2009 - Race Team News
October 22-25, 2009 - More lessons about drag racing. This time at Maple Grove's Pennsylvania Dutch Classic. We decided to run Super Gas due to the forecast for rain and the later schedule offered that class. Jim Painter joined us as crew chief and we had a great time. Although we were only able to make 4 passes in as many days, we learned a good bit about reading the weather and adjusting our throttle stop control. The end result was another unfortunate first round loss due to the car going deep stage, a no no in Super Gas. Seems the car shifted forward enough to put the top light out while the trans brake was applying. We did however run a 9.900, which was most likely due to the setup being to run a 9.87 or 9.88 and deducting a bit for the deep stage.
It's been a great year with allot learning involved and a lot of fun had. Unless there is a great weather Sunday in November we're probably done for the year. can't wait for next spring!
October 7th, 2009 - Another school day for our driver! All these new fangled electronics that are supposed to make you more deadly on the tree and more consistent at the start and down track, well they don't mention anything about the learning curve in the instruction manuals. Three times down the track and this is the second time out with only one time slip of any value. But hey, even the runs with no data on them due to staging issues were worthwhile. Seems that the trans brake button is so sensitive that I'm accidentally bumping it on while staging which really puts a wrench into finishing the process. Looking into a better way to approach that button for the next outing.
September 30, 2009 - After months of waiting the custom decals finally arrived and Jim stopped by to lend an eye to John and I with the alignment process of installing them.
So, the windows look great, trunk lid and lip decals are also nice. I'm not sure I'm loving the company logos on the rear quarters though. They turned out a bit small and hard to read from any distance. May have to go back to the drawing board on the company logos.
September 22, 2009 - Back to maple Grove for the rescheduled, rained out Geezers at the Grove race.
Not a fantastic day. Seems I’m fighting with this starting line control. First pass 10.99 (not a bad from the course adjustment we made to the throttle stop based on the last pass from weeks ago) terrible light. Looked like we weren’t getting another time trial so I didn’t touch anything.
Low and behold they called us up again. The car felt like it left at an idle (or perhaps at the closed throttle stop position) slowly crept down the track, the throttle stop came off and the car finished the pass fine. Guess what? No time slip??? I asked Maria if she remembered what was on the board and she said 12 something. Something was definitely not right.
I got the manual for the delay box out and tried to understand the settings for the starting line control. Difficult to understand. Either I’m dense or racers can’t write. Best I could make of it the adjustment we had made last time at the track may have been in the wrong direction and it was waiting even longer to open to full throttle.
Made an adjustment to the starting line control, settings in the box and headed off for first round. Running an old funny car, Oh Boy! Put the top bulb on and sat and waited for this goofy car to finally approach the starting line. His top build goes on and I start bumping in to stage. Oops, Oh shit I accidentally press the trans brake button. While I immediately release it, the delay has to time out on the box before it will let the car move again and here comes the tree. I guess I could wait for him to get around to staging... but the starter couldn’t wait for me. So now I’m not staged. I make the run anyway and wonderful this time I get a time slip, however it’s a blank. No stage, not reaction, no times, no MPH. Anyway the car left much harder but I’m not convinced it’s setup right and with no times? I think I’m going to call Dedenbear this week and explain the issue and see what they suggest to set it at
August 22, 2009 - The window decals arrived today after many weeks of waiting for final mockups I'm happy to say that they look great. Steve Bell at Bell Signs did a great job. He also sent along an example for the sponsor logo which will be produced after final sponsor approval. Can't wait to put them on and head out for next weekends NHRA Division 1 race at Cecil County, MD where we plan on competing in NHRA's Super Street, 10.90 class. Stop by and say hello if your at the track.
July 16-17-18-19, 2009 - We participated in the Super Chevy Show held at Maple Grove Raceway in Mohntown, PA over the weekend. The car performed well and due to in climate weather and the number of cars competing we were only able to make two time runs in two days. We were test and tuning our Biondo starting line enhancer that delays the car going to full throttle until after the trans brake button releases. The starting line enhancer is a CO2 operated piston controlled by the delay box that keeps the engine at a lower RPM while staging. It essentially prevents extended time at high RPM against the torque converter while waiting for both cars to stage. We think we have it all setup and tuned in, but due to driver error, we went out in the first round of eliminations and did not get a final test. We'll get it next time we bracket race.
6/13/2009 Jim Painter stopped by to lend a hand wiring up our Dedenbear Lightning Plus delay box/throttle stop controller. Turns out it's quite a maze of wires. 3 pushbuttons. 2 solenoids. and finally the electronics box. Well we got about 90% of the installation completed and decided to wait until Tuesday to complete the job once we acquire the missing wire loom.
6/10/2009 My how things have changed in the twenty plus years since I last went racing. My temporary NHRA license arrived today by email. We didn't even have email back in 1981 when I got my fist license! I guess this means we can get back to the track and start competing. Well maybe a bit more testing first.
5/30/2009 Back to the track. This time to maple Grove for a full Saturday. We arrived nice and early and got through tech inspection. We are able to make 4 passes, a 9.67 lifting around the 1,000 foot line, a 10.01 again lifting, a 9.41 full pass on the rev limiter in the traps and finally a 9.30 once more on the rev limiter. We had a great day. Jared showed up and took some photos and made our first video. We cooked out and the weather was exceptionally nice. We now have enough passes completed to request our NHRA license for Super Gas and won't be able to race again until we get it. Stay tuned!
5/15/2009 Ed Bicevskis stopped over and lent a hand removing the radiator and testing it. Low and behold the radiator which was originally a single pass design had had the lower fitting moved from the drivers to the passengers side, hence bypassing the radiators core. We took the radiator to West End Radiator below Ephrata PA and they welded a plate into the center of the passenger side tank essentially changing the radiator to a double pass.
5/13/2009 Finally we went to the track, Cecil County Drag way, Wednesday for a test and tune. Our first time visiting a race track to actually race in over twenty years and in retrospect the evening seemed like a blur. We were able to make 3 passes, a 1/2 pass 14.97, a second partial pass of 12.25 and a final almost full pass of 9.22 @ 148 MPH. We also discovered a problem with the cars cooling system. Down the track the car never went over 180 degrees, however while coming back the return road the temperature continued to climb and climb. With help from Tom Hunter, and his side-kick Tim and a bit of trouble shooting it appeared that the water was not passing through the radiator but rather in the top and right out the bottom. In as much as it wasn't overheating during the passes we were at least able to finish the evening. We had a nice evening and it seemed like old times with friends Jim, Painter and Ed Bicevskis showing up to lend a hand.
5/10/2009 Picked up the car today. We are days away from racing. Stay tuned.
5/4/2009 Took the car back up to Custom Metal Craft in New Holland, PA for a few final changes. John will be moving the shifter forward to a more comfortable position, adjusting the throttle rod to work with the Biondo starting line control, installing a gas tank vent and adjusting the front end springs to raise the car to the minimum of 3" of ground clearance.
4/26/2009 We picked the car up from Tom over at Hunter drag racing today. Tom installed the motor along with the new Moroso vacuum pump, East Coast alternator, #1 stop under carb throttle stop and Biondo starting line control. He also got the new motor running for us and tied up all of the loose ends. many thanks to Tom and Brenda Hunter for their help!
3/28/2009 The car is now at Hunter Racing, Hallam, PA for the final details of the the motor installation including the addition of a Moroso vacuum pump and an East Coast Electrics alternator kit. We should be ready to race in a matter of a few weeks.
3/23/2009 Picked the car up today from Kooks in New York. What can I say they did a supper job. Nice flowing tubes, custom bent, not pieced together. Beautiful. Many thanks to Red their custom header fabrication expert, George their factory manager and Chris in sales.
3/13/2009 We dropped the car of today at Kooks Custom Headers in Bay Shore, NY (Long Island) for construction of the big block headers in stainless steel. The headers will have egt mounts built in for our Race Pac data logging system and will exit through the front fender wells as the small block headers did previously.
3/12/2009
We picked up the car today from John @ Custom Metal Craft in New Holland, PA. All of the modifications are now complete for the Big Block Chevy. The motor has been shifted back in the car and new motor, mid and transmission mounts made. John also made a mount for our Dendenbear Lightning Plus delay box. The Box mounts to the shifter with one bolt for quick removal in the event we enter a class that restricts the usage of electronics. An air box, trimming of the rear bumper for additional wheelie bar clearance and a new mount for the parachute release lever were all completed very professionally. Many thanks to John!
11/10/2008
The car was moved to the chassis shop today - Custom Metal Craft, New Holland, PA, in order to make the modifications required for installation of our big block motor. We'll also be having the chassis re certified by the NHRA while there. Mounts made for a future delay box and a throttle return bracket added to the accelerator pedal. Plans are also underway to shift the motor three inches rearward as well as a future front air dam.