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We are NHRA Division 2 Super Comp and ET Bracket drag racers based in Tampa, Florida. This site is dedicated to our team and the people who very graciously support us in many ways including but not limited to financially, morally and spiritually.

July 27, 2008

There is a new Tech Talk article. Click here or the Tech Talk tab above.

July 27, 2008

The jury is in regarding my engine problem. I didn't want to discuss it too much until I was sure but it was the engine builders fault not the converter or transmission. As it turns out, Kris Nelson, the previous engine builder, didn't put oil restrictors in the back of the back so the bottom end was starved. Additionally, the clearance between the top end of the rods and the pistons at the wrist pins was too tight galling the pistons and the dowel pin was missing in the rear main cap. All of these things contributed towards the thrust bearing failure. It's hard to believe that a guy who builds many 700+ cubic inch motors for the heads up guys can't build a small block that will go more that 35 passes.

Anyway, moving on, I decided to go with a new set of heads to get me in the middle of the pack ET wise at Sunshine. I bought a set of AFR 227cc intake runner heads that have 65cc chambers and 2.10" intake valves. These things flow 309 cfm at full lift. Seeing that a motor is nothing more than an air pump, with these heads it will get a tremendous amount of air. The only drawback is they require offset lifters and shaft rocker mounting rails. I'm hoping that with these changes the car will go in the low 5 teens in the eighth mile. If things keep progressing as they are I'm only about three weeks away from completion.

July 5, 2008

There is a new Tech Talk article. Click here or the Tech Talk tab above.

There is a new Commentary article. Click here or the Commentary tab above.

July 5, 2008

Around here, this is what is referred to as the "Dog Days of Summer".  It's hot!!  Very hot, humid. and quite frankly, just too hot to race. Here all of the tracks shut down for the month of July as we seem to get a thunderstorm just about every day, normally around 5:00 pm.

I guess it's a good thing as my motor isn't done yet so I'm relegated to minor things like installing new roll bar padding and checking the parachute. If things go right I should have everything back together to be back out in mid August or September when the racing season continues.

June 7, 2008

There is a new Commentary article, "Isn't it about time that we stand up and shout, "No More" ?. Click here or the Commentary tab above.

June 2, 2008

I have to tell this little story. This evening I was talking to a friend of mine who had just made a trip to Canada this past weekend to inspect a Pro Mod '63 Vette he was considering buying. He described the car as pretty rough and used a few choice descriptive terms such as booger to give me an idea of what it was like. He then proceeded to give me the following quote, "You can paint lipstick on a pig but that doesn't make her a Victoria Secret model." I laughed so hard I almost choked trying to catch my breath and needless to say, felt obligated to share that precious quote with the world.

May 28, 2008

Having been down and out of competition for a short while, it has allowed me plenty of time to paint, clean and polish everything on the car. The motor is in process and the new torque converter  will be shipped tomorrow, so at least I'm making progress.

One of the very obvious changes I'm making is doing away with the wrap around roll bar padding. I painted the cage with a silver hammer tone finish and I'm going to use the Simpson roll bar padding that attaches only on the inside of the roll cage. I think it will give the car a much cleaner look where the padding doesn't show on the exterior.  I'm also going to add a large transmission cooler and a remote starter button on the back of the deflector shield that I can use to bump the motor over to adjust the valves.

I spent a lot of time polishing over the last few weeks. I had relatively new aluminum  front motor mounts and a new aluminum mid-plate that needed something. Raw unfinished aluminum just doesn't look good. My choices were to either polish them or have them powder coated. Seeing that I run ground wires to both I decided to polish because it's very difficult to get a good ground on a powder coated part. Once you polish an aluminum part right it's very easy to maintain the finish with a little Flitz polish once in awhile.

A lot of racers know how to polish aluminum but many people don't so I decided this would make a very good tech article. I hope you find it interesting. Click here or the Tech Talk tab above.

May 8, 2008

After what I've just been through, I wanted to learn as much about thrust bearings as possible and as such want to share with you. There is a new Tech Talk article, "Understanding Thrust Bearings". If you're a racer, I hope you find it interesting. Click here or the Tech Talk tab above.

May 5, 2008

Gas at the local Shell station with 10% Ethanol is $3.63 and racing Methanol is $6.50 a gallon. Last January Methanol was $3.25 a gallon. This picture just says it all doesn't it?

The only bright side is my shares of Berry Petroleum and Southwestern Petroleum have skyrocketed however, even that is driven by those playing the futures market and not by the oil companies themselves. Conversely, the methanol price is driven by supply and demand as the demand is high and production capabilities are limited. I'm done venting.

May 2, 2008

There is a new Tech Talk article, "Taking the Mystery Out of Drag Racing With Alcohol". If you're a racer, I hope you find it interesting. Click here or the Tech Talk tab above.

April 29, 2008

Tonight I had an opportunity to see the carnage first hand. It's ugly... very, very ugly. You can click on the images to see them full size. This is what you don't want to do, cook your bearings. The thrust bearing is literally cooked and the number 2 rod bearing was on it's way. The rod bearing probably picked up trash from the thrust bearing being disintegrated

My new Callies DragonSlayer crank needs to have the thrust journal welded and ground back to specifications. It's just a good thing that I had an oil accumulator on the car and that I caught the drop in oil pressure in time to shut the motor off before this became a catastrophe. Well, it sort of is now but it could have been ten times worse.

There are several things that could have caused this so I'm in the process of elimination. The very first thought was a lack of oil restrictors in the back of the block. This was definitely confirmed as a contributor but probably not the only detrimental factor. It could have been partially caused by improper bearing clearances, however, the bearings are too trashed to confirm that. It was thought that the torque converter could have caused it if the converter ballooned but it didn't and there was plenty of play and clearance for the converter no to put pressure on the crank.

It appears that what has a strong potential for being a contributor was not enough transmission fluid cooler capacity. According to Alan Pope at Alan Pope Performance Products, this is possible and can cause a hydraulic effect that forces the converter forward because the pressure increases. According to Alan, the transmission fluid cooler line pressure should never exceed 60 lbs either on the top end of when you're on the transbrake.

I use a Meziere Enterprises WTP-100 transmission pan that circulates water from the cooling system to the pan which is supposed to stabilize the transmission fluid temperature and engine coolant temperature. Apparently this isn't enough by itself to cool the fluid enough to keep the pressure in check. What an expense lesson!!

The good news is, I should have my motor back in about two weeks so that we can go out and try again... and again ..and again... and again. Just a touch of sarcasm if you didn't pick up on that. I do feel like I'm just on the verge of doing some serious winning though. I'll keep you updated.

April 27, 2008

There is a new Commentary article, "What are we doing wrong?". Click here or the Commentary tab above.

April 26, 2008

There is a new Tech Talk article, "Cheap Insurance". If you're a racer, I hope you find it interesting. Click here or the Tech Talk tab above.

April 25, 2008

April 20, 2008

New Commentary article. Is it time for us to be re-started? Food for thought. Click Commentary above.

April 19, 2008

Well....here we go again. Last Friday night on my last pass, the car slowed up a little and as I was loading it into the trailer I noticed that the oil pressure was low. Saturday morning with cold, thick oil, the pressure was only 40 lbs. This just didn't look good. I decided that it would be a good idea to drain the oil right away and check for..stuff. Sure enough, I found ...stiuff. Bearing material to be exact in the bottom of my reusable oil filter and on the distributor gear. Uh-oh!!! This is not good!!!

I had 17 passes on a fresh motor and the bearings are being trashed. Needless to say, I'm not a happy camper. Everything is stripped down and I'll be yanking the motor out this week to take over to United Speed World. I need to have it professionally assessed and corrected. The initial consensus is that the previous engine builder didn't install oil restrictors in the back of the block so that the high volume oil pump sent the oil up to the top of the motor starving the bottom, thus creating the bearing failure. We'll see if that's it or not. On the flip side, I'm getting pretty good at stripping this thing down and putting it back together, just like a Top Fuel team, except I can't do it in 45 minutes.

April 19, 2008

It just never ceases to amaze me that no matter how long you do this, there is always new stuff to learn. Because of my recent situation I did some research on bearings and bearing clearances. In this week's Tech Talk I have a re-print of an excellent Clevite article about bearings. I hope you enjoy it and learn something new. I did.

April 15, 2008

There's a new Tech Talk article for your reading enjoyment. The subject matter is racing engines, components, timing, nitrous oxide and other related important issues.

April 12, 2008

                                                                                                                            Friday night the weather was great for racing. We started out at 85.9° at 6:30 pm at Sunshine Dragstrip with a density altitude of 2076 feet. Not bad for April huh? Anyway, I started out strong with an .016 light then a .008 red light in time trials. The car didn't like going that fat with the pill as it slowed down but that was OK. I added .01 to the deIay box and I was ready to race but so were my competitors.

My first round opponent dialed a 6.90 then proceeded to run a 6.900 and strapped a .001 light on me. Like, I'm going to beat that...Not! I was toast. I paid the $25 and bought back into the second round and got drilled silly a second time, almost as if I'm a glutton for punishment. Go ahead... whip me, beat me, I thrive on the pain....you believe that don't you?  This just wasn't my week. I think I mentioned it before that this is probably the toughest bracket racing crowd in the country and they will definitely wear you out. They sure wore me out last night. You just have to keep it all in perspective I guess, that a bad day at the track is always better than a good day at work.

                                                                                                                                   I unloaded the car this morning and I'll set it back up with the .086 pill and just take it from there. I have to thank my buddy Glen Launey, the Division 2 RFC Chaplain, for taking the photos for me tonight as I was racing by myself. He did a superb job. Thanks Glen !!! I love the above night shot.

April 5, 2008

                                                                                                                                 Friday night I decided not to race at Sunshine Dragstrip but to just go out to observe and try and learn a few things before racing this coming Friday night. As you can see, I did learn that I have a new, very young, teammate, Lewis Lopez, now running in Jr. Dragster. I also took a large number of photos which are now in the photo gallery for your viewing enjoyment.

Last week I was able to go four rounds yet I was disappointed that I didn't go all the way and win the race. In Gainesville last month, I had an .086 pill in the fuel system and the car ran a 5.375 1/8 mile at 127.63 mph. Last week I tried an .090 pill in order to lean it just a little and the car slowed down to a 5.42 best at 125.59 mph. This week I had some discussions with James Monroe, who is the field tech rep for Ron's Fuel Systems, and it was decided that the car needs to be richened up as even the .086 pill produced times that James considers a little slow for the car's potential. This coming week I'll have a .080 pill in the car and I expect the 60 foot numbers to respond well resulting in better incrementals all the way down the track. With an alcohol car, it's good to have it a little on the rich side, as it will be more consistent and less subject to ET fluctuations because of either temperature or humidity.

Each track has it's own personality and Sunshine has plenty of personality for sure. Temperature and humidity naturally play a big part in how you will run on any particular day but there is more to it than that. What is so difficult is trying to figure out how the rubber on the track will react to your attempt to put horsepower to it. How the track was prepared, wind that blows sand, seepage and other things can all affect traction. It's almost enough to drive you crazy. These were the things I was trying to really pay attention to. Why is all of this so important you wonder? Well, the crowd that races here, is probably the best overall group of bracket drag racers in the country. They are wicked to say the least. Friday night in the second round, Paul Rebis lost the round by 2/10,000 ths of a second, that's .0002. What it really all boils down to is, the winner is the person who makes the least mistakes. Hopefully, the more you know, the fewer mistakes you'll make. It's good in theory anyway. We'll see Friday night.

April 2, 2008

A few days ago, a very good old friend of mine, the Delaware Destroyer, suggested that I convert this website into a drag racing portal similar to what I had back in 2000. That is something that I absolutely don't want to do, as I explained to him, because I just couldn't put up with NHRA and their politics. You see, in order to have a portal and a real news site, you must have NHRA press credentials in order to get proper access to people and photo credentials. At the same time, like the Gestapo, they monitor every word you write and if you say something they don't agree with, they force you to fall in line or threaten you with withdrawing your credentials and access. No thanks Anthony Vestal, I've been there and done that.

The one thing it did do however, was get me to think about how I can improve this site. I'm not the quiet type and always have something to say about the sport so I created a Commentary page. The link is above. I promise to try and make it interesting reading and provoke your thought process. Don't hesitate to give me some feedback. At the same time, I'm always asking people about different tech issues and I would like to share some of this information, as I do have site visitors who are new to the sport and do ask questions. I hope I'm able to help other people with the sport and not make some of the same mistakes I've made and learned from, the hard way. This new page is called Tech Talk and the link is also above. Let me know what you think.

March 29, 2008

                                                                                                                       Tonight we ran our first bracket race of the year at Sunshine. From the results, I would have been much better off to have skipped the division race or national event and went straight back to bracket racing. This was a very good night and I felt comfortable that I could win it but as it turned out, just not quite. The bottom line is I missed the tree with an .057 light running .02 over my dial in the fourth round while my competitor had an .032 light on top of running dead on with a 4 to clean my clock. At least I was in the money.

The weather was a little unusual as the humidity level started out at 26% and gained 10% per round. We ran the fourth round just a little after 11 pm and the moisture was starting to set in on the track. I was really pleased with how the car worked as during four rounds and two time runs my ET didn't vary more than .018. Except for the fourth round I was in the reaction time zone of  .011, .012 and  .018 on the tree which really isn't too shabby.

I have to say that even though large races are great, running Friday nights at Sunshine is the best as there aren't any work or school restraints for the family. I love going racing with my wife and daughter and of course Paul Witting. We go right after work then cook out at the track for dinner. Glen Launey, the local RFC Chaplain, stopped by and had dinner with us so maybe I had a little spiritual assistance tonight. Quite frankly, I'm open to any help I can get. My daughter Katie loves to go racing and is starting to get into the racing math and a few other details as evidence by this video. Click here for video. I have to thank her for taking the pictures you see here.
 

March 16, 2008

This event for me began on Tuesday afternoon, the 11th right after work. I made the dash home with the motorhome and trailer, loaded everything up then hit the road for Gainesville. This was to be my first NHRA national event in thirteen or fourteen years so needless to say I was pumped. The car was running well, I felt great and everything just seemed to be in place for a great weekend.

                                                                                                                               After arriving at the track at 1:00am on Wednesday morning, we weren't allowed to pit until 10:00am as Gainesville had received a deluge of rain the previous weekend and the NHRA was giving the pit area every opportunity to dry out. I was 45th in line to pit so I was fortunate enough to get a good high and dry pit space in the sportsman triangle. The day was reserved for getting through tech inspection only which I was able to get accomplished by 1:30. The rest of the day was spent socializing and meeting new people like Kevin Craddock and his crew who were parked beside me. As it turned out, Kevin went five rounds on Sunday in his Nitro Plate AA/SA Camaro.

                                                                                                                        Thursday was a perfect day for racing. The temperature was in the mid seventies all day and the skies were slightly cloudy. There were three Super Comp time trials schduled for the day at 10:30am, 12:30pm and 2:30pm. NHRA did a good job of keeping everything pretty close to the schedule.

I was basing my runs on the previous trip a few weeks ago to Gainesville so I decided I would just pick up where I left off regarding the throttle stop setting and back into the 8.90 index. As it turned out I had three good time runs and I felt confident in my set up for first round eliminations. I was also hitting the tree very consistently with  .017, .020 and .022 reaction times. I thought they were consistent enough to do some winning with. My sixty foot times were also within .02 seconds of each other which was an excellent indication that the car was consistent and the track was well prepped. The sixty foot times were also right on where they had been 3 weeks ago for the points race at this track. My confidence was really high.

                                                                                                                                 We were scheduled for first round of eliminations on Friday morning at 9:00am. As you can see, it didn't happen. As a matter of fact nothing happened at all on Friday as the whole day was rained out. It was a downpour or anything like that just drizzle all day.

took the opportunity to visit other racers like my neighbors Robbie MacDonald and his family from Lake City who drive for Advanced Auto Parts in Super Comp and the whole crew from Right Trailers who were attending the event representing Vintage Trailers on the manufacturer's midway. I also took the opportunity to talk in depth with some manufacturers to pick up some product knowledge and technical product information. That in itself was worth the price of admission.

Super Comp round one was now scheduled for 9:00am Saturday morning right after Stock Eliminator. Well....the plan was good however the track didn't cooperate. NHRA was having a difficult time drying the top end of the track as the relative humidity was up around 92%. It was around 10:00am when the track was finally ready to go but Super Comp was pushed back to the evening after the last Pro session. As it turned out, I ran first round at 9:21 that evening. After all of that waiting I was wired for sound and ready to just knock the tree down to beat my competitor (who I have no idea who it was). Unfortunately I was too wired and red lit and left before the starter hit the button. I blew it and the Gatornationals were over for me. Crap !!!!!! The good news is, my Right Trailers teammate, Steve Cohen, went on to runner up in Super Comp, losing a close final to Ron Erks. I have to be happy for both Right Trailers and Steve as he did an excellent job. I look forward to when both of us can get to a final.

Drag racing as a sport is fun but the best aspect has to be the people. The sport in my opinion is filled with the greatest people on earth. I just can't tell you how cool it is when a guy appears out of nowhere and you get a big bear hug from the guy you haven't seen for twenty years. A guy who you used to hang around with all of the time with and then seemed to have fallen off of the face of the earth, just to find out that he, his wife and kids picked up and moved to North Carolina.

Great to see ya Keith !! He was Rowland Wood's crew chief throughout the eighties when all of us old guys were all running Super Comp together. Old Super Comp racers don't die, we just get recycled.

March 6, 2008

Tonight, after work, I was supposed to load up and head over to Orlando Speed World Dragway for the NHRA Division 2 Lucas Oil Series points race. However, there is a 50% chance of rain Friday, 60% Saturday with high winds on Saturday and a prediction for the temperature to drop to 43° Saturday night.

I don't know about you, but that is not the makings of a fun weekend for me. It was raining on the way home from work so I decided to spend the weekend painting inside the house and doing yard work on Sunday.

Hopefully NHRA will reschedule the event and then I'll take a crack at it. Tuesday night I'll pack up and leave for the Gatornationals in Gainesville. The long term weather forecast for next week is great until Friday and Saturday when rain is predicted. Of course last year when I didn't run these events it was dry as a bone all spring. {Sigh !!!! }

March 2, 2008

                                                            
During last weekend's event in Gainesville, I learned that higher compression motors produce much more crankcase pressure. This new motor has a 14.0:1 compression ratio which is substantially more than the previous 12.3:1 motor. As a result, sometimes a little oil can find it's way to your headers through the evacuation system which burns as soon as it hits the hot headers producing white smoke.

Some people have asked me, "Why don't you run a vacuum pump on the car?" Well, I did consider it, however, I read an article that was published a couple years ago by David Rehr (of Rehr-Morrison Racing fame) in which he states, "I am not a fan of crankcase vacuum pumps on wet-sump engines." Click the hyperlink to read the whole article, it's excellent and offers a lot of insight into oiling systems. If anyone knows, he does. David is without a doubt, a top expert in the industry.

This week, I did two things to help the situation. First, I had baffles installed inside the valve covers so that any oil that is in the top of the motor can't be directly sucked up into the breathers. The second change I made was adding an air-oil separator so that the crankcase gases pass through it before going to the headers. When you think about it, this is a great safety device as well and is just extra insurance to keep things dry from any oil mist.

Next weekend is the next NHRA Division 2 points race in Orlando with the Gatornationals in Gainesville right behind it on the following weekend. The car is ready and so am I. Let's go racing.

February 23, 2008

Late Friday night the rain returns and with a vengeance. It really poured and turned part of the pit area, including mine, into a swamp. The racer pitted next to me had to be towed out of the mud. I was much more fortunate and just moved to higher ground.

The good news is, the rain is now gone and the track is dry. We're going racing.

After so much waiting, my first pass is an 8.492 ET at 155.63 mph. Everything worked, and the pass was as good as I could have expected. If I was bracket racing, the rest would be simple, but this is Super Comp. Heads up 8.90, and now I'm lost for a throttle stop setting because I have to slow down from an 8.49 to an 8.90.

For the second pass, I referred back to my notes from the previous motor setup and guessed by putting .1843 seconds delay in the delay box just to see what would happen. It ran an 8.50 ET at, get this, 156.28 mph. Not only is the track coming in but the piston rings are also seating. Wow! I'm impressed but lost for a set up. If you click the image and look at it full size, you can see I'm carrying the front wheels an inch or two on the launch. Great weight transfer.

We had first round of eliminations at 8:30pm with only two time runs. Seeing that my only shot is to rely on my computer software that doesn't have enough run data, I throw .967 seconds of throttle stop delay in the box and I'm hoping the other guy red lights so that I can get the data to dial it tight for round two. No such luck. I hit the tree hard with an .017 light and my opponent hits it hard also with an .012 light. He whacks me hard on the top end running a 9.04 against my all out 9.09. Well, at least I have enough run data so that I should be in much better shape for the next race.

On Sunday, on the way home, I stopped at the Flying J truck stop in Bushnell for gas. It was filled with racers on their way home and I happened to see this on the door of one of the racer's trailers. I think it says it all.

As it turned out, as I was waiting there, this door was photographed no fewer than four times.

February 22, 2008

It's Friday and we're off to a great start. No rain...yet... and things are starting to dry up. I'm able to get through tech inspection and I'm ready for the first pass. I'm a little pumped as my expectations are a little lofty with the new combination.

About noon we get hit with a short shower and that postpones everything for a few hours. The track crew was able to dry the track and time trials started about 3:00pm.

As it turns out, I'm able to get one shot today. The burnout was great, the launch was great with a 1.20 sixty foot time and a .030 light but the car doesn't shift into high gear and I abort the run. The transmission linkage was off by a couple turns. To top it off I discovered a fuel fitting that came loose which produced a nice fan type alcohol spray. Fortunately neither problem was severe and were simple fixes. There's always tomorrow.

If you have ever been to Florida, you know that one thing we have here in great abundance is fire ants. I think my pit space had at least fifteen of these mounds. These little creatures, if left unchecked, will tear you up if you happen to step on one of these mounds.

Being from Florida, I never go to a track without a 5 gallon bucket of insect killer and a whirly bird lawn spreader just to take care of these guys. It's also a necessity to keep them out of the motorhome and trailer because they will get in by crawling up the tires into the vehicles..
 

February 21, 2008

Before I can leave for Gainesville, I needed to find a 2-5/8" diameter water temperature gauge. Of course seeing that I needed one, none were to be found in Tampa, only at Automotive Engineering in Clearwater. So it's off to Clearwater to puick up the gauge then on to Gainesville.

I arrived at the track around 1:00pm and this wet stuff keeps falling out of the sky. It's a four letter word that should never be used in the presence of a drag racer. Yes, it's rain. Lots and lots of rain. So much for a testing and tuning day and it completely wiped out tech inspections also.

The good thing is, I have plenty of time to install my new water temperature gauge and run over some other details for tomorrow.

February 20, 2008

                                                                                                                              
Wednesday night, 10:00pm and it's finally done. After many trials and tribulations, everything is complete. I started the motor and everything seemed to check out except the electrical water temperature gauge which had the needle buried on 250°. Needless to say you can't run a motor without one. But that's a problem for tomorrow morning. In the morning I'm headed for Gainesville and the Division 2 points race.

During all of this, I need to give a lot of credit and a ton of thanks to Will Bodley and his trusty assitant Ed, who in my humble opinion is the world's best drag race car fabricator. He never ceases to amaze me with his abilities.

February 17, 2008

I think the photo says it all. No I didn't get my motor back on the 12th like promised. Nor did I get it on the 13th, 14th or 15th like promised. At 2:00 pm on Friday, the 15th, Kris Nelson calls and pronounces, "come pick it up in 45 minutes". Needless to say, when we arrived at his shop exactly at 2:45 pm it wasn't finished yet either. If the Pinocchio story was true, his nose would be five feet long.

It gets worse. When we delivered the motor to Kris in the beginning of December we just yanked it out of the car along with the mid plate and flexplate then delivered it. During the disassembly process, he discovered that the mid plate was cracked. Did he tell me? NO! So now, I have another major issue to deal with at the last minute. Ahhhh!!!!! I just never realized that incompetence was running so rampant.

On the way back to Will Bodley's shop, we stopped at Alro Metals to buy a piece of 6061-T6 1/4" aluminum plate for making a new mid plate. We finally made it back to Will's shop by 4:30pm.  But wait, the nightmare isn't over.

Immediately after getting back to the shop, Will starts to fabricate a new mid plate. During the process Will needs to cut a 6" hole in the middle of the new plate for the crankshaft to go through it. Using a brand new 6" hole saw, the hole gets cut about half way through when problems develop with the drill press. Ahhhh!!!! We give up for the evening and have a few beers then crash. That was the easy part because I had my motorhome and trailer parked at Will's shop. So, what else could go wrong? Oh just wait...

The next morning (Saturday), Will takes the mid plate down the street to a friend who has a Bridgeport mill and completes the cut. After a little touch up, we install the motor and transmission. Finally! I then try to slip the coupler from the transmission into the rear end and it won't go in. It's off by less than 1/16". Ahhhhh!!! How did this happen? After a few hours, we came to the conclusion that it was in the front motor mounts so the process of correcting the front motor mounts begins. By 4:00pm the coupler slides in and out the way it's supposed to and we're on to the next problem.

My new Ron's fuel injection system is supplied with a bolt on mechanical fuel pump that needs to be mounted on the front of the motor. The kit comes with cog pulleys and a 1/2" wide 60 tooth belt. Of course.... the belt is too short. The only place that we can find that has the 66 tooth belt that we need is Grainger and they are closed on Saturdays. It's now 5:00 pm so we just throw up our hands and give up. The drag racing gods have not blessed us with their good graces this weekend. At this point, all you can do is laugh because if you don't, it will probably have a detrimental affect on your health.

We are going back at it Monday night after work and hopefully get the car completely finished and fired by Tuesday night. I'll load up and head to Gainesville for the NHRA Division 2 points race on Thursday night. I sure hope this weekend goes much better than the last as it's my birthday. I'll be 39 (again).

The good news is that there is an article about us in this week's issue of National Dragster in the What's New column. Check it out.

February 11, 2008

When you take your dragster to your chassis builder and the engine builder drags his feet completing your motor, this is what happens. Your car gets hung from the ceiling. It's really not funny, ...well...if it's your car it's not funny.

This weekend everything in the trailer and motorhome was loaded and the final cleaning took pla