Now that it has cooled off, I can get excited about racing again. Who wants to put on a long sleeve jacket and helmet and sweat to death just to find out you car runs really slow in the Summer!

Last Friday night I drove the white Valiant over to Grove Creek for their street legal drags. I always thought it would be fun to see if I could beat some Mustangs or hotted up imports at one of these races. I had to be ready to drive in and race, so I couldn't go through my usual time consuming ritual of unloading all of my stuff. I left my big tray of spare parts at home and just left my tools and spare tire in the car so it was about 150# heavier than usual. I did use my new small diameter slicks though as I mounted them on the same wheels that I used to have my drag radials on. I also had to leave the exhaust capped up which I never do, and it was really wierd to go down the strip without all the noise. I think drag racing would soon die out if you could only race with mufflers!

Grove Creek is an 1/8 mile track about 65 miles west of Minneapolis and it is actually the closest place where I can go an race. They completely repaved and lengthened the strip this year, and it is really a pretty nice facility. I don't race here very often because my times always seem to be slower here and the starting line isn't the best. There were quite a few cars of all discriptions on hand for street legal night. Even though you are not supposed to, some cars came in on trailers. There was a little bit of everything, lots of Mustangs and Camaros but hardly any imports. Jacked up late 80s GM cars were very popular and even bigger GM cars including a fair number of four doors. I would guess many of the cars came from the farming towns in the surrounding area.

On my first run I raced against my friend Denny Schaub who brought out his Audi S-8 to see what it would do. An S-8 is an aluminum four door sedan with a 360 HP V-8 that is supposed to be capable of high 13 second quarter miles. My impression of Audis has always been that they have a lot of advanced techincal features, cost a lot, but they don't go very fast. This proved to the the case as Denny could only muster a 9.89 and I blew his doors off with a 9.09 and a .060 reaction time to his .450.

The next time I raced some kind of a slower GM thing, and then they paired my up with some kind of motor bike that took 22 seconds to get to the end of the track. There were many Mustangs and even Corvetts that were running slower than I was, but you have no control over who you get paired with, so I wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be. We left while they were still running. The trip back and forth to Minneapolis was fun, and I am anxious to go on another long trip with the white car soon.

Yesterday I took the blue Valiant to Rock Falls Raceway near Eau Claire, WI for their Saturday test day. The last time I had the blue car out last Fall, it didn't shift cleanly from 1st to 2nd gear on its last run. I wanted to make sure nothing was wrong with it before towing 800 miles to Clay City in October. I did check the adjustment of the shift linkage and found that it seemed to slip into the hole easier after backing it out one turn. The only other changes I made since last year were to juggle some spring leaves and to bring the car back up to B class weight of 2350#. At this weight I have almost exactly 50% on the rear tires.

The weather was perfect for racing with temperatures in the sixties and a density altitude of about 1900'. I thought that I remember that the slicks should have 12# of pressure so that is where I set them. For some reason my car never seems to hook up as well at my local tracks at Rock Falls or Brainerd as it does at Chicago, St. Louis, Indy, Clay City or Piedmont. Rather than spending a lot of time trying to fix this, I usually just try to run at tracks where I know it will work. Saturday was no exception with the car losing traction in first gear on every run. Amazingly my sixty foot times were all 1.67x but it wasn't pretty. On a good track I can usually see low 1.50s. My best run was a 11.84 at 110.91MPH. That is the best speed I have ever seen at 2350# so I was pretty happy. The transmission shifted perfectly on every run.

My reaction times were pretty bad so I figured I was really going to have to bear down on the tree if I was going to be able to run with Norman and those guys at Clay City. I really made it a point to nail the first yellow on my last run. The result is I went red by .025 with .980 in the box. .980 has always seemed like the right number in the past so now I really don't know what to think.

When I got home and I was comparing the runs with last year's, I realized that I have never run the tires at 12#, always 8. That certainly didn't help it to hook up, the lesson is to always review those critical settings even if you think you remember them. Any way I was pretty encouraged with the performance and before Clay City I am going to get my air dam back together and install a high gear retard. These plus a richer jetting routine for high density days are my plan to increase the trap speed by a couple of MPH. I have always thought that I was giving away something on the top end.

I hope you are not bored with this, but I would like to encourage more actual drag stirp stories on this area of the board.

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If you didn't drive it there, it's not a street car.

Not boring Seymour....

Your posting style is very orderly ....it allows the reader to understand what you are thinking ....and where you are going.

For someone who hasnt raced recently it is a good glimpse into the thinking racers world.

I think I will put my Audi money into a Mega squirt......

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Nice write-up Seymour. Always good to see your "play-by-play's".

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Great write up, Seymour. Wish I could be closer and go with you! I agree on the Fall being the best time to race.

Always fun to freak out some "fast" street cars...

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Not boring at all Seymour! Great write up. I always enjoy reading the race reports that tell the story in a way that makes you feel like you're there (especially since I can't be there )

The rest of this racing season looks like it should be very interesting to see (err,.. I mean read about)

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Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser