Great air and perhaps some returns from a small modification spelled back to back new bests for me today.

I thought perhaps I could fit a 1/4” spacer between my 1000 HP and RPM intake. Not much room there, but it barely fit. The phenolic spacer showed up smaller in the throat than both my carb or manifold, so I used a flush-cut router to match it to the intake. Then I took my grinder and blended the manifold divider at the corners and narrowed its edge. Had to remove the air cleaner stud and use a flathead screw instead to find the 1/4”. I can now feel that the air cleaner is right up against the hood blanket.

Anyway, the DA was pretty good at Pacific today, around zero, and the big Satellite ran back to back new bests, the last of which was 11.39 @ 116. Car had been running mid 50’s to 60 @ 114 & change most of the year. Early in the spring it ran its previous best of 11.50 at 115.

The interesting thing was that it pulled significantly more RPM at the stripe than it ever has before. Typically I had been crossing the stripe right at my shift point of 6400. Today on the first pass it hit the 6700 rpm rev limiter at about 100 ft before the stripe, still a new best 11.46 @ 115.7. I bumped up the limiter to 7k and the next pass it striped at about 6800 and MPH’d at 116.17

Unfortunately, as I let out of it on that pass, I heard a weird noise under the hood. Sounded as though something smacked the hood. Quickly pulled off to find the water pump / alt. belt laying on the intake manifold. By the time I got back to my pit, the temp was at 220. Day over. Bummer because I hadn’t even touched jetting yet. I’m thinking if I had been able to add some jet to make use of the air, it could have gone faster.

Thats great on the new best. Congrats. Too bad on the belt.

Good job! Yeah, Pacific gets some mineshaft conditions. Did the 6,800rpm just throw the belt?

No, the belt broke. I don’t think it was the RPM, I think it was the fact that the sometimes idiot car owner hasn’t replaced that belt since purchasing the car over 10 years ago..... it was a holdover from the original 383, who knows how old it was. I actually took the belt and ran to the closest auto parts store, matched up the length in hopes to keep rolling. But when I got back to the car, the new belt was way short, so it must have broke in two places and had a section missing.

I hate that feeling on the track when something isn't right. I'm glad it's nothing serious and hopefully you can get some more laps in between the rain. Do they still have a street night there? Comp Rod and whathaveyou?

Cool on the new best and lucky on the belt not being worse..........That sled runs man.............

Very nice indeed. New best are always fun. Ron

Any news on the belt? You goin' out Wednesday night or what?

I carry an extra alt & blower belt.Nothing sucks more that a long ride to the track with fuel and tolls to be one and DONE.Been there a few times!

Not sure what you mean by “street night” Dave. We run lots of different classes here. On any given Saturday at Pacific you’re likely to see anything from 14 second street cars to ProMods. I’m done for the year, though. Pacific has one more TNT on the schedule, this coming weekend, but it’s gonna rain. They do Wednesday Night TnT’s through the summer, but that’s been done for a while.



Definately will be buying a couple belts to keep on hand.

It donned on me today that with the 11.39 pass this past weekend, I have shaved a full second off of this big sled since this motor was installed a few years back. The fist time at the track it ran a best of 12.40. Mostly suspension updates and a converter swap can be credited. The only thing that has changed With the engine combo is the carburetor. Into the garage it goes and I’m looking forward to a couple of winter projects. Can’t wait till next year!!

At Sonoma they have Wednesday night drags pretty much all year. If you meet the noise requirements you are cool to race pretty much weekly here. They have street classes and a Comp Rod and Jackpot class. I thought Pacific had a similar deal? Obviously not as many weeks with the weather up there.

Dave, Things shut down completely here from November to March or longer depending on the weather. Its a grim and depressing time of year lol.

Dustin! It obviously shuts down for the 6 mos. of rain you have up there. Is there a weather permitting, weekly bracket deal? Or just scheduled bracket races and T&T's?

It's as scheduled only. If it ain't on the schedule, it ain't happening.

Me thinks that the locals in the Puget Sound area spread the talk about the severe wet weather they have a lot, a lot more than they actually have
My Son in Laws Mother move to Tacoma in 1979, we took him and my daughter along with our first grandson to show his mother the new baby in the spring (mid April)of 1981 or 1982 for five days up their. CRS It sprinkled a tiny bit on two of those days, the rest where great days compared to SO CA Mojave desert where we all lived back then.
He moved up to Roy ,WA in 1997 and we have been going up there to visit him and the grandkids ever since. We have had foggy mornings some times, not often, and overcast all day with no rain as well as some rain, not a BUNCH of rain ever
Maybe as his mothers says we bring the good weather with us when we come up their to visit them Maybe NOT
It is a lot more congested now up their now than it was back in the early 1980s

Congrats on the new best. Might be time for a different hood to allow trying different carb spacers.

Cab, there is a 5,000 mile long "river" of storm going through there now and for the next who knows how long. I grew up there, trust me, it rains. A LOT! The high pressure that sits off of the south pacific coast is always pushing everything up that way.

Congrats! I bet jetting up a number or 2 would have been beneficial too.

If you look at annual precipitation, it doesn’t look any worse than most places in the Northern part of the country. But it’s “days of precipitation” where we separate ourselves from the pack. Many times up here, a race will be cancelled on a day where we see almost no measurable rain, but it sprinkles lightly and the air is just moist enough that the track stays wet all day.

Spring is the worst.

I believe the jet stream and the Japanese ocean currents push the weather up and down from the east to the west from eastern Asia up towards Alaska and then down the west coast towards us
The southern hemisphere weather from S America push the weather from Anarctica north colliding with the weather pushed down from the north.
The weather here in central Oregon doesn't follow the normal results, I have been told we are in a convergence zone, some weather comes down from the gulf of Alaska and some comes up from the coast of California, depending on which front has the most pressure