ULTIMATE OULAWS / SUMMER RECAP

What a year so far. It has been since March since I have written. While there is no excuse for this, I will say that I have been extremely busy. Not only have i been keeping the orange car on the track constantly, But we had our baby girl in July. She is a healthy beautiful little girl named Sophie. There is so much to write, I will try to just cover the highlights. After signing our 2011 title sponsor, MAC FAB BEADLOCK CONVERSIONS, Things started clicking within our team. The car was performing flawlessly. Phil bought and helped me install a race pak in the car in march. Boy did this ever open some possibilities. It was like moving me into the 21st century.
Our next race following the shakedown in palm beach, was at Brainerd Dragway in Brainerd, Ga. This was rumored to be a very tricky track. That was an understatement. It was slick, narrow, and bumpy. I loved it. It was the kind of track that I grew up racing on . It was a mix of Eatonton back in the day, Dorchester late at night, and racing in the street. We unloaded with slicks on, and absolutely couldnt get down the track. On our third attempt friday night, The car spun hard, hit the rev limiter, I pedaled it, kicked the head gaskets out, and proceeded to torch a hole in one of the cylinder heads. When I pulled the head off and saw that It was torched, We started packing up. I was tired and the car wouldnt work, and I was ready to quit. We had everything but the car loaded in the trailer when I sat down with a couple of my buddies and fellow racers. I poured a stiff crown and coke and was feeling pretty lousy. They kept on me and wouldnt let up about fixing the motor. They said they knew of a machine shop 3 hours away and could pull some strings on fixing the head. They even offered to let me borrow their car. Finally the redneck in me was fired up and off we went. Me and brian drove to Crossville, Tn to Mondello's Speed Shop. This place was a state of the art machine shop. Brett stayed up all night welding , and machining the head. We finished it at 4 am and buzzed back to Georgia half asleep and banged the ole girl back together. We qualified like crap in the middle of the field with a 5.20. the track was really loose. We got past first round with a pedal fest running a 5.0. got by second round on a holeshot with a 4.97. In the semi's I was paired up with my arch nemesis from the north(and the man who crushed me in West Palm) Scotty G. He had been bracket racing in the 4.70's and was heavily favored to win. I knew a 5.0 wouldnt cut it, So i loaded the kitchen sink in the ole girl. I was going to go down spinning, but i wasnt getting outrun. I burned in hard, and when the tree came down, the old orange car leaped out of the lights like u shot her out of a cannon. We were glued together at half track. I was having flashbacks of West Palm as we approached the finish line. But this time my ponies galloped to the end, we beat him by the slimmest of margins. Payback was mine and we were headed to the finals. I respect Scotty as a racer, and now as a friend, And he will be back to get me. We blazed through the finals. It was the biggest payout I have ever won in a class race. 18k. And to think i almost pussed out and threw in the towel. Thank goodness for friends and Crown Royal. I will kinda buzz through the rest of the season.
Civil Wars- Rockingham, NC Went to the second round and got crushed
NHRA Unleased- Valdosta, Ga Went to the final and broke a charge pipe (got crushed by Fiscus)
Macon, Ga- Win
Carolina Dragway- Jackson, SC - Win
Union County Dragway Union, Sc -Win
Ultimate Outlaws- Julian, Nc -Win
Dorchester, Sc --- Win
Ultimate Outlaws- Milan, Michigan - Went to the Final and got crushed by Fiscus(Picture of Fiscus is now on my refrigerator)
Steele, Alabama Got crushed in the second round due to tire smokage
YellowBullet Nationals- Cecil County Maryland- Went to finals and got crushed By Alex Vrettos, beat Fiscus on a holeshot in the Semis ( Fiscus taken off of Refigerator, Alex Vrettos put up on Refigerator)
Ultimate Outlaws- Budds Creek Maryland- Win
We rolled into Budds Creek , Md with a chip on our shoulders. I was determined to find the limit of our car. The fastest we had been to date was a 4.40. The air was right and the track was perfect. our first pass on Radials we smoked the clocks with a 3.34. one hundreth off of the Drag Radial World Record. I smelled blood, and on the very next run I reset it with a 4.32 at 175 MPH. Boy you have no idea the celebrating that went on after that run. It felt good to keep the record in the south where it belongs. We marched through the field running in the mid 30's all weekend. We qualified number 1, Set the World Record, Set the radial track record, Won the championship, and won the race. What a weekend it was. I took the car apart monday when i got home. It's time for a freshen up, and i want to be perfect when we head to Englishtown , NJ in two weeks. Hats off to my sponsors, Mac Fab, Procharger, Mickey Thompson, Abby's Auto Parts, 2 Keys Customs, Aiken Augusta Paving. Not to mention my crew, Chris Johnson, Mike Merritt, Phil Shuler, and Brian Glendonious. We have pulled together this year and and are closer than we have ever been. Most of the time we know what each other is thinking. It makes racing a blast.
P.S ------- The engine in the Orange Car is for sale turn key. It can be purchased and delivered immediately following the the NO MERCY Race in Valdosta in October. The engine will be completely fresh with all new parts when we get to Valdosta. Its also comes with a brand new ready to race spare cylinder head, spare rockers, two racks of pistons and rods with rings filed and bearings set up. spare cam, pushrods, timing belts, etc. Serious inquiries only email - Steve@SteveJacksonRacing.com

Shakedown at Palm Beach Recap.

When the celebration was finally over after the victory at SGMP. Me and Chris and Mike headed south early Monday morning . Stopping off in Orlando for three days for a company expo, We arrived in Palm beach Wednesday afternoon. Thursday was a full day test session, Phil flew in about noon, and we drug the ole hot rod to staging. I left the same tune up that we ran four days earlier at SGMP, Well that didn't work. The car moved 3 inches before annihilating the tires. The racing surface at PBIR is very smooth and flat, but the track was prepped for pro mods, Which seem to prefer a looser surface. So we backed car down, and went 70 feet, backed it down again, went 150 feet. then on our final run we went 330 feet. I figured out that the track could be fast but the power application had to be a little different. By the time Qualifying was done on Friday we were sitting 4th with a 4.71. But we had a smoked transmission. Phil rounded up some parts from the pits and we took the unit apart Friday night and overhauled it. That was a fiasco in itself. We banged it back in the car about 3 am, Not quite sure if the backwoods overhaul we had just performed would even shift. We had one more session of qualifying Saturday morning before eliminations. Me and the boys decided to turn the wick up a little. But so did everybody else. We went 4.49 at 177mph, which put us third, number one being a 4.46. We felt pretty good. Then the rains came, Buckets and buckets and buckets of rain. To our dismay, eliminations were put off until Sunday. We had been away from home for 12 days and were ready to head back to Georgia, But we all talked about it, and decided that we had come this far, and were going to see this through. we went through the first three rounds without a hitch, The car was consistent, and doing what i told it to. With one exception, I was unable to cut a light. At this point I had made 27 passes in two weeks, and the best reaction time thus far was a .093 with most averaging in the .105 to .110 range. This is very very slow for me. There is a problem in the car causing this, whether it be a valve body issue, or a wiring issue, I don't know, but I will find it. So the final round was upon. I knew we couldn't cut a light so We decided to stand on the tune up. I burned in hard and pulled to the tree. Easy does it, inching into the lights. I was racing Scotty G in his camaro from New York and i know he's sharp on the tree. We bumped in and a flash of amber later we were on our way. He drilled my ass on the tree, his .066 to my .121. I was a half car back, but making ground, we buzzed half track and I was a fender back, then the Mph cone and It was dead even. We were glued together going through the traps. I thought I was out front, He nudged me out by .003 seconds. That's about 3 inches at 170 mph. I went 4.48 to his 4.53. The Hole shot killed me, and the extra foot of front overhang his camaro has. I hate pecker extenders on mustangs, But I now understand why people have them. Congrats to Scotty G and his crew for being the better racers that day. They were class acts before, and after kicking my ass. Their car was on a rail all weekend and they deserved the win. This is my first ever loss on a hole shot and no matter what I have to do, It will not happen again. I don't care if I have to take the transmission out and chunk it in the river and start over. In our first two races of the year we won and runner up'd. Me and the boys are focused like a laser beam. I cant wait to see what the rest of the year brings. I want to take a second and thank some folks that normally don't get alot of praise. Of course we always thank our sponsors and without them we cannot race, But there are a couple people who I can always count on when the dirty part of racing is being done. The countless hours working in the shop, the many many sleepless nights, the blood sweat and tears that go on behind the scenes that make us successful at the track. The thousands and thousands of miles driven back and forth up and down the highway, and the encouragement and faith they gave and had in me last year when we were getting mopped up race after race. My friend and partner Chris Johnson. Big Johnson never complains even when my ideas are stupid and unrealistic. He works on everything I have, runs parts back and forth, welds all my blown up stuff together all the time, drives the motor home everywhere we go, and sacrifices time away from his family so that I can pursue my dreams. Friends like that cannot be replaced. Mike Merriet has worked 60 hours a week for the last month helping me finish the car. He can do anything on the car from front to back and is truly an asset to our team. He also sacrificed the last two weeks straight of his life to go on the road with us. Brian doesn't do much work on the car because he is most of the time watching sports, but he is irreplaceable at the race track. He is always there when i need him and believes in me no matter what. Phil Shuler is the voice of reason when I wanna do something stupid and flies all over the world to race with us. His creativity has led to many behind the scenes innovations on the car that all lead to performance gains. It is an honor to drive his car and before we are through, alot of people, at alot of levels are going to have hurt feelings. I know you guys are tired of reading the mushy mushy stuff, but Its important to me, for folks to realize how much has to go on to get this thing to the track when you are a low budget team like I am. Our next race is April 1st in Brainerd, Ga. followed by April 7-9 at Rockingham, Nc. I can't wait. We may have a little surprise for everybody when we get to rockingham. Stay tuned :)

LETTING THE COUGAR LOOSE.........

WOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO . Back in the saddle... We got to South Georgia Motorsports Park late wednesday night. In usual Stevie fashion , the car had only been running for 5 days. Me and the boys have spent the last 4 months working our behinds off updating the car from front to back. We were anxious to see if the hard word would pay off and a little nervous. We rolled out the box early thursday morning and went to the line with a pretty gangster tune up in . I just wanted to see if it would hold. Well it didnt. Smoke immediately. So much for cowboy style. I backed her down and strolled on down the track like we were on a sunday drive. 4.59. Good solid starting point. I never have been one to leave well enough alone, So i kept letting the reins loose and by the time qualifying was to start friday, I thought we were ready. I tried several different things testing and by this time I had figured out exactly how hard I could push the hot rod without making her come loose. We decided to run two classes at the last minute. We ran Radial Vs The World, and Outlaw Radial. Basically Radial vs the world is an open class, tube chassis cars, backhalf cars, wheelie bars, etc etc are allowed. Outlaw Radial is a stock suspension class for drag radial cars. We turned loose of the button first round of Radial vs the world and smoked the clocks with a 4.48 @178 mph. Thats a new supercharged drag radial world record. That also made us the first procharged drag radial car in the 4.60's, the 4.50's, and now the 4.40's. We were estatic and whats worse is, the car just eases down the track like its on cruise control. Which is good for us........ but bad for everybody else. By the time qualifying was over , We were qualified first in Outlaw Radial, and 3rd in Radial Vs The World. The Killintime Machine was doing exactly as I told her to. Which is awesome. We lucked up and got a broke opponent first round bye in both classes. I dont know how that happens, but I guess the man was looking out for us. I went red on the tree in the quarter finals of radial vs the world. This is only the third time in my life I have ever went red and it was a kick in the head. There were some extenuating circumstances surrounding this redlight. But Ill keep it to myself. We went all the way to the finals, Each round we went faster than the round before. I was in the zone and we all knew it. The final round was an all Procharger affair. Big Johnson reached behind me and un clipped the leash that the boys normally keep on me during eliminations. I tend to get a little excited at times and the sometimes have to remind me that you dont always have to go for it. Well this time we were going for it. We had been down the track the last 8 passes in a row and I felt good. I put the tooombawooommba jackhawk 9000 tune up in it and to the line we went. We burned in and staged. I could feel the sweat from the hot georgia night running down my face. I went to the break, the tree fell and controlled chaos was in motion. The ole orange pumpkin snapped out of the lights like a jailbreak. 1.15 sixty foot. He was still there. I could hear him. 200 feet out i stretched the ole girls legs and made my move. 2.6 g's pinned me in the seat . We buzzed the 330 clocks with a 2.98. When the W came on, I almost couldnt believe it. 4.400 @179 mph. The crowd went wild. I was so happy I almost forgot to stop. It was a wonderful feeling to be headed to victory lane again. Our first trip in over a year. All is once again right with the world. I owe so many people thanks that I dont know where to start. Thanks to the lord first. My beautiful Wife, for putting up with my 20 hour a day work schedule and loving me enough to allow me to chase my dream. My family and Crew, You guys work your butts off. Tommy Kirk at Mac Fab beadlock conversions, Without you we wouldnt have even cranked the motor up before the race. Dave W at Procharger, Your support has never waivered, We are not done with these turbo's yet. Robert at Abby's Performance Engines in Clearwater, Sc. We have a bad ass bullet, Robert is always there when I need him, Its nice to do business with people that really care. Many a night Robert has been up late working to keep me on the track. Tommy and Carl at Mickey Thompson, You guys have stuck with me through thick and thin. Cameron at Torque Converter Services, Yes that 179.76 mph is legit. Chris Tuten, The Grand Poobah of boost. Always there to help when I am lost or need encouragement in a hurry. Van and Neil at 2 Keys Customs, always keeping me shiny and sometimes its a full time job. My buddy Dean, something broke our front windshield sat night on our last run. We couldnt find a glass shop that would help, So Dean had someone from back home cut a windshield out of another car at midnight and drive all the way from home and put it in at 4:30 AM. My partner and friend Phil Shuler, Always ready to help no matter how crazy or complicated my ideas are. And to all the haters, Its going to be a long year. See everybody in Palm Beach Thursday.

Winter Updates

I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I actually relaxed a little more than usual and spent some time with my family. After two weeks of that, I am ready to get back in the shop. The last time I wrote I was on the way home from the ORTC race in Valdosta. Not alot has happened since then. I am very pleased with the performance of the new engine. We went within one hundreth of our fastest pass ever on radials with only two weeks of test time. I got the car back to the shop and decided to completely disassemble it. The chassis has been inconsistent all year and I am determined to find out why. The engine is apart for routine maintenence. It gets rings, bearings, rods, and valve springs every 50 passes. I sent the crank to Abby's to be checked out and got terrible news. The shaft is twisted. This is not good for the old trusty wallet. There are a few other things i want to change in the engine so now I have the time. The new billet crank wont be done until feb 14. So it looks like we will be burning the midnight oil(as usual) to get ready for the ORTC race . I am going to add a few bars to the car to better harness this monster that I have created. Thats pretty much it for now. I am very pleased to announce that Procharger, Mickey Thompson, Grp, Abby's Performance Engines, 2 Keys Customs, Cameron's Torque Converter Services, MacFab Wheels, UPR Products and Aiken Augusta Paving have come back onboard as sponsors for the 2011 season. We are a low budget team and could not race without these guys. Support the companies that support our sport. I will update you guys as things progress through the winter.

WEEKEND RECAP

There is so much to say about the last 5 days that its hard to put it all down. We woke up thursday morning and got the hot rod out of the box. We were very anxious to make some test hits because up to this point we still havent been fast. We hustled around to staging and was the third car in line to head down a green track. I burned in and rolled to the beams. I was completely shell shocked when I let go of the button and the car actually headed forward. I was on a lick and I knew it. At the 400 ft mark the left front tire was still dangling. I smoked the clocks with a 4.57 straight off the trailer. The new motor started showing some signs of life.... We tested all day thursday and most of the day friday not able to best the off the trailer pass. First round of qualifying was friday night and It was time to get to work. I decided to detune the car significantly to get her down the track, which is where she went. We ran a 4.66.. Which put us ninth out of a 61 car field. We still had two rounds of qualifying left and This was the fastest field of small tire cars I had ever seen. Saturday when our turn came up I decided to squeeze on the new motor a little. At the sixty foot I knew we were moving and the time slip showed it. 4.59 at 169.94 mph. That moved us to fifth with one round left before the field was set.....The redneck in me wouldnt let me not step on the car a little more So I squeezed a little more on the tune up. The ole orange heap was back in rare form screaming down the track netting a 4.54 at 172 mph. That put us third out of 61 cars. We were pretty happy with this And I still felt as though we had more left. Sunday morning the sun was out. A gorgeous day for drag racing. First round of eliminations I eased the reins back a little, wanting to go down the track. She did exactly what I told her and took the round win with a 4.59 at 169.99. It seems at this point that I had found my stride and the car was responding to what I was telling her. Second round The density altitude was about 400 feet worse than the first so I decided to leave the first round tune up alone and let the air detune the motor for me. After sitting in staging for two hours the air had gotten better. I should have gotten the computer and detuned the car but the track looked good so I made the call to leave the car alone and let it eat. WRONG. When I turned her loose, all she ate was the back tires slap off. It smoked at the hit of the throttle and I couldnt get it to recover. The weekend was over. I was pretty bummed out at first but then I realized that things could have been far worse. At this point the new engine had been running for two weeks and we had made some decent licks. I feel that we have a solid powerplant. I just need some time to figure out how to make it work. I put 52 passes on the motor in two weeks, So she is coming apart now for new rings, bearings, and rods. Then its back to the track to test. See yall soon.

Headed South

After a week and a half of testing, we are headed to valdosta. The ORTC race is this weekend and we cant wait. I wish we were more prepared, but we did make the most out of our last week and a half. I have learned alot about the new setup, and although we havent been fast yet, I feel that it's just around the corner. The car seems to be making good solid power. I am however still learning what to do with it all. Sorry for the short post but its late and I have been up wrenching on the hotrod for 24 hours. We should pull into South Georgia Motorsports Park around 3 am, Testing all day tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed......

Testing Updates

We hauled the ole heap down to valdosta this past saturday to do some testing . It was a beautiful day out and we got there early. Basically to make a long story short, we found a bunch of things that we need to fix and found somethings that we did fix. It was a pretty good test day. No fast numbers but it takes a little time to sort out a new combo. We didnt break anything so I already feel like im winning. I have to change a couple things on the car this week and then its off to Carolina dragway thursday to burn in. With some luck we should start seeing some E.T improvements this week.

FIRE IN THE HOLE...............

Well boys and girls, I have finally busted off the new engine. It has been a long summer and I am really fired up to finally have this thing done. When I tell you that this thing has been a struggle, believe me. Everything from wrong parts to stuff that doesnt fit to shipping damage has plauged us all summer. We have been working on this engine since last october when we broke our good motor. Last night I hit the starter button and the ole girl fired up just like street car. With a little luck I should be ready to test the car by the weekend. I havent burned the orange car in, since May so I am pretty anxious to get behind the wheel. We will test it Saturday night at Carolina dragway, and next weekend at Orangeburg Dragstrip. That only gives me two test sessions to get the car sorted out before we head south for the ORTC race. The weather down south is perfect right now for racing. I updated a photo of the new engine on my website, I will get some more pics soon. I will update you guys as soon as I test it. One more thing, Thanks to all of you who have been patient with our abscence from the track these last 5 months. Your emails and calls have been an inspiration. I hated to sit the summer out, But there comes at time when you have to back up and stop patching stuff. Since last october when we broke our good motor we have been racing with these bullshit childrens motors that I have put together from parts laying around the shop. Before long, you are patching the patches. It was time to back up and get our ducks in a row. And to those of you that have been talking shit, ( You know who you are) I am coming for your ass. BET THAT.

Out With The New, And in With The Old

Some people get homesick, I am Car Sick. Basically I miss my old hotrod. The new 10.5 car is fun, and we have been some fast e.t's, But its time to get back to the type of car that I love. Stock suspension drag radial. No yall know that my dream is to drive funny cars for a living, or maybe blown pro mods, but until that happens, stock suspension is where its at. Now there are lots of people that think that we have been away too long to catch up, but if I have anything to say about it, we will be loading people on the trailer before you know it. There are also a couple folks popping off at the mouth wanting to do some grudge racing, so we will find out where their heart is. I have the engine that is currently in the orange car for sale, And am working on the new heart as we speak. It will take most of the summer to complete, So you guys wont hear much noise from me, but i will keep you updated on the progress. I am very excited to get back in the saddle. If anyone is interested in a completely fresh, dirt cheap, bad ass blower/turbo engine, email me at Steve@SteveJacksonRacing.com

Blown Up and Busted

The title pretty much says it all. We got the hot rod back in the shop this week and took the engine out an tore it the rest of the way down. Boy is it ever STANKY. What we thought was the coneecting rod that caused the issue, turned out was the wrist pin on number 2 cylinder. We sheared the thing. How do you break a wrist pin in half? Who knows, but then the rod turned the piston loose, and the carnage began. The largest piece of piston I found from number 2 cylinder was about the size of a quarter. Half the wristpin is gone. It must have went out the exhaust. The block is cracked, cam bent, head damaged, there is a piece of rod sticking up through the intake. It bent all the pushrods, broke two rockers, bent all 16 valves and took out the oil pan. The good news is that all the fuel injectors and the valve covers are in good shape. No reason to dwell on the past. The ole kawasaki motor was a good one while she lasted. May she rest in piece. Onward and upward to better things. Im still not sure what we are gonna do yet but Ill figure something out.

Bumpy Starts and Second Chances

What an amazing weekend. And a crappy weekend. And a blessed weekend. All in one. We arrived in Montgomery Alabama for the start of the ORSCA season. This was our debut race in outlaw 10.5 and boy were we excited. I have always wanted to race 10.5 every since there was a 10.5. We pulled into the track friday afternoon, unloaded quickly, and were in staging in a hour. We were so eager to make a hit on 10.5's that I couldnt stand it. We had a little tune up help from my friend Chris Tuten on the way and boy did it work. The car launched hard snapping me in the seat and didnt let up till the chutes were out. I would tell you what it ran, but there are a couple guys that need a good ole fashion ass whooping in the grudge world first, so you guys will have to wait till Atlanta to find out. We changed torque convertors after the first pass trying to pick up the mph a bit. I figured it was time to rock the box so i put a VERY aggressive tune up in it. When I turned that thing loose, it was like a class 5 acme rocket was strapped to my ass. Man it was moving. That lasted about 2 seconds, and then that class 5 rocket turned into a class 5 nuclear bomb under the hood. Parts were flying everywhere. Pistons and valves shooting out the exhaust. Smoke everywhere. Not good at all. I pulled the heads off and boy howdy was it ugly. One peek in the engine and we put the front end back on it and put it in the trailer. It broke a rod, which bushwhacked the block. one piston is completely missing. I have no clue where it is. It broke a head, broke the timing belt which bent 16 valves, 16 pushrods, one rocker arm and a spark plug. I think the intake is still good, so it wasnt a total loss. This was not the start to the season that I had in mind. Well it turns out that the good lord was also looking out for me. Sunday the skys opened and it rained the whole race out. I hate that for the organization and all the other racers, but it sure did help us out. So now I have one month till the next race to scrape up enough cheese to build a new engine. I may have to sell a kidney on the black market or pimp brian out at night. So if any of you are interested in a bald guy that only watches sports. give me a call. Brian may be for you. :) Ill let u guys know what we decide to do about a powerplant as soon as i know.

Offseason Updates and The Beginning of a New Year

The offseason was a whirlwind this winter. Almost immediately after parking the rig last november, I got to work. What began as a simple build turned into a 3 month neverending project. The new Outlaw 10.5 car is an awesome piece. Well, it will be if it ever goes fast. It's a 93 Ford Mustang Gt. The powertrain for this car has also ran into speedbumps along the way. We we supposed to have it done by the end of January, But as all things in life, It always takes longer, and costs more. So for now we have pulled the engine and tranny out of the orange car. So its a 522 inch Big Chevy powered by Procharger. As usual, we were scrambling to finish the car in time for the first race, Which was this weekend. With the orange car stripped of her heart, We elected to bring the grey car to the Radial vs the World race in Valdosta this weekend. We showed up to the track with not so much as one full pass one the car. We love a challenge . Second round of qualifying we finally made a clean hit, managing a 4.67 at 166mph. I was happy. After a ton off struggling, It was a huge relief to get on the honker pedal and not step off till the traps. We qualifyied 16 out of a 32 field. This tells you how fast the field was. First round Ileft her safe. We have almost no data to go off of, So I decided that going down broadway is better than stepping up and smoking the tires. We staged up and blasted down the track side by side.He nipped me at the finish going a 4.63 to my 4.67. So we were on the trailer after first round. Which sucks, but for me and the boys, it was a big accomplishment just to finish the car and qualify. Our Outlaw 10.5 season starts in 3 weeks and we have yet to ever even bolt on a set of 10.5 s. So we have some testing to do. We have a good car and a sound powerplant. Now it's just up to me to figure out the rest. The orange car will be back up and running as soon as the real motor is done for the new car. I can wait to feel this thing eat. I wanna thank my loyal sponsors that are sticking with us this year despite a new car and a new class. Procharger, Abby's Performance engines, Mickey Thompson Tires, GRP Rods, Mac Fab Wheels, and 2KEYS Customs, Aiken Augusta Paving. You guys never let me down and meet so much to our team. Also a special thanks to my partner and friend, Phil Shuler. We are gonna do great things together. I will update with testing news in the coming weeks. Steve

IT"S A WRAP

What an incredible racing season. It's hard to put into words the struggles, joy, pain, love, passion, blood, sweat and tears that made this season up. We as a team learned more in one year about this amazing sport we love than I could have ever imagined.
We went to the finals in Montgomery, Alabama two weeks ago only to lose to a mid track wheelstand. We were heartbroken for the loss, but nonetheless happy to go to the final. We clinched second in the points standings, And were preparing for a darkhorse run for the championship at the world finals in Steele, Alabama. We got there with our heads on straight and only one thing on our mind. Winning. We put the old hotrod in the number 3 qualifying spot of the absolute fastest limited street field ever. Normally a 4.62 would put you number one. It put us 3rd. There were 2 cars in the high 50's and 8 cars in the 60's. Still we felt awesome. We were only 5 hundredths off of the number one guy. I think by looking at the computer that we had a 57 or 58 in the ole girl. Couple that with my head chopping off ability in the lights and we think we had a good shot. Mother Nature had other plans. Again. It rained all night saturday night and at 9 am this morning they called the race. This is the fourth or fifth rainout this year. Even the rescheduled rainouts got rained out. What should have been a ten race season turned out to be 5. All in all it was a good year. Finishing second against the caliber of competition that we faced all year is a landmark achievement. I myself consider this a learning year. I learned for the most part that "Less is Usually More" That's a direct quote from my buddy Tim Barton. I also learned that a simple 59 cent part can humble the greatest of ego's. I had a blast this season. Made possible by God, my family, my friends and crew, and my sponsors. All of you must see something in me that I sometimes forget. My passion for this sport is overwhelming, And my dream of racing professionally will not seem to go away. For every 500 people that tell me to grow up, and that it's stupid, and that it will never happen, There are those of you out there that call and email and say that I was born to do nothing less. My crew never waivered this entire season. Not in the darkest hour did they once quit or complain. You guys are my brothers. We have travelled this country together, and the stuff we have been through and conquered are what dreams are made of. As we ride down the raod from the final race of the year, one would think that we would be ready for a break, and that a couple months off would do us good. But we can't stop talking about next year. Big Johnson is driving, me riding shotgun with a computer in my lap, and Brian is almost certainly watching sports. We have a very busy offseason ahead of us. We are making the move from limited street to Outlaw 10.5. Robert Abernathy at Abby's Performance Engines has partnered with us to make this possible. We are still seeking a title sponsor for the 2010 season and will let you know as soon as we get the details worked out. We will still run the orange car in a ton of match races and Outlaw Radial Events next year as well. I consider this as another step for me in the direction that I need to go. I will update you guys with photos of the new chassis soon. As well as details of the new engine combination and power adder. I wish you guys a very Happy Thanksgiving.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

What a week. We pulled into Bradenton Motorsports Park last thursday morning at 5 am. Me and the boys got us about 4 hours of shut eye and then unloaded the ole hotrod for a little more testing on the kawasaki motor. We made three tire shaking hits thursday not really doing anything impressive. The entire powerband on this engine is so much different than the other motor. It makes tremendous power in the bottom, lazy in the middle, and decent out the back. I decided to speed the blower up Friday morning, trying to give the kawasaki motor a little breath on the big end. I felt like we could run in the mid 4.70's in the heat but I knew that wasnt fast enough. The knew blower gears gave us one more pound of boost, which hurt and helped. It made my starting line tuneup more aggressive which could lead to massive amounts of tire spin, but it did sruce up the big end. We went a 4.72 at 164 during testing friday. We were missing something, I just couldnt find it. Then it hit me.Maybe since this motor makes power like a dirt bike, I should treat it like a dirt bike. Maybe we just needed more RPMS. So for the first round of qualifying friday night, I decided to ring the guts out of the ole girl. We left the line at 4000 rpms. I rolled into the bottom bulb and snapped the transbrake button down. The kawasaki sounded like an airplane when I turned loose. She pushed me into the seat and off we went. Now most people might think it's a bad idea to shift a big block at 8500 rpms. But shit the kawasaki loved it. We banged high gear and kept on getting up. We went through the traps in a 4.62 at 165 mph. Goodness goodness, We have a racecar. The ole Kawasaki has now been upgraded from a KX600 to and KX 1200. She just needed a little RPMS. That put us qualified number one with two rounds qualifying on saturday. Me and the boys celebrated friday night like we were rock stars. By the end of qualifying saturday, we were sitting second. Being out qualifyed by one hundreth. That also netted us a much appreciated first round bye run. First round sunday I put in a safe tune up. Bang, 4.64 at 163mph. Just like i told her. I was now feeling like we may have a car to win this race with. WRONG. Secong round during the burnout, the intercooler pump feed tube clogged with ice, allowing air inlet temperatures to reach 160 degrees. This made the kawasaki go from a kx1200 to a kx 250. We only ran a 5.00 and were promptly crushed and loaded on the trailer. What a letdown. This mistake will never happen again. We are in the process of building a water tank that should be on Star Trek, it's so advanced. Im sorry for all my sponsors, fans, and friends that made the trip down. But thank you guys so much for your support. Two companies in particular really stepped up to make the rest of our season possible. UPR Products, And MAC FAB custom wheels both really helped us out coming down the stretch. We couldnt race the remainder of our season without you guys making it possible. I will do everything in my power to make you guys proud. We have Orsca next weekend and from the looks of things, those guys will have their hands full. We need a win to keep the hopes of a Championship alive.

Cocked, Locked,And Ready To Rock

You will never guess what happened when we got to Virginia last weekend... RAIN. Thats like the tenth race this year we have been rained out. We did get the new motor fired though. It sounds like a cross between a weedeater and a kawasaki dirtbike. Its only 522 cubic inches and you can tell it. But it'sallthe parts we havelaying around so we will have to use it. I will screwevery ounce of power out of this thing that she can muster. We are on our way to the Outlaw Radial Tire Championship Race in Bradenton,Fla. Big Johnson has the blue goose (our motorhome) in the wind. He has one eye open and the hammer down. Brian is sleeping and doing nothing like usual. Thats only because there are no sports on tv at this time. And i have spent the last 4 hours going over every single tune up I have looking for a way to squeeze this motor like a lemon. We made a couple test hits today before we left South Carolina. The ole girl is slow. The best the kawasaki could deliver was a 4.78 @159.00mph. Which is decent but not cowboy style. The crankshaft howevert is still bolted in so I will find a way to ring out some more. This race this weekend is a really big deal to us. We are all focused like a laser beam and if it can be done, I assure you that we find a way. GPS says we should pull in at 4 45 am. We will test tomorrow evening.

Back in the Saddle (Almost)

Two wekes ago when we blew everything apart under the sun, sucked. The last two weeks have been like midevil times. We thrashed all week following rockingham, overnighting just about every internal part in the engine, Got it done in the middle of the night friday night, and then they called the ORSCA race due to race. We were really bummed out at first but in the end it would prove to be a blessing. We decided that since we had a fresh motor that we would go test for the Shakedown at Etown race this weekend. Which is a 1/4 mile race, So we went down to Valdosta, Ga last sunday to do some testing at SGMP. In the back of my head I still couldnt justify as to why the motor tore up the #6 piston last week. I mean it broke the piston in half. We had to sleeve the block and everything. But we chalked it up to a broken lifter and could find nothing else wrong. So we unloaded Sunday at SGMP and made a nice smooth lazy pass. I just wanted to get some data on the motor. Pulled it back to the pits and pulled the plugs and damn if #6cylinder wasnt torn up again. One pass and smoked the same cylinder. All tune up data looked good. The rest of the plugs were perfect. Me and the boys were really pissed. We drove home 5 hours at like 90 mph. Snatched the motor back out and apart. It was worse than I thought. Number 6 detonated so bad that it egged the cylinder and split the block. What the hell? So now were up the creek again. We are supposed to leave thursday for englishtown, nj and we have no motor. Not to be detered, we scrounged around the shop looking for used motor parts. What do ya know, there in the corner was last years ez street motor. Old faithful. She needed a little freshening, and she is way smaller than our good motor, but we figured we could piece her together. Robert at Abby's Performance Engines really helped us this week. He dropped eveything like he always does when I need him, and jumped right on it. We bored the block, got a new crank rods and pistons. Basically a new shortblock. It has been a long exhausting week, but at 3 am last night, we finished up. Well almost. Guess what. Shakedown rained out also. Im so tired of rain. All this work and favors for nothing. Once again, always the optimists, we decided to find somewhere dry to race. The pushrods just came in and we are on our way to Virginia Motorsports Park. I cant belive we are taking a brand new engine 7 hours to a race and it's never been fired, but we are. I think I found what keeps breaking the engine. We will see. I replaced almost every piece of electronics on this thing. Yall keep your fingers crossed. Sorry for the short post but I have only slept about ten hours this week am due for a little road nap.

The Sky Is Falling

Have you ever had a weekend that you wish you could just step back to friday around noon and stop, and do something completely different? Almost everything that could break this weekend, did. Me and the boys headed to Rockingham, Nc for the Holcomb Civil Wars race. We decided to use this race as a tune up race for next weekends ORSCA race. It turns out that we need way more than a tune up. We need an overhaul. I'll start you off from the beginning. Friday night we unload and pull around for first round qualifying. I smoked the tires and pedalled the car early and ran it to the 1000ft mark. It ran decent but something was wrong. Turns out we broke the torque converter. So just for good measure, we put in the spare trans and converter. First round qualifying saturday morning, all was well until we shifted into high gear and there went the new transmission. Smoked another one. We thrashed and changed transmissions again between rounds of qualifying and got her ready. On our next shot I blew the supercharger up in the water box during the burnout. So we missed that session. Next we changed blowers and pulled around for the last round qualifying for saturday. The car launched straight and hard but right past the shift it laid over like a wet noodle. It was skipping pretty bad so i shut it off. Turns out we broke a lifter and two rocker arms, and bent some pushrods. Now I am thinking that this blows and I should have just went fishing. On top of all this suckyness, My Georgia bulldogs got beat by LSU. Well we couldnt get the lifter out of the block so after about 6 hours of wamming and framming we welded a piece of all thread to it and jacked it out. So another all nighter later we had the motor put back together, and ready for action sunday morning. Now at this point i am fairly certain that all the bad luck is behind us, and that we are ready to do some racing. WRONG. Next pass out we kicked the rods out of the side of the motor. I was actually relieved that the weekend was over. I feel like we fought hard all weekend, and Chris, Brian, and Fatboy never gave up. We do have a problem though, We have an ORSCA points race this weekend coming. So who knows what we will do. I will take the motor out and apart tonight to see what left and whats usable. Hopefully we can piece something together by saturday. I have a theory on bad weekends like this one. We will call this a Steveilosophy. I believe that anytime a man has too much "FUN" or more fun than he is supposed to, that he must pay it back. I think that fun is like a line of credit at the bank. Everytime you have alot of fun, It's like taking taking out a loan against your fun account. This overexertion of fun must then be paid back through various ways. The thing I hate most in this world is losing. So therefore my pennance for paying back the Fun is a weekend like this past one. Over the past two years, Me and the boys have had a massive amount of fun. Therefore the fun must repaid, So hopefully after this week is done I will once again be square with the fun, And we will be ready to move on to more fun. So think about that next time you are preparing for some fun. Sometimes payback is hell. All in all we are in good spirits. Its refreshing to be under the gun again. Motor updates coming soon.

The Race To The Chase

Well for all of yall that live in the south, you completely sympathise with me when I say RAIN RAIN GO AWAY. I dont know of hardly a day when it hasn't rained in the last month. Between all the torrential downpours and flooding, little racing has been done. The Orange car hasnt even been started in 3 weeks. Me and all the boys are going stir crazy. Me and Chris have been busy working on a new business project, While Brian has been constantly glued to the tv, and has earned the new world record for the most sports watched ever. I mean it's sometimes ten hours a day of sports. I wake up and there he is in the chair. It's sportscenter, followed by gameday, and then more sportscenter, followed by ten thousand games, and then game highlites of the ten thousand games he's watched, followed by the game recaps of the highlites. And then..............Sportscenter. I have been working on the new transmission for the hotrod, which is almost done. If the rain ever stops long enough for me to unload the car from the trailer I will put it in. I am pretty fired up about it. Its built a from scratch unit utilizing the new 1.125 nasa 2 input shaft. So hopefully we can curb the parts breakage a tad. Me and Johnson are on our way to Nashville Tn as I write this to film a Tv show with the Orange car. And by goodness if you pull up weather.com , you will find hardly no rain in the southeast this weekend. Which means only one thing.. WE ARE GOING RACING. We cant wait. Brian is even gonna leave the living room long enough to climb in the motorhome and turn on the tv. Next weekend is ORSCA and we are using this weekend as a test session to get our minds back right. We are only two rounds out of the lead in the championship standings and are really hungry for a win. We have three races left so all the cards are on the table. Its time to put up or shut up and we have never been more ready to put some folks on the trailer. Look for more frequent updates as racing escalates this fall. This is my time of the year. October has always been my month. The air is crisp and so is our attitudes. Its down the home stretch we go, And with 6 straight weeks of racing coming up, Its going to be exciting. See yall soon.

Cooking The Bacon

We headed to Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga this past weekend for Orsca. Me and the boys were really in high spirits, even though we havent been fast in two months. We have really been fighting mechanical gremlins and this weekend would prove to be no different. We unloaded and puttered down the track first pass to a nice smooth lazy 4.89. Normally if I get down the track early in the weekend, look out. Second pass i pepped the tune up a little and the sixty foot dropped almost 5 hundredths, but the car drifted right about a hundred feet and i had to abort the run. But the look in Brian and Johnsons eye was unmistakeable. They knew we were right where we needed to be. We adjusted the rear of the car just a touch to make her track straight, tied the front end down, stacked all the weight we had in the nose of the car and decided to see if we could rock the house on our last test pass. Now i dont need much talking into stuff like this. So i put a tune up together that if it didnt flip the car over, should run in the 4.60's . I burned in hard and backed through the smoke. Brian and Johnson put me dead in the groove and gave me a thumbs up as they shut the doors. Little did I know that we were about to blast into the record books. I let loose and the orange car jumped out the hole like cheetah chasing a gazelle, I passed the 330 mark with the tires still dangling, I knew I was freaking flying. I blazed past the 1/8th and rocked the scoreboards with a 4.53 at 170 mph. A new Drag Radial World record. I was so excited that I drove the car back to the trailer. I had already blown my voice out by the time the boys got there. We partied like rock stars most of the night before heading to bed feeling invincible, ahhh but as they say, all good things must end. Saturday I eased back on the reins just a little for safety, First round qualifying we went a 4.67 at 171.99 mph. Which was awesome considering the air was bad and the track was slick. We decided to sit out the second session, feeling good about our number one spot and wanting to limit parts breakage. Last session we again went for the moon. The car left harder than it ever has, and was on another shot, until I shifted to high and the car stood sraight up on the bumper. I pedalled her and eased her down. We were still sitting number 1, and feeling like we were in good shape. That was the last of those feelings. First round Sunday we had a bye run. I had an awesome sixty foot and was straight as an arrow, all was going to plan until the orange monster shifted into high gear and rung the input shaft in the transmission off. We really dodged the bullet here. I yelled at the boys on the radio to get the spare trans out the trailer. We thrashed and changed transmissions in record time. I still wasnt worried, having confidence that my tuneup was dead on. We burned in second round and I was in the zone. I tiptoed the car into the lights and flash, I was off again, Like a bullet i shot down the track,and then the worst happened again. The spare trans gave up the ghost and I lost the round. We were headed home early. As disappointed as I was, I kept telling myself that it just wasnt meant to be. The competition in Limited Street is red hot right now and we love it. We are counting the minutes till the next race. It's easy to praise your sponsors in the good times, but in times like this weekend when we went down and they all called monday morning to tell me they were still proud of us and are with us, we realize once again how fortunate we are to have the support of some great companies and individuals. We are a low budget team, and without you guys we could not race. Thanks again to Procharger, Mickey Thompson, The Supercharger Store, Upr, Grp rods, 2Keys Customs, Aiken Augusta Paving, Abby's Performance Engines, Torque Converter Services, and Stainless Works.

From Hero to Zero, and Back Again

Sorry it's taken me so long to update my blog. I have been on vacation in mexico without the internet, or telephones, and let me tell you it was amazing. Just what i needed to get me back in the game. Anyways, back to last weekends ORSCA race. Can you imagine the absolute delight of me and my crew when ORSCA announced last month that one of it's cancelled races was rescheduled at my home track in Jackson, SC. We couldn't we believe we would be so lucky as to have all the limited guys come to us so we could lay the smack down on their ass. Well thats how I imagined it anyways. Fast forward to thursday before the race. The car had been sitting in the paint shop for almost a month, So we were testing just to kinda shake the cobb webs out of the ole girl. I was trying a new blower and a few new things with the tune up and having no luck getting down the track. The car was shaking the tires so hard it hurt my back. So saturday came and we decided the smart thing to do was put the old blower back on, and go with some safe proven tuneups for 1st round qualifying. I mean this was my home track and i have enough testing data on this surface to just about tell you what the car will run to the thousandth for every race condition you could think of. So first round I put a soft tuneup in it, It left good then pulled hard right around 30 ft, causing me to pedal three times and only running a 5.17. What the hell was up? I went over the car from front to back checking shocks and struts and found nothing. So I'm thinking, maybe the track? Maybe a drop of oil under the tires? Maybe a fluke? Second round qualifying, it left hard, went a hundred feet and smoked the tires. Now we are panicking. Both of those tuneups that i had just tried would go down a mud road. So now im thinking, maybe the tires are shot. They had very few runs on them but maybe sitting for a month had an affect? So we changed tires for last round qualifying. Desperate to get down the track for some hope at a good qualifying shot. Now had this been just a last round qualifying round I would have loaded a mid 4.90 bull crap tune in, Something to just put us in the middle of the pack. But, This wasnt just an ordinary round of qualifying. This was also the final round of eliminations for the Montgomery race. I was racing Jeff Paulk in the car killer, So I couldnt just take it easy. My balls wouldnt let me. I put a mid 4.60 tune in and we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. The tree came down and i didnt move 2 inches before i smoked the tires. He took the win and what made it really bad is that the track was really good. I mean exceptionally good. I knew something was wrong with the car but i couldnt figure it out. We were up shit creek without a paddle. Qualified dead last. At our home track, in front of my sponsors and my friends and family. I was blindsided. It was like the civil war when all the yankees came down to watch the Battle of Bull Run, expecting an easy victory, and the south came out swinging and kick stomped that booty. Anyways i didnt sleep saturday night. I was determined to find out what was wrong with the car. I started taking things apart and found two bent control arm bolts in the rear suspension. I guess all the tire shake thursday bent them. We were however on the wrong side of the ladder. Having to run the all the heavy hitters if we were to go any rounds at all. I put a low 4.80 tune up in for 1st round eliminations and prayed alot. I had an extra long pep talk with the hot rod, explaining to her that i was sorry for bending her and that she deserved better and that it was ok to crucify me in qualifying, but this was showtime. I burned in hard figuring that if we went out first round, at least we put on a good show. We staged and off we gallopped into the sunset, straight as an arrow, and pretty quick, We won the round with a 4.80 on a 140 degree race track. It was like we won the final round already. That was the first full throttle pass we had in the car in over a month. But next round we were up against Jeff Paulk, the car killer. Again. The Orange car was looking jazzy and Big Johnson and Brian were still sore from the last nights ass crushing and looking for some get back. I pepped her up just a tad, Not wanting to overpower the super hot racetrack. We both lit the bulbs and I tore out the gate like a banshee. Winning the round with a 4.77. Now we were on track but like all good things, there is always a catch. There was all kinds of electronic noise in my run data. Meaning that something was going on in my ignition box, or Efi box. The computer was spiking all of the sensors and inputs during the run. This is bad for many reasons, First the computer was adding and taking away fuel and timing all over the place. The rpm were showing erratic which put the car into different cells on the timing map, Also it was turning on rev limiters sporatically from the MSD box. All in all we now have an inconsistent car. So i went through everything trying to find it. Nothing. I took off all the rev limiters, and tried to program a timing map that would not be so sensitive. In the third round we squeeked by only running a 4.88. But we were off to the semis, bad news was that we were running the number one qualifier. I had no idea what to do about the box malfunctions. So i went old school and turned off the fuel correction, programmed the same timing in the whole map, which is bad. Basically threw the kitchen sink at the thing. We staged and launched and I took off like a bullet. But at 100 feet it shook the tires and i had to pedal. Only running a 4.87 to his 4.77. BUT WAIT. My win light was on. He had redlit, giving me the round win. I hate to win like that, but at this point i'll take em however i can get. We were headed to the final. Who would have thought it? We were facing the master of disaster, Eric Dillard. He had just trashed my Limited Street record in the last round and was on top of his game. We burned in hard and long. I was really feeling good. The track was awesome and i had the car set on kill. We staged and i drilled the tree. Cutting a .015 light and putting up the best 60ft time we had ever had. I was an entire car length out front at the 80 foot mark, But then all things turned to poop. I smoked the tires like a funny car and he blasted by winning with a 4.67 to my 5.00. All in all it was still an amazing day. We were happy to just be racing past the first round. I wanna thank my boys for not giving up and trusting me. Brian, Big Johnson, Wingnut, and Dad worked their tales off this weekend. So you may be asking yourself, or have noticed, how we seemed to make it to alot of finals this year, but have no win yet? It's true, We have been to nine finals so far this year, and not a single win to show. I can't tell you why this is, or how. but I promise i will figure it out. We head to Atlanta, August 23-25. Its time to get the monkey off my back, and in Atlanta, The monkey gets it.