Merryfield debuted this car at Bristol in F/SA and got HP. He is at West Lebanon in C/SA and is still killing them.


Stolen from DRC:


WEST LEBANON, N.Y. - Final order after 3 rounds of qualifying in Stock Eliminator at the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Northeast Division, NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Lebanon Valley Dragway:

Psn--Num--Class-Driver, Home Town, Machine-----------------ET---Index---(+/-)

1 1883 C/SA Eric Merryfield, Andover MA, '09 Challenger10.215 11.40 -1.185

I knew Eric had been hard at work since he got it, but didn't realize he had the car out and running already. It's definitely hauling the mail!

Eric picked the car up on an open trailer the Wednesday before Bristol, Qualified number one on his first pass, won class(wally)and cash, won Best Engineered(wally). Very cool for his debut. The car is running very well for how much weight is piled in the back of it, and how low the shift light is set. It's a double edged sword trying to make it a competetive
"bracket car" and also keeping NHRA from throwing hp on it. Mike

If he's not careful he'll have the 5.7 combo down in A with the 6.1.

Mike, congrats on another fine car out of your shop.

I guess he just wants to run against the Crate Motor Mustangs.

And I don't think any of us would like that. They all keep the index safe there, and although they could go MUCH faster, they only go fast enough to win. What a concept...

If the trend of the last couple of races continues, we will all be running - and probably getting beat by Mustangs, or we go to Super Stock, but if things continue at this rate someone will just blow up the indices there too...

David
The New Hemi Guy

The new cars will have their own class next year. NHRA has seen the car count plummet in the past year and have to do something. Really is not fair to those that have dumped thousands of dollars and hours into a car to get to be a top car and then have a car kill it by 3+ tenths without even trying. The only good thing is most of them are racing dumb and factoring themselves out of bussiness.

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As for a separate class for these cars, that is exactly what we have been hoping for, from the beginning. Then classic stock can die on it's own because there is no new blood coming into it.

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There was a time when you ran off the national record in eliminations with a tenth breakout. all cars ran . If you couldn't make the cut you went home.

This is deja vu to me. I remember when Woodro Josey came out with the LT-1 Firebird. It started out in H/SA and eventually (a couple of years) it was up to D/SA where it should have been to start with. All NHRA needs to do is have a big HP for cars running faster than 1.25 under. I guess they didn't expect anyone to be able to run that quick after the 1/2 hit to the indexes. They need more levels of the AHFS, say 1.50 under gets a 5% HP hit. It would get the new combos in line quicker and world peace would be achieved.

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And then, try building one with your son, putting 18 hours a day into it 7 days a week for 8 months and then tell me that it wasn't much effort to get it done...

Without really trying???

You obviously really have no idea what it takes to get these new cars down the track and compete at National events.

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I did not ever say that was not a personal effort put forth I am saying the factors are so stupid that it makes competeing with them, DP & Cobra Jets, impossible. As far as not know what it takes....I have been at class racing for 30 years. I have built up just a little knowledge as well as some success over the yaers. I do know.

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Then classic stock can die on it's own because there is no new blood coming into it.

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Have fun at a national event with 20 09/10 "new" car fieldes.

Car counts plummeting? I don't think it's because of the CJ's and DP's. I heard the same wad of crap about the LS-1 cars too.

I was at Tri-State a couple weeks ago for a divisional and there were 94 stockers on the qualifying sheet. Not a CJ or DP in the bunch either. Looked to me like there were 20 F/SA cars alone.

There's a whole bunch of classes that those cars don't even fit in where you can still be competitive for not a whole lot of cash.

Hell, Charlie Blossom is killing his index every time out in a car he DRIVES to the race track. Oh yeah, he's not in a "glory" class, so no big uproar about him.

My buddy Mike Jeffrey has been national record holder in V/SA in a car he has way less than $13K in total.

The CJ's and DP's will keep getting HP until they make it into SS only.

Cmon! Seriously??? Bales has that one running E/SA and went 10.00. There is no way on earth that a 340 Duster with a carb should ever be in the same class with that car. Three words Electronic Fuel Injection. Nuff said. If you think its not worth at minimum 3 tenths you need to lay off the crackpipe. EFI cars should not be in the same class, end of story.
That being said; love em love em love em. Nothing could have helped the interest in stock eliminator more than those cars. Doug Duell's car is a piece of art! Stand next to that thing when its idling and you cant believe the thump that it puts off. 600+ HP stock eliminator cars are just plain cool!

You guys do know they had the EFI cars in seperate classes at one point in time right? Or does no one remember the B,C,D,E/FIA or other FI/FIA classes. When the EFI cars were first biginning to come out they were integrated into the other stocker classes, then IIRC in 2002/03 they put them in thier own classes, FI and FIA for a couple of years. Then they decided they had a better handle on factoring them and once again intergrated them with the other classes once again. IMO and I have no dog in this fight they need to be seperated and put back into fuel injection specific classes. There is room for everyone in stock, old or new but I am not sure they will ever get a good handle on factoring the EFI cars. I dont understand why the late model muscle guys would be so against it, unless it is just they know they have an advantage and dont want to loose it. Why affect so many of the old established cars/classes with index blowing cars. Almost like Comp back in the day. I remember when we tried running it and and watched Rampy and the Pattersons blow an index away and be back at the next race with a new bullet, another carb added or some weight only to blow another index away. If you follow stock much you will see how many times some of those cars have been refactored or moved in class. Dont get me wrong i love the new cars as well but I think with what we have seen lately the NHRA has missed the boat a bit on them, I dont see how you can argue that at all. Just my

Reality is that a lot of the guys whining about the CJ's and DP cars weren't fast enough to run with Sorensen, Hawk, and Pond anyway. At least the CJ's and DP cars are running them all out this year and getting HP.

I have a buddy who debuted a DP in SS/JA a couple weeks ago. (5.9 car) He went .3 under and was thrilled to death.


Class racing is now and always has been a battle to keep things slanted toward you, even though it won't last long.