Thanks everyone! It is a good feeling to see my car go down the track again. I think Jeff is gonna tell a good story...

Well I’m a bit miffed by all the secrecy surrounding this whole ordeal. Especially after enjoying all the pictures Jeff posted on FB over the weekend..... little did anyone know! I suppose it was the “embarrassment” of navigating an automatic equipped race car that kept things on the down-low. Cool you got the car out Ted....

When I woke up Saturday morning, the fog outside, was almost as thick as the fog in my head. One thing is for sure, when we are done racing, there is never a shortage of laughter, story telling, or cold beer. Over the years we have met tons of great people, and it's always good to see them at the track. Anyways... After the fog started to clear up some, we checked the radar, and it wasn't supposed to rain until 6:00pm. They were way off, as the skies opened up, and it poured off and on almost all day. In between rain showers I was able to check out the swap meet area. Not much I could use. Ted, wandered in and out some, and had located a new rotor for the distributer, so we installed that, and fired the car up to make sure it worked. And then it rained some more. Around 4:00 Ted stops by and said he found a different distributor, and wanted me to check it out. As soon as we walked over to the spot, it started to DOWNPOUR. Gee thanks Ted. LOL. About 4;30, they called the event, and out the door, our chances of running went. 10 minutes after they called it, the rain stopped for the night. Go figure. After we had dinner, my buddy Mike said I should change the plugs in the car. We've seen it before, if the car sits too long, the plugs need to be changed, no matter how many runs are on them. Mike digs out a batch of plugs that he recently took out of his car, and we quickly got them swapped. Took the car to a remote area, tried out the Trans Brake/2 step, and it seemed to be working, and holding now??? Put the car away, and grab a beer out of the cooler.

This was during thunderstorm round three on Saturday.
I used the " cow relieving itself on a flat rock " analogy.
It poured pretty good a couple times.

GREAT story !
and it's even better since ted's car is a 64 !

Happy to hear your brick made a few licks! Now where are the Vids???

As the sun came up on Sunday morning, one thing was very clear. It was going to be a HOT and HUMID day. You could see the humidity, it was so thick. Not 100% sure if the car was going to work under load, and not thrilled at the idea of entering into the Pro class at $125 entry fee, I talked it over with Ted, and asked if it would be OK just entering Test and Tune, and use the time to get the car working better than when it arrived. He was more than understanding, so I went and paid for my tech card, and handed it in. Testing didn't start until the second time trials were complete. At 12:01, I pulled the car into the water box. It definitely sounded better. Held the line lock button to the count of three, and the M/T slicks bit. Bump the tires into the staging beams, and hold down this goofy button, that I still don't understand. The tree is activated, and I mash the throttle, the trans brake is holding, and the 2 step is set at 3600? Release the button, and the car leaves fairly hard with a 1.44 60' time. It's very clear the new plugs helped a ton. The 512 is now pulling hard to 6300, and on comes the shift light. Pull the shifter, and I guess by magic, the fluid coupler changes a gear. Again the big block is making decent power, no miss, and again the shift light comes on, and I pull the Vintage Sidewinder shifter into 3rd, and again, by magic the 727 shifts. just before the 1/4 mile stripe the shift light flickers, so it must be geared where it needs to be. I take a right hand turn onto the return road, and am more than happy to remove my helmet, and open the door, as in the short time I'm in the car, I'm already wringing wet, from sweating. Get the time slip, and was rewarded with a 10.42 ET, and 125mph slip. That's more like it. The car has ran 10.0's in the past, so I knew it was off, but when I got back to the trailer, we checked the DA, and it was already at 4500'. Not ideal for making new personal bests.

I am glad you are enjoying the wonderful torque multiplication of the converter and the lightning quick shifts from the automatic transmission. Sounds like you may not be a fan of the trans brake button though lol.

Still not a fan, or impressed with an automatic transmission. Maybe for a Station Wagon...

I've got nothing but puddles and you have a pile of broken parts. Its hard to say which is better or worse lol.

I’m leaving in a week on my “race-cation”.... not sure whether I should just pack some 904 shafts, or my 727 and other drive shaft

I only have one cracked gear, in 20 years, and it's fixed. I'll take that over leaks, that never end.

Bring both, and extra convertors.

After the first pass, Ted, Mike and I were discussing the results, and Mike said the car seemed to bog off the line some. When we checked the 2 step, it was only at 3200. Not hardly high enough to leave with a Dominator carb. Ted was then on a mission to find some higher chips. He came back with a 4200 chip, and we installed that, and waited for the call to the lanes. First Round is called for Bracket 2 (Pro), and then Bracket 1 (Super Pro). My buddy Mike and his daughter swap driving duties, him in Pro, and her in Super Pro. My other buddy Steve was running in Pro with his 64 Dodge, running a HEMI. All 3 won first round, so that made killing time enjoyable. The track was getting very hot by the time my second time trial came around, so I decided to do a shorter burnout. The car left decent, but about 200 feet out, it started to wag it's tail like a dog, and it just wasn't something I'm comfortable, so I aborted the pass, and coasted. About another hour later, T&T was called to the lanes. This time I did my normal count to 3 in the burnout box, and staged the car. Hit the trans brake button, and as the lights came down, I tried to bring it up on the 2 step, and the car took off. Didn't work again. The bad part was I left before it activated the tree, and did not get a time slip...

Before the 4 pass, I told Ted, that this was going to be the last pass. Steve, and Becky had lost in the second round, and Mike had lost in the 3rd, so we would be getting ready to leave on our 4 hour drive home soon. Not wanting to lose another run, I decided to use the trans brake button on the steering wheel, and just load the thing up to around 4000 rpm's. On my way to the staging lanes, I spotted Ted walking through, and he had the biggest sh!t eating grin on his face, and was giving me the thumbs up. THAT right there, made my day, as I knew he was happy to see his car running again, even if it wasn't the best it possibly could have been. In the staging lanes Ted was able to grab a couple pictures of him, and his Grandson next to the car, and again, I'm reminded of why we do this. It's about having fun, and making memories.

I got paired up with a C/Stock Eliminator Camaro, stick car for my final attempt. Him and I talked clutches just before our run, and I got a chuckle out of the car was his Dad's, and ran as a C S/A car for many years, and he converted it to a stick car. My kind a racer. We both did our burnouts, and staged the cars. I started to load the car up, and as the lights came down, I could hear the 396 in the other lane go up on the 2 step. We both left close together, and were neck and neck the entire way down the track. The air just wasn't there though. I ran a 10.65 to the Camaro's 10.66. The 64 had it's best mph of the weekend of 126.95 on the run. Unfortunately the Camaro's .025 light was better than my .088. At the end of the weekend, we all had a great time. I'm happy Ted got to see his car run again, and it went back home in one piece.

Thanks Ted for the opportunity. It meant a lot to have you trust me with your car.

Such a neat story and cool to see the story being told in the tradition of Billy!

I might try doing a couple this way.

Fixed.

Thanks again for all that you,Mike and Becky did! Class act all the way around! The little guy didn't want to leave when my daughter did. He bawled his eyes out for a while on the way home. You are welcome to drive the old bomb any time! And you do tell a good story! I sure wish Billy was here to hear your tale!

Nice story, thanks for the post.

There is at least one video floating around. There has to be. Somebody had to have caught it.

Great story, and great storytelling! Thanks for sharing it with us. Auto – tragic transmission that's funny

Leaks? What are those? 😅
3 foot envy?