Well this past weekend here in our hometown we had some local drag racing at the area airport. What a breath of fresh air not to need to drive 2+ hours to race. It is however, not the best setup they have, as traction is terrible, and all you get is an ET slip. But nevertheless its a bunch of fun, and there are a TON of nice cars new and old. The racing is all heads up, they have a tree etc, and you just pick grudge matches to run against. There are typically about 300+ spectators and 150+ cars that show out for the event.

So here is what happened. Dad and I both raced our cars. The first time out I was going down the staging road and noticed that I smelt something burning, and a weird vibration! :eek: Shleprock was back! I immediately shut down the cars after a quick glance at the guages, and went out under the hood to check things out. Sure enough it was another broken alternator. F*&^! I pushed the car off to the side, and was thoughly pissed, since my car was one of the ones everyone was talking about and anxiously awaiting to see it run. Now this had to happen! I unhooked the trailer from my Durango and pulled it down closer to my car for easier access to tool. I pulled the alternator off the car. It actually ripped the alternator housing right off the one side! I know why its doing it. With the headers I have there isn't room to use the brace that comes off the back of the alternator to the block. So there is a bunch of torque on each startup, and revving of the engine. I figured out tonight a way to mount it, so all the problems should disappear. I threw the alternator in the Durnago and off to Autozone I went. I pulled into the parking lot and it was like pulling into a nascar pit stop! There were two guys there that know me pretty well, from my million+ visits there over the past two years. The one looked at his watch, knowing I should be out there racing, then ran over to my window, and said what did you break? I will get it right away for you. I replied my alternator is toast. He turned and ran inside ahead of me to go find one. As I walked through the doors he emerged from the back with a box, opened it up, pulled off all the wrappings, handed it to me and said get back out there and get some racing in. We'll take care of the paperwork later. :cheers:

So off I went. Got back to the track and installed the new alternator, with a crowd of about 20+ people watching my every move :crazy: :bb Luckily I have done it about 4 times already this year and every move was done with precision and without hesitation. The install took under 3 minutes. :cheers:

I fired it up and checked everything over real careful, just in time for a fellow vetter, to allow me to jump in line ahead of him. His was a white 94. And unfortunately he was my first victim :auto: :smash: My tractioin was worse than I even expected, my car was sideways for the first 100ft I swear, but then recovered and I turned a 12.02 sec 1/4 mile. :skep: The poor other vette looked like he was at 1/2 track as I passed through the traps. He was laughing his butt off when we came back around. That 12.02 is not all that impressive for my car on a regular strip, but out there even the heavy heavy hitters with 529+ CI engines have a tough time hitting 11s, so some people really stood up to take note of my car. :eek: :skep:

I went out a second time and raced Dad in the Chevelle. His last run was 12.1. So we should have been a good race. And indeed it was. It was cool to race against him and something I will always remember. We gave the place a good show, with staging games and snarled revs back and forth as we egged the other one on to light the second staging lights. Then it was each man for themselves. I nailed an excellant light .509, and the dropped tire pressure, and added laid down rubber from the other cars assisted as well. Dad's car will not hook up there for anything. But we were pretty close the whole way down, with me about 1 car ahead of him. With him chasing I pushed myself to an 11.8 to his 12.03. It was a cool race and the people. my family watching said, they went wild with cheers.

I went out again and this time one of the heaviest hitters from out town with a dodge dart and a 529 CI engine, slicks about 3 times as wide as mine came up and challenged me. His previous passes were all in the 11.5 sec area. So with the proper hook, I could easily take him, but that would be tough. Remember this is a hometown sorta race and he has had the distiction of being the baddest and fastest car for years. And now he was challenging me, the new guy on the block, threating his territory. :boxing I looked at him and said let do it! It was on. It was like the announcement of a heavy weight boxing match. Michelle, my wife, said when our two cars lined up in the staging area, mutters all through the crowd carried though like wildfire. People were coming down and wishing me luck etc. It was a pretty cool feeling. I guess it was just a small taste of what the big boys must feel like :cool:

I was pumped as we got closer and closer to duking it out. Dad helped me do a once over the car, tire pressure etc, and then it was showtime.

He gave me lane choise since he was challengine and I took our dealerships sponsered lane, as it was the one I was using in the past races and sorta had a feel for where to stage. We staged similiar to the way Dad and I did, but there was no playing around this time. The lights came down and I knew I had to get a good light to keep it close. I decent light and immediately pulled about 1/2 car on him. I knew if he was gonna catch me it would be when I hit 3rd gear and my TC locked. I could just see his front right tire out my window as I hit 3rd. He was pulling up little by little, as the finish line got closer and closer. It was a near photo finish! I was thoughly pumped and very pleased with the car. I got my time slip and I got a 11.62 to his 11.56. The guy giving out the slips said I crossed the finish line first, since remember its heads up, but he turned a slightly quicker ET. I couldn't believe that car ran that quick at the airport. :eek: :thumbs:

That was my last run and I went back to the pits to meet the family. There had to be 50+ people coming over to check out the car. It was pretty cool. Rick came over a little later to congratulate me. I could kinda tell he was a little mad that he challenged me. I think he thought he was gonna beat me much worse. ;)

The day was awsome and I will maybe post the race if the videos came out good enough. My mom was doing the filming, and if you ever saw her at any of our wrestling matches through the years, I can only hope that she might have the launch on film. LOL

The weekend was a really fun one. Hope you enjoyed the report.

Also here are some other pictures from Father's day when Dad and I took our cars to Numidia.












Is that not a beautiful car.....I just love that thing....:thumbs:


And one of my little buddy's 2nd b-day.


Nothing is better than family, friends and racing :cheers:



[Modified by ski_dwn_it, 8:46 PM 6/29/2003]

 

WOW, that is a great story :cheers: Felt like I was there :thumbs:
Hope the vids turn out, can't wait to see them :cheers:

 

:cheers: Good job !!

 

What a cool story! :cheers: :cool: You're right, nothin' beats the family, friends, and racing! :yesnod: :lol:

 

Not pretty cool......VERY COOL. :party:

 

Great story! :cheers:

 

Great story Jesse. We missed ya at etown tho, and hope to see you again soon. My day didn't go quite as well as yours as i had to dump 2 qts of tranny fuild in the pits and then broke out in the 3rd round. Talk to ya soon.

 

Great story Jesse :yesnod: . I'd like to see that video too :cool: . You should have went back to Auto Zone and bought a syphen and syphened a few gallons of gas out and raced him again :lol:
You'll get him next time...if he shows up... :thumbs:
:flag

 

You write great storys it was like i was there watching it.Great job! :D

 

:cool:

 

:iagree: :cheers:

 

Nice job,ski.I like it when the underdog wins :D

 

Good write up Ski !!! Felt like I was riding shotgun during that story.

Nice looking Rugrat you got there too !!

Cheers,
Beach Bum

 

Thanks everyone for the nice comments!

Yes Ralph. We Corky and I are going to be coming out that weekend for some good fun racing. My wife and I are going to be coming out that Friday morning. So I can race that night, with open headers. I figure that is the only way I will have a chance to get a 10sec 1/4, that time of year, at night. With the regular pipes on it, I doubt I will have enough juice.

I would like to cordinate with a few of the local guys from the area. That way maybe someone could show me where neverlift is at, and also I would love to let my trailer out there in NJ, so I don't have to haul it back to PA ~7hrs empty. It hammers the hell out of you when its empty. :rolleyes: Maybe neverlift has provisions for me to keep in in their parking lot. I will have to call Leo.

Also I have to have the car to neverlift BEFORE 6 o'clock that saturday night. I am hoping to get a few runs in that day, before having to cut out. What time does it get over with there typically?

Thanks guys!

Jesse :cheers:

 

Jesse,

Sounds like you had a good time!:cool:

Are you using a Durango to pull your trailer? Just curious how it behaves with a car hauler behind it. I have a Dakota 4x4 and am considering pulling a car trailer with it (4.7 liter).

:cheers:

 

The Durango pulls the car fine. The durangos are grossly heavy 5600+ lbs! :eek: I also have the trailer package, larger wheels, well actually it has everything you could get in them. Including the 5.9 liter.

I pulled it for about 3 hours each way in the numidia pictures above and it pulled at 70+ MPH if I wanted it to.

I typically keep it at ~65-70MPH and it just sails along. :cheers:

 

Jesse, are you still running those fat tires up front?

 

Nope nope nope....the Summit finally sent me the correct 3.5 inch welds. So that is what I had on this past weekend. Just that alone is worth about .2sec! I could barely get a 11.3 at Numidia that day with those heavy fat tires on it. Before it ran in the teens all day long. Not sure what the weather factor was on either day.


Also On this past Saturday, In the story outlined above. I forgot to mention that after that alternator mishap. My serpentine belt was badly damaged. Damaged to the point that it would come off during each run. The car would get crazy hot, but I would quickly shut it down and replace the belt to bring it baack down to temp. The hottest it got was 250, so I think I should be alright....and it came right back down as soon as the car was restarted and the coolant circulated.

But this is more directed at your electric water pump idea ralph. I think I easily picked up some nice power without running that garbage out there. The weather was horrible and I know for a fact that our hometown is well about 2000 ft elevation, and the fact that the big 529 CI hemi runs in the 10s all day that the strip, was pulled on the entire run till just at the very end where he creeped up on my to a finish that was very close....tell me that I picked up some decent power without all that crap turning out there.

Makes me wanna take you up on your bracket idea and bolt one of those babies on this thing. Hell if I had that, I wouldn't even run a belt at the strip. Just recharge the battery after each run with a recharger......You would have to pick up 20 hp or more doing that wouldn't you think? I would like to hear your thoughts on this.....

Do you think that temp my car got up to hurt anything? I think you said that you ran it once like that....I think everything is OK. Hell its only 30* more than the stock cars run, and then throw on the AC and they can reach even higher than 230 at times.

Thanks...
:cheers:

 

Good story!! Too bad you didn't have a little NOS when you got to 3rd gear!! :cheers:

 

Well you know...that is the other thing....I was told later that night...when my wife and I went out for dinner and a few drinks that Rick the owner of the 529 Hemi IS playing around with nitrous. But I looked and couldn't see anything obvious, but they said that he has it hidden......

earlier that day he did crank off a 10.6, but when I said that to him, before we raced and we were discussing our previous runs he said, " Oh yeah, I don't know where that time came from, their computer must have screwed up"

I did not think too much of it, but not I wonder if he might have flipped the switch at the very end to close the gap on me. :rolleyes: Although I suspected he might have more upper end than me and my reason for the 3rd gear comment before. I am yet to be at a strip and have a car pull on me from behind, as my car is like a friggin freight train crankin down the stip. In other words to do what he did would take a bunch more power than the 30hp difference he said was between our cars....

But who knows. It was a very close and cool race and if he has the juice thats fine also...hiding it is kinda poopiety, but if that is his cup of tea that is fine too. I wish I knew my tranny and rear would take about a 150 shot and I would be running it to. For a low 10s or 9s car. :cheers:


[Modified by ski_dwn_it, 9:53 AM 7/1/2003]