I Love This Motor

"I love this motor" was a parting comment to a good friend during eliminations on the weekend. The racing weather on Sunday was consistent and so was the motor. Regardless of the water temperature and mild winds the car was running within 3 hundredths on each pass. That kind of consistency and a lot of luck combined for a win in the Sportsman category. What followed were run-offs between classes to determine the "King of the Track" who would receive a special Wally. I was fortunate enough to squeak out a couple of more wins and take home the very special trophy. Truthfully, I'm still in a state of shock that I actually won it...

As for the car performance this weekend it was very consistent running between 14.22 and 14.25 @ 95mph all day. Somewhat disappointing was the lack of et drop from the National Open. Despite a corrected altitude of nearly 2000ft less than Medicine Hat the car didn't pick up any mph or drop et. As in the last race the car seems to pull very hard in 1st and 2nd gear but seems to "level-off" around 4000 rpm in 3rd gear. The 302 EFI motor is designed for torque so it is not surprising that it runs of out steam early in the powerband. I need to find out what bottleneck is keeping the power back. The next investment will be some good quality headers and an adjustable fuel regulator. A custom cam with some more cylinder filling duration is also on the wish list. Oh yeah, any advice on finding more horsepower is appreciated!

I'm fortunate to have a few sponsors who support my racing each year. Their support is a big help to making racing more affordable. I am very grateful for their continued support!

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National Open

I finally got a chance to make some passes last weekend at the Medicine Hat National Open. It really felt great to hit a few lights and feel the excitement of a busy drag strip again. I had hoped for 13.90's but had to settle for 14.20's all weekend long. Between the extreme air (5000 feet +) and some valve body problems finding more power was not going to happen. Best pass this weekend was a 14.22 @ 91.6 mph on a 1.96 60 foot. The mph would have been 95mph (and et 14.17) but I was scrubbing some speed as I had the win. This run was done with a hot motor in the worst air of the weekend. This tells me that my motor likely wants to be running with less fuel.

There was a large turnout of stock /super stock cars last weekend which made for some exciting racing. There was a large variety of cars ranging from a GT/AA car through to a V/SA car. It made for very diverse racing for certain. To my surprise there was also a P/SA 1989 Mustang GT convertible stocker from Washington. It was really exciting to meet someone running a combo I'm trying to build. The owner was really helpful and has offered to help point me in the right direction with my own project. Blair from Nitroimage snapped quite a few pics of the action which some can be viewed here.

Next race will be an SIR points meet. I'll be playing with the valve body, timing advance, and my launch technique to see if I can manage some 14.0's.