I’ve already met one goal I’ve achieved time and time again of changing stuff up and ruining a pretty consistent bracket car in pursuit of personal best paper trophy’s... lowered from the above to a 9.16 at Famoso last fall and then to a 9.11 at Wild Horse Pass last weekend in some 1880 air. Will probably be hitting Vegas this Saturday to see if I can go a round or two. Only for sure event after that will be the postponed March Meet that was pushed to Memorial Day weekend at Bakersfield. I’m also celebrating our Aluminum anniversary 30 pack/years of racing as I first hit the track in 91.
W8/R3 IMM built Brett Miller head - 904 - S60 4.56- M/T 29.5x10.5

Well I live in Canada so the Pandemic is still in full rage up here! At this point no one knows when and if the tracks will open. Everyone in the race world is preparing like it is over and they will be on track early May. Personally I cannot see it happening. My racing is sorta on hold. The industry that both my wife and I work in has been decimated by this thing. Neither of us has worked since March of last year. Racing unfortunately has had to take a back seat.

With regards to my car. I have been fighting an inconsistency issue for the last 5 or 6 seasons. I was throwing parts at it like a drunken sailor to try and fix it with no success. I was finally spent a day and installed the Racepak that I purchased 4 years ago to help me find the issue and refused/was too lazy to install. I found the issue the next weekend. Made 3 runs on the throttle stop within .005 then on the First run the next morning it snapped the crank. So that is my luck! Figure out an issue that has plagued me for years, go into a big race with renewed confidence that I have a gun at a gun fightand the crank breaks! So my good motor is hurt. Luckily I had aluminum main caps on it and the caps took all of the abuse. My 230 400 block will live another day once I can get some more caps. It damaged a couple of rods and two pistons just touched the head but no real damage. I was extremely lucky!!!!!!!

So this brings me to my current situation. I had a 400 based 451 short block that was in my street car. It was a very strong running engine but it was a heater on the street. The block was a little thin in a couple places so I did a short fill. Did not work for me on the street but it will be perfect on the track. My plan is to put the top end off the 512 on it with a slightly smaller cam, reduce the compression and run it on pump gas. Race gas up here is crazy priced and I am sick of paying for it. I am also sick of having to get my car certified. I am sick of having to wear a 5 layer suit when my car runs 9:80s in the summer heat and at our altitude. All in all I think it will be a better plan all around.

So at this point I am squirreling away what cash I can to spend on it and I will be out when I can.

I wish all a good season, trouble free racing and lots of win lights!

Finally went through the motor and got it back into the car. Dyno says 620hp. So hoping to go faster this year without any carnage.

I have just about run out of goals. Rick and I have had more fun than you could imagine and it all started when he found the Road Runner after 13 years and bought it back in 1995. We have gone through two dragsters and the Avenger, four trailers, four trucks, a motor home and the Road Runner lives on. We have been all over the country and raced at dozens of different tracks. Raced the Million Dollar race five times, several Monster Mopars, nine Mopar Nationals, several ET Finals, and more. We have made friends everywhere. You cannot put a price on being able to do this with a son that still wants to spend weekends with his dad. Sadly, the recent death of my daughter has really made me realize that we cannot live forever. Hopefully, we will race a few local races this summer and get to spend some quality time with some of the people we know and love.

My goal is to consistently run my NHRA Index (9.65) in the heat. Then run some NHRA Divisional Races.

The engine is a 355 SB R3/W9 with a 750 CFM NHRA approved carb.

It has to weight 3,213 with me in it.

Super Stock Eliminator SS/BS.

As stated in a previous post I am embarking on a 20+ yr old plan, I am hoping to get to 6 of the 8 local events here and if things go well travel to some surrounding tracks as well. Quick 16 and 4.70 racing. We were able to get out for a few shakedown runs at the end of last season and with a ton of "limiters" (Launching off idle in High gear with12deg retard for 2 sec plus 3 pills sizes fat) in place we were able to ensure have the power now we just need to polish the crew and driver. There are a couple of car update for ease of maintenance plus a front strut upgrade. A engine bearing inspection and oil heater due to a low oil pressure condition (70 wgt and 50 deg amb not a good mixture) Should be fun.

I'm hoping to be competitive in the street class at BIR with a new ECU, fuel system and data logging. Mid 1.2 60's and 9.2's are there somewhere. 3025lb 418ci R3/W9 72 Duster.

Hoping for an 8 second time ticket this year.

I haven't been down the track in over a decade, and I've never gone quicker than 13.0's. Awful, lol.

Goal is to at least run 12's with the new car and then slowly see if I can make it quicker, supposedly it last ran 12.70's but it has been mostly in storage for 5 years so I'm working those bugs out too.

Stretch goal is Drag Week!!!

Next year I'd like to get it down to 11.50's but don't know how much I'll need to change to get it there.

Edit: also looks like I'll need to go either to Lapeer or Martin as Milan may not open this year at all. I personally have never had issue with Milan and it's hard to argue it being a half hour from my house!

That's a cool ride!

Last year was a new learning curve for us and especially for the owner/driver of our '69RR that had never been faster than 12.5 with the car, with its new 589ci mild street motor, new built 727, D60 and racing on 10x29 bias slicks we have gone a best of 10.35@130 in full street trim driving to track and home. For this year although its limited to only a few meetings cos of all this c**p thats going on all we can hope for is to go past the 1st round and even get to a final brkt racing, the car won't have anything new on it I doubt so its all down to the driver getting better at it.

Thanks, appreciate it! Hoping to make it as quick as yours one day, you seem to have found the sweet spot of performance/streetability with a traditional bb mopar build.

A first round win? Why the lofty goal all of a sudden? Why not set a more realistic goal so you are not disappointed?

Thanks! Building a car full of compromises certainly has its challenges. I keep thinking how much faster it would be if it weighed 1,000 lbs. less like the Fox bodies I see at the track!

Your car is impressive as is. I'm sure you could find a few pounds to eliminate. I need to weigh my 68 Fastback, a friend weighed his dads 68 Notchback and it was 3250 with a 440 full interior, brass radiator, iron water pump. Manifolds full exhaust. Mine is backseat delete ,heater delete,glass hood Aluminum heads, water pump and radiator. I'm guessing I'm about 250lbs lighter than his.

My 68 Fastback is a tank. With 240 lbs of driver it sits at 3650 with all the factory seats in. That is with a full cage, Dana, Fiberglass hood, and lightweight wheels. It does have what is probably the heaviest small block you can build in it though. R1 Block with W2 heads.

Street car problems! Everytime I do something to shed weight I feel like I end up doing something else to add weight all in the name of reliability and serviceability.

Has not won a single round in competition, but does have this going for it.

Pit helper and &#1tty photographer available.
Especially for Lapeer with my place being on the way/just in case you need parts or something, not to mention the 200 or so times you were there whenever I needed you!

My only racing goals are the ongoing race to replace sheetmetal....

Actually this is an old pic...the left side is about as near complete as I can get it, while on the hoist.
I should be starting on the right quarter/wheelhouses pretty soon.

I retired from work last year so my budget for racing is greatly reduced. My old Duster is still fresh and is cheap to run on pump gas so I will probably run some local bracket races. Who knows what will happen this summer with the gas prices and the Covid-19 regulations. We have recently seen Pacemakers, Oseola and Milan announce they won't be opening this year. I am lucky to have Edgewater and KilKare close enough to race a Saturday night and be back home in my own bed. I miss the Mopar races we used to go to. Too bad the recession 2009 to 2016 killed off a lot of the car count. Another period like that will kill off the bracket racers too.