Moparts

HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience

Posted By: MoparBilly

HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 09/30/12 03:03 AM

Drag Week 2011: The Experience

Chapter 1, or Book 1, the beginning?

Drag Week 2012 : The Preparation, or lack of it!

Chapter 2, or Book 2, A six month look into a dysfunctional family? or a bunch of tore apart project pics.

I'm linking this up as I prepare to close down the second thread, and start writing about the actual event. While on Drag Week this year I talked to several people who weren't Moparts members, but had gotten links from other sites, and had only read the first thread and didn't know about the second, and vise-versa.

A bit of editorializing if you will allow. I'm not a great writer, as I'm quite fond of a few authors who's work blows me way every time I pick up a copy of thier latest book. I simply enjoy writing about my experiences, and this is a great forum for my undisciplined ramblings.
I'm not a great drag racer, but quite a few of those who are know me on a first name basis, and for that I'm truly blessed. I simply enjoy racing against the best in a class I can afford, and relishing the process as well as the outcome.
I'm not a great runner, far from it, I've been around those who have amazing accomplishments in this arena, and still are filled with a true love for thier sport. I simply enjoy the competition, and the struggle, for what it is, it's amazing what you can accomplish when you decide to push harder than you believe possible.

All these come into play on Drag Week. As one of my competitors eloquently put it on another site, "It's one of the last 'Attainable Adventures' for the car guy."

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Posted By: EvilB1Dart

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 09/30/12 03:13 AM

Billy,

I really think you should approach HOT ROD and ask them to publish your story; a different spin in their mag would do a lot of good for the event and the mag....win/win. Sometimes its not always about show cars or fast cars. This type of stuff is great for the new/old school car guys. Almost makes a person feel they were there along side you through it all! Great stories man....

ohhhh yeah, and when you do I WANT (2) autographed copies KILLER WEDGE!!!

Wes
Posted By: rt66jim

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 09/30/12 03:19 AM

I would second that suggestion.
Posted By: Chris'sBarracuda

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 09/30/12 12:08 PM





Chris..
Posted By: Shoozy

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 09/30/12 01:14 PM

Billy you can link it, rationalize it, downplay your talents, or whatever but please DO NOT end the stories. You're giving us the best thread on this board, period. And we thank you for it. And I agree HR is missing a great story.
Posted By: J_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 09/30/12 04:35 PM

...still chuckle about the story of you deciding to bop over to Houston for that divisional oh so many years ago! You have a knack of putting yourself into situations that just fall into chapter and verse Billy. That keeps the "fun" in it for you:)
Posted By: Lil Demon

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/01/12 04:24 PM

Billy I agree. Your stories are great and give a unique view on the event - a view that makes people want to have an "experience". Get a hold of Freiburger and see if you can get your stories published in HRM.
Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/01/12 07:50 PM

or at least get Brian to toss them up on the BangShift front page.

Posted By: Bad340fish

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/02/12 12:24 AM

Quote:

or at least get Brian to toss them up on the BangShift front page.





Agreed
Posted By: Triple Threat

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/02/12 05:14 AM

Posted By: Al_Alguire

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/02/12 05:39 AM

Billy IMO you are a very good writer. I always have enjoyed reading about your exploits. Also I believe you are a very good racer, you have helped me more than you know. Simply by me listening to your advice and stories. Not even sure if you are aware of it but when you talked about S/ST listened. I wish you would come back out and race with us there but sounds like you are having way to much fun with your current adventure to bother. Cant say I blame you. Keep up the good work and see ya at the races, hopefully
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/02/12 05:44 AM

You guys are great! Thanks for the encouragement, but poor Dave or Brian would have to spend as much time editing and cleaning up my diatribe as it took for me to write it in the first place!

I was wide awake at 6AM Sunday morning, and immediately started sorting through my clothes to determine what was going, and what would stay behind. Darryl called at 6:30 to make sure I was awake. "What about Rachael?", he questioned when I told him I'd been up for awhile.
"Not moving yet.."
"Gates open at..."
"I know, I know!"

When Rachael and I arrived at Dale's, Darryl was packing up the Dart, and we joined into the same routine. We didn't absolutely need everything with us that was going on the trip, but it made for a good practice run, so we were trying to work it out as though this was it.
Darryl fired up the Dart, and it let out a terrible sceetching, tapping racket from under the hood!
"What the heck!" I exclaimed as he crawled out after shutting it off.
"It does this on cold mornings", he had a sheepish, embarrassed look on his face. "The plastic shroud, shrinks or draws up, and gets hit by the fan blades...usually not a problem in Phoenix!" He dove under the hood and started pulling and tweaking on it.
We jumped out on Highway 169 headed towards the track, I was leading with the smallblock at 2800, and my mirror full of 67 Belvedere grille, while my stomach was already in knots. We rolled into the facility around 7:55am..the line was already moving, and the pits looked fairly full! Darryl was glaring at me from behind the wheel of his Dart. Apparently the "Gates open" time was merely a suggestion...

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Posted By: Bad340fish

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/02/12 10:37 AM

Yeah I thought I would be slick and get there early. I was 1/4 mile back in the tech line at 7:30

Posted By: OhioMopar

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/02/12 10:41 AM

Great read. Looking forward to the next installment.
Posted By: mopar400

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/02/12 01:40 PM

Posted By: Devilbrad

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/02/12 07:51 PM

Subscribed.
Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/02/12 08:51 PM

Quote:

Yeah I thought I would be slick and get there early. I was 1/4 mile back in the tech line at 7:30



haha I was all the way back at the staging lanes!
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/03/12 03:37 AM

We actually didn't fair too badly, Rachael and I pitted in the middle row, and we backed in. I kept an eagle eye on the tech area as we unloaded our stuff next to someone's monstrous tag along trailer, and as soon as a line started to form we jumped for it. A big guy in a floppy hat was directing people to the proper lane, and as he came closer, I realized it was Bill Fowler (CDMBill, Bangshift), who owns the big 71 Mustang convertible. It's not odd at all to see veterans of multiple Drag Weeks jump in and help whenever needed with the event. There are many jokes bandied about in regards to "The good ole boys club", or "insiders", but the truth is most guys who've done it a few times just try to make it easier, and better for everyone!
Rachael ran off to get fuel when the tech cards got handed out, so the HOTROD photogs caught me with two, filling mine out while trapping hers on the fender.

This is a good pic of the derringer I brought to fight with in the Modified NA category:

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/03/12 03:42 AM

And this is a good pic of the Howitzer that Ray (sixpackgut, Moparts) brought for the Modified N/A class. Yeah...the outcome was never in doubt, because I knew waiting for a BBM to break was not very good odds!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/03/12 03:55 AM

Darryl managed to squeeze in a couple of cars behind us, and began his left handed, contortionist scrawling on his tech card.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/03/12 05:34 AM

Last year's debacle had us gunshy, but this year's tech line seemed to move along pretty well, I was re-connecting my horn wire, when the Track tech guy approached. I told him I was good to 10.00, he looked at a few things, and signed me off. First hurdle completed. I was still messing with the horn when it was my turn in front of Kieth Turk..."Lets see some lights", he hollered. I pulled the light switch on, and smiled.
"Nothin'" he gave a slidelong look.
I hadn't fixed the problem on Dims, but I looked in and the brights indicator was on..."You don't have four headlights?" I asked.
"Nothin', give me turn signals..."
I turned the key on and pushed down on the lever..but heard no flasher. "What the heck" I shouted in disgust, "all this stuff was just working!"
I started to go around and look under the hood, but Kieth motioned me over, "Just push it over in the grass..it'll probably just take a few minutes to figure out and I promise I'll come back to ya".
We pushed it in the grass, and the girls who were handling registration motioned me over, and took care of all that stuff, the numbers, goodie bag, stickers and everything else, so that all I needed was Kieth's sign off to be good to go.
Once underhood, I realized that when I was messing with the horn wire, I had inadventently disconnected the light harness from the bulkhead connector. Then I couldn't get the horn to sound, and wasn't about to have Kieth back over until it was right.
"Rachael, go borrow me a test light from someone..." I implored.
"I don't know who to ask or what to say", she tried to get out of the task.
"Start down that row", I pointed at the pits, "Throw your shoulders back and ask for a test light...You've got boobs dear, it won't take very long, I promise!"
She was back quickly with a brand new test light, "First trailer", she laughed with an embarrassed smile.
We managed to get a working horn, and called Kieth back over. "Headlights right?" he questioned, "Let's see them".
I flashed them on and off. "You're good!" he grabbed my paper and signed off.
Last year I managed to get by him without the brake lights working...but this time I felt cheated! I had everything working and didn't even get to show it off!

Back in the pits, Rachael and I found that we had lost one of our spots. Some ole fart with an old shivvy race truck had pulled his rig in with a "For sale" sign on it, Thinking a free entry to the track was a good chance to show it off, and get some buyers. So we had to pit nose to tail, and crowd our buddies with the big trailer, who turned out to be the aforementioned Bill Fowler, his co-driver, and the Mustang. While they didn't seem too enthused about being hemmed in by a Valiant, I noticed they enjoyed the company of the bubbly 22 year old rookie driver in the Belvedere!
With the cars prepped to make a pass, Darryl started getting anxious, "When are they gonna start running? I figured they would have cars on the track by now!"
"I don't have a clue", I shrugged my shoulders, "I've never been to Registration day on time before..."

Rachael's Belvedere and Ross' RoadRunner in tech line:

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Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/03/12 06:23 AM

Last year I managed to get by him without the brake lights working...
IM TELLING Keith and Tonya.Good luck next year. Also telling Keith that you said that all helicopter pilots are idiots.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/03/12 12:29 PM

Rachael's first time down the track came a little after noon. I went up with her, brought her into the water, and told her when to end her very tentative burnout. Her first reaction time had a numeral in front of the point, and the car ran a lazy 14.35 at only 95 mph, but it was a good starting point. Slightly less than 10 minutes later I had her back up on the line again same routine. She cut the reaction time in half (not a major feat, but a move in the right direction) and went 13.76-92 mph.
I called Dale...no answer. Tried Boone, and he did.
"Where is Dale, and what are you guys doing?" I asked.
"He's right here with me, we are trying to get Darren's Charger ready to drag out there".
"You've got less than two hours...better hustle! I need to talk to Dale about the Belvedere".
"What's goin' on out there?" Dale asked as Boone relinquished the phone.
"Rach just went 13.76 at 92, first pass was 95... I thought you told me this thing was running 13.20's at 105?"
"Yeah 102-107, is she getting full throttle? It's a little tough down near the floor, and make sure she's running it to the stripe before she lifts..."
OK, I'll check...Are you coming out? Deadline's at two pm!"
"Yeah, we'll be there", he answers deadpan.
I walked Rachael down to the end of the track for a look around, then decided to try the Valiant. I wasn't looking for anything earthshattering, just wanted to shakedown all the new suspension parts, and tires. It left hard and straight, I short shifted both times at around 5800, the engine sounded great, no missfires, and just seemed to run out of steam at about 1100ft., 11.77-112. I climbed out and told Rachael to get another one. She fired the car and headed to the lanes, and I started walking up when Clark (Bad340fish, Moparts and BlueCuda340, Bangshift) approached and introduced himself. We talked for a few minutes, then I excused myself with, "I've got to run up to the starting line and help my daughter".
Clark pointed towards the track, "That's her running right now, isn't it?"
"Uh...yeah, yes it is!", I noticed her opponent's win light was on halfway through the run, so that meant she went red, and a 14.04 at 99 flashed on the board. That told me she figured out the finish line, but something went wrong on the starting line.
When she returned to the pits, she slammed the door and started walking away towards the bleachers.
"HEY..what happened?" I yelled at her.
" I Redlit! YOU weren't up there! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE UP THERE!" She threw the keys and the timeslip at me, and stomped off.

"Well, she is her mother's child..", I thought to myself.
Posted By: Bad340fish

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/03/12 01:51 PM

I think I am getting blamed for something.......... lol great read keep it up.
Posted By: skep419

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/04/12 09:16 PM

love reading your stories. Keep em coming.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/05/12 06:29 AM

I had figured Darryl was going to hotlap the Dart into oblivion, but he only had two runs in, and when I asked him what he found out he just commented, "These Goodyear SST Radials aren't cutting it. Think I'll switch to the Mickey Thompsons I pulled off the other car tomorrow."
I found Rachael in the stands, and told her, "It's not like I'm doing anything up there..you know how to find the water."
"I know..it's just..it calms me down." She turned towards me, "I'm buying you a shirt that says I'm NOT MoparBilly...that way you won't be talking to everyone in the pits all day!"
"Well, it's going to be long week, you've got a car to run and so do I, so you need to be able to handle it. Let's go get one more run."

I brought her into the water, she did a decent 2nd gear burnout, cleared the converter, and I sent her up to stage on a single. 13.54-97 good enough, we'll get her on the spray tomorrow.
As I walked back to the pits, I saw Dale's 1 Ton dually rolling up to the back of the tech line with Darren's Charger still on the trailer. I looked at my phone, and the screen displayed 1:57pm, consistant as always!
"Where's Boone?"
"Stopped at O'reilley's to grab a few more things."
"Where's Darren?"
"Was still trying to round up all the parts we need to get ready, plus all the paperwork, but I figured If I waited for him, we wouldn't get here in time.
He took the tech card sheets from the official, and looked around for a pen. Rachael walked over, and took them from him, "I'll fill them out, I've been through this once already".
"What'ya got left", I questioned.
"Tons of stuff", Dale smiled, "just trying to get by tech, and registration, then we have until tomorrow to make it run!"
It's the nature of the beast that is Drag Week, the big picture of 4 tracks in 5 days, and all those miles boils down quickly to the next step, the next hurdle.
Keith Turk drove up next to us, rolled down his window, and stated, "I'm not teching that thing on a trailer...it needs to be off of there when you present it at the head of the line."
"No problem, we'll have it ready", Dale agreed.
" That'll be in about two hours", I laughed as I looked up towards the tech area.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/06/12 06:21 AM

I heard the signature Pop-Pop-Pop of a boosted ride about to let loose on the starting line...then quickly heard the unmistakeable screetch of metal against concrete, and saw many in the pits start running towards the track. I didn't want to see. Sunday up to that point had been an awesome day of reacquainting with old friends, meeting new friends and being surrounded by cool cars, but it seems to be a Drag Week tradition that someone nukes an engine, trans, or something else on registration day. I felt bad for Doug Cline, who had also tangled with the wall at the Pump Gas Drags in '08.
I looked under the hood of the Charger, there was no battery cables, no radiator hoses, no plug wires, no engine harness of any recognizable form.
"Good grief!"
"Tell me about it!" Dale shook his head as he started wiring the alternator, and laying out lengths that would be needed to get back to the firewall.
Boone showed up first, Darren and Jamie shortly thereafter, and the 1-Ton, Charger, and trailer was a beehive of activity as it slowly inched forward towards tech. Dale ran interference with the track official. "It's just an 11.50 up car...Here's his helmet....the battery is in the front...just a street tire car", anything he could do to get it signed off without drawing attention to the fact the seats weren't bolted down, and there were no seatbelts in the car yet.
With that out of the way, they kept after the wiring. Finally, Dale had Darren turn on the key so he could check the turn signals, a quick puff of smoke under the hood was the result, as apparently the positive wire for the coil was laying bare on the intake manifold.
We pushed the Charger off the trailer with two cars left ahead of us, and pushed it up to tech, the four brothers behind the car, and Jamie behind the wheel.
"Let's see some headlights, gorgeous!" Keith shouted at Jamie with his signature toothy grin.
"We got this in the bag!!" I whispered to Dale.
Passed tech, pushed through registration, picked up all the paperwork, numbers and stickers on the glass...so the brothers didn't go 0 for 3 after all! We pushed the Behemoth back on the trailer, and we all headed for Dale's house...now there was just the little matter of actually making it run!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/06/12 07:52 AM

Once at Dale's, we kicked around the ideas for our approach to Monday. Since we were only 7 miles from the track, did we pack the cars tonight, so we could hit the road straight from the track, or did we plan to come back and prepare after we turned in our slips for the first day?
Darryl was consistant with his approach, "We need to be ready to roll, it's going to be a long haul to Texas."
I went through Dale's shop, and found an old Cragar center cap that fit my Centerline front wheel where the dust cap was missing, and the spindle end was still exposed. I jacked up the front, shot the end full of grease, installed the cap in the wheel, and bolted it back on. The rear seal leak had never left more than a few drops at any one time, so I was just going to cross my fingers on that little snafu. Then I started digging through my truck and loading up both cars, including putting a fresh bottle in the Belvedere. It was well after dark by the time we were done, and I was feeling beat, so we left the Valiant where it was parked and Rachael and I headed over to Boone's place in the Belvedere to finish our laundry, and get to bed...tomorrow was going to be here soon enough. I was out by 10pm.

I awoke at 2:30 am to the sound of an engine firing repeatedly, running at 2500 rpm for 10-15 seconds then dying.
"That Racepump isn't priming", I thought to myself, and tried to roll over and stuff my head in the pillow. Finally the darn thing remained lit, and hammered away at 2500-3000 for 10 minutes solid before going quiet. I crawled out of bed, pulled on some clothes, and wandered outside to see what the heck was going on.
"Breaking in the cam", Dale commented when I entered the shop. "Couldn't do it at my house, the neighbors would have strung me up!!
Darren headed out to get some more parts out of the truck, and Boone gave me a shake of his head, "This was more than we bargained for...everything on this car was just mocked up, or hand tight...nothing was completely done, we've had to go over everything".
Darren came back in and they fired it up again. They had the garage rollup door lower than the exhaust, and I was starting to worry they were going to gas themselves out! They were all just walking zombies at this point and probably wouldn't know what hit them. I opened the door to allow some air to move through. I finally excused myself and went back in to finish packing my laundry and preparing to get started. An hour or so later Boone came in, "They are taking it for a test drive, I'm gonna take a shower and go to bed... come and get me when you're ready to leave for Texas."
So much for leaving from the track!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/07/12 04:37 AM

Rachael and I drove to Dale's, and started preparing to leave for the track. I opened the driver's door to the Valiant, and immediately noticed the keys were not in the ignition, checked the trunk lock, not there either, rumaged through my pockets, no. A huge lump began to develop in my throat, this is is NOT the way I wanted to start Drag Week!
Dale's stepson Cody, and his Wife were in the kitchen and I asked if anybody had pulled the keys, but no luck there. I searched the truck, went through the packed bags, nothing.
I was reaching panic mode, I've owned the Valiant since 2006, and I've always had only one set of original 50 year old aluminum Valiant keys, one to the ignition and doors, the other for the trunk. I've promised myself a hundred times that I was going to get spares made, so I wouldn't break those, and now I've lost them. I can drive the car without them, pretty much the only need to have the ignition on right now is for turn signals, but the trunk has the fuel cell in it, not going far without getting in there.
Rachael and I decided to head back over to Boone's to see if we left them there, and Darryl decided to take the Dart and head to the track. No luck at Boone's, but he gave us a huge box full of old mopar keys that he's collected over the years, "Who knows, maybe you will get lucky?"
Mom and Dad arrived at the track shortly after we did, and helped Racheal and I unload our stuff, about key # 30 of Boone's collection worked the ignition, and much to my surprise, locked and unlocked the doors as well, so now I felt a little better, but he had 10 times more ignition keys than trunk keys so we struck out in that regard. Soon, The announcement was going out for the driver's meeting to commence. "Everyone, drivers, crew, everyone to the meeting". So we dropped what we were doing and headed to the bleachers.

"Welcome to the largest gathering of cars that weren't running two days ago", is how Dave Freiburger officially kicked off Drag Week 2012. He then asked for a show of hands for first time Drag Weekers, and I was shocked by the amount, it looked like half the crowd. He finally went over the numbers. 219 had registered before the cut-off, when they started adding preople from the waiting list I think it swelled as high as 234, but only 187 actually made it.
When he broke down the car counts for each class I was surprised to realize there were only 3 cars in Modified NA, the number published on HOTROD.com had been 7 expected. We were about halfway through the driver's meeting when Darren came rumbling through the gate, and then drove through the pits twice trying to find where we were parked...a grand entrance for the Charger considering not another vehicle was running. I tried to remain inconspicous as everyone peered around to see where the racket was coming from.

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Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/07/12 04:45 AM

I didnt get to talk to you until after the drivers meeting.Must say losing the keys ahd you on the limiter. LOL.
Posted By: J_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/07/12 05:11 AM

I've lost expensive tools, my wallet a few times, but I lose my ###### mind when I lose my keys.... I'm glad I have someone to share this sickness with.
Posted By: dvw

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/07/12 01:29 PM

I love reading your story's. I forgot my keys once, track was 3 hours away from home. Good thing Dizuster was with me. He picked the ignition and trunk locks.
Doug
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/08/12 04:27 AM

Went over to Darryl's tonight to watch The NHRA race at Reading...dang rain, sure helps with the cliff-hanger aspect, was looking forward to that Beckman-Capps race, and Pro Stock.
Managed to steal the disc out of his camera, and right down all the passes he made, because I figured after I write the rest of my story we may not be on speaking terms!

Anyway he had some killer pics taken at Dale's during the last few days of preparation that I wish I would've had during the last thread, so I'll share them now, what the heck?
The last known photograph of my keys and working trunk lock!!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/08/12 04:32 AM

BOONE
Uh, any attempt at an explanation would be a monumental failure

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/08/12 04:34 AM

This was my pit spot for the week preceding the event.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/08/12 04:50 AM

Not exactly a Hi-tech operation.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/08/12 04:53 AM

The Gremlin, naked...

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/08/12 04:56 AM

I like this one of Rachael and the Belvedere, think this was right after she had waxed it.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/08/12 05:09 AM

Boone welding the brace on his hood.

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Posted By: Just-a-dart

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/08/12 05:38 AM

Quote:

Not exactly a Hi-tech operation.




At least there is not a engine hanging from the swing set!

Again a great read Billy
Posted By: J_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/08/12 05:48 AM

Quote:

Quote:

Not exactly a Hi-tech operation.




At least there is not a engine hanging from the swing set!

Again a great read Billy



.....I wouldn't bet that it hasn't happened!!
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/08/12 06:52 AM

Once the Driver's meeting was over, everyone was ready to hit the strip. That was delayed, however, by difficulties with Tulsa's timing system and lights, which the track attributed to unruly overnight guests. A plausible excuse when you consider there were Texans on the property during the hours in question. One of which was rumored to be a Mopar guy who switched to Fords, and eventually ended up with a Fox Mustang! We all know, once a poor tortured soul starts down that slippery slope...
Ray (sixpackgut) came over and talked to us for a while. I was immediately jealous, here's a guy who is 42 going on 27, and has such a zest for living and enjoying everyday that I found myself wondering what I was so upset about. Rachael thought I needed some cool Mopar tatoos like his, so I had to remind her that Mom was waiting for me to come home in a week and that wouldn't work!!
I dropped the pipes off the Valiant while Dale jetted the carb up. "You better check the timing on the Belvedere before she runs it on the bottle", I reminded him. He came back shortly, "It was at 30".
"Nitrous and street driving ready! Guess that explains why it was so lazy yesterday."
"Yep, jetted you up 82/90..."
The guy was plum wrung out, don't know what was keeping him moving. He had made the comment on Saturday, that if the Gremlin or Truck niether one made it, he was staying home. Seeing all the cool cars on Sunday had changed his mind! He walked over to where Darryl was messing with his carb after two dissapointing 11.60ish passes with 1.8 range sixty foots on Sunday. Darryl was explaining his problems when Dale leaned over the fender to peer into the top of the carb. "One of your back air bleeds is plugged completely up, ya need to blow them all out." Dale commented flatly and moved away. Darryl looked at me, "Dang it! He hasn't slept in 29 hours, and he sees that, after I've fought with this thing..."

I pulled up, easy burnout. Staged, transbrake, but two step isn't hooked up with all my wiring mess, so I softpeddle the throttle to about 3K, bang, I felt the ole vaguely familiar feeling of the front end getting air, geez, it's been...Aug 08?...rpm's coming up quick, bang second before color on the shift light...you ever driven a smallblock car before Moron?...shiftlight barely blinks at 6200 and into drive, better than yesterday, but still feels like no fuel up top, just seems to level out, shutdown, feels good...2 weeks ago I didn't even know if this engine would hold water, be happy with the run...11.62-114.5..OK, better than any pass on Drag Week 2011 with spray, Let's get to Texas! I headed for the tower to turn in my slip, and get the map to the next track.
"You happy with that run?" Tonya Turk asked as I handed her my timeslip.
"Well...I.." I contemplated.
"Sheez, Tonya", a HOTROD staffer chimed in, "You never ask a drag racer that!"
Darryl staged, the Dart moved around a little and ran 11.43-117.4.
"Well, that was my best buddy and he's got me covered by two tenths", I sighed, "So I'll have to listen to that all the way to Ennis!"
Tonya and the staffer laughed, then she handed me the route instructions...380 miles, ouch, now Drag Week REALLY begins!
I went to our pit area to prepare Rachael for the Daily Driver session upcoming. Darryl loaded up his other set of tires, "I'm heading to a tire shop to swap to the M/T's, be back in a bit".

Attached picture 7411807-IMG_2162-Copy.JPG
Posted By: tboomer

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/08/12 11:51 AM

Shade tree engineering at it's finest!! Too cool,Billy!!
Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/08/12 03:21 PM

Quote:

One of which was rumored to be a Mopar guy who switched to Fords, and eventually ended up with a Fox Mustang! We all know, once a poor tortured soul starts down that slippery slope...



Posted By: Lil Demon

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/08/12 05:44 PM

Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/09/12 04:00 AM

"Fire it up", I told Rachael as I turned on the bottle, "Now blip the button".
She tapped it with her thumb, and the 440 jumped to 3000 Rpm. "Again", I added. The same result. She looked surprised, which was the effect I was hoping for. A couple of people standing around looked surprised as well, perhaps this demonstration should have been performed before she was halfway through the staging lanes, but I wanted it fresh in her head.
"It's not a toy, this is serious stuff...roll out of the hole aways, then hit it. If for any reason you aren't comfortable just let off the button, but stay on the throttle, then you can try the button again later in the pass. Let off when you shift to drive, there isn't much to gain in E.T. that far down track, and we risk taxing the fuel system".
"I know Dad, I've got it", she looked me in the eye. This was about the tenth time I had given her the same speech. Darren and his Charger were 6 cars ahead of us and two lanes over, but I could see Dale working the lane director, and I knew he was up to no good! We watched Dale's orchestrations work out in front of us until the Director pointed at the Tan Charger and the Blue Belvedere...here we go!

Darren dropped an .021 light that had him out in front a full half second on her at the 60ft, but he woefully shortshifted to second about the same time she found the button. The belvedere had made up the ground and had 4ft on the Charger by the 1/8th. She pulled well past and lifted off the button as instructed...12.17-105, I gave a fist pump and a whoop, that was a number we could live with! Dale didn't look happy with the 13.07-104 that Darren had put on the board, but I assured him it was a good enough start.

I'm posting this pic twice, I know..but I really like it!

Attached picture 7413243-MG_4099.jpg
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/09/12 04:22 AM

you have created a monster with Rachael.LOL.When I walked over to talk to you at the first of the week the look I got was"Great,we are here to race and here comes "another" guy dad knows". You done good.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/09/12 06:39 AM

Ok, everyone in our party had turned in thier timeslips and had been given directions to The Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas; another hurdle behind us. Our pits were a mess, Darryl had returned with the M/T's on, and gave his old Goodyears to Dale, they wouldn't be making the trip with us, no room. Darren had intended to go back up and try to make a nitrous pass, but Dale talked him out of it, "Darren, it's 2pm, and we're looking at a ten hour trip, and niether of us have slept in 30 hours, we have to get going."
Rachael was concerned about the Valiant trunk situation, so her Grandpa dug around in the tools out of Darren's trunk and handed her a cordless drill with a step bit on it. "Stick this in the key hole, and drill out the lock cylinder, then we can punch it out and get in the trunk".
"Really Pop's? Show me how", she asked him.
"Are you crazy? Your Dad would kill me if I did that to his car!" he replied.
"I ain't scared..we have to get it open right?"
She unceremoniously jammed the bit into the 50 year old lock cylinder and let it rip. A few minutes later she walked over to where I was talking to Darren and Dale and handed me the mutilated remains of my trunk mechanism, "Got the trunk open, now let's get packed up and go!"
"Good grief girl, what did you do?"
"You weren't doing anything, somebody had to do it! By the way, after my pass, when I went to back into my pit spot, reverse wouldn't work right away...it took a little bit."

Attached picture 7413360-IMG_2174.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/10/12 04:17 AM

Concerned, I went over and fired up the Belvedere and tried reverse and low..no problems, so I chalked it up to her being jacked up after that pass, and not getting the shifter in gear.
Since I knew we were going to be a while getting everybody packed up and ready to roll, I convinced Darryl to head on out on his own.
"Call me when you get to the first checkpoint", I asked him as he headed out on his way.

Dale was in his 1 ton, and had Cody with him, he was heading back to his place to get packed up. Darren had to go home and get his stuff packed, and get Jamie. I had to go pick up Boone, and his stuff, and Rachael had to take the Belvedere to Dale's to pick him and his stuff up!
The first order of business was for Rachael and I to leave the track and head for the closest gas station. When we were full of 91 octane, we jumped out on I-169 backtracking to Owasso. I had went about 3 miles when my phone rang, it was Dale, "Darren broke down, and needs someone to bring him some gas..I didn't want to stop in the 1 ton 'cause this is the truck that towed him in the track."
"Call Rachael" I directed, "She's got the fuel jug in her car".
Just what we needed! When I arrived, Boone was up and showered, and had most of his clothes ready to go. Mom, Dad, and Jamie were there also, so I told them what was going on.
Rachael called later and told us they had put in fuel, and discovered it was out of water as well, once they filled it up with water, they realized the battery was low, so now they needed jumper cables.
"It's just you and Darren?"
"No, Dale is here, he had Cody drop him off."
"Ok,...Boone and I will bring the cables!"
When we arrived, I quickly realized this was not a good situation. Darren had the Charger on the shoulder, but was nosed right up to where the solid white line ended and people began moving to the right to hit the turn onto the highway (see picture below). People were flying down this road and traffic was really thick.
"Dale, why is traffic so heavy here?" I asked.
"Direct route from Port of Catoosa."
"We need to wrap this up, somebody is gonna get hurt." I pleaded.
I'm one of those guys who will ruin a tire driving to an exit rather than fixing it on the side of the road, seen one too many extreme police videos, I guess, or as a truck driver, just have no faith in my fellow drivers!
"Cables aren't gonna do any good...he burnt the starter up before we got here.."
"You HAVE to be kidding..."
"Nope", Dale shook his head, "he thought it was just vapor locked, was worried about getting off the road, and melted the starter to the ground!"
"Alright...Boone and I are packed and ready. You need to take Rachael and the Belvedere to your house and do the same...We have to get moving! We'll take care of this"
The guy was truly dead on his feet, It didn't take much convincing, and I was happy to have my daughter and at least one car out of this situation.

Attached picture 7414544-SAM_1634-Copy.JPG
Posted By: MR_P_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/10/12 04:40 AM

The drama starts..... good job so far Billy
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/10/12 04:57 AM

First thing we did was push the thing up the road a couple hundred feet to get it away from the exit. Then we started discussing solutions.
"Call Mom and Dad...have them hook up the trailer, and come load it up, then I'll change the starter at the house." Darren suggested.
Boone got on the phone and put that plan into motion.
"If we put it on a trailer, you're done." I told him.
"I'll change it right here then!" he shot back.
"Be serious", Boone added "You haven't slept in a day and a half, and it'll be dark out here before you get it done!"
"Fine, I'll call Jamie and she can tow me home with the Dakota...it's okay to get towed to a safe place to work on the car." He walked away with cell phone in hand, and put that plan into motion.
Boone and I walked to the back of the Valiant and I showed him the Summit box with the spare starter I had brought. He shook his head, "We need to convince him to throw in the towel, it's late, and he's shot already". I nodded in agreement...and we proceeded to put that plan into motion.

Attached picture 7414576-SAM_1637-Copy.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/10/12 05:34 AM

Mom and Dad arrived first, and pulled in front of Darren's Charger, which put the front of thier truck into the turn lane. Mom was on the passenger's side of the truck, but instead of walking in the grass, she came around the front and set off towards us in the first lane of traffic. No sooner than I finished yelling at her to get out of the road, Jamie pulled up behind the Valiant, stepped out of the Dakota, and nonchalantly walked toward us in the traffic lane as well. Next thing I know I've got five Okies looking at me like I'm the crazy one, because I keep telling them to get out of the street!
A lengthy discussion ensued, in which Darren resigned himself to loading it on the trailer. "You're on your third Drag Week...it's an easy call for you, you've finished before, this is my first, I'm not ready for it to end!"
Dad was particularly upset with my "If it goes on the trailer it's done" attitude. "What about in '06, when I snuck off to the parts store in Cordova, and brought you parts in the bathroom! You weren't interpreting the rules so tightly then!" He had Boone and I in his steely gaze, searching for a reprieve. I gave it my best Val Kilmer/Doc Holliday impression, "My hypocrisy only goes so far...".
Posted By: keefe

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/10/12 11:38 PM

Posted By: sixpackgut

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/10/12 11:46 PM

Quote:

Quote:

One of which was rumored to be a Mopar guy who switched to Fords, and eventually ended up with a Fox Mustang! We all know, once a poor tortured soul starts down that slippery slope...







lol. and thanks Billy
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/11/12 04:59 AM

We pushed the Charger onto the trailer, (for hopefully the last time ever in my life) and loaded everything up in the trucks. Dad gave Boone and I each a big hug, and said, "You boys be careful, and have fun, Ok?"
"All right guys, you better get moving..." Darren said.
"You gonna have that thing running when we get back here Friday?" Boone asked him.
"Heck yeah..I'll be there, call me with updates!" and he headed back to the Dakota with Jamie.
Boone and I watched them drive off, and then headed back to the Valiant when I got a phone call from Darryl.
"Took my pics at the first checkpoint, and fueled up in Muskogee, good thing too because there isn't much out here once you leave there."
I told him we were just leaving, and explained the added problems.
"Wow, you better get moving or you won't get there 'til midnite!" He added
Actually I was thinking to myself a midnight arrival would be a best case scenario at this point.
We fired up the Valiant and jumped on 169. We passed back by the track and surveyed the pits, still a few guys not on thier way yet! A mile and a half later we were doing the stop and start, bump and grind of rush hour Tulsa traffic at the 3 large freeway crossings. Last year we spent a great deal of time at 210 degrees on the old mechanical water temp guage, this year's magic number on the electric guage seemed to be 215, which is where it locked in at even after we jumped on 51 and started moving again.
The 51 morphed into the Muskogee Turnpike, and it was just plain HOT out on that stretch. At 2600 the temp would drop a shade under 215, 2800 it would hang right at it, 3K, it would start moving up, but Boone and I had window vent wings and life was good! One underpass featured a couple of Buicks and an early 60's Impala pulled over, but we rolled on figuring 3 was enough to handle it themselves. A couple miles later and the underpass featured the beautiful Orange Unlimited 2000 Mustang Cobra, with it's front-end removed. We pulled over and Boone ran back to check. He came back a few minutes later, "They've got someone bringing another electric fan, he said when it hit 225 he figured they better check it out!"

Attached picture 7416161-IMG_2165-Copy.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/11/12 05:17 AM

The Mustang would be no-show at Ennis, so we never knew if they made it any further than that underpass. Dale called us shortly after that stop and said they were rolling, and would catch us soon enough. We stopped for gas in Muskogee, and answered a bevy of questions about the car, and the event. Then we pulled into Okies Steakhouse a few miles further down the road..Checkpoint #1! 46 miles down 334 left to go!

These guys were apparently inside eating, relaxing, and waiting for the heat to die down...I was jealous, thinking that was a great idea!

Attached picture 7416209-SAM_1641.JPG
Posted By: johnnycuda

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/11/12 05:20 AM

Hey Billy,thanks for all the great updates and stories,Hot Rod really should put it to print,let people who don't the trial,tribulations...and fun of course of Drag Week.Being out on the left coast,I never paid alot attention to Drag Week,but now,after reading your stuff,I sooo want to do it at least once.
I,like all of us on Moparts,are looking forward to each and every post..
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/11/12 05:30 AM

Another call to Rachael confirmed that they were eating up the Muskogee Turnpike at nearly 80mph and would be with us shortly, so we decided to wait it out at the checkpoint. Boone and I again found ourselves answering questions for interested motorists who were just pulling in and asking what was going on, and why had they seen all these cool cars for the last 30 miles!

Attached picture 7416227-SAM_1642.JPG
Posted By: Bad340fish

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/11/12 11:05 AM

Quote:

Another call to Rachael confirmed that they were eating up the Muskogee Turnpike at nearly 80mph and would be with us shortly, so we decided to wait it out at the checkpoint. Boone and I again found ourselves answering questions for interested motorists who were just pulling in and asking what was going on, and why had they seen all these cool cars for the last 30 miles!



What's awesome about your pic is that two of those three cars ran down in the 7s on drag week. One of them being that pinto!
Posted By: johnnycuda

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/11/12 06:33 PM

Quote:

Quote:

Another call to Rachael confirmed that they were eating up the Muskogee Turnpike at nearly 80mph and would be with us shortly, so we decided to wait it out at the checkpoint. Boone and I again found ourselves answering questions for interested motorists who were just pulling in and asking what was going on, and why had they seen all these cool cars for the last 30 miles!



What's awesome about your pic is that two of those three cars ran down in the 7s on drag week. One of them being that pinto!


Thats what I was thinking,that Pinto has a LS motor in it.,that pic is cool,,all that stuff on the back of it,VP jugs and all,,classic racer ingenuity.
Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/11/12 08:23 PM

I gotta stop looking at that Charger before I start cruising Craigslist for one.....
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/11/12 09:37 PM

Go for it James.Make sure it has the PROPER motor in it.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/12/12 04:48 AM

The Belvedere features low back bucket seats that look close to original, but are actually out of a later model mustang. The headrests were removed, when they were re-upholstered, but the best feature is they fully recline... at least according to Dale that's the best part! He was fully stretched out and barely coherent when Rachael pulled in for her checkpoint picture. We jumped back on the course, and successfully made the next cloverleaf, when Rachael decided to take the lead. A mile and half later, Boone and I turned right on 64 East, while Rachael continued on down SR 165. A couple miles later Boone had a phone call, "That was Dale, he said they figured it out, and would catch up!", Boone laughed!
The temp guage was directly between 190 and 215, as the shadows grew long and US 64 morphed into OK 2 as we eased through Warner Ok. The next call from Darryl came in, "I was working through these twisties down here on OK 2, and I couldn't keep up with that darn Pro Mod Camaro...that thing moves like a slot car!"
"Really, that's crazy, wouldn't have expected that".
"Yeah, he pulled off at a little casino a few miles back, guess he wanted to do some gambling...Then I ran across this stretch of road down here where they dug out about 20 feet of the asphalt in our lane, stuck up a bump sign and just left it...luckily I drove into the opposite lane and missed it...keep an eye out!"
When I hung up, Boone asked about the Camaro, and I realized he had missed the track action today. I mean, we had talked about what we done, but I hadn't brought up any of the other cars.
"He went 7.00 at 193, but I never figured it would make the drive...Darryl says he's moving right along!"
"That's cool, I saw it in tech on Sunday and thought it was pretty much on the ragged edge of something I'd attempt to drive on a public street!"

Dave Ahokas and his Pro Mod Camaro were also a No-Show in Ennis, later in the week we heard a vague reference to "charging system issues", but all we were left with was a feeling of "What if?".

Attached picture 7417523-IMG_2169.JPG
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/12/12 04:54 AM

Alot of people missed the sign and carnage ensued.
Then I ran across this stretch of road down here where they dug out about 20 feet of the asphalt in our lane, stuck up a bump sign and just left it...luckily I drove into the opposite lane and missed it...keep an eye out!"
Posted By: MR_P_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/12/12 05:53 AM

That Camero is a good looking ride... to bad he had
to drop out
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/12/12 06:18 AM

Boone is the best navigator to have with you, I can just drive, and enjoy the scenery when he's in the jump seat reading the instruction sheet. Which leads me to a couple points. I was surprised earlier in the day when Darren had commented about this being his "First Drag Week", when essentially he co-drove with me last year. The guys who've done dragweek will consider this a redundant statement, but this is clearly an event best enjoyed by two people in the car. Whether the second person is refered to as the "Co-Driver, Navigator, Mechanic, Side-kick", or the one we picked up on BangShift earlier this year and abused all trip long "Trunk Monkey", it's just great to not only have someone to help you out, but someone to share the experience with. When Boone was struggling with the decision to give up on the truck, I reminded him that I was his co-driver in 06, and he owed me one, so I was calling in those chips in 2012!

"Did you see Lane's Truck yesterday?" Boone asked as we cruised along.
"Lane's Truck?"
"Yeah..you know, the Baja Chase Truck, we hung out with them in Amarillo last year, and at the Awards in Topeka."
"You mean Mike? Swede on BangShift? with his son?
"Yeah, they had the Banner we signed last year copied and made into a decal on the door, it's really cool!"
"I did see something on the door but I thought it was just a Drag Week sticker like guys put on thier trailer, I didn't realize it was a copy of the banner!"
The perspective stuck me as odd..brothers, who had shared the same event, and to me it was "Mike and his Son in the Truck", while to Boone it was "Lane and his Dad in the Truck"!
Boone's phone rang, and he looked over at me, "Dale says the Belvedere is running on fumes."
"They didn't fuel in Muskogee...what do we have coming up?"
"10 miles or so to Wilburton."
We were working through Robbers Cave State Park, and it was twisty switchbacks and undulating terrain, the ole headlights were barely adequate, even with 4 of em. I would oversteer at the beginning of the curve to set the spool moving in that direction, then slightly steer back to control it, almost dirt-tracking each one..I was actually enjoying it now that the sun was down and the temperature had plunged to a comfortable level, both outside, and on the guage.

We pulled into Wilburton, found a small gas station slash casino and pulled up to the pumps. A latemodel Chevy pick-up and a 4th Gen Firebird were there, both DragWeek entries.
I pried myself out of the seat, and hobbled around the car, it was going to take a moment to limber up! As we filled both cars, the two Buicks and the Impala we had seen earlier drove past with a honk and a wave.

Attached picture 7417631-SAM_1664.JPG
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/12/12 06:48 AM

"hardy hand shakes"
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/12/12 06:56 AM

The ksj Challenger at Memphis, surrounded by guys who are not ksj.

Attached picture 7417675-SAM_1747.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/12/12 07:02 AM

The anti-ksj Challenger. Er, I mean the carbon copy ksj Challenger, or the negative copy ksj Challeng...
Ok kids, cameras used to have this stuff called "film" in them, and the "Negative" was the opposite of the picture you got...carbon was this stuff you used between two sheets...
NEVER MIND, I'm old ok...basically I'm saying this car had the colors reversed from ksj's ride!

Attached picture 7417678-SAM_1750.JPG
Posted By: Bad340fish

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/12/12 11:20 AM

I like what the announcer said about the pro mod car.

"what we have here is a full on Jerry Bickel pro-mod that this gentlemen has crafted a 68 camaro grille onto"

His big advantage is certainly aero and probably a little weight. My dad has pics of both larsons and lutzs cars(winner nova and runner up 57 Chevy) with the left front off the ground at 1000ft.
Posted By: cold85

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/12/12 02:08 PM

Did you happen too notice what was in the dirty bird's (white firebird)trailer that helped them win their class?
Posted By: ZIPPY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/12/12 02:18 PM




Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/12/12 03:53 PM

liquid courage in "DirtyBird"
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/13/12 07:13 AM

Quote:

The ksj Challenger at Memphis, surrounded by guys who are not ksj.


I entered I paid and didnt get the RoadRunner done. Thats why the red car.Not in the budget to be competitive so next year Im just going with the red car.Made too many friends and had a good time not to go.
Posted By: Scott58

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/13/12 02:15 PM

The "Dirty Bird" pub:

Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/14/12 03:48 PM

Rachael was laughing at me, "Dad, how come in the straight sections I'm on your tail at 2500 rpm, and when we get into the curves you run away and hide frome me?"
"I was wondering why you kept fading back, figured you were getting tired", I replied.
"She wasn't fading back", Dale added, "You were speeding up, just tossing that Valiant into those turns!"
"Oops!" I shrugged, "Maybe I was enjoying them more than I thought".

I had completely forgot about Darryl's warning from our last phone call by the time we got rolling, and was just trying to get some miles under our belt on this lonely straight stretch of two-lane, when I noticed a barely flashing construction sign on the side of the road. The asphalt dissapeared beneath our tires, and we bottomed out both the front and rear suspensions, just in time to slam back into the asphalt on the other side, and get beat up again. I had bottomed out the rear once already, and was thinking of adding a few clicks to the rear shocks, but I don't think anything would have prepared me for that!
Boone vocalized what I was already thinking, "Hope that 440 Source oil pan on the Belvedere survived that!"
"Call Dale and tell him to keep an eye on the oil pressure".
He pushed the pad, and looked over at me after a brief conversation. "Dale says everything is fine, it just rattled thier teeth pretty good!"

Darryl called about 20 minutes later, "Made the second checkpoint, Freiburger was there taking pics, it was pretty cool, lots of people around". It sounded like he was enjoying the trip so far, "Darn M/T's are taller than the Goodyears though, driver's side is rubbing on the quarter, going to have to try and fix that in the morning".
"Well, if you don't hear from me before you get close to Dallas, give me a call and I'll give you directions to the motel." I instructed.
I turned to Boone, "How far are we from the 2nd checkpoint?"
He consulted his sheet under the phone's light, "About 60 miles or so".
"Darryl just left there, so we've gained a little on him I think".

Paris Tx. is a college town, and our checkpoint is on campus, a mini-Eiffel Tower with a cowboy hat on top of it. I know there is an eighth-mile strip somewhere around there too but by the time we rolled into the area, I didn't plan on searching for it.
Hot Rod's directions had us go right through the heart of town, including town square and the police station, which made me nervous as heck. Finally I pulled into a Kroger grocery store parking lot, "Boone, something doesn't feel right, I swear this thing is getting louder, let's just go over everything, and see if anything is loose, or if we've blown out a collector gasket maybe".
Rachael headed for the store as soon as she shut the 440 off, Kroger is the parent company of the store she works for, so she couldn't wait to see how they differed.
While Boone and Dale gave both cars a cursory once-over, I called the Motel I had paid for in Waxahachie. I learned on the last Drag Week, that most of them won't give you your room if you don't register before a certain time, or at least call and make arrangments, so I wasn't going to take a chance! A man with a pronounced Asian accent answered the phone, took all my info, and was so helpful, and efficient I was shocked, almost made me worry if he wrote anything down or just wanted to end the phone call!

We rolled into the parking lot, and saw the tower on the other end, the 2 buicks and Impala were just leaving. We pulled up to that end and staged the cars for our pictures. In the sample pic on our sheet, the girl was leaning against the fender like a model, so Rachael decided to jump up on the front fender, and lay out so Dale could get her picture, this was met with rousing cheers and whistling by the 15 or 20 college guys who were standing around, drinking in the parking lot, and watching all the cars come in! She seemed to really be enjoying herself, I was just happy to make one more hurdle on what was turning into a VERY long day!

Attached picture 7420269-SAM_1645.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/14/12 09:25 PM

We headed out of Paris, started up a long hill, and I noticed a truck stop at the top, so we decided this would be a good time to fuel up for the stretch run.
Rachael pulled up to the right of us, Dale crawled out and greeted us with, "Man, this transmission is COOKED!"
"What?", Boone and I questioned in unison.
"Yeah, I was just getting comfortable again when we started up that hill, she shifted from 2nd to drive, and it flared up then slipped for a ways before it finally found 3rd. I asked her what that was and she told me to go back to sleep!"
"Great", Boone muttered and walked over to open the hood of the Belvedere.
Dale kept going, "Yeah, she's only been using 2nd and drive, said her DAD told her not to use 1st on the street".
Boone spun and gave an accusing glare.
"I don't trust her driving without low band apply..which is why the other transmission was supposed to be in here!" I tried to push Dale under the bus.
"You Moron", Boone wasn't biting, "3750 lbs. car with 400...(he took an appraising look at Dale) 450 lbs. of humans, 600 lbs. of gear, a stall convertor, and 2.76 gears; and YOU have her taking off in 2nd and short shifting to drive?"
"It sounds much worse when you put it like that..." I squirmed.
I was still fueling the Valiant as Boone pulled the trans dipstick put a small amount of fluid on his finger, rubbed it between his finger and thumb, and smelled it like some Native American tracker on the trail.
"It's burnt pretty good, but I don't think it's toast...probably make it if we change the fluid tomorrow" he spent 15 years building automatics so I trust his judgement on such things.
Rachael walked out of the convenience store without a care in the world, and was blindsided by both of her uncles telling her what a poor job of driving she was doing, and explaining thier interpretation of how she should shift the car. I expected tears, anger, something, but she stood there and listened while keeping her emotions in check. She opened her mouth to say something, then just pointed at me.
Boone just looked at her and said, "You're an adult now, 'my Dad is an idiot' is no longer a valid excuse!"
I walked over to intervene, and looked under the hood of the Belvedere, to my surprise, I saw two stock, steel lines bolted into the bottom of the radiator...now it was my turn!
"I thought you put a cooler on this last year!" I exclaimed.
"We put one on my Satellite, remember", Dale piped in, while Boone just looked at the ground.
"What kind of MORON puts 2.76 gears in a full size B-Body, straps a bottle in it with the intent of running 11's, and doesn't upgrade the trans cooler?"
"It's just an 11" convertor..if you drive it right it shouldn't be a problem", Boone muttered, I'll ride with Rachael, and coach her on shifting it."

Dale jumped in with me and we headed on down the road.
"We're pretty close aren't we?" Dale asked.
"If you consider 140 miles pretty close".
"Good Grief....I'm gonna have to re-think some stuff on the Gremlin, even if I woulda finished it, I don't think we'd have survived this first drive!"

Attached picture 7420697-SAM_1650.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/14/12 11:48 PM

30 miles into the drive, Dale was already dropping the route sheet, and his eyes were rolling up in his head, so now I was down a navigator.
Darryl called and said he was close, so I gave him the motel number, and told him I had called and they were expecting him.
I just kept trying to put miles behind me, but I was really tired, and feeling like we would never get there. Saw an Orange 70 Chevelle on the side of the road, flashers on, and the driver looking like he was doing something under the dash...I didn't stop, too hammered, all I wanted to do was keep moving.
We pulled into a convenience store about 40 miles from the track. Decided to go ahead and get fuel, but really I was just needed a very large coffee!
I stuck the screw driver in the trunk hole and turned it, but nothing happened, so I pushed on the trunk lid, and shook it, finally it came loose, but slammed up against the stops and something popped. After fueling, it wouldn't close, so Boone and Dale ended up pulling the torsion rod and roller on that side, we must've messed with it for 30 minutes before we managed to get it to shut properly.
I noticed Boone was paying to fill up the Belvedere and saw he put 89 in it. "You filled it up with 89?"
"Yeah, it'll run fine on it", he looked at me exasperated.
"Sure it will, but we're 40 miles from the track, and 3/4 of that will still be in the tank when she is spraying it!"
"Dang it! Didn't think about that...guess you'll just have to buy more race fuel to sweeten it", he said with a smile.
15 miles down the road, the Orange Chevelle was on the side of the road, flashers on, driver in the same position...felt like a Matrix moment.
The new suspension which had felt so good at the start of the day, now didn't feel quite right, but I couldn't figure it out. When I drove through construction and was getting sound reverberation from close proximity to the concrete barriers, I heard a clack, clack, clack, like you will hear when a bolt is stuck in the tread of a truck.
As is usually my luck, the motel I had chosen because it was only 7 miles from the track, was seven miles on the other side of the track from the direction we came in from. Doesn't sound like much until you are trying to finish off such a long day.
We pulled in, shut the 2 cars off, grabbed our bags, and went in barely saying a word to each other. Rachael who had driven all day, had finally gave Boone the wheel for the final juant, and she looked beat. Once in the room, we agreed that we didn't need to be the first guys at the track tomorrow, and we set the alarm for eight. The clock read 3:30 AM, wow, 25 hours from when I had first heard Darren's Charger fire to life! Seemed like a week ago.

Attached picture 7420897-SAM_1648-Copy.JPG
Posted By: MR_P_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/14/12 11:59 PM

Some good reading Billy
Posted By: MMiller

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/15/12 02:06 AM

Quote:

We pulled up to that end and staged the cars for our pictures. In the sample pic on our sheet, the girl was leaning against the fender like a model, so Rachael decided to jump up on the front fender, and lay out so Dale could get her picture, this was met with rousing cheers and whistling by the 15 or 20 college guys who were standing around, drinking in the parking lot, and watching all the cars come in! She seemed to really be enjoying herself, I was just happy to make one more hurdle on what was turning into a VERY long day!



Where is this picture? I am the father of two daughters, I suspect maybe your daughter has not given permission to post it on the internet?

Great description of events Billy, thanks once again for sharing.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/15/12 03:42 AM

For reasons I can't understand, I woke up at 7:00 AM with a start. I quietly showered, and my phone rang, it was Darryl, and he was ready to head to the track. "Got to find a place to buy a sledge hammer, that quarter panel panel dug a groove in my tire".
"These guys aren't going to get up until eight, so we will be out later."
I watched out the window as he fired the Dart, and headed out of the motel.
I woke up Boone and Dale, and we all gathered around Rachael, who was still out, and started singing "Happy Birthday" at the top of our lungs. She looked up then put the pillow over her head, when we finished she said, "Great, just what I wanted, woke up on my birthday by 3 old men in thier shorts singing to me!"
Rachael hooked up her laptop, so I could check first day results. Our class was supposed to be only 3, so I felt like just a finish was good enough for at least a plaque, but the results showed 2 others had jumped into the fray, and 4th place was only a tenth behind me...Okay, now we have some skin in the game! Rachael's 12.17 had her safely into the quick 32 for Daily Driver, so we just needed to maintain.
Since I was the first up and around, I took bags down to load up in the car before breakfast, I tossed them into the back, then decided to check out the rear suspension in the daylight. Nothing looked amiss, except the driver's side street slick had scuffs on it that looked odd. I dismissed it to pulling into the motel fairly tight the night before.
We went in and polished off the continental breakfast while Rachael pulled out her smart phone and found us a Wal-Mart, and a parts store close by. The plan was, get to Walmart, grab oil, trans fluid, paper towels, and whatever else we needed, then get a filter and gasket kit for the transmission at the parts store and head to the track. Rachael jumped in the Valiant with me, whil Boone and Dale took the Belvedere and followed.
Something didn't feel right, still, in the back of the car, I spent the mile and a half to Walmart trying to figure out what it was. When I pulled into the parking lot and shut it off, Dale was right on my tail, both of them bailed out of the Belvedere with concerned looks on thier faces, "Your Driver's side rear tire is falling off!" Dale hollered as they walked towards it. I looked down as I got out and noticed one lug stud broken completely off and gone, 2 lugs so far off that the wheel was riding on the stud, and the other 2 so loose the wheel was just flopping around. My heart jumped into my throat, and suddenly the end of my Drag Week seemed a possiblity.

Attached picture 7421255-IMG_2193.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/15/12 05:04 AM

I just couldn't beleive I didn't see it before or figure it out! We unloaded all our tools and jacked it up to pull the tire and assess the damage. We had the tire nearly off when a slender guy about our age pulled up in a ten year old econobox, and got out to look at our cars. He struck up a conversation with Boone, and about the time I set the tire and wheel out so Dale could check it out I heard him tell Boone he knew of a place that just did rearends and might have studs. He was on his phone talking to someone and leaned over to ask "Screw in, or press-fit?"
I popped the rear drum off, and said, "Screw in, 3", 1/2 by 20".
"25$ for 10"
"We'll take them!" Things appeared to be taking an upturn!
He was getting directions for us when he suddenly stopped, and looked at Boone, "This guy has a Doctor's appointment in 30 minutes...you just better jump in my car and we'll run out and get them..."
Boone looked at me shrugged.
"My name is Terry and I'm a normal guy...it's not like I'm gonna take you out in the woods and shoot you or anything!"
That made me feel better, not sure about Boone. "Yeah, Boone, that'll work, Dale and I will get the oil changed, and get this thing torn apart while you are gone!"
They took off, and we changed the oil on both cars (no dipstick in the Valiant, and only 4 quarts of beat up oil came out), then pulled the axle out and went ahead and removed the other four studs as well.
When Boone returned with the studs, our good samaritan said, "See you at the track, I want to get out there and see what this is all about!"
I offered him money for his trouble, but he just commented, "Just tell everybody Terry from Texas gave you a hand when you really needed it"!
Darryl called and asked where we were, and I explained, then told him to just call us when they switched classes so we could get Rachael out there during the DD session.
Dale and Rachael left for the parts store while Boone helped me put in the new studs.
"Man, it was crazy, we went out in the middle of no-where, and then..."
"Boone, I appreciate you getting the studs, I really do, but whatever happened in the woods between you and Terry can just stay there, OK?
"What?, No!, You're sick!...anyway we walk into this huge barn/wharehouse, and there are just shelves of axles and Richmond gear boxes everywhere as far as you can see, this old guy sells on the internet, it's called Peyton Performance!"
"Yeah, I have heard of that!"
Dale and Rachael made it back, and Dale had 5 cheap, parts store .750 shank lugnuts with him.
"Those aren't open, how are we going to make those work", Boone asked.
"These cheap ones just have a thin tin or plastic cap in the end when they are chromed", he grabbed a screwdriver and a hammer and gave each a tap, "Wala, open lugnuts!"
Darryl called about the switching classes at the track, so we decided to send Boone and Rachael on to the track while Dale and I finished up the Valiant. Luckily my previous lugnuts were only .500 shank, so most of the damage to the lug holes were pretty much limited to the outer portion. Once we got it all in place and torqued down, it looked as though it had never happened. We went around the other 15, and then headed to the Texas Motorplex. We pulled into the left hand turn lane, to enter the track and watched car after car driving out of the gate, on thier way to Louisiana already!

Attached picture 7421327-SAM_1649.JPG
Posted By: Triple Threat

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/15/12 10:36 PM

Posted By: tsanchez

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/15/12 11:51 PM

Cool! That damaged section of road was a It took a few out and mine killed the rear springs.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/16/12 03:55 AM

We rolled through the gate like we owned the place, while the attendant was talking to a kid on a motorcycle, and found Rachael and the Belvedere.
"Where's Boone?"
"He's been up there trying to get gas for the last 30 minutes, there isn't anyone running the fuel area."
Dale started dropping the pipes on the Valiant, and I handed him a set of header extensions, "Brian Smith made these when he put the exhaust together, and I've never had them on the car, we might as well give them a try".
I met Boone halfway from the Gas depot and gave him some cash, "Is the guy coming? It's getting late".
"Yeah, we had to go to the tower to get his attention, just rediculous!"
We prepped the cars and managed to get around in the lanes when they started the final all-run session. We had decided since the Belvedere was nice and cool, we'd just push it up there and try one pass before the fluid change. I told Rachael, "Just get off the bottle before you hit drive so we can save the tranny".
I knew Dale had been in her ear and they had plans of thier own. She just shook her head and said, "No promises Dad!"

The pic below is Dale telling the Comp Cams rep, "It's just a 270/470 magnum cam, it's her 23rd birthday, and it's going to go 11's", which is how she ended up with her picture on the Comp Cams facebook page!

Attached picture 7422716-100_0372.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/16/12 03:59 AM

This is a pic of me, sitting right behind her, thinking, "What the heck are those two up to?"

Attached picture 7422718-100_0369-Copy.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/16/12 06:15 AM

The guy with the yellow coupe behind me walked up and asked who we were supposed to give our tech cards to, and I told him I never was given one.
Dale walked over and said, "Sure, Rachael has one, they handed them out at the gate and the lane director is picking them up!"
"Guess I shouldn't have blown through the gate then!" I shrugged my shoulders and hoped he would just think I'd given mine earlier.
This was the ragtag group that filtered into the lanes behind us, after that 380 mile whoopin' HOT ROD had given us the night before, everyone apparently wanted to get on the road quick today. OK by me, sharing the track with only 20 or 30 cars, meant we shouldn't have a problem getting another hit if we needed it.

Attached picture 7422882-100_0371.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/16/12 06:35 AM

I was in the water box waiting to start my burnout when Rachael's 11.86-109.60 flashed on the board, my first thought was that we didn't need another run on the Belvedere, my second thought was that I was going to kill my little brother! I did my burnout and looked over at James McEntire's SEERED Camaro (Whichdoctor, BangShift) , this was going to be an 8 second whippin', but I would have a great seat to watch it!

Attached picture 7422899-100_0374.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/16/12 06:42 AM

Here's a shot of Rachael holding off the 7 second unlimited car at the 330ft mark...or maybe he took a while to spool up, not sure which.

Attached picture 7422903-100_0376.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/16/12 06:52 AM

The Valiant layed down on the big end again, and I was already convinced I needed another shot before I even saw my timeslip.

Attached picture 7422911-100_0378-Copy.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/16/12 12:55 PM

The timeslip, and the sparkplug confirmed what I already knew, we needed a bunch more jet for this air. 11.61 at only 112.9.
Dale started jetting it up while I talked to Darryl, who was already loaded up and ready to roll. "What did you run?"
11.29-118.7, it actually bogged a bit out of the hole, so I could've went up with the tire pressure, this track has teeth!"
"Well, with fourth place only a tenth back, I need a similar improvement to yours to call it good at this track!"

"Fire it up", came the call from Dale. I just plopped over the bar in the seat, started it, and felt a shocking blast of exhaust on my leg. I killed it and looked under the car, those header extensions were in fact, old fashioned, almost weedburner or AAR style turnouts which exited just under the door, they gave the car an exhaust note that can best be decribed in two words, "Deliciously Obnoxious!", and I loved it.
That ole Brian Smith is always full of surprises, like when I asked him to solve a firewall leak issue, and came back to find he had took out the cowl vents, and smoothed that area. or when I asked him to re-radius the rear fenderwells and put lips back where they had been hacked, and he decided to eliminate and smooth the gas cap area as well!

Attached picture 7423009-100_0381-Copy.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/16/12 03:16 PM

It was 1:30 when I made it back around for another shot, and when I pulled into the water box, My buddy Michael Sporrong (Swede4, BangShift) pulled up in the 2005 Silverado that Boone and I had been talking about earlier! I knew the supercharged LSX was capable of going quicker than thier 11.50 no-bar cutoff, so I figured I'd better get this one right to avoid reading his tailgate at the finish line.
I picked up 2 tenths on him in the first 60ft. clipped 2nd at 6400, drive at 6300 and then took a look to see if he was coming around. To my suprise, the little smallblock pulled exactly the same mph at the 8th and finish line as the truck. My time slip read 11.40-115.7, that would work!

Mike came by after the run and echoed my sentiments, "Darn! That was fun!"
It took me back to the earliest days, when my car buddies and I would drive our street cars to Mokan, enter the trophy class and try to race each other every time run, just kinda stripped away all tension of serious competition and got back to the bare essense of why I enjoy this sport in the first place!

Attached picture 7423107-Truck--623x415.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/16/12 03:40 PM

Unfortunately for Mopar fans, one of the competitors who didn't make it any further than Ennis was the beautiful SRT10 Ram Truck with the turbo. This is a pic of the cylinder head damage posted by Alain, who came over from the Netherlands to take in Drag Week!

Attached picture 7423141-644150_10151235073366757_1238741901_n.jpg
Posted By: keefe

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/17/12 05:02 AM

Quote:

Unfortunately for Mopar fans, one of the competitors who didn't make it any further than Ennis was the beautiful SRT10 Ram Truck with the turbo. This is a pic of the cylinder head damage posted by Alain, who came over from the Netherlands to take in Drag Week!




ouch!
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/17/12 05:14 AM

It was a shame they weren't able to continue, the big Truck was an absolute work of art!

Attached picture 7424173-MG_4483.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/17/12 05:39 AM

We were just about loaded up and ready to leave the Texas Motorplex, when Drag Week ended for another car that had everyone saying, "He's gonna drive THAT on the street?"
David Schroeder's wild 66 Stingray, with it's crazy roadrace graphics and massive, nitrous gulping big block, made the drive, had a 7.35-195.3 at Tulsa, and was surely on it's way to a better run at Texas when we heard a big pop at 900ft. and Darryl, who was watching the run said, "Wow, flames shot out everywhere!!" The scoreboard read 7.53 at only 150.8, bummer!
Minutes later we saw him being pulled through the pits on a rope from Rick Prospero's Nova Wagon...an 8 second car pulling a 7 second car, and do you think I was smart enough to grab my camera? Ah, no.

Attached picture 7424201-MG_3855.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/17/12 05:53 AM

Not everyone who encountered problems at Ennis, let it end thier Drag Week, however. Casey Cunningham (Moparman63, BangShift) Had to do a 727 swap in the pits, to complicate matters, he had to rob parts from the broken one to complete the spare and make it fit in his 499 powered Plymouth!

Photo shamelessly stolen from our very own BBR!

Attached picture 7424218-421719_10151147576899485_358249656_n.jpg
Posted By: 1967dartgt

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/18/12 01:51 AM

Awesome pics keep them coming, and the story too. How fast was the srt 10 truck before it melted?
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/18/12 03:50 AM

Thanks Brad,
The SRT made a conservative 9.09-148 at Tulsa, and was intent on stepping up, but only went 10.05 at a mere 113 on the engine killing run at Texas.

I want to thank HOTROD.com for the killer coverage they did at this event, and for making so many pictures easy to access. Also to Boone and Darryl, who each allowed me to copy thier sandisks. A big thanks also to James-BBR for putting the route sheets on PDF for me, after I misplaced mine.

I could spend literally paragraph after paragraph talking about how many awesome people make this event what it is. I can try to accurately relay my personal happenings in a semi-cronological order, but I can't even begin to cover everyone who makes this thing so special!

Attached picture 7425422-100_0385.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/18/12 04:27 AM

The first thing I looked at after turning in my timeslip, and showing them my pics of the previous drive's checkpoints, is the total miles on the route sheet! 229.8, and our motel was a good 18 miles before the track, so we were looking at a 210 mile jaunt to finish out the day, not bad!
The first thing that even looked like a gas station was about 10 miles into the drive on I-45. We pulled into the Chevron, and filed in around Steve Fagan (ProCharged509 BangShift), who was on the inside island, hood up on his S-10 Blazer, and in the process of removing his Pro-Charger! Steve had a pair of Low 9 second passes under his belt (pun intended), but now the blower bearings were howling, forcing him to continue sans boost.
A couple miles further down the road we drove by Eric Yost's "Dirty Bird" on a grassy knoll, with a red 4th gen firebird hanging out with him...they may have been working on the car, or just having a beer, but we headed on down the highway.

Attached picture 7425462-100_0382.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/18/12 04:54 AM

We spent very little time on I-45 before they shuttled us off on the picturesque little two lane featured in the picture above that Boone shot of the cars following me. I was enjoying the drive when suddenly I went by a big sign that said "Welcome to Cedar Creek DragWay", we were 600 feet past it before it sunk in.
"Dang it Boone, bet that was a cool little 1/8 mile track back on that road!"
"Yeah, but we better keep moving..."
Boone had a Seafood Restruant on his itenerary in Shreveport, and he wasn't about to let me screw it up traipsin' around some little hole in the wall dragstrip.
The tempature guage had me concerned, and as we entered a larger town complete with stop lights it began to climb. That was when I realized I'd apparently turned the fans off at our last gas stop, and left them off, brilliant. The next stop light we were joined by the Orange Chevelle we had ignored on the side of the road the night before. We actually shared a supper stop with these guys on last years Drag Week, cool guys for Chevy racers. This year they had added a junior crew member, apparently 3 isn't a crowd!

Attached picture 7425478-100_0386.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/18/12 07:05 AM

We made the first Checkpoint at 66 miles without a hint of trouble and everyone seemed to be in good spirits. The HotRod film crew was on hand to get shots of all the festivities, so we gave them the "All Mopars all the time version"!

Attached picture 7425542-100_0393.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/18/12 07:28 AM

All this hustling to make the restruant in time put us in the heart of Tyler Texas, in rush hour traffic, during the hottest part of the day, that was workout for both man and machine!
Checkpoint #2 came in WhiteHouse Texas, just outside Tyler, and we fueled there too. Since we had all filled up at the last stop together, this was our first chance to play another Drag Week Game...called WHO IS GETTING THE BEST MILEAGE! Darryl's Dart took on 9.0 gallons, while the Valiant topped off with 9.3, and the Belvedere, AKA the pack mule needed 10.2!

Attached picture 7425552-100_0395-Copy.jpg
Posted By: Twin Turbo Mower

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/18/12 08:07 AM

Quote:

It was a shame they weren't able to continue, the big Truck was an absolute work of art!



I think this was the same truck getting its cage certified same time as mine was back in august. The guy working on it said the owner was doing drag week as well and he spent all kinds of money on it, and during the winter he was gona take the cage out and redo it again.

I spent 2 years redoing my car and tried to make drag week this year for the n/a big block street class, but my transmission broke on me not once but twice. Its going good now. Hope to see you at drag week next year Billy.
Posted By: G_bob

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/21/12 04:03 PM


The suspense is killing me!
Posted By: Just-a-dart

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/21/12 06:20 PM

And then?
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/21/12 08:22 PM

We worked our way through a few more little Texas towns and great scenery, and eventually popped out on I-20 just south of Longview (Mom's birthplace), and started the stretch run to Shreveport. 15 miles up the road, I noticed we were gaining ground on an Orange 70 RoadRunner being closely tailed by a Fuschia and Black 73 or 4 Dodge Colt...not your typical Interstate fodder to be sure. 72 year old George Browning was behind the wheel of the Colt, which up until he purchased it had been an ancient and eclectic race car. George is a Drag Week Veteren having brought a 26 T hardtop Ford with a 5.0, and also a Fox Body Mustang in years past.

Attached picture 7429918-hrdp_1101_20_o+hot_rod_drag_week_2010_official_coverage+26_ford_model_t.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/21/12 08:28 PM

Since he was in a Mopar this year, and an old racecar at that, Scott and Kim Abbott (Scott58, Moparts) felt compelled to take him under thier wing and keep tabs on him. Scott's Orange 'Runner, like the restruant of the same color, revels in being "Delightfully tacky, and unrefined", but make no mistake, it carries a thundering stroker, and is deadly reliable...

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/21/12 08:39 PM

Click on the attachments of George's Colt and look closely at the hastily drawn up concessions to put it on the street!
Channel Bumpers with LED's, single very small wiper, and in this pic taken on Sunday, you will see a very ancient set of Pro-Tracs that Scott had to talk him into exchanging for a new set of Drag Radials. Scott can correct me but the build date I think he told me was '89 on those tires!
The massive Winters rear-end was freaking awesome with a bolt pattern of like 5 on 12.5!! Looked almost like an old dayton style wheel setup.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/21/12 09:38 PM

As we eased up closer, I thought for sure we would pass them within a couple miles, but they began to pull away again, then come back 5 or 6 miles later, then pull away again.
I asked Scott about it later, and he admitted, "It's hard to keep George up to speed on the big roads, he's more comfortable at 50 or so, and I'm afraid some Semi is going to run over him!"

Pic below is with the new M/T Drag Radials...

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/21/12 09:51 PM

We met Scott and Kim last year on Drag Week. Scott jumped out of his RR at our pit area and introduced himself, with "You fellows have some nice Mopars here!" Then 2 minutes later, after looking at plate systems under all 3 hoods came back with , "What's with all the nitrous guys! Geez, all motor, ALL MOTOR!" That's the way with Scott, He's going to tell you exactly what he thinks...with a delivery and demeanor that is in no way confrontational, just a great guy to be around and a true gearhead in every sense of the word.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/21/12 10:19 PM

We ran with them all the way into Shreveport, and then split from them when the prescribed course left I-20, because our restruant stop and Motel was just 10 miles up the road, right off the Interstate. Except for the fact that I-20 is extremely rough in Louisiana it was a very easy, smooth, dramaless trip, we hit Boone's chosen feeding hole with an hour and a half to spare before closing time.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/22/12 02:38 AM

Once inside the restruant, I was feelng the last 100 mile beating in my hips and lower back, so when the waiter asked how we were doing I told him!
"We'll see if we can take of that", he said with a comforting tone. He had our drink order quickly, and then Rachael asked for a Long Island Iced Tea, "You have ID?"
She headed out to get it and I explained to him that this was her 23rd birthday. Eddie was a tall black man, in his early 50's if I had to guess, and he was easily the most engaging, efficient waiter I've ever been around. He seemed to anticipate our needs without being intrusive, and made the meal an absolute delight. We all refused dessert as we loaded up our leftovers, but he brought out an excellent bread pudding, with 5 spoons and set it in front of Rachael, "Compliments of the house, for your Birthday". It was the perfect ending to a perfect meal, a perfect day actually.
Rachael's B-day, being the second weekend of Sept. when the Monster Mopar Weekend was traditionally held...was spent sans Dad quite often in her childhood, I hoped in some small way, this day made up for that.
We drove to the motel, and decided to put Dale and Darryl in the same room, figuring Mr. lets get there 30 minutes before the gates open, and Mr. lets get there 30 minutes before they cut off the back of the lanes, would be a perfect foil against each other! It felt good to actually get in bed before midnight for a change.

The Birthday girl trying to do the exact pose on the sheet at checkpoint #1

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Posted By: Scott58

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/22/12 03:28 AM

George Browning and Mike Sporrong are heroes to me, both are 72 years old (Mike is a couple months older than George) and both are avid Drag Week competitors. I hope I can be that active at that age!

About those old tires...George told me at the hotel Sunday night that another racer (Rick Callahan with the maroon 68 RoadRunner) had checked and the date code was 1978 on the Pro-Tracs. Later Rick told me that George got it wrong, they were actually 1975 date codes! The tires were quite hard from age but didn't actually look too bad. George had made over 10 passes on them on Sunday! They were mounted on "Wide-5" circle track wheels (5 on 10.25" bolt circle). I asked him.."So I suppose you have a spare wheel and tire?"..you can guess the answer and my reaction...I could see rub marks on the fender lip... I was emphatic that we absolutely HAD to replace the tires, so we made a run to Grand Prix in Tulsa, got the tires (a bit smaller to fit without rubbing), and then found a shop to mount them, all Monday morning while the track was down. I'm really glad we replaced them. George did mention that the car drove a lot better with the drag radials. I also asked sarcastically..."couldn't you find a smaller windshield wiper?"...in reference to what looked like a single 4" blade on the drivers cowl, and prayed that we wouldn't run into any rain.

George is an estate attorney, not a mechanic. He stated that he had a mechanic in Virginia check the car completely out and update it before Drag Week. I told him to get a new mechanic!

Scott
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/22/12 03:49 AM

George didnt make as many passes as he usually does.Always good to see him.72 years young.Its the people that make the event.Bob Lash(gray hair and pony tail) with the canary yellow Nova in DD is 78.Do not think for a minute that man cant drive.Multu time HPT E.T Finals competitor.In Shreveport he and the nova got in the 11s.At the Hotel in Memphis I congratulated him.Bobs reply " I havent been in the 11s since the 60s" Old guys rule.
Posted By: MR_P_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/22/12 03:58 AM

So George wasnt running his T this year.... it was
funny back in 2010... I think he made 68 passes that
year... he would hot lap it till time to go... seeing
that Winters rear end reminded me, I have one of
those in the pole barn.... Scott.... you ever gonna
paint that RR.... LOL
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/22/12 04:25 AM

It was 68. Made me tired.Think Scott has something "planned" for next year.
Posted By: MR_P_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/22/12 04:28 AM

Quote:

It was 68. Made me tired.Think Scott has something "planned" for next year.



We asked if he was getting his entry fee's worth
of passes.... he laughed and headed back out for
more... that guy is great
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/22/12 04:55 AM

The next morning found me checking results on Rachael's laptop, and that was the first time I realized that Tony Sanchez's Javelin was out. We had arrived at the Motorplex so late that I just figured he had ran and already left.
That meant I was now 2nd behind Ray and his Barracuda, "Boone, Ray has a pair of 10.0's, one at 135, one at 131! He's having a hard time keeping that thing out of the nines."
"Yeah, he's got plenty left...how 'bout that mystery Camaro that moved into the class?"
"Only went .64 at Texas, so I have just short of two tenths on him right now."
We went down to a large meeting area, where they had breakfast put out, and filled up, while Rachael found us an alternate route to the track so we wouldn't have to backtrack 10 miles.

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Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/22/12 03:22 PM

George's Colt has a Magnum 318 with a carb on it I believe.

We got trapped behind them on one leg of the trip. I couldn't figure out why we were going so dang slow. They finally pulled over for gas and I realized who we were following.
Posted By: MR_P_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/22/12 03:28 PM

Quote:

George's Colt has a Magnum 318 with a carb on it I believe.

We got trapped behind them on one leg of the trip. I couldn't figure out why we were going so dang slow. They finally pulled over for gas and I realized who we were following.



He did run pretty slow with the T and he was up and
down on the pedal.... like it had a really strong
return spring on the carb
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/22/12 09:46 PM

Hey James,Jake says Mustangs are ghey. Got to love sleep deprivation.
Posted By: Bad340fish

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/23/12 12:25 AM

I know we all ran about 1500 miles, I think the colt ran 1550 with all the passes he made lol.
Posted By: MR_P_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/23/12 12:35 AM

Quote:

I know we all ran about 1500 miles, I think the colt ran 1550 with all the passes he made lol.



I see old George hasnt changed a bit... good for him...
did he have a person riding shotgun or was he by
him self as usual
Posted By: moparmanjames

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/23/12 02:39 AM

Nice read once again Billy, as always!
Posted By: Bad340fish

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/23/12 03:05 AM

Quote:

Quote:

I know we all ran about 1500 miles, I think the colt ran 1550 with all the passes he made lol.



I see old George hasnt changed a bit... good for him...
did he have a person riding shotgun or was he by
him self as usual




I believe he was by himself.
Posted By: RonTheAnnouncer

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/23/12 08:16 PM

Great stuff! Waiting impatiently for the next installment!
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/24/12 04:05 AM

We went back to the rooms,grabbed our bags, and prepared to leave. Rachael was in charge of loading up the coolers with motel ice. I had stocked up on drink sales over Labor Day, and had brought cases of Sobe Lifewater, Soda, and Gatorade with us, and it was working out great as long as the ice held up. This morning she seemed to be a bit overzealous, stealing the trash can liners from each room and filling them with ice as well.
We weren't 2 miles into our morning trek to Thunder Road Raceway Park when we began to pick up other Drag Weekers whose motel had likely been in the same area.Sean and Tara Fling, who we had met on Drag Week in 2006 were trailing us in thier ubiquitous green Fairlane wagon which seems to do every event in the country and do them all equally well.
I was surprised the pits were so full when we arrived, and rather than drive through the lanes, we found a place near the end of spectator parking and set up shop. The next thing I knew we had the company of Mike and Lane Sporong along side us as well as "Wacky" Mick, and his English Panel.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/24/12 05:37 AM

Brief interlude...

I know some of you guys are sitting around wondering why this process takes so long. I come home and prep myself for the next part I'm going to write about by looking at our accumulated pictures, time slips, HOTROD.com, Utube videos, everything I can that will help me recall the happenings, and the mood of what was going on that day, especially stuff that helps me establish timeline. Sometimes I have to call Boone, Dale, or Darryl, and see if they have different views than mine. I spent an hour on the phone tonight with Darryl discussing his runs at Gilliam LA., and it wasn't lining up with my memories, finally I checked the live feed replay to check the timeline and sure enough, he couldn't even remember it correctly. He made the comment tonight, "It's so much work and so much action, that it all kinda blurs together after awhile!"

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/24/12 06:22 AM

We'd scrambled all our cash together for race fuel, I get so used to doing everything with plastic, I get out of the habit of carrying any. Boone came back with 2 1/2 gallons.
"What the heck Boone, we had more money than that!"
"It was like 16 Bucks a gallon!"
"For C-12, or Blue? That's robbery!"
"In Texas you said get the best fuel they had because you were mixing it, so I grabbed C-16!"
"I just didn't want you coming back with 100 unleaded or something..good grief".

Dale was playing Carb Guru, on both The Dart and the Valiant while Boone was doing the grunt work, Darryl was changing out plugs, and I was setting tire pressures. Darryl and I made it around with 30 minutes to spare in the first session. He was about 5 sets in front of me and went a very nice 11.312-119.6, spanking a nose high 57 Chevy Gasser in the process. I pulled up, same lane and went 11.442-116.24, spanking a nose high 55 Chevy Gasser in the process.
We returned to the pits to find Boone by himself.
"Where's Dale, Rachael, and the Belvedere?" I asked.
"Wanted to get her in the lanes early, and keep the heat out of it, he said." Boone shrugged, "He's probably up there throwing more nitrous jet at it!"
"I'll kill him, I swear..."
"You turning that slip in?" Darryl interupted.
"Naw, I want another one..I know it's greedy, but if you went 119.6, I should be more MPH than I was...think I'll jet up some more. We have a little tail wind, and cloud cover, so I don't think the air is going to get worse by the next session."
I figured he would pack up and wait for us, but he looked around and said, "Yeah, I'll try another one...maybe get 120 or a new best, who knows!"
Boone and I were in the process of re-jetting the Valiant when he looked out from under the hood and said, "Holy Crap! Was that Rachael? No Way..that couldn't have been the Belvedere!"
Boone's best from last year was 11.76-116 in the Belvedere, the scoreboard read 11.58-113.78! I squinted towards the far turn-off, "Yep, looks like a Blue four-eyed Plymouth to me...what the heck is our little brother trying to do?"

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/24/12 07:09 AM

Rachael parked in the pits, at about the same time Dale showed up, out of breath from the lanes. Both were estatic, high fiveing and jumping around.
"I iced down the top of the engine, and pushed it all the way to the burn-out box", Dale bragged.
That brought the morning ice run into focus...scheming little monsters, "How much jet?"
"I didn't add any nitrous!" he feigned insult.
"I let off the nitrous at 1000ft." Rachael assured me.
"You don't even know where that is!"
She looked around at both cars being worked on, "Are you guys going up again?"
"Yeah, we're going to try to improve.."
"Good!, I want another one!" she decided
"YOU are done! You can't even legally go quicker than an 11.49 and you just went 11.58!".
"Well, then I want to run 11.495!"
I turned to Dale, "My valvetrain is noisy as heck, can you run my valves?", That was one way to burn off all his adrenaline!
Darryl handed him his LSM valve adjusting torque wrench, it was love at first twist, "I MUST have one of these" he declared. All of them were at .020 except one, which was .030, and had picked up some side to side movement on the shaft. They are 1.5 Crane Gold, and have been on this engine since 1993. By the time he finished bumping it over and re-adjusting everything to .018, the voltmeter read 10, something wasn't right!
The back battery had slid in it's tray, and pulled loose the cable connecting the two batteries together. I knew I had one bad battery last year, so I replaced one for this year...apparently the wrong one!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/24/12 07:32 AM

Darryl had bogged hard in Texas, and dead hooked on his first run at Gilliam, so he upped the tire pressure for his next run in hopes of a little quicker 60' and maybe a little more MPH. The Dart responded by blowing off the drag radials and netting an 11.58-119.5...he shrugged his shoulders and started packing up for the drive ahead.
Since I lack a dipstick, and was worried about the oil level after the first day's drive, we changed it quickly. it was only down about a quart and a half. Fresh oil, fresh valve adjustment, more jet in the carb, and two and a half hours later, I gave up .06 in the first 60ft! By the eighth, I was only down .02, I hit the stripe at 11.42-117.5. I really wanted to go back up, and get that .06 out of the hole back, but we had two more long trips ahead of us. So I left the car to the boys, and went to the tower to turn in our time slips!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/24/12 08:04 AM

I turned the map to the back, and read the last entry. "355 miles...YIKES!"

I had made my last pass at 11:56 AM, Darryl stuck his camera out of his window and shot this picture of us approaching a big rainbow styled bridge a few miles from the track at 1:08PM...we were on our way to Memphis.

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Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/24/12 01:11 PM

Never seen so may mobile home trailers with a Wal_Mart blue swimming pool in the front yard.
Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/24/12 04:14 PM

Man, the air was good in Louisiana! The suckstang went 10.56 @ 127 and I was giggling like a school girl. 1 and done!
Posted By: sixpackgut

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/24/12 04:30 PM

Posted By: tsanchez

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/24/12 05:23 PM



So awesome, makes me sick that I missed the rest of the trip

Love hearing the story!!
Posted By: johnnycuda

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/24/12 07:39 PM

Quote:

I turned the map to the back, and read the last entry. "355 miles...YIKES!"

I had made my last pass at 11:56 AM, Darryl stuck his camera out of his window and shot this picture of us approaching a big rainbow styled bridge a few miles from the track at 1:08PM...we were on our way to Memphis.


I love this pic!,,,thanks again for writing all of this,great stories,,before reading your posts,I didn't pay alot of attention to Drag Week to be honest,now I want to run it at least once,,maybe 2014,,hmmm.
Posted By: deaks

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/24/12 09:28 PM

Brilliant.
Ray's story made me laugh, when he was co pilot for Elvis.
Mick
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/25/12 03:41 AM

Plain Deering was a very small town 11 miles into the drive...with 1, yes ONE Gas Station!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/25/12 03:43 AM

So, we managed to cram eight Drag Week entries into the small lot.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/25/12 03:45 AM

It didn't cause too big of a scene, as I imagine it had been happening all day!

Josh Walton and his Nebraska based Monte, another of those guys who had picked up substantially at Thunder Road.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/25/12 03:47 AM

It did mean we had to wait for all the Chevy rabble to clear out so we could get our Mopars to the pumps!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/25/12 04:49 AM

Hot Rod could have shot us up to Texarkana, and put us right on US 30, but no...they weren't going to let us have a whiff of the big road! Just as well though, because US 371 that took us north out of Louisiana into Arkansas, was a good stretch of highway with great scenery.
Boone and I spent the better part of the drive to Prescott Arkansas, discussing Larry Larson's apparent vulnerability. Thinking this may be the year that Jeff Lutz finally gets it done. Prescott is home to a really nice 1000ft-1/8th mile facility, that I've never raced at or seen, and this trip was not going to provide that either! We turned on US 67 at this point and basically paralleled US 30 all the way to Arkadelphia. We had basically passed or ran with at least a dozen different Drag Week Competitors along the way, which tends to happen when you actually leave the track at a decent time!
Just outside of Arkadelphia, US 67 and US 30 intersected, and as is typical of these locations, it was inundated with Gas Stations, so that's where we made our first stop of the drive.

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Posted By: Dart451

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/27/12 04:23 PM

Breakfast just not the same without a update.
Posted By: Shoozy

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/27/12 04:27 PM

Quote:

Breakfast just not the same without a update.





Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/27/12 09:29 PM

I filled up first, then Rachael moved up to my pump. Boone and I were just waiting around, and the others told us to go ahead and go, they would catch up.
Dale and Rachael had been lobbying to stop at Cracker Barrel, and we had vetoed that idea, so my first thought when we drove past it 3 miles later was, "Do you think they just got rid of us to eat where they wanted?"
"Possibly", Boone laughed, "Wouldn't hurt my feelings!"
The road necked down to a tight, shoulderless two lane, and I must say this next 35 mile stretch of AR7 was some of the most breathtaking scenery of the entire trip. We were chasing the purple AAR Cuda which had been spraying and running low 10's so far, and he was right on the butt of the little green Gremlin.
"I thought the Cuda was out?" I added
"Well, it showed his results in blue on the computer, but I think it was a typo, because he's still turning in slips" Boone surmised.
"Did you see that Gold Barracuda in the pits?"
"Yeah, got a picture of it, cool car!"
It never fails at any Drag Week stop, the locals drive thier hot street cars out to the track to hang out and show off..it's like a bonus car show every day!
"The red El-Camino was there too, that's the same guy who was sitting on his tailgate, drinking a beer in front of his house, watching everyone drive by yesterday!"
"Yeah, and that was before we jumped out on 20, so he drove a good way to get here today" Boone mentioned.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/27/12 11:54 PM

"When you changed the fluid on the 727 in Ennis, were you worried?" I glanced at Boone.
"Naw...the fluid was dark, but not burnt black like a few we've seen in the pits already", He laughed, "Had a little more metal in than I'd like though."
"Yeah, Darryl saw that and told me we better have Dad meet us with the other trans in Memphis!"
"In a perfect world, we really need to change it two or three more times, but I really think it will be good."

We were driving over a lake, and on the other side of the bridge was a lakefront seafood place. Mike and Lane's Chevy truck was in the parking lot. "Guess they decided on some local fare", I pointed it out to Boone.
We kept moving, I'd told Boone earlier in the day that I wanted a car wash, for this filthy car, and a B of A to get more cash. He had pointed out a few carwash locations, but I had the bit between my teeth and just kept rolling.

Hot Springs AR. is a major resort area, so as we drove towards the heart of town, we saw nearly every shop, mall, chain store and chain restraunt you could imagine.

The purple AAR:

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Posted By: Bad340fish

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/28/12 12:06 AM

That leg of the trip was for sure the best roads and scenery I think.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/28/12 12:48 AM

Great pic, Chris! We took precious few when the cars were actually rolling this year.

We spotted a B of A, unfortunately on the wrong side of the road in a high traffic area. So I parked, and walked across. Darn place had no walk up teller, so I had to have Boone bring the Valiant over, and we had to get in the drive up lane, great fun!
After that little adventure, we headed on towards our first checkpoint, a Bowling alley, when I saw an Olive Garden up ahead that I couldn't pass up. So we pulled in parked, and called Dale, they were at the checkpoint, apparently they had passed us while we were in line at the bank.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/28/12 12:55 AM

Darryl, Dale, and Rachael agreed to backtrack the 3 or 4 miles and join us. The service was terrible, but the meal was great, and we left feeling like...well, stuffed, and wishing the motel in Memphis was only 40 miles away!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/28/12 01:39 AM

When we made it back to checkpoint #1, Lane was there as well as Randal ( The Silver Buick, BangShift) so we hung out for a while and talked. When we finally headed out of Hot Springs, and jumped on US 30, then under Little Rock, and onto I-40, it was dark, getting late, and we had 170 miles left to grind out!
Boone was quiet, the traffic was moving around us, the smallblock was singing away at 2900, and I just wanted real estate to keep moving under our tires! Hot Rod had us scheduled for a 19 mile detour off of I-40 to catch checkoint #2. At the point we exited off 40 we would be at the limit of our comfortable fuel range, so I figured we would fuel at that exit, I mean since it was an intersection of two major roads, a Gas Station was a given right? We exited onto AR33 in total darkness, absolutely nothing around, two miles later, we jumped onto US 70, again nothing. I began to feel my pulse quicken, and my stomach rise, this was not good!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/28/12 02:25 AM

As if worrying about gas mileage wasn't enough, this section of US 70 must have been chosen by Hot Rod for it's bone jarring roughness! Throughout the rest of Arkansas, you could see that the high spots in the asphalt, where it cracks and pushes up, had been shaved down. This stretch however, hadn't received that treatment yet, and we were taking a beating!
"How far to the Checkpoint, Boone"
"Well we turned on 70, at 257 into the trip, and the checkpoint is 271, so about 10 miles left I'd say".
We clawed on through the pitch black darkness, thump, thump, thump, the headlights shaking with every impact. When the lights of the town finally began to come into focus, it felt a heck of lot further than any 10 miles!
Less than a 1/2 mile into the small town of Brinkley AR., we rolled up to a cruddy, filthy little hole in the wall convenience store with a torn up cratered lot and two pumps that looked as though they had been in service for twenty years! I was 145 miles on a 15 gallon fuel cell that I've never put more than 13.5 in at any one time, so I had no qualms about pulling right in!

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Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/28/12 02:46 AM

That convenience store is where I backed into a light pole base that had no light pole.Couldnt get out of there quick enough.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/28/12 03:30 AM

I tell ya Don, If somebody would've starting playing a banjo, I might've hightailed it right outa there!!

A guy who looked to be about twenty-five, came out and started up conversation with "Told the girls to open up the pumps for ya'll...you just pay after you fill up".
Rachael went in to pick up some snacks for the road as we rotated the cars to get fuel.
"Yep, You're in luck, Wednesdays we have premium for the same price as mid-grade!"
Darryl and I gave each other a concerned look, both thinking, "What the heck are we putting in our tanks"?
"Your brake lights are stuck on!" Boone commented at the back of the Valiant.
"Great! lets just pull the fuse out, I don't want to crawl under there and mess with it!"
I went in and grabbed some coffee, paid for my gas, as the huge girl behind the counter pounded on an ancient cash register, then we loaded up and found checkpoint #2 a few miles further into town.

When we arrived there, we pulled up in front of a Veteran's Memorial Park, very nicely done, well manicured, and in a Town Square type setting. We had the run of the place for a good 5 minutes, taking our pictures, and walking around. It was well-lit and quiet, I decided to pull out my papers, and call the motel, since it was already after 9pm, and I wanted them to know we'd be late.

Attached picture 7437901-IMG_2208.JPG
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/28/12 03:40 AM

I ran a stop sign after the checkpoint.Didnt really care.All I could think of was "Deliverance"It didnt help matters that my co-pilots were saying. "Hey Don you sure got a purty mouth"
Posted By: Darryls-Demon

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/28/12 05:34 AM

I would have much rather rolled through that town during the daytime but the people at the gas station where nice to us, I think the one lady had an eye for Billy.
There is a lot more to dragweek than getting in your car and driving from track to track and racing. Running the car down the track is the easy part for the driver and the car.
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/28/12 05:44 AM

Billy had a stalker? WOW!
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/28/12 05:52 AM

I popped my hood open, and kicked on the fans, it really wasn't running hot, but this was a habit I'd developed on this trip. I was still digging through my papers, when I heard another Drag Week competitor rumbling through town. I pushed my hood down, and told everyone, "Lets move forward, so they can take thier pics". So we fired our 3 cars and moved to the end of the park, to make room. Shawn Fink, and his 63 Nova Wagon Unlimited entry rolled around behind us, followed closely by John Huber's Grand National.
In the length of time it took me to call the motel, they snapped thier pictures, loaded up, and with a honk and a wave were moving again. Next, an elderly man in an old El-Camino pulled up and started asking questions about all the hubbub going on, seems he was the park caretaker, and was just concerned with his handywork being destroyed. We complimented him on the beauty of the park, and assured him we intended to leave it as we found it. Just as he was walking back to his car to leave, two former Arkansas State linebackers in thier 30's, hopped out of a ratty ole chevy pick up, and one started chatting up Dale about the cars, while the other walked a little distance away and fired up his cell phone. He wasn't taking pics, he was telling someone in an excited tone, "Yeah, they're down here at the park right now...I'm not kidding...that's what I'm saying."
I was raised in the sticks of Oklahoma, but I've been in Phoenix 26 years, and spent much of my early years working and managing Convenience stores in the worst parts of town, and you develop a feel, a certain anticipation that can help you difuse situations before they start...and the ole Spidey sense was tingling right about now! I walked over to Boone and nudged him, "I think we best get moving". He took my cue and headed for the car. I walked to the door to step into the Valiant, and hollered back to the rest, "Guys we better roll, it's getting late". Darryl and Rachael each moved behind the wheel of thier respective rides as I fired up the Valiant. Dale was still talking to one guy, and it certainly seemed congenial enough, I watched in the mirror as he sat down in the passenger's side and shut the door. The local bent down put his forearms on the door ledge and continued the conversation, for a few seconds and I was really getting worried, then he backed away, waved goodbye with a smile, and I dropped the car into low and started rolling!

Boone looked at me, "You might have overreacted".
"Yep, certainly a possibility, but I can live with that".
We came up to the intersection to enter back onto I-40, and there on the corner sat a fresh, well lit, modern Shell station, just my luck!
We charged up the on ramp, as I found a place to merge into the oncoming traffic and bring the Valiant up to speed. Back on the big road, with an easy 80 mile jaunt ahead of us. The tach read 26,28,29...Whap!! Face full of Valiant hood!
I stuck my head out the side window, grabbed the brakes and headed for the shoulder. "Boone I can't see that side, how far can I go!"
"Bring it on over...right there!" We came to a stop with trucks roaring by, horns blaring.

Attached picture 7438057-SAM_1679.JPG
Posted By: 85_Ram_4speed

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/28/12 02:45 PM

Quote:

The tach read 26,28,29...Whap!! Face full of Valiant hood!
I stuck my head out the side window, grabbed the brakes and headed for the shoulder. "Boone I can't see that side, how far can I go!"
"Bring it on over...right there!" We came to a stop, with trucks roaring by horns blaring.



Was not expecting that as I am sure just like you.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/28/12 09:54 PM

I jumped out, and walked around to the front of the car, to see how much damage was done. Boone, Darryl, and Dale joined me a few seconds later.
"What the hell happened?" Dale looked at me with a shrug.
"I just pushed the hood down when we moved up, and didn't latch it....then I forgot about it."
"I see where it tweaked the hinge mount down on the inner fender, and maybe a little pulling at the hood bolts, but nothing really bad", Boone decided.
"Try to shut it, we'll watch the corners" Daryll added.
The hinges didn't move freely at all for the first two or three inches, and a lesser hood that was without 3 body lines and several multi-planed curves might have buckled under the effort, but 50 year old DDCP metal was more than up to the strain. It went down fine until within a few inches of closing, the back of the hood was now sitting about a quarter of an inch lower, and while that didn't cause a problem in the corners, it was rubbing on the underside of the cowl a little. I gave it a final shove, and it latched into place.
"Guess it could have been worse!" I shrugged.
"Like the Camaro, who blew his 'glass hood off today, and came back to the pits with a small piece attached to each hinge?" Boone laughed as we prepared to take off again.
"Yeah", I agreed upon recollection, "that sure was ugly!"

The rest of the run through Arkansas on I-40 was pretty mundane, and soon we were crossing the Mississippi River into Tennessee. 5 miles later we turned off on US51/TN3/Danny Thomas Blvd. for a 9 mile trek to Memphis Motorsports Park. This little jaunt was through an older part of Memphis, and as we worked our way through at a little after midnight, we stumbled upon the fact that apparently Wednesday night at midnight down in the Memphis river bottom, was Corvette VS Crotch Rocket night among the locals! We drove past an area with about 20 Vettes on the right side of the road in a small lot, with an equal or larger number of bikes on the other side, with small crowds lining both sides of the street. It felt like every eye was on us as we idled past, so I dropped the Valiant into 2nd, and blipped the throttle a couple of times...
"What the heck are you doing?" Boone looked at me incredulously.
"Saying hello, were you flying the duece while I was doing that?"
"Umm, no...had my hands in my lap, and looking straight ahead thank you very much!"
"We should go back, might be some money to be made!"
"You should try to get us to the motel in one piece, you moron!"
I seem to have a gift for picking motels on the opposite side of the track from our entrance point, so we drove 4 miles past and came up to our destination. There, in front of the motel, parked under the lights, was Jeff Lutz and his 57, holding court with about 15 other Drag Week competitors all standing around with red solo cups in thier hands.
I looked at Boone, "Where do they get the energy? I can't wait to put my head on a pillow!"
By the time we settled in, and were ready for bed, it was 1:30AM...another very long day in the books!

Attached picture 7438743-100_0398-Copy.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/29/12 06:25 AM

I found myself staring at an alarm clock that clearly had not went off, and it showed 7:10 AM. Didn't seem like the light coming through the window matched what the clock was telling me, so I pulled the curtain back and looked outside. Rain, I turned the alarm off and crawled back under the covers.
Darryl called and woke me up at 8:00, "We've been talking to some guys out here, the rain has stopped, and the track says they will be ready in 30 minutes."
"I guarantee a car won't make it down that drag strip for 2 hours!" I replied angrily.
Oh well, the damage had already been done, I wasn't going to get any more sleep at this point. I hastily grabbed a shower and dressed, Boone followed. Then Dale and Darryl barged into our room and started bring thier bags in.
"What the heck are you doing?" I glared at them.
"Gave our room away", Dale replied.
"What for?"
"Some of the Drag Week guys just rolled in, they had prepaid for rooms, and just wanted thier rooms long enough to catch a wink and a shower, but the management told them they would have to pay for another day because they didn't register in time! So I gave them ours."


I wasn't the only guy with hood problems, here is the result from Sean Fling's mishap on his 63 Ford, earlier in the week!

Attached picture 7439407-drag_week_2012_texas_motorplex011.jpg
Posted By: RonTheAnnouncer

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/29/12 01:16 PM

Quote:

It felt like every eye was on us as we idled past, so I dropped the Valiant into 2nd, and blipped the throttle a couple of times...
"What the heck are you doing?" Boone looked at me incredulously.
"Saying hello, were you flying the duece while I was doing that?"
"Umm, no...had my hands in my lap, and looking straight ahead thank you very much!"
"We should go back, might be some money to be made!"
"You should try to get us to the motel in one piece, you moron!"



Priceless!
Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/29/12 03:16 PM

You oughta try rolling through there in a '5.oh' with the t-tops out.

I kept my head straight and did not make any sudden moves.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/30/12 06:23 AM

I grabbed one of the motel hand towels, went out in the light mist, and gave the Valiant it's only bath on Drag Week. I noticed quite a few guys seemed to be milling around the area next to our cars and rooms, as I worked on wiping the car down. Before I knew what was going on, Dale walked out with my bags and said, "Where do you want these?"
"Now what are you up to?"
"Just gave your room away too!"
"Nice! What the heck!"
"They were helping the other guys, that's why they were late too, didn't seem right leaving them in a bind!"
I helped Dale load all the bags into the Valiant and went to the lobby and grabbed some breakfast. Dale walked in a few minutes later with an armload of dirty towels, "Need another towel service for our other room this time", Dale smiled and stuck them out towards the counter person. She scowled and gave him fresh ones. He walked by and wispered, "2nd towel exchange in 15 minutes, she knows what we are doing, but she can't say anything about it!"
Rachael came in, fixed herself something and sat down next to me, "Dale gave our room away...Boone borrowed my phone charger last night, and now I'm not gonna get my smart phone fully charged!"
"Those guys worked all night to get here with no sleep".
"We are talking about my phone!"
"I know dear, we'll figure something out."

Below is a pic taken from the tower at Memphis. Here is my summary of what you are looking at. BBR felt really guilty about bailing on Mopars, so he found it necessary to dig up the most pitifull, ugly, patina'd Fox body he could possibly find. I'm sure he has one of those tear jerking "rescue dog" type stories to go with it.."I was walking through a junkyard in Amarillo and this poor thing was 2nd in line for the crusher"... I mean, cheap foxes are everywhere but you really have to dig to find a t-top, 4 eyed 83!!
Then he throws 545 inches of tractor motor in it...notice his hand location...this is one of those cars you stage, hand at 12 o' clock, now crank the wheel to 8 o'clock before the tree comes down, and lock it against your leg, by about 80 feet out you can begin to unwind it if you are back in the groove after it tried to drive you into the wall! Be ready to grab another handfull at the 1-2 shift!

Attached picture 7440744-drag-week-2012-thursday-gallery-memphis-6821.jpg
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/30/12 08:10 AM

ROFLMAO!!! BBR you just got owned.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/30/12 12:25 PM

Boone and I were in the Valiant before the others were quite loaded up, and decided to leave ahead of them.
"Everyone says these M/T ET STREET bias tires are pretty marginal in the rain, so we may be driving pretty slow", I told them.
"Yeah, if you end up in the ditch, at least you won't be taking us with you", Darryl laughed.

The rain was gone, the road, while certainly wet, didn't have standing water in it and the car felt fine to me. We were halfway there when the phone rang, it was Dale. "Belvedere won't start, no fire".
"Is Darryl still there, do we need to come back for you?"
"He's here, we'll figure it out, you go ahead."

Attached picture 7440829-drag-week-2012-thursday-gallery-memphis-7011.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/30/12 01:23 PM

We pulled into the pits at Memphis Motorsports Park, dodged all the puddles of standing water, and backed in next to the back of the last set of bleachers. We had all the stuff unloaded, and the tire pressures set when the Dart and Belvedere showed up.
"What was it?"
"Ignition box", Dale shrugged, "Had to go pick up a stock one at the parts store."
Now I was nervous, I may not always have a nitrous tuneup dialed in, or have the bottle pressure perfect, but I learned years ago, you want as much ignition as you can get. Now we just went from a Chrome Box to stock on a high cylinder pressure, high load combination, not good.

Attached picture 7440864-SAM_1731-Copy.JPG
Posted By: Bad340fish

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/30/12 01:53 PM

I was hood up, tools out, and valve cover bolts loose when the first few drops of rain came down.....thats when I decided I could lash the valves in Tulsa and quickly reversed the procedure.

Only decent pic I have from Memphis, taken from chic-fil-a as we waited the rain out. It wasn't but a mere 6 or 7 hours before this pic was taken that I was standing in a car wash scrubbing this thing like crazy, only to have it rained on for the first time in a long long time.


Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/30/12 04:14 PM

Quote:

ROFLMAO!!! BBR you just got owned.



Haha He pretty much has it right. Except I found it in Pampa and not Amarillo! $500 cars are fun.

Oh and *sometimes* it goes straight. lol



I took advantage of the hotel's covered drive-thru to check my valve lash that morning and to keep the rain out of my leaky t-tops!
Posted By: furious70

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 10/30/12 06:31 PM

I had an 86 4 eyed T top when I was in college and I loved it, don't listen to Billy!

And Holy tongues of fire above the baracuda in that picture!
Posted By: Dart451

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/02/12 03:57 AM

Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/02/12 05:51 AM

Another shot of BBR's machine getting it's daily dose of type F!

Attached picture 7445522-SAM_1785-Copy.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/02/12 06:01 AM

Today was birthday number 48 for me, so after a 4.8 mile run and a full day on the job, I'm not up to much writing tonight, but Boone took a whole bunch of photos at Memphis, so I might as well share some of those. I spent about 3 hours last night watching the replay of the live feed from the 4th day so I could try to remember how it all played out.


Where ksj? picture

Attached picture 7445528-SAM_1735.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/02/12 06:20 AM

Darryl was (as usual) the first of our group in the lanes. He knocked down an opening shot of 11.40-116 and came back around grumbling something about the driver, and hotlapped back around. The next run was 11.272-118 (Personal Best ET for the car), and before I had even turned a tire in the waterbox, Darryl was finished making passes in Memphis! Considering what the rest of the day would hold, I'm quite sure he'd have been better off to load his stuff and get the heck out of there!

Attached picture 7445536-drag-week-2012-thursday-gallery-memphis-7030.jpg
Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/02/12 06:35 PM

Quote:

Another shot of BBR's machine getting it's daily dose of type F!



The suckstang needs a mas grande tranny cooler!

Keep 'em coming Billy!
Posted By: sixpackgut

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/02/12 07:01 PM

Happy Birthday Billy.

Eddie Miller in Memphis

Attached picture 7445987-271090_4055570860079_1968282370_n.jpg
Posted By: sixpackgut

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/02/12 07:02 PM

the pyramid

Attached picture 7445988-564452_4063855987202_804475550_n.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/03/12 05:27 PM

Not sure if the rash of hood incidents affected Ray's decision, or if he just wanted a better view of where he intended to lift before the finish line, but HOT ROD picked up this killer shot of the Barracuda sans hood, on his way to an early shut-off 10.01 at 124.

Attached picture 7447088-drag-week-2012-thursday-gallery-memphis-6743.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/03/12 06:50 PM

Apparently focus was lacking in Memphis, as my first pass didn't go as planned. Decent launch, then first to third, then yanked it back to second, then back to third. The result was 11.55-114.6, and a drive straight back up to the lanes!
The next, 19 minutes later, was far from perfect as well, as I managed to carry 2nd gear about 3 hundred rpm further than it obviously wanted to go, and managed an 11.46-114.9.
Back in the pits I told Dale we needed to add jet, the MPH should be better.

Attached picture 7447183-drag-week-2012-thursday-gallery-memphis-7087.jpg
Posted By: sixpackgut

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/03/12 09:01 PM

I broke my hood. it tried comming off in shreveport.
Posted By: J_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/04/12 12:49 AM

Turbo Action shifter strikes again!
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/04/12 01:30 AM

20 minutes later, with 25 minutes officially left in the "class cars" session, I idled around in the lanes for another shot. While the DD cars had already began filling thier lanes, there was only a few cars in ours, and none appeared ready to make a run. I clicked off the Valiant, zipped up my jacket, and with the door open, started putting on my belts. The lane director, a tiny lady easily in her seventys or eightys, with the brightest red lipstick I've ever seen, stuck her head between me and the door and said, "You can go when you are ready, and you can pick your lane!"
I let that proclamation settle in for a second, smiled and said, "Absolutely perfect! Thank you!" I thought to myself, other than possibly "You've got a single into the next round", that's the best thing a lane director has ever told me!
I drove into the right lane water box, did my burnout, and staged on a single. I failed to bring the RPM up anywhere near what I usually do, and it resulted in a lackluster launch, and I motored through with an 11.44-114.8. I was frustrated with myself for taking 3 shots and not getting a perfect run, but I also saw no need to keep beating on it when we were just one day from the end, and even a half-second gain wouldn't help my position. I had checked out the mystery camaro that was on my heels and it was a no-bar car, so anything sub 11.50 would keep him in 3rd, so second place was safe, and it was time to get back to Tulsa and finish this thing.

Attached picture 7447552-SAM_1743-Copy.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/04/12 06:02 AM

I parked the Valiant in our spot, and Boone started putting it back in street trim as Dale and I tended to the Belvedere. We swapped out N20 bottles, at right about the same time it was being announced that Monte Smith was done filling N20 bottles after today, and would not be going back to Tulsa.
"You better get up there and get this one filled", Dale pointed at the one we had just pulled out, "It's your last chance to get a free fill on Drag Week!"
"This is the 4th day, we've used one on the whole trip, and I've got two full ones, I'm not worried about bothering him for a free fill."
"That makes no sense, you'll certainly use it at some point!" he shook his head.
"I've got plenty for this event, I'm a big boy and I'm fully capable of paying for what I use!"
I'm sure at this point he felt I was overreacting, but this was something that stuck in my craw from last year when we brought 3 cars all on Nitrous, and Dale's idea was to show up Monday morning and drop every single empty bottle we could dig up, buy or borrow at Monte's feet, and expect to run on free nitrous all Drag Week, and go home with full bottles! I appreciate what NOS has done for this event, and I appreciate the fact that Monte follows us around with 10 mother bottles to help all the N20 cars out, but at a certain point you are just abusing thier generosity.
We had the car all squared away, then Dale and Rachael left for the lanes. Dale called a few minutes later and had Darryl bring tools to the lanes, something about the unit not working right. All the guys who had close battles going on in the classes had crowded the lanes at the last second, because the word was already out that rain was in the forcast for Tulsa the next day, so none of them wanted to make that drive back in 2nd place! This delayed the Daily Driver class' first hit even more. Rachael didn't actually get her first run down the Memphis 1/4 mile until an hour and ten minutes after my last, and nearly 2 hours after Darryl's last attempt!
She left the line decent, hit the juice and the car ran great through the remainder of low, and the bottom of second, then just seemed to level out like she had lifted off the spray. 12.54-94, not good, but certainly workable, she would still be solidly into the 32 car field if we turned it in.

Dale came back into the pits, obviously agitated, and started yelling at me about the bottle being empty, and Grand Prix didn't fill it right, only pressure, no nitrous...now he was getting under my skin!
"You think I'm stupid? That bottle is a hell of alot heavier than the one I pulled out! Don't tell me it's not full!"
"Then it's plugged up or something!"
"Did you check the darned filter?"
I hate N20 filters with a passion, I really do, sure enough it was plugged.
"Let's just turn it in and get the heck out of here", I pleaded.
"No way, we're going back up!" was the answer I received from both Rachael and Dale in eerie unison. That spidey sense was starting to tingle again!

Attached picture 7447879-drag-week-2012-thursday-gallery-memphis-7345.jpg
Posted By: tboomer

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/04/12 02:12 PM

Great story,Billy!! Keep it coming!!
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/05/12 01:12 AM

Boone was putting the final touches on the Valiant exhaust when Rachael pulled out alongside Scott's RoadRunner. Scott's last pass had been an 11.47-120 that he used to hold off the little tubo'd 2.0 stick Bedford from England. Now he needed something above 11.50 to turn in, I was hoping Rachael could stay close and we could get on down the road.
If you look at the picture in the last post you will realize the ignition wasn't up to the task! It rolled black smoke until about the eighth mile, then made a loud pop, and Scott started pulling away. I turned and walked away. Boone and I had a discussion about nitrous that ended with him saying, "I'm DONE with this!" and throwing his (my) ratchet and socket that he was using to tighten my pipes up out on the ground.
"You mean you're done, as in you're mad at me, or as in you are finished with the job, and my exhaust isn't going to fall off driving down the road?"
At that moment Scott pulled up to our pit, "Did you see all that smoke?"
"You mean all that black smoke in the first half?"
Scott bent his chin down and looked over the top of his glasses at me...it's his Dude, I'm serious look! "No! All the white smoke in the shutdown area, that thing is hurt!"
"Uh, no I walked away when I saw it fall over, great, here we go again."
Scott looked past me towards Boone, "These your tools laying out here in the road?"
"Yeah", Boone deadpanned, "I was done with 'em".

Attached picture 7448870-SAM_1839.JPG
Posted By: Scott58

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/05/12 01:41 AM

Although the Belvedere didn't run out through the pass, don't forget that Rachel absolutely schooled me at the light with a .004 RT on that last pass at Memphis! That girl has some talent, no doubt about it. Give her a consistent ride and she will be a tough competitor in the brackets.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/05/12 03:23 AM

Rachael backed the Belvedere in beside my Valiant at about the same time Dale made his way back from the lanes, he bent down and looked under the passenger's side fender, and grumbled, "Didn't expect that, blew the same side as last year!"
"You're kidding! Are you sure?"
"I'm sitting here watching water run out of this header", Dale confirmed.
We gathered around and drew up a game plan. Darryl and Rachael would go to the parts store for silicone, copper coat, brake cleaner and other items we needed, while the three of us would tear it apart. Scott and George loaned us some of the heavy duty tools we needed to handle the job. Mike and Lane came over and kicked in some steel wool, and moral support, and we jumped into it.

Attached picture 7449103-SAM_1836-Copy.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/05/12 03:33 AM

Considering some of the guys who were still sharing the pits with us on this wonderful thursday evening, our problems didn't seem so bad. Brad Barkley's red 240Z was up on 4 jack stands with the tranny coming out.

Attached picture 7449119-SAM_1761.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/05/12 03:36 AM

They lost bearings in the huffed BBC on Thursday last year, so I'm sure they were thinking "no, not again", just as we were!

Attached picture 7449125-IMG_2219.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/05/12 03:39 AM

Larry was hanging out as well, with the third member in pieces. New ring and pinion being installed.

Attached picture 7449134-IMG_2218.JPG
Posted By: Darryls-Demon

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/05/12 04:35 AM

Who jumped in to replace the head gasket? Its a good thing you brought those two trunk monkeys with you or you may just be getting back to Phx about now. I think I have a photo around here of Billy supervising the job and looking for more pizza at the same time.
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/05/12 05:43 AM

Find the pic.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/06/12 02:11 PM

You will clearly notice in this pic that I have a head gasket in my hand, not pizza! Luckily I had just removed myself from my "Supervisor's lawn chair" before this one was snapped.
Notice Boone is watching the flock of birds flying across the track, this is why I must supervise, these guys have very short attention spans!

Attached picture 7450765-IMG_2221.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/06/12 02:22 PM

I will readily admit that Rachael and Darryl's decision to return with not only the parts we needed, but with two boxes of Pizza Hut's finest as well, may have been the moment that saved our Drag Week!

Attached picture 7450777-IMG_2211.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/06/12 02:38 PM

Unfortunately, Sean and Tara Fling's 2012 Drag Week ended in Memphis. As if the hood incedent wasn't insult enough, the mod motor suffered terminal damage.

Attached picture 7450805-IMG_2212.JPG
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/06/12 05:23 PM

You know as well as I do that Sean has PLANS for next year.
Posted By: Darryls-Demon

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/07/12 03:27 AM

Billy you can clearly see in that photo that you are standing there asking yourself How in the world did I end up with this gasket in my hands and Boone is looking up to see if the sky is falling[he seen you holding the gasket]
Posted By: StealthWedge67

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/07/12 09:12 PM

I had tried to hold off on reading this years "experience", knowing that I'd be glued to Billy's ramblings for a few days if I started.... well, I lost the battle with my willpower Monday night, and spent my entire day yesterday scrolling through this thread on my blackberry while I was supposed to be working. Billy, you've missed your calling..... shoulda been a writer. Now I find myself, like most of us here, stuck waiting on "more".

reading this, just like last years "experience" thread, makes me wish HotRod would come calling on the Northwest. This event seems to be the experience of a lifetime for us hotrod guys. I can't help but think that Woodburn, Bremerton, Pacific, and Spokane are situated in locations that would be perfect for something like this....... And that my Satellite is right in the wheelhouse of being a suitable weapon of choice for this sort of flogging. Questionable part is: Do I have what it would take to pound out a week like this???? Man, I'd like to find out.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/08/12 04:06 AM

As Jeff Lutz drove out of the gate at Memphis, he had the lead in Average E.T., they were calling for rain on the last day, and his main rival and nemesis had his car up on jackstands with the third member in pieces. Except for the 400+ mile drive in front of him, he had to be feeling pretty good!

Attached picture 7453514-IMG_2213.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/08/12 04:19 AM

This is an engine shot of Todd Maschmeier's Camaro, after they rolled it out of the RPM trailer on friday. We watched it get loaded up on thursday at Memphis. This was a case of 2 guys, leading thier class by a bunch, who bowed out due to sleep deprivation. Sad to watch a pair of Drag Week veterans go out that way, but once you get behind, especially early in the week, this adventure has teeth!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/08/12 04:33 AM

This was the result of our problem, it was pretty well torched! When we were tearing it apart, Dale happened to pull the coil wire out of the coil, and the end of it was burned up terribly, which we began to assume was the root cause of our issues, and most likely what caused the Chrome box to burn up.
This discovery led directly to finger pointing and a litany of "I told you so"s from Darryl, who took great joy in explaining to everyone that he had condemned that set of plug wires almost as soon as he arrived!

Attached picture 7453545-SAM_1963.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/08/12 04:40 AM

Rachael was not opposed to doing her part, and getting her hands dirty, with a smile even! As I mentioned earlier, she is not afraid of a little work...or sunburn.

Attached picture 7453556-IMG_2209.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/08/12 04:58 AM

As we neared completion of the project, we decided that Rachael and I would jump in the Valiant, Darryl would take the Dart, and we would get our 2800 rpm/60 mph tails moving down I-40, since the Belvedere could make up ground in a hurry out on the big road.

Attached picture 7453579-IMG_2210.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/08/12 05:15 AM

The guys in the 240Z fired up the engine, and the big tires starting moving in reverse. Then they started moving forward, until they shifted to drive, and they began to slow down until competely stopping.
Dale was the first to comment as we watched from across the pits, "Oh, boy! That doesn't look good!"
Shortly afterwards the mechanic who had been under the car most of the day walked over to our spot as we loaded up and asked, "Any of you guy's have some ATF?"
"How much do you need?", Darryl volunteered.
"As much as we can get at this point!" he commented as he looked wistfully back at the red machine.
Darryl rounded up two quarts out of his packed trunk, and handed them over.
"Thanks a bunch, that'll work!" he nodded, and headed back to the task at hand. The next time the blower whine filled the air, the tranny shifted out like it was supposed to!

Attached picture 7453595-IMG_2217.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/08/12 05:36 AM

Darryl and I stopped for gas about 5 miles back in the direction we had came last night at 1am, to be honest, the area didn't seem that much safer in the daylight!
We finally made it out to I-40 and crossed the bridge back into Arkansas. Rachael stuck my camera out the window, and shot his photo of Darryl following us, as the last remnants of the day began to fade away.

Attached picture 7453613-100_0400.jpg
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/08/12 05:51 AM

Quote:

This is an engine shot of Todd Maschmeier's Camaro, after they rolled it out of the RPM trailer on friday. We watched it get loaded up on thursday at Memphis. This was a case of 2 guys, leading thier class by a bunch, who bowed out due to sleep deprivation. Sad to watch a pair of Drag Week veterans go out that way, but once you get behind, especially early in the week, this adventure has teeth!


Todd and Travis. What a pair 3 hrs of sleep in 3 days etc.Your daughter is HOOKED!She driving the Valiant and you riding in the passenger seat next year?I was going to say the "B: word but thought better of it.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/08/12 07:08 AM

Rachael was more talkative than Boone had been, but good grief, the subject matter bounced all over the place! In an attempt to get her back to discussing the trip I asked her a very benign little question.
"So, of all these 180 cars on Drag Week, all these awesome machines that can run 6's or 7's, all these beautifully done hotrods....which is your favorite one?"
She was instantly on point, no fooling her mother's child, no way! She gave me that doey eyed look (all you Dads know the one, the look they begin to understand works on Dad when they are about 7, and they perfect in the mirror and can call up immediately by the time they are 12...yeah, that one) and not a heartbeat had passed when she answered unequivocally, "Mine!"
"Good answer!" I smiled, knowing I was soundly beaten on that round.

Further down the road, I asked her, "How far have we come? I need to plan for a gas stop!"
She looked at me incredulously, "How am I supposed to know? I told you my phone didn't get charged, it's dead now!"
"Rachael, Rachael! You do have the route sheet right?"
"Yeah, but that won't help, we are in the middle of nowhere on a long piece of I-40!"
"Read the instructions for the first checkpoint"
"Take Exit 125 for US65 N Conway..."
"Ok, stop right there. What's the total miles beside that instruction?"
"171.4...but I don't see..."
"Look for the next mile marker and tell me what it is", I pointed to the shoulder of the road.
"215, right there." She glared at me.
"Ok, the numbers are getting smaller, whats 215 from 125?
"Ninety, Dad."
"Whats ninety from 171.4?"
"81.4"
"So, see, you had the answer in your hand the whole time, how hard is that?"
"Alot harder than pushing 3 buttons on my cell phone", she surmised.
We ran 22 miles more down the road and pulled into an Exxon, the tank of gas probably would have took us further, but my lower back and hips were screaming! You can see in the pic below, It was gonna take a few laps around the car to straighten up!

Attached picture 7453673-IMG_2223.JPG
Posted By: J_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/08/12 07:21 AM

Poor Rachael... appears she comes with the same color options as myself. white and RED !!

Daryl...that aluminum center section still noisy when it's cold?
Posted By: topfueldart

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/08/12 08:02 PM

Quote:

reading this, just like last years "experience" thread, makes me wish HotRod would come calling on the Northwest. This event seems to be the experience of a lifetime for us hotrod guys. I can't help but think that Woodburn, Bremerton, Pacific, and Spokane are situated in locations that would be perfect for something like this....... And that my Satellite is right in the wheelhouse of being a suitable weapon of choice for this sort of flogging. Questionable part is: Do I have what it would take to pound out a week like this???? Man, I'd like to find out.



I've been threatening to try and organize something similar recently, problem being it has to be pretty much in the sweet spot of the season as our weather is so unpredictable, and finding more willing participants.... But I'd love to do it.
Posted By: StealthWedge67

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/09/12 06:28 PM

Quote:

Quote:

reading this, just like last years "experience" thread, makes me wish HotRod would come calling on the Northwest. This event seems to be the experience of a lifetime for us hotrod guys. I can't help but think that Woodburn, Bremerton, Pacific, and Spokane are situated in locations that would be perfect for something like this....... And that my Satellite is right in the wheelhouse of being a suitable weapon of choice for this sort of flogging. Questionable part is: Do I have what it would take to pound out a week like this???? Man, I'd like to find out.



I've been threatening to try and organize something similar recently, problem being it has to be pretty much in the sweet spot of the season as our weather is so unpredictable, and finding more willing participants.... But I'd love to do it.



I am in if you can pull it off, Andrew. Weather is always a question mark up here, but Aug. & early Sept. are usually pretty reliable. I would think that getting the backing of a magazine publisher is the only way it would pick up steam. HotRod does the big boy in the south, perhaps their sister publication, CarCraft, would be willing to look at a west coast version. Hell, I'd even trailer to Cali to participate in something like this. Start writing letters, my friend. You guys should take this campaign on..... Not sure if Dustin's in rebuild mode yet, but perhaps spearheading a project like this is suitable to take his spare time these days??

Just sayin'....
Posted By: johnnycuda

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/09/12 07:09 PM

Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

reading this, just like last years "experience" thread, makes me wish HotRod would come calling on the Northwest. This event seems to be the experience of a lifetime for us hotrod guys. I can't help but think that Woodburn, Bremerton, Pacific, and Spokane are situated in locations that would be perfect for something like this....... And that my Satellite is right in the wheelhouse of being a suitable weapon of choice for this sort of flogging. Questionable part is: Do I have what it would take to pound out a week like this???? Man, I'd like to find out.



I've been threatening to try and organize something similar recently, problem being it has to be pretty much in the sweet spot of the season as our weather is so unpredictable, and finding more willing participants.... But I'd love to do it.



I am in if you can pull it off, Andrew. Weather is always a question mark up here, but Aug. & early Sept. are usually pretty reliable. I would think that getting the backing of a magazine publisher is the only way it would pick up steam. HotRod does the big boy in the south, perhaps their sister publication, CarCraft, would be willing to look at a west coast version. Hell, I'd even trailer to Cali to participate in something like this. Start writing letters, my friend. You guys should take this campaign on..... Not sure if Dustin's in rebuild mode yet, but perhaps spearheading a project like this is suitable to take his spare time these days??

Just sayin'....


I would be interested in it as well,and yep,Car Craft might be up for that,they do the Anti Tour out here as well,,I've gone on that the last four years.The guys from CC that run that are John McGann and Douglas Glad,both are very cool guys,we have a great time every year.
The biggest problem out here is the lack of tracks,at least down here in SoCal,,I've always wanted to see the Pacific Northwest,no way better way than with a bunch of car nuts right?
Of course,we'd have to have Billy along telling the story!
Posted By: Cab_Burge

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/09/12 10:30 PM

Lets see, Sacramento, Bakerfields,Infineon, Medford, Top Gun in Fallon and one other, lots of road miles Or Mission, Bremerton, Pacific, Woodburn, Renegade(Yakima) Spokane and maybe Medford a little less road miles Lots of green trees and pretty scenery
Posted By: G_bob

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/10/12 12:58 AM

Quote:

Lets see, Sacramento, Bakerfields,Infineon, Medford, Top Gun in Fallon and one other, lots of road miles Or Mission, Bremerton, Pacific, Woodburn, Renegade(Yakima) Spokane and maybe Medford a little less road miles Lots of green trees and pretty scenery



Either of those would be doable.
Posted By: moparmanjames

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/10/12 12:59 AM

Quote:

Lets see, Sacramento, Bakerfields,Infineon, Medford, Top Gun in Fallon and one other, lots of road miles Or Mission, Bremerton, Pacific, Woodburn, Renegade(Yakima) Spokane and maybe Medford a little less road miles Lots of green trees and pretty scenery



Vegas has a nice track too.
Posted By: topfueldart

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/10/12 01:58 AM

Quote:

Lets see, Sacramento, Bakerfields,Infineon, Medford, Top Gun in Fallon and one other, lots of road miles Or Mission, Bremerton, Pacific, Woodburn, Renegade(Yakima) Spokane and maybe Medford a little less road miles Lots of green trees and pretty scenery



To follow the same general format, 5 days, 4 tracks, start and stop at 1, I just did some quick research..
Pacific Raceways on Monday,
Woodburn Tuesday,
Spokane Wednesday,
Yakima Thursday,
Pacific Friday.
According to google, if we took 410 from Yakima to Pacific instead of 90, it would be 921, without any sightseeing or picture taking. I also love Boise, but adding that or substituting it in would probably add atleast 5-600 miles to the trip and make for a couple pretty long drives to and from mid week. I think keeping it in the states would make things lots easier and attract a larger crowd, which leaves out Mission.
Taking the longer way out of Spokane and going highway 12 instead of 410 put us at 1010.

NWDragtour???
Posted By: Darryls-Demon

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/10/12 04:37 AM

Quote:

Poor Rachael... appears she comes with the same color options as myself. white and RED !!

Daryl...that aluminum center section still noisy when it's cold? [
/quote]

Center section is all good now but it took 2000 miles of street driving and 15 passes down the track before the noise and viberation went away. If the temp was below 55 degrees or so. I have 5000 miles on it now.
Posted By: johnnycuda

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/10/12 04:46 AM

Wow,,good job on the research,,,sounds very doable,plus,great scenery!

Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/10/12 05:42 AM

Hey fellas, interesting idea, but don't muck up Billy's story telling thread with a DW spin off idea please.

Posted By: G_bob

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/10/12 06:06 AM

Quote:

Hey fellas, interesting idea, but don't muck up Billy's story telling thread with a DW spin off idea please.





Just talking amongst ourselves passing the time until the next chapter.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/10/12 09:06 PM

Now even G-Bob is calling me out! Good grief!

I think to consider a DW spinoff, you would have to look at the current Business model. It doesn't take much poking around to realize it's certainly not going to be a money maker! Makes about as much sense as competitors doing 5 days, 4 tracks, and 1500 miles for a jacket!

Another thing is getting the cooperation of the tracks. I think as Drag Week continues to grow in notoriety, tracks have begun to understand it's good for them, but it certainly must be the hardest part of putting a drag week style event together.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQsaVWA3gNg

Good Hot Rod Roadkill video featuring Drag Week! You can even see the Valiant getting pummeled on SeeRed's first 8 second pass.

I haven't worked on the story for the past few days as I attended the funeral of a dear friend yesterday. Bonnifacio "Lonnie" Garcia was a racer's racer, and a kind, caring gentleman as well. We bracket raced together at Firebird for years, as we watched each other's kids grow to be adults. When we introduced Lonnie to divisional racing in Super Street, he was well and truly hooked! I am seriously going to regret stepping away from the divisional circuit for the last 4 years, because Lonnie was out there, trying hard, and always calling me, trying to get me back out there.
He had been struggling with diabetes for a long time, and it had took a toll on his eyes, but through multiple surgeries on them, he continued to race. Then he began to battle with kidney failure, and he continued to race, smile, laugh, and enjoy every moment. This year he made every division 7 race, while finding Dialysis centers near the track on those 3 and 4 day events.
Last weekend, he was competing in the 2012 Divisional Final at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The weather was great, he was riding around on his scooter talking to all his friends, his wife of 32 years by his side filming all the fun, and Lonnie, the ASE Master Technician was wrenching on his ride as well as anyone elses who needed help. I had mislpaced my phone Saturday for several hours and when I found it, I saw that I had missed a call from Lonnie. I decided to call him back Sunday afternoon when the race was over, not bother him during the event. Super Street's first round was Sunday morning, as everyone got around to prepare to race, word went through the pits that Lonnie didn't wake up, and he wouldn't be making that lane call, he was 52 years old.
Sorry to slam this on you in this thread, but it only enforces my earlier conviction, quit putting off those once in a lifetime events, that you just don't have time for. Get out of your comfort zone and reach for something, even if it's making that phone call to an old friend or family member you've been putting off!

Before you ask what Lonnie was racing...He got a smoking deal on a bare chassis that had at one time been under a Daytona. He started looking for a replacement Chevy body that my buddy Brian Smith could adapt to it. Did I mention Brian loves 2 door wagons? So Lonnie and Brian are walking through a junk yard and they find an 85 Cavalier wagon, parked next to a similar Cavalier 2 door coupe...the tape measures came out, and the next thing you know the chassis, wagon, and coupe doors were at Brian's shop!
Most people thought it was a 7/8 scale Malibu wagon...

Attached picture 7456678-LonnyPics1.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/10/12 10:13 PM

We had exchanged numbers with Kim Abbott before leaving Memphis, and Scott called us to warn us that the directions for the next Checkpoint were wrong. While Dave's Burgers was indeed only .3 off of I-40, it was on the left side, not the right as the sheet advised.
We were within about 20 miles of Conway, where the checkpoint was, when Dale tried blowing around us in the Belvedere at 70+, I crammed my foot into the Valiant as he came along side, but I had no desire to stay at 4k for any length of time and let him go.
He called to inform me they were going to go ahead to the checkpoint without us since they had no intention of driving so slow! I decided if that were the case, I would keep the little instructions mistake to myself!

Attached picture 7456733-SAM_1840.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/10/12 10:51 PM

Darryl, and I managed to get into the David's Burger parking lot ahead of the speedy Belvedere, as they eventually saw the sign on the opposite side of the highway, and made thier way over. As is typical of the Drag Week checkpoints, there is usually an audience of locals hanging around watching everyone come and go. In this case, there was only one guy in his pick-up, probably early 20's still there. He jumped out and looked at our cars, and talked about all the stuff that had rolled through.
"I was really waiting up, because I wanted to see Larry's Chevy II, you know, the one in all the Magazines, that has won so many times?"
"Yeah", I smiled, "he should be through here any time, he was putting the third-member back in when my brothers left"
As if on cue, the shoebox Nova rounded the corner into the lot. The kid took an appraising look, turned and shrugged his shoulders at me, "That's it?"
I laughed quickly before I could catch myself, "Yes, that is the baddest real street car on the planet!"
"But...some of those other cars look so radical..and they are pulling trailers...and", he stammered.
"I know, I know, but right here before you is the real deal", I confirmed.
He walked over to take a better look, and I considered what had just happened for a moment.
It's easy I guess, for someone who has watched Larry's car do amazing things on the track, to look at it in complete awe, but I could understand to the casual onlooker, how it could be considered almost understated, possibly even a sleeper, if a 6 second sleeper is even possible!

Attached picture 7456781-SAM_1842.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/11/12 01:35 AM

Boone and Dale had not fueled the Belvedere yet, so once again we left ahead of them. Rachael had ran out of things to talk about, and I was starting to feel pretty tired my self. We were just grinding out miles at this point, until the antlers started appearing on the right side of the road, then I was wide awake, and thinking about the pictures of ksj's white Challenger which met it's end with a chance bambi meeting! At first it was one every 5 miles or so, then we started seeing them in clumps. Everytime they would appear, I would see the headlights of Darryl's Dart behind me jerk towards the next lane.
15 minutes later, while I was still concentrating on the shoulder, I heard a loud noise outside my window, and looked over to see Larry's Nova go screaming by at 20+ what I was running, scared me awake, that much I'll admit to!
Dale finally appeared behind Darryl, and I started thinking about a fuel stop with all of us together again. We had stretched this one to 125 miles or so and ended up pulling into a station in Clarksville Arkansas. We were watching some serious lightning which appeared to be about 20 miles up the road and Dale walked over to me, "Larry told us at the last stop, that Jeff Lutz had called him and reported they hit some heavy rain near the AR/OK border, and were just crawling along!"
"Doesn't sound very inviting, and I'm going to need to load up on coffee if we keep going".
Boone had walked up and I gave him a nod toward the Motel sitting invitingly on the other side of the station, "You want to walk over and see if they have a room?"
"One or Two"
"Just one, we'll double bunk, and someone can sleep on the floor. I think it makes more sense to make the rest of this drive in the daylight, since racing isn't until 3pm tomorrow".
We reached a concensus, and skipped coffee and snacks for a good nights sleep instead, we drove over to the motel to find the red '55 Gasser sitting on the other side.

Attached picture 7457008-SAM_1912.JPG
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/11/12 02:58 AM

LOL.Hitting a Bambi is not good.2011 Larry decided to treat us to a drive by.Only he put it on the limiter as he was right beside us.I liked to crapped my pants. LOL.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/11/12 03:47 AM

We woke to a dreary looking Friday morning. Over the motel breakfast, Dale couldn't wait to tell me about thier adventure the night before with Larry and the Nova.
"He gassed up at the station, across the street from us in Conway, and we left first, on our way to catch up with you. We stretched the ole' Belvedere's 2.73 gears out and were running around 80, passing cars, and then pulling back in the right lane. Saw these headlights coming up, staying in the left lane and moving right along. Ended up being Larry, he went by us and we gave chase, according to the RPM, somewhere between 90 and 95", Dale shook his head and laughed. "Boone was yelling at me to slow down, and let him go because he didn't want to catch you guys that soon!"
He leaned towards me for effect, "Then we came around this bend, and there was no traffic ahead. I guess Larry didn't want the company, so he kicked that Chevy in the tail, and put a half-mile on us quick!" He laughed again and shook his head, "I looked at Boone and told him he just got his wish".
We prepared to get rolling, and decided on a little musical chairs. Rachael jumped back behind the wheel of the Belvedere, Dale decided to try shotgun in Darryl's Dart, and Boone let it be known he wasn't making this whole trip without driving the Valiant, so I moved to the passenger's side and let him have the wheel.

Attached picture 7457236-IMG_2229.JPG
Posted By: Darryls-Demon

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/11/12 03:56 AM

Of the 20 or 25 bambi`s that we drove past the one I remember the most was the one that was standing right next to the road with this look in his face like he had just lost everything in a card game and was getting ready to jump. Nothing worse than a suicidle bambi.
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/11/12 05:02 AM

Mine had the same look on its face. LOL.
Posted By: 1967dartgt

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/11/12 05:51 AM

Sorry for your loss of a friend. Great story as all ways.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/11/12 05:55 AM

We didn't make it 40 miles before we started running into the rain, light at first, and gradually getting heavier.
Last year, on Goodyear SST Drag Radials, I had very little problems, even in a torrential downpour, but I've heard nothing but horror stories about these bias-ply ET Streets.
As it continued to get worse, we found ourselves running just off the butt of 3 or 4 semis meandering along at about 55. Boone put the Valiant in thier tracks, as they cleared the water off the road in front of us. This seemed to be a workable solution, and we rolled up another 10 miles in this fashion, until we aproached the AR/OK border and all the trucks had to exit into the weigh station. As they exited to the right, our nice little tracks went with them and we were confronted with the uniform sheen of standing water on asphalt. We went about 300 yards before the rearend took a little jump to the drivers side.
Boone and I grew up in Oklahoma, where our parents had large paper routes that had us covering roughly 400 miles a day, rain, sleet, snow, ice, country roads, those papers got delivered every day. I put in 131 miles on my 16th birthday. We then graduated to Tractor-Trailers, and everything in between in every kind of weather. So we have the experience and expertise to drive in this situation.
Boone made a slight steering correction with the wheel and slightly let off the gas...no brakes, no panic, just a correction. The back end over-reacted and swung wildly towards the shoulder, now we were at a sharp angle, heading into the fast lane, and an ominous guard rail on the shoulder of that lane. "Oh crap Boone, bring it back around", I shouted as my left arm grabbed the shoulder cross bar, and my right hand found the door bar. A car squeezed between us and the guardrail, horn blaring as our front end headed across the center line, Boone wisely gave a measured steer to the right, and lifted off the throttle, we returned to our lane, but didn't truly have control until our speed dropped to about 25. The best way I can describe it is, you have a locked rearend behaving like you are on black ice, but the front tires have rain equivalent traction, so it's a very interesting interface between the two. Every time we tried to add speed, we would again lose control of the back, and we're on a major interstate with a 40 mph minumum speed limit. "Boone, we MUST get off this road!" I empasized.
"I know, I know...two miles to the next exit!"

We bailed off in Van Buren AR, and pulled into a gas station to gather our wits and nerves (pic in the above post).
The other two pulled in and parked as well, Dale walked over shaking his head, "Darryl wanted to know why you guys were stopping so soon for fuel!! Apparently he didn't see all the gyrations going on in front of Rachael!"
I walked over to Rachael, "Fire up your smart phone, and find me an alternate route...hopefully a nice little two lane that runs parallel to I-40!"
She smiled demurely, and shot back, "Oh, NOW we can use the smart phone! Can't find it on your sheet? Don't want to call your Dad and ask?"
Ok, I had that one coming, but I was just a few moments away from losing my car, and wasn't in the mood. "C'mon hotshot, show me what that thing can do!" The pic below shows her at work on a solution.

Attached picture 7457380-IMG_2230.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/11/12 07:10 AM

"This US64 is what you need, but it doesn't cross the I-40 until about 8 miles down the road from here", she was flicking at the screen as she talked. "This Dora road will get you 3 of those, but you will really have to go out of your way to get to it after that."
"Why don't you guys stay on course, and let us know what you run into, we may try to come back to the 40 if it lightens up", I looked at Dale and Darryl.
"After that you'll want the 100 to the 10", Rachael continued, "The 10 will take you to within a few miles of Muskogee".
"Alright, let's give it a try", I decided, and jumped behind the wheel of the Valiant. By the time I traversed the 3 miles of Dora road, Dale had called and assured me it had lightened up enough to get back on, so we jumped back on I-40 in an attempt to at least make the 5 miles to the US64 junction. We made it about 3 miles without incident, then it was Boone's turn to grab roll bar tubing and scream like a girl!! We jumped off on 64 and eased our way down the wide, lonely, quiet 2 lane at 25 mph. "Not going back on the big road", I assured Boone.
"Cheater, taking an alternate course!" he teased.
"This is the way HotRod would have sent us down if it hadn't been such a long drive, this is where the course should be", I reasoned.
"Self-justification has always been one of your strong suits!" he laughed.
I donned my Doc Holiday/Val Kilmer impersonation yet again, "It appears my hypocrasy knows no bounds!"
20 miles later, as we eased into Sallisaw Ok, Dale called back, "It's getting much worse up here, Belvedere even broke loose once or twice, saw the Aussies, and many other competitors pulled over under each underpass we drove by".
"Yeah, we've noticed it too, just taking it slow and easing our way across here."
Boone and I pulled over in a wooded area to help "water" the trees, and shot this pic of the Valiant braving the elements.

Attached picture 7457440-100_0405-Copy.jpg
Posted By: J_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/11/12 07:53 AM

Lots of kind accolades to your freind Lonnie Sunday morning at the race. Many friends and family at the line and they ran his car on a solo pass in his honor.

Sorry to hear of your loss Billy
Posted By: tboomer

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/11/12 02:15 PM

Great reading,Billy! Sorry about your buddy...
Posted By: Bad340fish

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/11/12 02:27 PM

You missed out if you didn't eat at David's burgers, amazing hamburgers!

The only time on the entire trip I had trouble getting hot was going the wrong way looking for the burger joint, got hot and picked up some vapor lock as a result, here is the car taking a breather while we went and chomped down a great burger.



And I believe this was the second time I got to stand on I-40 that day.




That last run was rough, I left pretty early and didn't get much rain. But that amount of time at 3500+rpm on I-40 was rough. My car sounded like a Duramax at the last check point. A lash check the next morning showed nothing wrong, a look at the oil lead to an oil change which made it sound normal again.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/11/12 09:53 PM

Wow, Clark what was the deal with the standstill? The Burger joint was closed by the time we arrived, which is usually my luck!

Boone and I cruised into Vian Ok., home of Mopar Stock eliminator competitor and engine builder Jim Lewis, and I pulled over and shut the Valiant off.
"What's up?" Boone looked puzzled.
"I've had enough, I'm going to walk around a bit and stretch out this tension, then you're driving again!"
"Oh, alright."
My shoulders hurt, my back hurt, my hips hurt, I had driven a grand total of 32 miles, and had gathered up a loose tailend about 10 times. You had to apply throttle like an egg was under the pedal, if you lifted too quickly it would get loose until the rpm fell to the point the converter would free wheel. This was not fun, but I felt better after walking around a bit.
Boone made quick work of the ten miles between Vian and Gore, then we jumped onto OK10 N, which was a tiny, shoulderless, switchback laden, undulating road which ran parallel with the Arkansas river. The saving grace of this piece of real estate was the ancient, rough, grooved and pebbled asphalt, which allowed the water to flow in the low spots, as the pebbles provided more traction than we had been experiencing previously.
We pulled over a few times to let traffic that had backed up behind us move by. We were going quite well until we came around a corner just past Green Leaf state park, and headed down a hill towards a concrete bridge. There, on the other side of the bridge was beautiful, fresh, black, brand new asphalt! Thank you very much Oklahoma dept. of Transportation , not! Boone scrubbed 10 mph before we got there, but still, predictably, the rear tires had a mind of thier own again!

Below pic is BBR assuming the "Yes I own a Ford position", one he had perfected by arrival back in Tulsa, but arrive, he did!

Attached picture 7458165-100_0410-Copy.jpg
Posted By: Bad340fish

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/11/12 10:01 PM

I believe the first stand still was from a semi losing an air line and bieng stuck on the spring brakes in the middle of the road. The second one I had no idea what it was from. Crazy enough both cleared up and got back to the speedlimit like nothing ever happened.

Both stops were almost welcome, my fan is aparently not enough to keep my car cool on the highway unless there is open air. If I was running open highway I had zero trouble running at 180 degrees. But, come up on a semi within a few hundred yards and it would creep up a few degrees, get into heavy traffic and it was 200 degrees, as soon as the road opens up again you can watch the temp guage slide back down. Needless to say there wasn't a ton of open road that day.
Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/12/12 01:41 AM

Haha gotta change the diaper on the Ford every so often ya know!

We hit the dead locked traffic on I-40 too. Sat there idling forever. Finally shut the car off and then traffic started moving. Figures. Everybody was running hotter that day because we were going uphill the whole time. Mine got warmer than it had been running but never got hot. Overheating was a huge concern of mine before DW, but the electric pump and fan did an outstanding job of keeping the suckstang cool. I was more than pleased with how well they worked.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/12/12 01:29 PM

We were still a good 30 miles out of Muskogee when Rachael called to inform us that they were at Okie's Steakhouse, site of our very first checkpoint having a meal, and would we be joining them.
"No. Boone and I still have a ways to go, and at this rate we're barely going to make Tulsa by 3pm", I informed her.
"Do you really think it's going to matter?"
"Never try to predict Oklahoma weather dear, your Uncle Dale has spent all day racing at that track, and then had to drive home in a blizzard, so I just want to be there when we are supposed to be, and then we'll figure it out".
We finished off the OK-10, and then pulled out on US-62 for a straight shot, we only ran 7 miles on this divided 4 lane, which is old concrete, but it was a dicey proposition, this took us over the bulging Arkansas River once again, just below the confluence where it receives the Verdigris and Neosho Rivers. We turned onto US-69, which I figured Boone would use as an alternate route to avoid the Muskogee Turnpike, but, alas, no, he jumped right onto the big road 5 miles later. Oklahoma toll roads have a 45 mph min. speed limit, "What the heck Boone, I thought we discussed this?
"Ah, we have to get back on the prescribed course at some time, and this seems about as good as any!"
The first 3 or 4 miles were pretty crazy, but then the rain lightened up considerably, and we managed about 50 mph without too much difficulty. It was surprising how many competitors we noticed on this 20 mile stretch, still working thier way into Tulsa. The little stock appearing 60's Ford shortbed, with the hood missing and a huffed FE, moved around us with ease, but we caught him again as we jumped onto the Creek Turnpike, he was pulled over at the tollbooth digging through his truck for change. The instruction sheet clearly said it was a 75 cent toll, and bill changers were on site, this clearly wasn't the case as you could see the hole where the bill changers had been removed. Boone and I threw our combined 55 cents in the basket, and drove on through, red light flashing and alarm going off, oh well!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/12/12 01:42 PM

The guys followed us through checkpoint #2 a short time later.

Attached picture 7459012-IMG_2232.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/12/12 01:48 PM

After the checkpoint, I once again took the wheel of the Valiant, finishing off the last 7 miles of our crazy journey and arriving at a dreary, damp, car show being held at a wonderfull place for a drag race!

Attached picture 7459014-IMG_2236.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/12/12 01:59 PM

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.

Attached picture 7459025-SAM_1929.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/13/12 03:21 AM

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!!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/13/12 03:33 AM

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.

Attached picture 7459954-SAM_1891-Copy.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/13/12 05:34 AM

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.

Attached picture 7460123-SAM_1913.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/13/12 05:45 AM


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!"

Attached picture 7460135-SAM_1877.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/13/12 06:08 AM

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!

Attached picture 7460145-IMG_2237.JPG
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/13/12 07:03 AM

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.
Posted By: ScatPackNick

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/13/12 10:08 AM

Awesome thread, love the pics and narrative

Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/13/12 02:39 PM

Quote:

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.




At least I remembered to bring a jacket this year!
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/14/12 03:39 AM

Drag Week ingenuity: Luther Duncan's high Rpm stick shifted Maverick trying to keep the rain out.

Attached picture 7461205-SAM_1843.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/14/12 05:13 AM

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.

Attached picture 7461348-drag-week-2012-final-day-saturday-tulsa-7575.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/14/12 05:36 AM

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.

Attached picture 7461370-100_0508-Copy.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/14/12 05:58 AM

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.

Attached picture 7461394-drag-week-2012-final-day-saturday-tulsa-7519.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/14/12 06:06 AM

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.

Attached picture 7461399-drag-week-2012-final-day-saturday-tulsa-7520.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/14/12 06:26 AM

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!

Attached picture 7461419-SAM_1875.JPG
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/14/12 06:34 AM

Thats a TOUGH class hes in.I told Mike Crow on Sunday that there was another 69 Dart in the class and his reply was"Sweet"
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/14/12 06:38 AM

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.

Attached picture 7461428-drag-week-2012-final-day-saturday-tulsa-7550.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/14/12 06:43 AM

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!

Attached picture 7461430-drag-week-2012-final-day-saturday-tulsa-7569.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/14/12 07:29 AM

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."

Attached picture 7461447-100_0512.jpg
Posted By: 68KillerBee

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/14/12 11:50 AM

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.
Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/14/12 07:22 PM

Moparbilly about to make his last pass in Tulsa.

Posted By: moparmanjames

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/14/12 08:10 PM

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."



Speaking of the streets of Phoenix, you'll have to bring that thing down to Central Ave one Saturday night, my buddy Bill Grant is trying to revive the saturday night cruise down there and theyr'e parking at the Micky D's.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/15/12 06:10 AM

So, in a little over an hour after racing had started on Saturday, Darryl and I had wrapped up our Drag Week 2012! I went to the tower to get time slip 5 and 6 from Tonya Turk, to complete my full set! Looking at the 11.448-115.90 final average, after 3 runs in the .40's and one in the .30's made me wish I hadn't accepted that opening .62, but it often doesn't pay to get greedy early on DW, and it's over a second better than 2011, so I'm very satisfied with the outcome!

Attached picture 7462837-2103DW.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/15/12 06:27 AM

The observation that niether of these vehicles is a Toyota is probably the only reason BBR avoided being questioned by the Border Patrol multiple times on his trip home to Amarillo! That and the fact that the White Durango is well known throughout the great state of Texas and beyond.

Attached picture 7462844-100_0521.jpg
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/15/12 08:09 AM

Less than 300 days til DW 13.
Posted By: 85_Ram_4speed

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/15/12 01:38 PM

Awesome Billy. The story is great! Thank you for sharing with us, especially us that can only dream of even trying this adventure once, let alone multiple times. Come on Drag Week 2013!
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/15/12 02:21 PM

We knew that the first class cars session was going to go long, with 4 classes very tight, all those still in contention were going to flood the lanes at the last second. That meant for Rachael and the rest of the Daily Driver cars, it was going to be a long, and somewhat frustrating wait for thier shot at the track. So she headed the Belvedere to the lanes to wait with everyone else.

Attached picture 7463026-100_0515-Copy.jpg
Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/15/12 04:45 PM

Quote:

The observation that neither of these vehicles is a Toyota is probably the only reason BBR avoided being questioned by the Border Patrol multiple times on his trip home to Amarillo! That and the fact that the White Durango is well known throughout the great state of Texas and beyond.



I certainly heard plenty of Durango jokes this year!

Hey they are both DW veterans and neither one blew up this year! (they both did last year!) Also, when your racecar is a Ford, having a Plan B is a good idea.

Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/20/12 04:34 PM

Posted By: 1967dartgt

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/21/12 02:43 AM

That must be a really long line to wait in...
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/21/12 05:59 AM

Sorry guys,
Spent last weekend at the Street Car Super Nationals, watching all the crazy action, so didn't get the opportunity to add to the story. Now my head is swimming from watching pass after pass of Doorslammers in the 5's, and 10.5 cars in the 6's, so it's a little difficult to concentrate on where I was in my version of Drag Week 2012. Already seems so long ago at this point!

Attached picture 7470425-IMG_2281-Copy.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/21/12 06:21 AM

Rachael rolled up into the right lane at 3:31 pm, a whopping 2 hours and eleven minutes after the Valiant and I had completed our Drag Week. She got on the bottle early, and managed a 1.728 60ft. time. There was a small pop at the top of 1st, but I never heard her lift off the nitrous all the way through. 11.582-116.28, best ET and MPH of Drag Week 2012 for her and the Belvedere.
She wasted no time in taking that slip to the tower, and getting her final average, so she could be placed on the Daily Driver ladder for eliminations.

Attached picture 7470441-SAM_1855-Copy.JPG
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/21/12 06:35 AM

A white Dart? WTH Its Blanch .Talk about a field car.20 bucks in quarters before she even made it home.The Dart of Mike Crow.Mikes wife Vicky had a baby name book and was searching for a name.I mentinoned that it reminded me of my Grandma Blanche.She looked up the name up and Blanche = plain and bland. Lets just say that Chevelle from Wisc better do some home work and anyone else that enters that class.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/21/12 07:07 AM

The weather continued to look as though the clouds could open at any minute, and the same 15 cars kept hotlapping as the Hot Rod Drag Week staff begged for final timeslips so they could finish the ladder. I turned to Boone and laughed, "They aren't going to be happy until they wait long enough for the bracket race to rain out!"
Finally, one of the crazy Aussies, (much more on this later, I promise) who had bought a chevy p/u on ebay, came over and was flogging it un-mercifully, managed to kick a rod out of the small-block and oil the track from 700Ft to the first turn-off. Now we were really getting worried!

Attached picture 7470467-SAM_1899-Copy.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/21/12 07:27 AM

ksj,
I told Dale on Sunday, "Mike Crow isn't bringing the Cuda this year, going to be running a Dart that'll be knocking on the door of the 9's!"
Monday, after we left the track, (remember, he hadn't slept), "Hey...Crow didn't make it, I never saw a fast Dart today", he questioned me.
"The White one, yeah, you didn't see it?"
"You mean the nice little white 69 Dart with the flat hood, steel wheels, and hubcaps? Geez, figured that for a 14 second Daily Driver!"

Attached picture 7470472-IMG_2261.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/21/12 07:38 AM

As we sat around and waited for the clean-up, Dale and Scott managed to get a quality bench racing session in. Dale's son, however, was not engaged in the conversation!

Attached picture 7470475-IMG_2250.JPG
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/21/12 03:52 PM

Quote:

ksj,
I told Dale on Sunday, "Mike Crow isn't bringing the Cuda this year, going to be running a Dart that'll be knocking on the door of the 9's!"
Monday, after we left the track, (remember, he hadn't slept), "Hey...Crow didn't make it, I never saw a fast Dart today", he questioned me.
"The White one, yeah, you didn't see it?"
"You mean the nice little white 69 Dart with the flat hood, steel wheels, and hubcaps? Geez, figured that for a 14 second Daily Driver!"




Best we were able to get it to run after DW was multiple 10.03s. Wrenches are being turned.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/22/12 02:17 PM

Darren brought the Charger out again Saturday, but didn't try to make any passes. Dale ran it at the Mopar race several weeks later, and bugs are still being worked out, so maybe ready for 2013?

Attached picture 7471977-100_0523-Copy.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/22/12 02:53 PM

Finally, the call was made for the Daily Driver bracket race to report to the lanes for pairing. Rachael and Dale headed up to the staging area while Boone and I began loading the Valiant on the trailer and getting all my junk sorted and loaded in the truck. As I was under the Valiant, attaching the rachet straps my phone rang; it was Dale.
"The Belvedere is puffing a little steam out of the driver's side now...think she got the other head gasket on that 11.58."
"Great! Bring it back and we'll load it", I paused, and thought about it. We knew she probably didn't have a chance to go 5 rounds in a bracket race, given her experience, but Dale had been working with her on the tree everday, they had been standing in the staging lanes watching pair after pair with him counting the tree down with her, giving her tips on how to hit the bottom bulb.
"How bad is it?"
"I'd try it if it was me", he confirmed.
"Alright, tell her to go easy on the burnout and stage quickly, she's come this far, we have to give her the opportunity to finish this thing!"

She ended up paired up with Michael Broadbook's '64 Tempest, which was dialed 11.90 to her 11.86 (1 tenth subtracted from thier final average).

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/22/12 03:43 PM

She idled towards the right lane water box, with Scott's RoadRunner directly behind her in the next pairing. She finished a small burnout, and the steam really was quite noticable as she made her way towards the beams.
Standing on the fence at about 700ft., I looked at Boone, "It's going to be close, the burnout box guy sees it, but lucklily the starter has his back turned!"
Scott was motioning at Dale, and pointing at the exhaust, but Dale was in full "run interference" mode at this time, just trying to keep everyone from pulling the plug before she got staged.
Staged, locked in, switch flipped, time to race, she came up on the rpms, and the steam worsened. Yellow, yellow, She flat footed the gas pedal, and grabbed the button, well over half the contents of the radiator spewed out of the drivers side exhaust pipe like a fire hose, dousing the starting line and first 30ft. of the track. Scott, sitting in the water box, pointed at Dale, and threw his hands up in the air as if to say, "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!"
Both cars lifted shortly after 60ft., Rachael had caught the redlight on the tree in her lane, and since the Pontiac's reaction time began with .3, he had plenty of time to see it as well! Her time slip, -.001 for the RT.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/22/12 05:19 PM

She pulled the Belvedere up to the ramps, and started to load it, but Dale gave her the cutoff sign.
"What did you do that for?" I asked him.
"It's got water running out of the exhaust! Figured we'd just push it up the rest of the way", he shrugged.
"Like hell! I said I would be thrilled if both of them would drive on the trailer under thier own power, and that's what is going to happen!"
Dale jumped behind the wheel, fired it, and we got it positioned on the trailer behind the Valiant.
"Why'd you lift?" I baited Rachael.
"Saw the red, and it was making strange noises, wasn't happy at all" she surmised.
So, after a week behind the wheel, my little girl was making good decisions and was able to give good feedback, that made me feel great, broken car or otherwise!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/22/12 10:06 PM

I barely had the cars strapped down before the clouds opened up and put an end to the racing. Daily driver hadn't even finished round 1. Two years in a row that the biggest class would not race to conclusion, very disappointing.

Rachael's 6 time slips below:

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 05:21 AM

After the racing was called, we benchraced with friends, and packed up the rig in preparation to leave as the Hot Rod and Drag Week staff prepared the presentation area for all the awards to be given out.
The evening was really starting to run long, and I wasn't looking forward to the rest of the night, as I had to be back to work Monday morning.
Dale, his wife and kids all bailed about halfway through the presentation. Dad and Mom got a hug and kiss right as the awards ceremony adjourned, and Boone snuck off at some point, before I knew it Rachael and I were in the 93 1-ton headed south on I-44, with Darryl right behind us. We rolled into a Texas rest area about 3Am, slept in the back of the truck until about 8AM, and hammered out the rest of the drive on Sunday. We shot this picture at the AZ/NM border, which was about the first time Rachael was really conscious for the first 20 hours of the trip home, she was wore out!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 05:52 AM

Ok, this concludes my attempt at a chronological approach to my story of the event, but there is still plenty to mention! The main narrative really requires me to narrow the focus of my tale, especially towards the end when the details start to get fuzzy 60 days after the fact, so many other anecdotes, and footnotes get pushed to the side.

One of the reasons I took this on last year is because a Moparts member seemed to be bashing the efforts of the Mopar racers who were attempting this event, with comments about how they were bringing up the rear of each class. Rather than confront this directly, I figured if I told the story of what it took to actually tackle this adventure, more people would understand that the numbers on the scoresheet aren't as important as completing it with your fellow competitiors.

That being said, I figured I'd run through the score sheet as far as the Mopars, and Moparts were concerned:

Winner of the Fastest Mopar plaque and third place in Street Race Small Block Normally Aspirated was Mike Crow and his White 69 Dart with it's high rpm W-9/stick combo. Ksj knows more about the particulars than I do, all I can say is it is a pleasure to both the eyes and the ears to watch this thing rip down a racetrack!

Tulsa 10.270-133.07
Ennis 10.100-135.20
Gilliam 10.134-135.33
Memphis 10.155-133.62
Tulsa 10.211-133.62
Final 5 day Av. 10.174-134.16

http://blogs.hotrod.com/hot-rod-drag-wee...l#axzz2Cuv7bXYs

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 06:06 AM

Our own sixpackgut, Ray, had the 2nd quickest 5 day average, but only because he was busy keeping the car out of the nines due to safety constraints, and the fact that he had his class well in hand. His flat black 67 Barracuda notch, with it's thundering tunnel rammed big block, made short work of the Modified Normally Aspirated category despite keeping all the good timeslips in his pocket.

Tulsa 10.021-135.33
Ennis 10.044-131.52
Gilliam 10.280-110.54 (Slowing down to avoid destroying his hood!)
Memphis 10.017-124.05
Tulsa 10.556-135.27
Final 5 Day average: 10.183-127.34

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Posted By: Darryls-Demon

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 06:11 AM

See Billy I told you Tulsa raceway park was the slowest track of the event, even Mike Crows car ran the slowest there.
I still think the track goes up hill.
Posted By: MR_P_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 06:12 AM

Good read Billy and good job at getting those cars ready
and running the whole week ... question... I see
on Crows dart he still has his hubcaps still on....
when did the rules change ... as far as I can remember
NHRA made the people take off wheel covers/hubcaps
before they could run... maybe the rule changed...
congrats... hope to see you in DW13
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 06:25 AM

Randy Heinselman, and his '70 In Violet AAR Cuda turned in the 3rd quickest average for a Mopar, but chose the wrong class to do it in!! He was in the SuperStreet Race Power Adder class and finished 6th in a class that featured 5 cars in the 8's or quicker!

Unfortunately, I have zero specs on this car, just looked through all my pics and nothing even with the hood up! I do know it was nitrous assisted, and a full weight car, but that's it...any body out there with more info?

Tulsa 10.568-128.03
Ennis 10.250-131.32
Gilliam 10.326-132.22
Memphis 10.247-130.87
Tulsa 10.452-129.89
Final 5 day AV. 10.368-130.46

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Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 06:50 AM

DW is an addiction.Some will get it some never will.DJ's Duster should be a contender next year.Hes got the right people helping him that have been there done that.Its a fricken cult I tell you.Seeing Billy and his daughter and family make do what they did was more than I would take on. Doesnt matter what brand you drive as long as you are there on the last day its a WIN.As for Crow and his hubcaps they passed tech. They are bolted on and not going anywhere. Sitting around you get creative.Tech guys were like "Really you did this"Mike just smiled.Cant wait til 13.Billy has created a monster with his daughter.Thats a good thing.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 06:50 AM

Mr P. Body,
Let's just say that the tracks on Drag Week were usually operating with skeleton crews and an amazingly laid back attitude! I don't want to draw any more attention to it than that, for purely selfish reasons, but it was definitely not a rulebook thumping experience.

We will quickly brush past 4th on our list because (gulp), it isn't a Mopar! Moparts member BBR, James Pringle, brought his 83 four eyed, self-named Suckstang with it's 545 inches of BBF and managed to go home with the second place plaque in Street Race Big Block Normally Aspirated.

Tulsa 10.857-123.80
Ennis 11.10-127.35
Gilliam 10.56-127.38
Memphis 10.785-124.86
Tulsa 10.844-124.30
Final 5 day AV. 10.832-125.53

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 07:38 AM

Darryl and I were 4th and 5th among the Mopars, and 5th-6th repectively on this list:

Tulsa 11.436-117.49
Ennis 11.298-118.73
Gilliam 11.298-118.73
Memphis 11.272-118.09
Tulsa 11.431-117.12
Final 5 Day AV. 11.349-118.20
For the 1969 W-2 408, low gear set 904, 3.73 geared 8 3/4 Dart.

Tulsa 11.623-114.56
Ennis 11.408-115.72
Gilliam 11.428-117.51
Memphis 11.445-114.81
Tulsa 11.337-116.94
Final 5 Day Av. 11.448-115.90
For the 1962 389 J headed, low gear set 904, 3.89 geared 9" Valiant.

Saturday was the only day I outran Darryl, of course when I brought it up he immediately went to the street car guy mantra: "Yeah, sure, if you can even call it a street car! geez, wrinkle wall slicks, dropping the pipes, race gas, 200 lbs lighter than me, and you are gonna brag about a tenth?" Tough crowd out there I tell you!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 08:02 AM

Casey Cunningham's, Amarillo based, white 63 Plymouth Fury was Drag Week 2011's Fastest Mopar, his 7th place numbers on this list were enough to claim the third place plaque in Daily Driver this year.
He certainly would have had me covered again this year if he hadn't dumped a bunch of ET on the last day to set himself up for the bracket race, a common practice in DD to make up for the tenth under average dial.

Tulsa 11.241-119.19
Ennis 11.291-119.59
Gilliam 11.357-120.26
Memphis 11.353-119.47
Tulsa 12.243-104.82
Final 5 day Av. 11.497-116.66

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Posted By: J_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 02:31 PM

Quote:


So, after a week behind the wheel, my little girl was making good decisions and was able to give good feedback, that made me feel great, broken car or otherwise!



I was out in the desert "playing" on the quads with Kate yesterday. We got to a long stretch in a wash where I saw here bare down on the handlebars and leave me in the dust. Caught up to her and mentioned her little stunt and she shrugged and smiled..."because I can dad!" there might be hope for you yet kid!

Nice seeing you at SCSN.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 02:32 PM

Scott Abbott (Scott58, Moparts) and his 70 Plymouth are Drag Week veterans, and along with his wife Kim, they make it look easy. Thier 500+ inch BBM has plenty of power to tickle the 10's, but as a no-bar competitor in Daily Driver they really are limited to 11.60's to put the tenth under average dial-in right at 11.50. Scott worked that number to perfection, all while working hard to post big mph numbers to show off the power lurking under the air grabber hood. For his trouble he has the 8th quickest average on this list and qualified 4th in DD.

Tulsa 11.580-119.22
Ennis 11.612-120.36
Gilliam 11.645-121.81
Memphis 11.559-119.94
Tulsa 11.621-119.12
Final 5 day AV. 11.603-120.09

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Posted By: sixpackgut

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 02:38 PM

WOW, nice job Billy
Posted By: MR_P_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 02:57 PM

Quote:

Mr P. Body,
Let's just say that the tracks on Drag Week were usually operating with skeleton crews and an amazingly laid back attitude! I don't want to draw any more attention to it than that, for purely selfish reasons, but it was definitely not a rulebook thumping experience.




I know what your saying Billy.... was there on DW09-DW10
with my buddy but never notice some things
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 03:24 PM

Quote:



I was out in the desert "playing" on the quads with Kate yesterday. We got to a long stretch in a wash where I saw her bare down on the handlebars and leave me in the dust. Caught up to her and mentioned her little stunt and she shrugged and smiled..."because I can dad!" there might be hope for you yet kid!

Nice seeing you at SCSN.



Great spending time with you again, Jay. Darryl asked me on the drive down how long I'd known you, and I was forced to have another of those "How did all these years get behind us" moments like what occurs when we look at our kids!

ksj,
You are correct it is an addiction! Cult? I thought we took a blood oath not to mention that!

Rick Callahan's 68 Plymouth, would have slotted just inside the top ten of our list, and on the qualifying sheet of DD if he had been able to hang around for Saturday!

Tulsa 11.736-116.02
Ennis 11.76-116.97
Gilliam 11.679-117.81
Memphis 11.579-118.20
Tulsa Rain out friday, no-show saturday
4 Day Av. 11.680-117.25

Beginning to see a theme? Yeah, big ole B-bodies with stroker BBMs and no roll bars make great street cars to tour the country in, reach well into the 11's, and are reliable, plenty more examples to come!

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Posted By: MR_P_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 03:34 PM

Quote:

Quote:



I was out in the desert "playing" on the quads with Kate yesterday. We got to a long stretch in a wash where I saw her bare down on the handlebars and leave me in the dust. Caught up to her and mentioned her little stunt and she shrugged and smiled..."because I can dad!" there might be hope for you yet kid!

Nice seeing you at SCSN.



Great spending time with you again, Jay. Darryl asked me on the drive down how long I'd known you, and I was forced to have another of those "How did all these years get behind us" moments like what occurs when we look at our kids!

ksj,
You are correct it is an addiction! Cult? I thought we took a blood oath not to mention that!

Rick Callahan's 68 Plymouth, would have slotted just inside the top ten of our list, and on the qualifying sheet of DD if he had been able to hang around for Saturday!

Tulsa 11.736-116.02
Ennis 11.76-116.97
Gilliam 11.679-117.81
Memphis 11.579-118.20
Tulsa Rain out friday, no-show saturday
4 Day Av. 11.680-117.25

Beginning to see a theme? Yeah, big ole B-bodies with stroker BBMs and no roll bars make great street cars to tour the country in, reach well into the 11's, and are reliable, plenty more examples to come!



Rick is who I sold my B1m/c heads and mega block too...
I understand he is building a Dart... he doesnt live
too far from me
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 03:41 PM

Continuing that theme is R. Loyd Chuch's Indy headed BBM powered 68 B5 RoadRunner. He chose to compete in the Street Race Big Block Naturally Aspirated category, where he finished just off the podium in 4th place.

Tulsa 11.908-112.64
Ennis 11.764-115.48
Gilliam 11.649-116.70
Memphis 11.752-114.44
Tulsa 11.703-114.90
Final 5 day AV. 11.755-114.83

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Posted By: dannysbee

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 03:46 PM

Great job Billy! This event has been on my bucket list for sometime. But with your stories of the event it has really moved it the top of the list. On the stroked big block b body. I am thinking a 512 with repro maxi heads, intake and exhaust manifolds with a mild flat tappet, and 3.55 gears with a 30" tire.
All this in a 63 Savoy with no bar would be my weapon of choice.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 04:10 PM

Russell Brodie is the most prolific of "Those Crazy Aussies" which seem to invade Drag Week every year. His 4-door '63 Dodge 440 is a staple at this event, and starts out the second 10 on our list at number 11. He finished a tick behind Church's RR in the Street Race Big Block Normally Aspirated class.

Tulsa 11.93-101.84
Ennis 11.734-115.12
Gilliam 11.739-114.97
Memphis 11.872-109.35
Tulsa 12.02-104.76
Final 5 day AV. 11.86-109.28

(guess the 4 door didn't like Tulsa either, Darryl )

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Posted By: Bad340fish

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 04:19 PM

Quote:

See Billy I told you Tulsa raceway park was the slowest track of the event, even Mike Crows car ran the slowest there.
I still think the track goes up hill.



I think its just the shutdown area that makes it look that way. IIRC Tulsa had the worst air of the week as well, as my car has never been that slow in Tulsa and I live here.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 04:52 PM

Coming in at number 12, right smack dab in the middle of this big block B-body lovefest, I give you Clark's 68 Barracuda 340. (Bad340fish, Moparts) sports a full cage in his A-body, and qualified 11th in the DD field. Like many of the serious DD competitors, his 4 tenths sandbag on Saturday is the only thing that kept him from being higher up in the pecking order. When it comes to clean, beautiful Mopars however, this little fastback has few peers on Drag Week.

Tulsa 11.829-113.37
Ennis 11.76-114.79
Gilliam 11.814-114.91
Memphis 11.818-113.66
Tulsa 12.21-97.77
Final 5 Day AV. 11.887-109.70

Remember the line from the movie "As good as it gets" when Jack Nicholson says, "You make me want to be a better man"?
Well Drag Week makes you want to build a better car! I know Clark is working on a 408 for his, but it effects everyone in a large sense or even the smallest details. Things you can overlook on a 15 mile jaunt to a car show, or 8 trips to the drag strip every year suddenly become glaring inadequacies on a week long 1400 mile odyssey! Bad steering coupler, dim dash lights, non-functional dome light...just a few of the many which fill my list!

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Posted By: Bad340fish

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 05:05 PM

Great write up Billy, man #12 in the mopars I need to work on that. I recently chased a bad MSD box out of it and picked up some ET and MPH, it went down in the .40s last weekend.

I don't know if I will have my bigger motor in for next years drag week but this 360 will be faster. I think I could build the bigger motor if I didn't go on dragweek.......nah.
Posted By: Darryls-Demon

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 05:22 PM

Looks like Tulsa did not like Randy Heinselmans Cuda ether, is this track owened by a chevy guy?
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 06:11 PM

Of course it's owned by a Chevy guy Darryl, but the important thing is, he's a drag racer, drag racing enthusiast, and serious gearhead, so hopefully that track will prosper under his management!

We can now rejoin our regularly scheduled parade of Big block B-bodies! Lucky 13 on our list is Redlight Ross, as he is known north of the border in his homeland of Canada, but just Ross here on Moparts. His Yellow 68 RoadRunner is a fixture at Drag Week events, and they managed to qualify 12th in the Daily Driver field.

Tulsa 12.037-111.60
Ennis 11.830-112.14
Gilliam 11.798-114.12
Memphis 11.839-112.21
Tulsa 11.987-111.45
Final 5 Day AV. 11.898-112.35

I was benchracing with Ross and his buddy who co-drives every year, and we were discussing my story from last year on Moparts.
His friend commented that he and Ross had lots of DragWeek stories collected over the years, but most couldn't be repeated! To which Ross, completely unfazed, added, "So I guess we'll just have to enjoy reading yours, eh?"!
To your enjoyment Ross, and many more Drag Week stories!

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Posted By: sixpackgut

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 06:14 PM

Quote:

Looks like Tulsa did not like Randy Heinselmans Cuda ether, is this track owened by a chevy guy?



the last day it was raining the whole day before and was still a bit damp the day we raced. we were all spinning the tires but the track came around but insted of keep running, most of us I think were just being courteous to the guys that were duking it out for their class an open track. It was the only day I got to watch cars go down the track.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 06:56 PM

Rachael and the Belvedere fall onto the list at #14 with a
Final 5 Day Av. 11.960-108.70

#15 However will surprise everyone, as it certainly surprised me! Jason Pipkin and his white 1986 Mazda RX7! Sure, I noticed there was a v-8 conversion RX7 on the very first day, but like typical guys, I figured SBC or possibly an LS.
Jason was helping another Mopar competitor after most had left Memphis, and we were working on The Belvedere head gasket. We walked over to see if we could offer any assistance, and peered into the open hood of the Mazda, there sat the 5.9 carbed magnum just like it was born there!

Attached picture 7473383-SAM_1844-Copy.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 07:05 PM

Jason and the Mazda were solidly in the 12.0 range, and like seasoned bracket racers sandbagged a bit on Saturday to set thier dial.

Tulsa 12.18-112.54
Ennis 12.140-111.54
Gilliam 12.065-112.46
Memphis 12.041-111.67
Tulsa 12.209-103.38
Final 5 day Av. 12.127-110.31

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Posted By: tsanchez

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 07:32 PM

Very cool Billy!! Thanks for the write up, maybe well see you at speedworld this yr.

Im still repairing the issues from drag week.
Posted By: StealthWedge67

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 08:00 PM

"Beginning to see a theme? Yeah, big ole B-bodies with stroker BBMs and no roll bars make great street cars to tour the country in, reach well into the 11's, and are reliable, plenty more examples to come!"

You've got my blood pumping, Billy! Great read, and thanks for bringing these drag week stories to us!
Posted By: MRMOPAR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 08:28 PM

Quote:

One of the reasons I took this on last year is because a Moparts member seemed to be bashing the efforts of the Mopar racers who were attempting this event, with comments about how they were bringing up the rear of each class. Rather than confront this directly, I figured if I told the story of what it took to actually tackle this adventure, more people would understand that the numbers on the scoresheet aren't as important as completing it with your fellow competitiors.




I don't recall that Billy, but I do wonder if that individual ever took part in DW, or was just an armchair racer.

Thanks for your great recount of DW, pictures and all!!
Posted By: ross

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/23/12 11:32 PM

Always a pleasure Billy. I really do enjoy your recounts of Drag Week and I hope to see everybody again next year. As a quick side story about my name Red Light Ross. The magnetic sign that is on my rear bumper mysteriously appeared there on our first gas stop after we left National Trail on the 1st day of Drag Week 2010. No one has ever officially owned up to that but since I red lighted against Steve Eden in the 1st round at Bowling Green in 2009 (that was the only time he has ever beaten me )and then he went on to win Daily Driver, I have a very strong feeling that he and his side kick Pete know more about it than they let on. In the spirit of Drag Week I display it with pride. LOL Ross
Posted By: 6packattk

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/24/12 12:00 AM

Awesome read as always Billy,thanks for letting us do drag week through you and yours....
Posted By: Darryls-Demon

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/24/12 01:11 AM


After I made my last pass of the event and drove back to the pits I climbed out of the car and started yelling I BEAT DRAGWEEK 2012, not long after I stopped yelling I realized if I start thinking about doing this agian it may be best to talk to a psychiatrist first.

Attached picture 7473763-IMG_1273.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/24/12 05:13 AM

Rodney Munchiando's 68 Dart GTS holds the 16th spot, despite having to bail after Friday's festivities. Must've been rough on those guys who had to pack up and go with unfinished business left at the track.

Tulsa 12.430-109.29
Ennis 12.331-110.40
Gilliam 12.182-111.86
Memphis 12.210-110.84
Final 4 day Av. 12.28-110.59

After the first 2 days the little black A-body was hanging onto 31st in the 32 car qualified Daily Driver field. Solid runs at Gilliam and Memphis, and some breakage ahead of them on the sheet, and Rodney and the Dart were comfortably in 28th going into Tulsa with a 2 tenths cushion as the bump appeared to be settling in around 12.50.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/24/12 05:29 AM

Ok, time for #17 on the Mopar/Moparts list, not where you would expect to see a car that recorded an 8.293-168.14 on opening day, but thier's is a cautionary tale, of just how bad Drag Week can bite you in the butt and find the weakest link in your car/program right away!

Time to introduce those CRAZY Aussies and thier incredible RHD Silver 72 Valiant Charger! John Faraone of Faraone Engines is the motivating force behind this effort, and the car is his own personal toy/testbed.

Attached picture 7474153-IMG_2234.JPG
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/24/12 05:46 AM

A quick look through John's videographer's youtube channel, and you realize these guys love building, chasing and tuning for Horsepower, with vid after vid of cars strapped to the chassis dyno belting out big numbers. This Charger is no exception to this persuit, in fact, the wedge based BB is thier crown jewel, and is sorted out to perfection.

Attached picture 7474189-MG_3777.jpg
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/24/12 06:15 AM

They've had this 472 built and in this Charger since 2009, constantly making improvements, but the PowerGlide and trying to get a converter that suits thier needs has been a constant problem since day one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=3Td5bSXXZyY&feature=endscreen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETeVlh-Ob...mp;feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMuXll5vjCU&feature=relmfu

These videos tell the story far better than I could, and gives you a better flavor of what we were treated to with this bunch. But in the spirit of Moparts being a family site, I must warn you the language is a bit course!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/24/12 06:25 AM

So, when you are battling trans issues, what's the best approach? Lets take it to the USA, drive it 1400 miles, with an overbuilt, packed to the gills, U-haul trailer attached to the back!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WK2RKAR8...mp;feature=plcp

They ended up being this years Joe Barry, not only trashing tranny parts but also spinning out in the rain and jacknifeing the trailer into the side of the car!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/24/12 06:47 AM

The numbers of the Charger's "survival week" look like this :

Tulsa 8.293-168.14
Ennis 18.557-42.24
Gilliam 13.318-109.66
Memphis 13.905-116.81
Tulsa 8.380-160.00
Final 5 day AV. 12.490-119.37

The crazy guy who wore short shorts all week, (see pic below) was telling Darryl about thier spin-out in the rain and Darryl looked at him quite serious and commented, "You know, you may get away with stuff like that in Australia, but looping a car and trailer down the highway is frowned upon over here!"
He looked at Darryl like a kid being chastised, then quickly grabbed Darryl and kicked him! That's when everyone knew he got the joke! Just a wild cast of characters, who worked thier tails off to finish on Saturday. Then for reasons I don't understand, didn't turn in thier Saturday slip! I had to watch the live feed replay to find the run.

Attached picture 7474236-IMG_2233.JPG
Posted By: Scott58

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/24/12 02:21 PM

The Aussies in the Charger Valiant had a tough week. After their breakage on Monday, they were just limping the thing along during the middle of the week, running 13 second passes with a very sick tranny. We were pitted close to impound at Memphis and when the guys finally made it to the track, the staff flagged them down and put them in impound(!!!!!!!!!) They had a brief discussion with the race director and kind of looked incredulous. I didn't see the point.....poor guys were just trying to make it back to Tulsa in one piece and were totally out of the running by then.
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/24/12 05:32 PM

Cant remember which track it was but they got ready to hitch up the trailer only to find that they had put the receiver hitch in upside down.I asked"You guys arent tired are ya"? There reply was a "Maybe" and they burst out laughing.I warned my son in 2011 at Great Bend to stay away from them in the parking lot.They like to talk,have fun and drink beer He looked like crrapp the next morning.
Posted By: Bad340fish

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/24/12 09:17 PM

I wonder what all chassis work Larson did on it? I found some videos of it from past events down under and it was still plenty fast but it didn't leave near as nice. According to the video that was a new best ET for them on Day 1.

I think if it wasn't for the trans issues they would have had them a plaque for 3rd in unlimited. They didn't have any engine trouble and when the trans worked it seemed to go straight and true.

I can't believe that car is that heavy, its really not all that big, but there is a shot of it on the scales down under at 4190lbs or something. I think they need to find out what trans lutz runs and get them one of those.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 02:36 AM

Clark,
It's something that has plagued high HP Drag Week competitors since this event began. You call up the convertor manufacturer of your choice, and you explain to him that you have a Procharged/Nitroused/Turbo combo that makes 1500+ ft. lbs. of torque at full song, and you need to be able to harness that on the full pass and not drive through it on the top end. That is a tall order, so they do thier best to put the stall where you need it, but not be so loose that you drive through it, to handle the huge torque load this unit is going to end up being an 11-13 inch job, not the smaller 8-9 inch most are used to in an NA combo.

Now, how efficient do you think this killer 'Vert is going to be at say, no power adder, 300ft lbs of torque, cruising through a mountainous, undulating terrain at 50 mph?? Uh, NOT! It's a slobbering, spungy, heat building PIG!!

But, logistics being what they are, we don't have room for a custom, light weight trailer, so we will just rent a huge overbuilt U-haul unit and put 1000 lbs. worth of spares, tools and fuel in it.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 02:55 AM

My brother Dale is planning to pull a trailer next year, so he did research this year questioning many of the guys. One competitor actually said adding the u-haul raised his cruising RPM by 600! Even if that is an exaggeration, and it was really only 200-400, do you realize the heat that is generating? Now, most of us are from a drag racing background, and when we are putting this ride together, we buy the same tranny cooler that we have always ran in the past, and a trans temp guage? Naw, that's overkill!

I watched Rick Prospero, and helpers from Yost's entry pull the Glide out of his Nova wagon, and play hot potato with the converter, trying to dump fluid out that looked like motor oil. How many times did the Aussies, complain about the tranny being COOKED, and try to blame that on the builders? If you've went through 5 trannys in the two years you've been refining your engine and chassis, and then go through 1 a day on Drag Week, perhaps it's time to address the problem and not the symptom.

Attached picture 7475186-100_0519-Copy.jpg
Posted By: MMiller

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 03:14 AM

Besides the obvious reason of having to launch with a clutch and shift, why not put a stick shift in? Or how about a Clutchflite? What about running smaller diameter tires from track to track, or do rules not allow tire changes for road days?

Michael
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 03:27 AM

I'm not pretending I know the answers, sure, it's easy to say, "They must keep the tranny temp down!", but what does it really take to accomplish that? As I said, just getting an automatic to hold that power, at that weight, is an engineering nightmare, then you want to drive it down the road? Wow, just wow, It's a huge challenge!

When I was at SCSN, the hot set-up right now is the Rossler 3 speed in the Pro-Mod cars, and I did see the Aussies talking about trying that route. Rossler made his name building 200M's for Stock and SS use, and he calls this trans the Pro-Mod TH 210, so I'm not sure what it's based on, but I'm assuming every peice is aftermarket. Troy Coughlin was running 5.80's with one and his Crew Chief swore to me it's a low maintenance unit...whatever that means...still doesn't mean it will drive down the road pulling 5000+ lbs without burning up!
BTW, the Aussie Charger, and Turbo Dodge SRT10 were Pro Street PA entries, Same class Eddie Miller won from in 06. I don't think there has EVER been a serious Mopar entry in unlimited.

Another thing that opened my EYES at the Street Car Super Nationals. Watching Jeff Lutz go 6.00-220+ in his Pro-Mod Race Car. Yeah, THAT is the kind of guy who has the knowledge, drive, and wherewithal to average 7.07-209.9 and drive 1400 miles in the process! Larry was there struggling to run 7.20's on 10.5 tires, but I saw no less than 4 different Pro-Mod competitors invite him to the starting line to watch thier cars launch and provide advice/input. That's a tremendous amount of repect being shown by topnotch race teams.

I went to Drag Week and averaged 11.44, my fastest pass ever is in my signature, which by now you are all tired of looking at. Best NA pass with an engine I broke the bank to afford used was 9.26.. I'm not even in the same ZIP CODE with the top guys at Drag Week, and I'm perfectly OK with that.

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 06:23 AM

Michael,
Larry Larson, and Joe Barry run Lencos, but Larry doesn't pull a trailer.

I was impressed with the Charger, and John Faraone's effort, can't even imagine shipping your pride and joy half way around the world just to take on such a crazy challenge!



Mopar #18 was George Browning's 79 Colt, with magnum small block power.
Tulsa 14.85-96.09
Ennis 13.696-100.32
Gilliam 13.396-102.74
Memphis 13.547-100.94
Final 4 Day AV. 13.874-100.02

George looked at the math, realized he wasn't going to make the DD bracket final, so loaded up and headed home after Friday's rain-out. I would certainly expect to see him on 2013's entry list though!

Attached picture 7475433-drag-week-2012-wednesday-gallery-6119.jpg
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 06:37 AM

Pretty sure Lutz was running a Rossler with a timed shifter.Larry is still running a Lenco and shifting it himself.Uncharted waters for Unlimited as to what type tranny is best.Larry having the spoiler hanging off the front fender was a surprise.It seemed to help.I do know Larrys car has 70s in it BUT he doesnt feel comfortable running those e.ts.Just enough to win. LOL.Larry has had that car since the 70s(ran 12's )Everything he would do different he built into Doug Clines Camaro.Ahoka's is the only one who came close to what Doug ran in the first 60 ft and 330 in testing.But we know what happened to Doug.Poured his heart and soul into that build.Sure hope he shows up for 2013.2013 I think I will just ride along with someone and take pics.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 06:42 AM

Next up, #19 is Ed Kelly's turbo front scratcher, listed as an 87 Black Dodge Shadow, funny thing is the car making laps with that car number was a red 4 door Spirit!
I know what you're thinking, "Wasn't there a couple of new Challengers there?", yes, I know, but I don't make this stuff up!
Edward actually had difficulties that stopped him in Memphis, but Hot Rod gave him credit for finishing, and leaving after Friday's rain-out, and who am I to correct them?

Tulsa 14.612-98.61
Ennis 14.331-98.46
Gilliam 14.130-98.70
Memphis 14.41-99.82
Final 4 Day Av. 14.371-98.89

Attached picture 7475450-drag-week-2012-wednesday-gallery-6115.jpg
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 06:49 AM

There were a few new Challengers there but we aint talking. Thats why Im riding shotgun next year.Ive enter 4 years and finsihed 3 times.I will still go as Ive met way too many great people but its time let someone else participate.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 07:12 AM

Admit it ksj, you're just afraid Patina isn't up to the task! Seriously, Drag Week is one of those events, where you can be the Mechanic/Co-Driver/Shotgun Rider/Trunk Monkey and still experience the full thrill of being there and competing, because your time and effort is just as invested as the person making passes at the track.

Shaun Brackett's Black 2011 Challenger R/T rounds out the 2nd ten at #20, and is another entry that left after Friday.

Tulsa 14.575-99.25
Ennis 14.424-98.54
Gilliam 14.271-100.73
Memphis 14.634-97.47
Final 4 day av. 14.476-98.99

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Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 07:20 AM

For whatever reason I missed 2nd gear in Ennis and only made one run.At least I didnt get DQ'd for beating up my dad. That was a weired deal.Ifs and buts were candy and nuts. Patina needs to not be a one wheel wonder.Its time for my older brother to step up.We will see.Hes an Okie now so Im not holding my breath.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 07:45 AM

Finally, at #21 is Don, aka ksj, with his Red 2012 Challenger R/T. Self professed Drag Week junkie and constant thorn in my literary side! He easily should have been slotted in front of the front scatcher and other Challenger R/T, if not for the peculiar time slip he elected to turn in at Ennis. What happened Don, rest of your group wouldn't hang around and let you have another lap? Mike and Vickie in a hurry to get to Pizza Hut?? Enquiring minds want to know!

Tulsa 14.348-100.99
Ennis 16.138-80.78
Gilliam 14.141-101.14
Memphis 14.069-101.51
Tulsa 14.268-100.00
Final 5 day Av. 14.592-96.88

I've always felt like the premise of Drag Week was based on the movie Two Lane Blacktop. One of the underlying themes of that movie was the competition between the 55 Chevy Hot Rod, and the store bought, brand new 70 GTO with the driver who has the brochure memorized.
Funny, but 40 years later, you look at the forums, and the same discussion goes on today about Drag Week, there is still the same kind of disdain from some towards the modern iron!

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Posted By: UOP

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 12:08 PM

Quote:



#15 However will surprise everyone, as it certainly surprised me! Jason Pipkin and his white 1986 Mazda RX7! Sure, I noticed there was a v-8 conversion RX7 on the very first day, but like typical guys, I figured SBC or possibly an LS.
Jason was helping another Mopar competitor after most had left Memphis, and we were working on The Belvedere head gasket. We walked over to see if we could offer any assistance, and peered into the open hood of the Mazda, there sat the 5.9 carbed magnum just like it was born there!



Hey that's me! It was great meeting you guys, hope to see ya'll next year.
Posted By: J_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 04:45 PM

I know your family's impromtu planning habits, and your desire to not let the cat out of the bag.... but is the truck going to make it out next year?
Posted By: Devilbrad

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 04:59 PM

Quote:

Hey that's me! It was great meeting you guys, hope to see ya'll next year.



Where have you been? Did you forget about us over on Racemagnum?
Posted By: MR_P_BODY

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 05:13 PM

Quote:

There were a few new Challengers there but we aint talking. Thats why Im riding shotgun next year.Ive enter 4 years and finsihed 3 times.I will still go as Ive met way too many great people but its time let someone else participate.



I rode shotgun 2 years with my buddy in his 52 ford
pu... we both had a great time... this coming DW I
wanted to have my own ride.. so now its about testing
in the spring and seeing if we can get in
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 06:31 PM

Ennis I missed second gear. Admission of this is my first step to recovery.
Posted By: Bad340fish

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 06:40 PM

Quote:

Ennis I missed second gear. Admission of this is my first step to recovery.



The next step is telling us why you didn't try for another pass. I got two in in Ennis no problem.
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 07:36 PM

I have no real reason.Brain frt supreme.Since I was the only DD in our group we decided at the beginning of the week that we would hit the road after my run.That way if we had issues they could be addressed.Plus I wanted to LOL.
Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/25/12 10:53 PM

Quote:

I was the only DD in our group and we decided at the beginning of the week that we would hit the road after my run. Plus I wanted to LOL.



I see we have made some progress in this session, Don. Missed shifts are a performance issue, which must be dealt with by practice and focus. The ease at which you succumb to peer pressure and the lure of a cold beer however is something we must work on, and I have a feeling one may be easier to work through than the other. Please pay the receptionist on your way out...

Keefe, and Jay
Let's see, since Drag Week, Dad sold his shop that he owned for 20 years, one caveat, he had to clean it and the catch pen behind it out. 6 cars and 11 trailer loads of stuff had to be hauled the 70 miles from Fairland to the brothers' place in Owasso, including a 2 post lift and a 4 post lift. Then Boone took on a project rental house that Darren had dropped the ball on, and he's trying to fix that up. Long story short, the poor truck has sat, unattended since two days before Drag Week started. I would gladly leave the Valiant at home, if it meant the Truck was ready to go, but I'm 1200 miles away, I can throw money at it, but that doesn't mean anything is going to get done!

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/26/12 12:20 AM

#22 was Clay Cunningham's 72 Dodge longbed D-100 with a mild 400 and a plate. After his brother brought home the Fastest Mopar plaque from Drag Week 2011, Clay decided he wanted in on the fun. It went great Monday-Friday, but on his first pass Saturday he snapped a stock axle. A veteran racer with respect for the track and fellow racers, he immediately moved against the wall, got out and checked for fluid leaks, then idled down the track, so he had to take a 20.00 at 50 mph for the last day that destroyed his average!

Tulsa 13.601-99.66
Ennis 13.282-99.64
Gilliam 13.241-101.08
Memphis 13.454-99.10
Tulsa 20.00-50.00
5 Day Final Av. 14.71-89.94

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Posted By: MoparBilly

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/26/12 12:43 AM

Finally, alas, there is one in every crowd, every Mopar race, every Friday night test and tune. That beautiful restoration, that muscle car that looks the part in every detail...then can't get out of it's own way.
I don't mean to cast aspersions at Walter Bashford or his gorgeous Plum Crazy 69 Charger! With the black vinyl roof, white R/T butt stripe, and rallye wheels, it was truly a stunning car. I never looked under the hood, so I have no idea if it was a cloned 318 2 BBL car or a full on 440 4bbl, but the performance certainly did not give a hint either way.

Tulsa 16.808-82.48
Ennis 16.977-83.13
Gilliam 16.901-83.06
Memphis 16.846-83.51
Final 4 day Av. 16.883-83.04

Attached picture 7476390-IMG_4926.jpg
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/26/12 03:06 AM

That Charger was SWEET.We ate lunch with htem on Wed. 383 4bbl and 3.23s
Posted By: BBR

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/26/12 03:22 AM

I don't blame ya Don. The guys I was running with (Clay and Casey) both had broken cars in Ennis and one of my slicks had a hole so I was happy taking an 11.10 and not pressing my luck! I really didn't want to be onthe ropes as well. Clay's truck broke an axle in Ennis and in Tulsa. In fact he drove it all the way home to Dumas, Texas with a broken axle!!
Posted By: ksj

Re: HOT ROD Drag Week 2012 : The Experience - 11/26/12 06:33 AM

I kick myself BUT its about the group I was with and ALL of us being there on the last day.We never leave someone behind.
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