could find the weather. Considering the car was real close to where it normally is, I realized that I must be really lean in normal weather (??). So, contrary to what you would normally do in 100 degree heat, I did the opposite: I jetted UP. My hunch paid off, and the 3rd run amazingly yielded an all-time best for the Yellow Satellite: 11.78 @ 113! (previous was 11.81 @ the same MPH). Considering the heat and the workload the big car had seen on the day, was pretty happy!, and had my 3 passes to turn in with an 11.84 average, good for 9th overall on the day. We then went a little further in the same direction with the jetting, but it slowed slightly, so we decided we’d seen the best we were going to get from the yellow car. Not to mention that on my last pass, after seeing it 3 times the starter finally approached me as I moved toward the staging beams. He asked about my gas cap, and informed me that I had been dumping gas on the track every hit so far. I gave him a shrug, and told him I’d look into it, but clearly the jig was up. We’d have to get this fixed, and I knew my fate for the weekend rested in the hands of a FedEx driver with an overnight package.

Unfortunately, Brian’s issues from the highway had followed him into the drag strip. Although he was able to seemingly cool the car down just fine between hits, it was struggling at the top with vapor lock issues. We tried icing the carb, icing the pump, removing the air cleaner and everything else that was suggested. All to no avail. Brian turned in an average of 15.25, which put him dead last in the 24 car field. Being of the bracket racer ilk…. I tried to cheer him up by assuring him that this would work out to his advantage on Sunday. (Boy, howdy! Would that end up being correct!)