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Drag racing is what you make of it
T
he latest news from the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) states their complete abandonment of all of its class and index competition. This headline just a few weeks ago shoves the index classes of 10.90, 9.90, 8.90, and NTS 11.50 out the door. The purest form of historical drag racing, which is Stock and Super Stock eliminators, are poof…gone. The last two and most notable absences are Top Sportsman and Top Dragster: two classes born from the deep “mountain motor” history of the IHRA. Does IHRA dropping these classes spell doom and gloom within the overall world of sportsman drag racing? Hell, no. Within a week of the IHRA abandonment, it was announced the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) will be expanding their Top Dragster class racing from 32- to 48-car fields for the 2018 season. This expansion by the PDRA is married to their already strong Top Sportsman competition format. To further add to the IHRA/PDRA comparison, the PDRA Top Sportsman and Top Dragster categories each split into two divisions. There is an “Elite 16” of the quickest 16 qualifiers, and the remaining top qualifiers form an additional 32-car field. The lesson between PDRA and IHRA promotions abides by the cliché it is what you make of it. I firmly believe in the title of this editorial. Heads-up outlaw competition has grown into a major form of this sport, with not only a huge racer base but a spectator/fan base, as well. Another positive example of the blossoming of our sport was in our article on the Southeast Gasser Association a couple of issues ago. Tracks who have hosted the group are breaking spectator attendance records previously set in the 1960s. A few guys with period-correct Anglias and Willys have gone from playing with their vintage race cars on a test-n-tune night to headlining record-breaking events for many smaller dragstrips.
All racers who love a specific form of drag racing can follow the lead of those who linked together competitors to make power in numbers; it’s called organic growth. To read some of the social media responses to the IHRA announcement is to view total frustration and a sense of abandonment by racers at the association. But truth be told, an overwhelming majority of those with angry internet cries were not attending IHRA events in recent times. The debate then surfaced stating it is the fault of the racers for not supporting the IHRA with hearty attendance. So, while some are typing on their keyboards in a pity party, the dynamic groups like the PDRA are growing some of the same classes. The success of multiple gasser groups and outlaw street competitions spawned from an organic level of organizing and perfecting their competition format. These two examples did not follow similar paths. The Gasser fanatics came together with a desire to put on a grand show from the cool cars they believed could do just that, and the fans have responded. The current masses of radial tire supercars had humble beginnings which stemmed from an eagerness to compete heads-up, and the fans have responded there, as well. Each of these genres of racing had very different roads to success, but very similar beginnings, combined with a heartfelt effort to make something out of their specialized enthusiasm for the same sport. All racers who love a specific form of drag racing can follow the lead of those who linked together competitors to make power in numbers; it’s called organic growth. There are many Super Gas, Super Comp, Stock, Super Stock, and Top Sportsman/Top Dragster groups who compete on a regional basis with success. These groups have a bright future. To follow the lead of the most successful organic startup groups could be the future for those racers who feel betrayed by bureaucratic associations floundering into oblivion. Once again, it is what YOU make of it. DRS 2 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Staff Operations Director Shawn Brereton Editorial Director
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Art Todd Silvey Digital Editors Jonathan Ertz Elizabeth Puckett Contributors Mike Galimi Brian Beers John Fisher Chris Simmons Laurie Silvey Brandon Flannery Clay Millican Michelle Furr Bryan Epps Elliott Aldrich Tami Eggleston Christopher Silvey Advertising/Subscriptions Ivan Korda For advertising inquiries call 901.260.5910
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.
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In This Issue 34 Drag Racing Scene Vol. 3, Issue 4
Features
22 MOTOR CITY SHOWDOWN 34 NEGLECTION CAN BE AWESOME 38 JUST CALL ME MAG 44 MENDY FRY 52 RACE READING First legal drag races in downtown Detroit Ultimate No Prep at Lyons Raceway Park
Darrin Magdowski’s Outlaw 632 Mustang Accountant by day, racer for life
Every racer needs to snuggle up with a good book
DRAGSTRIP THAT GEORGE 68 THE RAY BUILT Down home drag racing for over 50 years
72 STANDING IT UP 76 WHITE LIGHTNING GASSER 84 SUPER BOWL OF DRAG RACING 88 COMICS, CLUTCHES, AND CAPES Wheels up for the win at Byron Dragway
Moonshiner uses drag racing for relaxation NMRA racers get their revenge in run-off Talking about 10,000-hp funny cars at Comic-Con
4 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
22 MOTOR CITY
SHOWDOWN
LYONS NO PREP
64 BOTTOM
BULBIN’
68 THE TRACK GEORGE RAY BUILT
Vendor Midway Pro Series Wiring Harnesses Painless Performance................. 58 XDi Race Cam Sync Distributor FAST.................................... 59
Thread Chaser Sets Summit Racing Equipment ................. 59 Signature Series Rotating Assemblies Lunati ..................... 60 Custom Tool Steel Camshafts Crane Cams ........................ 60 Universal Tubular Wheelie Bar Kit SW Race Cars ............... 60 Lava Header Armor Heatshield Products .............................. 61 SPR Radius Tip Rocker Arms COMP Cams .......................... 62 Brake Conversion Kit/Mustangs Aerospace Components .. 62 29.2 Lightweight Flexplate for SBC/BBC TCI ..................... 62 Defender + Booster Driven Racing Oil ................................. 63
Tech
28 PROJECT ROVER 42 TOP FIVE REAR END INSPECTION TIPS 48 T IS FOR TURBO 54 REBUILDABLE DAMPER ADVANTAGES 64 BOTTOM-BULBIN’ 80 CAM TIMING AND THE QUARTER-MILE 90 CRANKSHAFT CAPABLE FAST EZ-EFI 2.0 installation
Maintaining and inspecting our 12-bolt differential
Departments FOR 2 FUEL THOUGHT
It’s what you make of it
3 SOCIAL SHOUTOUTS
DRS on social media
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DRAG NEWS
Important happenings in the drag racing world
Boost makes horsepower; how fast do you want to go?
17 DIGITAL GUIDE AT THE 18 LIFE DRAGSTRIP
Stay connected with DRS
To sleep in my own bed again
19 20 IN FOCUS
VIDEO REWIND Cool online videos
10 TOP ELIMINATOR INSIDE THE HELMET ON THAT 94 12 STOMP LOUD PEDAL IT 95 PUT TO THE TEST 14 TRACK TESTED 96 LIFE AT 1320 16 BORN TO RACE Luke Bogacki
Featured photography of Mike Grosso Grits, goals, gratitude
Countdown: Love it or hate it
ATI Catch can
Is Drag Week the final frontier?
The good, the bad, and the lucky
Injectors
Answering the questions about our mystery damper How non-delay box racers are using ingenious tech Thoughts on power curves and acceleration rates Crank tech: Cast vs. Forged
SPECIAL THANKS
The staff of Drag Racing Scene would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the talented photographers that supplied images found in this issue. Steve Vreatt: cs-motorsports.com Bryan Epps: facebook.com/bryan.epps Mike Galimi: facebook.com/mike.galimi Carl Skillman: facebook.com/carl.skillman Brian Beers: instagram@beersphotography.com Mike Grosso: facebook.com/mike.grosso.37 John Fisher: facebook.com/skysthelimitimagery Bill Swanson: facebook.com/bill.swanson.790 Danny Stogner: facebook.com/Danny Stogner-Photography/ Mike Slade: facebook.com/Mike-Slade-Photography/ Tommy Lee Byrd: facebook.com/byrdphotography DragRacingScene.com 5
Drag News PRESENTED BY
Growing police programs continue to have effect at the ‘strip
Source: Facebook
An automotive vocational program called Drag Racing Against Gangs and Graffiti (DRAGG) is being duplicated across the western United States. The program described as an after-school youth automotive program that combines police officers, educators, and individuals from the automotive industry began in California and Nevada and is now spreading into Arizona. Many schools no longer offer classes in the automotive industry, and DRAGG is targeted toward students who don’t consider themselves to be athletic. During 32 weeks, the police department works with the kids to build a car and wrap it. Each school chooses who will be involved in the program, with the students earning high school and community college credits by being involved. At this point, it is not clear if the students are simply building the cars or if they will be allowed to drag race the vehicles when complete,
6 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
but those details are currently being worked out in the city council. At Sonoma Raceway, high school students are being given a chance to square off against local police officers during their Top the Cops program that just finished its 23rd season. The events are scheduled every Wednesday from April through August. Kevin McKinnie, a retired police officer and Top the Cops founder, was looking for a way to stop illegal street racing in the city of Santa Rosa. He decided to get young kids out to the track to combat the issue before they got into bad habits. Since the program began, illegal street racing incidents have declined in the area. The police officers take the opportunity to get to know the teens at the track, talking to them about their race times, offering tips for safe driving, and getting in some warnings about drugs and alcohol behind the wheel. Top the Cops is the only known program of this type in the U.S.
IHRA program includes only bracket racing for 2018
The IHRA sportsman program will be moving to an all- bracket racing format for the first time in the organization’s history in 2018. This means competition for Top Sportsman and Top Dragster, both classes born and fostered from IHRA competition, no longer will exist within their association events. Also affected are Stock, Super Stock, Quick Rod (8.90 index) Super Rod (9.90 index), and Hot Rod (10.90 index) classes that will no longer see IHRA decals on those cars with the abandonment of the Sportsman National Championship series. The IHRA has announced there will be a “Sportsman Spectacular” series, which will consist of 10 weekends of two-day events for the three bracket classes. Its Super Series will remain the same championship-style runoff at the end of the 2018 season, but only for three bracket classes. “The change to an all-bracket racing program is a result of input from racers, partners, and tracks and comes after a five-year effort to improve participation levels in IHRA class racing,” IHRA stated in its release. “The previous touring series saw multiple format changes, all aimed at keeping the series viable for the racers, host tracks, and sponsors. While there continues to be a core group of dedicated class racers who supported certain events, there simply hasn’t been enough entries to make a series work.” Multiple track operators have stated to Drag Racing Scene they take exception to this statement. Currently, there have been no staff changes announced by IHRA, but when bracket racing/safety equipment monitoring at IHRA events will simply consist of three bracket classes, common sense dictates there is no longer a great need for tech officials (or IHRA division directors for that matter). No announcements have been made yet concerning the 2018 dates or locations for the association’s bracket-only program.
Power Automedia acquires Xceleration Media
Power Automedia has acquired Xceleration Media LLC, adding an audience of more than one million enthusiasts to its stable of 12 existing automotive magazines. It also adds print media to Power Automedia’s portfolio for the first time in its nearly 11-year history. Drag Racing Scene, OneDirt, Street Rod Life, Power & Performance, , and Cars & Parts will all be brought into the fold. The acquisition marks a historic day in Power Automedia history, as the company makes a large leap forward in its quest to make an indelible mark on the industry and the legacy of automotive media. The Xceleration Media titles will benefit from efficiencies of scale and the institutional knowledge that has made Power Automedia titles such as Dragzine, EngineLabs, LSX Magazine, and Street Muscle so successful.
“The addition of Xceleration Media adds firepower to Power Automedia, which already reaches over five million automotive enthusiasts a year,” said Power Automedia CEO James Lawrence. “While Power Automedia will remain a digital-first publisher, print has ardent supporters and in key markets, adds tactical value to our efforts to reach automotive enthusiasts with beautiful automotive content.” Chris Douglas, COO of Xceleration Media said, “In today’s highly competitive automotive media market, we have decided to sell Xceleration Media to Power Automedia, whose suite of automotive enthusiast properties, websites, magazines, and video platforms will enable and fuel the continued growth of what we initially built with the Xceleration Media titles.”
Australia joining the 1,000 foot club
For safety reasons, Top Fuel drag racing in Australia will no longer compete on the 1/4–mile. Starting in November 2018, at the beginning of their new season, competition in the 400 Thunder Professional Drag Rac-
ing Series will be on 1,000-foot tracks. Organizers have been concerned braking distances are too short for the speeds of modern Top Fuel vehicles. The shortened competition length will afford the drivers an additional 100 meters of distance in the shut down length. This change will bring 400 Thunder in line with NHRA regulations, which adopted the 1,000-foot distance for Top Fuel and Funny Car in 2008, following Scott Kalitta’s death.
Drag News PRESENTED BY
A match made in heaven advances strip opening The new Twin Branch Drag Strip currently under the ownership of Mingo County, West Virginia, is getting closer to a planned March 2018 opening. The track was built on former coal mining property as part of a land-recovery agreement where mining companies are required to return the land to its pre-mining state or provide it for the use of civil projects. Massey Energy, which previously owned and operated a surface mining coal site on the land, donated it to the county after its operations were idled. Consol Energy, one of Massey Energy’s competitors, later became involved as part of their plan to maintain a mining permit and save jobs. The company donated labor, materials, and equipment for the construction of a dragstrip, which the county had
determined to be an economically lucrative use of the land. The track features an all-concrete surface and guardrails, with the pit areas, return road and access roads to the property also completed. County officials contacted Pete Scalzo, a longtime track operator and promoter, who had recently lost his lease at Green Cove Dragstrip in Florida and was looking for his next venture. Scalzo owns Green Cove’s lights, scoreboards, PA, and timing system and has reached an agreement with Mingo County to operate the facility as well as lease the
equipment to Twin Branch Drag Strip to help complete it. The county has also met with the owners of the recently closed Kanawha Valley Dragway to purchase their grandstands.
K.C. Jones jet racing operation destroyed in fire
K.C. and Linda Jones are the owners of Team Steam, operating the “Cannonball Express” and the “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” jet dragsters, along with their “Crazy Train” wheelstander. The popular and well-liked racers have taken their train-themed exhibition racing to dragstrips and other events across North America for decades. On October 6, the team suffered a terrible blow when most of their operation burned to the ground. They lost their toterhome, trailer, the two jet dragsters, and the large shop on their Oklahoma property. Between the shop and their team rig, all their tools and equipment were engulfed in flames and are mainly unsalvageable. “We’re devastated,” KC said. “We have two different insurance carriers, one for the toterhome and trailer and one for the shop. We’re just hoping and praying that they treat us right. We’ve been out snapping some pictures of the damage. The fire marshal 8 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
is involved, as well as private investigators, so it could be awhile before we know anything from them. The first thought is the fire was started by the refrigerator in the toterhome.” The team had no key-off insurance on the jet cars, so they are thinking hard about what their next steps will be for the future of their exhibition racing business. “We’ve been doing this a long time, and just like everybody else, we struggle every year to make it work,” KC said. “I was able to get a little ahead as this was a really super year for us, and who knows why this stuff happens.” KC said he feels lucky that no one was hurt in the fire, as it happened during evening hours. “I’m not going to cry in my beer because I feel so blessed that nobody was in the coach or trailer when it burned,” KC said. “I am happy that our ‘Crazy Train’ wheelstander was not in the big rig at the time. It was
not booked for our next event, so we had it stored in a separate small trailer outside of our shop. We are just devastated over the bookings we had for the remainder of the year that we can’t fulfill. We will press on with our wheelstander for now, and see where everything takes us. We’ve been riding this ‘train’ for a long time, and I hope I can put together the effort to rebuild.”
PDRA’s Lucas Oil Top Dragster expands to 32- to 48-car field As a way to better support their sportsman racers, PDRA introduced a new program for their Top Sportsman competition this year. It featured the chance for up to 48 cars to qualify. The top 16 qualifiers are automatically entered into their own class titled the Elite 16, while remaining qualifiers form a separate 32- or 48-car field, based on the number of total cars entered. The PDRA recently announced an expansion for their Top Dragster competitors in 2018 that will follow the same format as their successful Top Sportsman class. “This year was a huge success for MagnaFuel Top Sportsman,” PDRA’s
Bob Harris explained. “We’re going to continue that program for Top Sportsman in 2018 and also offer it for Lucas Oil Top Dragster. We’re very excited about the ways this will support our Top Dragster racers and enhance the PDRA.” All four classes of Top Sportsman and Top Dragster will run for a world championship, and each class will run for its own “660 Man” trophy at every event. “We’re grateful to our racers for the support they show us,” added Harris. “We aim to give them the best racing environment possible and do all we can to make each class the best it can be.”
Jeff Lutz crashes new ’57 Chevy at Street Outlaws filming Famed Street Outlaws personality and street-legal drag racer Jeff Lutz has just wrapped the media attention gained by his new twin-turbo 1957 Chevrolet build — debuting at the Tri-Five Nationals at Beech Bend Raceway — when he hit a wall in Memphis. Lutz was competing at the Street Outlaws event at Memphis International Raceway. The no-prep event was viewed by spectators and also filmed as a three-way race between
racers from the Memphis, New Orleans, and Oklahoma City factions of the television franchise. Lutz was racing against “Daddy Dave” Comstock when he lost traction, subsequently careening across the centerline and striking the opposite wall. “We appreciate all the texts and calls. We are fine; the car is hurt, but fixable. We will be back in no time, and faster than ever,” Lutz shared via social media the following Sunday evening.
Source: Dragzine
Stay up to date with the latest news at DragRacingScene.com.
Luke Bogacki is one of the most revered sportsman racers to make a profession of bracket and index racing
L
uke Bogacki has had a strong passion for drag racing since a very young age. He went to the dragstrip with his dad quite often from the day he was old enough to walk on his own. “My dad ran everything from Stock Eliminator to Top Alcohol Funny Car for a brief time,” Bogacki says. “If he ever attended a race without me, I didn’t know about it because I would have been pretty upset. I watched everything he did and learned from him as much as possible. As soon as junior dragsters came out, I wanted one.” He remembers his first win like it was yesterday. Of course, it came in his first race he ever ran in, so it was pretty memorable. “It was the first junior dragster race they ever held at Texas Raceway in Kennedale, Texas,” Bogacki says. “I was 12 years old, there were only eight of us entered, and it was the first time any of us had ever raced. I won that one, and that’s one I’ll never forget.” That win was only the start for Bogacki, who estimates he has over 300 wins to his credit to date. He considers himself lucky to not only be able to earn his living drag racing but to do it with his wife Jessica, and son Gary, by his side. With 300 wins, it’s hard to pick a favorite win, but for Bogacki, it has to be his win at the Spring Fling Million earlier this year. Both he and Jessica lost early on day one. They both did a little better on Thursday, making it to twenty cars for Luke and ten cars for Jessica. Then, in the main event, everything just fell into place. “That win had been on my bucket list for a long time,” he says. “I had always wanted to win a Million Race, 10 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
and now I’ve done it. It was surreal and extremely gratifying. The final round was a .001 race, and I came out on the right end of it against Michael Pennington. That is the event win that I’m most proud of, and by far the most money I’ve won in a single race.” His Super Comp title at Indianapo-
lis in 2015 is a close second in favorite wins and another one ticked off his races-to-win bucket list. That victory was the culmination of 20 straight round wins in NHRA Super Comp, following titles at Brainerd, Minnesota, and Bowling Green, Kentucky. He was still beaming even two years later when talking about the accomplishment. When Bogacki graduated from college in 2003, he went to work for Huntsville Engine and Performance. He left there in 2005 to start his own marketing company. “I was essentially racing for a living at that time,” he says. “I sold everything off and concentrated on the business, but within six months I was racing full-time again.” Bogacki’s main business is ThisisBracketRacing.com. He uses video tutorials to help racers who want to learn and get better at their sport.
“Everything is under one umbrella, but we have our hands in a little bit of everything,” he says. “Thisisbracketracing.com is not really for racers who are just starting the sport, but more for racers who understand the basics and just need some advice and tips. Jed (Jared Pennington) and I also have our sportsman drag racing podcast. I also put on some races at my home track at I-57 Dragstrip.” Bogacki has been marketing himself and his racing program since he was 17 or 18 years old. He remembers obtaining his first sponsor with products provided by Brodix and Goza Racing Products. “My father worked in the racing industry and had a better feel for what companies were looking for than the average racer,” he says. “We kind of tailored things in that way. He made me go to the Performance Racing Industry Show when I was 16 years old and made me introduce myself to those people. That’s something that most people don’t think about until they are much older and that was probably my first starting point with drag racing as a business. It was a valuable experience.” Bogacki says he has been lucky with his racing career, but can’t attribute his success to any one thing. “There has been a lot of good timing for me,” he says. “I can’t really take credit for a lot of things that fell into place at the right time for me. I do know my dad got me started off on the right track and then I’ve been very fortunate to align myself with a lot of great people along the way. I’ve worked hard and gotten breaks at the right time. I can’t say I’ve accomplished everything there is to accom-
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“Jessica and Gary have been able to go pretty much everywhere that I’ve been racing for the last four years,” Bogacki says. “It has been so much fun and a time that I’ll always cherish and will never forget. It’s been pretty neat for all of us.” Gary will be turning five-years-old in April 2018 and will be starting school next fall. Bogacki knows that means he’ll want to slow down when that happens. “As much fun as the last few years have been racing with them traveling with me, I can’t see it being as fun being on the road without them,” he says. “We plan to downsize quite a bit. We’ll always race, but it will be mostly local bracket racing.” Though plans are to slow down, Luke and Jessica still plan to pick and choose a couple of their favorite races that will get their racing blood pumping. The focus will be more on their business and staying closer to home for a while, but it’s about guaranteed that you’ll still see Luke, Jessica, and Gary Bogacki at the dragstrip and likely in the winner’s circle. DRS
9549k
plish, but what we have done has exceeded my expectations. It’s been a heck of a ride so far.” When offering advice to racers on how to improve, Bogacki knows it’s just a lot of data and analysis. “I almost over analyze every aspect of every race,” he says. “I’m a firm believer you get out of anything what you put into it. The more I scrutinize and analyze myself, my competition, and the racetrack the better. I put everything I do under a microscope, and that helps make me better. That’s what I would offer to anybody else as advice to a racer.” Bogacki’s wife, Jessica, is an accomplished racer as well. They met at the dragstrip, and it was just over a year later when they got together. Once they were married, she was able to quit her job as a teacher and go racing too. She has a multitude of wins to her credit and recently was honored to win the Best Appearing Car award at the U.S. Nationals. That was the first time either of them had ever received that type of award and were very pleased to get it.
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The Countdown: Love it or hate it
N
HRA’s Countdown can be looked at from multiple perspectives. From a fan’s angle, the NHRA Countdown is wonderful. It creates drama leading up to and through the U.S. Nationals. You must be in the Top 10 to have a shot at the championship, so by that point in the season, there is excitement about who is going to get in and who isn’t. I think it’s fantastic for the fans. Speaking from a driver’s aspect, with the old system, if it’s U.S. Nationals time and you were fighting to get into the tenth spot, you were mathematically written off for the championship. So, from my perspective, having the points reset is good. If you’re fighting for a T spot, you know a couple of things are going to happen if you get in. One, now you have a legitimate shot at the championship. And two, if you don’t stumble, TV is going to be paying attention to your team. Under the old style, at Indy and the rest of the season, you were ignored if you were out of the immediate points battle for number one. Using my team as an example, we were locked into the Top 10 countdown before the U.S. Nationals, which is the cutoff race. We knew we had a shot at winning the championship. That has made us very relevant throughout the championship. Every time we win a round or lose a round, it is a big deal. Now, I’ll put myself into other people’s places; for example, Steve Torrance or Ron Capps. With as much as those two teams have won this year, they could have pretty much guaranteed themselves the championship in the old style. Steve spoke in public after he won a race recently that he did not like the NHRA Countdown for that very fact. Someone who was 500 points behind him was now suddenly a threat to him winning the championship. I get that; in my IHRA days, I had won a huge majority of the races that season and now the sanctioning body was going to take those points away from me. I would not like to be “starting over.” The bottom line is everybody always thinks of themselves, it’s human nature. If you’re the guy in the tenth spot, you’re loving the NHRA Countdown. If you’re the guy going in with a huge points lead, you have just had your pants cut off at the knees. It has happened in the past. Robert Hight went from tenth to winning the championship since this points format was put into place. 12 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
There were multiple seasons when the championship was over and there just wasn’t a lot to talk about. As we roll into the end of this season, every class has drama and excitement, and I like it. Our team isn’t fighting to win the championship anymore, but we are working to achieve a higher spot in the points. Looking at Top Fuel, we are sitting with two races left this season, and four drivers have a mathematical shot at winning the championship. I don’t remember ever having that situation under the old points system. In Funny Car, three teams are battling for the title. In Pro Stock, there are three teams with a shot at it. And, in Pro Stock Bike, you have two racers in contention. Four professional classes will have drama all the way to the end of the season. As a fan, I would love it. If I were a certain couple of drivers or bike riders, I wouldn’t like it. Right now, Eddie Krawiec has a substantial lead over LE Tonglet. Heading into the countdown, LE was pretty much in control. He raced 18 races for what he felt is now nothing. If someone gets hot in the last six races of the year, they can become champion. LE was the dominant bike in the first 18 races this season. Eddie has gotten hot in the last six events and has built a substantial lead over LE. What is the next step to the Countdown? The fan side of me is looking again for the drama and excitement. The Countdown essentially came from NASCAR to create the chase. What if we went one step further and followed NASCAR again and eliminated racers as they go? What if we went into Pomona with four cars left, and the one who goes the furthest out of those cars is your champion? Now that would create drama and excitement. If they were to change it, I would love to be one of those four cars, knowing that if I go further than the other three cars, I am the NHRA champion. That would be cool. DRS Clay Millican is a 6-Time IHRA World Champion Top Fuel dragster driver who now plies his trade as the driver of the Parts Plus/Great Clips T/F dragster in the NHRA. You can follow Clay’s exploits throughout the season at claymillican.com. @claymillican
@claymillican
Clay Millican
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Stringer Performance
Is Drag Week the final frontier?
I
am not a Star Trek groupie, but could Hot Rod magazine’s Drag Week be the final frontier when it comes to drag racing? Competitors are boldly going where no one has gone before in a mechanical sense, particularly in the Unlimited category. Anything goes with those race vehicles, as long as it has the appropriate street equipment, can survive five dragstrips in five days, and drive more than 1,000 miles with nothing more than a small trailer filled with spare parts. These competitors are pushing engines and equipment deep into the 6s and relying on essentially Pro-Modified-type equipment, but forcing it to do street car stuff. There is no playbook, and the upper echelon is writing the rules as they go along. David Schroeder, the 2017 Unlimited and overall champion, finished the week with a 6.8136 at 207.470 mph average. His 1966 Corvette relies on a nitrous-injected 855c.i. engine that is based on a 5.300-inch bore space engine configuration. That engine is typically found in nitrous Pro Mods, but he made some major upgrades to it in order to survive Drag Week. The point I am trying to make is that you can’t just call up the baddest of the bad Pro Mod engine builder and say, “send over one of your 2,500- to 3,000-hp engines for my street car.” During the planning and building stage of a high-level Drag Week car, there isn’t a book on how to do things for engine builders or car builders. It is one of the few remaining drag racing competitions where the rules and guidelines on how to do it properly are still being discovered. If you don’t believe me, then look at the number of 6- and 7-second cars that fall out of competition each year. This isn’t like the professional ranks in NHRA where for the right sum of money, anyone can be a player. And that applies from Top Fuel to Pro Stock and Pro Modified. If you want a qualifying-capable program, you pay a predetermined amount of money and the cost goes up from there on your goals. On Drag Week, there is no engine builder of the week or 6-second package that can be ordered over the phone. NHRA Top Fuel pilot Richie Crampton entered the competition with a 1957 Chevrolet 210 wagon, complete with a
David Schroeder finished the week with an average of 6.8136 at 207.470 mph. His ‘66 Corvette runs a nitrous-injected 855 that features oil squirters that help keep the valvetrain lubricated on the street cruise.
twin turbocharged LS small-block. He ran 8.20s before pulling out early to go “to work” and drive the Seal Master Top Fuel car at an NHRA race. He learned a hard lesson of Drag Week when he piled his spare parts on a roof rack. The additional 500 pounds of weight resulted in some suspension issues that needed to be addressed, showing that the unconventional style of Drag Week causes unforeseen problems. The perfect package for 1,000 miles with 3,000 hp is still being developed, but there have been great strides made during the past 12 years. The recently completed Drag Week saw 40 cars post up an 8-second or quicker average. That is mind boggling when Carl Scott, in 2005, drove off with the top honors thanks to an 8.58 at 157 mph average. That same year, Larry Larson was credited with the quickest pass of the week, which was an 8.38 at 163 mph. This year, two Mustang racers, Cal Hayward and Dan Saitz, crushed both of those performances with small-block combinations, stock suspension, and small rear tires as each ran deep into the 7s at 190 mph. It is hard to look around and find any niche in drag racing that doesn’t have a playbook or a clear path to success. I am not saying that money doesn’t rule the roost, but there is still driving and tuning skills to make it happen. The point is the package to put in a position to win is very detailed in most instances. Even in some of the small tire categories, the problem isn’t with horsepower or rear tire width—8.5-inches wide in some cases. The outlaw world is about managing the power and using technology to overcome those challenges. For Drag Week, it is still the mechanical difficulty that is pushing ingenuity and creating better ways to build engines to survive the torture of 1,000 miles NHRA Top Fuel pilot Richie Crampton entered the competition with his twin turbocharged and knock on the 5-second door at speeds 1957 Chevrolet 210 wagon. He ran 8.20s before pulling out early to go ‘to work’ at the around 250 mph. DRS NHRA Carolina Nationals. 14 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
The good, the bad, and the lucky
T
he differences between these three tend to blur like the lines on a foggy road. Many of us as racers have caught ourselves saying we would rather be lucky than good from time to time. In most instances, it feels like I am riding a roller coaster rather than a race car. It is a never-ending climb to the top, and others we are wondering when the ride will be over as this sense of good luck seems to elude us. The obsession of earning the big win makes us push past our self doubt weekend after weekend until the end of the season draws closer, all in hopes of possibly keeping us satisfied for the winter. However, the further we reach, and the more we sacrifice, this bliss evades our grasp. For me, this season has been a prime example of this situation. As I reflect on this past year, I gain an almost pessimistic outlook. If I were to have a 0.001 package, my opponent would without a doubt lay down a 0.000 perfect package and take the win. It is these thoughts that encourage a true racer to adapt and possibly change their routine or even their driving style to overcome. The hardest opponent you will ever face is your own mind. Though the thought of giving up may pass through their minds, it is not something that will ever pass their lips. Sometimes when your back is against the wall and everything seems to be crumbling, it is necessary to shore up your foundation. After struggling to go rounds this year, we decided to go back to our roots. On a free weekend this year, we did just that. We took a spur of the moment trip to Bristol, Tennessee, for the Super Chevy bracket race at Thunder Valley, hoping the change from 1/4-mile racing to 1/8-mile racing, the full tree as opposed to a Pro tree, and dialing in rather than class racing would change our luck. This effort proved to be the refreshing change of pace we needed as we drove our way into a seven-car field in the quarterfinals. This great weekend put the wind back into our sails. Even though we rode some rough seas this season, we knew if we stayed true to the task at hand, we could get back on course.
16  Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
The end of the season brings with it many things such as track/points banquets, but also time to gather with family and friends outside of the racetrack. It also brings with it the beginning of trade show season. Two of the largest and well known trade shows of the year are SEMA and PRI. Racers have been planning their annual trek to these shows since the prior year. It is an unbelievable experience to attend one of these shows. There is an unimaginable number of companies related to the racing market all under one roof. Aside from the companies’ amazing displays, there are plenty of new products that celebrate everything automotive. When we attend these shows, we are extremely grateful for the opportunity to meet and shake the hands of the people behind the companies that make what we do possible. These are the companies creating, testing, and supplying the products to give us the edge we need each race season. These shows are the time to express appreciation for all these companies do for us as racers and is not a time to attempt to get a handout. We have not only been lucky to meet with the companies we are partnered with, but we have also met many icons of the industry. The amazing conversations occurring around you is incredible. Old friends reminisce stories of their drag racing triumphs and follies from years past. There are lots of fun moments that can last for hours at world renowned restaurants, along with astounding nightlife scenes. These businesses and friends we have been lucky enough to meet and work with can open doors to a whole new avenue if you’re patient. It is an honor to shake their hands and say thank you, especially when it is someone who believes in you and puts faith in you to represent his or her company. All of this makes the bad melt away, leaving you to feel lucky to be a part of something as wonderful as drag racing. DRS See more on the Furr family racing team and supporting partners on the Furr Racing Facebook page at: FurrRacing
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To sleep in my own bed again
I
t appears 2017 is finally coming to a close, and as I sit and write my final column for the season while in Memphis, Tennessee, attending the IHRA Summit Super Series finals, I can’t say I’m disappointed. At the completion of this event, it will have been 213 days since I’ve been home except one quick two-day trip back to watch my daughter graduate high school in Charlotte. Although the racing season isn’t over for me, all the races are close to home now, and they allow to me sleep in my own bed again. Don’t get me wrong; I still wouldn’t trade this job for anything, but a few extra weekends at home will be a nice change. As I look back to the start of my season in mid-January, my hope was simply to have half the rainouts I had in 2016, and I certainly can’t complain whatsoever. Although it didn’t start out great, I missed all the tornadoes, endless hurricanes, and forest fires that have affected so many others this season. We logged around 13,000 miles on the new motorhome and about 15,000 on the Jeep. It was a learning curve going back to a motorhome versus the toterhomes I’ve owned for the last 12 years, but it was a nice change and our cat, Moose, seemed to enjoy it more as well, as he keeps himself entertained with our fish, appropriately named 360. We left our home track of Bradenton Motorsports Park on March 14 and headed north to Darlington, but the roads in Florida gave us three goodbye presents: three major rock hits in the windshield of the new coach. We continued for what would be the largest IHRA Sportsman race of the year with more than 300 cars. What I didn’t know is we wouldn’t see anything close to that again as the season wore on and now will no longer be contested at all next year, for obvious reasons. Not long after, we made our only plane trip this year to Vegas for the Spring Fling and Mopar event. I would tell you what happened, but you already know the story, ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.’ What I can tell you is if you would like to try the best lobster roll on the planet, head
over to Fremont Street and look for a tiny black trailer located by the Heart Attack Grille. It’s the best $18 you will ever spend. Fortunately, I had a few Saturdays I could sneak away and catch a few Super Late Model stock car events this year. Just as most of you would give anything to drive a Top Fuel car, my dream is to own a Super Late Model. Unfortunately, that will never come to play, so I have to settle for being a spectator. If you’re ever in the Greensboro, North Carolina, area, make sure you check out the Bowman Gray Stadium in the summer when they turn the football/track field into a stock car facility. I can promise you that you have never seen anything like it. One of the more disappointing things this year was the loss of so many good friends and the closing of even more tracks, especially the only dragstrip left in West Virginia, Kanawha Valley. It was a great facility and to watch it finally get to the point of where it was sold and permanently closed was very rough on so many people who supported it through the years. We quickly made stops at even more of our favorite places including Epping, Saint Louis, Norwalk, and Bristol. It doesn’t seem to take that long for a season to go by, but it still makes you miss going home. As we finish up another great trip here in Memphis and a few more crazy nights on Beale Street rocking out at BB Kings to some awesome blues music, Monday morning can’t come fast enough to start our 17-hour drive home back to Florida. Halloween weekend always kicks off the Winter Series, starting at Bradenton Motorsports Park with some awesome heads-up racing, and then we will close out our year in Orlando in mid-December. So what do we do for the four weeks we will have off? What else; start planning a schedule for 2018 and, of course, our annual trip to Aruba for New Years. So until next year, I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful winter break from racing along with a happy holiday season. See you then. DRS
It doesn’t seem to take that long for a season to go by, but it still makes you miss going home. So what do we do for the four weeks we will have off? What else; start planning a schedule for 2018.
18 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Video Rewind
RACING / PRODUCT / ENTERTAINMENT
To watch all the videos below, head to:
DragRacingScene.com/video-rewind Jason Schubert’s wild ride
To the applause and, subsequently, the shock of the large crowd of spectators, Byron World Power Wheel Standing Championship competitor Jason Schubert hooked the wall after a 600-foot wheelstand in his Cutlass and went for a violent ride.
She said yes
Motor City Showdown
Racing wasn’t the only excitement happening at the Lyons Raceway Park Neglection No Prep race. The staff helped make the arrangements for a starting line proposal.
Brian “Chucky” Davis had his diesel truck belching smoke as he readied for his first pass down the makeshift dragstrip at the Detroit City Airport during the Motor City Showdown. He and the other 31 invited racers put on a great show for the masses of spectators who came to see the first ever legal drag race held within the city limits of Detroit.
For original content, head over to DragRacingScene.com/videos.
Lutz crashes new ‘57 Chevy Tom Bailey on fire
During the Shakedown at the Summit, Tom Bailey had to deal with the car he was driving, Keith Engling’s ‘72 Cutlass, turning into a rolling inferno as he rolled down the track after a red-light. 19 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Street legal drag racer Jeff Lutz crashed his just completed ‘57 Chevy during filming for an episode of Street Outlaws at Memphis International Raceway. He was up against “Daddy Dave” Comstock when Lutz lost control and hit the wall head-on.
IN FOCUS MIKE GROSSO OUTLAW PHOTO
What is your hometown and favorite tracks?
I’m in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, and call Milan Dragway home, but when I was NHRA Division 3 photographer, my favorite tracks were Bowling Green, Columbus, and Indy. I enjoyed shooting the Bowling Green divisional, and the U.S. Nationals is my favorite event ever. It was the people, pure and simple; it’s the whole gamut from everybody and anybody who is associated with racing.
How did you get started in drag racing photography? I picked up my first SLR in 1975. I played around
20 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
with it, learning how the camera worked. I went to Detroit Dragway, sat in the grandstands, and walked around the pits. I’ve been a hot rodder since high school. It seemed like the perfect match. I started developing my skills and soon I was getting better shots than the track photographer. It just took off.
Tell us about your photography equipment.
I use all Canon equipment. My two go-to bodies are my Canon 6D, a full-frame body, and a 7D Mark II, which is my high-speed body. On the 6D, I generally run a 70mm lens, but on the 7D Mark II, I’ll run anything from a 17 to 70mm up to a 560mm. I like natural light and shooting without a flash.
What sets your photography apart from others?
I feel every shot. I never stand in one spot for more than three photos in a row. I’m always jumping from side to side, down low, up high, overhead, behind, in front, from the side. I know all of the classes of cars and who should do what, when, and where. I love shooting in the pits, too, but I don’t get to do that enough because there is so much going on at the track. It’s all about the people working on their cars, and you always get a lot of shots you’re not going to get anywhere else.
You took a little hiatus from racing for awhile – what did you do then? I’ve always loved nature and after 30 years with the sport,
I needed a break. I got an opportunity with the state and with Department of Natural Resources, and so I announced my retirement from drag racing. I did a lot of outdoors stuff and loved it. But, I missed the people of drag racing, so I came back to it. I still take time to enjoy the wildlife at times.
Do you have that elusive shot you haven’t gotten yet?
AA/Fuel Altereds. That’s mainly because of the availability. I’ve only seen them a couple of times at Norwalk, and I didn’t have a starting line pass. I shot from the grandstands and was happy with some decent shots, but I would love to shoot a day of Fuel Altereds. MikeGrosso@Facebook OutlawPhoto@SmugMug
For even more info and pics, search “Outlaw Photos” at DragRacingScene.com.
DragRacingScene.com 21
MOTOR CITY Words: Laurie Silvey Photos: Mike Grosso
SHOWDOWN First legal drag races rumble through inner Detroit at the downtown airport
A
s we reported in the last issue of Drag Racing Scene, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan had been exploring options for non-aviation use of their financially troubled Coleman A. Young International Airport. The airport hasn’t had any regular commercial airline use for more than 15 years and is hemorrhaging money at a rapid rate. A dragstrip and other motorsports venues were among the uses discussed, and with that door opened, Brian Ola22 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
tunji and his Leadfoot motorsports team stepped up to put together the first Motor City Showdown at the facility. “It was an extensive process to get this event together,” Olatunji says. “Traditionally, we show up at a racetrack, and everything is there. The airport added a lot of challenges. The fully functional FAA mandated airport demanded many requirements. Plus, putting on an event of this magnitude in the heart of the city is no easy task.”
The team was grateful to have exceptional support from Chief of Police James Craig, who agreed to be the grand marshal for the day. The mayor’s office was also very supportive of the team as they worked to put the event together. “It was a concerted effort,” Olatunji says. “Those folks were instrumental in working with us. And the racers we invited put on a fantastic show for the fans who came out to see a good show.” Though the Detroit Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) wasn’t officially part of the event promotion, one of their senior national sales managers just happened to be married to a drag racer and was on-site for the happening. “It just happens that this is one of those times where my personal and professional worlds collided,” Andrea Cadatto says. “My husband, Chris Cadatto was invited to participate in the event, and we had a great time. However, it’s also my role along with the team at the Detroit CVB to help promote tourism, events, and conferences in and around the region.” This inaugural event held on September 23, 2017 and titled the Motor City Showdown was advertised as Detroit’s first no-holds-barred organized
Waving a racer to the starting line with one hand and a light stick in the other, the Motor City Showdown used a traditional street racing format for this first event.
Diamond Hugo celebrates in the Big Tire winner’s circle with his team.
Interest from the Detroit metro area and beyond was an understatement as the motor city responded to the event billed as ‘Detroit’s first no-holds-barred organized drag racing event.’
DragRacingScene.com 23
Chris Cadatto bought his Dodge new off the dealer lot. Once it graduated from a daily driver, the truck went through many modifications including a street race version. It’s currently billed as the fastest full-size Dodge truck, and sports a full tube chassis and a 3,000 hp blown alcohol Hemi. He still has a huge following from his street days. He just secured the Milan Dragway Outlaw 10.5 championship for 2017.
drag racing event. A select group of 32 racers was invited to participate in the day’s activities. “We had 16 big tire and 16 small tire cars in our 32 car field,” Olatunji says. “For this first event, we wanted to be sure we had enough racers to give the fans an idea of how this all works. The crowds came out in droves and packed the place. Some weren’t able to even get in the gate, so that tells you how successful it was. It’s a testament to the appetite of the city: people want it.” Olatunji is a first generation racer but has been involved in drag racing all his life. His grandfather, John Broaden, was the first black manager of a major dragstrip when he operated Detroit Dragway in 1971. “The dragway has been closed for the better part of 20 years,” Olatunji says. “It was a high-caliber facility for the day, and it was in my backyard. I was born and bred in the heart of the city, and we’ve never had drag racing inside the city limits before. Detroit is the motor city, and drag racing is the most American of motorsports. For us to have never had a legit drag race in the city of Detroit left a void there, and that’s why I worked so hard on putting this together.” Chris Cadatto was one of the racers invited to run in the Big Tire category. His ’77 Dodge Ram was purchased new, and he is the original owner. He modified it with an air cleaner and cam at first, keeping it street legal. He did some street racing with it before upgrading it to a full tube chassis. Billy Briggs Racing Engines built a 526 blown Hemi on alcohol, and it now makes 3,000 hp. “Cadatto’s got the fastest full-size pickup truck on the planet,” Olatunji says. “The coolest thing about the style of racing we offered is that you don’t necessarily have to have the fastest car, but you have to negotiate the 1320, which is what made it cool back in the day.” 24 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
No prep and Street Outlaws standout ‘Disco’ Dean Karns wowed fans with his supercharged Hemi 1972 Challenger.
Big Tire class winner Diamond Hugo runs a Detroit metro fabrication shop specializing in custom headers and turbo kits as evidenced by his gorgeous twin-turbo 1st-gen Camaro.
Every shape and size was there to represent their version of drag racing. Side-by-side action included diesel race trucks vs. Pro Modifieds.
Brian Olatunji and his Leadfoot Motorsports Team congratulate Mark Southwell. Mark was one of the hardest working racers of the day, combining small tire competition on an asphalt runway.
Mayor Mike Duggan has been very vocal to the Detroit press about his interest in revitalizing the city from two points. The motor city’s drag racing and its Motown/techno-music history were combined for this event. We think the mayor has hit upon something.
Cadatto had a good time despite only going one round during the day. “We got there and got ready to run,” he says. “First the small tire cars ran, then they called up the big tire class. We staged the truck and did a nice smokey burnout for the crowd. We made a pass but had too much horsepower for the strip. We couldn’t get any traction, so we only ended up going one round. The bare-ass airport was definitely a no-prep track to be reckoned with. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” Cadatto’s truck is well known around Detroit, one of the reasons he was asked to participate in the day. “My truck has popularity around the Detroit area,” Cadatto says. “Brian picked a few of the highlight vehicles around Detroit, and I was honored to be picked as one of them. It was so cool to have so many people coming over to talk to me. I enjoyed talking to so many about our sport and hanging out. I was proud to be an ambassador for the first ever event.” Part of the success of the event hinged on receiving support from the community and the officials involved. Chief Craig and Mayor Duggan were the keys to Olatunji being able to pull the race day together. “What is key to the comeback of the city is individuals like Brian who are finding a need and taking local resources to fill a hole for something we need to take place,” Andrea says. “This race fulfilled a community need. People within our inner city needed this venue to do it. And everybody, including Mayor Duggan and Chief Craig, was on board and helped to project the city forward. There is no doubt that our city is heavily seated in the automotive culture. It is not surprising to me at all the event was successful. I hope it is a stepping stone for the airport to consider those types of events of any kind.” DragRacingScene.com 25
Dodge was one of the sponsors of the event with Tim Kuniskis, the president, in attendance for the day. “He told me he had a fantastic time,” Olatunji says. “His team really enjoyed themselves. We appreciated their participation and help in making it happen.” Though he didn’t win, Lawrence Ateman, Jr. had nothing but good comments following the day. “He said it was the most fun he’s ever had at the track,” Olatunji says. “The guy who leaves with the money always feels good, but he didn’t and still said he had a great time. We really appreciate all the good comments we’ve received.” In addition to the racing elements, Olatunji and his team married techno-music elements into the show. “It was not just the racing element that made this so great,” he says. “The Underground Resistance folks were onsite and provided the soundtrack to the day. They did a phenomenal job of making this a happening. When you talk about the motor city, you would be remiss not to talk about Motown too.” Goals are for the Motor City Showdown to continue to live on. “We want this to be the inaugural event,” Olatunji says. “We always want to have this in Detroit. French Road has been known as the street racing capital of the Midwest for decades. We closed French Road, and spectators walked into the facility via that street with burnout marks on it. It added to something you can’t get anywhere in the world.” The team plans to work on the next event very soon and will continue to add to the plans to grow it exponentially. “As racers, we will run our cars anywhere, anytime, trying to squeeze every ounce of performance from them,” Olatunji says. “But, at the end of the day, if there’s no one there watching it, you ain’t got nothing. Metro Detroit came out and supported us, so I’m excited about what the future holds and very appreciative of this year.” DRS
Mark Southwell follows the race master’s directions on his way to take the overall Small Tire class win.
Announcing from an open air stand may have been reminiscent of drag racing in the 1950s, but history is repeating itself with the interest in drag racing from a new generation.
The massive burnouts may have been a necessity to get down the reasonably bare runway surface, but the spectators were whipped to a frenzy with the tire melting antics.
26 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
The old school Camaro gets easy-to-install electronic fuel injection Words & Photos: Todd Silvey
T
he old-appearing 4500 Dominator carburetor has seen better days. When we made our first shakedown passes at the dragstrip with Project Rover, we saw a slightly rich condition when looking at the spark plugs. We also sensed a slight hesitation with the carb’s accelerator circuit. This hesitation made us wonder if we should start experimenting with jets, pumps, and squirters, or pursue an entirely new concept of “carburetor” on top of our 482 big block. What we’re talking about looks like a carburetor, mounts like a carburetor, and has straightforward tuning. It’s the self-learning and easy-to-install version of fuel injection called the FAST EZ-EFI. It bolts up just like a carburetor and has minimal wiring associated with it.
This new FAST injector version 2.0 has new features not previously available. It can definitely handle more horsepower. The throttle body has the general appearance of a 4150 Holley racing carburetor, but with eight injectors in this throttle body instead of the previous four. The new 2.0 body will flow about 1,050 cfm and will run gas, racing fuel, or ethanol blends of E85, E98, and E15 fuels. With our interest in
First order of business was to talk with the experts at FAST. Kevin Winstead helped us with spec’ing out our car, engine, and fuel system needs to set us up with the proper kit.
The entire installation is not intimidating. Every wire is clearly labeled, and the instructions are concise. Taking your time and doing a detailed job is mandatory. Once we got into removing old hardware and looking at our wiring system, we removed the doghouse from the Camaro to begin a thorough rewire, as well as making sure there would be no surprises with the new EFI system.
28 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 3
running the cost-effective E85 racing fuel in bracket racing, we consider this a great application. All of the setup and tuning are handled through a hand-held touchscreen, which means compared to the complicated EFI fuel maps involved with Pro Modified and Outlaw racer laptops, you don’t have to use a computer at all. This system can handle up to 1,200 hp while using late model
The FAST EZ-EFI 2.0 is offered in kit form with various options. We are installing an external fuel pump assembly into a recirculating fuel system.
This kit will easily feed our 482c.i. big-block Chevy, even with our goal to compete using E85 fuel. The new 2.0 throttle body design, electronic control unit (ECU), wiring harness, sensors, and handheld programmer are all included. We also opted for the sharp BBC cast aluminum valve covers.
automotive sensors to feed data to the FAST electronic control unit (ECU). With our 11.5:1 compression and solid roller cam making power in the 700 hp range (for now), this is a great opportunity to experiment with some various fuels and let the ECU figure it all out. One of the first questions asked by the hand-held programmer when setting the starting point parameters of the ECU is “fuel type” where you input your fuel of choice and if you are using a circulating or returnless fuel supply system.
The system can control engine ignition timing, and if a dose of nitrous is something you’re looking for, it has a nitrous feature that will trigger a timing retard and also a little bit of fuel control to handle it. Mechanically, the very first step is to weld the O2 sensor bung into your header/exhaust system. The EZ-EFI does use a wide-band O2 sensor with a feedback loop in it to adjust the air-fuel ratio. With provisions for an O2 sensor completed, the remaining chores of the installation are as elementary as bolting
With our old fuel system, carburetor, and intake removed, we started by dropping on the new RHS 24 degree intake. This tall boy uses a system of individual runners for throttle response and big air flow.
on a carburetor. The throttle body is set up just like a typical 4150 carb, and it has the typical flange on it as well. Like nearly all big-block Chevy intake manifolds for competition parameters, we are updating to a new design big-block Chevy aluminum intake from RHS. The 24-degree intake has a tall and aggressive design that will feed large volumes of air to our rectangu-
A SMALLER THROTTLE BODY CAN FLOW MORE CFM THAN A CARB? You may be asking why a smaller EFI throttle body like the new FAST unit can flow 1,050 cubic feet per minute (cfm) compared to a larger size 4500 series Dominator-style carburetor?
The flow rate for a carb is based on the flow of the fuel/air mixture. Conversely, the injectors of an EFI throttle body are located below the butterfly opening. Therefore, with no fuel in the air inlet area, the throttle body flows a much higher cfm, even at a smaller size.
Many of the necessary sensors are located within the throttle body. There is one simple wire group connecting to the main harness. The fuel inlets appear just like a carburetor. One inlet is capped for a standard ‘dead head’ regulated fuel delivery. By opening the second fitting, the fuel flows through the throttle body and back to the fuel tank with a recirculating system. DragRacingScene.com 29
An O2 sensor bung must be welded to a header collector. It must be located as far away from the end of the header as possible. This prevents fresh air from reverting back to the sensor and giving false readings.
lar port heads. Since the FAST throttle body is based on the size of a standard double-pumper Holley, and our intake has a Dominator-style flange, we will be using a Wilson carb adapter to mate the pair together. The linkage also matches a typical Holley setup to make it easy to hook up your throttle linkage, trans kick down, or any other standard hookups. We are also installing a new fuel cell to replace the archaic spun aluminum tank in the Camaro’s trunk. Combined with the FAST in-line fuel kit, we will have a recirculating fuel system to feed the throttle body and use a return system to the new cell. The EZ-EFI can be fueled in two different manners. It can either be utilized as return style or returnless. The recirculating system will keep the fuel cooler. The fuel system for the FAST EZ-EFI also runs at 43 psi instead of about six psi for a carburetor. In appearance, the two fuel line feeds look like the two front and rear float bowl inlets of a racing carburetor. Though you can run the fuel system like a carbureted inlet, with the FAST throttle body, you can run in one side and out the other and then back to a return style regulator and ultimately return to the fuel tank. Our fuel pump of choice is the FAST 450 gph pump kit that includes a 100-micron stainless steel filter and a 10-micron filter. The 100-micron filter is located on the upstream side of the fuel pump while the 10-micron filter is used between the pump and throttle body. One important accessory included in the kit is a junction block to mount the fuel pressure sensor. It needs to be located on the pressure 30 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
The new throttle body design has the general appearance of a 4150 double pumper carburetor. We used a Wilson Manifolds adapter to mate the smaller throttle body to the Dominator inlet intake manifold.
A large grommet is incorporated into the wiring harness to pass wiring from the engine compartment to the interior where the ECU is located. Every wire cluster features a pre-installed Deutsch connector and very clear labeling. We were getting creative to utilize some of the old ‘Rover holes’ in the firewall for the new larger harness.
To feed the big block with the necessary volume of E85, we are using the FAST In-Line Pump and Filter Set that is rated for 1,300 hp on a naturally aspirated engine. Equipped with twin regulators, this pump will flow 450 gallons per hour.
A regulator sets the pressure in a recirculating system after the throttle body. Following the regulator, a fuel pressure sensor is mounted on the return line as well. Our old spun aluminum fuel tank has been replaced with a proper fuel cell featuring a return line port for our fuel system.
side of the system to feed fuel pressure data to the ECU. Once the fuel system is all plumbed up, the last step is to put a boost reference between the throttle body and the regulator. Its purpose is for when the engine is idling, and for example, pulling 10 inches of vacuum, it will actually pull 10 pounds of fuel pressure off the regulator because it doesn’t really need that pressure at idle. Four inputs will feed information to the FAST ECU for a racing application. These sensors are no more complicated to install than the sensors based on your typical dashboard gauge set. They include a coolant temperature sensor, crank trigger or distributor signal hookup, the fuel pressure sensor, the O2 sensor, rpm (tach) input, and the general throttle body hookup. The single throttle body pigtail not only feeds all of the needed manifold pressure readings to the ECU, but also sends the firing signal to the injectors. The wiring harness is well labeled and easy to match with the FAST installation instructions. With this guidance, this is essentially a plug and play system. Extra wires are included for any added functionality you might choose. The EZ-EFI can turn on one or two electric fans, it can operate an air conditioning idle up solenoid, and there’s a wire that senses if your nitrous is activated so that you can go into the timing retard setting. The hand-held controller simply plugs into the main harness and FAST’s setup wizard is very easy to use, as well.
You need to give the computer some information, and then go through some calibrations. It asks for engine cubic inches and the type of engine. It will need to know your idle rpm, and you can also set a rev limiter. On startup, the controller asks you some simple questions like fuel type, fuel delivery system type, and how you’re adjusting your timing based on the ignition system you are using. In our next issue, we will be mating the FAST racing ignition system to our EFI and bringing our entire fuel and spark system to life. DRS
The ‘brains’ is this compact ECU that we mounted on the inner firewall. From here, the main harness is connected and routed for various sensors and control circuits.
Our old ‘68 Camaro carb linkage will be fit for use with the new throttle body. A throttle return spring kit that is used for a standard carbureted setup will be added as well. Coming in the next issue, we will wrap up some EFI incidentals and incorporate a matched FAST ignition system onto the EFI and teach Rover some more new tricks.
32 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Source: Fuel Air Spark Technology, fuelairspark.com
Ease of installing sensor connectors is illustrated by the temperature sensor circuit coming from the throttle body. It is then fed through the throttle body harness to the ECU.
By answering basic questions on your control panel, such as fuel and fuel delivery type, the ECU will then have the basics to start the engine and learn from the sensors the fine tuning parameters needed.
Once in run mode, the control panel becomes a display screen with a basic temperature, pressures, and tachometer readout.
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rag racing of the no prep variety is the hot ticket right now. Unfortunately, there are very few of the events billed as ‘Neglection No Prep’ that actually take place on a surface that has seen very little preparation. It takes a lot of scraping to get the rubber build-up off a track that has been recently used for a “regular” drag race. The guys at Team 260 recently pulled off the ultimate No Prep race at Lyons Raceway Park in Lyons, Indiana, a track which had been closed and unused for 10 months before the day of the event. Team 260 is a group of guys who unofficially race together full-time. Adam Hodson and friends are from Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and they picked up a few younger guys, including Nick Taylor, when they went to Indianapolis to race. “It was around February 2016, and we decided to go to Lights Out and bring a couple of cars even though we don’t often compete with those guys,” Hodson says. “We were bringing 15 of our guys with us and three cars. We made team t-shirts to show we were there together. We had a big group on 34 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Words: Todd Silvey Photos: John Fisher
a big stage and wanted to show off the group. It went over well, and we started our Facebook page at that point.” The team is an open group and doesn’t have any certain rules about who can and can’t be a member. “We just go racing together, and anybody is welcome to go with us.” Hodson says. “We race a lot, and we’re hardcore about it. There aren’t a lot who can hang
with that. It’s an atmosphere. When we got started, only half of us had cars running. They helped put us in the burn box and the starting line. When we’re at a No Prep, they put the pimp juice down. Now, almost everybody has a car.” The group is hardcore and races somewhere just about every weekend of the season. They really enjoy the outlaw street races and go to a lot of street
Mike Sandefur’s deceiving farm truck named ‘Crusty’ sports turbocharged power.
Big Tire champ Ryan Hendrickson and his ’84 Mustang started as a true SVO from the factory. Though it still has the VIN and stock wheelbase, it now is a back-half car, four-linked, twin turbo. An all-billet Hemi engine with a Bruno Lenco transmission fits all the rules for grudge racing.
Buttloads of torque on a No Prep event track? Jeremy Wagler’s Roots supercharged, nitrous, diesel Chevy truck pulled off that feat.
Mike Boston had no problem getting his Monza on the wheelie bars. Unfourtunately, he did earn the announcer’s choice award when he danced with the guardwall near the finish line.
car events. “We like the idea of getting people off the streets,” Taylor says. “We wanted to put on a street-legal event but on the street. After we went through the issues of trying to get a permit to do that, we thought next about using an airport.” The rates to rent the airports were cost-prohibitive, and a lot of politics would have been involved in getting the permits to put on a race at an operating facility. The thought stayed in the back of their minds, but nothing happened until they went to a swap meet in December 2016. “Somebody mentioned to me that Lyons Raceway Park had shut down earlier in the year,” Hodson says. “They said it was always a nice facility, but if we could open it up and hold the race there, it would be like racing on the street. It hadn’t been touched for so long.” Hodson and Taylor called Brent Jones, the owner of the track, and he was excited about the possibilities. “He said he’d love to do one and had thought about it for a long time,” Hodson says. “He’s very busy with his oil business, so he had no thoughts about reopening the track until we called him. After our event, he scheduled two more races, so we got the ball rolling for him to use the track again.” The task was daunting, but Team 260 stepped up to the challenge to get the Neglection race going. “It got to be really overwhelming really quickly,” Taylor says. “We were motivated because somebody told us it won’t work, especially when we released what the payouts were versus the entry fees. The ratio of cost to entry fee was not in our favor, but we made it work.” Hodson and Taylor went driving around the entire state of Indiana. They stopped at every speed shop and fabricator they knew to pitch their idea. “We had put together a book with our proposal and showed it to all of them,” Taylor says. “We ended up with a lot of good sponsors. No preps have not been prevalent in our area, so we were the first, and a lot of people wanted to be a part of it.” The vibe of Team 260 helped to make the race a success from the start. “Being in Ft. Wayne myself with our guys and Nick and his friends in Indy, it’s like a merging of two families,” Hodson says. “With the relationships we’ve made with racers and business owners, we’ve been able to earn their respect, and they wanted to help us out.” Hodson and Taylor went to check out the track in the middle of winter. They were excited about the potential from the moment they saw it. DragRacingScene.com 35
“When we rolled through the gate that first time, there was snow on the track,” Hodson says. “We knew right on the spot this place is exactly what we wanted it to be. It was untouched. It would be just the same as a street but legal for us to race.” The guys got advice from experienced racers who had promoted No Prep races in the past. They wanted the event to be as safe and well organized as possible. “We only allowed water burnouts,” Taylor says. “No pimp juice was allowed on the starting line. If they wanted to treat their tires in the pits, it was okay, but we had so many racers who had never run like this. We didn’t want people who had not cut PJ1 before to come up and pour the wrong mixture on the track. That would have changed the track from No Prep to a very dangerous situation.” Ryan Hendrickson, the Neglection Big Tire winner, had just left a No Prep race at Martin, Michigan, when he headed down to Lyons. He compared the two favorably, but really enjoyed the reality of the event at Lyons. “The No Prep at Martin still had a lot of rubber on the track,” Hendrickson says. “They didn’t scrape so that you can leave a little harder. The car tries to go straighter. At Lyons, they had scraped the first 300 feet, and it was bare. Once you got to the other end, the rubber was old and full of oil. It was hold on to your pants, skating all over the place on marbles. Once I got to the marbles, it was pulling all of the power to keep up with the guys. I was never in front of a guy at the 300-foot mark. I had to drive around them on the top end, and was working hard to keep it off the wall.” He learned to let the other competitors overdrive, giving him an advantage. “It was a good time up top,” Hendrickson says. “It was centerline to the wall trying to keep it under control down there. Extreme no prep racing has taught me to respect my car a lot more. With No Prep, you need to finesse it more than at a prepped track.” The Team 260 guys weren’t nervous as the day began, as they knew it was going to be a good time. At first, only a few people showed up but then truckloads starting rolling in the gate. “Friday night was freaking awesome,” Taylor says. “We packed the place on Saturday, and it was perfect.” Hodson agreed, noting that even though they had postponed the race once due to a rainout, it worked out the way it was supposed to. “We worked so hard to get it all ready to go,” he says. “We were ready to 36 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
get that monkey off our back, so when it rained out, and we had two more months to wait, it was overwhelming. We just wanted it over with, but the new date worked out so well, I just have to think that’s a sign we should have just had it on that date anyway.” They had nearly 100 cars racing during the weekend, and the spectator count exceeded expectations. Plans are already in the works for next year’s race. “I want to say there were over 1,900 spectators in the facility,” Taylor says. “There was a crazy amount of kids with their parents. We had 32 cars just in the True Street class.” “Our core Team 260 guys all showed up to help out, even though we didn’t pay them a dime,” Hodson says. “Those guys did stuff I didn’t know any of them could do that well. They came out of their comfort zone and just kicked ass, running every part of the event where we needed them.” “Brent Jones already called us to make sure we want to do this again next year,” Taylor says. “No way we won’t. We
had such a great time that weekend, and we’ve been told it was the smoothest race they have been to. For us, it was the most fun we’ve had at the track.” Hendrickson agreed about the fun times and will be back for the next one. He was amazed at the crowds surrounding their rig as they pulled into the gate at 3:00 am in the morning. “The crowds got bigger as we went rounds and were cheering us on,” he says. “It’s not about how the car looks and mine’s not the prettiest. It’s about how it goes down the track. The promoters at Lyons were awesome. They offered me food and drinks and help. They made sure we were happy and kept things moving. It was awesome.” A lot of racers are looking forward to next year as they did not have cars ready for the event. Many new cars will be completed for the event when it happens again in 2018. “I will be back at every event they hold,” Hendrickson says. “The event was tremendous. It was the best No Prep event I’ve ever attended.” DRS
True Street winner was Brian Meador. The True Street rules consisted of any size drag radial tires, working lights, and turn signals, along with cooling and charging systems. Stock suspension is mandatory, along with highway registration and an insurance card.
Another S-10 dominated the Small Tire class, with Robert Long getting the win. Rules consisted of back-half only chassis and stock front suspension with 28x10.5 or 275 radial tire limits.
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The team that makes this Mustang stand out are (L to R): Darrin Mag, Ed Robertson, Charlie McCarren, Bryce McCarren, Rich McCarren, Johnny Mag, Billy McCarthy, and Kevin ‘Spy’ McCarthy.
His friends call Darrin Magdowski ‘Mag’ for short. But his competitors in Outlaw 632 call him every name in the book. Words: Todd Silvey Photos: Mike Grosso
38 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
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utlaw 632 is a class concept currently growing by leaps and bounds. The general 632c.i. engine restriction may be a better match with the Chevy configuration for the particular engine size, but racers like Darrin Magdowski are making it work successfully for the Ford guys also. It also doesn’t hurt that his Mustang is a show-stopper as well Darrin likes his last name abbreviated to “Mag.” It is the name of the longtime family business, Mag Motor Sales, and is lettered on the window of the low-slung all-fiberglass Mustang. “Our Mustang stands out in the class,” Mag says. “I built a Mustang in high school which ultimately ran 10.90s in the quarter-mile. We got tired of going 10’s and built a much bigger engine for it. We had that Mustang down in the 8.60’s and ultimately now in the 7.90s with my son, John, at the wheel.” His own Mustang now is a Bickel Race Cars 1968 Mustang that has been mildly stretched to a 108-inch wheelbase. It’s a four-link car with Lamb struts. Weld Wheels are on Mickey
The 632c.i. Ford engine starts with Thor aluminum heads and Ford Motorsports block with a Wilson manifold and CFM carburetors. Three kits of nitrous push the power plant to 1,279 horsepower.
Thompsons all around. Stopping power is provided by Mark Williams front and back brakes. The 632c.i. Ford engine was a labor of love by Brian Winiarski at Holbrook Racing Engines for Darrin. They used Thor cylinder heads by Brian Hoffman and a Ford Motorsport aluminum block. HRE were particular in their choice of components, utilizing Gibtec pistons, Total Seal rings, GRP rods, Bryant crank and PAC valve springs, retainers, and keepers. There is a Moroso oil pump, pan, and dry sump tank with a Star vacuum pump in place. They used a Wilson manifold and CFM carburetor, and three nitrous kits by Allied Nitrous Technology. “Brian put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this motor to make more power,” Mag says. “It makes 1,279 hp and 990 lb-ft.” Power is transferred via a 3-speed Lenco with a Neal Chance converter and Bohr Racing Product bellhousing. The inside is as meticulous as the outside, with Jerry Bickel carbon fiber interior and seat. In the carbon fiber dash
Darrin was adamant about thanking his mom and dad, wife Gail, and son John. Support also comes from daughter Julie. Sponsorship comes from Pac Racing Springs, Bohr Racing Products, Holbrook Racing Engines, Pro Racecraft Engineering, Brian Winiarski, and Lou Bonev. DragRacingScene.com 39
The business office for the all-fiberglass Mustang is outfitted with a massive nitrous delivery system by Allied Nitrous Technology. The shifter controls a 3-speed Lenco behind a Neal Chance converter. Safety equipment includes a Stroud harness and fire suit and a paint-matched Simpson helmet.
are Racepak gauges and V300 computer. He uses an MSD air shifter and Grant steering wheel. Lou Bonev provided special touches in wiring the car. Mag had the Mustang ready to go racing in 2009 and with his nitrous engine in place, he first ran in the 10.5 Outlaw at Milan Dragway. “We didn’t do spectacularly in 10.5,” Mag says. “Our 632c.i. could qualify us at number three or four at that time, but with the newer turbo technology these days, a little 632 just doesn’t cut it anymore. When they came out with the Outlaw 632 class, it fits us perfectly, so we’ve been running at Milan for their series.” Milan Dragway has a fairly strong turnout for the class locally, but Mag is eyeing the PDRA events hard. “I want to go race with PDRA, but I’m self-employed, so it’s difficult to get away,” Mag says. “I’m the one who does the work with my two employees so I can’t always get time to travel. There are typically about 15 cars at Milan, and that’s pretty good. We like competing there, and we hit all the races around our area, but I keep looking at PDRA and hope to get there someday.” Mag has a blast driving the Mustang, but will turn over driving duties to his son, Johnny, next year. “The tube car just drives so nice compared to an old ’67 Mustang or my ’95 Mustang that I raced in All-Motor,” Mag says. “The tube chassis car drives like a Cadillac. I told Johnny that if he can drive his car that does 120 feet wheelies 3 feet in the air, he can get into the tube car and drive it easily. I wanted him to get his feet wet first with the milder car, but he’s ready now.” Plans for 2018 are to run the Outlaw 632 at Milan Dragway and maybe get in some additional events further away. 40 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
“Johnny wants to go to Yellow Bullet and run 8.50 index there,” Mag says. “We built the car to run the 8.50 index though it’s faster than that. I wanted to have a bunch of mph, so it leaves hard and pulls the power out in the middle of the track. I’ll let it run 8.50 at 170 mph. That is our goal and our plan, but we haven’t gotten there yet.” Mag has been around cars his entire life and wanted to continue to share that experience with his wife, Gail, and his son. The best performance to date has been 4.327 at 165 on the 1/8-mile with the 2,800-pound car. On the 1/4-mile, Mag has gone 6.78 at 202 mph. “Rich McCarren of Pro Racecraft Engineering helps me with tuning the chassis,” Mag says. “We’ve been working hard to figure out a few gremlins, but overall we’re pleased with the performance. Plans are to test with Jeff Brock, my nitrous guy, in the spring and we should be where we want to be with the car.” “My dad owned a used car lot and had 15 to 20 cars around all the time, so I was always tinkering with cars,” Mag says. “He had fast cars in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, and we used to go to Detroit Dragway. It was 6 miles from my home, so even as a kid, I would ride my bike to the track. When I got old enough to drive, I would take his car to the high school nationals. In high school, I started building my own car, the ’67 Mustang. It ran 10.90s in those days; then I kept building better engines for it. It runs 8.90s now, and that’s the car Johnny has been driving.” Mag enjoys the Outlaw 632 racing because of the great people involved in the class. “The guys are just like a family,” Mag says. “It’s not like grudge racing where they are always talking smack. These guys all help each other out, and I like that a lot better than all the trash talk.” DRS
Darrin makes a pass beside his son, John Magdowski. John drives Darrin’s first high school Mustang that has ultimately been transformed into a 7.90 outlaw car through the years.
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TOP 5 TECH
REAR END INSPECTION TIPS
Maintenance and inspection of Project Rover’s 12-bolt differential
Words & Photos: Todd Silvey
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spection. Before we removed the cover, we heeded Speed’s advice in the first tip: 1 — Check the oil fill level before you do anything else. If the rear end has been overfilled, you will need to be extra diligent when conducting a visual inspection of components. Overfilling results in churning and oil aeration that make for bad lubrication, which places extra stress on gears. With our fluid checked at the proper level, we moved forward. Our rear is equipped with a girdle-style cover bracing each main cap to help prevent deflection. Our old fluid is drained and carefully checked for any metal debris that could be an indicator of rings and pinion or bearing damage. Speed’s second tip: 2 — When removing the gear set from the housing, check for large debris that can indicate component wear or failure. Rear ends do not have a filter to catch any metal or other materials that make it into the oil, and thus, that debris cycles through the rear end to wreak havoc on more than just the ring and pinion. Additional attention should be given to the visual inspection of components if debris is discovered. Tip number three also involved scrutiny of the gear oil after removal:
ur Drag Racing Scene project car has many unanswered questions. One of the first was the internal components of our 12-bolt rear end, especially the gear ratio. While checking out Project Rover’s rear, we received five important tips from Certified Lubrication Specialist Lake Speed Jr. of Driven Racing Oil. One of the fundamental pieces of data necessary for all future parts and tuning choices is the rear gear ratio. Everything from cams to suspension tuning can rely on factoring your rear gears into
the equation. While popping the cover and taking a peek, it is also the time to check the ring and pinion, backlash, bearings and assure all individual components are “getting along.” This will provide affirmation the 12-bolt is properly set up with housing ends and aftermarket axles, eliminating the factory-designed C-clips holding the axles in place. We thoroughly cleaned the entire outer portion of the rear end with high detergent parts cleaner, just to prevent any grime from possibly getting into the exposed internals while we did our in-
We thoroughly cleaned the entire housing with degreaser before exposing the internals.
Before draining the old gear oil, it is a good idea to completely clean out your oil pan. As Lake Speed Jr. recommends, the visual inspection of the oil for debris and metal particles is a must.
42 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
You can use marking compound to inspect the tooth pattern of the ring and pinion. Before spraying any brake cleaners into the assembly, we carefully looked at the pattern with the residual gear oil on the teeth.
Not only did we inspect the old gear oil for debris, we also did the recommended smell test that can give signs of overheating, oxidation, or contamination.
3 — Consider your rear end oil’s color and smell before proceeding. As if gear oil doesn’t smell bad enough when fresh, it will really stink if the oil is in need of replacement due to overheating, oxidation, or contamination. When you find bad oil, be prepared to find issues when inspecting components. Whew, we came up with no signs of gear oil contamination.
Before removing the girdle-style cover, the two large set screws are backed off from supporting the bearing caps. This type of cover helps in deflection of the entire spool assembly at launch.
We used our dial indicator to check backlash tolerances between the pinion and ring rear. Maximum movement should be between .010.014 inch of recommended play.
Quality ring and pinions have pinion depth and other markings. Our ring gear denotes 9/41, which means 9 pinion teeth and 41 ring gear teeth. Thus, a 4:56 is our current gear ratio.
We then liberally cleaned the entire differential internals with brake cleaner to look closely at our components and learn our current gear ratio. A peek with a flashlight observed the markings on the pinion gear with a ratio of 4.56:1. While we were into our component inspection, we follow our fourth tip: 4 — Inspect all rear end components, but especially the gears themselves. Any discoloration, pitting or scoring, or cracks warrant further investigation — to determine the cause — and potential replacement. We not only found our gear ratio, we also inspected our ring and pinion for discoloration and damage. We also used our handy dial indicator to check the current backlash. By mounting our magnetic base to our housing, we held our pinion gear tight and placed a wrench on our pinion bolts to move the gear back and forth. The ideal gear backlash dimension is between 0.010 inch and 0.014 inch for a drag race GM 12-bolt rear axle application. If those backlash numbers may appear large, when you factor in the tolerance that tightens once the gears
are at operating temperature, it makes sense. Cheers for passing number four with our backlash set at 0.013. With extra hands helping us under the Camaro, we held the pinion gear and spool tight and checked for excessive play in the splines connecting the spool and axles. The fifth “Top 5 Tech Tip” has to do with closing up the cover and filling our differential. 5 — Clean the housing well before reassembly and then add fresh oil. Do not reuse oil, even if it appears to still be good. Microscopic debris not visible to the eye can be present and cause component wear. The oil could also be chemically degraded and offer less than optimal protection. For most drag racing applications requiring GL-5 gear oil, Driven’s new 75W-90 Synthetic Racing Gear Oil would be an ideal choice; it’s proven to lower operating temp and reduce friction. As we have learned our gear ratio and given our 12-bolt a clean bill of health, we have checked off our racing rear end for upcoming days at the ‘strip. DRS Source: Driven Racing Oil, drivenracingoil.com
Giving our 12-bolt the best life we can, we ordered the new 75W-90 Synthetic Racing Gear Oil from Driven Racing Oil. DragRacingScene.com 43
Mendy Fry has made her life as a successful chief financial officer at a major foundation, but she lives her life running nitro since her teens. Words: Todd Silvey Photos: Shawn Brereton
N
ostalgia Top Fuel racer Mendy Fry has been involved with cars since the day her dad, Ron Fry, put her into a quarter-midget at 4 years old. “I was my dad’s only boy,” Mendy jokes. “He wanted a son, and he got me. He was a really good engine builder and car builder, but he wasn’t a very good driver. So, he threw me in everything from quarter-midgets to racing Honda Odysseys in the dirt during the ’80s. When I was growing up, there was no such thing as junior dragsters.” Mendy loved drag racing from the start, so before she had her driver’s license, she was already making license passes in a B/Econo dragster. “I made my first passes in that car at age 15 1/2, so I had all my licensing completed before I was even 16,” she says. “Fitzgerald looked the other way and signed off on it. I literally got my NHRA competition license in the mail just two days after I received my California driv-
y d n e M y Fr
er’s license, so I was ready to go.” She and her dad had a very close relationship. She worked in his shop as a young teenager learning to bend tin. “We had our own issues like every other father and son do [laughs], but I didn’t go to college until much later,” she says. “I was his sheet metal fabricator in his shop until I was 20 and moved to San Diego. My dad and I worked together, raced together, and were the same person. We butted heads a lot, but we could communicate with a look that is rare. I miss him every day. I wish he were here to see where I’m at now. He didn’t get to see me drive a Top Fueler or Funny Car, and he would have been so proud.” Ron passed away from colon cancer in 1995 at age 51. He and Mendy had built two cars together. She had raced her Top Alcohol Dragster to record-setting times, and driven the world’s fastest and quickest street rod, becoming well-known in the ranks. She knows that if Ron were still alive, they would have had a Top Fueler of their own, but she jokes that she doesn’t know how well it would be funded. At 16, Mendy drove a 1927 Model T Roadster for Tom Boswell. He had ordered the car from Fry Racing, stating he wanted the fastest street-legal hot rod ever. When the appointed driver stepped away, Mendy was asked to step into the driver’s seat. They ran Super Street at the same time nostalgia drag racing was starting to take off. They had great success with the car, winning all except for two of the nostalgia races they entered the car.
44 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Mendy’s first Top Fuel ride was with High-Speed Motorsports. She feels like she’s home now that she’s back with the team after 11 years away.
“At the time, the races were sanctioned by the Nostalgia Drag Racing Association,” Mendy says. “The ownership changed hands a couple of times, and then it petered out until Goodguys came into being. They really made nostalgia racing what it is today. I would say that nostalgia racing is one of the only segments of drag racing that is truly still expanding rather than contracting.” After moving to San Diego, Mendy worked at Bob Meyer’s sheet metal shop for four years. It was hard work, and she was good at what she did. But, the summers were hot in the shop, and she then decided it was time to go to college and do something different with her life. She obtained her accounting degree and is now chief financial officer for Autism Learning Partners, a company who works with autistic children. She is proud of her work with the company, making a difference in children’s’ lives. “When my dad died, I had just graduated from college, and I immersed myself in my public accounting career,” Mendy says. “I went to work as an auditor for PriceWaterhouse Coopers and walked away from drag racing for about seven years.” Then, in 2000, Gary Meadows of Goodguys called her one night and made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. “Gary and John Drummond asked me to be the grand marshal at the Jim Davis Memorial that year,” she says. “I said yeah, that would be awesome. I went to the March Meet that year because I hadn’t been to a race since 1996, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was crazy how it had taken off. I was ready to get back into the sport.” Soon after, she got her ride in Ron Johnson Jr.’s Fueler and started lobbying hard for a Top Fuel ride. “High-Speed Motorsports gave me a shot in 2004,” she says. “They had a two-car team, and I got to drive Frank ‘Root Beer’ Hedges’ Mastercam Fueler. At the end of the next year, they lost the funding for that car and my ride went away.”
Everyone on the High-Speed crew is like family to Mendy. They work hard to help her find success on the track. DragRacingScene.com 45
Fast forward to 2017 and coming back to High Speed Motorsports is like coming home for Mendy. “They are such family to me,” she says. “Tom Shelar and I have a great relationship. He is the crew chief and owner of the car. We’ve really gotten into our groove now. It was rocky at first, though.” Mendy has a lot of years of experience in Top Fuel, but not a lot of laps under her belt. “I’ve had rides that were underfunded and not necessarily competitive, so this is the first time I’ve been in a car that is a hitter,” she says. “Tom is very generous and will say he hasn’t gotten his arms around the tuneup as well as he should. But, if you look at the races round for round, it was me who made the most mistakes. We’re learning as we go and we’re doing well. He’s investing in me as their driver, and it’s paying off. We’re really starting to hit our stride at the end of this year, and I couldn’t be happier about where I am.” She is lucky enough to blend her love of drag racing with her professional career and is enjoying every minute of it. “I hope I never have to leave this team of racers,” she says. “I absolutely love racing, and I love our team. The people part of racing can be the hardest part and our people are awesome. Our chemistry is amazing, and we’re going rounds.” The team has won two races out of four so far, and they’ve had a great year. “Before this, I had never won a Top Fuel race ever,” Mendy says. “I won a Saturday night nitro race in Smokey’s Darkside funny car which was my start. That was the best he had ever done. I also won a shootout in Kansas in 2004, but other than that, I’ve barely made it to the semis. So, this year is quite a ride for me.” DRS
Mendy was the first female to go faster than 250 mph in a vintage top fueler and the first female in the 5s as well.
Mendy and dad Ron had a close relationship and his death in 1995 was a blow to her. She focused on her accounting career for awhile, but is glad to be back in the driver’s seat. She knows he would be very proud of all she has accomplished in nostalgia drag racing.
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TURBO
Words & Photos: Richard Holdener
Boost makes horsepower; how fast do you want to go
I
f you want to make some serious power, there is no choose from. Don’t get wrapped up in an individual superibetter method than adding boost. This statement ority complex, but rather revel in the fact we have so many applies to almost any engine combination, regardless to choose from. of the original level of performance, but even more so Regardless of the choice of forced induction, the supplied once your motor has been upgraded. Truth be told, there boost acts as a multiplier of the original power output. What are many ways to add boost to do we mean by this? Well, if you your motor. You could choose start with a 350-hp LS motor any of the number of differand add boost, you can double ent types of superchargers, the power output to 700 hp by including roots, centrifugal, or running 14.5 psi (1 bar or 1 adtwin-screw blowers. ditional atmosphere). The forAll three of the blowers offer mula works for any given boost their own distinct boost curves level as a percentage of the 14.5 and levels of performance, but psi. If you add 10 psi to the 350for our modified 6.0L LQ4 mohp motor, you can improve the tor, we chose turbocharging. power output by .689, or 69 perWhile turbos offer advantages cent (10/14.5=.689). This would over supercharging, they are not equate to 591 hp. without their own limitations. Another way to get there is to If one type of forced induction figure out the gains offered per was vastly superior to all oth- If you want to make your LS fast, just add the right intake and a pound of boost. If we divide the ers, there would only be one to little boost! original power output of 350 hp 48  Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
The first thing you should notice from this graph is that the boost from the twin-Borg Warner turbos offered some serious power gains. The normally aspirated 6.0L produced 524 hp at 6,300 rpm and 447 lb-ft of torque at 4,800 rpm. After adding the boost from the turbos, the power numbers jumped to 929 hp at 6,500 rpm and 796 lb-ft at 5,900 rpm.
by 14.5, we see that each pound of boost would be worth 24.1 psi (350/14.5=24.1). If we multiply that by 10 psi, we get a gain of 241 hp (350 +241=591 hp). The results are the same (that’s how math works), but you can see that adding boost to your motor can significantly improve the power output. Things get even better when you make modifications to the motor to improve the normally aspirated power before adding boost. To illustrate how boost works on a modified motor, suppose we add a cam to our 350-hp LS motor and increase the power output to an even 400 hp. If we then add the same 10 psi of boost, we see that the 69-percent gain will increase the power output to 676 hp (400 x .689=276 hp+400=676 hp). Put another way, each psi of boost is worth 27.58 hp (400/14.5=27.58 hp). By increasing the power output of the normally aspirated combination from 350 hp to 400 hp, we increased the power output of the turbo motor by 85 hp at 10 psi. The gains get even greater as we go up in cubic inches. If we apply 1 bar of boost (14.5 psi) to the 350 hp combo, we can produce 700 hp, but if we apply the same boost to the 400-hp motor, we get 800 hp! The 50-hp gain made to the normally aspirated motor translates to 100 extra horsepower at 14.5 psi. Such is the benefit of building a powerful NA combination before adding boost. Now that we understand the math, let’s apply some boost in the real world, or more accurately to a 6.0L LQ4. Before adding boost, the LQ4 was modified in the traditional fashion, meaning heads, cam, and intake. The short block was left surprisingly stock, with only a ball hone, deck surface,
The cam for our turbo motor was supplied by Brian Tooley Racing. Ground by COMP Cams, the BTR Stage 3 turbo cam offered .609/.610 lift split, 230/235-degree duration split, and 114+4-degree lsa.
The bottom end of the 2000 6.0L LQ4 was surprisingly stock. All we did was clean everything and increase the factory ring gap from .022 to .031. We also did a quick ball hone and deck surface to ensure proper sealing under pressure.
The Stage 2 porting greatly increased the flow rate of the 317 heads. With peak intake flow exceeding 300 cfm, the heads were capable of supporting over 600 hp in normally aspirated trim. The factory 317 truck heads are popular among turbo LS owners in stock trim or with a simple spring upgrade, but we shipped ours to Total Engine Airflow for porting. The Stage 2 porting greatly increased the flow rate of the 317 heads. With peak intake flow exceeding 300 cfm, the heads were capable of supporting more than 600 hp in normally aspirated trim.
Part of the Stage 2 package included upgrading to a 2.04/1.57 valve package. The exhaust flow was equally important on a turbo motor. The gang at TEA stepped up the exhaust flow to over 250 cfm.
Naturally the head package also included a valve spring upgrade to allow for the combination of engine speed, cam lift, and boost. The heads were run with the stock rockers and hardened pushrods from Comp Cams.
and regapping the rings. To the stock short block, we added a Stage 3 turbo cam from Brian Tooley Racing. Ground by COMP Cams, the Stage 3 stock offered .609/.610 lift split, 230/235-degree duration split, and 114+4-degree lsa. The cam was purposely ground for use on a turbo application, but still managed to produce impressive power when we ran the modified 6.0L normally aspirated. The cam was teamed with a set of Stage 2 317 heads from Total Engine Airflow. Since the 317 truck heads share the same ports as the performance-oriented 243 castings, the results of the porting were impressive. The heads also received a new valve combo and dual-spring package to further enhance performance.
To ensure we had plenty of fuel, even under boost, we installed these 89-pound FAST fuel injectors. Tuning is important on any LS application, but critical on a highhorsepower turbo motor. We relied on this FAST XFI management system to dial in the all-important air/fuel and timing curves.
Topping the ported heads was a FAST LSXRT intake. The intake used a 102mm throttle opening and 102mm Big Mouth throttle body. Run on the dyno in normally aspirated trim, the modified 6.0L produced 524 hp at 6,300 rpm and 479 lb-ft of torque at 4,800 rpm. 50 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Boost was provided by a pair of S475 Borg Warner turbos from Lil John’s Motorsports. The turbos featured 83mm turbine wheels, T4 housings, and a 1.0 A/R ratio.
The final touch was a FAST LSXRT intake, 89-pound injectors, and 102mm Big Mouth throttle body. Run on the dyno, the modified 6.0L LQ4 produced 524 hp at 6,300 rpm and 479 lb-ft at 4,800 rpm. Satisfied with the power output of the normally aspirated 6.0L, it was time to install the turbos. The twin-turbo system was less of a kit and more of a combination of components. Supplying boost was a pair of Borg Warner S475 turbos from Lil John’s Motorsports. Capable of supporting nearly 1,000 hp each, the turbos were a touch of overkill on this lowboost application. Feeding exhaust to the turbos was a set of DNA stainless turbo headers and custom 90-degree bends. The fabricated bends featured 3-inch V-bands on one side and the T4-turbo mounts on the other. Each bend also housed the waste gate flanges to mount the 45mm HyperGate waste gates from Turbo Smart. Boost was fed to a dual-core, air-to-water intercooler from CXRacing, while exhaust exited through a pair of 4-inch exhaust tubes. Dialed in with a peak of 10.2 psi of boost, the turbocharged 6.0L pumped out 929 hp at 6,500 rpm and 796 lb-ft of torque at 5,900 rpm. This equates to 39.7 hp per pound, or even better than the formula-suggested level of 36.1 hp per pound (525/14.5=36.1). I guess when you combine turbos with the right mods to your 6.0L, it really is possible to go fast with boost! DRS Sources: ARP, arp-bolts.com; Brian Tooley Racing, briantooleyracing.com; COMP Cams, compcams.com; CXRacing, cxracing.com; DNA Motoring, dnamotoring.com; FAST, fuelairspark.com; Lil John’s Motorsport Solutions, liljohnsmotorsports.com; Lucas Oil, lucasoil.com; Total Engine Airflow, totalengineairflow.com; Turbo Smart, turbosmartusa.com
Run on the dyno with the ATW intercooler keeping things cool, the twin turbo 6.0L pumped out 929 hp at 6,500 rpm and 796 lb-ft of torque at 5,900 rpm at a peak boost of just 10.2 psi.
RACE READING
Every racer needs to snuggle up with a good book Words & Photos: Todd Silvey
High Performance: The Culture and Technology of Drag Racing 1950 – 2000 by Robert C. Post - 420 pages High Performance is a well-written, descriptive, and exciting history of drag racing, from the earliest days of “legal” drags on country air strips to the wild and woolly careers of the sport’s biggest innovators. As a former drag racer himself, author Robert C. Post has interviewed many of drag racing’s legends and superstars. He tells the stories of “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, the first person to call himself a professional drag racer. He characterizes Shirley Muldowney’s success as one of the earlier women involved in the sport, and her triumphant return to the sport two years after her 250 mph crash. In the book, Post explores all facets of drag racing: the beginning of the sport through 2000, the business aspects, and the enjoyment that the racers get out of it. He talks about the feuds, the friendships, and the fame. He describes the trends, the technology, and the innovations that allow drag racing to continue to grow and prosper, for cars to continue to get faster, and the ongoing changes that make the sport better. This is the second edition, released in 2001 that continued the story for another decade of the sport. Robert C. Post is a professor of history at the University of Maryland, curator emeritus at the National Museum of American History, and past president of the Society for the History of Technology. Todd’s take - This is the quintessential history book on the sport of drag racing. Reading this book takes you back in time and also explains the reasoning behind so many parts of today’s sport.
Competition Car Composites: A Practical Handbook by Simon McBeath - revised second edition - 200 pages
For the do-it-yourselfer who is exploring the possibility of making your own composite parts, this is a good introduction to the processes and theories. Composites have been around since ancient civilizations began making bricks from clay and straw. Today, there are few competition cars that don’t have at least some components made out of one or more of the newest fiber composites. Of course, today’s drag racing world thinks of carbon fiber first, but the chapter on materials describes a large array of options and what qualities they offer. The equipment and basic techniques chapter offers some interesting descriptions of the creating of composite components. However, while it is well known that fiberglass technology can be utilized at home, what may not be so widely realized is that more advanced fibers can also lend themselves to DIY methods. This revised edition of Competition Car Composites starts by describing the materials involved in the process and talks about the tools required. It then gets into the technique of making a simple flat panel, then digs into making patterns and molds. By the end, in-depth descriptions of how to make a part are included. If one is really ambitious, it even defines the composite techniques used by the best racecar builders. Todd’s take - This book is great geek reading for the gearhead. I’m not going to run out and buy a zillion-dollar autoclave, but I just might try my hand at making some cool pieces and parts by following some of their smaller projects.
52 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Linda Vaughn: The First Lady of Motorsports by Rob Kinnan - 224 pages
Linda Vaughn has been entertaining fans and representing automotive companies for more than 55 years. From her first days as a beauty queen representing Atlanta Dragway, to her years as Miss Hurst Golden Shifter, she has lead a fascinating life. In the book, Linda Vaughn: The First Lady of Motorsports, she and co-author, Rob Kinnan, share her favorite photos and her life-story. This long-awaited hardcover book is written in a conversational format in her own words, along with personal thoughts from a slew of well-known racers and other characters from the drag racing world. Linda liked drag racing from her childhood years. She talks about growing up and going to school to be a dental technician. When she entered a beauty pageant at Atlanta Dragway and won, it opened up a whole new world of opportunity for her that she has appreciated ever since. Don Garlits was the first drag racer she ever met, and he has written the foreword as a good friend of hers. He talks of meeting her as a sweet, young, country girl in Dalton, Georgia. He says, “I can’t even imagine drag racing without Linda. She is drag racing, and will always be.” Though the book covers her entire life from early years, through NASCAR, Indy 500, and more, Chapter Four is dedicated to ‘The World of Drag Racing.’ It is filled with page after page of pictures of Linda standing next to icons of the sport. Linda captioned each photograph herself, and there are comments from many of the racers added in throughout the book. Linda’s final thought sums up the content of the book perfectly. “I’m living my life the way I want to live it. There’s nobody else so I’m going to do it my way, and my greatest treasures are my memories. They can’t take your memories away from you.” Todd’s take - This is a “fun read.” It is great to learn how Linda is far more than a winner’s circle trophy queen. This lady is the ambassador who has helped shape all motorsports for a half-century.
National Speedway Directory 2016 Edition by Timothy and Margo Frost and Allan E Brown - 590 pages
The National Speedway Directory is an information source for the motorsports industry. It has listings of oval tracks, dragstrips, road courses, sanctions, publications, museums, and race schedules. National Speedway Directory has been published annually since 1974. The latest edition lists approximately 1,300 race tracks, 300 sanctions, 60 publications, 70 museums, and 4,000 events in the United States and Canada. Whether you are a fan, driver, mechanic, crew member, team member, sponsor, manufacturer or supplier, this guide is a must-have to help you figure out your racing season. Each listing in the directory is updated annually by the authors. Timothy W. Frost is a consultant to the motorsports industry. He has provided advisory services to race tracks, teams, drivers, sanctioning bodies, and industry participants. Allan E. Brown has been attending auto races for over 50 years. He has visited over 2,000 racing facilities. He has received the RPM Promoters Workshops prestigious Stew Reamer Award for lifetime service to the weekly auto racing industry. Todd’s take - Yes, the data in here is on the National Speedway Directory website as well, but I have had one of these in the glovebox of the race car hauler and editor’s work van well before there was an “internet.” It is incredibly handy for looking up directions or finding basic info on every track that currently exists, but it is fun reading when you are bored in the passenger seat.
DragRacingScene.com 53
Rebuildable Damper Advantages When you don’t know the history of your vibration damper, ATI Performance Products’ rebuild service answers all of your questions
Words: Todd Silvey
Y
ou take a reasonable amount of risk when purchasing a used racing engine no matter what the seller says about “low passes” or “great shape.” After our initial shakedown passes to establish Project Rover’s performance baseline, we began to tear into the Camaro for a long winter’s upgrade. As we started to look over the 482c.i. big-block Chevy for possible wear or needed upgrades, my son Christopher and I discussed the vibration damper finally exposed after removing the hood/fender assembly and cooling system. ”It’s been around awhile,” my son remembers the previous owner telling us on sale day. With that indicator, we then discussed how much use the balancer has had in its history prior to this engine. To me, the damper is one of those components playing such a critical role in the longevity of a racing engine. Speculating its condition is something needing far more than just rolling the dice on its effectiveness. Ours is a Super Damper from ATI Performance Products. Just one of the advantages of their damper is its modular design. There is an internal inertia ring utilizing elastomer O-rings to fit over the damper’s hub and inside of an outer shell assembly. The design
Our Super Damper with an unknown history is carefully pressed off of our 482c.i. Chevy to be given a professional once-over by the ATI Performance Products team. 54 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Project Rover came with an ATI Performance Super Damper. Not knowing its life history, it is a wise idea to take advantage of ATI rebuilding services.
makes the ATI damper not only tunable for unique engines, but the damper assembly is also rebuildable by ATI. Many shops and race teams utilize the ATI Damper Rebuilding Tool Set for regular inspection and maintenance. For their reasonable fee, we chose to let the trained eyes at ATI give our mystery damper a thorough review and freshen the unit for future use. Many racing “balancers” are simply a steel inner hub with a steel outer ring
and a ‘rubber band’ of sorts melded in between the two. There is no way to maintain concentricity with this design. The outer ring can begin to move, and you’ll lose the accuracy of your timing marks, which can be catastrophic to the engine. With time and use, a mystery balancer in our scenario does not offer the option of disassembly and inspection. Once again, we use the term ‘rolling the dice.’ Following proper removal with a quality harmonic balancer puller and
The ATI damper assembly area also doubles as the rebuilding service for their customers. Romaine Armstrong carefully cleans the Torx head fastener pockets and dismantles the damper. You can see the new fasteners in bins ready to reassemble all rebuilds.
Our damper is initially inspected by the ATI tech. It wasn’t a matter of “bad housekeeping” as we left the dirty internal markings on the crank hub. This allows ATI to view any fitment problem of this damper to the keyway or crank snout.
Don’t be fooled by the 1/2-inch impact gun! The ATI trained technicians use very low air pressure for disassembly. Note the liquid thread locker on the retainer bolts.
Special pusher frames and base are used to gently press the inner hub away from the inertia ring and outer shell. These fixtures can be purchased in a damper rebuilding tool kit from ATI for the do-it-yourselfer.
installer tool, we sent our damper off to ATI. The unit was sent to a workstation in their new larger facility where they not only assemble new dampers, but provide inspection and rebuilding services on hundreds of their units per year. The disassembly process uses custom fixtures based around a heavy-duty arbor press. The savvy damper specialists can detect many problems by ‘feel’ as the unit is properly pressed apart. The inertia ring has all of the inner and outer elastomer O-rings removed, and all of the components go through a thorough cleaning. After cleaning, each part is carefully inspected for any damage or unusual wear. “This is where we look closely for any damage, burrs, or wear that would affect the dampening motion of the inertia weight ring,” explains David Caine. “Attention is paid to the surfaces on the hub and outer ring where the elastomer rides. Any damage or
grooves can impact the dampening effect of the inertia ring. When everything is approved for reassembly, we begin the assembly process of installing new elastomer rings to the inner and outer rings on the hub.” Dave also explains the exclusive use of a quick-dry silicone spray used in the reassembly at this point. “No petroleum-based lubricants should ever be used in the reassembly process,” he says. “The dry silicone prevents any dirt particles or grime from getting into any oil residue inside of the damper.” Specialized fixturing is used to reassemble the damper. Just as you will take great care to press your balancer onto your crankshaft, the same attentive process goes into pressing the hub and outer shell together. The technicians take special caution not to pinch any of the elastomer rings as they are married to the inner hub and outer shell.
This fixture is used to ‘pop’ the inertia ring away from the outer shell. Careful attention is paid in the disassembly process to feel for any binding as the components come apart.
The shell, hub, and ring are thoroughly cleaned and inspected. Each surface related to the elastomer rings is looked at closely to make sure no imperfection will affect the motion of the inertia ring.
With the new elastomer rings on the rebuilding bench, every component is given a very fine inspection and final cleaning with brake cleaner as they begin the reassembly process. DragRacingScene.com 55
New elastomer rings are placed on the inner and outer grooves of the inertia ring. This is the key component in the ATI design that dampens the engine harmonics between the crank hub and outer shell.
Different fixtures are used in the press for reassembly. This is where a special ‘touch’ of experience goes into making sure not to pinch or damage any of the elastomer rings in the press.
Many racers send their ATI damper back simply to have a new outer shell assembly installed. If the timing marks engraved into the outer shell become worn or unreadable, they will replace the outer shell along with a fresh SFI certification tag. Even if the outer shell becomes damaged from something coming loose on the engine such as a broken crank or drive hub, the unit can be repaired by replacing
only the damaged components, not requiring an entirely new damper. With the components pressed in place, new flathead Torx screws, flat AN washers, and counter-bore screws are used with liquid thread locker to properly fasten the damper together with the specified torque settings. Project Rover’s damper now has a clean bill of health and a fresh SFI tag with accompanying SFI serial number
Project Rover’s damper is ready to have new fastener with ‘blue’ thread locker torqued in place.
A dry silicone spray lubricant is used during assembly. No ‘wet’ or oil lubricants should be used that will retain grime from the road or track inside of the damper.
Damper Specialist Jeremy Ryan stamps a second SFI serial number into the face of the damper denoting its inspection and recertification.
56 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
stamp on the shell. The damper arrived back at our shop in an ATI Performance Products damper box (which is now saved for future use compared to the makeshift shipping box it was sent out in). The first thing you’ll see when opening the damper box is a bright yellow decal stating, “A minimum of 9 bolts must be installed, loctited, and torqued correctly.” Why this decal? “It is to remind customers that even if you do not mount any belt drives from your damper, all of the fasteners must remain in place for proper use,” Caine adds. “The three bolts typically used for drive hubs or belt pulleys must remain in place. I can’t stress enough the importance of calculating the correct length of grade 8 fasteners to place proper thread depth into any component mounted to the damper.” Proper installation with our balancer press tool has our 482 ready to fire again with the peace of mind that our mystery damper is at 100 percent and ready to ward off any bad vibes. DRS Source: ATI Performance Products Inc., atiracing.com
There are two stamped numbers on our Super Damper now, one from its previous life and a new stamp and SFI spec 18.1 decal with matching serial number.
Our damper is returned in a proper ATI Performance Products shipping box.
Installing our inspected damper, we have the peace of mind that it is race ready.
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.
Get wired in a hurry Painless Performance Products, Pro Series Wiring Harnesses The Painless Pro Series gives you everything you need to wire up your custom or racing ride right the first time. Ample length is provided for each circuit, providing you the freedom to route and hide your wiring how you choose. The 6 gauge charge wire will keep up with today’s high amperage alternators, and the provided front and rear ground harnesses make grounding your lighting circuits a breeze. Provided with many GM connectors and terminals, insulated and non-insulated butt splices, heat shrink, grommets, cable ties, and cable tie clips, the Pro Series brings a new meaning to truly Painless wiring. Available for cars and trucks with and without a bulkhead connector, the Pro Series gives you multiple options to get your ride wired. LED ATC bladed fuses get you away from the old hard-to-find glass fuses, and will light up if blown making troubleshooting a painless task. painlessperformance.com 800.423.9696
58 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Keep it steady
Stripped of problems
FAST, XDi Race Cam Sync Distributor
Summit Racing Equipment, Thread Chaser Sets
The new FAST XDi Race Cam Sync Distributor is an easy solution for those looking to provide an accurate cam sync signal to their aftermarket fuel injection system. Designed for applications that typically use a crank trigger, it enables proper functioning of sequential fuel injection, individual cylinder spark timing, and fuel injector phasing — a must for maximum power and efficiency. Testing has shown the Hall-effect style optical trigger maintains a steady +/- half-degree trigger signal, unlike competitors’ inductive style triggers prone to signal drift at high RPM. Ideal for drag racing, the distributor is constructed with a billet housing, precision ground stainless shaft, and premium bearings. Hand-assembled parts also maintain consistent shaft end play, eliminating another source of triggering fluctuation. Each distributor comes with a precision machined bronze gear and must be used with a crank trigger and external ignition box. fuelairspark.com 877.334.8355
Summit Racing Equipment’s complete thread cleaning kits are designed to help restore old, damaged, and stripped threads on bolts and studs. Thread chaser sets eliminate one of the most frustrating problems for the DIY mechanic: stripped or damaged bolt threads. Clean and straight threads make removing bolts easier and allow you to apply proper fastening torque, which is a must for engine assembly. These kits include assorted tap and die sizes. The SAE coarse dies are cadmium plated, and the SAE fine dies are black oxide. The 26-piece set includes six coarse rethreader taps and seven coarse rethreader dies ranging from 1/4-inch – 20 to 9/16-inch – 12, along with six fine rethreader taps and seven fine rethreader dies ranging from 1/4-inch – 28 to 9/16inch – 18. summitracing.com 800.230.3030
Performance & Consistency Win Races Only TCI® Offers Track Proven Performance, Advanced Product Design & Serious Drag Racer Support. For nearly 50 years, TCI® has stuck to its roots, providing Sportsman drag racers with durable drivetrain components that win races. Designed by experienced and passionate engineers, our hand built converters and transmissions provide increased performance at the strip, with more consistent and lower ETs. Bracket Racing Powerglides are designed for performance and dependability at an economical price. Drag Race Transmissions in popular GM, Ford, and Chrysler applications include Full Manual Competition with standard or reverse shift pattern and a Trans-Brake Transmission, perfect for serious full-tree racing. If you have a unique application we can help with a custom setup.
TRANSMISSIONS & TORQUE CONVERTERS • Options for most horsepower ranges • Hand built quality & Triple Tested • Full line of parts and accessories • Race proven consistency & durability
TRANS HELP™ 1.888.776.9824 • TCIAUTO.COM • JOIN US:
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Our Torque Converters come in 7" to 11" for most applications with hundreds of possible combinations. Robust construction featuring a tig-brazed impeller and fully furnace-brazed turbine for unparalleled strength and performance consistency.
Ready to rotate Lunati, Signature Series Rotating Assemblies Lunati Signature Series rotating assemblies represent the strongest package of rotating components you will find for your engine. The micro-polished crankshafts are forged using non-twist 4340 steel and feature gun-drilled mains, lightened rod journals, and windage-reducing contoured wing counterweights. Additionally, these premium cranks are pulsed plasma nitride heat-treated for increased strength and durability. Each assembly includes premium I-beam or H-beam rods and choice of Diamond or Mahle brand forged pistons and premium King or Clevite engine bearings. Everything comes fully balanced and ready for installation in small- and big-block Chevrolet and Ford, as well as GM LS1, LS7, and L92 engines. lunatipower.com 662.892.1500
For even more new products, head to
DragRacingScene.com
Tooled to perfection Crane Cams, Custom Tool Steel Camshafts When your one-off engine calls for a one-off camshaft, Crane Cams has it covered with their custom tool steel camshafts. The camshafts can be made to match engine configuration, linear spacing, journal size, and firing order that you need; just give them a print, sample camshaft, or specify what modifications are needed to an existing product. Using a through hardening heat-treating process, Crane creates an extremely stable part that is resistant to surface wear, twist, and deflection. These finish ground camshafts can be ordered either one at a time, or in quantity. cranecams.com 866.388.5120
Do a wheelie S&W Race Cars, Universal Tubular Wheelie Bar Kit S&W’s new economical and versatile Tubular Wheelie Bar Kit can be easily fitted on most any application and includes everything for the do-it-yourself guy. As with all S&W Do-It-Yourself kits, the new wheelie bar kit is shipped complete with all components, a pair of wheels and hardware. This is a universal product, engineered for both new builds and for trouble free upgrades. The pre-cut pieces of chromoly tubing are long enough to produce an 85-inch long x 28-inch wide wheelie bar. The tubing lengths can be shortened by the customer to achieve their desired overall assembled length and width. The necessary 1/2-inch FK Chromoly Rod Ends are supplied for use on all attachment points, allowing for use of most pre-existing mounting set-ups. For making quick adjustments, the upper tubes feature right and left-hand rod ends. The kit also features double shear universal mounting tabs, to fit many applications. The wheel brackets are pre-welded. All other tubes are to be cut, fit, and welded by the customer. swracecars.com 800.523.3353
60  Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Stay cool, look good Heatshield Products, Lava Header Armor Lava Header Armor is made from crushed volcanic rock and has heat-shielding capabilities for your headers with a carbon-fiber look. The header armor helps your engine produce more power by keeping more heat in your header and exhaust system. That in turn increases exhaust gas temperatures and exhaust gas velocity for improved exhaust flow and efficiency for scavenging and other factors. The Lava Header Armor is a single shield that covers all primary tubes and significantly reduces under-hood heat, which can help protect wiring and fuel lines and allow your car to run cooler. Under-hood temperatures could drop as much as 70 percent. Their specially formulated BioCool thermal-barrier material is one of the most efficient thermal-barrier materials on the market, keeping heat where it should be while not causing the itchy drawback of other fiberglass-based materials. Installation is made simple by its design and you do not need to remove the headers. Lava Header Armor is able to be removed and reinstalled as needed during maintenance and engine work. heatshieldproducts.com 844.723.2665
Built for racing COMP Cams, SPR Radius Tip Rocker Arms Utilizing design techniques borrowed from NASCAR and F1, COMP Cams created its SPR Radius Tip Rocker Arms to be 30 percent stiffer than the baseline OEM rockers for maximum rigidity and dynamic stability. Sculpted, thin-wall construction and a centered multi-radius valve tip that has been CNC surface ground and nitride finished for reduced friction and increased hardness also reduce sweep across the valve by 400 percent. Additional features include an increased ratio (1.77) for more lift and area, though the rocker arms are virtually interchangeable with stock ratios due to improved dynamics and less loft. The rocker arms directly bolt on to OEM trunnion stands and are offered with assembled needle bearing or bushed trunnions for LS1 and LS3 applications. compcams.com 888.999.0853
Stopping power Aerospace Components, Manual Brake Conversion Kit for Mustangs Aerospace Components’ new manual brake conversion kit replaces your stock stamped steel pedal arm assembly with a billet aluminum pedal and allows the removal of the heavy vacuum brake booster. The kit corrects the pedal ratio for manual brakes. The kit includes a lightweight, high-performance master cylinder and billet master cylinder adapter plate. It also comes with a Grade 8 adjustable pushrod with a spherical rod end. All required hardware is included. Though installation will require a modification to the brake pedal quadrant and brake lines, both modifications are very simple to complete. aerospacecomponents.com 727.347.9915
Pounds matter TCI, 29.2 Lightweight Flexplate for SBC/BBC A one-piece design offers heavy-duty strength, while lightening features drop overall weight to make TCI 29.2 Lightweight Flexplate a perfect choice for high-rpm small- and big-block Chevrolets at the strip. Built to withstand 12,000-plus rpm, the flexplate is made from 4140 forged steel and features a hobbed-on ring gear and laser-welded converter spacers. Gas nitriding provides for extra surface hardness and strength, while CNC-milled pockets and lightening holes reduce the flexplate’s rotating mass and weight to just 5.3 pounds. E-coating offers corrosion protection. The OEM replacement accepts a converter with a small- or big-block Chevrolet bolt pattern. tciauto.com 888.776.9824 62 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
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Protection and power Driven Racing Oil, Defender + Booster There are numerous products on the market that claim to be “octane boosters.” What makes Driven Racing Oil’s Defender + Booster different is that while it raises the octane in unleaded fuels, it also reduces valve seat wear and protects against the corrosion deposits common with today’s gasoline. The additive features corrosion inhibitors that control combustion chamber residue, as well as clean and preserve fuel system surfaces. By cleaning and controlling combustion chamber and intake valve deposits, Defender + Booster Fuel Additive protects against detonation and improves fuel economy. The additive is ideal for all carbureted and fuel injection vehicles, including motorcycles and marine engines. Each 10-ounce bottle treats up to 25 gallons of gasoline, and regular use has been proven to lower emissions. drivenracingoil.com 866.611.1820
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’ n i b l u B BOTTOM Words & Photos: Andrew Wolf
How non-delay box racers are using ingenious tech to improve the consistency of their reaction times
D
espite all of the time, effort, and When a racer is truly locked-in with their started looking at the buttons. money we pour into our racing “spot” on the tree, mentally adjusting on Unlike traditional transbrake butmachinery chasing performance the fly is easier said than done. tons used by delay box racers, the halland consistency, half of the drag racing For about half of the bracket and inmark of these adjustable buttons for equation lies in the first milliseconds of dex racers in the sport, the advent of bottom bulb racers is the extra-long any race. Reaction time, while pivotal the delay box solved that very problem, “throw” of the button. Per NHRA regin heads-up contests, is unequivocalallowing the driver to adjust the point at ulations for Super Stock and Competily do-or-die in the bracket and index which the car will launch off the starting tion Eliminator, buttons are permitted racing worlds. Just as gearheads have line without having to alter their actual to have a maximum of three-inches of leveraged technology to gain an edge release point on the tree. But for those travel. The rules vary in other bracket on the scoreboard since the very bewho can’t run a delay box — often reracing venues, and in some cases there ginning, so too have resourceful comferred to at local strips as the “Pro” or are no restrictions at all, but as we’ll expetitors trying to improve their perfor“No Box” class — that isn’t an option. plain in the next section, the mass-promance on the christmas tree. So how did they get around it? They duced buttons on the market today are Seasoned bracket racers who largely made with NHRA have honed their craft, almost to regulations in mind. the point of obsession, are able Each of the buttons to produce repeatable reaction are adjustable through a times run after run, often withfew different means; most in thousands of a second of one utilize a spring (or series another (and they know when of springs) built into the they’re a couple “thou” late, design that can be intertoo). But, when you introduce changed to alter the rate outside factors — the brightness of return of the button. of a given track’s bulbs, the amMost of the buttons also bient lighting, the racing surface use a supplied set of shims and how the car reacts to it, air that shorten the “throw” of conditions that cause the car to the button, or in essence react quicker or slower, and even its rate of extension after the drivers’ physical and mental the release that signals the Peter Biondo, one of sportsman drag racing’s most feared and most state on a given day — variances winning wheelmen, has won a pair of world titles and countless races transmission to release the in reaction time come to exist. with his company’s Terminator button. trans-brake and launch the 64 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Eric Paul is one tough hombre when it comes to No Box competition in the greater midwest. He shows us his dash-mounted switch in his multi-championship winning Dodge Challenger.
The Just-N-Time button from CollectorTethers.com (top) and the tried-and-true Terminator button from Biondo Racing Products.
The Just-N-Time button is one of the newer offerings on the market, offering a considerable degree of adjustability through the interchangeable springs and shims.
car. The two adjustment parameters combine to allow the driver to hone in on a specific amount of “delay.” Two of the more popular buttons on the market at present are the “Terminator” from Biondo Racing Products, home to world champion racers Peter and Sal Biondo, and the Just-N-Time Button from CollectorTethers.com, owned by accomplished sportsman racers Lynn Ellison and Scott Lemen. Others include the “5-0” button from Phil Mandella Race Cars (who is believed to have been the first to market and sell a long throw-style button) and the appropriately named “Sloooow Release” transbrake button from Apex Machining Company. There are also, as you might imagine, a whole slew of one-off, homemade buttons out there of all different designs, button faces, and travel length. Peter Biondo, one of the most accomplished sportsman drag racers in history, has won a pair of world championships in Super Stock with the Terminator button — aptly given its name from the “Terminator” moniker bestowed upon him by fellow racers. The Terminator utilizes seven shims providing about .005-second worth of adjustment each. Biondo provides a tip sheet for shim addition/removal to achieve a given delay. Biondo previously marketed a “5-0” button, with five inches of total travel, but he says the market for it dropped off as the NHRA put the threeinch rule into place. Biondo Racing Products also sells an adjustable Harrington Switch (an off-the-shelf microswitch-style button), a more affordable option to the Terminator button, at $59.99 versus $169.99. “When we initially came out with the Terminator, we went through many springs and a lot of testing and we found what we’re selling now is the happy medium between what you can get with three inches of travel without losing any reliability,” Biondo says. “There are different ways of mounting it, and that does come into play a little bit, but it’s hard to get a lot more delay, especially in a racecar with a lot of vibration that could very well re-engage the button if you have a weak spring. We feel like we have a good handle on it, and we did a lot of testing in its development.” The internal spring in the Terminator can be interchanged by the user, but Biondo Racing Products doesn’t recommend it, as again, they found it to be the best tradeoff between delay and reliability, and any change might effect that one way or the other. With all seven shims mounted, the Terminator provides a .015-second delay compared to a DragRacingScene.com 65
standard microswitch button, with each shim, as previously mentioned, worth about .005-second. For Ellison, a former NHRA U.S. Nationals Super Stock champion who has driven and won in virtually every sportsman category there is, the Just-N-Time button came as a result of his own experiences with other buttons on the market. “When I won Super Stock at Indy, we had the car slowed down and everything else to match my spot on the tree, and I was almost red every run,” Ellison states. “We needed a better way to slow down the transbrake button so that we could speed up the car. In a bracket car, that’s not necessarily a big deal, but it is in performance-based classes like Super Stock and Comp. Those guys need their cars to perform and run as quick as they can and still turn the christmas tree green.” In an effort to get away from adjusting tire pressure, engine launch RPM, the shocks, and other factors that all effect performance, Ellison and Lemen set out to offer a better mousetrap. The result was the Just-N-Time button, which utilizes a set of user-replaceable, external springs and shims to dial-in a range of delay from .001 to .080-second, all accurate to within .002-second. The button comes packaged with six colored springs, all with different degrees of tension, which in addition to the adjustability of interchanging the springs themselves, are further adjustable by using the four different mounting holes on the button. Then, to really fine-tune the delay, three shims are included that install onto the button shaft. Having electronically tested every combination, Ellison and Lemen provide a “cheat sheet” for racers that outlines the spring and shim combinations that arrive at a specific amount of delay. Thus, if you show up at a new track and you’re .030 on the tree, it doesn’t take a day or trial and error to adjust the .025-.030 out of your reaction time that you need. “What this button does is get your car where you can feel confident that if you can see the light the same, you can let go and manipulate the car and not have the driver have to adjust his or her spot on the tree,” Ellison explains. “Racers are finding that if the rollout is different at a track and they go red on two time runs, they can go back and adjust the button and now they’re .010 on the tree again like they want. It makes life on the bottom bulb better than anything before.” As Biondo shares, “for bottom bulb racers, delay boxes aren’t legal, and there are ways of adjusting your reac66 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Both units utilize an assortment of shims and springs to modify the point between your release of the button and the release of the transmission brake or line lock.
You can see the adjustable mounting points available on the underside of the Just-N-Time button.
The company provides six different springs, all of which can be moved to any of the four positions to alter the tension and the return rate of the button. Combined with the shims on the button shaft, over 1,000 different reaction combinations are possible.
tion time with RPM and tire pressure, but when you do that, you start affecting the performance of the car, too. And it’s a lot easier to adjust the button in the car right next to you. If you’re sitting in the staging lanes and you’ve got cloud cover all of a sudden and you’re coming off a very close to perfect light and you want to slow yourself down, you can do so without getting out of the car. To me, it is a must for bottom bulb racers, because as important as reaction time is in bracket and index racing, being able to make adjustments is a big deal.” “A lot of the footbrake guys will complain about having to race guys with an adjustable button, because they think it makes you go .00 on the tree every pass. Some even think you can leave on the top bulb, but you can’t. Each bulb is half a second, and the buttons have, at most, a tenth of delay in them. The big advantage of the button is when you go track to track. I had two tracks that one time were .080-seconds different in my car. I have big front tires which plays a part, if one track has the beam set up a
little higher, it takes longer for the tall tire to get out of the beam.” Both Biondo and Ellison agree that, given pinpoint accuracy by the driver, the buttons can be nearly as exact as a delay box in fine tuning reaction times. “It’s pretty close,” Biondo says. “ It would be beneficial to have a delay box and be able to adjust it down to within .001-second, but it’s pretty consistent. It is a delay device, but it is definitely not a delay box.” As always, racers will be racers, and that means continually striving to solve problems and improve their performance. That’s precisely what these bottom bulb buttons are: some good old-fashioned thinking outside the (delay) box. As the many championships and big-buck titles earned on these buttons have proven, their relatively small cost in the grand scheme of things are a significant difference-maker, and if you don’t have one, you’re probably losing the stripe to someone that does. DRS Sources: Collecter Tethers, collectortethers.com; Biondo Racing Products, biondoracing.com
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THE DRAGSTRIP THAT GEORGE RAY BUILT
Down home drag racing for more than half of a century Words: Laurie Silvey Photos: Todd Silvey
Circa 1998, the track featured an overhead tower and viewing platform. The racing was strictly pound-per-cube class racing until about a decade ago. Crowds gathered as Mid-South match racing was always an experience.
68  Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
T
he first time I entered George Ray’s Dragstrip back in 1992, a kind gentleman popped his head out of the small entry booth and barked out, “Five dollars, race or watch.” All at the same time I was looking at the prevalent sign in the pits that read “Run at Your Own Risk.” For over 55 years, in Paragould, Arkansas, this track has been a place for families to come, kick back in the southern sun, and enjoy drag racing like you stepped back into the 1960s. On any given Sunday to present day, the crowds who visit include a mix of young and old and you can find several generations sitting in the grandstands watching or helping get a car ready to race. The track is billed as the last remaining all heads-up dragstrip, and their racers are having a good time in a combination of modern and classic cars. George Ray was a soybean farmer and business owner who loved cars and drag racing. He had raced over the border in Tennessee, but when he got upset with the track operator, he told him he wouldn’t be back and went home to put together his own racing operation. It was early 1961 when Ray bought the land just off Highway 135 outside of Paragould, Arkansas, and poured 2600 feet of concrete just 30 feet wide. They had some issues with local county officials not wanting the track, but Ray was stubborn and worked things out to get it open. He and his wife, Bonnie, also built the house they lived in next to the cotton fields and the dragstrip. For decades, the concession stand was operated out of the rear of George and Bonnie’s home as well. Though the track now runs 1/8mile due to the speed of today’s cars,
Today, with a new tower and more modern timing system, the track is still operated by the Ray family, and classes are based on index racing only. The track has never offered handicap bracket racing.
DragRacingScene.com 69
in those days races took place on a 1/4mile, with good brakes. It didn’t matter if you were coming into the track to watch, race for trophies or money. All adults entering the track paid just $3 at the ticket booth, and kids were free. That price has increased through the years, but it’s still just $6 to race or watch. The highest paid money racers run for $300 to win. Ray’s attitude was always drag racing should be fun and fair for everyone. He always said most racers were good people and they had very few problems at the dragstrip. For those times when somebody did get stirred up and cause trouble, he always carried a loaded gun in his belt. He didn’t have to use it very often but wasn’t afraid to pull it out when he did need it. Regulars at
Everything from old-school hot rods to state-of-the-art dragsters come out to race on any given Sunday.
Then mullet-wearing magazine editor Todd Silvey made some of his fondest memories at the track in 1998. ‘I raced H/Pure Stock Automatic in a Lincoln rental car. I still have the certificate and trophy on my office wall.’ 70 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Things might be a little ‘snug’ when it comes to racing on an approximately 15-foot wide lane, but it is never an issue with racers there, especially when you can race with your cooler along for the ride.
This was the timing system for 40-plus years at George Ray’s Dragstrip. Today, the upgrades are abundant, but remnants like the elevated shack where every race was decided by a spotter still stands near the finish line.
the track knew not to stir Ray up as he wasn’t afraid to knock heads. Ray was a great character and was friends with everybody who came to his dragstrip. He was well-known for his pith helmet with the gray locks of hair hanging out. Ray was the guy who made the safety rules, requiring helmets and seatbelts for cars running faster than 8 seconds flat. He is the one who classed the vehicles, which ran on pounds per cube based on displacement and year of the car. It’s all index racing these days, but in those days cars had staggered starts. When the track first opened, there was no Christmas tree. Ray would stand out between the cars with his checkered flag. Once the cars were lined up properly, he would throw the flag, and the cars left the line. At the end of the track, there was a narrow booth for the finish line guy to sit. He would be sitting inside looking straight out at the track to judge who won. He would flip on a light in the proper lane to indicate which car had crossed the line first and was the winner.
A few years later, Ray put in a clock system which was in use for many years. There were no reaction times; a racer either got a green light or a red light. The old-time tumbler clock allowed for index racing ranging from the 8.50 class down to 5.50 in the 1/8-mile. The racer running closest to the index without breaking out was the winner. A more modern Christmas tree and timing system are now in place, but the index racing still prevails. Even once the timing system was installed, time slips were hand-written for years at the finish line. We lost George Ray in 2009 and his wife, Bonnie, kept the track running on her own until their daughter, Michelle, and now Bonnie’s grandson, Tyler, decided they’d like to lease the track and take their turn with the family business. Right after Ray’s death, the track had been placed for sale, but Michelle didn’t want to see it leave the family and jumped in to help out with operating the track. Many of the original buildings are still in place, as well as the old bleachers. We visited the track for the first
time in 1990, and at that time, the only thing that prevented people from stepping out onto the track was snow fence. Cut logs lined the track for people to sit and watch when the bleachers filled up. These days, a steel fence lines the racing surface. Ray had his own hot rod and loved racing it. While he was working, the car had its place of honor next to the starting line ready to take on challengers. The car is still in the family and is kept in storage, though Bonnie has repainted it and enjoys taking it to car shows with her new husband. “He is really good about keeping George’s memory alive too,” Bonnie says. “He knew him well. Of course, anybody who George knew was his friend. George loved drag racing, and everybody out here was like his family.” Bonnie has invested some money into keeping the track in good shape but never spends more than the track brings in. The tower has been replaced in recent years, and some resurfacing has been done. “I’ve had to do some work to the track,” she says. “The return lane is one issue that needs to be redone. It needs to be resurfaced completely, but there isn’t extra money right now to do it. We still stick to the theory that if it doesn’t come in, money doesn’t go out.” Racing at George Ray’s Dragstrip seems to be different than at any other track out there. The family atmosphere has a lot to do with that. “Racers who break their cars can count on somebody offering to help them out if they can,” Bonnie says. “I’ve seen racers hugging and talking with each other before getting in their cars and racing each other to the finish line. Then they’ll get out of their cars and hug again. This is one big family here.” The track has run continuously every Sunday unless it rains, since it opened, running from March to October every year. They get everything from street cars to full tube chassis race cars running in the low fives. The spectators love them all. “Crowds are down when it’s farming time,” Michelle says. “We get good amounts of spectators when they aren’t busy, but we understand when they have to make a living. But at the end of October when farming is done for the year, we feel like our regulars are all here to race till it’s too cold.” George Ray made the rules and ran the facility his way. His influence was everywhere, and Ray loved every minute of it. His legend lives on at the track, and he has not been forgotten. DRS DragRacingScene.com 71
Standing it Up Words: Todd Silvey Photos: Bill Swanson
It’s wheels up for the win at Byron Dragway
F
or 23 years, Byron Dragway has been hosting the World Power Wheel Standing Championships. The winner gets 10 grand, so the competition is steep. This year’s event on October 7 had 17 entries fighting it out for the overall title and the big check. The ‘Wheelie King’ Brian Ambrosini returned to the event after a twoyear hiatus, bringing back his familiar orange Gremlin. With his additional overall win this year, he has six titles to his credit and loves every minute of the day. “My first win came in 1999,” Ambrosini says. “It’s been the same tried and true Gremlin every time. The competition has changed somewhat since the start. In the beginning years, the win was determined by audience applause. Now, it’s the guy who goes the furthest who gets the title.” He loves the event, and though he has had some repairs to do after some years’ races, he keeps coming back. “We flipped it upside down one year and had to fix it from that,” he says. “Then another year, we hit the wall and had to repair that damage. We do have to rebuild the front suspension fairly often. It’s a pretty good landing when it comes down from 72 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Greg Broshous has never had wheelie bars on his Chevy II. He doesn’t like the feel of them wobbling as he goes down the track, and he thinks he can go straighter without them.
The ‘Wheelie King” is back! After a couple of years away from the sport, Brian Ambrosini brought out his familiar crowd-pleasing orange Gremlin. He added another checkmark in the Overall Championship win column. In addition to this bumper-riding beast, he also has another orange Gremlin just for bracket racing.
It took a wild ride over the wall and onto his roof, but Jason Schubert won the Most Violent Wheelstand award. He also got second place in the overall competition.
that high in the air, and it just smashes down on the track.” Chris Pearce had a tough week before the contest but was happy he had made it to Byron for the day’s event. He ended up in third place overall and also got the specialty award for the highest wheel stand in his Pinto. “Exactly a week before the wheel standing championships, I had a 436 Hendricks motor we were testing, and I threw two rods out on a soft run,” he says. “I got home Saturday afternoon, and by Sunday evening, I had a different motor done and in the car. I took it to test on Tuesday and made two or three hits, but didn’t like the results. I took the engine apart again and did some cam timing changes. At Byron that day, the first test on the new combination was the first wheelie.” He wasn’t nervous about crashing or hurting the car during the wheelie contest. His main concern is putting on a show for the fans. “I have the same routine every time I make a pass. I thank everybody before I climb into the car,” he says. “Then I sit there and say a small prayer, but once the car fires up, I’m ready to rock and roll full throttle.” In the first session, he won the first round with a 600-foot wheelie. “The second session, I was on a good run, but the planetaries in my power glide decided not to finish,” he says. DragRacingScene.com 73
“The gear set blew up at 100 mph while I was vertical. I came down pretty hard.” Pearce bought his Pinto to have fun but quickly found out it liked to do wheelies. The bigger the wheelies got, the more people came around to see him with his car. “We did a really big wheelie at Great Lakes one-week last year,” he says. “Everybody started telling me I needed to come to Byron for this event. We came for the first time in 2016 and did okay, but not great. I won the highest award which is respectable. I learned some things and changed some front suspension over the winter. I added Coilover shocks and some safety bars. The only change I make in my setup for this race is I take the wheelie bars off.” The Pinto doesn’t do a typical wheelie. With the new engine in place, the car went up and down three times on the first run. “The back tires came off the ground three times,” Pearce says. “The second time it went higher than the first. Everybody told me I was great on the throttle in and out. No dude, I never took my foot off the pedal; it was floored the whole run. I have a John Force saying on my back window ‘Don’t lift until you see Elvis.’ That’s how we run; I make the pass and pick up the pieces afterward.” Greg Broshous got the Most Unique Wheelie award in his Chevy II. This was a repeat win for him as he also won it in 2016. He runs the only straight axle car in the competition and also has the only car still running a clutch.
Chris Butcher gets his love for wheelies from his dad, who also owned a bracket racing ’64 Chevelle station wagon that raised the front tires off the ground. Chris’ Malibu has made 450-foot wheelies at Mt. Park Dragway on a regular basis. 74 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Kyle Dumke was one of three cars left in Midwest Top Sportsman at the end of the day.
“It can be a handful,” he says. “Over the years, I’ve had good luck keeping it off the wall. I’m known for the multiple bounces the car takes after the wheelie comes down. It goes surprisingly straight for what it does.” Broshous knows he is one of the more quiet guys in the competition. He takes the day’s action pretty seriously and focuses on what he is doing, but doesn’t forget about the spectators. “I don’t get too excited,” he says. “I am pretty serious while I’m going down the track. It’s all about the fun and the spectators more than anything. If it weren’t for them, I probably wouldn’t be doing it.” Chris Butcher came to the competition for the first time this year, traveling up to Byron from the Mid-South. The Kentucky racer had been at the Bracket Finals in Memphis, going to Byron immediately following the completion of that event.
“I’ve always enjoyed the wheelie stuff,” Butcher says. “It’s in my blood. My dad loved it. The Wheel Standing Championships at Byron pay a lot of money too. So, I decided I wanted to come up and try my luck. That Ambrosini guy is hard to beat, but there are other ways to win. I won second place in the GM Manufacturers Awards.” The only change Butcher made to his Malibu station wagon between the bracket finals and the wheelie contest was turning the two-step up from 2500 to 3000. “The car doesn’t drag the back bumper until you turn the two-step up,” he says. “I got a few pointers from some of the other racers that should help me next time. When it gets on the bumper, it wants to turn right or left. That’s what happened to me; it picked the left tire off the ground.” Butcher ended up with some damage to the Malibu but didn’t let that deter him.
“I busted a windshield when the hood came down and cracked it,” he says. “The first round, I had trouble when I pulled out of the water box, and it just didn’t have any power when I gave it gas. It broke a rocker arm and two polylocks, so I was down two cylinders. When it landed, it didn’t pick the tires up. That put me on the ropes in the final round when I really needed it. Unexpected parts breakage is part of racing.” The wheelie cars run two sessions during the event, and between rounds the crowds flocked to the pits to talk to their favorite racers. “Every kid who comes to my pits gets a free picture of our car,” Pearce says. “Without the kids and their parents, it’s not fun. The race has such a family atmosphere with Moms and Dads bringing their kids. We won the first round, and we were mobbed in the pits which was fantastic. My wife, Cheryl, helped me keep track so that I could sign autographs and talk to all of the people and not miss anybody. This is all new to me. I’m a two car garage mechanic, and I work my tail off to do this. I’m not used to this attention, but it was great.” Butcher didn’t expect the attention he would receive as an out-of-the-area racer and was overwhelmed. “All those people were walking around and asking me for autographs,” he says. “I want to have some t-shirts made and some pictures for the kids too. It’s very different than a bracket race. This is a lot more fun, and I really enjoyed it.” Ambrosini is an old hat when it comes to the between-round craziness. That’s a big part of what keeps bringing him back again and again. “It’s crazy,” he says. “People come to see the car and come talk to me. I’m trying to do my between rounds maintenance, but I don’t want to ignore them. They’re the whole reason we all do this crazy stuff on the track. It’s amazing to see 6,000 spectators coming to watch us do this when the grandstands are typically empty for a bracket race.” After the adrenaline-filled day was over, Pearce was grateful for the experience he had at the event. “The whole thing is surreal,” he says. “I had a GoPro and a Kodak 360 cam inside my car, so I’ll have the video to remember it by. It’s a two-hour ride home, and we did lots of thinking and talking about this year. We also started planning for next year.” Butcher whole-heartedly agreed with that sentiment. “I can’t wait until next year,” he says. “I wish it were here already.” DRS
We’re not certain if the flying parts counted in the height measurement, but Chris Pearce won the Highest Wheelstand Award with his Pinto.
Andre Harris made it to the semi-finals of Midwest Top Sportsman before the race was called due to curfew.
Judd Coffman’s ‘67 Shelby got the win in the Top Dog Shootout. DragRacingScene.com 75
ALCOHOL IS FOR RACING
Moonshiners reality TV personality uses drag racing for relaxation Words: Todd Silvey Photos: John Fisher
When Josh Owens gets free time away from the cameras, he still loves racing his ‘53 Chevy gasser aptly named White Lightning.
J
osh Owens is a good old country boy who, for the past seven years, has been one of the stars of the Discovery Channel show Moonshiners. He’s also a gearhead who loves fast vehicles and races motorcycles, dirt track cars, and most recently, his ’53 Chevrolet gasser. “I’ve always been into anything that goes fast,” Owens says. “I’m able to get the maximum out of my machines and have worked on motors. I’m not a motor builder by any means, but I’ve built several motors.” Owens is kept pretty busy when it’s time to film Moonshiners, so he very much enjoys his off-time. He got started in the gasser movement through friends Gene Fulton and Quain Stott. “I’ve wanted to race drag cars for a while,” he says. “I know Gene Fulton pretty well and have spent a lot of time with him and Quain. Quain lives just down the road from me, and I’ve known his family all my life. I had been racing dirt track for a long time and also the motorcycles. I called Quain and had a conversation with him about drag racing and let him know I’d like to get into the sport.” It wasn’t long after that Quain called him back and talked him into getting a car together. “I’ve had the ’53 Chevrolet together since the middle of last year,” Ow76 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Owens runs for packed tracks with the Southeast Gassers Association. He enjoys the camaraderie of the group and the family atmosphere between the racers and the fans.
The ‘53 Chevy is all race car, but the interior features a bench/bucket seat ‘just like Grandma used to go get groceries,’ Josh says. ‘It gives the car a real gasser feel’.
Power comes from this 331c.i. small block Chevy nestled within the framerails. Josh helped build the motor, but thanks Quain Stott for his help in getting the car ready to run.
Fans will recognize Josh from the reality TV show, Moonshiners.
ens says. “We were looking for a gasser, and that’s what we came across. I have always liked those old Chevys, so when we found this one, it was perfect.” The ’53 Chevy was basically a roller when he first got the car. Stott worked with Owens to get it running and has helped out a lot since then. The car has a 331c.i. small-block
power is provided by drum brakes in the back and discs on the front. The interior is a little bit unusual for a drag car in that it has a bench seat in place. “The inside is a stripped-down car, nothing fancy,” Owens says. “No cool stuff in there like colored windows. I’m a let’s go racing kind of guy. But, I
Chevy for power with solid lifter cam, tunnel ram, and dual carburetors. He, like many of the other gassers, uses a Hightower 4-speed transmission. Best ET to date is 6.68. There is a 9-inch Ford rear end under the car with a 5:40 gear ratio. Rear suspension is leaf spring. The gasser sports slotted wheels on drag slicks. Stopping
DragRacingScene.com 77
do have a bench seat in there like your grandma uses to get her groceries. I’ve got the five-point harness and all of the safety equipment in place, but that bench seat just takes me back to the gasser style.” Coming from a dirt track background, Owens marvels at the difference in the people who go drag racing. “At dirt track races, the racers are getting a lot dirtier all around,” Owens says. “I mean, if somebody is doing well, the racers will go out and put that guy into the wall to take him out of the game. I’m a clean racer; that’s not how I want to operate. If I have breakage at a dragstrip, it won’t be long before somebody is bringing me over the part I need to fix it and even helping me put it in the car so that I can run them the next round. You just don’t see that in any other sport.” Owens enjoys racing with the Southeast Gasser Association and feels like a part of their family. “I can’t tell you enough about this group,” he says. “It is like a great big family reunion of people I get to see every few weeks. I really enjoy spending time with all of them. They’ve really made me feel like one of them, and I am so glad the group and Quain are having so much success.” He has used his TV show, as well as his fan base, to spread the word about his drag racing efforts. “I have Turtleman (Animal Planet reality star) coming to Shadyside Dragway,” Owens says. “We’re going to run our pickup trucks down the strip side-by-side and have a good time. I have had flyers made up for the show as something to sign for the fans, and mine has Southeast Gasser information on it, as well. So every time I spread my name out there to the fans, I also spread Southeast Gassers all over the country.” He feels very lucky to have found great success with the show and still be able to enjoy his hobby. Filming keeps him busy when the crew is in town, and he has very little free time during those periods. He says it varies from a couple of days at a time to as many as four weeks of filming to put the shows together. During those times, he doesn’t have time to relax, so when he can get to the track, he enjoys it to the fullest. “Racing wouldn’t be racing without alcohol,” Owens says. “It all goes together. I’m just an all-American damn old country boy. I just like competition, I like the fellowship and having a good time. I like speed, and I like making moonshine. I’m just a crazy man.” DRS 78 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
It’s the people that make it all fun and worthwhile. Josh is often surrounded by fans asking for autographs at every event. He takes the opportunity to hand out cards touting not only his TV show, but also the Southeast Gassers.
Cam Timing Quarter Mile AND THE
Thoughts on power curves and acceleration rates
Words & Photos: Jeff Smith
O
ne of the best places where a drag race engine can improve power is by optimizing the camshaft. This might seem barely worthy of comment. Except that where you choose to emphasize that increase in power should be of considerable interest. Often, small changes to an otherwise healthy combination can be worth lower ETs. You just need to know where to look. The usual investigations into a power curve almost always emphasize peak rpm as the most logical place to begin the search for more power. But even drag race engines don’t run only at peak rpm. Internal combustion engines operate over a rather large rpm spread between launch and peak engine speed, and it is that rpm band where attention is necessary for gains to be achieved. An interesting story gives light to this idea. This scene played out many years ago in the NHRA Pro Stock pits. One particular team — a consistent Top 8 qualifier — commented its A engine made more peak power than the B engine. The second engine had a slightly different parts combination, yet it ran considerably quicker than the supposedly “better” A engine. The difference was that the B engine made more power in the middle of the power band. What if we offered up the approach that emphasizes looking at an engine’s overall power curve and includes investigating how the car accelerates down the track. From this, we might take clues as to how to take advantage of the current combination. There is always talk about “the combination” 80 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
but usually not much more specific than that. The combination includes the engine’s power curve, rear gear ratio, trans ratios, tire diameter, converter stall speed, and probably a dozen more variables, but these few will suffice for the sake of this discussion. For our purposes, we’re going to use the QUARTER Pro drag strip simulator and input data for a 9.80-second doorslammer. The power inputs aren’t really all that critical at this point — the engine is a 502c.i. big-block Chevy making 700 hp with a three-speed automatic and a 4.56:1 rear gear. Besides delivering a fairly accurate estimate of acceleration through the entire run, the most interesting aspect of the simulation is something called the engine rpm histogram. The histogram displays a bar graph of the time spent at different rpm points as the car accelerates through the quarter mile. As you can see in this particular application, the engine does not spend much time at peak horsepower. Instead, a typical pass sees the engine residing on either side of the histogram’s 5,600-rpm peak point. Conversely, the engine spends the least amount of time at the converter’s stall speed — which is understandable — but also much less time at or near peak horsepower, 6,600 to 7,000. This means that modifying the engine (including a potentially different camshaft) that will emphasize power above 6,000 rpm would not return as much in terms of improved acceleration. Instead, it might pay off with additional work spent on improving power around 5,600 rpm, because that’s
Chart 1 - Cam Specs A Cam
Duration Duration Valve (Advertised) (at 0.050) Lift
Lobe
Comp Mechanical Roller A (intake)
294
261
0.734
110
Comp Cams Mechanical A (exhaust)
303
270
0.737
Comp Mechanical Roller B (intake)
294
261
0.734
Comp Cams Mechanical B (exhaust)
307
274
0.740
Sep.
106
where the engine spends the majority of its time. This might seem counter-intuitive at first, but the reality of reducing the ET will benefit from this approach. It falls into line with improving peak torque, which on this application falls roughly right around 5,600 rpm. Much of this has to do with the combination of parts as much as it does with the engine. As an example, substituting a deeper rear gear and reducing the First gear ratio in a TH400 to reduce the rpm drop between gears would be one way to drop the ET. This assumes you’re making good power, yet might not be affordable. However, this will change the shape of the histogram because the rpm drop between gears will diminish. This allows the engine builder to narrow the power band and concentrate on making more power within a more confined range. Returning to the engine, we’ll use a 700-hp 502c.i. bigblock Chevy as our example. An initial dyno test put this engine at a solid 701 hp at 6,400 rpm with 10.5:1 compression, a pair of rectangle port AFR heads, and a relatively mild COMP solid roller cam with specs listed in our Cam Specs A chart. Our engine pushes a hypothetical 3,200-pound Camaro to high 9.80s at 138 mph. The idea is to evaluate ways to improve performance by slightly adjusting the cam specs. We will use
the QUARTER Pro simulator to evaluate the changes we try on the engine. But before we get to the hard numbers, let’s take a look at some basic camshaft parameters to make sure everybody is on the same page. While most enthusiasts tend to focus on the intake side of the engine tuning equation, the exhaust side is also critical. It’s often possible to extend the engine’s peak power point by experimenting with the exhaust side. Maximum valve lift is often not as critical as duration, which is why you will see nearly all peak power camshafts with much longer exhaust duration numbers. This is important because as engine speed increases, it requires more time (in terms of degrees of duration) to expel the exhaust gas. By giving the engine the exhaust event duration it needs, an increase in power is often the result. Once a given exhaust duration is chosen, the next step can affect the power curve by determining the opening and closing points. As an example, we built a strong, 434c.i. small-block Chevy for a stout normally-aspirated street race motor, but during dyno testing, it appeared the engine was not achieving its best peak power potential. Since we were using a mechanical roller cam, we reduced the lash on the exhaust side by 0.006 inch from 0.020 to 0.014 inch. This change alone improved the power from just above peak torque to a new peak horsepower number. The change in lash effectively increased the duration slightly, and when the engine responded, it was clear the engine needed more exhaust duration. Sometimes tuners can confuse lobe separation angle with this effect. The lobe separation angle (lsa) does affect engine performance, but should not really be used as a deciding factor. Keep in mind that any potential change to the lsa can only be effected by grinding a new camshaft. This is because the lsa is a fixed point created by the intersection of the intake and exhaust lobes. It’s also important to mention that lsa does not always refer to a fixed amount of overlap. The number of degrees of overlap is created as the result of lobe duration and the in-
We used the QUARTER Pro drag race simulation program to illustrate how shifting the power curve can affect acceleration. This screen reveals the car’s acceleration throughout the entire pass. We will concentrate on the histogram report.
If you’re familiar with cam specs, then you’ve seen this illustration before. The small triangle in the center of the two lift curves is the amount of overlap present with this particular camshaft. By moving either the intake or the exhaust centerline, the amount of overlap changes.
There are secrets hidden in these eccentrics, and sometimes a subtle shift in shape can mean measurable gains.
DragRacingScene.com 81
take and exhaust centerlines. As an example, the COMP mechanical roller for the big-block has an intake centerline of 108 degrees ATDC and an exhaust centerline of 108 degrees BTDC. Adding the two numbers together and dividing by 2 gives us a 108-degree lsa. The lsa can be misleading because what we’re really looking at is the relationship of the intake lobe duration relative to the exhaust lobe. COMP Cams has created a nice illustration that offers a simple tool to visualize this relationship that creates overlap. We call this area the magic triangle. Lsa or overlap can also be altered by moving either the exhaust or intake centerlines. As an example, if we retarded the exhaust centerline by two degrees on a cam with a 108 lsa, this would increase the overlap by two degrees while altering to a tighter lsa from 108 to 107 degrees. Of course, changing the intake centerline will affect the lsa. But more importantly, moving the intake centerline also directly affects the intake closing point, which should be undertaken most carefully as this is the most important of the valve opening and closing points. As an example of changing the power curve, we’ve adjusted the power from the baseline on our 502c.i. big-block to reduce power below peak torque, while slightly improving the power from peak torque to peak horsepower in an effort to improve acceleration. This represents a modest gain in average torque, while actually producing a slight loss in average horsepower over the entire rpm test run from 3,000 to 6,600. But because the gain is concentrated in the area where the engine operates for the longest period of time, there is a measurable, yet modest improvement. Another approach might be to evaluate your existing cam lobe configuration. In the last few years, many cam companies have made significant advancements in lobe design. We spoke with COMP’s Billy Godbold, who told us that tight lash cams, for example, are really not something new and that racers have for years changed lash to effect improvements. The latest advancements in lobe design can be found in COMP’s current Master Lobe Catalog. When we asked Godbold how to evaluate one lobe versus another, it’s not as simple as just looking for the lobe with the greatest valve lift per degrees of duration. Godbold put it this way: “The lobes that are bigger at 0.200 inch almost always make more power, but you need to think about spring life and stability, as well.” There’s an entire story that can be generated from that one statement because there’s so much there, but we’ll use COMP’s Master Lobe catalog to offer a comparison. Taking our example cam in the spec chart, it uses an RX series mechanical roller lobe. For the sake of comparison, we will change the specs slightly to a 263 degree at 0.050 lobe to
Lobe Number
Rated Duration
Degrees Duration
RX 4308
296
@ .050 263
NJF 14768
288
262
@ .020
@ .200 181
189
Lobe Lift
compare to a newer COMP NJF lobe. We’ve put the numbers into Lobe Chart B. Right off, the overall duration numbers are within one degree, so the comparison is very close. Note that in lobe lift, it would appear the RX lobe has an ever-so-slight advantage, but the real comparison is with the duration at 0.200-inch lobe lift. The NJF lobe measures 189 degrees of duration, while the more conservative RX lobe offers an 8-degree shorter 181 degrees. This NJF’s added duration creates more area under the valve lift curve, which means with this more aggressive lobe, the lifter achieves the 0.200-inch lift point that much sooner, creating the additional duration. Part of the increased acceleration rate of the NJF lobe is its shorter, tight hot lash spec of 0.014 inch. With a shorter clearance ramp, it will begin to accelerate the lifter that much sooner than the RX lobe with a longer, 0.020-inch lash dimension. The more aggressive lobe means the engine could theoretically run with shorter seat timing to achieve greater power, which also means it could build more torque at peak and within the power band. FAST’s David Henninger has decades of experience with a wide variety of race power plants that includes winning the very first Super Street race back in the early days of Fastest Street Car drag racing. He offered an excellent point that today’s generation of cylinder heads have now drastically improved flow rates, even down as low as 0.200-inch of valve lift,
This is a snapshot of one small section of COMP Cam’s Master Lobe catalog. COMP Cams’ Billy Godbold offers the suggestion that looking for a cam that will deliver a higher degree of duration at 0.200-inch tappet lift will most often benefit performance, as long as the valvetrain maintains control.
Tappet Lift @ TDC
Theoretical Valve Lift @ "0" Lash Rocker Arm Ratio
106°
110°
1.7:1
1.8:1
0.432
0.134
0.118
0.734
0.777
0.430
0.147
0.130
0.731
0.774
Looking at this Lobe Chart, our comparison lobes show very little difference in terms of duration (at 0.050) or in valve lift. However, at 0.200-inch tappet lift, the NJF lobe reveals 8 degrees more duration at this lift point, revealing that it accelerated the valve between 0.050 and 0.200 quite a bit quicker than the RX lobe. 82 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
RPM 3,000 3,200 3,400 3,600 3,800 4,000 4,200 4,400 4,600 4,800 5,000 5,200 5,400 5,600 5,800 6,000 6,200 6,400 6,600 AVG
TQ1 514 528 544 547 545 552 564 576 586 590 593 600 603 601 598 595 588 575 557 571.3
HP1 294 322 352 375 395 421 451 482 513 539 565 594 621 640 660 680 695 701 700 526.3
TQ2 496 511 526 530 529 540 552 566 580 592 598 610 613 610 608 605 598 590 568 569.5
HP2 283 311 340 363 383 411 441 474 508 541 569 604 630 650 671 691 706 719 713 526.7
Avg. TQ (3,000 to 6,600):
-1.8 lb-ft
Avg. HP (3,000 to 6,600):
+ 0.4
Peak HP:
+ 18 HP
Avg. TQ (4,800 to 6,600)
+ 9 HP
Avg. HP (4,800 to 6,600)
+9.9
This is a graph of the dyno curve listed in the story. Note that by shifting the power curve up with slight changes to the cam timing, this moved the power up into an area where the car can take advantage of the improvement.
This simple graph tells a great story. If we want to drop that ET number on the time slip, then concentrating engine power within the area where the car spends a majority of its time would be the right way to go about affecting this change. As you can see, the engine spends the most amount of time in this report around 5,600 rpm and very little time at peak horsepower rpm.
which matches very nicely with these new generation camshafts that push acceleration rates. This is just a quick look at some of the advantages of the newer lobes. If you are intrigued by this concept, the best way to learn is to find the latest COMP Master Lobe Catalog online and compare the newer lobes to your current cam. It will no doubt be enlightening. COMP is just like most other cam companies in that they can quickly and easily build a custom cam with your specified intake and exhaust lobes, along with intake centerline and lsa numbers. If the nuances surrounding those specs might be beyond your knowledge base, talking with one of COMP’s tech advisors is the best way to learn. It’s as easy as calling their tech line and asking a couple of questions. DRS Sources: COMP Cams, compcams.com; QUARTER Pro, racingsecrets.com
DragRacingScene.com 83
Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing
Chuck DeMory’s high school car is now a highly updated Pro-Modified. In his first year, he’s fighting gremlins he hopes to have sorted by 2018.
NMRA racers get revenge in this year’s run-off
T
he name of Super Bowl evokes visions of a big championship; it is a culmination of the season of hard work and effort. NMCA/ NMRA’s Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing fulfills that image with its stop at Route 66 Raceway each year. The 2017 event happened in July and was the fourth of six events on the NMCA/NMRA schedule. This unique race is compiled from 30 race classes, split between National Muscle Car Association and National Mustang Racers Association. After they compete in their own categories, the NMCA and NMRA winners square off against each other in a runoff for the year’s bragging rights. The event brings in one of the highest car counts for the associations each year and this year was no exception. Racers from all over the world came to Joliet’s Route 66 Raceway in July and brought their A-game. They were racing not only for the bragging rights but also for those amazing Diamond Tree rings. The rings are formed into the shape of drag racing’s Christmas tree and sparkle with ruby, diamond, and emerald stones. In 2016, the NMCA racers earned the majority of class wins and the rings, so NMRA racers came to this 84 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Words: Todd Silvey Photos: Bill Swanson
NMRA racer Manny Buginga was victorious over his NMCA competitor to earn the win in the combined Street Outlaw category.
Marty Stinnett battled his way to the title in the Mickey Thompson Tires Radial Wars class.
year’s event hungry for redemption. The weather was perfect for the entire weekend, and records fell throughout the event, adding to the building excitement for the run-off. Xtreme Pro Mod is one of the toughest categories to compete in, with turbocharged, supercharged, and nitrous-powered beasts competing head to head. The fans love the character of these cars and are on their feet cheering for their favorites. One of Chicago’s favorite sons is Chuck DeMory, Jr., who competes with his “old high school car.” “My Procharger Mustang started life as a street car, morphing through the years into a Jerry Bickel double tubeframed Pro Mod chassis,” DeMory says. “I continued modifying it from there into the Pro Mod it is today.” DeMory has had a tough year, losing dad Chuck DeMory Sr. recently to a battle with cancer. “For the past year, I haven’t focused on my car, so this was our first year out with the combination we had put together. We had limited test time outside of a dyno, and then a couple of pulls on the racetrack is all. We didn’t end up qualifying for the show at Joliet, but got a great reception from the crowds.” He spoke about Xtreme Pro Mod and the cars in the class today. “I was at Jerry Bickel’s shop three weeks ago and looking at the way the cars are engineered today for this class,”
DeMory says. “Most of the chassis are built exactly alike and mount the carbon fiber body onto the chassis itself. That’s the opposite from older cars where the builder constructed the frame and then everything else was engineered around the chassis. The technology they have in these cars today is amazing. The way it allows you to apply the power to the racetrack is a new animal these days. Xtreme Pro Mod is a more affordable way for a racer to get into Pro Mod for those who are not independently wealthy or supported by a large sponsor. I congratulate Billy Banaka on figuring the class out and getting the win at Joliet in Pro Mod.” Pro Stock also had a huge following in the grandstands. Kevin Lawrence impressed the crowds with his 7.19 number one qualifying pass in his Cobalt and earned his win against Pete Pawlak in the final. “I like the class because it’s an alternative for me,” Lawrence says. “It’s a little difficult to build a car for and get right out there, and it’s been short notice. The class wasn’t definite for competition until January of this year. It’s a good alternative to the other associations because you don’t have full-time teams here. This is more fun.” Pro Stock is still a small category, with just six cars competing this year. But, Lawrence has spoken to about 12 guys who are trying to build cars for
next year. He was pleased overall with the weekend of racing. “We had some growing pains this weekend,” he says. “I had to finish the final from Bowling Green and was out ahead and broke a push rod. I lost that round, but came back after fixing the push rod and won the Super Bowl. In the run-off, I got beat up pretty bad in the lights spotting the guy for the Super Bowl ring and lost. I hope I can represent NMCA better next year because I do like the concept. It is a lot of fun.” After getting past a few of his own hurdles, Manny Buginga got the win in the combined NMCA/NMRA Street Outlaw class. “We had both cars out there for the weekend and had issues with both of them,” he says. “We had to swap out a transmission, and then we had an electrical gremlin cause us to smoke the tires on a test session. We got a handle on it, and we just started making laps.” Buginga’s car is a ’03 Cobra with a Skinny Kids-built chassis. It has a Turbonetics 98mm turbo, and 400c.i. billet head motor. He uses a Proformance Turbo 400 two-speed transmission, with a Neal Chance converter and AMS boost control. He holds both ends of the record with the car, running 4.33 at 177 mph in both NMRA and NMCA. “We had a great year, and the Super Bowl was a deciding factor for us,” Buginga says. “We won the championship in
Victory is not new to Leonard Long and his Mustang, as he won another NA 10.5 class title over Marty Thiesen.
DragRacingScene.com 85
NMRA and runnered-up in NMCA. It was really a turning point for us to win the race and then win the Super Bowl. That was huge for us.” They’ll be ready for next year with just a little massaging of components and some improvements. “Everybody is on the same page looking for an edge,” he says. “We’re no better than anyone else. We just work really hard at it with our stuff and just try to stay ahead of the curve a little bit. Without my wife and crew to help me, I couldn’t do any of it. It also helps that we recently got sponsorship from Lucas Oil, and we really want to thank them, AMS, Nick and Rich Bruder, Atomizer, and Disomma Racing Engines.” Jeff Rudolf had an exciting, yet tense path to his win in Nitrous Pro Street. His engine was hurt in the second round, and then they had a small backfire in the lanes. In the semi-finals, he hurt the motor at the 1000 foot mark and burned a piston, but still had enough to get around his competitor. “In the final against Jill Hicks, we knew the motor was hurt,” he says. “We had a blown head gasket and hole in the piston along with damage to the head. We pulled the plug out of that hole and kept it from getting any fuel in there. We made it look like we were okay to run. I was going to stage against Jill just on the off-chance she would redlight or spun the tires.” They got lucky, and that’s exactly what happened for the Rudolf team. “We went out there on seven cylinders, she spun the tires, and we crept around her,” he says. “We had drained all of the oil out of the car and pulled the water out to make sure we didn’t dump anything on the track. We got down to the end of the track and told her and her crew chief that I was on seven cylinders since the end of the semis. She said, ‘no way.’ She was kicking herself pretty good, but she’s a good sport. We tried to run the Super Bowl on seven cylinders after that but didn’t have more luck. The car had all it could take by then.” Rudolf’s car is a ’69 Nova and per the Nitrous Pro Street rules, has to weigh in at 3050 pounds with their 530c.i. engine. “They limit us to a 44 nitrous jet with one stage of nitrous,” he says. “We can use dual carburetors, but have to add 50 pounds. Certain rules change as you go, but the big factor is the cubic inches. It is for most parts, a level playing field.” Nitrous Pro Street is a tough class to win. Most of the racers who do well have been competing in it for a while. 86 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Kevin Lawrence qualified number one in Pro Stock and held on to earn the win in the final round over Pete Pawlak.
Jeff Rudolf nursed seven cylinders to a win in Nitrous Pro Street. He got lucky when final round opponent Jill Hicks spun the tires and let him get across the finish.
Multi-time champion Dave Duell added another win to his roster with a win in Nostalgia Super Stock in his Fury wagon.
“In my third year, I was able to run for the championship,” Rudolf says. “I was only one round short of winning the championship this year. I only had to win one round at the final race of the year, but ran into more issues and couldn’t make it happen.” There was plenty of excitement as competition wound down in the other categories. Huge wheelstands, record-setting runs, and more kept things moving along to the final rounds. Every category provided something for the spectators to enjoy. Once the winners were named in NMCA and NMRA classes, those competitors returned to take on the other association to see who could claim the championship rings and the pride for the most wins. This is when the racers really get into the act. The entire Rudolf team got into the spirit of things when they dressed as Santa and elves and stood on the starting line to cheer the NMCA racers on in the run-off against NMRA. That roused the crowds into a huge frenzy, and they cheered every pair down the track. NMRA won the runoff this year 9-5. That put a close to the 12th Annual NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing, but we’re sure the fans will be rehashing this one for a long time. DRS
Scott Masielski’s day ended early as he fouled in the first round of Nitrous Pro Street. DragRacingScene.com 87
COMICS, CLUTCHES, AND CAPES Words: Elliott Aldrich
Caleb Cox is all about 10,000-hp funny cars at a Comic-Con event
I
ndianapolis hosts Comic-Con in the spring, which probably escapes the radar of a traditional motorsports fan. This event has diehard fans just like your average motorsports event, but may have you trading your favorite driver’s garb in for a handmade lightsaber. You’re more likely to see the Hulk strolling around the concourse than Matt Hagan flexing in victory lane. If you’re going to a Comic-Con event, it is unlikely you will be talking to someone about a 10,000-hp funny car going 1,000 feet down the drag strip. You never know who you’re going to run into at the event, though. I had the good fortune to meet the head superhero, aka Cruz Pedregon’s Racing General Manager Caleb Cox. I saw Cox’s plans to attend Indiana Comic-Con on social media and reached out to him. Tracking each other down at the event became more of a chore than planned, due to Cox’s event attire. He was dressed casually compared to the other event attendees, wearing a simple red Power Ranger shirt. The actor who played the original Red Power Ranger was at the event signing autographs for fans, so thousands of people were wearing their favorite Power Ranger apparel. Finally finding each other, we talked about everything from superheroes to NHRA funny cars. 88 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Cox has been with Cruz Pedregon Racing for five years, but admits he was not on the conventional path to the NHRA. “My background in racing is not much,” Cox says.” My dad has been a drag race fan since the ’70s. He’s been to the U.S. Nationals every year, and I raced motocross for about nine years before I played college football at Indiana State University.” The Brownsburg, Indiana, native was a linebacker for the division one college but still needed to complete his degree. “I needed an internship to graduate,” Cox says. “There wasn’t anything available working with football. My dad was a drag racing fan, so I knew all the teams had shops in Brownsburg. I sent resumés to some teams and didn’t hear anything for a while.”
Becoming general manager for Cruz Pedregon Racing was not an overnight occurrence. Cox had to make ends meet, so he found a job. Luckily, a phone call led him to greener pastures and a career in motorsports. “I was working at Lowe’s,” Cox says. “Then, the team manager for Cruz called me and said their assistant was out on maternity leave and would I be willing to go on the road. I said if it means finishing my internship, let’s do it. I traveled with them from Bristol to the world finals while I was in school.” Cox’s internship finished his education, so he also thought it was the end of his tenure with Pedregon. He was set for a different career path that revealed itself less than ideal. “I graduated, and thanks to Cruz, it was awesome,” Cox says. “I got a job as a sports agent. I was representing some NFL and NBA players and soon was thinking, ‘16 hours a day at the office, man, I miss drag racing.’”
After working the grueling hours in the sports agency world, a phone call would reunite Cox with Pedregon. This time it would be for good. “Cruz called to ask me to go to West Palm Beach as a test,” Cox says. “It was January in Indiana, so I went to Florida. After a few days there, Cruz asked if I wanted to manage the race team. I was like, ‘you’re going to turn over your race team to a 22-year-old kid?’” Everything has worked out well for Cox and the team. “This is my fifth season, and we still have a team and a good sponsor (laugh),” Cox says. In comic books, the lead character often needs to adapt to be successful when plotted against by the main antagonist. Cox has adapted to his role, which is quite diverse when heading the efforts of a top-tier, single-car team. “It’s a lot, especially with us being a small team,” Cox says. “You have the Force’s and the Schumacher’s crews, and then we have 13 full-time employees. I handle sponsorships, contract negotiations, media, PR, and at the track, I’m working on the car too. I’m helping with the blowers, fuel, parachutes, and all of Cruz’s safety stuff. I’m not like most other GMs you see walking around in golf shirts; I’m in there getting my hands dirty with the guys trying to win.” At a place like Indiana Comic-Con, some may wonder how this culture can relate to anything motorsports. Race fans regularly cheer on their favorite drivers. You may enjoy seeing John Force walking around in his dirty fire suit or stand at the ropes to see Cruz Pedregon in his flat-billed hat. Nearly all drivers are friendly and willing to interact with the fans, but Cox explained how a driver transforms into the ultra-competitive personality who hits the track. “When you put on that helmet and racing suit, you feel like a superhero,” Cox says. “You try to get your mind to where you’re not yourself. My nitro helmet is painted as ‘Venom,’ and when I put my helmet on, I’m trying to be mean and nasty; I’m not trying to be who I normally am. I’m nice, humble, respectable, and laid back, but when it’s competition time, it’s on.” Cox not only works on the car and the team operations, but he also races. He is currently in the licensing process and hopes to be topping 300 mph by the end of the year. “I’m licensing in the A/Fuel car, and we’re going to try and get into the nitro car soon,” he says. “If we can find funding, we may explore a second nitro car.
I’m working on the A/Fuel license, so I can race the nostalgia car that is currently sitting in the shop.” The Pedregon team may compare to David and Goliath, but being the smaller team doesn’t mean anyone should ever count them out. “Look at the budgets of the teams we race,” Cox says. “They’re at $5 million a car, and we’re at half that. We are not afraid of anybody we race. Every time we pull that car up to the line, it’s the quickest and fastest car in the world. We just have to get it together to make sure it goes down the track.” Cruz Pedregon Racing may not have a Bruce Wayne budget like some of the larger teams on the NHRA circuit, but being competitive in the NHRA is a tough endeavor regardless of funds. Money certainly does play a factor, but Cox states it may be more about how many cars you have in the Batcave more than the money you spend. “It’s all about data,” he says about the success of a larger team. “Force has three funny cars and a dragster. Schumacher has four funny cars and four dragsters. We’ve got us. So, if we make one little change, it may take three or four runs to get a handle on it. Everybody else has three cars they can throw it into and see what happens. It takes us a little bit longer.” Data may be the main issue for a competitive team, but the financial side has been one of the more difficult parts to manage. To keep a competitive team takes a lot of money, and Cruz Pedregon Racing is no exception to the struggle for extra capital. “Funding is the hardest part,” Cox says. “It’s hard to find sponsors willing to pony up. You need $2.5 million to be competitive. You can run on $1.5 million, but you’re going to qualify 16th or not at all. You use every penny.”
Despite the difficulty of getting sponsors, Cox believes NHRA has a successful formula for a stable future, due to the fan experience being one of the most interactive in all of the sports. Many superheroes try to keep their identities secret, but the drivers of the NHRA are available to meet fans at nearly any point in the competition. Referencing the beginning of this piece, you will recall Caleb wearing a simple red Power Rangers shirt. It may have been more fitting than Cox had realized. If you grew up in the ’90s, the red ranger was the leader of the original Power Rangers series. The Power Rangers seemed to always start as the underdog, but always prevailed in the end. Caleb may not be fighting your average everyday supervillains in the same sense as the beloved Power Rangers, but he leads his team to the track every weekend to give Cruz Pedregon a car capable of beating the Goliaths in the NHRA. He has the savvy to work with sponsors, the versatility to get his hands dirty on the car, and the competitiveness to win. He may not be the red Power Ranger, but when it’s time to step to the challenge, he and the rest of Cruz Pedregon Racing won’t back down from a challenge. DRS
DragRacingScene.com 89
Crankshaft Capable Crank tech: Cast vs Forged
90  Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Words: Richard Holdener
D
rag race engines ranging from street and strip to mega-horsepower monster motors have varying levels of crankshafts with features and capabilities from mild to bulletproof. The old adage “speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?� is balanced by not wasting money on a crankshaft that handles more horsepower than you need. The mere fact we have come to expect a crankshaft weighing 40, 50, or 60 pounds (or more) to rotate 100 times per second means the component at least deserves our attention (if not outright applause). So much is expected of a crankshaft that we thought it might be a good idea to take a closer look at the differences between the two most popular types. We also asked Mike McLaughlin, tech consultant at Lunati, to give us a few recommendations of how he determines what type of crank a given engine needs. Everyone knows that a forged steel crank is stronger than a cast crank, but there is a great deal more information than this simplistic view might suggest. Given the interrelated dynamics of the internal combustion engine, it might be hard to select one component as THE most important, but rest assured, no engine will run without
the all-important crankshaft. The truth is that the top-side trio, namely heads, cam, and intake, get all the love when talk turns to performance, but no less important is that hefty chunk of spinning metal buried deep within. Most enthusiasts seem content in their knowledge that a forged crank is superior to its cast counterpart, but did you know that the many forged cranks differ in their forging process, material, heat treatment, and finishing process? The term forged crank has become all but generic, but the differences can
be as significant as those between a casting and forging itself. For the uninitiated, the two major differences between cast and forged cranks include the material and forming process. As the name suggests, cast cranks are created by pouring molten material (typically cast iron) into a mold to create a raw casting. The benefits of this process casting include lower cost, inexpensive tooling, and minimal machining required to produce a finished product. Given the list of benefits, it is not surprising that the vast majority of OEM cranks are created using this process. By contrast, forged cranks are created by placing a hot chunk of rolled steel between two forming dies. Pressure supplied by a forging press is used to force the rolled steel into the basic shape of a crankshaft. When combined with the proper material, the forging process obviously produces a stronger product, but neither the forging process nor the materials involved are universal. The majority of forged cranks are created by forging dies that produce cranks with all the throws in one plane. To finish the cranks and index the throws at the required 90 degrees, the raw forgings are actually rotated (twisted). It is also possible to produce stronger, non-twist forged cranks, but the tooling and final product are both more complex and expensive. The fiDragRacingScene.com 91
nal, strongest (and most expensive) process actually starts with a round chunk of bar stock (usually 4340) and the crankshaft is then CNC machined from the solid billet. Like the forging process itself, the material chosen for the crankshaft ultimately affects the strength. Factory forged cranks generally rely on plain carbon steel, but material upgrades include 5140 chromium, 4130 molybdenum, and finally 4340 nickel chromium alloy. The one downside to forged cranks is the need for heat treating. Where the journals on cast-iron cranks becomes work hardened during the machining process, forged steel cranks are not so lucky, and must instead be heat treated after machining. Common heat treating methods for forged cranks include induction hardening, tuftriding, and nitriding. Induction hardening relies on a high-frequency magnetic field to quickly heat the surface before quenching. Employed by most OEMs for their forged cranks, induction hardening offers the benefits of cost, speed, and deep surface penetration (meaning it can be re-machined without the need to reheat treat). Both tuftriding and nitriding feature surface hardening through chemical compounds. Tuftriding involves dipping the crank in a heated cyanide compound, while the nitriding process features the introduction of a chemical gas in a heated furnace. Once heat treated, the forgings offer both superior tensile strength and improvements in elongation (essentially the amount of deflection before breakage). In terms of tensile strength, cast cranks start near 60,000 psi, but forgings can more than double this rating to as high as 125,000 psi. The elongation rating of factory cast cranks is an indication of just how brittle they are. The rating of 3 percent can be nearly doubled with the use of nodular iron, but even these pale in comparison to the 20-plus percent rating offered by high-end, forged cranks. The final piece of the puzzle to consider is the finishing process. We won’t delve too deeply into this because there are so many factors involved, but McLaughlin gave us a few things to consider. “The finishing process is kind of like fine tuning,” he notes. “Even if the materials and forging were the same, there are so many different factors that make a crank distinct to a given company. Things like quality of manufacturing, accepted tolerances, the machine used, and even the employee doing the work. But some 92 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
Crankshafts (and a few cams) are finished with the nitride heat-treatment.
general things to look at would be the different ways to shave weight, reduce windage, and maintain balance.” While technical talk is all well and good, what does it all mean to the average consumer? With the internet abuzz with the ability to exceed 1,000 hp with factory cast cranks, why on earth would anyone need to spend the money on a forging? Crank strength is much more than a function of what it will survive on a single hero run. Factory cranks were designed by the OEMs to last 100,000 miles or more (literally millions of cycles), and that life span is a function of more than just tensile strength or elongation. It is possible for even the wimpiest of cast cranks to survive indefinitely if run at lower engine speeds and power levels. If you have a hard time grasping this concept, think about how far you could walk at a slow pace versus run at
full speed. Run at full speed and load, the cycle life of a crankshaft quickly diminishes, which is why a 400-hp small block run in a daily driven street Camaro might work well with a cast crank, but the same motor powering a pleasure boat would require forged components. The time spent at high load and rpm determine the need for a forged crank every bit as much as a peak power level. So, if you have a performance engine, you now know that a forged crank is the way you should go for longevity, but which one? “Lunati has two lines of cranks: Voodoo and Signature Series,” McLaughlin says. “Both cranks are made from 4340 non-twist steel forgings, so there isn’t a huge difference there. The difference comes in the heat treat. “The Voodoo line is induction hardened, which will save you some money
and is great for most applications under 1,000 hp. If you are running a normally aspirated engine, or something with mild boost (10 psi or less), or a very light shot of nitrous, then your engine will be happy with the lower-priced Voodoo crank. “The signature series on the other hand, gets a nitride heat treatment. It can handle the higher horsepower and rigors associated with high-boost and heavy nitrous applications. There is some more work on the finishing process for the Signature Series, as well, like wing cutting the counterweight to reduce windage, and on big-block Chevy cranks, we center counterweight them to maintain the balance.” No discussion on crankshafts would be complete without covering stroker cranks. Stroker cranks are simply cranks equipped with increased stroke length (the distance the pistons moves from the bottom to the top of the bore). McLaughlin says the majority of cranks that come out of Lunati are stroked. The benefit of increasing the stroke length is increased displacement, which aides in power production. It is easier to make power (and especially torque) with increased displacement. The dif-
ference between a 350 small block and a stroker 383 can be 50 to 60 lb-ft of torque, and best of all, that additional power comes at every rpm. Having an extra 40 to 50 hp at the redline is good, but having an extra 50 to 60 lb-ft of torque down at 3,000 rpm is even more useful — and something that can be enjoyed on a daily basis without fear of
invoking the wrath of the boys in blue. Best of all, if you are in the market for a crank, the extra stroke (and attending power increase) doesn’t cost a cent, as whether cast or forged, a 350 crank generally costs the same as one for a 383 (Ford equivalent would be 302 vs 347). DRS Source: Lunati, lunatipower.com
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DragRacingScene.com 93
Grits, Goals, Gratitude
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henever I work with athletes, I ask them what they want to achieve and what are their goals. Some athletes have specific goals, and others don’t know what they want. Sure, it is easy to say, “I want to win.” But, that is broad and doesn’t talk about what, where, when, or why. For some people, stating their goals can be scary. Some people are afraid others won’t agree with those goals or won’t think they are capable of achieving them. Other people might be superstitious and think by identifying their goals, they will jinx themselves and make them less likely to happen. But having clear goals helps you plan, stay Eggleston is a professor of sports psychology motivated, and achieve and an associate dean those goals. during the week at Once you decide to set McKendree University. On goals, there is a smart way the weekends, she is a hardcore championship to set and achieve them. winning drag racer with her Specific - Be specifhusband, Mike. ic with your goals. What exactly do you want to achieve? Do you want to win a points series? Do you want to win a big bucks race? Do you want to attend a certain race? Do you want to get a car done? Once you figure out specifically what you want, other short-term goals will fall into place. Measurable - Goals need to be things you can measure and count. For example, if you want to win a points series, the first step will be to attend X number of races. You will need to document what races you will attend. If you want to work on your reaction times, it is easy to keep records of your reaction time averages. Attainable and adjustable - It is important to set lofty goals you care about, but it is also smart to set attainable goals. Setting a goal that is completely out of your reach in terms of time or money will just leave you feeling depressed. And setting unattainable goals may give you an excuse not to do the work to achieve reachable goals. Goals also need to be adjustable depending on circumstances. For example, you may not have intended to chase a points series, but if you have early success in the series, you may adapt your schedule to allow you to achieve something you weren’t planning to do. The best goals are within your reach if you are willing to work for them. And the best plans often need to be adjusted. Relevant - Your goals have to matter to YOU. They are your goals and perhaps your team goals, but what others
think doesn’t matter. You will stay motivated if you think the goals are relevant and important to you. Do you want to win a points series? Go fast enough to run a different class? Be honest with what speaks to you. Many people don’t reach their goals because they don’t care enough to put in the time, effort, money, and energy to achieve them. Timely - Goals have to have long-term and short-term due dates. When will you complete your goals? We all know somebody who worked on a car for five years before getting ready to take the car out. That may have been because of time or money constraints, or maybe there just were no clear time-lines on the project. Set some goals and make the time-lines to match. Grit - Once you know your long-term and short-term goals, then comes the work to make them happen. Setting goals is hard, but having the grit to follow through on your goals is even harder. Grit is a combination of passion, perseverance, and resiliency. You must have the passion to keep working on goals even when things don’t go well. Many racers give up the first time they experience any challenges. Do you have the grit to keep going? Once you have found a goal you care about, be willing to go “all in.” It hurts when you don’t reach a goal you wanted, but at least you had the pleasure of knowing what you wanted and going for it. It takes a lot of courage to name your goal, work for it, and be willing to know you may not achieve exactly what you wanted. Grit makes the process worthwhile and will allow you to keep trying through the years. Gratitude - Finally, every time you achieve any goal, no matter how big or how small, take time to celebrate. Take time to thank the people who helped you achieve your goals. Yes, once you achieve one goal, successful people are likely thinking about what comes next, but take time to be thankful and soak up the moment. In drag racing, there are very few wins and lots of losses, so being thankful for the opportunity to race, thankful for racing friends and family, and thankful to have another race in the future is essential to staying motivated. So, what are your goals? Do you have the grit to realize the goals? And what are you thankful for right now? DRS
Every time you achieve any goal, no matter how big or how small, take time to celebrate. Be thankful and soak up the moment.
94 Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
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ADDITIONAL: See a“Put it to the Test” article in every issue or go online and search “Put it to the Test” at @DragRacingScene.com
TODD SAYS:
“No matter the rules, every racer should consider one of these to eliminate the possibility of trans fluid overflowing from the case vent.”
LIFE AT
Sending your message in four characters or less
Twitter is a challenge as you are limited to 140 characters or less. Drag racers have a greater goal by telling their story in three or four characters.
Photos: Brian Beers 96  Drag Racing Scene / Vol. 3, Issue 4
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