Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire A drag racing first for me

There was a thread a couple of weeks back that spoke about NHRA racing. I posted a pic of my Firebird stock eliminator that I normally race. I made it to the semi finals last weekend at the Spring Nationals in Houston. Pretty disappointed I didn't get into the finals since it would have been a heads up and I had the other car covered.

May 18th thru the 20th is the Summer Nationals at Topeka. I have entered my Firebird for Stock and the first for me is that I will drive a friend of mine 1968 Hemi Cuda in Super Stock. I have raced Super Stock before, but have never driven a Hemi. I cannot wait to hear that Hemi whine going through the lights.

Semi-finals at Spring Nationals is nothing to sneeze at!

Congradulations!

Wish you luck on the upcoming events and that Hemi-Cuda outta be a blast!

Only drag racing I ever done was 40-45 years ago, on the publ.... Is there a 'statue of limitations' on this kind of stuff?

Best of luck there Longbob! Hope you finish high too. I'm going to the NHRA Norwalk nats. to work my companies demo. race trailer talking with the public.

jealous here.

Thanks fellas. I am amped up for sure. The Calais Super Stocker that I have driven is pretty fast, but not as fast as this Hemi. There is just something special about it being a Hemi in a '68 Cuda that screams cool.

What demo at Norwalk and will you make it to any other events like Indy? If so, you gotta stop by and go with me during warm-ups.

Hey that's a big deal buddy. A hearty congrats!

Any type of motorsports is super competitive and to have that level of success with something you have helped to prepare is a really high achievement. Hope you have fun at the Summer Nationals, be sure and get some pics taken if you get a chance. I'd love to see them.

Will

Love to see pics. Congrats, good luck and be safe.

Will,

I need to take some pics of the cars in the pits and some money shots for your perusal.

We had chatted a couple of years ago about my intent to convert my fuel injected motor to sequential and that I was at the dyno. You graciously offered to help me if I ran into any problems with my theories on the tuning. Fortunately, it all fell into place and we got some stunning results.

These results have put me on a list to be torn down and I had my fuel sent off to a lab when they did the normal fuel check after the runs in Houston. No one can believe that I have gotten an LT1 in stock eliminator trim to run like I have with just tuning. They are finding out they are wrong.

Lol, yeah I know how that goes but it must be a good feeling to have them going over your work with a fine toothed comb when you are in the clear. There is nothing like being unusually conscientious and paying attention to detail to get a few more ponies out of your stuff... or to wear you completely out! :p

Hopefully the tear down isn't public. I always hated having my competitors pawing all over my stuff and comparing notes on what we were up to. Nothing like having an entire winter's work put on display, lol.

Will

I made one pass down Heartland Park in Topeka. Then the car broke and had to put it on the trailer. It is a pretty cool track to go down. Good Luck!!

Common sense goes a long way in the high performance game. Everything has to be sized and matched properly. Otherwise, all the good things can be negated by one bad choice. Good luck at the Summernationals!

I think a friend of mine will be there this weekend. Here is a pic of his car. I think he is in the "extreme sportsman" class.

Do you think it is Top Sportsman? They are running it at Topeka this time. Those cars are crazy fast. I don't know how they dial them so well.

It could be Pro Mod based on the exhaust that I see coming from behind the front tires. Pro Mod is not running this year at Topeka.

Helluva deal, Congrats, and be safe.

Gunner

Sweet!

On my bucket list is to run one 1000' and feel that thunder from behind the wheel. It gives me goosebumbs just typing it.

I promise to get some progress pics. Not much to really show other than I will take some pics from below the car, engine bay, interior, from behind, etc....

What I mean as progress, I am putting my car on kill. We have class eliminations at Topeka for Stock Eliminator this race. This is a race within a race. We begin qualifying on Friday the 18th. There will be two qualifying passes then we go into class.

The first round of class will be the last round of qualifying. I will jockey around on the ladder for the first two runs by shutting off and coasting from the 1000' mark. There are favorable spots to be on the ladder.

I should have whoever I race in the first round of class covered. It will allow me to decide if I want to take the pole or not to get a 1st round bye in eliminations. That is not always the most favorable position.

Some of the things that I do to put my car on kill is to drain the oil and put in 3 1/2 quarts of Royal Purple 0W-10. The engine holds 5 quarts normally including the filter, but 3 1/2 is about the minimum I feel comfortable in running.

I will also take out the excess weight to bring the total weight with me in it to about 3,290 lbs. 3,280 is my minimum. I also need to put on a new coil wire. The one I have is 2 years old. That reminds me. I need to change the plugs and use copper based anti seize this time. I found out that the copper based picked us up on the dyno. That speed secret slipped my mind.

See, you guys have already helped!

Here are some pics.

Notice the uneven wheelie bars. This keeps the car perfectly straight when I am on them hard.



I run a very light ring package and that is why I have a K&N filter on it. I will take it off for anything heads up, but will put it back on the throttle body on the return road.



I wish you could see the header flanges better. They are a work of art from Mark Lelchook.



This side is a bear to put on.



Hard to crawl in. I just generally toss my azz in first and the rest follows quickly.



Nice details on the seats to keep the stock look.

It's not stock?

I like it!!!

Beautiful car.

Thanks. The pics don't do it justice. I wish you could see it in person. Here is the Hemi Cuda I will be driving.