Drag Racing Scene Winter 2015

WHEELS-UP RACE ACTION WORLD FOOTBRAKE NO MERCY

WEB

PRINT

VIDEO

SOCIAL

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H

UP WIT S AD

JOHN FORCE

IE

STILL ON THE LOUD PEDAL

J. C. B E AT T

TECH

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In This Issue Drag Racing Scene Vol. 1, Issue 4

Features

22 HEADS UP 30 FORCE OF CHANGE 40 STILL RUNNING STRONG 50 TAKING THE CHALLENGE 64 SIR, YES SIR 68 STRENGTH THROUGH TRAGEDY 72 SHOP TOUR 76 THE BEST LAID PLANS 86 GEORGIA DOGFIGHT 94 DEGREE IN HORSEPOWER 102 TITLE EARNED 104 REMEMBERING HIS ROOTS J.C. Beattie’s life in racing

John Force is happy with changes Roy Hill has lived drag racing

BTE World Footbrake Challenge event Gary Owens home after the service

40

RUNNING STRONG

Roy Hill has lived drag racing

S&W Race Cars lives on after loss

Behind the scenes of Browell Bellhousings Indy didn’t quite work out as hoped

No Mercy event is all-out competition

UNOH students get hands-on experience

Mia Tedesco wins on her way to the top Travers Webb restores Sox Comet

2 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

50 TAKING THE CHALLENGE BTE World Footbrake Challenge

26

BRAKE SYSTEM BREAKDOWN

Figure out your brake needs before buying

44

THICK OR THIN Oil viscosity

Tech

26 BRAKE SYSTEM BREAKDOWN 36 PLUMBING AT HOME 44 THICK OR THIN? 82 PUSHROD SCIENCE 90 BE DYNAMIC 92 EASY TRANS-ITION 98 PUSHING THE POWER Figure out brake needs before buying Re-usable hose ends make job easy

Oil viscocity depends on bearing clearance Don’t overlook this simple puzzle piece Proper fuel flow needs a return line

Quick disconnects save time and mess

Departments

4 6 DRAG NEWS

GOING DEEP

Letter from the editor Things we think you should know about

8

DIGITAL GUIDE

Drag racing apps, sites, and social media

10 SOCIAL SHOUTOUTS

Your online comments on Drag Racing Scene topics

14 VIDEO REWIND Cool videos we found online

16

PEAK PERFORMER

18

Lex Dudas

REMEMBER WHEN OMS’s short life

20 TRACK TESTED Looking back to improve future

IT 110 PUT TO THE TEST Valve Spring Compressor

112 LIFE AT 1320 Got nitrous?

Think before boosting horsepower

Vendor Midway Economical Center Sections Strange Engineering.................... 56 E7 CD Ignition Controller FAST................................................ 57 Direct Port Nitrous Intake Manifold Edelbrock........................ 58 Ford 6.1 Approved Bellhousings McLeod Racing..................... 58 Diablo Shifter TCI Automotive................................................... 59 Stainless Steel Bulk Fasteners ARP........................................ 60 Oil Speed Lube Driven Racing Oil............................................. 60 Builder Wheel Tubs Chassisworks............................................. 61 Suspension Kits QA1............................................................... 62 Vasco T400 Input Shafts ATI Performance................................ 62 Titanium Retainers COMP Cams.............................................. 62 Aerosol Fire Extinguisher Fireade............................................ 63 DragRacingScene.com 3

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The most exciting thing about drag racing

I

Staff Group Publisher

Shawn Brereton

Editorial Director John DiBartolomeo Contributors Auto Imagery Richard Brady Jeff Huneycutt Elon Werner

Jon Asher Brandon Flannery Gary Nastase Scott Woodruff

Advertising

Brett Underwood Dave Ferrato

704.896.1959 504.237.5072

For advertising inquiries call 901.260.5910.

Production Art

Hailey Douglas Jason Wommack Zach Tibbett

Drag Racing Scene is published quarterly to promote the growth of drag racing as well as recognize the parts and services from participating manufacturers. The magazine consists of dedicated information from partner companies with the mission of disseminating unfiltered editorial on companies, products and services directly to drag racing participants and fans.

Editorial content and advertisements for each issue can originate from partner companies participating in the magazine.

Drag Racing Scene is a hybrid of content that was originally published at DragRacingScene.com and original content that was created for this quarterly print magazine. Magazine distribution occurs through direct distribution from parent company Xceleration Media and partner companies.

Drag Racing Scene is a property of Xceleration Media. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written consent from Xceleration Media. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

Cover ON THE

ATI’s Drag Pack Challenger, driven by J.C. Beattie, goes wheels up.

WHEELS-UP RACE ACTIO N

WORLD FOOTBRAKE

PRINT

HE

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VIDEO

NO MERCY

SOCIAL

S UP WIT AD

H

JOHN FORCE STILL ON THE LOUD PEDAL

J. C. B T T EA

IE

n our last issue (Drag Racing Scene, Volume 1, Issue #3), I posed the question of what is The Most Important Story In Motorsports. To reiterate slightly, it was my opinion that in the two biggest and most publicized accidents of the past year, both drivers walked away unharmed.

Now I pose this question: What is the most exciting part of drag racing?

Is it 300-mph and three-second elapsed times? How about the side-by-side competitiveness of just about every run? Full bodied cars on 10.5 tires regularly running in the three-second zone in the eighth-mile?

None of the above.

Sure, each one of those is exciting in its own right, but it was my esteemed colleague and editor of Xceleration Media’s OneDirt magazine, Jeff Huneycutt, who wrote “Racing is best when it’s a family sport.” That’s what’s most exciting.

And really, the term family extends quite a bit further than just our flesh and blood.

At the recent U.S. Nationals in Indy, I spent quite a bit of time conversing with that talented motorsports artist, Kenny Youngblood. ‘Blood’s definition of family is that there are two distinct groups. Obviously your flesh and blood; mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, wives, children, etc., would be the first thing you think about in that context. But as we age, our “family” actually grows and in some cases we become more closely attached to the people we meet. Here’s where Youngblood’s words ring free.

Standing amongst a crowded gathering of racers, sponsors, manufacturers and the like, he said, “Your family is certainly your siblings, parents, etc., but we tend to grow closer to our extended family, which are the people here in this group.”

Those people in some cases become closer to us than what the basic definition of family is. This not only includes racers, but fans too. After all, we’re one big family that shares a common interest.

How many times have you heard the stories of one racer helping another? You can read a little snippet about how racers help one another in our story in this issue titled “No Mercy,” about the radial tire race held a few months ago at the South Georgia Motorsports Park.

Not to sound like we’re repeating the story, but it is important to this column.

When Lyle Barnett crossed the finish line in his Corvette, he did so engulfed in fire.

Obviously he collected up a couple of “wall dings” too, which rendered his car quite useless, but the safety equipment on-board enabled his car to give up its life to save Barnett. Unfortunately there was quite a bit of fire which caused numerous burns resulting in him spending a fair amount of time in the burn unit of a Georgia hospital, but he is recovering quite nicely. As for his extended “family,” racers all weekend long tossed around a hat collecting money for his medical expenses. As one racer put it, “This is just what we do.” And that’s what family does.

It really comes to the forefront when we look at the Jr. Dragster programs. Kids have a tendency to make friends a lot easier than we as adults do. When my son was small, once we pulled into a track he was usually gone, off on his bicycle to play with his “friends.” When I asked who he was with, his comment was always, “I’m playing with my friends.”

“But you don’t even know that kid’s name.”

“Yeah, but he’s my friend.” ‘Nuff said. Our son had “racing friends” and “school friends,” and in some cases the two never intertwined.

Our rather informal survey of What’s The Most Exciting Thing About Drag Racing, had most stating just what we thought: Family. I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised. We’ve known that all along. DRS

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Drag News PRESENTED BY

Dave Bishop honored Photographer and publisher Dave Bishop, was the Guest of Honor at the recent 1st State Hot Rod Reunion held at US 13 Dragway in Delmar, Delaware. Bishop, who calls Easton, Maryland, home, got his start at the Delaware facility as track photographer in 1965. In addition to supplying the local racers with photos, Bishop was also the National Dragster contributor for the track, sending photos and results to the magazine.

Later when Bishop branched out and started covering events at other tracks on the east coast, he was a major contributor to the IHRA house paper, Drag Review and won numerous IHRA Contributor of the Year awards.

Bishop made his name in drag racing journalism during the 1970’s working for Super Stock & Drag Illustrated, in what was considered the best drag racing periodical of the time.

Bishop’s stories and photos of the cream of the east coast racers stood him in great company with the staff of Super Stock, which included Steve Collison and Neil Britt as editors during Bishop’s tenure.

In addition to writing and shooting photos, Bishop was also a driver, car owner, and race promoter, having launched one of the first Super Comp series’ in the country.

In the 90’s, along with starting Competition Photos, Bishop assumed the NHRA Division One photographer position, supplying the NHRA

with results and photos of the New England Dragway Federal Mogul (later Lucas Oil) series.

Recognizing a void in local Sportsman coverage, Bishop decided to revive a long gone style of drag racing newspapers featuring primarily Division 1. He covered everything from Jr. Dragsters to Pro Mod in East Coast Drag News, which was hugely successful considering the competition from the internet.

The paper brought back memories of the famous papers of the 60’s and 70’s such as Drag Times and Drag News.After

years in print, Bishop decided to take the paper online and it can now be found at EastCoastDragNews.com.

Another honoree joining Bishop at the Reunion was Funny Car pioneer and frequent Delmar match racer Bruce Larson, who had his USA-1 ’67 Camaro on display. Also receiving awards from event organizer Cathy Swagler and track owner Charlie Cathell were drag racing editor extraordinaire Jack Redd, and longtime Capitol Raceway and Aquasco Speedway manager Julio Merra. –Phil Hutchison

Center for the inducting of the class of 2015 for the 14th year.

Those inducted included Sherwood Allen, Robert Bullard (posthumously awarded the Woody Andrews Memorial Award), Ron Colson, Don Grotheer,

Bill Ellershaw, Roy Hagadorn, Woodro Josey, Jim Kerr, Jimmy King, Mike Kosky, Ed Kowalski (posthumously), Frank LeSueur, Larry Lombardo, and Della Woods. Our congrats to each and every new member.

Drag Times HoF Class of 2015 As is usually the case, under Chamber of Commerce weather, the East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame weekend began with a barbeque on Friday, followed on Saturday by the closing of the famed Garnett Street in Henderson, North Carolina, for the Show, Shine, Shag & Dine car show.

That one single day is probably the biggest bench racing session ever conceived; a session where you couldn’t have fit more people onto the street if you tried. On Sunday, the festivities moved to the Vance-Granville Civic 6 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

Drag News NEWS / HEADLINES / HOT TOPICS

Giving back It started off sort of innocently and there have been other NHRA Divisions where Comp Eliminator racers have banded together to help the class grow, but none so successfully as Division 3’s Comp Eliminator Bonus Program.

Brian and Debra Browell it appears spend nearly as much time promoting Comp Eliminator racing as they do their business, Browell Bellhousings.

“Comp Eliminator racing is quite an expensive hobby,” says Brian Browell. “But we all love the sport and the class. Several years ago when he was racing Comp, Roger Brogdon came up with an idea to solicit sponsors to help support the class. His idea was to use the funds to add to the winner’s share of the purse.

“But we spoke and the idea behind the program was to help increase the class’ participation. As is usually the case, the winner receives the lion’s share of the purse. We felt it better if we would split the sponsor’s money received amongst the first round losers who have to work hard to qualify but yet don’t receive any money until the second round.”

As it has turned out, the Comp Eliminator Bonus Program has been flourishing in NHRA’s Division 3 since 2007. As an added bonus, the program was expanded in 2014 to include the

SHORTS

biggest race of the year, the U.S. Nationals in Indy.

For 2015, Ray Skillman, Engines, Inc., C-Tech Aluminum Cabinets, Indy Gear, GCR Tires and Service, Elite Performance, Liberty’s Gears, Browell Bellhousing, Panella Race Engines and First Merchant Bank added money to a pot that was distributed amongst the first round losers in Indy.

According to the purse advertised by the NHRA, to lose first round got the racer nothing while second round losers received $550 from NHRA. However, first round losers received a check through the Comp Eliminator Bonus Program for $600 (yes, it pays more to lose first round than second but that’s because of the Browell’s program.-Ed.).

“Each of the Comp Eliminator racers appreciate the sponsors who have chosen to continue their support of this great class,” said Browell. “We look forward to doing this same thing for years to come.”

Holley acquires MSD Holley Performance Products recently acquired the MSD Group, which includes data logging company Racepak amongst others.

“We are excited to bring together the great legacies of Holley Performance Products and MSD Group.

The combination of these brands will provide our customers with the most complete offering of performance products in the industry,” said Holley President & CEO, Tom Tomlinson.

“We are aggressively developing innovative new products at Holley and we will continue to build upon the fine job the MSD Group is already doing.”

Tomlinson continued, “Our goal is to offer solutions to automotive

enthusiasts so they can achieve their goals while pursuing their automotive passions. We look forward to working with the MSD Group team, including Russell Stephens at MSD, Dave Martinez at Powerteq, and Tim Anderson at Racepak, to marry our technologies and talents to build these solutions.”

Keep up to date with drag racing news at DragRacingScene.com.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Millican family after the Top Fuel driver’s son, Dalton passed away August 11 after a motorcycle accident near his home.

NHRA’s new rules package for the Pro Stock class in 2016 might appear to fix some of the problems in that class, but it could just backfire. Although, Pro Stock driver and FireAde-sponsored Larry Morgan, who has garnered two victories this season as of this writing, said, “I think it’s going to be good for the class as a whole.”

Time will tell.

NHRA and the Automobile Club of Southern California announced an extension of their long-running partnership through 2020.

The Jimi Hendrix Foundation is dedicated to the betterment of the world community through music, and recently signed on with Kalitta Motorsports as the primary sponsor on the Top Fueler driven by J.R. Todd. The partnership will allow the Jimi Hendrix Foundation to showcase their Music for Life program. Music for Life was established to provide children and young adults with musical instruments and instruction without the worry of cost.

Kalitta Motorsports Top Fuel crew chief Jim Oberhofer leads one of the most talked about drag racing teams in the country, and now he’ll be known as an author too. His book, Top Fuel For Life, will be out soon, detailing his true story about sin and sacrifice amidst the showy world of Top Fuel, and explores the elusive path to happiness for all of us.

DragRacingScene.com 7

Drag News PRESENTED BY

The Tribute With the passing of Scott Weney just about a year ago, the team of the S&W Performance Group wanted to do something special. You can read more about how S&W has survived over the past year on page 68 of this issue of Drag Racing Scene, however, the fact is that Weney’s passing happened at the first event he and Scott Richardson co-promoted last year, the Fun In The Sun bracket race in Florida.

For this year’s event, which took place in mid-November, Michael Weney (Scott’s brother, and now president of the Group) and his crew at S&W wanted to do something special.

That something special amounted to doing what they do best and that is build a tribute car to their brother, son, father, husband, friend, and fellow racer.

Together, along with several other industry friends, they built a four-link

dragster in honor of Scott. At the second annual Fun In The Sun event presented by Strange Engineering in Bradenton, Florida, they hosted a special Scott Weney Tribute Dragster Race. The first 64 racers to enter would race for the tribute car that was certain to be somewhat of a collector’s item in years to come. The winner of the special race was Tracy Sons of Hendersonville, Tennessee, while winners at the five $10,000-a-day races included Randy Krause, Brandon Taylor, Nick Folk, Jeremy West and Carl Drake Jr. Ironically, the first day’s

winner was none other than Krause who is an S&W sales rep and worked with Scott for years.

After completion of the build, the entire S&W team posed for a picture prior to loading up the car for its trip to Florida. Interestingly, a little behind-the-scenes story, the entire team posed with their thumbs-up as a tribute to their fallen friend. As the story is told, prior to his death, Scott had given his two thumbs-up to a fellow racer and immediately collapsed.

The two thumbs-up became Scott’s last act in this world.

International Drag Racing Hall of Fame The International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, a component of the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing located in Ocala, Fla., has released it Class of 2016 inductees.

Comprising the Class of 2016 are six of the sport’s most accomplished Top Fuel and/or Funny Car pilots, along with the Founder’s Award honoree who helped create the model for media relations, not only for drag racing, but for motorsports as a whole.

The 2016 inductees are (in alphabetical order): Preston Davis

8 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

(Bartlett, Tenn.), Jack Doyle (Wakefield, N.H.), the late Marvin Miller (Bakersfield, Calif.), Mark Oswald (Homa, La.), Dennis Priddle (Yeovil, Somerset, U.K.) and Gas Ronda (Palm Desert, Calif.). Steve Earwood (Rockingham, N.C.) received the 2016 Founder’s Award.

The honorees are selected by a committee of veteran drag racing and performance industry figures. Induction ceremonies will take place in March of 2016 in conjunction with the NHRA Gatornationals in Florida.

Drag News NEWS / HEADLINES / HOT TOPICS

1001 Drag Racing Facts What famous tennis player set an elapsed time record in a gas dragster in 1957?

What manufacturer introduced the first fiberglass flip-top Funny Car in 1966?

Who won the Pro Stock debut at the Winternationals in 1970?

Who developed the Ardun OHV conversion cylinder heads for Ford flatheads?

The answers to all these and more are in Doug Boyce’s latest book, 1001 Drag Racing Facts. The author of a number of books relating to drag racing, Boyce has had a life-long addiction to the straight-line sport. The essence of burning rubber and open headers has filled his head from his early days and by his early-teens, he was building classic Chevrolets.

With an ongoing love of the sport and the way it used to be, he has compiled quite a list of facts

dating back to the early days of the sport. There are highlights, low-lights, cars, stars, tracks, stats, quacks and quirks. It recalls the sport’s most memorable moments from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, and beyond. The early days of the sport were probably the most innovative, entertaining, and diverse times of our life and this book lists quite a number of them. As we all know, the stories have a habit over time of growing taller and this book helps to bring them down to earth. Whether you’re an avid fan of nostalgia drags, a trivia buff who wants to stump friends, or simply a fan of the big and powerful drag cars, this book is an informative and entertaining collection of facts from a number of the industry’s most respected sources.

For more information and to purchase the book, visit cartechbooks.com

DragRacingScene.com 9

Digital Guide WEBSITES / FORUMS / APPS

HELPING RACERS CROSS THE

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Tech & how-to articles from the industry best

Cool stories, profiles, history, & car showcases!

Coverage of races across the U.S.

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PUT US IN YOUR POCKET Stay connected to Drag Racing Scene between issues by following us on social media.

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Social Shoutouts FACEBOOK / TWITTER / SOCIAL MEDIA

We recently posted the question below to the 79,000+ fans of the Drag Racing Scene Facebook page (facebook.com/DragRacingScene), looking for your opinions on the subject. Feel free to post your responses to this or any other comments on any of our social media sites.

Day 1 at SEMA

POPULAR

QUESTION What was the first car (race car or otherwise) you ever took down the track or what was the name of the track?

Here are some additional articles from online or previous issues, that are worth checking out.

Search for these titles at DragRacingScene.com.

FEATURE The Bayou Mentality Day 1 Of The SEMA Show

THOMAS HOOVER

TECH

A ’68 Firebird 44 with a four-speed in 1968.

Jiffy-tite – Plumbing Simplified Safer Trailering – FireAde

COLUMN

LARRY FULLERTON

What is wrong with bracket racing?

My first was in 1979, a Garlit’s chassis big block Chevy Econorail.

Common Sense

RICHIE VAIL

Twin City Dragway, 1984 in Monroe, Louisiana.

LOU WALLMAN

Irwindale, California in 1970, a ’70 Corvette.

LINDA MULLENS

Mid-America Dragway in 1968 with a ’65 Ford Galaxy.

CHRIS GOODNIGHT

Fremont Dragstrip, 1966 in a ’48 Hudson Commodore wearing a fire suit, face mask, goggles and helmet. Shut off early and ran 18-seconds. Sweet!

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

DAVE COCHRANE

In 1964 with a ’63 Ford Galaxy in Fontana, California.

Stay connected to Drag Racing Scene between issues @DragRacingScene.

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Wheels up

Super Stock action brings out the best in wheelstand competition.

14  Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

Photo by John DiBartolomeo

DragRacingScene.com 15

Video Rewind

RACING / PRODUCT / ENTERTAINMENT

Video Rewind is where we point out interesting videos found on the Internet — whether historical, funny, dramatic or technical. We like them and thought you might, too.

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Subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our original and curated video content that is updated daily by the Drag Racing Scene editorial staff. youtube.com/DragRacingScene

Modified Production ride

Go for a few rides in this Old '57 Chevy that currently has a SBC 350 with old iron heads, aluminum rods, Wiseco pistons, a Doug-Nash 5-speed, Ram clutch, and 9-Ford with 5.67 gears. Young first started running the car in Modified Production in 1972. youtu.be/UrliXfOsOwg

Scan to watch now!

Scan to watch now!

The ride of his life

Roy Hill’s epic ride at the U.S. Nationals is one he’ll never forget nor will the rest of us. bit.ly/RoyHillWheelstand

The Truck

The biggest, meanest, and most captivating Kenworth you’ll ever see with a J79 jet engine attached. This gives new meaning to the trucker term “hammer down.” youtu.be/LdwBeX6cJmA

16 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

Dewayne Mills Scan to watch now!

Earlier this year at the Lights Out VI event at South Georgia Motorsports Park, Dewayne Mills stood his car straight up at half-track and added Scan to to the highlight reels from that style of racing. watch now! youtu.be/_vyIe3YxKa0

Lex Dudas

PRESENTED BY

The PEAK Performer Award is given to the individual who has proven him or herself as a High Performer in the sport of drag racing.

From the occasional driver of a front-engine dragster to track operator to NHRA Division Director as well as operating a couple of tracks and now back full circle at Maple Grove Raceway where he began, Lex Dudas is one of those in our sport who has most certainly “been there and done that.”

In the mid-’60s, Dudas ran not only the dragster with partner Dave Grubb who did most of the driving, but he also ran a circuit called the Competition Racers Association which ran several races around the eastern part of the country. In January of 1971, Mike Lewis had taken over the running of his family-owned Maple Grove Raceway and his first phone call was to Dudas.

“I knew Lex and that his heart was in the sport and that we could count on him,” says Lewis.

Changing careers from a plant manager and part time Competition Director at the ‘Grove during the ’71 and ’72 seasons before being named full time track manager might have been daunting, but Dudas had the passion for racing which only made the transition easier. Diving in immediately, as seriously as he does anything today, Dudas teamed with Lewis, laying the groundwork for the facility that today is one of the most iconic tracks in the country.

By 1978, Maple Grove Raceway had become one of the friendliest tracks on the east coast, which might have prompted a phone call from NHRA founder Wally Parks to Dudas.

The search for a new NHRA Division 2 Director ended with one stipulation: Dudas insisted on running the southeast division from his office in Pennsylvania, staying close to his family, which included daughter Tracy and son Todd. Not exactly a fan of flying, Dudas put a lot of miles on a lot of cars during his tenure as a DD. Making a move up in the company in the early ‘90s, Dudas took over the operations of NHRA’s Indianapolis Raceway Park. After several years there, he transitioned to the circle track side of things when opportunities knocked, running tracks in Colorado, Las Vegas, and finally back in Indy as the director of the ASA stock car circuit.

Still more than just friends with Lewis, the ‘Grove was looking for a sales and marketing person in the early 2000s. Seemingly out of character for a person who had always been involved in the operations side of things, Dudas expressed an interest in the position maybe in part with his desire to move “back home.”

Due to his relationships with a number of movers and shakers in the industry, Dudas took to the new position like a duck to water.

Lacking any sort of degree in marketing or the like, his “school of hard knocks” education and vision enabled him to expand Maple Grove’s sales and marketing partnerships at an amazing rate.

In 2007, Dudas was promoted to vice president and general manager, facilitating the full circle return back to where it all began.

“I don’t know that I was ready to once again take over operations at the ‘Grove,” Dudas said back then, “but having the friendship and close relationship with the Stauffer family, owners of the track, I didn’t want to let them down. As long as they wanted me, I’d be happy to serve.”

Success can be had in a number of different ways. For Lex Dudas, success came to him through hard work and building relationships cultivated over a period of 50+ years. Always operating at his “peak” is what makes Lex Dudas a PEAK Performer.

DragRacingScene.com 17

A ten year life span

I

t hardly seems possible but ten years is how long OMS lived.

Of course for those of you too young to know, I’m speaking about Ontario Motor Speedway. OMS was very ahead of its time. The track encompassed 800 acres, had permanent seats for 150,000 spectators, could accommodate 180,000 overall, featured a state of the art sound system, and private suites sat atop the main grandstand.

Located in Ontario, California, roughly 40 miles from downtown LA just off the I-10 interstate, this track was the first of its kind built to run events from all four of the major racing sanctioning bodies at the time: USAC, NASCAR, FIA, and of course NHRA. Ground was broken on 9/25/1968, with the track taking just shy of two years to be constructed. The facility opened the doors for business in August of 1970 and the race then called the NHRA Super Nationals was held at this facility on 11/21/1970.

Building the “Indianapolis of the West” involved buying up roughly 150 parcels of land from some of Hollywood’s elite, on which at one time sat the Ontario Winery.

After all the parcels had been purchased, planning began with the idea to design the track in Indy’s image but with new improvements.

The racing surface was to be one lane wider and the turns would be banked making this track slightly faster than the Indy facility. This track was also designed with an infield road course track, which at the time the Indy track didn’t have. There was also a private stadium club with annual memberships, corporate suites, new crash absorbent retaining walls, and new state of the art race team garages. It also featured the first ever fully computerized timing tower.

The OMS management launched into a multi-million dollar marketing campaign seeking extensive market research. Based on the research they needed to get an average of 50,000 hard core racing fans to view the various races.

18 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

To that end they launched a radio/newspaper campaign touting the facility as family friendly, and also that it was the place to rub elbows with the Hollywood stars, astronauts, and other celebrities. True to form, the suites were filled with stars including Paul Newman, Dick Smothers, Kirk Douglas, John Wayne, James Garner, and astronaut Pete Conrad.

The first ever California 500 oval event was a sellout, some six weeks before the event’s race date.

It remained the largest crowd and highest grossing single day sporting event for three decades.

But as attendance started to drop, the management started to promote and hold other events. Evel Knievel jumped over 19 cars in 1971, the day before the NASCAR Miller High Life 500 race. California Jam, a rock concert was held in April of ‘74 drawing a crowd of 3-400,000 in paid attendance, an all-time record for largest paid attendance for a rock concert.

Even those couldn’t save the facility, and by 1980 the OMS bonds were selling for $0.30 on the dollar in trying to meet the debt. The land originally bought for around $7,500 an acre was now worth around $150,000 per acre, making the land worth more than the facility. Chevron Land Company, a sister company to Chevron Oil, bought the property for about $10 million, which they developed commercially.

I didn’t get to this track until ‘75 which is the midway point of its lifespan. The winners of the Super Nationals that year were Garlits, Prudhomme, and Jenkins. The track was impressive to say the least and I was awed by how big it was.

I also recall the modern metal beamed starting line tower the NHRA used at OMS, and it can be seen in some of the photography I shot back then.

After the track closed it was moved to the Pomona track where it still stands today.

It does seem to me how ahead of its time OMS was.

Even today, those who went there to watch the cars, and the racers themselves, all remember Ontario Motor Speedway for what it really was: Huge, and one of the greatest (if not the best) tracks ever built and I’m glad I got to Remember When. DRS

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Looking back… and forward

T

his time of year we spend a lot of time to try to determine what worked this past season and what areas need further evaluation and perhaps a measure of change.

I’m a very detail-oriented person by nature and my background in investment planning trained me to focus on looking forward, setting short- and long-term goals for just about every one of our projects. My job at JEGS is to help get a return on our investments surrounding our branding and marketing efforts, while educating current and future customers about JEGS in general. In simpler terms, my job is to paint the world yellow and black.

The annual JEGS Allstars Race is a great example of something we use each year to promote our brand. I’d like to think this race has gotten better each season, at least as far as what we’re trying to accomplish with the support of our drag racing customer base -- the world’s best sportsman racers. The competition side of the Allstars race has remained intense and tough since when it all started in 1985, but the promotion of the event wasn’t in my area of responsibility until JEGS became the sponsor 16 years ago.

I believe the Coughlin family and JEGS understand this event better than anyone, having experienced this event from all sides -- as spectators, competitors, and sponsors.

This unique perspective and grassroots knowledge is what helps this event improve each year. The weekend exposes family values at its very core, both on and off the track.

Customer service is key to everything. The goal should always be to exceed the expectations of the people involved.

That’s the JEGS way of doing things. In this case, we always want the Allstars experience to be a positive and memorable one.

It’s a tall task. The race features 80 of the best NHRA sportsman racers from the seven different NHRA divisions going head-to-head in ten different competition classes.

We moved the annual BBQ from Saturday night after the event to Friday night and turned it into a kick-off party. This is a team/ division event also, so having the divisions use the kick-off party as a way to bond is great and helps to carry that team mentality into Saturday’s racing action. This year the tables at the BBQ kick-off were organized by division as a way to help guide this process for the seven NHRA divisions. Comradery at this event is key.

20 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

Years ago, we started offering a JEGS Double-Up Bonus.

This means if you win the JEGS Allstars Race in your class on Saturday, and then win the NHRA national event the next day in the same class, JEGS pays you again. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe we have paid at least one bonus each year since we announced this enhancement.

My goal during (and shortly after) that race is to talk to as many people as possible, including the racers and the fans themselves. I ask them what things they liked and what they might change. It’s conversations like this with input from the fans and participants that has helped to make this race into the prestigious event it is today.

Every competitor gets a custom qualifier trophy with their name on it as they walk out onto the pre-race stage. If a driver is lucky enough to be a JEGS Allstars Champion in their respective class, when they get out of their car there is a large check with their name already on it. Same for each champion’s trophy -- all captured at the top end as the ESPN cameras are rolling. I am the lucky person that hands each driver their trophy, so I get to see and experience their excitement first hand. It’s a very rewarding way to top the weekend.

Some of the things I would like to see added going forward is a contingency payout for the 80 competitors in the JEGS Allstars Race. Right now there is no official contingency payout for the event. Each winner receives a payout ranging from $4,500 to $7,000 (each runner-up is paid $2,000), which is class based, but that’s it for cash payouts. I’m working to fix that issue.

For now, we’ll keep plugging away, and work on making all of the programs JEGS is involved with better. DRS Scott “Woody” Woodruff is the Director of Motorsports and Media for the huge JEGS empire. His work to color the world yellow and black has been successful, judging from the looks of the sport.

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JAMES BEATTIE JR. At 37-years old, James Charles Beattie Jr. (aka J.C.) is still pretty young. Despite that though, he’s got over 25-years of experience in the transmission business.

Growing up under the tutelage of his parents Jim Sr. and Lynn (founders of ATI Performance Products, Inc), it wasn’t unlikely that after being picked up from school, J.C. and his sister Candace were brought right to the shop.

“At 2:30 or so after school, we’d be at the shop until it was time to go home,” he says. “On days off, we’d be here all day, so I really grew up around transmissions and the like. I can remember taking apart valve bodies and such when I was eight or nine.”

In the mid-‘70s before J.C. was born, his father owned two Funny Cars for a limited time before tiring of it. When J.C. turned 12, they decided to try their hand at go kart racing. Once 18, he moved further into the circle track side of things competing in a Spec Chassis Truck series, and then the ASA stock car series from 2000 to 2004.

He has since come back to the “straight line” of racing with his 2009 Dodge Challenger Drag Pak and 2012 COPO Camaro.

Earlier this year, Jim Beattie Sr. passed away leaving the business completely in J.C.’s lap. His mother Lynn is still there on a regular basis tending to the business side of things, while J.C. handles the nuts and bolts end. We sat down with him recently to discuss his role in the business, how it came about and how things might have changed since his father’s passing.

Growing up in basically a drag racing background, why did you ever start circle track racing?

You then got into the big cars on the circle track side, why not drag racing at that point?

We had been going to drag races since I was 6 months old, but by the time I was 12, Dad was tired of it and wanted to do something different. We had this kart that, unbeknownst to us, was indeed a racing kart and we went to one local race. The very next time, we went straight to a World Karting Association (WKA) National Event. There were people there from all over the country and we met Mr. Joe and Joey Lunati there. We hung out with them and learned the ins and outs of that style of racing. Now when I came to the shop, it was about working on the karts. We had built a dyno and by the time we had gotten rid of it, we had made over 25,000 pulls on it. Once the shop closed at night or on the weekends, either Dad or I would fire that dyno up and we’d flog parts. We ended up winning something like 35 WKA National Events and four championships on that side of the fence.

I don’t know. Dad never really pushed me one way or the other and with our experience in the karts, we got into the Parts Pro truck that used a Turbo 350 automatic transmission, which made some sense for us. Then came the ASA circuit and we had contemplated an automatic trans but it was eventually outlawed. It became a tough road for us eventually, between the money we were spending and Dad and I at times ready to kill each other, so we gave up on it. The teams we were competing against had three or four full-time employees, they’d be practicing pit stops, and it just got to be way above us. We were always finishing in the top 20, occasionally a top ten car, but we were never going to be a top five car.

22 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

What year did you give up the circle track racing?

In ’04 we just walked away from it, but I had wanted to expand on our street/

strip components. We purchased a ’69 Camaro which turned into a little bit of a restoration project. I worked on that, and it gave me a lot of insight into what people get into on a project like that.

Finally, we got it running and started working on our street rod packages.

We had a basically stock 350 engine in it and eventually stepped that up to a blower motor. We started drag racing, but we’d go to the track to test and just try to break parts to improve what we had. It was good for me working on the car and developing parts.

Then you got sort of serious with the addition of the Drag Pak Challenger you have now.

We ordered that car in October of ’08, but never got it until January of ’10. It took us a little bit by surprise as to just how much work needed to get it race ready, but we debuted it later that year. It was then that we

started building a converter for it and finding the right combination that worked. We still had the ’69 Camaro, but when the COPO Camaros came along, we sold the ’69 to make room and that’s where we’re at today. I also purchased Chris Rini’s Pro Mod car that we’re going to run Top Sportsman with. It’s really all in an effort to test parts and provide our customers with the best products possible.

Now that your Dad has passed, has everything been turned over to you?

Not really. Technically I’m the COO here, but my Mom and I run it together. She’s the front office person and handles the business basics. She understands the legalities of the business and does a great job keeping us up to date with any laws and our expenses. There is so much to that I can’t even believe. Sometimes the amount of time and energy it takes to run a business far exceeds the fun of actually being in business. But she handles it all. As for me, I spend a lot of my time working on both new and present development projects. My focus is in the machine shop, what parts we need to improve on, what new parts we need to bring to market, and then the equipment that is needed to make it all, or test it – such as the race cars.

Your father was always an innovator.

When did he start walking away a little and hand the reins to you?

He just started curtailing his time here about five years ago. It meant that instead of being

here from six in the morning to at least six at night, it changed to six to four or so. But since he’s gone, I never realized the amount of stuff that he did that I wasn’t aware of. Things like talking to long-time customers and dealing with the machinery we make is stuff that is now falling on my desk.

The converter manufacturing machinery that we sell is something that was his project, but we’ve got over 150 of those units around the world and now I’m taking care of that. He never really walked away though, in fact he developed our new Turbo 400 valve body in the last year or so. Start to finish, that was all his. We used the COPO as the test bed and I think in one day we swapped in and out 12 different valve body designs to see which one would be the quickest to set on the trans brake. But they had a house in Florida for the past seven years and he’d spend more time there every year. Dad has two brothers that live near Tampa, so he had a place near them. They had set the business up in trust for me so little by little, he was transitioning out.

What really has changed since his passing?

Not really a whole lot. We’re fortunate to have some long-term employees here, so not much has really changed. You’ve got to have a group of people around that don’t necessarily have to be passionate

about racing, but they do have to have the passion to produce really good parts and that’s what we have.

We’ve got just under 60 employees here in several buildings and it can be inundating some days. Most days when I come to work, I have no idea where I will be needed that day. I could be working on new products, or something as simple as a T-shirt design. That’s what is exciting to me.

I definitely thrive on pressure and multi-tasking. Even when I’m home, I’m never really sitting around. The couch in our house is the least used piece of furniture.

You’re still young but does the thought of just where your business is going crop into your mind?

I really enjoy working. If I’m not racing on the weekend, then by Sunday afternoon I’m looking forward to going back to work. As they say, “If you love your job, you will never work a day in your life”. As frustrating as it can be some days, I do have a passion for what I am doing. I’ve got a little boy, James III, who will be three and he wakes up asking “Daddy, can we watch drag racing?” My daughter Ava will be four and she likes going to the races, but she’s more a girl and likes those kinds of things. But I’m looking forward to hopefully many years ahead in this business.

ATI is pretty strong in the damper business. How did that come about?

There’s lots of stories about that, but Dad knew someone in circle track racing who told him the stock dampers being used at the time were flying apart. Dad went out to his street car, whatever he was driving at the time, and noticed the damper was wobbling, which a stock one still does today. It was then that he started to investigate what to do and what was needed. He eventually just started with some parts and pieces which was maybe crudely based on what we still have today. But it worked, and Dad started to refine it to what we have

24 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

now. That was late ‘80s and early ‘90s and damper sales have steadily increased to where we’re selling roughly 15,000 pieces a year.

At some point your father purchased test equipment for dampers and placed that testing in your hands. What is it that you test for?

Around ’95, we hired a company to do some Torsional Vibration Damper testing for us, but we realized we needed to have our own equipment.

I was 16 and we purchased test equipment from a company called Scientific Atlanta. Basically we have a trigger wheel which connects to the damper, much like a driveshaft sensor, but it has 120 points. It’s hooked to a high kilohertz Hall Effect sensor that can read up to 20,000 triggers per second. Going through an analysis computer, it registers an average rpm through each of the trigger points, plotting it all out on a graph. Each firing pulse of the engine creates a noise and eventually a frequency. It takes into account each of the pushing and pulling of the pistons and rods as they go up and down and through the ignition cycles. The goals change according to what you’re tuning for; let’s say a 400-hp street engine, or a 1,500-hp race piece. We have the ability to fine tune the damper to react differently for the combination used. We do that through the use of the different durometer rubbers we use in our dampers. However, 99-percent of the applications that are on our shelf will work perfectly for the customer. The dampers that get tuned are for special applications, OEM’s, NASCAR, road race engines, and very high RPM combinations.

Thanks for your time and best of luck in business and your racing ventures. DRS

Brake system do’s and don’ts Words/Photos John DiBartolomeo 26 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

I

t is amazing the rate elapsed times have decreased and mph have increased over the years. Forgetting the advances the fuel cars have made, who would have imagined we’d regularly see everyday cars (bracket cars, if you will) attaining speeds in the 200 mph range in the quarter-mile? On the opposite side of that spectrum is the importance of safely stopping the car.

In most cases, race track shutdown areas have been the same distance since the days when the tracks were originally built some decades ago. We’ve all made our cars faster, but there are little if no advances in making a track longer. That’s what makes the use of a proper braking system much more important than ever before.

Forgetting for a minute a full-on custom built frame-up race car, there are still dozens of stock-type vehicles regularly attaining very fast speeds utilizing a stock factory braking system. That stock system was adequately designed to stop a car at highway speeds and stop-and-go traffic.

“The factory brake systems are simply not designed for the abuse seen on the race track,” says J.C. Cascio of Strange Engineering. “Anytime a racer is putting together a dedicated drag car, an aftermarket brake system is recommended.”

In addition to the ability to handle the stopping requirements of a drag race car, an aftermarket brake system will also remove quite a bit of unsprung weight, as well as unnecessary drag.

“An aftermarket brake system will reduce rotating mass, static weight, and significantly reduce drag,” says Matt Moody of Aerospace Components. “A good performance brake system will make your car’s 60-foot times better, translating to lower ET’s.

The addition of an aftermarket brake system can not only affect braking power, but also reduce weight and drag leading to elapsed time reductions.

DragRacingScene.com 27

One of the latest trends is the addition of dual calipers per wheel. In the case of a footbrake car, this can help to better hold the car on the starting line. For a dragster, a second rear caliper plumbed as a secondary brake system is a safety item.

It will also hold the car on the starting line better in the case of a footbrake racer, as well as help the car be more consistent and give the driver more confidence when it is time to slow down.”

However, there are some basic requirements which should be met whenever you’re upgrading your brake system.

“Incorrect pedal ratio, insufficient manifold vacuum for those street-type vehicles using a brake booster, improper bleeding techniques, and trying to use factory metering/distribution blocks are just some of the mistakes we often see when racers install an aftermarket system,” Moody says.

A brake system operates on hydraulic pressure created when a force is applied by your foot to the master cylinder piston. With a system that has been properly bled with no air pockets in the lines and components – essentially a sealed system – your foot pressure, or force, will cause a squeezing effect of the brake fluid. That squeezing effect creates a pressure in the lines and brake calipers forcing the pistons in the caliper outward against the brake pads, essentially forcing them to tighten around the brake rotor and slow the car down.

Therefore, it is brake fluid pressure which is most important here. When we’re speaking in excess of 1,000 psi required for a disc brake system, simply pushing the master cylinder piston in with your hands or foot will never allow you to achieve that number. In that case, we harken back to eighth grade science and one of the simple machines we learned about – in this case the lever.

A lever is a beam connected to an immovable object on one end (a pivot if you will) and a fulcrum or output (in this case the master cylinder pushrod). To put it simply, because most of us probably hated the theoretical terminology of eighth grade science, if the distance from your foot to the pivot is 12-inches, and the dis28 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

The proper operation of a brake system is all about pressure, which starts with the master cylinder and pedal ratio.

Along with an aftermarket brake system, the correct master cylinder bore size is imperative for proper operation.

tance from the pivot to the master cylinder pushrod is four-inches, the ratio of the pedal is three to one (3:1).

“Pedal ratio is imperative in order to produce the required system pressure,” Moody says. “Pedal ratio is dependent upon which bore size master cylinder you are using, the bigger the master cylinder bore the more leverage you need to produce the same pressure.”

“Our Mopar style master cylinder,” Cascio says, “requires a 5.5:1 or 6.5:1 pedal ratio, or, an 11:1 or 13:1 ratio if you are using a brake handle. The strength of the driver, bore of the master cylinder, and the desired ‘feel’ of the brakes will determine the exact ratio.”

Speaking of master cylinder bore diameters, a rather standard four wheel system will typically require a master cylinder bore diameter of 1-1/8” (1.125-inches). For a lightweight car with four piston calipers on the rear and two piston calipers up front, the minimum requirement would be 1-1/16” or in the case of the Strange Engineering master, 1.032”. For dragsters with two four-piston calipers on the rear and no front brakes, a smaller 3/4” master cylinder is all that should be used. What it all comes down to is pressure.

“Insufficient brake line pressure is probably the most common cause of problems,” says Mark Williams of Mark William Enterprises. “What’s more, if there is insufficient line pressure the brake pads cannot properly engage the rotors, causing a rapid heat build-up, poor braking, and potential rotor warpage.”

Too hard or too soft of a pedal can indicate several problems which should all be rectified before your first attempt at an all-out run down the track. Too soft can mean there is still air in your system, or there is flexing somewhere. It can also indicate a pedal ratio that is too high (greater than 6:1). Too hard can indicate a pedal ratio not great enough or master cylinder bore size that is too large. There are plenty of easy-to-use gauges on the market that can (and should) be employed to verify pressure.

One point of contention amongst racers is the correlation between front and rear braking pressure. Some camps prefer less pressure to the front to alleviate locking up the front tires before

Pedal ratio is defined as the distance from the area where your foot rides to the pedal’s pivot point divided by the distance from the pivot to the master cylinder pushrod.

Mark Williams says, “One sure-fire way to avoid many problems is to use a single source that has engineered the entire package from brakes to axles and everything in between.”

the back, while others choose the opposite approach. Some might argue that locking up the front wheels can have an effect of causing the rear end to come around unnecessarily.

One thing to note is that typically it is harder to lock up the rear slicks than it is a set of skinny front tires but as Moody points out, “A lot of it has to do with the car’s overall weight balance.

“Some cars that are not balanced well may have 70-percent of their weight on the front and 30-percent on the rear.

In those cases, we recommend to drop the pressure on the rear to prevent locking them up.”

In any event, the main object is to avoid either front or rear brakes “locking-up” as that has no bearing on the car’s ability to stop safely, not to mention the obvious concern of a poor handling car.

“One other common mistake we see includes caliper, and caliper bracket, to rotor/housing end alignment,” Williams adds. “Whether it’s the brake offset being wrong or the housing ends not welded on parallel to the face of the axle flange, it’s advisable to get everything as a package from a single source, as ‘mix ‘n match’ setups often have incompatibility issues. Key considerations include the ability of the caliper to avoid deflection, the dynamic alignment of the caliper and rotor, plus having sufficient line pressure to cope with ‘panic’ stops.”

When it comes to plumbing an aftermarket brake system, Williams recommends using as much hard line as possible. Even though stainless steel Teflon®-lined hoses should only be used for some applications such as from the car frame to the calipers and even though the braided line is fairly stable, there still can be some flex which will give you a spongy pedal.

Discounting for a carbon fiber brake system, there are also two basic brake pad compositions available: hard or soft (although some manufacturers do offer

When measuring for flexible line, Wade Brown of Brown & Miller Racing Solutions says, “Be sure to measure accurately as when it comes to front suspension you have to account for steering travel as well as suspension travel.”

a medium pad). The hotter a brake pad gets, its ability to “fade” increases, causing less braking. The exact opposite is true for a carbon fiber brake system. The hotter it gets, the better it works, and therefore the reason why some classes of cars mandate the use of a carbon fiber system. But for most, two styles of brake pads will cover a lot of applications.

Generally a softer pad will suffice for slower vehicles, while the harder pad is used in faster applications. Hard pads do require a little bit of heat to work properly, while soft pads operate when “cold.” For that reason, soft pads should be used on front brakes as they’re generally used in the burnout box with a line-lock and on the starting line to hold the car. The soft pad will be easier on brake rotors while the hard pad will tend to “eat-up” rotors, although the hard pad will not wear out as fast as a soft pad. If you’re tending to go through brake pads faster than what you think should be normal, it might indicate the need for a harder pad.

Regardless of which type of pad you use, the proper “bedding procedure” of the pads will help to ensure long life.

Cascio said, “This consists of eight to ten brake applications increasing in harshness and allowing the brakes to

cool slightly in between. The concept is to slowly cycle the brakes up to operating temperature and back it down to avoid thermal shock.”

Mark Horton of American Race Cars pointed out that the majority of the dragsters his company builds have been equipped with a completely secondary brake system. “It’s more of a safety feature,” says Horton, “but it seems like more people are opting to include it in their build.”

Proper bleeding of a brake system is key to avoiding a lot of the aforementioned problems. A brake system needs to be completely free of any air to allow it to operate properly. There are several methods for accomplishing this procedure, but in any event, bear in mind that the object is to properly bleed the system of all air.

All manufacturer’s websites consist of quite a bit of technical information regarding a number of subjects, brakes included. In addition, their representatives are all extremely knowledgeable in their chosen field. Don’t be afraid to “ask questions first” rather than have a problem later on. DRS Sources: Aerospace Components, aerospacecomponents.com; American Race Cars, americanracecars.net; Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, bmrsusa.com; Mark Williams Enterprises, markwilliams.com; Strange Engineering, strangeengineering.net

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DragRacingScene.com 29

Feature: Force — Peak

Change YEAR OF

John Force is still living his dream

30 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

Feature: Force — Peak

M

uch has been said and written about the last nearly two years of change and rebranding at John Force Racing. After nearly three decades the winningest team and driver in drag racing history was forced to make massive changes, both visually and financially. The only constant through the entire process was the heart and determination of team owner John Force.

With his usual over the top style, the former truck driver from Bell Gardens, California, chased “corporate America” from coast to coast, while at the same time chasing an increasingly younger group of Funny Car drivers as he pursued his unprecedented 17th Mello Yello Funny Car championship. At the end of the 2014 season, Force came up a few rounds short of his championship goal, but he was just reaching the finish line on new sponsorship deals that would stabilize his organization for years to come. It was a complete team effort and Force is once again looking forward to focusing on his passions: winning, safety, family, and sponsors, not in any particular order.

Words Elon Werner Photos Gary Nastase and John Force Racing DragRacingScene.com 31

Prior to the start of the 2015 season John Force Racing made a slew of sponsorship announcements, none more significant than the expansion of the PEAK Anti-Freeze and Coolant sponsorship that would see Force turning his traditional white Funny Car into a blue speed demon. It was the first announcement of many, but this one got the ball rolling and gave Force the confidence to continue to pitch and sell his winning organization.

“They [PEAK] were the ones that opened the door. You come to a crossroad in your career. I didn’t think about quitting, but you think about all your wins and the dreams that you still have.

You have to look at it financially. What was important to my future was my kids continuing to race. That was my priority, getting the financing ahead of me.

The first step was expanding PEAK, which was a product I had known forever as far as antifreeze and coolant, and it was the only name I ever knew,” said Force, sitting in his pits a few races before the NHRA Countdown started.

For the 30th season in a row John Force is guaranteed a Top Ten finish.

Since that streak started there have been five different presidents, 15 different Super Bowl champions, and Funny Car competitor Matt Hagan was just two years old. For Force all the round wins and winner’s circles come back to two important groups: his team and his sponsors.

Like any sponsorship, the rubber meets the road when it comes to selling product or also entertaining customers. In-pit hospitality was something John Force Racing had not participated in, but PEAK knew that it was a key component to their marketing strategy. Force quickly has embraced the new experience.

“To be able to create the behind the scenes experience right inside the pit area is great and now other sponsors are joining in like Monster. PEAK did it at 10 or 11 races. It is exciting.

You get a customer, a contest winner, a brand manager or someone that has accomplished something special. They get a ticket, a pit pass, you feed them a nice lunch, but you let them be a part of what the race team does. They get to experience what the drivers and the teams do all day long,” said Force, who spends between one to two hours with fans in the hospitality area over the course of a weekend.

“It is pretty amazing. We take it for granted because we live it. You bring a person that has a regular job and you put him beside the noise, the action and 32 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

The effervescent smile and passion to succeed is what has kept John Force out there for over three decades. That, and as he puts it, “I wouldn’t be a thing if it wasn’t for my family.”

come to a crossroad in your “You career. I didn’t think about quitting, but you think about all your wins and the dreams that you still have. ” the excitement, and they can see the fans on the other side of the ropes wanting in. That is how we sell product. That experience turns into sales and that is why sponsors like PEAK are out here.”

“They had a great marketing strategy and the plans they had for things they wanted to do were exciting. They introduced me to hospitality in the pits and I have done hospitality for all my sponsors like Auto Club, Traxxas, and Mac Tools, but we had never done it inhouse. It was a major change for us with so many other things happening, but we welcomed it.”

One thing that has stayed the same for Force is his focus on winning and safety. With new sponsors like Chevrolet, Lucas Oil, and then Monster Energy, the hyperactive Force was eager to share the winner’s circle with everyone.

His first chance came in Las Vegas at the spring NHRA national event where Force, driving his all white Chevrolet-lo-

goed Funny Car, outran his teammate Robert Hight in the opposite lane.

Force took the win – his first in over two decades in a Chevrolet – and immediately gave the Wally to Jim Campbell, head of motorsports for Chevy who was in attendance.

His first chance to get the PEAK Chevrolet Camaro into the winner’s circle came a few races later, racing a nearly unstoppable Tommy Johnson Jr. in the New England Nationals final. As Force pulled up in front of the ESPN cameras he gave one of the most emotional post-win speeches of his career, specifically singling out PEAK marketing director Bryan Emrich for standing by him and stepping up as a primary sponsor. It was vintage Force and further proved that while his financial future might have looked bleak, his motivation, and passion never wavered.

“In the beginning, winning rounds wasn’t just to prove I could beat some-

Force is as excited about every win as if it were his first which happened in Montreal, Canada in 1987. Prior to that he recorded nine runner-up finishes, but he kept at it and today is the winningest driver in NHRA history.

body. It was to get that round money to pay for Goodyear tires, to pay for a room, or plane ticket, or diesel fuel. Everything had a reason. Every step was an improvement. We had a one car team and we lived that life seven days a week. We went to a two car team, then three, and now four cars. I wouldn’t be a thing if it wasn’t for my family. Drivers like Robert Hight, Ashley, Brittany, and Courtney – and now looking at the fu-

After all is said and done, it still comes down to the fans, a fact not lost on the 16-time champ.

2015 has become the year of change for John Force Racing. New sponsors and new cars have given new life to that “ole’ truck driver”.

ture with my grandkids Autumn, Jacob, and Noah. Winning now is fun and it gives me motivation,” said Force.

“I have a lot of records but you can’t ever say someone won’t break them.

I’ve been out here a long time. The Prudhommes and the Bernsteins aren’t racing and the Beadles are gone, but they’re still in my heart and they are still in the hearts of thousands of fans.

They reached a point where they accomplished everything they wanted to accomplish,” said Force, who has over 1200 round wins to his credit.

“The reason I am still here at my age is – it isn’t just because of my passion or the fans or driving a race over 330 mph – it’s the safety. We lost Eric Medlen in 2007, and this sport has given me so much, but I felt I owed something back. I am not saying I am the leader but I definitely stay on top of it and want to keep contributing with my teams and my people. I always said winning was everything, but since 2007 safety has taken a major focus for me and all the other team owners and NHRA. That is my obligation to stay here and keep doing what I love to do.

It gives me purpose in life.”

As the sport of drag racing continues to evolve, the new NHRA TV deal with 34 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

Wins don’t come as easily for Force and his team, but they’re still a force to be reckoned with.

FOX will introduce the sport to millions of potential new fans through live broadcasts of at least eighteen races in 2016, including four races on the FOX national broadcast channel. The positive momentum of the sport is not lost on Force who has been riding a roller coaster of emotion for the past two seasons.

“This is a roller coaster that I have seen my whole life. We survive because we have a great product. We survive because we love what we do. We are in the entertainment business and in the sales business. You have to look at some of the changes being made like the new president of the NHRA, Peter Clifford, and some of the positive changes

they’re making. You look at TV and going to FOX is going to be a whole new world,” Force says.

“The icing on the cake will be all those live TV shows of the races. I think that will change our sport. I wasn’t there in the beginning of the NHRA, but I have watched it grow over the last 30 years. We have had ups and downs like every sport and I believe Peter Clifford will take it to the next level. It needs to make that move now. All my sponsors like PEAK, Auto Club, Chevrolet, Traxxas, Monster, Lucas Oil, and MAC Tools are all looking to a bright future with John Force Racing and live TV will be a big part of that.” DRS

have a lot of records but you can’t “Iever say someone won’t break them.

I’ve been out here a long time. ”

Dealing with in-house hospitality now allows John Force an even closer connection to his fans.

Sportsman Standouts Rely On ARP Fasteners

Dan Fletcher

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David Rampy

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Peter Biondo

And there is no bigger fan than John Force himself.

Between them, Peter Biondo, Dan Fletcher and David Rampy have won well over 200 NHRA national event “Wallys.” They also have used many ARP fasteners in their various cars over the years.

Head studs and head bolts are the basis of ARP’s Major Sponsorship contingency program.

And there are premium grade fasteners for virtually every application you can think of in ARP’s roster of 4,500-plus part numbers. Check out the new 2016 catalog and see what’s available to boost the performance and reliability of your race car.

48 WINS

800-826-3045 www.arp-bolts.com

Building your own hoses is easy

W

hen it comes to working on your car, we’ve discovered in a very unscientific poll that building your own hoses comes in second only to electrical in the list of “jobs you avoid until the last possible moment.”

One of the reasons is reusable hose-end fittings can be a literal pain to install. Most everyone who has ever worked with steel-braided hoses knows the pain that comes when those sharp metal wires stab into your hand or finger. Plus, the typical “nipple and cutter” design tends to push the hose back out when you are trying to tighten the fitting down, so it can be difficult to get the hose fully seated in the fitting--and failure here means a blown hose.

However, it turns out that not all reusable hose fittings are not made the same. Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, which is one of the leading (and most trusted) hose manufacturers in racing has developed a hose and fitting system that eliminates many of the frustrations most often experienced when installing the plumbing on your car. Brown & Miller is popular in racing because its unique hose design can replace traditional steel braid in many instances, saving significant weight.

(And even if you aren’t as concerned with weight, the stuff looks fantastic.) Plus, the spiral inner lining is impervious to all types of fuel and most fluids, and allows Brown & Miller to use an innovative “olive” in its reusable fittings that guarantees the hose won’t back out on you.

36 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

Unlike many other companies in the plumbing market, Brown & Miller produces all of its own hoses and fittings.

Much of the company’s business is in NASCAR and Formula 1 racing, but more and more racers in other areas, as well as general car builders, are utilizing their ultra high quality hoses and fittings on their cars.

Even though it is a real advantage on the track, we understand that for many racers and hot rodders operating on a budget, lightweight plumbing can be quite an investment.

That’s one of the reasons why many prefer to go with reusable hose-end fittings: If anything changes or a hose gets damaged, you can simply remove the fitting and install it on a new hose.

Brown & Miller’s reusable hose end fittings are interesting because the design is quite unique. Most fittings marketed to racers use a design that bites into the hose. Because all of Brown & Miller’s lightweight hoses utilize a convoluted hose, they were able to engineer a three-piece reusable hose fitting that “threads” onto the hose before locking down, making the process of installing the fittings much easier while ensuring you will also get a good, strong connection.

Check out the process of installing fittings on various hoses in these photos, and you’ll see just how easy and good looking the Brown & Miller system can be. DRS Source: Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, bmrsusa.com

Brown & Miller offers AN fittings from size -2 all the way up to -20. And despite the added complexity involved compared to a simpler crimped fitting, Brown and Miller’s reusable hose ends aren’t any more expensive than their crimped fittings.

Brown and Miller’s reusable fitting is a three-piece design. Instead of biting into the hose material, an olive (center) fits between the fitting (left) and the collar to clamp down on the hose, securing it in place.

Brown & Miller has a wide range of reusable fittings, but it’s nothing compared to the vast array of crimped fittings it keeps in inventory. If you need a unique fitting--or you don’t know the final length of the hose you need, Brown & Miller can crimp a fitting on one end to the hose and leave it any length you require for installing a reusable fitting later.

DragRacingScene.com 37

2. After cutting your hose to length, slide the collar over the hose and remove the tape.

1. All of Brown & Miller’s hoses are constructed from PTFE, making them impervious to practically all fluids. The polyester braided convoluted hose shown here is easy to cut and is some of the lightest available anywhere, making it quite popular. Brown & Miller’s John Harper, showed us how racers without specialized tools can simply wrap some Scotch tape, or any other tape with very mild adhesive (don’t use duct tape), around the hose to prevent the braid from fraying. Then just cut it with a pair of scissors. For Brown & Miller’s lightweight steel braided line, you can use a large pair of hose-cutting shears or an abrasive cutoff wheel.

The olive slides between the hose and the outer braid. You can see how the leading edge of the olive is actually threaded, so instead of having to be pressed on, it actually threads into position and won’t slide off.

3. The olive simply threads onto the hose underneath the braid. Harper uses a pair of pliers with tape on the jaws to protect the olive. With the polyester braid you can usually get by with using your fingers instead of the pliers, but if you are working with steel braided line you definitely want the pliers to protect your fingers from the sharp ends of the freshly cut steel wires.

4. Thread the olive onto the convoluted hose until a little sticks out beyond the end, like you see here. The braid should be on the outside of the olive.

5. Now use a razor blade to cut the hose so that it is flush with the end of the olive.

6. A little light lubricant on the threads of the fitting will help protect them and aid assembly.

38 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

7. Slide the fitting in place until the collar is flush against the olive. Next, slide the collar up over the olive and thread it onto the fitting as much as you can by hand. The end of the braid should be covered by the collar.

8. The easiest way to finish assembly is to lightly secure the hose end of the fitting in a vise and tighten the fitting with a wrench. When it is tight the gap between the socket and the fitting should be no more than about .040 of an inch, or about the width of a credit card.

Here’s our finished fitting (left) on the hose with one crimped fitting. The reusable fitting can be removed from the hose and used again, but Brown & Miller recommends using a new olive each time.

And for comparison’s sake, here is a swivel fitting reusable hose end fitted in place on a hose. Like Brown & Miller’s crimped hose ends, these fittings are machined from a single piece of aluminum where the fluid flows — no brazing — which makes for a stronger, more durable fitting.

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THE

Despite it all, Roy Hill is a survivor

B

ack in 1984, the country western group Nitty Gritty Dirt Band recorded the song titled Long Hard Road about a sharecropper’s dreams. “Someday I was dreamin’ that a song that I was singin’, Takes me down the road to where I want to go, Now I know, it’s a long hard road.”

Roy Hill is certainly not a singer, instead it was racing that he dreamt about which also took him down the long, hard road.

He’s won numerous races throughout several sanctioning bodies. He’s been a match race favorite since the early days of that style of racing. He’s the proprietor of the Roy Hill’s Drag Racing School and taught probably thousands of students including several name “pro 40 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

drivers,” and would give you the shirt off your back if you needed it. But who is the “real” Roy Hill?

“Was I bred into racing?” questions Hill. “My Daddy died in the late ‘40s while he was leaving a race track. I was born in 1945 so I was only three or four-years old, so maybe I was bred to be a racer.”

It might be hard to realize now, but growing up Hill was into speed skating, roller blade style, although they weren’t called that back then. Regardless, Hill’s mother would drop him off at the skating rink where he learned the art of working hard.

“I would hang out there and helped with odd jobs throwing out the trash or cleaning the floors and I’d skate there for nothing,” Hill says. “Wasn’t too long

Words/Photos John DiBartolomeo before I was on the skating team and we went to Reading, Pennsylvania, for a regional or national event or something like that. The 413 Dodges and Plymouths had just come out and they would run on the straightaway at Langhorne Speedway up there and I saw them and they were just fast. I was impressed.

“I lied about my age back then, got my driver’s license and quit school, and there was a guy who lived across from the farm who had one of them cars,” he adds. “I finally started hanging around with that guy and he let me go to the races with him. Sam Kennedy. That’s the guy who

Roy Hill, the thinker, a man who has “been there and done that” with the stories and scars to prove it. But he’s still plugging away and happy as ever to have made a living doing what he enjoys.

got me started. That was 1962 and Daddy died some 12 or 13 years earlier. I know what it is to grow up without a father or a person to look up to. Sam Kennedy became that guy.”

It was through Kennedy that Hill met a lot of the important movers and shakers within the Chrysler racing contingent. Sox & Martin, the Pettys, and the like all knew Hill as the kid who kept his mouth shut and did anything he was asked to do.

Kennedy passed away in 1968, but it was through him that Hill befriended Maurice Pet-

ty of the Petty Enterprises group. Hill would hang out at the Petty’s garage and learn more of what it took to race, but he learned more than just that.

“When Mr. Lee Petty died,” says Hill, “I realized who I looked up to the most.

Mr. Petty was hard on me, and his wife told me after he died that he would come home at night and tell her how tough and mean he was to me. But as she told me, he did it to make me strong, to see just how tough I was going to have to be.”

Hill eventually signed on as a crewman for Sox & Martin which taught him much more than driving the truck and cleaning up. “What I learned was showmanship,” he said. “We used to do all these stops at dealerships. We’d set up the trucks, the cars, and stuff and RonDragRacingScene.com 41

When Roy speaks, people listen, and it’s the lessons he imparts on his students at the Roy Hill’s Drag Racing School which have enabled many to go on to seeing their own win lights.

nie and Buddy would fly in. We’d load it all up and take it to another town and it was through all of that where I met Dick Landy, the Spars, and just about everybody who was anybody back then in racing. It’s those friendships made back then which have remained today.”

One look at Hill’s investment today shows that he has learned his lessons well. Clean cars and rigs, uniformed crewmen, and the like are all part of the image that represents Roy Hill.

“I never was really into working on the engines and stuff, but I learned one important thing,” he says, “and that is that preparation is very important. I learned about replacing parts before they break. You don’t wait for a part to break. You change it before it does.”

Finally behind the wheel of his own car in 1969, Hill began in the Super Stock class with a Mopar before eventually

learned an awful lot from a lot of “I’ve people and I try to impart that knowledge to the people that go to our school today. ” switching over to a Ford in ’82. Prior to his “blue oval” days, Hill’s parts came from cast-offs from Sox & Martin. “I took their used parts which were better than most people’s good parts,” Hill says. “That pile out back of their shop was ‘Roy’s pile’.”

In 1973, Hill had Petty Enterprises build him a Pro Stocker which he says, “Was so trick I didn’t know what to do with it. That was one nice car, and it even made the cover of Super Stock & Drag Illustrated magazine in June of ’73.”

True to the door car side of things, Hill remained with Pro Stock throughout the ‘70s and much of the ‘80s running national events, but more impor-

Wife Jan and “daughter” Gracie (the dog) have been by Hill’s side since 1984 (the dog not that long but…), through thick and thin and it’s their relationship that Hill is very thankful for.

42 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

tantly match racing at the same time.

Several final round appearances in NHRA trim along with wins on the IHRA tour followed, but it was his match racing that garnered him the most notoriety.

“I’ve learned an awful lot from a lot of people and I try to impart that knowledge to the people that go to our school today,” he says.

The Roy Hill’s Drag Racing School came about in ’89 when Hill wanted to pass on the knowledge that was taught to him over the years. With schools that teach everything and anything with regards to racing, Hill’s latest endeavor is his corporate schools which allow corporations to reward their loyal employees, sponsors, and friends. But it all started by simply helping racers turn on win lights. “It’s really a privilege to be able to help some of the racers I’ve helped in all classes,” he says.

In ’92, Hill teamed up with Steve Earwood to purchase Rockingham Dragway.

“We had a lot of good years back then with Winston’s help,” Hill says. “There are a lot of people today who don’t even know how much Winston did for drag racing. It took NHRA to the next level.”

But that’s what Roy Hill has done.

Who is Roy Hill really?

For starters, a very loyal person. Roy Hill has had the luxury of the friendship of many people, and he hasn’t forgotten any of them. “I have not done any of this by myself,” he says. “They’ve

Hill’s three-wheeled ride at the recent U.S. Nationals surely opened some eyes (his included), but undoubtedly it was his years of match racing that allowed him to handle the pressure without fail.

all given me a chance to make a living in this sport. I have a lot of dreams and I’m not ready to quit just yet.

“I opened up my suitcase last night and my wife Jan, who is a big part of who I am, had put a picture in there of her and our dog Gracie. It was so comforting to know I have someone who loves me for who I am. It’s those little itty-bitty things about Roy Hill that people don’t know that really count in my life.

“Roy Hill has some hard covers, a tough life, and done some things that weren’t the way it should have been done. All I can do is try to do the right

thing when I wake up every day. I believe in God. I want to go to Heaven.

Somebody reading this might laugh and say ‘what chance does he have?’ But Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins and you can be forgiven. And the things that I’ve done wrong, I hope I can be forgiven for. I guess you really don’t know if you’ve been forgiven, but I’m trying.

“I’m very thankful for the peace today I have in my life and if there’s somebody or something I’ve done wrong, I’m trying to make up for it. Since about ’89 when I started my school, there’s been a real

turn-around in my life and I’ve been given another chance. It’s true. People do get second chances, and this is Roy Hill’s second chance, and I can’t let down the people who have been there for me. Paul Candies, Raymond Beadle, T. Wayne Robertson, and today its Ron Thames…

Oh, I could name dozens. Some who are no longer with us on this earth.

“I spend a lot of time with young people, especially with my Jr. Dragster schools, because I want to make sure they go down the right road, to make sure they go in the right direction in life. That means a lot to me.

“What’s going on today in my life is not anywhere near the same as it was 20 or 30 years ago. This whole country is in terrible shape right now. When I was a kid, about the worst thing to happen to you was to get in a fight. Now they pull guns out and shoot each other. It’s rough when you turn on the TV and all you see are the bad things happening,” says Hill.

For Roy Hill though, what he sees happening is the good he’s trying to do. It’s been a long hard road, but he’s coming through it as the winner that he has always been. DRS Source: Roy Hill Drag Racing School, royhilldragracingschool.com

®

IS

THINNER

BETTER?

Oil viscosity and bearing clearances go hand-in-hand

W

hen it comes to actual body weight, thinner is usually better and healthier. However, when we’re speaking in terms of the weight (or viscosity) of oil, thinner isn’t always better. Although, the opposite of that statement appears to have taken hold as there are more zero-weight oils on the market today than ever before. But when is “thinner is better” appropriate?

“It isn’t just a matter of finding the lowest viscosity,” says Driven Oil’s Lake Speed Jr. “It’s about finding the best viscosity for your application. That’s because an oil that has a viscosity number that’s too high, or is too thick, can be damaging to your engine in much the 44 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

same way as having one that is too thin.”

Without knowing the specific application, it is very difficult to say you need this viscosity or that. However, there are a few general rules of thumb that you can use.

“To start with, the looser the bearing clearance, the higher the viscosity grade you have to have,” says Speed. “So with the same horsepower, same displacement, and same rpm between two engines, we can run anywhere from a 10W30 all the way up to a 20W-50. A lot of that has to do with bearing clearances and temperatures.”

A bearing is supported by a layer of oil which is termed as a hydrodynam-

ic wedge. That wedge, or layer of oil, is there to assure that the journal or shaft is not contacting the bearing. When it does, problems arise, and can do so rather quickly.

The fact of the matter is that most race engines utilize bearing clearances in the .002- to .003-inch range. What that means is that the oil you use is dependent on the application. A typical bracket-style engine cannot run the same oil used in a Pro Stock engine. “It really comes down to using the proper oil for your application,” says LAT Racing Oil’s Danny Vaca. “It’s the reason we ask a lot of questions before we attempt to suggest which oil to use.”

Words/Photos John DiBartolomeo

It’s all about oil flow. The tighter you go with bearing clearance, the thinner you can go with the viscosity of your motor oil to maintain the proper oil flow through the bearing. When you have a wide clearance between the bearing and the crank journal, you need a thicker viscosity oil to make sure you don’t flow too much out of the bearing.

Speaking of flow, “The tighter the bearing clearance, the oil pump must flow enough volume of oil. If it doesn’t, that’s when you’re going to start hurting bearings,” says Vaca. “Dry sump oil systems will flow more oil than a wet sump. In the case of a dry sump, you can use a lighter weight oil, but it still

has a lot to do with temperature and bearing clearances.”

One noted engine builder mentioned they spend a lot of time closely following oil flow on their dyno. They did find that a dry sump oil system and an external wet sump oil (one that has a crank-driven oil pump but still stores oil in the oil pan rather than an external tank) will usually flow about the same in terms of gallons per minute (GPM).

The same cannot be said about an internal oil pump (one that is mounted inside the oil pan and in the case of a Chevrolet, driven by the camshaft).

“Basically, it comes down to the centistoke number of the oil,” says Ed

There are a lot more reasons to choose a certain motor oil to use than just oil pressure.

DragRacingScene.com 45

Matching the viscosity of your oil to your application gives you the best advantage to a long bearing life.

While some are hooked on the latest iteration of zero-weight oils, bearing clearances are just one consideration for which viscosity oil to use.

While some racers will utilize equipment to cool their engines (water and oil for certain reasons), most race engines will run in the 150-160-degree range for oil temperature, which is just as important as water temp, and helps indicate which oil viscosity to use.

Without the proper oil viscosity, either too thick or too thin, damage such as this can be expected.

Fennell of Lucas Oil, “which is a viscosity measurement of oil. Furthermore, viscosity is a resistance to flow. In all, the use of the correct viscosity of oil is dependent on the load. The greater the load, the thicker the oil necessary.

From there, it’s the additive package that makes a difference.”

“This may be counterintuitive,” Speed says, “but if you have a really wide clearance, you need a thicker oil, because the engine is always feeding the oil in at the top of the bearing, but the load is being carried at the bottom. So it’s going from the widest clearance area (where it is being fed in) and has to flow down to the tightest area (down at the bottom) where the load is being carried.

ture. The hotter the temperature, the thinner the oil.

The fact is this: If you have an engine running 200-degrees of oil temperature, you’re going to need a higher viscosity grade oil than one running a lower temperature.

Speed says, “I don’t care about the water temperature, I want to know the oil temperature. And if the oil temperature reaches 300 degrees, that doesn’t necessarily mean the oil is bad — it just means it’s hot.”

In most cases, oil temperature will closely follow water temperature, albeit sometimes just slightly warmer. For most racers, there is no method for cooling the oil in the engine. There are some

46 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

“If you have a really wide clearance at the top and you’re running a really light motor oil, then all that oil is going to flow out from the gap at the top and too little of it is going to make its way down to the small contact area where you are trying to lift the journal up on that wedge of fluid.

“On the other hand, when you tighten up the bearing clearance, now the oil isn’t going to flow out as much. So if you tighten the bearing clearance and use an oil that’s too thick, now you don’t get enough oil flow,” Speed adds.

Besides bearing clearances, one other thing that you have to bear in mind is viscosity is dependent upon tempera-

classes of competition in which racers will use a chilling device between rounds to cool the water temperature and ultimately the engine itself; oil included.

“Pro Stock engines are usually cooled before runs which leads to their oil temperature running around 110-degrees,” says Vaca. “But a typical bracket car will usually find their oil temperature to be anywhere from 160 to 200-degrees.”

If you have a good synthetic oil, it can handle 300-degrees pretty easy. In fact, it can handle it for quite a while.

The trick is understanding that if you’ve got an engine with loose bearing clearances, but running hot oil temperatures, you’re going to have to run a heavier weight oil. That higher oil temperature means stepping up the viscosity grade even more.

“On the flip side of that,” Speed says, “if you’ve got tight clearances and run a low oil temperature, say you have 0.002 of an inch of bearing clearance, and you’re only running 150 or 200 degrees of oil temperature, now you can run a 5W-20.

“Also, a higher rpm engine tends to respond to a lower viscosity oil better than a lower rpm engine. So, if based upon your bearing clearances and your oil temperature, you are right there on the line between a 10W-30 and a 10W-

With all the different grades of oil available, both in terms of viscosity and additive package, it can be mind-boggling. However, speaking with each company’s representative can help to clear up any confusion.

40 motor oil, you can use the rpm range you normally race at to help you determine which way you need to go.”

Tom Bogner, Motorsports Manager for Lucas Oil and a racer himself, says, “It’s always been my opinion to use the lightest weight oil that still gives you the oil pressure and flow you need.”

Finally, there is one more rule of thumb to keep in mind. You can always

run one oil viscosity grade lower with a quality synthetic than you can with a conventional mineral oil. It can get a little complicated when you are trying to keep all of those factors in your head. But you can simplify all that by using the charts most companies have in their catalog or website. DRS Sources: Driven Racing Oil, drivenracingoil.com; LAT Racing Oil, latracingoils.com; Lucas Oil, lucasoil.com

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THE The BTE World Footbrake Challenge is truly a unique event

T

his is not your average sportsman or high dollar bracket racing event where hundreds of dragsters (seemingly cloned after one another) utilize more electronics than the first rocket ship to reach space in 1942 by the Germans. It’s the BTE–sponsored World Footbrake Challenge. For the ninth year, Jared Pennington and his partner Steve Stites have put on an event that caters to the real little guy drag racer.

Footbrake means just that; no delay boxes, trans brakes or two-steps allowed.

It is true footbraking at its finest. Stage the car, bring the engine rpm up to the correct number, wait for the Christmas tree to countdown and then “swap feet,” releasing the footbrake and stepping on the loud pedal to leave the line.

The first WFC took place in 2007 with three separate races paying the winners $10,000 on Friday, $50,000 on Saturday, and $10,000 on Sunday.

whole effort with the WFC has “Our been to benefit the racers and gain exposure for Footbrake racing. ”

Words/Photos John DiBartolomeo DragRacingScene.com 51

Whereas most big events have their pits heavily populated by motorhomes, the World Footbrake Challenge is unique in its pit atmosphere.

“Our whole effort with the WFC has been to benefit the racers and gain exposure for Footbrake racing,” said Pennington. “The BTE World Footbrake Challenge has been the one race every footbrake racer in the country looks forward to and the support we’ve received from the racers and sponsors has been incredible. We can’t thank them all enough.

“Over the years, we’ve made several changes to the event with each being very carefully planned,” Pennington added.

For 2015, the payout structure was changed to a $10/20/10K-to-win plus

two separate Gambler’s Races. Second round winners were also rewarded with round money, in addition to Best Losing Package awards, in each round of racing.

But part of the uniqueness of this event happens months before the gates open. For whatever reason, bracket racers typically are not willing to fork over entry money to pre-enter an event. This race is different.

To enter the WFC and pay the entry fee at the gate costs you $550, a rather paltry sum with regards to the actual guaranteed payout. However, pre-enter six weeks prior and you save $100, mak-

If you’re a car guy and a racer, the WFC is the place to be. A number of really nice muscle cars, such as Adam Davis’ Chevy II, can be found in the pits and on track. Davis wheelstood his car to several round wins over the weekend.

52 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

ing the entry fee versus the payout an even better deal.

“Our whole notion behind the pre-entry,” says Pennington, “is that for whatever reason you can’t attend, your complete entry money is returned. We don’t care what the reason is, but if on Monday morning following the race we don’t see your name on the entry list, we immediately send you back your money. No questions asked.”

It’s a practice they have done since Day 1 and the racers have responded with trust of the system as typically there are over 300 pre-entered racers before the gates open.

A couple of other observations to make about this event. Whereas most races these days will find the pits flooded with motorhomes and stacker trailers containing two and three race cars, this event almost harkens back to days long since gone with more pickup trucks and open trailers than one would typically see at a big event. Certainly you had your share of the aforementioned motorhomes, but they weren’t the majority. Second, there appeared to be more women racers here than normal. In addition, while one look around the pits at a national-type event might be heavily populated by the “white hair crowd,” this race seemed to contain a much younger population. This could possibly be because it takes less of an investment to campaign a footbrake car, or that they are racing multiple races in a weekend rather than sitting around for three or four days to race one race. While typically eighth-mile racing, which is

Don’t think for a minute these guys don’t work on their cars. When there’s big money on the line, you do whatever is necessary to win.

what this race distance is contested at, heralds tight packages due to the distance, these guys and gals have to be even tighter than average. While winning can often take being in the right place at the right time, if you’re not prepared to cut double “0” reaction

times and run dead-on your dial-in several times, then chances are you won’t be seeing many win lights at the WFC. The World Footbrake Challenge is a great event put on by two diehard footbrake racers who understand their peers and do their best to bring

notoriety to a group of racers who are every bit as deserving. Along with the many sponsors who also help make this race what it is, the World Footbrake Challenge is one of those races that exemplify the words “the backbone of the sport.” DRS

With the quality of the cars and drivers at the WFC, there is nothing “Easy” about winning here.

The WFC managed to dodge the rain drops all week except for a brief downpour on Sunday. Bristol Dragway personnel made quick work of the drying procedure and the racing continued.

Sunday’s final featured two footbraking veterans (and NHRA sportsman racers) Michael Beard (left) and Ricky Pennington (right). They made nice before the final, but didn’t cut each other any slack once the engines started. With nearly identical reaction times, it was Beard’s dead-on the dial with a “3” which awarded him the big $10K check.

Brad Plourd brought his gorgeous Lucas Oil-sponsored Stock Eliminator Chevy II to the party, making his way to the runner-up spot in Friday’s main event.

The folks from Platinum Products and Plourd Racing Products sponsored the live Internet feed all weekend long, made possible through the efforts of the MotorManiaTV crew.

With only several cars remaining in eliminations each day, a surprise tech inspection by the Bristol Dragway and Coalburg Productions crew kept the cars honest.

54 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

RESULTS WORLD FOOTBRAKE CHALLENGE Bristol, Tennessee

WFC Gamblers Thursday W – Matt Obertanec, Brackenridge, PA R/U – Gary Simpers, Northeast, MD

WFC Gamblers Friday W – Toby Barnes, Newman, GA R/U – Lucas Walker, Mayfield, KY

Friday $10,000 W – Randy Biddle, Burbank, OH R/U – Brad Plourd, Cullman, AL

Saturday $20,000 W – Josh Epperson, Barbourville, KY R/U – Nick Bowman, Export, PA

Sunday $10,000 W – Michael Beard, Columbus, OH R/U – Rick Pennington, Gardendale, AL For more pics search “World Footbrake Challenge” at DragRacingScene.com.

Drag Racing Scene has compiled a list of some of the hottest new products to hit the drag racing market. On the following pages of our Vendor Midway, be sure to check out the variety of racing products offered. Product and company contact information is provided should you see something you wish to purchase — and we know you will.

Increased strength Strange Engineering, Economical Center Sections Strange Engineering continues to meet the needs of its customers by offering an economical line of 9” center sections. The Strange S-Series nodular iron case features a radial rib design for increased strength over an OEM unit and is manufactured in the USA from premium grade materials. These assemblies come standard with a Daytona pinion support and the street gear of your choice.

Spool and differential options are available to complete an assembly for your application. Contact one of Strange’s highly trained sales staff to out together the perfect combination for your vehicle. strangeengineering.net 847.663.1701

For even more new products head to

DragRacingScene.com 56 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

Get full performance FAST, E7 CD Ignition Controller This high-output, race-specific digital unit is a high-energy, highrpm, fully environmentally protected capacitive ignition. It is designed to allow the full performance of a race engine where high-compression, nitrous oxide, and boosted applications are common. This makes it a perfect choice for a variety of drag racing classes. The ignition includes two built-in rev limiters, a tach output, and 20 degrees of start/retard for less wear and easier starting. The fully digital design allows for much higher speed and accuracy of

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both spark timing and rev limits than analog systems. The controller’s composite enclosure saves weight, while an aluminum-finned, extruded heat sink improves heat dissipation. Providing a 160 mJ output, the unit provides enough energy to ensure a complete combustion process, which translates into maximum power. fuelairspark.com 877.334.8355

Vendor Midway PARTS / TOOLS / ACCESSORIES

All-in-one Edelbrock, Direct Port Nitrous Intake Manifold Now you can purchase a high quality Edelbrock intake manifold with a direct port nitrous system included and all-in-one-box. These systems make it easy to install a performance matched Edelbrock direct port nitrous system and intake manifold onto a small-block or big-block Chevrolet engine. All of the supplied stainless steel hard lines have been pre-formed to deliver a precisely atomized and consistent mixture of nitrous and fuel. The plumbing and distribution blocks have been routed to ensure ease of use with various high performance carburetors and cylinder head combinations. These systems are capable of delivering an additional to 250+ horsepower and are supplied with jetting for 100 and 150 horsepower levels. They include an Edelbrock Victor Jr. or Super Victor intake manifold, with 4150-style carburetor flange, Performer Series fuel and nitrous solenoids, distribution blocks and pre-formed high flow lines with E2 stainless steel series nozzles.

These systems do not include the bottle or supply lines. edelbrock.com 310.781.2222

Affordable spun aluminum McLeod Racing, Ford 6.1 Approved Bellhousings McLeod’s new Spun Aluminum SFI 6.1 Approved Bellhousings have proven that an SFI approved spun aluminum bellhousing can be bought at a very affordable price. Now McLeod offers the same high quality and affordable product for Ford applications. Using a spun aluminum machining process, McLeod is able to produce an extremely accurate bellhousing that is lightweight and compact in size. The backplate is then made from cnc machined 6061 T6 aluminum. The McLeod Aluminum SFI 6.1 Approved Bellhousing weighs only 14 lbs. But don’t let that give the impression that bellhousing is a lightweight. Added protection is provided via a steel inner liner with a TMS Titanium liner option. With fitment for Ford small block including the 289, 302 and 351, this new addition to their line-up has wide ranging vehicle coverage. Backplates are available for both T5 and TKO transmission patterns. mcleodracing.com 714.630.2764

58 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

Configure it your way TCI Automotive, Diablo Shifter This extremely versatile shifter can be used on the strip or street and includes all components needed for installation in nearly any GM, Ford, or Chrysler. The fully configurable design allows the user to set up the shifter to utilize either a front- or rear-cable exit. It can also be configured for two-, three-, four-, or even six-speed transmissions in both forward and reverse shift patterns. There is no longer a need to buy and replace parts if you are changing shift order/configuration, or changing transmissions entirely. The shifter can also be upgraded to a two-button design for controlling nitrous, transbrake or shift points. A die cast aluminum handle and injection-molded plastic covers make every unit ultra-durable and lightweight. Units are available without a cover for console mounting. tciauto.com 888.776.9824

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Vendor Midway PARTS / TOOLS / ACCESSORIES

Bulk up ARP, Stainless Steel Bulk Fasteners ARP has nearly 4,500 catalog part numbers—the world’s largest selection of high performance fasteners; most of which are for specific applications. But given that there are many instances where custom components are used, ARP offers “bulk” fasteners in handy 5-packs. They are now available as small as 10-32 x ½” in length all the way up to ½” diameter by 6” length. Made of a proprietary stainless steel alloy that’s nominally rated at 170,000 psi tensile strength, they’re much stronger than Grade 8 hardware. And they won’t rust, chip or peel like chrome plated bolts. Black oxide finished 8740 chrome moly bolts, also rated at 170,000 psi, are likewise available. Both are offered in SAE coarse, fine or Metric thread, with a choice of 12-point or hex heads. All fasteners are manufactured in-house in ARP’s ISO 9001:2008 and AS9100 registered Southern California facilities. arp-bolts.com 805.339.2200

Deep penetration Driven Racing Oil, Speed Lube Speed Lube is a powerful penetrating and foaming lubricant that works its way into tight surfaces to lubricate hard-to-reach areas.

Utilizing technology derived from Driven’s championship-proven race oils, Speed Lube is a tenacious spray lubricant for all types of chains, linkages, heim joints, and bearings. These parts are often left uncleaned, leading to harmful buildup. Speed Lube comes in a convenient aerosol spray can and is specially formulated to provide maximum penetration, lubrication, and corrosion protection in hostile environments. It utilizes a proprietary additive package that features a variety of adhesion and anti-wear properties, and it is designed for extended intervals between applications. drivenracingoil.com 866.611.1820

For even more new products head to

DragRacingScene.com 60 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

Tubbed Chassisworks, Builder Wheel Tubs Chassisworks builder wheel tubs provide a professional solution for beginner and experienced custom vehicle builders. Designed for street or race car use, tub panels are made from 18-gauge (.050”-thickness) cold-rolled steel for improved durability and surface finish. Assembled tubs measure 21” wide with 34” diameter; suitable for use in muscle cars, street rods, custom trucks, or race cars. End caps feature a 1” radius corner with offset lip for easy assembly and flush outer surface alignment. Exterior welds can be ground flush for a seamless finish. Outer skins ship prerolled at the correct diameter for significantly easier assembly,

with only light pressure needed when tack welding. To allow fitment on cars with lower floor heights, additional material length is provided in each tub skin so that it can be rotated to leave a total of 6-1/2” overhang at one end or split between both ends.

Tub cap extensions, with matching 1” corner radius, are available separately if needed. Panels are shipped pre-formed with smooth surfaces, but can be bead rolled for added rigidity and custom appearance prior to assembly. cachassisworks.com 916.388.0288

Vendor Midway PARTS / TOOLS / ACCESSORIES

Suspension stuffs QA1, Suspension Kits QA1 now offers full-vehicle suspension kits specifically designed for drag racing for a variety of GM, Ford and Mopar vehicles. Available with two levels of performance to choose from, these drag racing kits are modeled around what parts drivers would need to reach their drag racing goals. Spring rates were carefully selected to maximize performance, with our level two drag kits offering softer spring rates to maximize stored energy for weight transfer. They are geared towards average weight small block and LS powered vehicles with stock trim. These kits are also offered without shocks to give you the flexibility to order shocks or struts with the spring rates you want.

You can also use the QA1 parts list as a road map to get to the level of performance you want by building your car in stages, instead of buying the whole kit at once. qa1.com 800.721.7761

Improved durability ATI Performance, Vasco T400 Input Shafts Looking for the most performance from your T400? ATI now offers all new Vasco Inputs with lightweight drums for less rotating weight and improved durability. ATI’s “Big” Vasco inputs are 1-3/16” thick at the converter side and 1-1/4” where they press into the forward drum. That is 16% bigger than OEM T400 inputs and compliment ATI’s Billet Aluminum Super Pump with bolt-in stator tube. Available with either an Aluminum Drum (Part #406003V) that comes with a steel center and can hold up to eight clutches or an all-new light weight Billet Steel Drum (Part #406002V) with a new billet aluminum piston that accepts up to nine clutches. For racers that need an OEM size input, ATI offers an OEM diameter Vasco Input (Part #406006) with a new Lightweight Steel or Aluminum Drum (406005) that is both stronger and lighter than OEM. atiracing.com 410.298.4343

Lighten up COMP Cams, Titanium Retainers COMP Cams has developed a new titanium retainer intended to replace six of its highest-selling part numbers. The new design features a 6AL-4V alloy and enhances valvetrain stability through a significant reduction in the total weight of the retainer. Extensive Finite Element Analyses were performed to optimize structural integrity of the new lightweight retainer design. The new retainers also sport a laser-etched part number and COMP logo on the top face, making them much easier to identify than the previous version. compcams.com 800.999.0853 62 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

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It meets or exceeds all D.O.T. and other certifications. enforcerone.com 678.788.8413

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OOH-RAH Aerospace Components’ Marine connection

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oday it seems all of America has become proud of our military and rightfully so. They are after all, the ones responsible for the freedoms we enjoy in this country.

We now see civilians openly thanking in-uniform military personal, giving up airline seats to them, kids saluting them as they walk down the street, along with other acts of kindness.

While that might not have always been this way, it’s refreshing to give each of them honor for the work they do. But that’s really nothing new. One program that has been around a while has allowed one such person to learn a trade and become part of a company dedicated towards motorsports and drag racing in particular.

With a track record of supporting and hiring veterans, Aerospace Components hit a home run when they hired Gary Owens in 1994. Today, as a design engineer, it’s Owens who programs and operates any and all of the CNC machinery used to manufacture the many products the company produces.

Once a Marine, always a Marine, it was Owens who enlisted straight out of high school in 1989. Four years of service found him as a heavy equipment operator/rifleman. As anyone who has spent time in the service can attest, you might have a job description but in times of war, you’ll probably also have to 64 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

handle a rifle. Nevertheless, during his four years, Owens learned his trade well.

“When I left the service, I worked some heavy-equipment jobs, but the pickings were quite slim. I finally went to a local employment agency in the hopes of finding a job,” said Owens.

“There happened to be a V. A. [Veterans Administration] rep there and he said he might have the perfect job for me. He brought me right over to Aerospace Components, because they had a track record of hiring veterans under a program titled SMOCTA.” The Service Members Occupational Conversion and Training Act (SMOCTA) was a program to help veterans convert from military service to civilian jobs. “We’ve hired various veterans

over the years,” says Aerospace Components owner Kim Kussy, “partly because it’s the right thing to do to thank them for their service to our country.”

“I was mechanically inclined,” says Owens, “but I had never been around equipment like I am here now. I had never seen a CNC machine before I walked in the door here. When I was in high school I had taken auto mechanics courses, but as soon as I graduated, I joined the Marines. Based off the aptitude tests when I enlisted, I was given several job positions and chose heavy equipment operator.”

It’s pretty admirable for a person to make the life decision to join the service right out of high school, but it is those who do who help keep our country free.

“The best way to describe my high school experience was that I made it through,” Owens said. “I got by, but I certainly didn’t feel as though I was college material at the time, and furthermore I didn’t want to continue with more school.

“I didn’t really dream about joining the Marines,” he adds. “I was taking guitar lessons at a local music shop and the teacher pushed me to do something with my life. The person taking lessons after me was a Marine recruiter and one thing led to another and I joined.

I don’t think I was really thinking the whole thing through, but now I’m glad

I did because it was a great experience.”

From December of ’89 to December of ’93, Owens did his service with pride, deployed to several areas around the world including a part of Desert Storm in 1991.

Now married to his wife Chelsey, with two small children, Jordan and Colby, Owens began his Aerospace Components career with training by Aerospace owner Al Kussy. “I was just learning how to read prints and load and unload the CNC machines,” he says. “Al just showed me a little bit at a time. It took me a while, but I catch on pretty quick and today my job includes programming the CNC machines, reading prints, and just about anything that needs to be done on a daily basis here.”

While not growing up as a racer, Owens sure got bitten by the bug through the Kussys. “They were looking to have a dragster out there,” says Owens, “one that would be a somewhat test machine for the products we make here. Al was fairly busy with two small children of his own at the time and running the business, so he approached me about driving car.

“We ran fairly local for something like ten years, winning a couple of races along the way. It was a great experience and I learned a lot about what it takes to compete, which also gave me a better understanding of the products we manufacture here at Aerospace Components.”

“We’ve always looked to hire veterans, because we’ve found that they have a very good work ethic, which might have come from their service training, but it’s just what we’ve found to be a fact,” says Kussy.

“Gary has been a real asset to our company,” Kussy added. “We couldn’t be more delighted with his dedication to producing the very best products he can.” DRS Source: Aerospace Components, aerospacecomponents.com/

DragRacingScene.com 65

THRILL of VICTORY The thrill of victory and no agony in defeat. To the winners go the spoils, both drivers and crew.

MOVING 68 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

S&W Race Cars reinvents themselves after the unthinkable

I

t has been just over a year since the unthinkable happened. The date was November 19, 2014 when the motorsports industry lost a friend and a family lost a son, brother, husband, and father.

Despite there being three brothers and one sister involved in the day-to-day running of S&W Race Cars, Scott Weney was more or less the face of the organization that his father Walt had started way back in 1959. The four siblings each had their specific duties on a daily basis, but it was Scott who handled the majority of the race car sales, in addition to continuing to race both on the local and national level. That’s not to mean the other siblings were non-existent in the business, as each of them had their specific duties, but when it came to the race car end of things, most people only knew of Scott.

“Still very active in the running of the business,” says Michael Weney about his father, “it was somewhere around the late ‘90s or early 2000s when Dad wanted to more or less hand over the reins to us. He hired a consultant, Rocky Smith, to come in and help guide us. What he developed was his ‘hit by the bus’ philosophy, whereby should anything happen to any of the management team, each of us needed to be able know what the other does, how and why.”

With each sibling having their own specific duties within the company, Smith’s program involved swapping jobs for a short period to gain prospective on what the other did. With a clearer understanding of each other’s job, the effort made the company stronger, and Walt was able to walk away knowing it was in good hands.

The truth is that Walt never really “walked away,” as he has always – even to this day – been there to help guide what he started over 50 years ago. But for the most part, the four siblings had control of the company and helped grow it each in their own way.

Then came that fateful day last November. Certainly a period of mourning and concern followed, in addition to probably asking “Why” a number of times. But with Smith’s “hit by the bus” theory, S&W was in good hands. The current management team consists of Michael Weney, Terri Weney-Gdowik, Gary Weney, John Burke, Rich Bilinski, John Kelly, Tom Hoosigan, and Jill Canuso-Fazekas. All totaled, the current management team has been together since 2010, with half of them working together for 28 years. All combined, it adds up to 217 years of business experience, with 212 years of multi-disciplined racing experience.

The staff which consists of machinists, welders, fabricators, water jet specialists, sales representatives, shipping clerks, and office assistants has 230 combined years of trade experience and 236 combined years of racing knowledge.

“Because of the way we did things,” Weney adds, “such as our communication between ourselves and our customers, the transition from Scott’s passing was – I say seamless, but it wasn’t that easy. But still we were, and still are, in very good shape.

“The majority of the issues we had to address came about with myself becoming more involved with the race car sales, and naturally explaining our positions to our customers.”

When an issue such as Scott’s passing takes place, it can drastically affect just what is normal when it comes to life af-

ON UP

DragRacingScene.com 69

This rather non-descript building in southeast Pennsylvania has produced more than its share of race wins and championships.

Begun in 1959 by patriarch Walt Weney (left) in a small basement, everything was going along smoothly, until late last year when son Scott Weney (right) passed away unexpectedly. But the whole group banned together, and today under the auspices of the S&W Performance Group is stronger than ever.

Race car fabrication is what the business began with and is still a priority today, but there is much more to S&W than that.

Each day, hundreds of S&W-manufactured products, as well as components from a variety of manufacturers, are shipped out.

The company’s water jet division has grown exponentially and can cut any type of material.

70 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

ter for those left behind. “We’re redefining what is ‘normal’ every day,” Weney says. “The good thing about the company is the many people who work here, the majority have been here for a long time. They just come in, do their job every day and that keeps 90-percent of the business going. We had to move some people around in different positions but it’s still all the same people, and that’s what has made our company strong.”

Over the years, S&W Race Cars has morphed into several companies; S&W Race Cars, S&W Race Parts, MustangGuys. com, CamaroGuys.com, along with their water jet and machine shop businesses, S&W Precision Specialties. In addition to just race cars, S&W has constructed several award-winning street rods under the S&W Rod Parts banner.

“We’ve done numerous jobs, some of which are not even closely related to race cars,” Weney says. “We hear it all the time with people saying ‘we didn’t know you did that.’ But we do, and that’s where the S&W Performance Group comes from. We are a group of companies that can do just about anything when it comes to fabrication and sales. When my father started this company, he followed that same theory; anything that came in the door and that he could make money on he did. We’ve just built on that principle and continued it today.”

Prior to Scott’s passing, the management team sought to bring each of the companies under the same umbrella and hence now the S&W Performance Group.

“Because of normal business,” Weney said, “the group concept sort of fell through the cracks. But after Scott’s passing I pushed to bring it to the forefront in part to highlight, not only the work we, do but the people behind the work. There really is not one person here any more important than the other. We’re all one big group working towards a like goal.

“The one thing that continues to amaze me is the amount of visitors or people we meet that bring things up such as ‘you and your brother stayed until three in the morning to weld my broken race car so I could go racing.’ Things like that make such an impression on us. It is things like that that we did, and my dad did, which were just everyday jobs for us, but they mean so much to someone else. You have no idea how much

While a race car is only as strong as the horsepower the engine produces, the same “horsepower” shown here is what makes the S&W Performance Group the powerhouse it is. “There really is not one person here any more important than the other. We’re all one big group working towards a like goal,” says Michael Weney.

of an effect you have on people until you hear it over and over again such as when we were at Scott’s funeral. And then to have others in our industry who called and offered their condolences even from competitors in our industry. Those encouraging words do mean an awful lot to us.”

With that huge setback last November, it’s hard to imagine

how anyone can move forward, but we all do. In the Weney’s family case, life will never be the same, but S&W continues to forge ahead due in no small part to the people who show up each and every day to work at their facility in Spring City, Pennsylvania. DRS Source: S&W Performance Group, swracecars.com

SHOP TOUR

BROWELL BELLHOUSINGS

Photos by Alex Owens

A

s a Canadian youth, it didn’t take Brian Browell long to get hooked on drag racing. Working at a local Texaco gas station in the London, Ontario area, Browell began hanging out with a local racer at the start of the econo dragster period in the mid-‘70s.

Prior to his move south to Indiana, he began racing with his own car in the early ‘80s beginning with a straight six-cylinder. The odd combinations just stayed in his blood. Today, he continues to compete with a V-6 engine in the Comp Eliminator class.

With the move to Indy in the mid‘80s, Browell worked on a small scale for Murf McKinney and his race car building factory.

“I did a little bit of everything at Murf’s,” says Browell. “It’s sort of like I have no talent but I can do everything.”

It’s that education which no doubt has helped him build his own compa72 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

ny, Browell Bellhousings, into a major player in the racing industry.

“I ended up purchasing a machine shop in ’89, which was a simple farm repair type of shop.” says Browell. “Just a general mom and pop type machine shop. I got a little more aggressive with it, and it has enabled us to increase business ten-fold over the years.”

His past with McKinney enabled the two to do business with one another, which led Browell to purchase the bellhousing portion of McKinney’s business in the late-‘90s. Today, Browell Bellhousings produces bellhousings for not only drag racing, but also other forms of motorsports as well.

“At the time they were primarily steel bellhousings,” he says, “but I had spent some time out at the SFI headquarters watching them blow up and certify bellhousings. Once I got to see how they were tested, I determined that I could

build an aluminum unit and get it certified. That was probably around early to mid-2000s, but the idea really started at the annual Performance Racing Industry trade show.

“Carrying steel bellhousings in and out of the show for display is quite a challenge,” Browell adds. “So I made a couple out of aluminum just for display.

Rick Jones of RJ Race Cars happened to see them and mentioned that if we ever got them approved, he’d be interested, which gave me an even bigger reason to see it through.”

Today, plenty of steel bellhousings go out the door at Browell Bellhousings, but aluminum models are much more in demand because of their weight savings.

Follow along with us through these photos as we take the $2.00 tour of Browell’s facility. DRS Source: Browell Bellhousings, browellent.com

Spun aluminum and steel bellhousings sit awaiting their turn in the CNC machines to be turned into completed and certified bellhousing for a variety of motorsports classes.

DragRacingScene.com 73

Several CNC and manual machines sit under the roof of Browell Bellhousings.

The first step in the procedure is the mounting of the spun raw bellhousing into the turning center to face it off and begin the process.

Bellhousings move through several steps and machines as they continue in their manufacturing life.

74  Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

Besides the computerized machinery, manual machines are still employed by Browell to finish certain steps in the process.

Quality control testing always remains a big part of the manufacturing process today and Browell uses the latest equipment to ensure his products maintain their high standards.

The last step in the procedure is affixing the SFI-certification label to each and every bellhousing

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WHEN

GOOD IDEAS GO

BAD Words/Photos Jon Asher

Circumstances can kill a great story concept

L

oyal readers, here is something you’ve probably never thought of. When your esteemed editor is planning the next issue, he not only uses some of his own story ideas, he’ll often turn to his freelance contributors for more. Sometimes those concepts turn into great copy – and sometimes they don’t. Yeah, this is one of those times when a really interesting idea turned into something, well, far less.

Since 1995, two drivers have appeared in a combined 18 NHRA U.S. Nationals Top Fuel final rounds. They’ve won drag racing’s most prestigious event an astonishing 13 times. In 2015, they’re just as competitive as they were 20 years ago. They are Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon, two of the best to have ever driven “long cars.” How good are they? The simple answer is that they’re ranked first and second in career NHRA Top Fuel wins. As of this writing, Schumacher is first with 78, Dixon second with 62. Let’s hope they have big man caves to hold all the trophies!

So, our brilliant editorial idea was to follow both men through this year’s Indy, reporting on their every move, every emotion. We’d not only concentrate on them, we’d involve their tuners as well. That in and of itself presented an interesting sidebar, because this is Mike Guger’s first year of calling the shots for Dixon, although he’s been involved in several previous Indy-winning attempts.

Of course, Mike Green has borne the crew chief title for Schumacher for many years.

This was a can’t-miss story idea because the odds favored one, or maybe even both, of these guys making it to the final round. With visions of a Pulitzer Prize for Journalism dancing around our empty head, we headed off to Indy, primed for a career-making story. And then, dammit, reality set in.

Everything from the weather to, well, we suspect aliens, conspired to ruin not only our story, but the entire weekend for our subjects.

Okay, so we’ve been having a little fun here, but the truth is that Indy — the NHRA U.S. Nationals — is no laughing matter. It can be a career-maker or even breaker, but neither of our subjects has to worry about that. They’re both first-ballot Hall of Famers, of that you can be sure.

But before we go too far off the deep end with our tale of woe (don’t worry, we’re gonna get to the results), let’s hear a little something from the principals as to how they view the Nationals.

Schumacher believes “We show up for this race more excited. I don’t think I drive the car any differently, and I ofDragRacingScene.com 77

When ESPN’s Mike Dunn visited Schumacher’s transporter and told Tony and Mike Green that they’d be one of the first pairs out for the Traxxas Shootout they were surprised — and less than pleased. It would prove to be a portent of bad things to come.

The “approved” tuner position before a Top Fuel run! Mike Guger (left) and Mike Green make last second adjustments to their cars before they stage.

ten get asked that. If I did drive it differently that might mean I wasn’t trying as hard somewhere else. But, over the years I think we’re a better team under pressure. I don’t know what it is, but I like the pressure. When you add the pressure into what this race stands for, it makes you do a better job. And ‘ya know, it’s more gratifying to win this one than a lot of others. Guys throw more parts at this race, and blow stuff up here that they might not do somewhere else. When you get to this point, when we have a chance to do something no one has ever done before [winning an eighth Indy – Ed.], then the pressure really gets heavy.

“There’s a real fine line between being too early and redlighting, and being late and losing that way. Yeah, there’s a lot of pressure here! When you get down near the end some people break (mentally), and you have to fight that. It’s amazing what you can do when you have to.”

78 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

Asked if Indy means more than other races, Dixon quickly says, “For sure.

I think I got that from racing with my dad, who ran Top Fuel in the ‘60s and ‘70s. We didn’t run the full tour, but we came to Indy. Everybody else who had a Top Fuel car came to Indy, too. It was instilled into me at a young age that this race means more, and working for guys like Prudhomme and Wes Cerny, and then Dick LaHaie let’s you know what coming here means. I promise you I’m more focused this weekend than I was last weekend. It still pays money, it still pays points but gosh, this is Indy!”

Dixon also admits that he’s more conscious of where he is in eliminations at Indy than he might be at other events. “During the season you’re collecting points, and you’re trying to position yourself in the Top 10 as best you can, but at this race you really want to go the distance.”

Guger says “I consider this just another drag race – until you’re towin’ (the car) up there, and all your peers are standing there watching. Then it becomes Indy, but until then it’s just another race to me.”

Green, who claims to have lost count of how many Indy final rounds he’s been in, admits that Indy means more than any other race. “This is just my feeling, but this race means everything.

It’s our Super Bowl, our Indy 500, our Daytona. The way I look at it, at the end of the season people ask two questions, who won the championship and who won Indy. I work at it like it’s the biggest, most important race of the year, and maybe I grind a little harder because of that. I think at this point we’re racing the same way we always do, but it definitely means more.”

Adding to the pressure Green feels, is the fact that he lives in In-

Note how much stronger Dixon’s car (left) appears to be leaving the starting line. Is this an indication of their performances? It’s hard to tell, really, because we’ve seen ultra-quick runs when the front wheels never leave the ground.

dianapolis, and knows that his family and non-racing friends are going to be watching. “I definitely treat this like it’s the most important race of the year,” he concluded.

Dixon is also an Indy resident and therefore faces the same familial and neighborhood friends pressure. “When you get to the semifinal round here and realize there are only four cars left you really start thinking about how, no mat-

ter what, you don’t want to lose this race,” he says.

Let’s jump ahead to late Labor Day Monday afternoon, when our protagonists were climbing into their cars for that final round…uh, wait, it didn’t happen that way. Early on we mentioned the weather as being a factor, and it was, completely washing out Friday’s qualifying. That actually put Schumacher in a somewhat difficult

position because, as a qualifier for the Traxxas Top Fuel Shootout set to happen on Saturday, their first round of that race would also be their first qualifying attempt. As a top points performer, under normal circumstances he would have been one of the last to run, giving Green a valuable opportunity to make last second adjustments, but that became moot --and important.

Schumacher would lose his first round

What winning Indy means

“I never thought I’d live long enough for a fan to ask for my autograph,” Crew chief Mike Guger said.

Signs of real tension in the Bob Vandergriff Racing rig — Dixon and Guger laughing. About what?

Dixon’s tuning suggestions…

race against Clay Millican, carding a 3.906/316.01 in the process.

After the Traxxas first round, when qualifying opened for the rest of the troops, Dixon and Guger would rotate the earth with a 3.744/326 — an effort that would hold up through the balance of the weekend as Low E.T. and Top Speed. No one else even came close (and kiddies, in Top Fuel a run like Billy Torrence’s 3.771 in qualifying is not close!). So, Dixon qualified at the top of the chart, with Schumacher coming in ninth with a very nice 3.812. In the old days that would have matched our two subjects up in the first round, but not today, when the top qualifier runs the slowest car in the field in the first round.

And oh, that first round! We cannot tell a lie. They both ignominiously lost, Dixon going under to Doug Kalitta’s 3.808 with a 3.819. After struggling all through qualifying it was Kalitta’s first all80 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

the-way-down-the-track-under-full-power run of the weekend. Capping things off, the airplane pilot from Michigan had a far superior 0.055-second reaction time to Dixon’s slower 0.097. Oh darn!

Schumacher fared no better, blistering the Goodyears against Shawn Langdon. Adios Army juggernaut. Adios Pulitzer Prize for Journalism!

Both men were somewhat crushed in the aftermath. We have no words to describe their feelings, and neither did they. While onlookers tried to console them with lines like “Hey, it’s just another race,” that wasn’t getting any reaction. This was not just another race.

This was the NHRA U.S. Nationals, and it only comes around once a year.

Maybe we’ll try something like this again next year, but who knows. By then our esteemed editor will have come to his senses, and your humble reporter will be relegated to covering the snowmobile drags in Thule, Greenland! DRS

For DICK LA HAIE, “Indy is the biggest race of the year, the biggest gathering of race cars. Everybody’s here for one reason and one only – win Indy.” LaHaie never won as a driver, earning the runner-up spot twice.

“Those were crushing defeats,” he admits.

“Far worse than any other race I ever lost. The first one I lost I lost on a holeshot.

That just killed me. I didn’t know what to expect. I just couldn’t put my arms around what had just happened to me, and I’d run Low E.T. on that run.

The second time I lost was against Darrell Gwynn. I stood hard on the gas and about 400 feet out it sheared all the bolts off the blower drive. I guess I was just destined not to win Indy.

“But then I was fortunate enough to win Indy with Larry Dixon. In some ways it was almost more gratifying then if I’d’ve won as a driver.”

SHIRLEY MULDOWNEY’s win “settled every score I ever had with another driver.” She says this with relish, and who can blame her for feeling somewhat vindicated even at this late date. Often vilified and ostracized by her male counterparts for having the audacity to drive — and win — in their chosen category, that win, more than any other, shut up those who couldn’t keep their negative remarks to themselves.

Winning the NHRA U.S. Nationals in some ways eclipsed her championships, and as evidence of that look no further than her email address, which includes an Indy mention, and the license plate on her car, which reads “IWONINDY.” “Even now, this race feels different,” she says. “Certainly not the same as when I was driving, and maybe because I’m not out in the pits every minute, it just doesn’t seem as intense to me as it did back then.

Back then it was a different world. When you drove through the gate on Thursday it was ‘Every man for himself!’ You just had to win it, and if you DNQ’d, man, your life was over – at least for a week or two.”

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B O U N D A R I E S

The science behind pushrod choices

A

number of years ago while starting up a new engine, I failed to plug in the valve cover breathers.

Upon start-up and with a timing light attached, I inadvertently pointed the timing light; which is really nothing more than a strobe light; at the hole in the valve cover where the breather should have been.

At that time utilizing just roller rockers mounted on rocker studs, I was shocked at just how much the studs were bending as the engine ran. Shocked enough that I immediately shut off the engine to ascertain that the studs were indeed tight into the cylinder heads.

They were, and that was during the advent of the time when rocker stud girdles began their use.

Today, many of the horsepower gains seen have come about through the research done to eliminate valvetrain flex. With valve lifts approaching one82 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

inch, pushrod and rocker arm flex has become a big deal. As cam profiles get more aggressive and valve spring pressures increase, the importance of selecting the right pushrods has never been more critical. While bigger isn’t always better, when it comes to pushrods that theory holds quite a bit of fact.

We recently broke a pushrod in half on an engine and when we questioned Al Perkins of Manton Pushrods as to the reason, his immediate response was, “Frequency.

“The diameter and wall thickness of your pushrod was not adequately matched to the camshaft lobe and/or valve spring used,” he added.

The one caveat to that statement was that this was an engine which had almost 1,000 runs on it since new. Why now?

“When that engine was built,” Perkins said, “the use of 3/8” .095 wall pushrods was deemed enough. Since

Words/Photos John DiBartolomeo that time, chances are that the pushrods were flexing all of the time but finally decided enough was enough.”

Frequency is defined as the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time.

“One great explanation of frequency is a You Tube video whereby a person placed an iPhone inside a guitar,” says Perkins. (Look up iPhone and guitar on You Tube: youtu.be/INqfM1kdfUc -Ed.) “As the strings are strummed you can easily see them continuing to distort. This same scenario happens with a pushrod.

Each time the pushrod moves up and down, it flexes and that flexing might not stop when that lobe is at rest. It then starts all over again when the cam lobe moves it.”

“The general rule is to start with whatever is the largest diameter pushrod that will fit without seriously altering the intake ports,” says Comp Cams’

Pushrods are available in a variety of sizes but need to be matched to your specific camshaft and valve spring usage.

Billy Godbold. “Then check the system stiffness to see what wall thickness pushrod you need.”

If possible, we would want an infinitely stiff valvetrain system with zero mass that would last forever. Zero mass is almost impossible to achieve obviously but reducing it as much as possible is a key element. Over the past few years, most engine builders have really began concentrating on maximizing stiffness while still minimizing mass at the component level. However when it comes to pushrods, weight is sort of a secondary concern. Stability is much more important.

“The object is to keep the lifter following the cam lobe,” Perkins says. “For that reason, stiffer is better. However, stiffness and frequency go hand in hand. Along with that, engine rpm is important. Top Fuel cars running at roughly 8,000 rpm use a solid pushrod. However, a Pro Stock engine at 11,000 rpm couldn’t use a solid pushrod (even if oil didn’t have to travel up through the middle) because the frequency level would be worse.”

The first step is to understand how all of the components work together to maximize the ratio of system stiffness to system effective mass. The best place to start is to look closely at the system stiffness. The static system stiffness can be calculated by measuring lift with a checking spring versus a real spring with zero lash. The actual calculation might look like this: System Stiffness (Lbs/Inch) = (Difference in Load)/(Difference in Lift) The differences lie in valve lift with the checking and real spring. If you had 500-pounds open load on the real spring and virtually zero on the checking spring and the measured difference in lift was .020-inch, the stiffness would be 500/.02 = 25,000 lbs/inch.

“It is not lbs/in like PSI or pressure,” Godbold says. “It is pounds of load on the valvetrain system divided by inches of deflection.”

What you want to know when selecting a pushrod or any other component is how the whole system responds to a change in component stiffness. It is very easy to measure how the pushrod itself would respond in a press with just a dial indicator and load cell. However, that is just one part. What if the pushrod is way stiffer, but the rocker and cam are now your weak link? Just looking at the pushrod you would never know, but if you check system stiffness, you will see exactly how changing that component changed the system.

Typically, going to a larger cam journal or a slightly thicker wall pushrod can move that up by a couple hundred DragRacingScene.com 83

This is not something you want happening to your pushrods. The reason for this failure was much more than you think.

pounds per inch. Increasing the pushrod diameter or going to a stiffer rocker and rocker stand would be the path to make larger changes. However, with each change, you can measure the stiffness and find what components have the largest effect.

One thing to bear in mind is whenever you increase pushrod stiffness, you’ll not only increase effective lift but duration as well. If the duration of your cam is listed as 278-degrees which may or may not seem to be too big with a 3/8” x .080” wall pushrod, then by increasing to a 7/16” x .125”, it will really be too big.

“The reason stiffness matters so much,” Godbold adds. “is that loads increase dramatically with RPM. As loads increase, deflection increases. As deflection increases, the actual valve durations decease. Your goal with increased stiffness is to lose as little duration as possible with RPM, while also allowing you to try even higher acceleration cam profiles with increased area without suffering from dynamic instability.

“Think of deflection as added lash,” says Godbold. “We all know a profile designed for 0.016” lash will be very unhappy with 0.036” lash. Deflection will act exactly like added lash with rpm.

The valve sees no difference in your running 0.016” lash with 0.020” deflection than it would with 0.030” lash with 0.006” deflection. If you want to run the most modern profiles that are made for tighter lash windows, you cannot have major deflection in the desired rpm window or your valve springs, valves and other components will fail.”

“What it comes down to,” Perkins adds, “is that you must match your pushrod to the rpm level you’re running. We have a computer program to do that but it requires the inputting of a lot of variables. One thing we’ve noticed, which might not follow the ‘bigger is better scenario,’ is that if we go from a 7/16” diameter pushrod with a .168 wall thickness to a 1/2” by .120 wall tube, we actually pick up strength.”

Bob Fox of Trend Performance created the Spintron machine used by many 84 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

companies and engine builders due to his inclination that valvetrain stability was an issue under operational (dynamic) settings. “With this machine we were able to see what the entire valvetrain was doing at all times,” says Fox. “It was an immediate discovery that stiffer pushrods are just plain better all around.”

Trend’s Spintron testing began with NASCAR teams who chased every gram of weight they could but could never get a handle on valvetrain stability. “One of our first customers,” Fox said, “brought their entire setup to us for Spintron testing and were shocked at the findings

that a thicker wall 7/16” or 1/2” pushrod that was four or five times heavier than the thin wall 3/8” pushrods they were using worked infinitely better.

There were situations where a 3/8” pushrod was being removed from the cylinder head with scoring or rubbing all the way around the body signaling deflection and an out of control pushrod, was swapped with a 7/16” diameter pushrod that barely had .010” clearance at its thickest point. That larger diameter pushrod proved to be ten times better and had not one bit of witness marks from the head. This was due to the rigidity and strength the larger tube provided during operation.”

“One thing we’ve noticed over the years is to keep an eye on pushrod tip wear patterns,” Perkins adds. “Lots of times when the wear pattern is weird looking, it’s because the frequency is too low. If it happens for too long a period of time, exactly what happened when your above mentioned pushrod broke in two is what you can expect. In cases like that, we’ll change the diame-

A Spintron testing machine uses an electric motor to spin the valvetrain minus the pistons and rods.

With the use of high-speed cameras and load cells, valvetrain stability can be measured and improved.

A typical timing light is nothing more than a strobe light that when flashed can stop the action of whatever it’s pointed at. That’s what enables you to read the timing mark but it also taught us about valvetrain flex.

ter and/or the wall thickness and cure the problem.”

Speaking of pushrod tips, another concern is termed as impact inertia.

Whenever you have valve lash, when the pushrod first comes up and takes up that space, it does so by “slamming” itself against the rocker arm. Think of it like this: Hold a hammer head two inches away from an object versus ten inches.

Naturally the further away from the object, the harder the hit will be with the hammer. “Opening up your valve lash by even as little as .005” can more than double the impact inertia on the pushrod tips,” says Perkins. “That’s why there has also been a movement towards better tips and rocker arm adjusters.”

Clearance of the pushrod to the intake port is certainly necessary but in some cases having it too close can be an advantage. Pushrods are in some applications tapered whereby the ends of the pushrod might be .050” smaller in diameter than the middle. This helps to create not only cylinder head clearance but as Perkins adds, “A tapered pushrod has a higher frequency level than a straight shaft.

“We also keep an eye on the pushrod where it comes close to the outside wall of the intake port,” says Per-

Pushrod tip wear can give you an insight into pushrod stability.

kins. “Should we see a wear mark on the pushrod at that point and naturally through normal rotation it doesn’t contact the head, then we know it’s flexing.

That can be a benefit as it can be used somewhat as a crutch as long as it’s not excessive.”

So then the million-dollar question remains: How do you choose the correct pushrod for your engine?

You could certainly follow Perkins’ advice and supply them with all the nec-

essary data for their computer program or go by Godbold’s theory to utilize the largest diameter pushrod that will fit without seriously altering the intake ports. Either method is viable, however all valvetrain companies have the experience to know what works with any combination of camshaft, valve springs, etc. Asking questions first can save you a lot of headaches later. DRS Sources: COMP Cams, compcams.com; Manton Pushrods, mantonpushrods.com; Trend, trendperform.com

No

Mer

Drag racing’s equivalent of a bar room brawl came to South Georgia

I

f ever there is proof that drag racing has taken on a life all its own apart from the various sanctioning body’s national events, one only needs to look at events such as the No Mercy VI event held at South Georgia Motorsports Park, and the World Footbrake Challenge (which you can read about in this issue on page 50).

With something like 500 cars, packed spectator stands, and over 20 manufacturers displaying their wares, No Mercy VI is 86 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

what drag racing was like in the “big show” 20 or 30 years ago.

To put it mildly, Cincinnati, Ohio’s Dean Vaughn who races in the Ultimate Street class with his driver Shawn Pevlor said, “It is a bare knuckle brawl. The only limiting factor is the size of the tire but other than that, it is all out power, fastest to the finish line.”

“We started this idea back in ’07 as a way to bring 10.5, radial tire racing to the forefront,” says promoter Donald Long. “I

rcy Words/Photos John DiBartolomeo think the first one had 100 cars and maybe 300 people in the stands. We didn’t do it for the money. But we worked at it promotional-wise and it shows. It’s all about the shock and awe that these cars provide for the fans and the racers themselves.”

Nitrous, blowers – you name it when it comes to power-adders. But these racers are just here for one reason: To see just who is the baddest and fastest on the smallest tire you can ever imagine.

Don’t let that smirk fool you. Promoter Donald Long is one smart cookie who knows what his customers want and just how to put on a drag race.

It started years ago with limits to a 10.5-inch wide slick, but has transitioned now to a radial slick that isn’t much wider, but tons faster.

“I’d have to say that counting all the cars here,” says Mickey Thompson Tires’ Tom Kundrik, “probably 95-percent of the cars, if not all of them, are on the radial tires. They’ve proven to be the fastest and most stable tire for the amount of power these guys run.”

And fans? You couldn’t put more people in the South Georgia Motorsports Park facility if you tried.

Tony Fox came down from Stanton, Virginia to spectate with his two sons who run these types of races back home. “It is absolutely amazing to see these cars run first hand. There’s no politics here, no big sponsorships calling the shots, just flat out racing from guys who just want to be the fastest of their bunch.” And that’s probably why almost 10-15,000 people show up each day to see some fantastic racing.

“For those of us that even remember it, it’s the Woodstock of drag racing,” says long-time promoter and announcer Al Tucci. “That’s the allure for the racers. To be a part of the biggest and baddest race on the planet. For the spectators, it’s the familiarity of seeing cars they can relate to; stock bodied vehicles going faster than they probably should. It all adds up to one fantastic event.”

Amid the motorhomes, stacker trailers, pick-up trucks, and open trailers was one car that stood out from the rest. A ’71 Ford Capri right-hand steer racer that came all the way from Toowoomba in Australia. Powered by a Sunset Performance 615-inch Chevy engine with gobs of nitrous, the little machine ran as quick as a 4.61 in the eighth-mile. “This is the ultimate in radial tire racing and I just had to be here,” said car owner and driver Stu Henry.

Racers fight for qualifying spots yet are right there helping their fellow competitors. “From burnout to turnout, it’s everyone for himself,” says Vaughn. “But other than that, you won’t find the greatest friends you never knew you had anywhere else.”

During the first round of qualifying, Lyle Barnett suffered a serious accident in his Radials vs. The World-classed car with DragRacingScene.com 87

Lots of nitrous, blowers, and turbos on the smallest tire imaginable versus the power, adds up to exciting racing which includes wheelstands galore.

a fire, resulting in him being transported to a burn center.

While the prognosis is good, it’ll require months of recovery.

All during the weekend, racers pitched in to donate money to offset his medical expenses including manufacturers donating components to be auctioned off with proceeds going

directly to Barnett. How much did they raise? A lot! Proof positive of the power of family.

Rules? They might appear to need no stinkin’ rules, but it’s far from the truth. With ten separate classes of competition, there is the need to maintain a certain amount of

What started years ago on 10.5-inch tires has transitioned now to the use of a radial-constructed drag slick that’s not much bigger in size. It’s the trickiest combination of power versus the small tire that racers must tune for.

Earlier this year on this very same track, Dewayne Mills stood this car up vertically and came crashing down on the wall. This time he debuted the rebuilt car in a less spectacular fashion, but still running in the 3.90-second range at over 200 mph.

And are these guys serious? You better believe they are. Honing blocks in the pits to replace burnt pistons keeps the racer in the game, a game they so spectacularly crave.

With a variety of classes, each entry’s engine compartment was stuffed full of turbos and/or nitrous plumbing.

88 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

Shades of big-time wrestling. They know how to put on a show here as each round of racing brought out the Sign Girls to announce the classes. Just another nice touch for the crowds.

parity. Tech man John Sears, who single handedly began the X275 class racing said, “There is a minimum amount of rules based for each class, but we also adhere to the sanctioning bodies’ safety rules based on the elapsed times each class of cars run.”

Do these guys crash, smoke the tires, and go on fire? Maybe that’s part of the allure but Sears says, “It’s not intentional, but rather it’s the application of power versus the tire used, which creates the puzzle the racers have to figure out.”

Scotty Guadagno builds quite a few engines for this crowd and is heavily involved despite his years growing up on the NHRA sportsman side of the fence. “This is fun,” he says. “It’s the way drag racing was years ago when I was traveling around with my father to the NHRA races. There’s excitement here. It’s the fastest car wins, in-your-face style

of drag racing. You can’t believe how exciting it is unless you see it first-hand.

“Look at the Street Outlaws TV program,” Guadagno added. “There is no ‘street racing’ there. But the excitement it helped generate is contagious. That excitement was at races like No Mercy, way before the Street Outlaws brought it to the television world. There’s no street racing anymore like we had growing up in New York City. Its places like this, and dozens of others, where it’s at.”

So who were the winners for the weekend? The fans first and foremost, because they saw a great show. But ultimately it was Mother Nature who put a halt to the activities on Sunday afternoon. The purses were split amongst those left in competition, but these guys didn’t necessarily come for the money.

They came, they went fast, and enjoyed every minute of it. DRS

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DYNAMICALLY

SOUND

The differences between a dynamic or static fuel system can often determine win lights

T

he obvious switch from carburetors to an electronic fuel injection (EFI) system in drag racing has been steadily picking up steam for quite a while now. The fact that there isn’t a new car coming out of Detroit, Japan, or wherever, with a carburetor on it is a fact that probably wasn’t lost on the NHRA when it enacted a new rule for 2016 in the fastest of all “factory hot rod class,” Pro Stock. For those possibly living under a rock the last couple of months – effective January 1, 2016, all Pro Stock cars will be fueled by an EFI system.

However, carburetors still rule in many forms of racing, street machines and even watercraft. Converting to EFI has obvious benefits, but brings with it high cost, complexity, and in many forms of racing, it isn’t legal. Those who choose or are forced to run a carburetor are turning to expensive, custom-built models for better performance. Often the custom shop will advise a fuel pump upgrade, suggesting a fuel pump rated to support as much as four to six times engine horsepower. The reason given is the effect acceleration has on filling the float bowl, driving the standing fuel back against the pump, raising head pressure, killing volume, and preventing flow.

Seldom questioned is the static, stop-and-go nature of the system itself. Kyle Fickler of Aeromotive says, “At Aeromotive we address this problem at the source, combining high efficiency EFI-style fuel pumps that deliver volume at pressure with dynamic, return style regulators designed for use with a 90 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

While an electronic fuel injection system requires a dynamic fuel pump and system, so does a carburetor. The object is to keep the fuel bowls full and nothing does that better than a fuel pump system with a return line.

The height of the fuel in a fuel bowl can have an effect on fuel flow through the main jets which ultimately can affect the air/fuel ratio to the engine.

A perfect example of a dynamic fuel system is that used in the Chevrolet COPO Camaro race cars. An in-tank Aeromotive fuel pump feeds fuel to the EFI engine and includes a return line from the pump regulator.

Whether you use an in-tank or external electric fuel pump, the use of a return line and dynamic system is encouraged.

A fuel system has everything to do with keeping the main jets within a fuel bowl covered with the proper height of fuel within the bowl.

carburetor. We actually offer regulators for both EFI and carburetor fuel pumps.”

The fuel system’s first priority is to keep the floats from running low enough to uncover the main jet, running the engine out of fuel. Traditional, static systems do a fair job of this. When we speak of a static system, it is a very easy thing to have a fuel pump pressurizing a fuel line to deliver fuel to the carburetor. It’s a far different concern when the car is leaving the starting line and at speed.

Which brings us to the second and more difficult priority of keeping the fuel level optimum in the bowl. It may not seem significant but the weight of fuel above the main jet does impact fuel flow through it, and therefore the air/fuel ratio of the engine under load. The sophisticated carburetor racer knows the float bowl must always be as full as possible. This is critical if engine tune is to be held across the rpm band, achieving peak performance throughout the race. An area of special focus for drag cars is the first hundred feet or so after launching. Here the typical static fuel system struggles because it must start flow up the line against the G-force devel-

oped during this time. Obviously this takes into consideration the fact of a rear-mounted fuel cell or tank. Dragsters or door cars with a fuel cell mounted in front of an engine alleviate some of this problem, but to a point, it still exists.

Fuel injectors depend on perfect fuel pump and regulator performance, 100-percent of the time. If fuel volume or pressure varies, so does the planned fuel flow through the injector. Carburetor fuel delivery is sensitive to fuel level in the bowl in much the same fashion. EFI performance requires a dynamic, flowing fuel system. A strong case is developing that carburetors need this type of system as well.

Carbureted or EFI, a dynamic, return style fuel system creates a column of flowing fuel, all the way to the engine that combats the effect of G-force. In basic terms, fuel is always flowing through the lines, only bypassing the fuel to the bowl when it is called for. By design, an Aeromotive fuel pump is much better equipped to handle the momentary high pressure generated by a hard leaving drag car, while maintaining critical flow volume.

Ultimately, combining an efficient pump and return regulator into a dynamic fuel system significantly improves average float level, fueling the bowls more quickly and consistently.

The bottom line is naturally the finish line. Getting there first with a more constant air/fuel ratio across the rpm band and more predictable power is one of the keys to determining which side of the track the win light shines on. DRS Source: Aeromotive Fuel Systems, aeromotiveinc.com

DragRacingScene.com 91

TRANSMISSION work made easy

Take the frustration out of working on your transmission

I

f you took a poll at practically any race track, and asked racers and car owners to name the largest hurdle when it comes to operating a winning race team, the number one answer will almost always be money.

However, right behind money, when it comes to the resource we all need more of, is time. It is the one thing that is always in short supply. We can all find more money at times, but finding more time is impossible. Few of us have enough crew or friends that are in the shop consistently enough to get everything on your wish list done. So you wind up prioritizing, categorizing tasks into lists like “must be done,” “should be done,” and “only if everything else is done.”

You get the idea. And if you suffer damage at the track then that weekly to-do list gets thrown on its head.

Crafty racers realize that cutting the amount of time required to complete a task is the equal of having extra crew help on hand. This is true both when working on your race car in the shop or at the pits at the race track--where time is always at a premium.

One area you can save yourself time (and frustration) is with a set of quick disconnect fittings if you are working on a transmission that uses a cooler with external lines. One point to bring up here follows the NHRA Rulebook which states: All transmission lines must be metallic or high-pressure-type hose. In ad92 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

dition, all pressurized lines such as oil and transmission lines must be certified. What that means is regular rubber hose should NEVER be used on transmission lines. In most cases, racers will use typical AN fittings which require tightening and loosening each time you remove the trans, all of which can lead to stripping, cross-threading, and leaking when disconnected.

Between wrenching the fittings and draining the fluid, changing over transmission lines can be time consuming and messy. Thankfully, you can forget the wrench and lose the mess with Jiffy-tite Motorsports’ transmission kits, equipped with the company’s innovative quick-connect fluid fittings.

The valved technology behind Jiffy-tite’s quick-connect fluid fittings make changing transmission lines faster, safer, and spill-proof. You can simply disconnect the self-sealing fittings by hand, no tools needed. To connect, pull the socket collar back, insert the male plug, and release.

The company’s quick-connect fittings have been used in a variety of applications and have been very well received by racers.

Jiffy-tite transmission kits are available to fit virtually all transmissions. They are available in standard valved sizes with fluorocarbon seals, which are resistant to most chemicals and are available with -6 AN steel braided rubber hose or -6 AN steel braided PTFE hose, depending on your transmission needs. DRS Source: Jiffy-tite, jiffy-titemotorsports.com

Sanctioning body rules call for all transmission lines to be metallic or high-pressure hose.

Jiffy-tite fittings utilize an internal valve in each side that when disconnected prevents fluid leaks.

Jiffy-tite’s quick disconnect fittings don’t require any tools to remove the lines from your transmission (or anywhere else you use them).

Whether changing engines or transmissions, time is usually in short supply. In addition, disconnecting the various fluid lines can make a mess.

Jiffy-tite’s Quick-Disconnect fittings help in all cases.

DragRacingScene.com 93

SCHOOLING THE COMPETITION The University of Northwestern Ohio’s High Performance/Motorsports program

S

ome of the best ideas are those which have been drawn up on napkins.

During a dinner meeting in 1991 between then SEMA president Chuck Blum, former publisher of Hot Rod magazine Harry Hibler, and Dr. Jeff Jarvis, President of the University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH), the three very casually discussed why there wasn’t any motorsports educational programs offered at colleges in the United States.

Together the three jotted down notes on an actual napkin.

Taking the bull by the horns, Dr. Jarvis brought that napkin back to the UNOH campus and together with his faculty designed a curriculum for the very first fully accredited High Performance/Motorsports program in the world. With course offerings in several fields of study such as Engine Building, Fuel Systems, and Welding to name just a few, all with a high performance theme. Students receive an education which will enable them to succeed in today’s job market.

“Students receive the choice of earning a diploma, or they can earn a two-year accredited Associates Degree,” said Dr. Jarvis. “They can also continue that education and complete a four-year program with a focus in Automotive Supervision, Business

The UNOH program consists of a variety programs geared toward the high performance industry, such as these students working in the Custom Engine Building Shop in the High Performance Motorsports Complex as part of their coursework.

Administration, or Sports Marketing and Management.”

No longer is the only necessity for employment in the field of motorsports to own a simple toolbox. Technology today plays an important role in everything, and having the proper education

can give a student a leg up on earning a position in his or her chosen field.

While today’s students are better prepared in the area of technology than in the past, their passion for the motorsports industry has remained the same. Wishing to make motorsports DragRacingScene.com 95

It might just look like the same mechanical work as in years long gone, but today’s motorsports field involves quite a bit of new technology that requires the proper education.

UNOH has affiliations with several teams such as Don Schumacher Racing, along with Terry McMillen and Richard Childress Racing. Ben Lacher and D’Andre Redfern are two interns currently working on McMillen’s Top Fuel team.

96 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

their career path, UNOH gives them the necessary skill set to fulfill their dreams including numerous internship opportunities. While interning with a race team, the student networks with a number of social media contacts helping them to secure positions following graduation. “They’ve taken their tech-savvy skills and used it to their advantage while searching for a career following graduation,” says Jarvis.

“Over the past 23 years our program has continued to change with the new technology in our industry,” says Jarvis.

“A lot of the growth and change can be attributed to the sponsorship and involvement we have with organizations we’re involved with such as SEMA, NASCAR, NHRA, and many others.

“Don Schumacher Racing, along with Terry McMillen and Richard Childress Racing, are just three of the many teams we have relationships with and that have hired our graduates. In addition, we have relationships with a number of aftermarket companies in the industry, many of whom are hiring our graduates.”

More than half the students who enroll in the program have some sort of connection to the industry, even if it’s just from an enthusiast level. The re-

Students learn the ins and outs of CNC machining during High Performance Motorsports Classes at UNOH.

maining students may not have any prior experience, but they share a passion for motorsports and eventually end up just as successful as students with prior involvement. During its history, UNOH has taught students from all 50 states and 36 countries.

“It’s always inspiring to hear about a student who saw UNOH in a maga-

zine, on a car we sponsor, or did a Google search from the other side of the world and then ends up in classes a few months later,” says Jarvis.

It’s all about fulfilling their dreams and the University of Northwestern Ohio couldn’t be happier helping them along the way. DRS Source: University of Northwestern Ohio, unoh.edu

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POWER A power-adder requires a little bit of forethought Words John DiBartolomeo/Photos Jeff Huneycutt

T

he latest craze for increasing horsepower has to be the proliferation of power-adders like turbos, nitrous and blowers. While each of those devices have been around for decades, it appears more people today are finding them as a fast and easy way to add horsepower, since they are easier to install thanks to the aftermarket and the work done to ease the burden of installation and tuning.

However, depending on what you use, there is a good possibility your engine won’t handle the increase in power. Sure, it will go fast, but will it live?

That by itself can cause all sorts of headaches along with the possibility of broken parts.

98 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

Recently we sat down with Dave Bieneman of USA Performance Parts who has been selling more engine components to racers wanting to install one of the above power-adders than ever before.

“It seems like every day we’ll get calls from someone ordering pistons, rods, cranks, whatever, and when we ask them about their combination, they’ll always say they’re going to add a power-adder of some sort to their engine,” he says.

“That’s when we have to stop them and suggest they rethink the type of components to purchase.

“Two of our most popular combinations available as individual components or complete rotating assemblies,

is a 632-cubic inch big block or 434-inch small-block Chevrolet,” Bieneman says.

“Both combinations are suitable for both street/strip use as well as strictly for racing. In both cases, the engines, when combined with the right cylinder heads – which we also have – will make a lot of power all on their own.

But when you combine them with any of the power-adders, you end up with a pretty fast piece. However, you have to use the right components in order to expect any kind of longevity. Here’s where our experience helps out.”

Each of those above power-adders does one thing: Increase the amount of pressure within the cylinder. When that happens, it puts an extreme amount

of force against the piston and subsequently everything connected to it (i.e. piston rings, piston pins and their retaining rings, rods, bearings, etc). Because of that, there has to be more careful consideration of the components used.

“A simple 150-200-hp shot of nitrous with a ‘plate system,’ such as just a simple plate under the carburetor, probably won’t create much concern,” Bieneman says. “However, when it comes to anything more than that, like a twostage injection system, that’s when you really have to be careful with the components you choose. The same thing goes for a turbo or supercharged combination, which have become almost as

This might be the extreme, but more and more racers are choosing to add one of three power-adders to their engine: turbos, superchargers, or nitrous. Doing so obviously adds power, but places an extreme amount of pressure on your internal engine components.

popular as nitrous.

“We sell quite a bit of rotating assemblies in addition to individual parts,” he adds, “and the last thing we want is for a person to spend their hard-earned dollars with us and have them encounter a

problem down the road.”

The first point of attack for any of the power-adders is the piston dome, not necessarily the dome itself but rather the compression ratio. Still though, the dome thickness is important and DragRacingScene.com 99

The first line of defense in your quest for longevity are your pistons. The piston on the left is typically used in a naturally-aspirated powerplant, while the one of the right is better suited for power-adders. The first obvious change are the ring placements, but structurally it’s a stronger model.

the power-adder piston versions utilize thicker crowns.

Forgetting the all-out Pro Mod style engines for a minute, most nitrous engines can live with high compression ratios. However, turbos and supercharged combinations require less compression ratio, sometimes as little as 8:1 depending on the type gasoline you choose to run.

The next point is the top ring placement. It’s not uncommon for race pistons to have a top ring located as close as .200” down from the deck of the piston. This is done in an effort to gain as much compression ratio as possible.

But Bieneman says, “That’s too close to the top for a power-adder combination. In addition to increased cylinder pressure, there’s also quite a bit more heat inside the combustion chamber.

That heat can have a dramatic effect on ring life.”

Because of that, it’s necessary to have the top ring down at least .320” in addition to bypassing any type of moly top ring and instead use steel only. “A moly ring in a power-adder combination can anneal and lose its ability to seal,” says Total Seal’s Keith Jones. “You need to use a good, high quality steel ring in that case.

“One area that people need to look at is what is called the free gap of a ring,” says Jones. “That is the gap when the ring is laying on a table off of the piston. A way to tell how a ring is holding up in an engine is to write that dimension down when the ring is new, followed up by the same measurement during a rebuild. As an example, if the gap is .500 and after it’s run the gap decreases by .050” or so, then that ring is holding up fantastic.

Should that number at rebuild time be .250 or so, then the ring is seeing too much heat and is annealing. Ei100 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

The popular longer stroke engines cause a clearance problem with the bottom of the piston to the crankshaft. USA Performance Parts has Lunati VooDoo crankshafts specially “cam-cut” to add clearance at that point of the stroke.

ther that ring material is not compatible to your combination or your tuneup is way off. It’s a great tuning aide to know how a ring is holding up.”

The next step down is the second ring placement. Oftentimes the distance between the top and second ring can be close, but in power-adder combinations it must be increased due to the added pressure that area sees from the extra pressure exerted from the top ring.

Moving all of those dimensions down also creates a problem when it comes to piston pin placement, or in better terms, compression height. Compression height is the distance from the center of the piston pin to the deck of the piston, not the top of the dome. Oftentimes the compression height is decreased in order to use a longer connecting rod and fit the assembly into a short deck block. However, that places a premium on the amount of space available for a proper ring package.

“We suggest using a shorter rod and/or a tall block,” says Bieneman, “which gives you the room to have the rings placed in a good position. In theory, a shorter rod will affect the rod ratio (rod length divided by crankshaft stroke) and the subsequent power levels, but our rods are only shorter by a small amount which has little effect on that or performance, yet it gives us the ability for that better ring placement.”

Next up in the line of defense is the connecting rod itself. “We’re having connecting rods built which have a thicker cross-section,” Bieneman says. “These are our XD, Xtreme Duty rods. It makes the rod a little heavier but the trade-off to longevity is what is important.”

Longer strokes and heavier connecting rods also create a clearance problem internally with the camshaft.

Connecting rods take the next brunt of the power after the piston. Note that the XD Xtreme Duty rod on the right utilizes a heftier mid-section to withstand the extra power.

Increased power means more heat and pressure inside a cylinder. One good thing to keep in mind is the “free gap” of a piston ring. That one thing can tell you a lot of what’s happening inside your engine.

“We always recommend the use of an aftermarket block such as the Dart versions,” says Bieneman, “which utilize a raised camshaft and also a raised deck.

The raised camshaft placement allows for crankshaft stroke clearance and the raised block gives you more clearance for a better piston.”

While nitrous has been used for years, the latest craze for power-adders has been the superchargers driven directly off of the front of the crankshaft.

As for the crankshafts, the counterweights need to be cut down in order to clear the pistons at the bottom of the stroke. “The Lunati VooDoo series crankshafts are a great crankshaft for the money,” says Bieneman. “Plus the counterweights need to be ‘cam-cut’ only where they may come into contact with the piston. We have crankshafts specially made by Lunati with the ma-

chining already completed.”

In any event, should you be wanting that extra “punch” which any power-adder will give you, be aware that your internal engine components need to be able to withstand the extra horsepower.

Choose carefully. DRS Sources: Lunati, lunatipower.com; Total Seal Piston Rings, totalseal.com; USA Performance Parts, usaperform.com

Nitrous oxide still leads the charge for most racers. While somewhat of a mystery, the aftermarket has done a wonderful job of “de-mystifying” in order for racers to easily add nitrous with little problems. However, it still requires some internal mods to expect any longevity.

Miss Mia earns a new title

Photos John DiBartolomeo

Six years ago, the thought of racing in NHRA’s Top Fuel class was probably furthest from the mind of Mia Tedesco.

The first step for the young driver from Pennsylvania involved getting her feet wet in the sportsman ranks, something she did quite well in winning several big races along the way, both in bracket racing and sportsman trim.

In 2013, she licensed in an A/Fuel dragster, hopping behind the wheel of the Hirata Family Motorsports car for the ’14 season, continuing to race on the sportsman level also. Racing in only six Alcohol Dragster events that year, she showed enough promise to compete for a full season in ’15. Earning her first win in the Alcohol Dragster class at the Four-Wide NHRA Nationals in Charlotte at the beginning of this year set the stage for two more wins on the regional level, coupled with several final round appearances.

By the time the end of the year rolled around, Ms. Tedesco found herself in the No. 1 spot as the North Central Regional Alcohol Dragster Champion in the C.A.R.S. Protection Plus / WeFindParts.com car.

“I can’t believe after my first full season in the A/Fuel car I’m able to announce something like this,” she said. “I wouldn’t be here without the hard work of my whole team. They provide such an amazing car and I couldn’t be more thankful to them... Kenny and Chiyo Hirata, Dave Hirata, Molly Tucker, Grayson Biehn, Chris Wells, Phil, JR, Jason Lynch, Jason Oteri, Josh Wallace, Ronnie and everyone else that has helped me along the way. I’m truly blessed with the love and support from my parents Michael and Cindy Tedesco, and my supportive fans. Winning the North Central Region title is a dream come true!

Thank you everyone!”

For the next step up the ladder of drag racing, Miss Mia recently licensed in a Top Fuel car, running as quick as a 3.95 at 316 mph. This of course places her even closer to a life-long dream, although 2016 will find her back behind the wheel of the C.A.R.S. Protection Plus/Hirata Motorsports Top Alcohol car to chase the world championship in that class. Our congratulations go out to her and her team. DRS 102 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

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Forget

NEVER

Travers Webb never forgot his competition roots

Words/Photos John DiBartolomeo

T

he year was 1977, and college football enthusiasts had their eye on the annual Gator Bowl held in Jacksonville, Florida. As a tight end for the Clemson University team, who suffered a defeat at the hands of the University of Pittsburgh, the game was the last time Travers Webb would stand on the football field in competition. But it wasn’t his last time competing.

“I was always into cars, graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering,” says Webb. “Even when I was a little kid, I was into building model cars and the like.”

Once out of school, Webb went into the family’s printing business. Still the mechanical mind that he was, he was always fascinated with the old Ford cammer engines, which cemented him as a Ford guy through and through. By the mid-‘80s, Winston had become a major supporter of motorsports and Webb’s printing company was charged with a 104 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

lot of the printed material for them.

That only further paved his connection to drag racing.

By 1988, Webb had a collection of Ford parts and had met Ronnie Sox. “I had a shop and was doing a small amount of Ford restoration work on the side,” Webb said. “I had some Comets, and Ronnie came around to see what I had. Eventually the two of us partnered up to jump into Pro Modified. Being the Ford guy and fan that I am, what better way to get into drag racing than to hook up with one of the best?

“Ronnie had such a following of fans,” Webb added. “When he was younger, he was that blonde hair, blue eyed kid who could really drive a race car. He was a tremendous athlete, and there was no one better at shifting a four-speed than him.

But there was so much more to Ronnie than just a driver. He knew how to set up cars, tune and drive them, and dress like a professional.”

Back in 1964, Ford contracted Sox & Martin with Sox driving to race with a Comet, culminating in his first national event win at the NHRA Winternationals.

By the time Sox had semi-retired from NHRA competition, he had accumulated a total of 15 national event wins in 18 final round appearances. His last Pro Stock final round at the 1979 Gatornationals was against Bob Glidden, in what some might say was the passing of the torch. Glidden continued the domination Sox had begun in the “new” Pro Stock class, by absolutely dominating in the 1980s. Sox wasn’t done with his own domination though.

In 1981, he teamed with Dean Thompson to drive an IHRA Pro Stock car, winning the IHRA world championship in that class, in addition to finishing second in ’82.

When Webb and Sox met, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, one that culminated in the building of a Comet you see on these pages.

“This was a one of a kind car,” says Dean Sox, Ronnie’s son, who worked alongside his dad for years. “It was the only Comet ever built. Tommy Mauney built the chassis and Daddy built the mold for the fiberglass body. Daddy was there in on the build every step of the way.

“We had gotten the engine from Ricky Smith when he changed over to Pontiacs and we worked day and night to finish the car up to debut it at the IHRA Winternationals in Darlington in 1990,” Dean says. “When we got done and loaded up, Daddy jumped up in the lounge area of the trailer to get some sleep, while myself and our truck driver Bill Watkins stayed up front to drive to the track. We never stopped after leaving the shop and once we got to Darlington — bear in mind this was February — we opened up the trailer and there was Daddy, all dressed in his firesuit and helmet, just about frozen to death.”

When teamed up with Travers Webb in the late-‘80s and early-‘90s, Ronnie Sox campaigned this Pro Mod Comet, the only one of its kind. Today, that same car has hit the show car circuit and is a hit with fans who immortalize the memory of a great driver.

DragRacingScene.com 105

With a Boss 429 Ford engine, Sox came oh so close to being the very first IHRA Pro Mod world champion in 1990, the first year ever for the class under any sanction.

For a number of years with Webb as the car owner and Sox behind the wheel, the pair continued Sox’s domination on the quarter-mile. With success on the IHRA Pro Modified circuit, in addition to match racing, it all proved the team of Sox & Webb still had what it took to win. In the summer of 1990 in Englishtown, New Jersey, Sox drove the car to the very first Pro Mod sub-seven second run at over 200 mph.

Financial concerns on Webb’s part eventually forced Webb to sell the Comet in the late-‘90s and concentrate on business, but much like he never forgot his competitive days with a football in his hand, Webb never forgot the Comet.

“I had sold the car, but never forgot it,” says Webb. “It was a pretty unique car in its day, and the fact that Ronnie drove and tuned it made it pretty exceptional in my mind, and the minds of all his fans.”

Sox continued competing, but in the mid-2000s became ill and was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which he eventually succumbed to in 2006.

“Even though I sold the car in the early ‘90s, I wanted it back, but wasn’t sure how to find where it had ended up,” says Webb. “That’s when my friendship with Roy Hill came in handy and Roy was a big help in that regard.”

Webb had met Hill from back in the Winston era and it’s Hill’s mantra that he never forgets a friend.

“Travers and I kept in touch over the years,” says Hill, “and in the late ‘90s he expressed a wish to get back the Comet Pro Mod car that he and Ronnie ran. I knew Ronnie well too, and he was quite a genius when it came to race cars.

“I found the car up in New Jersey, but it was in pretty sad shape,” Hill added. “It was sitting outside, but I managed to purchase it and brought it back to my shop where we cleaned it up. Tra106 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 1, Issue 4

Rather simplistic by today’s Pro Mod standards, the four link rear suspension of the Tommy Mauney-built chassis was trick, and tuned by Sox, bit hard on the tracks of the day.

Sox’s office was standard fare for a 1990 Pro Mod car, but featured no tachometer. For the man who is best known as one of the sport’s true drivers, Sox was the greatest at “hearing” just what rpm the engine was turning.

vers eventually came up and purchased it from me.”

“Other than cleaning it up,” says Webb, “the car was in the very same shape as when we last ran it, right down to the paint job when we last ran the car.”

Over the years the car had gone through some changes. “When we originally built it,” Webb said, “I had wanted to put zoomie headers on it, but Ronnie felt that a collector was better. My feelings were that with the amount of nitrous oxide we were using, it was almost like a blower and you didn’t need the collector to help scavenge the cylinders.

When we eventually put the zoomies on, Ronnie mentioned how he could better hear the gear changes because all the exhaust noise was going outside the car.”

“We were at the first race,” says Dean, “and the car had a hood scoop that came all the way back to the windshield. When Daddy was in the left lane, he couldn’t see the ‘Tree. So he went and mounted a mirror on the roll cage on the right side of the car and he’d use that mirror to stage. It would look pretty

funny though to see him staging the car while looking at the right side of the roll cage. When we got home though, Daddy cut off the back of the scoop.”

“This car was probably the one car that Ronnie had complete and total control over how it was built and tuned,” Webb added. “He had freedom to do whatever he wanted, obviously limited by whatever money I had, but it was all his call.”

As noted in the July 1990 edition of Super Ford magazine, author Don Gillespie wrote, “In its first outing, the cagey veteran drove the wild creation all the way to the semifinals at the season-opening IHRA Winternationals in Darlington, South Carolina, clocking a best of 7.14 seconds and 195 mph. Not bad for shakedown runs in a car that still had wet paint when the lid of the 18-wheeler transport was opened. But then, breaking in a new car in victorious fashion is nothing new for the drag racing legend.”

By the end of the 1990 season, all Sox had to do to win the world championship was set the national record and

Zoomie headers weren’t Sox’s first choice on the car, but he eventually caved and after installation, enjoyed being able to better hear the engine.

The team of (right to left) Travers Webb and his wife Kirstin, Dean Sox and his girlfriend Sharon Nichols, and Webb crewman Grady Dunn are all pretty happy now that the Comet is back in their hands.

win at the last two races of the year in Darlington and Bristol. He set the record at the Darlington event and made it to the semifinals where he had to face Tim McAmis.

“Daddy had done his burnout,” says Dean, “and McAmis was having a problem starting his car. The starting line officials wouldn’t let Daddy stage for whatever reason while McAmis’ crew tried valiantly to start the car.

Once McAmis was started and staged, Daddy’s car was too hot and as soon as he let the clutch out, it spun the tires and he lost.”

Sox would later go on to win in Bristol, which had he won Darlington, would have meant another world championship to his credit. “The IHRA crew later apologized to Daddy, saying that they didn’t have any kind of rule yet concerning a time

period when that happened. Daddy was always a pretty calm and collected person, but he was sure hot that day,” Dean said.

With a number of awards and trophies from Webb’s time on the gridiron, there is probably a lot of reminiscing. And with the Comet back in his possession, he now has a lasting impression of his competitive days as a drag racer. DRS

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Brandon Flannery is a globe-trottin’ automotive photojournalist, content developer, and certified shop rat now living in Hernando, Mississippi, with a herd of projects and a daily-driven ’73 Satellite Sebring known as The Blue Goose.

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