Monday, June 29, 2009

The Heat Is On

Down here in the south, we are in the midst of a massive heat wave that we call summer. It is routinely 95 plus degrees during the day. Thoughts this time of year often turn to beaches and tropical vacations, but not on my team. We went to the finals at the PTRA race last weekend in Mooresville.We got beat by 7 hundredths of a second in a dawg fight of a race by my buddy Flyin Brian Mcgee. But we picked up 30 points on the points leader and are still tweaking the hot rod. I am having a problem making the ponies gallop in this hot stanky air. But I think i am headed in the right direction. The orange car is in the paint shop as we speak getting a new look. We have a month off before the next Orsca race, and will be giving the orange car a break for a couple weeks. We almost have the new 68 camaro done and may test it this week. It is called the Cowmaro and you will see why when we bring it out. It will be a monster and i can't wait to lay down on the honker pedal.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

BREAKING RECORDS AND PARTS

Remember in my last post i told you guys that the orange car was gonna be a handful, Well it was. We got to Montgomery Motorsports Park at around 7 friday night ready to shake the ole girl down one time. I knew i had it flying thursday night at carolina, but was unsure if my tuneup would work at another track. Well shortly after we got there a tsunami of biblical proportions busted loose. It rained like 5 inches. So no testy testy friday night. Saturday morning Tsunami number two hit. It rained from ten am to 3 oclock. Finally around 6 we were ready for our first qualifying shot. No testing, just straight down to business. I figured if we were gonna show these boys we were serious, now was as good a time as any. I rolled through the water box and Big Johnson gave me the signal to drop the hammer, I stepped down on the honker pedal and burned in hard, rolling to the 330 in a cloud of smoke. I gave the camera guys sitting on the wall a thumbs up and backed up ready to rock the house. Brian got me dead centered in the groove, I eased into the beams. It's crazy how a sport so violent and wild as drag racing requires you to be so delicate and gentle. I mean when we stage the car it looks like i am treating that thing like a delicate flower whose petals could be easily knocked off if i am too harsh. And then half a second later, i am trying to sling the crankshaft slap out the motor for 4 seconds. Anyways, I launched hard and straight and we lit the clocks on fire with a 4.679. Thats a new Orsca Limited Street World Record. If we backed it up. Second round qualifying i became my own worst enemy and tried to run 4.20's and knocked the tires off about 200 feet out. Third round i picked up my balls and stuffed them back in my pants and screwed my head on straight and ran a 4.682. Which backed up the record and gave me a boost of confidence going into eliminations on Sunday. We had the first round bye and again i let my balls overwhelm my good judgement and smoked the tires. Once again Brian and Big Johnson calmed me back down. Second round we won with a 4.68, Third round we won with a 4.74. She was on a serious pass but about 300 feet out it broke another intake valve and backfired the blower.I wasnt sure if the motor was hurt or not. We only had about 15 mins to get ready for the semis. We thrashed and changed blowers, and just ran the rocker arm down on the broken valve tip hoping she would hang on. Evidently the backfire hurt something else because it was running like doodoo. We absolutely got lucky in the semi's when our opponent went red. The orange car would have made the pass but probably not fast enough to outrun him. I couldnt believe we were going to the finals. I found that the crank trigger gap was 150 thousandths off the wheel. I didnt know if that was causing it to run bad but we adjusted it and fired the motor in the pits and damn she sounded good again. So we towed around, ready to get down to business. I loaded in the baddest tuneup i had. If we got beat, it wasn't gonna be because we got outrun. I was strapped in the car ready with my fingers crossed when one of the two cars in front of us oiled down the whole track. Now it was midnight on Sunday and the track said it would be a hour or so before they could get it cleaned up. So me and Jeff Paulk decided to split the money and run for the points and the trophy at the next event. Kind of a bummer but we were slap worn out. We drove all through the night, getting home at 6:30 am monday morning. I stepped out of the motorhome and got in my tooltruck and worked 12 hours Monday. Which for the record absolutely blows. Anyways, its thursday and we have PTRA this weekend in Mooresville, Nc. I talked to my buddy Phil Shuler who is a Top fuel crew chief for Schumaker. We think we have the valve problem identified, we are going to put a complete top fuel valve setup in after this race and see if it hold up better. We really need to win the race this weekend to stay in points contention so you may see some crazy stuff going on.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Alabama Bound and Down

Well we are loaded up and headed west. As i type this, Big Johnson is behind the wheel with the pedal to the metal, Brian is in the back sleeping like he always is at least 12 hours a day, And i am staring at the laptop looking over tuneups and fuel maps. We tested the car at Jackson last night and boy let me tell you, She ran like a wildabeast. We only made one hit and i told the boys that that was all she needed to do this weekend. So we are all in high spirits. I cant wait to get there and rock the box tonight.If the track is good the orange car should be a handful.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

The clouds have parted

It's crazy how my mood and overall demeanor is directly affected by how my hot rod is running. My mom says i have motor oil flowing in my veins. Anyways, I tore the engine apart and i think i may have found the slowness. The valve springs were junk, along with one bent exhaust valve, (because the valve springs are junk) and the cylinder head was warped pretty good. Possibly to due the overextension of my right foot on the gas pedal. Abby's Performance got my heads fixed up yesterday with a new set of springs, a valve and a fresh surface. We slapped the motor back together last night and i will bust the ole girl off when i get home from work this afternoon. Then if all is well, I have the sneaky suspicion that we will probably head to Jackson, Sc tonight to make a couple test hits before we leave for montgomery in the morning. I cant wait.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Getting ready for ORSCA

A quick recap on last weekend. We were racing in our hometown, at our hometrack. We unloaded friday night and made two hits. Decent et and Mph for the air and temps we were running in. But i didn't feel that it would be fast enough to win. So i took the Supercharger Store Gear drive apart and changed the gear ratio inside, speeding up the blower in attempt to combat the bad air. Saturday morning, first qualifying pass we went a 4.92 @ 156. Second round i whittled on the ole girl a little and sped up slightly to a 4.91. Which put us qualified number one. But it was however a very tight field. I really leaned on the car pretty hard during each round of eliminations. In doing so i popped a head gasket in the semi's slowing to a 4.96. That still was enough to muster the round win but we were headed to the finals against Jeff Tyson. He has won the last two PTRA races and is deadly consistent. At this time i didnt know that the head gaskets were toast, i just knew we were down on power. I tried to compensation power with a big balls tune up in the finals. We both staged and i took the slight advantage off the tree, but that was the only time i was out front. I smoked the tires about ten feet out and Tyson cruised down for the win running a 4.93. Congrats to those guys, They know how to win.So we have Orsca Limited Street this weekend in Montgomery, AL. The engine is apart (again). and ill be up all night all week (again). I need a vacation.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Summertime Stretch

Well as most of you know, thrashing is something me and the boys are pretty accustomed to. It's practically a way of life. We completely overhauled the engine the week before thae Atlanta Orsca race, only to have it rain out. So here i sit with a fresh engine and nowhere to abuse it. Sure the last three weeks have been filled with piddling here and there, We got the new nose and hood put on and did a few odds and ends, but no real excitement. I am bored out of my skull. It is a fairly widespead fact that i have the slowest golf cart in the free world. I mean we will be riding at max speed and some kid on a tricycle with training wheels will blow past us, I have even been beat by girls. So i decided on monday that enough is enough, With no thrashing to do on the car, I have turned my attention to the golf cart. The ole Ez 25 is getting a transplant. I pulled the engine apart, ported the cylinder head, decked it .065 thousandths, tuned the clutch, reworked the carb, and tweaked the exhaust. I should have it back together tomorrow and ready to test in the neighborhood. If the damn thing doesnt run when i get it back together, Its getting a Procharger. Anyways, we have Ptra this weekend at our home track in Jackson, Sc, followed by Orsca in Montgomery, AL next weekend. Then Ptra the following weekend in Union, Sc. So finally downtime is almost over and we get to do some head bashing.Also for all of you that emailed about t shirts, i should have them in two weeks or so. I ordered another 200 so we should be good. The car should go in the paint shop to get her new dress sunday if i dont blow it up saturday.