It's about 90% facts, and a good story. I like it!

Years ago, I thought that tech stuff in the magazines was gospel, and that everything in the car features was true.
Then about 10- 15 years ago when stuff we were doing in F.A.S.T. was getting a lot of press, I learned that this magazine content ranges anywhere from 50% - 95% accurate, depending on the writer. Not a knock on the writers or the magazines, they have to knock this stuff out in a hurry. And nobody knows and understands everything. Their job is to fill up and sell a monthly magazine, not write a manual on rocket surgery.

I like it too, I like Brian also, he tries to get the grassroot racers coverage and thats great in my book.

Ok, If I must come clean, Darren may not be quite as bad as I usually make him in the stories...but like I tell him, "Somebody has to be the antagonist, the villain". It's not my fault that he plays the part so well!

Dale's Gremlin was indeed the top Mopar this year, although the "Quickest Mopar" award went to Matt Blasco (EFIDart), and deservedly so. Technically, for Drag Week, the Gremlin is defined as an AMC with a Mopar engine.

Drag Week 2014 numbers
Day 1: 9.54-141.5
Day 2: 9.28-141.0
Day 3: 9.30-141.7
Day 4: 9.41-141.1
Day 5: 9.21-142.0
Final Average: 9.351-141.49

To recap the changes year to year: In 2014 He had 4.56 gears in the Dana 60, which caused it to be gear limited on the Nitrous, so for 2015 he went to 4.10. The 2014 440 featured Venolia flat tops with 64cc Indy SRs for 10.75 compression and the 272/639 Howards flat tappet was in at 100 degrees.
After melting two of the Venolias, he bought Probe dish pistons but also switched to 75cc Indy -1s, so compression dropped to 9.0. Then he backed the cam up to 104 installed. Then the changes to the front suspension.

#1 Dale Gebhart White 76 Amc Gremlin
Day 1: 9.59-150.2
Day 2: 9.08-147.7
Day 3: 9.26-141.7 (dropped valve)
Day 4: 9.04-151.3
Day 5: 9.20-139.5 (dropped valve)
Final Average 9.239-146.09

The result was a car easily capable of trapping 10mph more, but he only picked up twelve hundredths in Average ET. He showed up expecting to run 8's, and left, like most Drag Weekers on Friday night, a little disappointed.

But he finished!!

WOW 9.0 CR I would've never guessed that!
I would think that's why he didn't get his 8's!

Great story as usual.
Thanks, Don

He didn't end up there on purpose Don! After being surprised by how far in the hole both sets of pistons were, he discovered that this particular 440 block has a 10.732 deck height.
The sixty foot times were the struggle for DW2015, the new front suspension combined with more wheel speed from the gear change had him behind the curve from the start.

Also, all the 8 second time slips he had collected between Drag Weeks were on 33X10.5 M/T slicks, he hasn't ran one on the ET Streets that he uses during the event.

The Gremlin has finished 4th and 5th in Modified Power Adder the last two years, finishing just behind Greg Mayton's crazy 87 Mercury Cougar.

#2 Matt Blasco Black 72 Dodge Dart
Day 1: 7.87-184.9
Day 2: 7.70-184.3
Day 3: 7.70-185.3
Day 4: 16.98-33.0
Day 5: 7.71-178.9
Final Average 9.596-153.33

"Quickest(fastest) Mopar" Winner
7.70-185.3 was the the Quickest and Fastest single run in the history of Drag Week by a Mopar that finished the event, placing the Dart 19th on the all time list.

In case you were wondering, that's 19th out of 825 different cars that have completed Drag Week in eleven events...


https://www.facebook.com/The-dirty-drag-week-Dart-436745953183711/

It sure looks like on Matts Dart that the slick is
trying to come off the rim

It has black bead locks on it, that might be what you are seeing.

I liked it too! Glad to see you get the ink.

Bill

Boone and I stood at the door watching the bracket race despite a gap in the line to the next group of waiting racers, who were watching the race in a similar fashion at the next suite. 32 real street cars, all dialed between 10.00 to 11.46, makes for a very entertaining race, especially considering the diversity of cars. The sixteen pairs actually went by pretty quickly, taking only twelve and a half minutes from first pair in the water box to last pair through the traps, with both Lohnes and Freiburger imploring the winners to get right back to the lanes to be paired again.

Clark Strong's 69 Road Runner, on the strength of his 11.501 last ditch qualifying run, was the #32 Qualifier, and one of only two no-bar cars that made the field. He was saddled with an 11.46 dial, but was only legal to run 11.50; despite that disadvantage, he managed to hit the tree, and run an 11.57 for the first round win.

John treed his opponent, but the Valiant spun hard and he was just able to get the stripe, but only ran 11.04 on his 10.85 dial, despite a DW best 122 mph.

While most of the Mopars were well above their dial-ins, James Reeves in the little black GLH destroyed his, and lost on a break-out 10.46 to his 10.69 dial, despite a healthy amount of brake pedal in the last 100 feet.

Last year, Ryan Anderson's 08 Grand Cherokee SRT8 was well on it's way to a 12 flat average and a spot in the quick 32 when it broke on Friday and limped to a 31.60 time slip to end the week. Whatever was broke on the Hemi powered SUV, he fixed it REALLY GOOD! This year he came into the bracket race with a 10.85 dial, and a couple of 130+ mph passes on the week.
Unfortunately, he was paired with #1 qualifier Adalie Ross in the 63 Falcon wagon, and she ran just .005 over her dial to push Ryan under his, to a 10.78-129 losing effort.

The last pair was Jason Trotter's 87 Shelby Daytona, with it's unreal 140mph top end charge against Dan Smith's battered and bruised Chrysler 300.
"What'ya think?" Boone asked.
"I wouldn't want to be bracket racing against Dan...with a front drive, turbo charged 4 cylinder, and a stick...but that's just me".
"...and Dan gets a clean tree, leaving first", Boone added
"Yeah, double whammy!"
The 10.67-139.3 was well under Jason's 10.78 dial, but he was done in at the starting line, a pro tree combined with wheel spin usually means you left second.

Five minutes and 30 seconds after the first round came to a close, Clark Strong pulled the Road Runner into the water box beside the black 3rd gen Camaro with the red hood. Boone and I had moved to the next window to watch, as the racers occupying that spot had made their way into the suite to turn in their time slips.
The race was over as soon as the Camaro gave chase, as he figured out how to go red with a street car on a .4 pro tree, yeah, he guessed.

Next up was Clark Lamb, in the Barracuda, and he was paired with the nitrous assisted BBF in the ugly 73 Ranchero. Clark was holding 5 hundredths when they both cleared the tree, but the NA Barracuda just couldn't overcome the required tenth dial down, running a very typical for the week 11.40-118.7 on the 11.33, only to get caught in the lights when the Ranchero went 10.033-133 on a 10.03 dial.

Passerby moved on in the 70 Nova, when longtime Drag Weeker Tom Taylor spun the drag radials hard in his mid ten second 79 Nova.

Longtime NHRA Div.4 hitter Jeremy Wilson was also cutting them down in his 66 Nova. While not as accomplished as Passerby, the difference is that Jeremy has made his living on the pro tree in 10.90 Super Street.

Adalie Ross followed up the 10.005 she had used to get rid of Ryan's SRT8, with a 10.007 to knock out Ray LeJeune's 15 Mustang.

I'm not sure if Dan was worried about keeping the 300 cool between hot lap rounds, or was trying to lighten it up to help get more ET, but he came back under the tower for round two with the hood removed.
Watching the race in real time, I thought he had backed into the much faster 80 Malibu of Nick Taylor and gave up the stripe, but now that I look at the numbers, he just couldn't get the big Chrysler to cover the tenth, his 11.55-115.8 was close to what he ran all week, while the Malibu killed fifteen mph, and still hit the line first.

The next, and last car to pull into the water was Jeff Gallagher's super clean white 66 Mustang dialed 10.68. He did his burnout, and approached the tree in nearly the exact same amount of time as the other pairs had.
"Why are they running a single?" I asked Boone.
"Where the heck is John and the Valiant?" he shook his head, and walked to the edge of the balcony to look down.
The little small block Mustang launched, and had barely made the one-two shift, when we heard John fire the Valiant, drive out from under the tower, and head back towards the pits.
"What the heck just happened?" Boone shook his head, "He should have ran him."
"I don't know...maybe it was leaking something...they didn't wait any time at all between pairs..."
Lohnes was mumbling something over the speaker about the car that didn't make the call was last year's champ, and just like that round two was in the books.

It ain't easy being green.

It certainly isn't easy to be the 3rd quickest Mopar finisher with a small tire, stock suspension, normally aspirated, small block A-body!

#3 Paul Cornman Green 71 Dodge Demon
Day 1: 9.78-138.1
Day 2: 9.80-137.4
Day 3: 9.83-136.9
Day 4: 9.81-136.8
Day 5: 9.76-138.0
Final Average 9.802-137.48

The defending Champ in Street Race Small Block NA finished third in the ultra competitive class this year.

Ray Meyers, and the Black Pearl. Gen 3 stroker Hemi in a lightweight Plymouth coupe, cooler than the other side of the pillow.

You can't talk to Ray on Drag Week, and walk away without a big smile on your face.

This is the third go round for the Pearl in DW competition
He ran big block power in 2012 to win Modified NA with a 10.18-127 average
He averaged 10.57-127.6 with the Hemi to finish 2nd in 2013.
This year he finished 2nd in Super Street Small Block NA.

#4 Ray Meyers Black 67 Plymouth Barracuda
Day 1: 10.08-134.1
Day 2: 10.19-132.3
Day 3: 10.21-131.5
Day 4: 10.30-130.8
Day 5: 10.22-132.1
Final Average 10.205-132.20

Next time, nines!!

Ok, the moment of truth. My real consternation with Lohnes' feeble attempt at defining the top ten fastest Mopars of Drag Week 2015 comes down to this little thing right here.

Now anyone who has watched my Valiant traverse the quarter-mile would be able to point out that it has a decided performance advantage over Tony's Javelin...right?

#5 Billy Gebhart White 62 Plymouth Valiant
Day 1: 10.53-128.3
Day 2: 10.39-128.2
Day 3: 10.53-126.9
Day 4: 10.57-125.2
Day 5: 10.59-125.7
Final Average: 10.527-126.90

2014 Best pass 10.49-124.8 Average: 10.825-123.05



#6 Tony Sanchez Aqua 69 AMC Javelin
Day 1: 10.40-130.6
Day 2: 10.39-129.6
Day 3: 10.65-126.8
Day 4: 10.61-128.3
Day 5: 10.57-128.6
Final Average: 10.528-128.80

2013 Best pass 10.53-126.0 Average 10.708-125.31

interesting, I wonder where that 10.546 number came from?

Maybe he just doesn't like you?

Fastest or quickest? Tony does have more mph.

In drag racing.. its always who gets there quickest
EDIT
Even in their rules.. if its a tie.. then they use MPH

I understand YOUR feelings on the "and exhibition" part of the program Billy.........but lets face facts. Spectators and even some of the racers themselves enjoy watching passes from the faster cars that didn't survive the drive. They have ALWAYS let these guys make runs on the final day. It may not have started that way, but now Dragweek is a SPECTATOR event and the tracks draw big crowds. Do most of those spectators come to see 12 second daily drivers, or Jeff Lutz Camaro go down the track? Not trying to be harsh or a dick but the faster cars are ALWAYS going to get preferred benefits. Don't care for that? Build a faster car or there is always the option to not bother coming.

Did we take advantage of the above situation with the Corvette?.....Sure did, think we made 4 hits on the last day and put the car in the 6s at over 200mph, which was one of Daves goals. I rarely get a chance to be with them and tune the car, so we take our chances when we get them