What kind of car count do they usually have fro the Rock? Any parts vendors or swap meet area?
thanks

I'll be there and looking forward to meeting all of you. Lite blue 72 dart with black stripe.

Great seeing everybody!

Jim, Chip and the lovely pair of Mrs. Owens....thank y'all SO MUCh for your gracious hospitality....always a great time pitting next to the Owens clan!!

Here's a tip......the next time the track announcer says they have a 'Special Treat' coming up, immediately get your time trial run in BEFORE that treat comes out and oils down the track for over an hour !!!

Way too much standing around, very slow and poor organization of the time trials with lots of 'ameture night' first time stagers making things even slower.

By 1:45 I only got 2 runs in despite being there since the gates opened, got frustrated and headed home before the delayed and delayed again eliminations.

My first pass was a typical check out pass for the new heads, trans, converter and gears. Ran an easy 12.45 @ 109.6. Faster than it felt considering I shifted at 5200.

Next pass was a quicker 11.446 at 116.6, Should have been an easy 10 (was going 96.09 in the 1/8th) but the tach signal from the MSD quit on me in the water box so I short shifted both gears and went just quick enough to beat a beautiful 69 Cuda fastback with a 416 stroker that ran a very nice 11.90 @ 115. I'd seen that car a couple times at Bristol and knew it to be a high 11car so without a tach I paced him until about the 1/8th and let it eat from high gear. At about 1200' I let out of it because I sensed the motor was pretty lean since I didn't jet up for the new heads yet, got to the pits and I was right just by looking at the tailpipes, beautiful light tan but Too light for the good air. So I played it safe.

The new converter flashed much higher than I expected, to the point to where I can't even feel the 1-2 on both passes! I need some more seat time with the new vert and also need to loosen the rear traction bars, Ivhad too much preload (too little gap) trying to soften the hit....or anticipating a more violent launch.

All in all it was fun, just wish the event was better sorted for the participants and esprcially the fans who sat patiently for LONG stretches of time.

I was saying to Big Jim (Chip's Dad) I think I'd much rather come down and meet them at Darlington on a Test & Tune night to where I could get a lot more runs in and get the car sorted out, I can't stand waiting in the lanes due to poor organization, been to a lot of events where they could handle a lot more cars and cycle them through quicker between laps.

Oh yeah...forgot to mention.

On the other side of us I was pitted next to Mile Daurity, that was awesome cause he's wild like Cale Yarborugh and as cool as Steve McQueen!

Everybody wants to know about the Airwolfs, on my only near full pass I could tell the motor revved faster and felt 'happier' above 5000....but I could also tell my motor and the Pro-systems 1000hp carb wanted more jet and maybe less timing, but with the lags between rounds I didn't want to bother with trying to dial in and then get bogged down in staging and my temps going 30+ degrees hotter by the time I got to stage for the next pass. It was really frustrating for most of us wanting to get in a bunch of runs on a near perfect spring day...woth a tailwind to boot!! I'll have more to say the next time I get out to Z-Max on a Friday night T & T but all signs point to worth the investment.

Chip Owens for the Win!!!!!!!!!! Might be a bracket racing champion in the making.

Way to go, Chip

Glad they finally got the racing going!!

Thanks, lol. I did have more fun than expected bracket racing...winning 5 rounds in a row was cool. I was the fastest car in the class (trophy street) so I think some were having a hard time judging the stripe on me. It's a long wait when you've dialed a 9.64 and the other guy dialed a 14.95, lol. This was my first bracket race ever, unless you count 6.0 pro tree index racing. I thought I'd lost the final...I dialed a 9.68, other guy dialed 12.40. He left, then I left, but I was late. I didn't catch him, he got me by about 1/2 a car or so I guess. Hard to tell when I was doing 137 mph and he was only doing 110 or so. I went 9.73 at 137, he went 12.32...he broke out, so I got the win! Naturally, the 4 foot trophy I was supposed to get didn't come in, so Steve's gonna have it shipped to my house. Same thing happened last year when I won the true street shootout.

The best part of the day was having Cliff Gromer from Mopar Action magazine do a photo shoot of my car for an upcoming feature in the magazine! I could have gone home right after that and would have been perfectly happy, lol. Thanks Mike and Cliff!

The car was running great. Went 9.65 at 140 mph w/ a 1.32 sixty foot when it was cool yesterday morning. It was picking the front end up pretty high, so I was having fun. If it didn't do that, I'd probably stop driving it.

It was great to see everyone...Bobby, Sonny Hart, Johnny Pennington, RonP's buddy w/ the silver Duster (can't remember his name), Sheila Bowman, got to meet onefastIndy and Tank Crosswhite who were both very nice fellas, always great to hang out w/ Mike and Stephen Daurity. Got to spend some time w/ my wife, my parents, and my buddy Kenny. So it was a real good day.

Always a pleasure. Congrats to you.

Congrats Chip

Congratulations Chip!

Thanks yall!

Bullet Bob Reed sure stepped up his program running 8.58 at 155.99 mph! Last time I saw him run he was running 9.0s.

Chip,

Talked to Steff last night, he just moved from Michigan and lives only about 15 minutes from me. Might bring him along to Darlington next Wednesday, what time do the gates open?

Gates open at 6, but you can usually get in earlier than that. We'll be there w/ Kenny's camaro...not bringing the cuda.

My car is to slow
I will be in NYC that weekend.
My coverter came in this week.
Hoping to install it next week n go
testing the following week. But I already
put the wheels in motion to make to Atlanta.
So I will more than likely meet up with U guys there.