Mopar Racers, Tell Us About Your 2019 Season

After reading the "Where did everybody go" thread I thought I would try to get some participation on here from the racers. I know it sucks that there is not an easy way to post pictures, but we can at least give a recap of where we did go.

I only ran my Duster a couple of times, it is a No-Box Footbrake car with ladder bars and a pump gas 440, runs 6.40's in the 1/8th mile. It had a broken shock mount that I had fixed at a chassis shop, also mounted new QA-1 shocks, took it out to make some passes and put it away to be ready to go when I need it. My focus on the season was to help Don Stahl update his K-car with new safety gear and get the car certified, then make some passes to get my NHRA license. It ended up taking all summer to get the license runs done, in Division 3 they are now rejecting any license forms that are not completely filled out. That means 6 passes that are signed off by 2 licensed drivers and the track tech guy. We changed the motor once and the trans twice to solve some issues, but we kept at it and got the license with a best pass of 5.94 @116. The car is a chassis car with a 1983 Dodge Aries body, current motor is a low deck 470 running on E-85. We entered Super Pro at Kilkare a few times and got whacked pretty hard by those guys, I need to hit the practice tree and get my head straight for this delay box racing. It took a while just to get the routine down to service the car, do a burnout, set up delay, stage car and let go on top bulb. Anyone that thinks these cars are automated and easy to drive is a fool. There is a lot more driver input than there is for a No-Box car.

Where did you go with your racing program in 2019?

Runner up, second place in Victory Nostalgia Super Stock. Missed the championship by a couple inches. Had and great time and fun all year long.

I had a good ‘19. Finished 4th in Pro at Pacific Raceways (Seattle) which qualified me to the NHRA D6 ET Finals & Race of Champions where I got smacked around a little bit. It was still a great experience being there. I won one race and made it to the semis twice this season. Struggled with the car a little along the way, but never missed a race. Looking to build on that success in ‘20.

I can relate to your experience in S/P
I don't thank I made it pass the 1st round all year, I did get it to run 8.86 twice at 148.+ MPH on one run and then changed the shift RPM from 7000 RPM to 7300 RPM and it ran 8.86 at 150.+ MPH with no other changes one hour later at Woodburn, OR I love racing with E85 pump gas
I did find some things to fix and change this winter though, looking forward to going faster and quicker next year

A bittersweet year, made it to 5 final rds and won just 1. Red lighted once, car shutoff while staging (coil decided to quit), and misjudged the stripe on the other 2 when having the reaction time advantage. Drag racing is tough, just thankful to get as far as I do.

I only made it to 4 out of the 6 Victory N/ss races this year , but I still managed to finish in fifth place , which got me $200 and a new pair of slicks, thanks to one of our great sponsors Larry Hodge Racing Tires. Ran in a few other races and made a few bucks, seem to be busier each year as I get older , don't know whats up with that! ha.ha.

only went out once for tnt,i dont have a 6 fique job like everyone else does for racing,and ten buddys to help work on cars,or big shop with 5 lifts to work on cars with

Good season, almost great. Did I mention that I don't like Tru-start? I finished 1 round behind the champ, tied for second, lost 2nd on a tie breaker. Next to last race of the season, I run the eventual champ in the finals. He leaves first, goes -.009 red. I leave a half sec later, I go -.011 red behind him. Because of tru-start, he wins the round (less red than me), wins the race and eventually, the championship. (take the round away from him & put it in my total & we have a different champion). This the only track that I have ever run at that uses tru-start.
But still, had a couple of RU's, had fun and can't wait til this season! This is the 1/4 mile Sportsman class (true footbrake) at Bristol Dragway.

Brian Dunnigan

I'm down under so we are in the middle of our summer & our race season. But coming into 2020 I'm leading the points series at our local track, probably more good luck than skill.

We had a good season, chipping away at the ET's so we ran a PB at just about every meeting after the winter upgrades. We finished 4th in the UK's newish but popular and rapidly growing Nostalgia Super Stock series (brackets). And a poor 27th in the Pro ET bracket series we also run in. We have some more changes to make over the winter before the season starts again, we'll see if stuff improves but changing stuff every year doesn't really help with consistency judging by our results

While I only made 8 passes total in 2019, I’d consider the year a success. The year started with a car with no paint, and not one single part bolted on. I made it to 3 different tracks, and ran a personal best, first weekend out.

Looking forward to 2020, and a trip to Norwalk to meet as many members as possible.

Jeff

I redid the heads on my W2 small block and made some small adjustments on the intake and rockers. I was lazy and slow putting it together. When I finally got it in and running the trans leaked, cracked converter snout. I decided to freshen the trans, and I put a converter in I borrowed from my Dad. Front seal leak, pulled pump, changed bushing and seal, leaked. Changed pump, with new sonax bushing, new seal, rubber backed washers, leaks. I said screw this and gave up about august. I do think my engine mods turned out OK from looking at the data from the one wide open hit I made. I was just glad the cops didn't hear it then follow the fluid trail back to my house lol.

My original converter is back from TA with an A500 snout so I will be trying this again shortly. I hate transmission fluid.

I made 2 1/2 1/8th mile passes this year .
Car took a hard left at mid track .
Brought the car to the frame shop 3 times and the guy still couldn't read a tape measure .
So the car has been sitting since .
Finally found a new frame rail and try and get motivated to put it in .

Decided to run the points for the Great Lakes Stock S/S assoc. Started off the year with a pinhole leak in an intake port. After testing at Mid Michigan we towed to Columbus for the Chrysler Classic. Motor was hydro locked #6 cylinder, tow home without ever starting the engine.. Pulled the heads that piston/rod assy to check. Got it repaired on a Friday went to Mid Mi for the GLSSA race #1. Got the win there on Saturday. Took .005 to much stripe on Sunday at race #2. Milan the following weekend. Dumped in 7th rd and let him by me. Went to 131 for GLSSA #3. Ripped a tube Friday night during testing. Had to leave the car outside. Huge storm, trunk has 6" water. Found a tire store early Saturday morning. Had tubes removed and replaced with stems. Water in the rockers fro the rain. On pass #1 Saturday, right had turn off the line. Run #2 qualify #2. Win rd #1, then rained out. On to Monster Mopar. Friday -.007 rd1, Saturday dead late Rd3, Sunday rd3 the weld on the throttle pedal breaks on the line (stock pedal). 2 weeks later back to Norwalk for NMCA. They're are paying $600 to qualify #1. Two out of 3 qualifiers we run 9.251 on 9.25 index and take the $600. Rd #1 My opponent who I took out twice at Monster Mopar with a .001 stripe, and a dead on 9.250 is gunning for me. He goes .004 r/t dead on with a .005. Back to Milan for Mopar event. Make it to Rd #3 .015 under. Make the tow to Mopar Southern Classic, 7 hrs.Truck loses 5th gear an hour into the trip. We run it in 4th. Saturday I roll the lights in the Semi's. Not enough on the foot brake which I've never done. Sunday we win the event. Noise in the engine area noticed in the winner circle. The truck loses about 15 psi boost on the way home. Limp back. Back home I find 3 flex plate mounting holes ripped out. One boss ripped right off the converter. My friend Paul welds the boss back on and makes a fixture to true up the converter. Good because the last GLSSA race is the following weekend. Milan for race #4. It rains out on the way to the track, reschedule for 2 weeks later. Make it to the 4th rd, .012 under. Enough rds to win the championship. The truck is repaired. Trans will be checked. It needs a spacer between the block and trans to prevent future flex plate failure. Then we're ready to start 2020. Hopefully way more than the 88 passes we made this year.
Doug

Nothing if not eventful, Doug. Way to persevere!

Couple test and tunes, couple nostailgia races, but most importantly to me, I got to watch my son make his first passes

Interesting year.... After doing some “testing” at the Hangover Nats in Tucson (26.68 baro) we had run a new best in the 1/8th.

On to 19..... For some “fun” I decided to enter a heads up N/A 10.5 class at Irwindale CA. Now mind you I have NO business running such a class, but we’d never run Irwindale and it would give us some hits on a good track in better air. Friday late afternoon the car didn’t even move when I released the trans brake.... seemed to be a common prob so we loosened the front two clicks and made hit #2. Released brake and the car launched like a rocket.... unfortunately rockets go up. I glanced over and checked that the wall wasn’t getting closer. Who knows how long the shift light had been on, but we pulled 2nd..... and then 3rd where we finally came down and before you know it, hey the finish line already! (Racepak later revealed a 9500 1-2 shift). Irwindale is narrow, lucky I still have a race car. But ran a new best of 5.79!! Common sense would have been to put the car away.
The next day we tightened up the front, and loosened the rear... blew the tires off it. Last pass we tightened the rear back up...... and I payed dearly for a photo op. BTW..... baro at Irwindale was 29.98.... air is good!

So mid April I slam the car down.... headers hurt, oil pan slightly, front quarters hit doors, k member bent, shocks.... and we’re pre entered for MaTS in May. I’m crushed..... never hurt any car this bad, but I had a plan.









Out with the W8 mill, my dad made a turn around trip from Phoenix where Mike at Comp Chassis deemed it easier to make a new K that fix the old. The car then went to Vegas where Al’s (Alguire) son Steven was ready for the task of straightening the car. As soon as he was finished I went to the shed and drug out “Bracket Betty”.... our iron headed 360 that was built sometime in the 90’s and freshened once that we could recollect. My dad ran it prior to our W5 build, and I ran it a little before the W8 was done 5yrs ago. We made MaTS and while we went out R1 of the 10k race (thanks Al... think he only had to sit at the line for 6.5 seconds ) We got bridesmaid in the Pro Class.... bracket Betty does what she does.



It got hot, I needed to spend $$ on the car so it sat until November where we decided to run in Vegas at the Street Car Supernationals. While testing went great, the driver TOTALLY let the car down. Was running two classes.... one utilizing a pro light. I highly recommend NOT forgetting that important detail. If you do, it won’t go well. Trust me. 1st round of no E we won, but 2nd round somebody doesn’t know how to judge the stripe well in a slower car. That was the end of 19.


Car is in the trailer and we’re Phoenix bound next weekend for a 2 day points race. I’ve never done an “ET Finals” so we might give that a whirl this year. Good luck everyone!

Jay

*bittersweet note: Early in 19 Billy and I were having some fun banter about running the small tire event at MaTS. Life changed fast on that deal.

I was lined up to aggressively hit some nice races during the 2019 race season even pre-entering a few that sell out early. Taking daily walks I was trying to get myself in shape till a lady rear ended my daily driver on June 23rd, totaling it and leaving me with headaches, blurred vision, and a suspected concussion that lasted most of the race season. A good car sat for much of the race season. I’m rebuilding a few engines and transmissions so hopefully matt will get his car out after sitting out last year except for a few races in my car. I’m ready to give her heck again this year. I already pre-entered two nice races at Norwalk to try again for my 45 or 46th race season.

Late Nov.-Dec of 2018 I spent much time getting the Challenger ready for 2019, everything pretty much freshened that needed it, except the slicks as they had 3-4 races left in them so figured I would change them out around March (I had planned on running points at Sonoma again - raced this car there since 2003). Then the phone rang at 6:11 pm January 6th, my dad passed away at the end of one of his gun shows (it was a Sunday night) . My dad lived in Rock Springs Wyoming so for the better part of 6 months, 6 trips total my time away from work was going back and forth for a week at a time dealing with his estate. If you can imagine 60+ years (he was 80) collecting and dealing guns the wife and I had our hands full. I miss him dearly to say the least. During that time we also had to put our 14 year old Jack Russel down. All of this just took up my free time and the car basically sat all year.
In September I received a few emails asking if I wanted to buy my '68 road runner back that I had sold reluctantly in 2013, the price was good and I was tired of seeing my '72 road runner sit all the time so I made a few phone calls sold it to make room for the '68, so glad to have this car back and I have to believe somehow my dad had something to do with getting it back as he hated seeing me let it go in 2013. The '68 got here in early December and after a few shakedown runs after that I am getting it ready for 2020.

Top picture is when it went to Boston, 2nd is back here in NorCal and last is the Sacramento Mopar race in September.......

I made five 1/8 mile passes total this year. Two trips to the track...new bests each trip.
Hurt 3 pistons on the last pass back in June. Motor is going back together real soon.
Pic is from the last pass.

spent most of 2018 getting an electric air shifter to work properly, only to find out in 2019 that the cable had stretched and it was no longer properly aligned. Allowing the solenoid to pull it from 1st to 3rd. Stubborn me didn't realize this until mounting my phone in the car and watching the vid. Once fixed the car ran very well 5 teens at 140. Went to the track once more after getting the shifter correct and just some timing adjustment during the nitrous progressing and I have been 5.00s at 140. Im running Ultra street and that is not even good enough to qualify as most of the 8 car fields are 4.8 to 4.60 sometimes 4.5's !!
Yes I know I still have a huge uphill curve ahead of me, but its SO nice to make some progress and see I should crack the 4's soon

I had what was a disappointing year for me .
Mostly self inflicted . No finals , but 2 semis .
Decided to swap in new 505 in middle of season . Then made a couple of errors in tune side , cost me in August round . Couldn't quite get on top of the tree consistently , ended last 2 rounds contested with reds . At that point was 4th but couldn't make up points so missed December final round and came 7th?
Had to change tyre brands for final 2 months of year , Hoosiers radial is just different to the PBR . So that was a curve ball especially with limited T&Ts .
Did an interstate national round , had 2 fuel pumps fail . Part filled carb with aluminium from 1 pump . Had to race using a Carter gold pump , lucky it was 1/8th mile . Went 3 rounds .

My 2020 season starts on Friday with IHRA/400 Thunder Santos Summer Thunder event here in Sydney .
No T&Ts since December .
It can only get better , I hope .

Tex

Threw this together in the last few months of 2019 with parts I had sitting on the shelf and managed to get in 2 test passes and one round of eliminations...looking forward to 2020. 360 Magnum with box stock Eddy heads, a Hughes hyd roller, 727 with stock converter and a 4:10 gear, went 7.35, 7.31 and 7.28 on the brakes killing 5mph leaving at 1500 RPM. New converter on order, pulling stock gas tank for a 5 gallon fuel cell and getting some aluminum wheels for 2020, hoping for some high 6s and more much needed footbrake practice👍😁

Well I gave it a try but after a week only 23 replies. Sad to see there aren't very many racers on this forum anymore.

I don't know about anybody else but I don't have a 6 figure salary. In fact no money is used from from my job to race. Its either side jobs or winnings. Occasionally my wife, son or friend comes with me. But most times I'm on my own. Wife's brothers and friends helped me build my shop. At 960 sq ft its about the same size as my house. I did buy a used hoist for my garage, $700. My tow vehicle is a 1995. Traded work even up for my 2003 trailer. The track "hotel" is a 2001 pop up truck camper. Just depends how motivated you are.
Doug

In the fall of 2018 I decided to park the Cuda and I picked this up from member RT66JIM. Didn't get it finished and out till July and finally got pretty comfortable in it and picked up a win the last race of the season.
Pretty cool win though being I was the last pair of cars down the track, now the track got sold and is getting upgraded and renamed.

Did ok this year, ended up 4th in my series with a new personal best. Ran a bunch of races in the beginning of the season, then survived drag week and made it through a race the very next week end. Broke the sprag in the trans and cracked the case, but could have been much worse. Fixed it for the next week end. All in all a good year.

Won a national event, two divisional events with one runner up. Managed to get my first National Top 10 finish in Super Stock, lost a divisional championship to David Rampy, and ended up tied for 15th in the Nation in Stock. Also managed to get a National event no.1 qualifier in St. Louis in Super Stock. Won a bracket race that started at 12 noon and finished at 6:00am the next morning and got my bracket Challenger to run a new best of 5.83@117.

My "car fund" is just from side money I pick up by doing the occasional engine build, engine & trans R&R, or some tree and backhoe work that's close to the house (no trailer to move the backhoe around). Have a fairly modest 2 bay shop my dad and I built ourselves. I do have a used lift I got for $400, but it's still sitting on the floor in the old barn b/c the shop roof isn't high enough. Think I'm gonna pour a pad outside for it.
Only reason I have this big hemi is b/c I built it before I got married, lol.

Common sense comes into play for those of us on a budget. The more you learn to do yourself and the less tricks you buy into the more you can go racing. If I had to pay someone to do my stuff I would have been forced to quit Racing years ago.

Ain't that the truth. It's amazing how many "racers" don't know how to turn a wrench. I'm not the most knowledgeable guy, but I've been watching and learning from my dad for the pass 33 years. He's tought me a TON of stuff that has allowed us to race as long as we have. The few times I've had to pay someone to do something because I knew it was beyond what I knew, it usually cost 3X what it would if I did it myself. 2019 was a different year for me. I started racing in 95 and have signed up for points and went after the championship every year. I think in all those years I might have missed 2 point races. With the transbrakes being allowed in Pro, I ended up putting a delay box in my car and trying Super for the year. Didn't bother signing up for pints and only made it out for 5-6 races. The wife and I decided to add an addition and attached garage to our house and we did 99% of the work ourselves. Started in Mid Feb and managed to get the outside finished in Oct, but still working on finishing the inside. I didn't mind the change, points racing can wear on you and I think it was time for a change. I enjoyed just going when I had time and got to work on other stuff and felt like I got way more accomplished.

Bought my Daytona as a rolling chassis in 2019.
Built my first racing Powerglide trans from a 1967 core. Bought a 493 CID iron head, pump gas engine (10.3 CR) since it was priced right. Put it on the dyno; engine made 569 Peak horsepower at 5700 rpm, 571 Peak torque at 4800.

Ran at the Mopar event at Maryland International Raceway in October.
I had 8 time slips all year, and made 8 passes at MIR, doubling my experience! LOL
6 passes at the Saturday event and 2 test passes Friday night:

1.439 sixty foot (foot brake)
4.188 at 330 ft
6.449 at 107.7 mph
8.422 at 1000 ft
10.10 at 134.0 mph

It is a 1993 Dodge Daytona, all round tube chassis car.
Factory steel doors and hinges, hatch back. One piece fiberglass front end and separate hood.
Strut front end
4-link rear suspension with anti-roll bar
Strange 9-inch rear, 4.56 gears, 15x33-15 slicks
1.76 Powerglide with ATI (compuflow) trans brake
2608 lbs plus 230 driver = 2838 race weight (heavy Daytona)

Gateway in St. Louis uses true-start also. Great if you have the better red light and leave first. Not so-- the other way