The Aeromotive fuel system

Switching from an EFI system to a carburetor is not as easy as just pulling off the throttle body and slapping on the 1050. There are many other components that need to be changed out as well, including the fuel system. The fuel system in an EFI application needs to supply gas at 75 psi or higher, a far cry from the single-digit pressures required by our carburetor. Keeping the EFI pump would mean regulating it so far down that the majority of the fuel would be bypassing the carb and returning to the tank, building heat and killing the pump in short order. To avoid all of that, we installed a new Aeromotive fuel system designed to supply fuel at an appropriate pressure and volume.

Having the correct components for your application is critical to how it performs, and this Aeromotive system was matched to Project Grandma’s needs. The Eliminator fuel pump (p/n 11104) is able to support a 2300 HP naturally aspirated engine, which will be more than enough for our 970 HP needs. A 100 micron stainless steel element pre-filter screws straight into the suction side of the pump, and a -12 fitting connects the pre-filter to the fuel cell.

The pressure side of the fuel pump drops down to a -10 fitting and from there goes through a 10 micron paper filter, then forward under the car to the fuel log. The Aeromotive fuel log (p/n 14201) has a cool feature added to it – where each side of the log attaches to the carburetor, there are swivel points that allows the user to position the log up or down up to 20 degrees for clearance of throttle stops, nitrous plates, spacers, or other components.

From the opposite side of the log a -10 line runs back to the regulator. The two-port bypass regulator (p/n 13212) is fully adjustable from 2-20 psi, which is perfect for our carbureted application. A -10 line was used as the return line from the bottom of the regulator back to the fuel cell.

Even though installing the fuel system was very straightforward, there is one important rule to remember that can mean the difference between life and death for the fuel pump. Using the wrong filter, or not putting them in the correct order can harm the system. Jesse Powell of Aeromotive explains, “One of the single greatest issues we take phone calls on are filters being in the wrong location, or the wrong size filters that will cause the same problems.” The free-flowing 100 micron stainless steel filter that goes before the pump is designed to catch the large contaminants that would harm the pump. The 10 micron paper filter is what will catch all of the remaining debris that would plug up the carburetor. Mixing the two up can have serious consequences. “The reason the system needs to be set up this way is because the Eliminator fuel pump, or just about any other fuel pump out there, can push fuel out a lot easier than it can suck in,” says Powell. Putting the fine, 10-micron filter on the inlet side will damage the pump by overstressing it as it fights to pull instead of push. The rule to remember is, “Stainless = Suction, Paper = Pressure”.

By: Dave Morgan
Courtesy of ProMedia Publishing

One approach to reducing friction loss, as well as vibrations, is to focus on an adjustment we normally call “Pinion Angle.” We tend to think of this difference in the angles between the driveshaft centerline (CL) and the pinion gear CL. A more correct term for this angle is to call it the “Working Angle” of the rear U-joint. However, to look at this relationship as being only between the pinion and the driveshaft would be a mistake. We also need to consider the working angle at the opposite end of the driveshaft, where it meets the transmission output shaft. In doing so, we will be considering the entire drivetrain angle.

Yet before we leave the topic of what we call this adjustment, let’s understand that to many drag racers, particularly those with leaf spring rear suspensions, the words “pinion angle adjustment” often relates to a tuning aspect of their suspension setup. For these guys, pinion angle is used to adjust how hard they hit the tire on a launch.

This is a somewhat controversial topic. For some, the reason for paying attention to pinion angle is so that we will reduce bind in the U-joints in the driveshaft. If we follow this logic to its final conclusion, then the reason racers see a difference in ET, reaction time, or 60-foot time with different pinion angles is that incorrect pinion angle is a form of bind and having this bind is a way to remove violence from the hook. Remove the bind, or in other words have the correct pinion angle, and you’ll hit the tire harder because the suspension will move that much more freely. Such racers often monitor U-joint temperatures with the same heat gun they use to measure track temperatures.

The other side of the conversation is based on the notion of harnessing the torque of the pinion gear as it climbs up the ring gear. Drag racers use this rotational force to a better effect than any other type of motorsports. In a leaf spring application, the forward half of the leaf spring is the front/rear locating device for the suspension system.

Keeping in mind that this front locator is a spring; it flexes and in doing so, can permit more vertical pinion motion, which lifts the front eyelet of the leaf spring upwards. In doing this, the differential housing is forced downward. Careful racers modulate this downward thrust with some excessive amount of pinion angle that they adjust into the car by adding, or removing, wedged-shaped shims between the leaf spring and the housing tubes of the differential. They are careful because to do this they must tickle the limits of the range of motion of the U-joints. If they exceed these limits too many times, noisy, spinning, middle-of-the-car badness follows.

The pinion-angle adjuster can be on the bottom of a ladder bar on on the top, as seen here on these Alston ladder bars. They are simply turnbuckles that can be lengthened or shortened to change the angle of the pinion. These adjusters can also be used to change preload.

Before we split our conversation into the two approaches, reduced vibrations and friction losses as well as improved hook, consider how much torque we are talking about. Let’s ask ourselves, “How much torque do we produce at the ring and pinion?” This number is often referred to as Drive Wheel Torque (DWT) and we can use the following formula to determine it.

DWT= Engine Torque X First Gear Ratio X Rear Gear Ratio X .85

We’ll consider a racecar that produces 515 foot-pounds of torque during the usual launch rpm. Many FSC readers have an engine that makes more torque than that, but we’ll keep the textbook numbers conservative. This is a T-5 manual-transmission car with a low gear ratio of 2.95 and a rear-gear ratio of 5.38.

As stated at the beginning of this article, estimates vary on how much torque we lose due to friction. We can affect these friction losses by watching our drivetrain angles. This idea is in line with the first opinion; reduce friction and you also reduce bind. We see this attitude in play when we look closely at the engine position in a tubeframe racecar. Normally, to reduce frictional losses, the tubeframe chassis builder, who does not have a stock transmission tunnel to work around, can aim the crankshaft directly at the pinion CL. The crankshaft, input and output-shaft on the transmission and driveshaft are all on the same angle. In this case, the front and rear working angles are the same and we have the least amount of resistance at the U-joints.

For this conversation, we’ll take an average of these 10- to 20-percent estimates and say our car loses 15-percent of its torque from friction. That .85 factor at the end of the above formula is one way of reducing the total by 15-percent. So, let’s plug in our numbers.

DWT=515 ft/lbs X 2.95 X 5.38 X .85 = 6947.53 ft/lbs

Now we know that when the pinion gear tries to rotate upward in this car, it is doing so with a force of nearly 7,000 pounds! (And we wonder why stuff back there flexes.) Scratch one up for the leaf spring guys because they can say this is the DWT force they use to wrap their springs up with and load against the chassis then beat the daylights out of their rear tires. But ladder bar racers and four-link guys can’t forget that they too, use this DWT. Ladder bar racers use it to raise the front rod end against the chassis. In four-link cars, the top bars pull and the lower bars push from this DWT.

Pinion Angle?

If all we are going to do is think only about pinion angle, then we should at least get that relationship right. Frank Rehak, from the Driveshaft Shop commented on how many racers measure this angle incorrectly. He said, “They think pinion angle is the angle of the pinion in comparison to the level ground. They place an angle finder on the yoke of the pinion and what ever that number is; they call it the pinion angle.

For cars with the stock floor still in the car, zero pinion angle is the same as the crankshaft angle.

“In a textbook approach, what people call the pinion angle is the working angle of the U-joint at the rear of the driveshaft. There is another working angle at the front of the driveshaft. That’s the one people don’t think about. They don’t realize there is a front working angle and a rear working angle and the relationship is about both working angles. We want them to be the same within a half-degree tolerance. Also, we want no more than three degrees of working angle for the U-joints on either end of the drive shaft. Keep in mind, I said that was a ‘textbook approach.’ I’ve seen racers do things that, by the book, should never have happened. Every car is so different and unique, that’s why we like to get involved with a racer’s project as soon as possible. ”

It would be reasonable to ask why we need to pay attention to the working angles of the U-joints at both ends of the driveshaft. The simple-looking driveshaft is a lot more intricate than it seems. This one component must transfer power and torque from one shaft to another, even when the angles between the two shafts vary and it must do this smoothly. To avoid vibrations, the front and rear working angles need to be within a half-degree of each other and as slight as possible. In OEM applications, the difference in working angles can be found to be between four and five degrees. In our high-torque standing-start applications, we look for a smaller difference, which is the three degrees Frank Rehak mentioned.

Look closely at all three photos, they are not the same. This is where you place the angle finder to determine the angle of the transmission output shaft. The angle finder is placed agains the yoke at the rear os the transmission yoke.

You can measure the angle of the driveshaft at either end. Here, it is measured at the rear portion of the driveshaft, where the angle finder is positioned on the rear yoke of the driveshaft.

Here you can see that the angle finder is positioned on the pinion yoke, indicating what the pinion angle is, relative to level.

If we are going to consider both front and rear working angles, then we can split the combinations of angles into two types of cars. The first is the tubeframe car, which has the benefit mentioned before, the crank aims right at the pinion, working angles are the same, and friction is reduced. In this case, we compare the angle of the pinion to the angle of the driveshaft, which is concentric with the transmission shafts and crankshaft.

Here’s a maintenance tip for those racers who have a tubeframe car with the crank aimed at the pinion. One of the benefits to having a very small difference in working angles is that the bearing cups in the U-joint are rotated slightly with each revolution of the driveshaft. This causes the needle bearings within the cups to roll so that a different needle bearing will receive the full impact of the torque with each turn of the driveshaft. As the working angles become closer, this rotation of the bearing cups lessens and individual needle bearings get clobbered with the force of moving the car. The tip is to periodically remove the driveshaft and manually rotate the bearing cups in the U-joints. “That’s a good idea,” Rahek said. “Grease gets backed against the needle bearings and holds them in place while they get hammered by the torque. They will form splines into the surface of the trunnions to the point of U-joint failure.”

The second type of car is one that has the stock floor in it. The transmission tunnel of the stock floor creates some limitations on the engine placement along with ring-and-pinion location. And, surprise, surprise, some racers are placing bigger motors in their racecars with stock floors! The crank CL can not be aimed at the pinion CL so the two shafts that will be connected by the driveshaft will be at different heights to each other.

“That’s when guys get into trouble,” Rehak said. “The OEM guys have the working angles down pat for the engine/chassis combinations they sell to the general public. When a racer places a different engine in a car, he loses all that engineering that went into driveline placement.”

This means that racers, who upgrade to a bigger engine, need to pay close attention to the angle of that bigger motor, which probably does not have the same crank CL height location as the original, meaning the transmission will need to be relocated also; and that changes the front working angle, which no longer matches the rear working angle. If a bigger engine is part of your program, please refer to the sidebar, “How to measure Drivetrain Angles.”

Helping Hook

Now we’ll return to the issue of using the rear working angle as a means of planting the tires harder. Keep in mind the environment that the driveshaft is in and the job it has to do. It must smoothly transmit massive amounts of torque between two shafts that may, or may not be aligned, remembering also that the angular relationship between the two shafts constantly changes. Finally, let’s be honest, most of you don’t race ballerinas.

Launching 3500-pounds of anything is going to resist a lot of force that is trying to move it (the name of the game.) This means that the driveshaft, like most driveline components, is subjected to two loads. These are the huge amount of torque from the engine/transmission and the enormous inertia that is inherent in a 3500-pound car. To be able to transfer lots of torque, move a porky automobile and not bust into a bunch of needle bearings is a very good quality to have in a driveshaft.

Everyone who has considered the rear working angle, no matter what they call it, realizes that the angle of the pinion changes as the differential goes through its vertical travel and that it rotates up when torque arrives. The amount of upward rotation is limited by the suspension linkages. These include the leaf spring, which has a lot of pinion rotation, the commercially available ladder bar, which has less pinion rotation than the leaf spring, but more than an equal-length four-link system. When we compare the equal-length four-link system to the triangulated four-link on a Fox-bodied Mustang, where the upper bars are shorter than the lower bars, we see that the equal-length four-link has less pinion rotation.

So when we can ask ourselves what angle should our pinion shaft be, we should also identify what we compare that angle to. If we want the rear working angle to be within a half degree of the front working angle for the least amount of vibration and friction loss, then we’d like to have the pinion at nearly the same angle as the crankshaft, and consequently the transmission output shaft. This means that we can register the angle of the pinion against the angle of the crankshaft and call that “Zero Pinion Angle.”

For cars with factory four-links such as Fox-bodied Mustangs and A-Body GM cars, racers should install adjustable upper control arms that also have turnbuckles, which can not only adjust pinion angle, but can be used to set preload and center the differential housing within the car.

For tubeframe cars, pinion angle is the difference between the angle of the driveshaft versus the angle of the pinion shaft.

Knowing how much our suspension linkage changes the angle of the pinion, we can lower the angle of the pinion at the yoke end by the same amount that the suspension permits the pinion to raise. For leaf spring cars, the pinion CL is set between 5-7 degrees down in comparison to the crankshaft angle (keep your temperature gun handy.) Ladder bar cars normally run three degrees down in relation to the crank. Equal-length four-link bars run one-to-two degrees down in comparison to the crank angle. Unequal-length four-link cars will see as much as four-to-five degrees in relation to the crank (find a buddy with a leaf spring suspension and a temperature gun.)

How to measure Drivetrain Angles

To reduce frictional loses and vibration, we need to compare the working angle of the front U-joints versus the working angle for the rear U-joints. We want the two working angles to be within a half-degree of each other and as slight an angle as possible, less than three degrees is normally recommended in drag racing. The exception is in cars with leaf springs where the spring wrap exceeds three degrees and cars with triangulated four-links where the upper bars are shorter than the lower bars.

There are three angles that we are concerned with in our driveline. These are:

• The driveshaft angle, which is exactly what it sounds like and is the easiest to measure. This is the angle of the driveshaft, which normally spans downward from the tail of the transmission to the pinion in the differential.

• The front working angle is a comparison between the angle of the output shaft and the angle of the driveshaft. For this, we’ll need to measure the angle of the yoke at the rear of the transmission, and then compare that to the driveshaft angle.

• The rear working angle is a comparison between the angle of the pinion gear and the angle of the driveshaft. For this, we’ll need to measure the angle of the yoke at the front of the pinion, and then compare that to the driveshaft angle.

For example, let’s consider a car with the transmission angle at 3.5 degrees, driveshaft angle at 4.5 and actual pinion angle at 3 degrees, as shown below. The front working angle is 1.0 degrees, while the rear working angle is 1.5 degrees. This alignment will probably work, but is at the edge of tolerance, which is a half-degree difference between the two working angles. Both working angles are also less than three degrees, which is considered the limit of the range of motion available from the U-joints.

Electronic Angle Finders

Electronic angle-finders, also known as inclinometers, are becoming more popular these days. They are easier to read, are very accurate and all of them include a hold-function. This helps collect readings when the part to be measured is in some difficult-to-reach area of the car. The angle can be measured, then after pushing the hold button, the reading is held until the gauge can be removed from the angled surface and into the daylight, where the degrees can then be read. Here we’re measuring the potential pinion angle of a four-degree leaf spring shim and a one-inch lowering block.

Here is a demonstration of another way to measure the angle of the pinion centerline (CL) if the driveshaft and U-joints are not installed in the car. Place the angle-finder on the forward edge of the yoke, which in theory, if not in practice, should be 90-degrees to the pinion CL.

Other opinions about Pinion Angle: The Racers Speak

Extreme Street hitter Bill Trovato says that he hasn’t put much thought into the importance of pinion angle. “I’m not sure it plays as an important roll as many people think, but I am always open to the idea and will probably investigate it further. For now though, Trovato feels his winning and record setting Xtreme Street Starfire, works just fine. “I do what makes sense to me and for the car. To me, pinion angle doesn’t factor that much into the way my car leaves way the car hooks so I don’t play around with it,” he said.

Mark Artis, who not only races in Nostalgia Super Stock, but also builds many of the cars that race in the class says pinion angle makes big difference in the setup of any chassis regardless of if it’s leaf spring, ladder bar or four link set-up.

Brian Metz, who not only serves as Crew Chief for Troy Coughlin’s Pro Street entry, but also runs Metz Performance, says pinion angle is extremely important when you want to control wheel speed. “ I adjust according to what type of wheel speed I see. We set a base pinion angle up and then adjust it accordingly once we get to the track,” Metz said.

With Project 666, our Fox-body Ford Mustang almost 2 years in the making, this year’s LA Invasion was a day of trials and tribulations. Leading the charge for 666 was shop wizard Sean Goude, trusty wrench and sales guy Tom “Terror” Bobolts, myself, and my pregnant wife Melissa. We were a motley crew.

To quickly recap, our Fox-Body is equipped with a 525 hp 408 Windsor, and we’ve always felt it had the stones to run low 11s or even high 10s. This day served as a test day, so we weren’t expecting any miracles. Mid 11s would have made us happy. The first few passes were slated as easy 1-2 gear runs, just to sort out the suspension and handling characteristics. We also know the motor was solid as we had tuned it on the dyno before making the trailer trip up to Fontana from our Temecula offices. 460 rwhp should get that job done.

Here is our story, pass by pass. Also, there are two videos for your enjoyment. One, a complete series of all 5 of our runs, and the second, 3 runs shot with our hand Go-Pros.

Video: Project 666 Testing:

Pass Number 1:

Plan for the first run was go through the first two gears. I did a nice smokey burnout, and it turned out that I found afterward only the right tire was spinning. Since we had a Detroit Locker, that meant that the locker didn’t lock due to the fact the turn from the lanes to the burnout box was so tight. After the burnout, I rolled up to the line, revved the engine to about 3,500 rpm, and let her fly. The car launched and then bogged, tripping a 1.65 60-foot, but it made a pretty decent move to the left. I hit second gear, I heard a nice bang, and then lifted before I hit third gear and just coasted the rest of the way.

On the return road, there was a distinct scratching noise coming from under the car. Great, I thought. A post race inspection revealed that the one of the wheel weights was rubbing on the brake caliper.. it was totally our fault, as we put some stunning new Weld wheels on literally the day before we left for the track, and just didn’t have the time to check them. Eventually, the wheel weights just came off and were flapping against the caliper. Regarding the move to the left, we decided to reset the Team Z sway bar to neutral, and double check all of the shock settings. The bang? Turns out that we had failed to remove the factory bump stocks on the chassis, and that lovely noise was the rear end slamming into the bump stops on the shifts. Lovely. 60-Foot: 1.65, 1/4 Mile: 13.57 at 108.25 mph

Pass Number Two:

Same routine as last time but I pull into burnout box, straighter this time. Both tires are spinning. Check. Release line lock. Car just sits in burnout box and I lift off the throttle. What the heck. Line lock is stuck engaged. Click it a few times, it releases. Must be some junk in the solenoid. Then I drive out of the water box thinking, I’m sure there is water on the tires. Do two little dry hops to try to shake the water loose. No luck. Launch at 3,500 rpm, the car spins to a 1.70 60-foot, and then revs so fast with slightly wet tires it’s at 6,500 rpm and climbing before I can hit second gear. Hit second, but the car spins badly and I shut it down. At least it went straighter this time. And no more scratching noises coming from the wheel weights. Goes 12.80′s at only 84 mph. Time slip says: 60-foot: 1.708, 1/4 Mile: 12.813 at 84.71 mph

Pass Number Three

We can’t take apart the line lock because we don’t have the right stuff to bleed the brakes. Nor can we likely repair the line-lock at this point. We think there is something stuck inside the line-lock like some debris that is keeping it from holding. On top of that, doing a burnout manually is not happening due to the way our brake bias is setup. That means, essentially, no more serious burnouts for the most part. Pass three was our best, despite a 1.76 60-foot and “granny shifting” to avoid having the car spin badly between gears. The car felt really strong, and we also learned that the car will not shift over 6,500 rpm. This is likely due to the fact that we have a street clutch and a non Pro-shifted stick. And keeping the RPM down between gear changes is pretty challenging with our burnout situation. Overall, it was about 98-degrees during this run at noon, and we went 11.91 at 120.24 mph, with a 1.76 60-foot.

Pass Number Four

As it gets hotter, the track gets more greasy, and our difficulty in the burnout box becomes a bigger liability. We keep our fingers crossed the line lock will stick, but that just didn’t happen. I managed to go a 1.63 60-foot, and we went a 12.11 at 120.17 mph. My style of driving was aggressive and resulted in tire spin and RPM flares between shifts as the tires broke loose, then causing the trans not to want to shift. It was pretty frustrating. So I just literally lifted before second gear this time and then eased it back in gently. Without a nasty burnout, the only way to get 666 down track was a driving style like your old Grandma in her ’78 Malibu.

Pass Number Five:

More of the same. Lots of power, 97 degree weather, and crappy e.t’s. 1.64 60-foot, and a 12.10 at 121.23 was the result. It actually said 98-degrees at one point in the Expedition. I let out of  it almost completely in second gear and got back into it in third again. At this point, we knew we had gotten everything out of her that we were going to. However, Terror Tom wanted to make a few laps in the car to start to get the feeling for a car on slicks, and with advice to “take it very easy” he cruised to some high 12-second runs at 117 mph, with just 1.9 60-foots. He had a blast, and there is no doubt that 666 will find him at the wheel again.

Video: In Car:

Final Thoughts:

We’ve learned a lot, and we’ve got a lot of work to do before we take 666 out again. The biggest change is going to be the fact that we’ve finally realized that Project 666 is a race car that looks like a street car, and not a street/strip car. With a carb’d 408 getting 10 mpg, and another engine even more serious waiting in the wings, it’s just not going to be driven to the track at this point.

So we’re going to get more serious with a race-only setup. That means a spool will be slipped into the rear end, and – gulp – a C4 automatic is going to find it’s way in the trans tunnel. We’ll keep you posted – we hope to have her back on the 1320 within 30 days. And this time, we’ll make sure we can do a nasty burnout.

It will be 10.80s or bust.

Angela Sampey next to her GoArmy Pro Stock Motorcycle.

It’s been several months since I last updated my blog. A lot has changed in my life since then. I am sorry to say that this is going to be my final blog.

Since I last updated you guys and gals, I have made a major life decision. Like the saying goes … when one door closes, another one opens. Well, I’ve decided to close the door on my racing career to open the door to my future. Racing motorcycles has been nearly 100 percent of my focus for almost my entire life. I have sacrificed just about everything that you can possibly imagine to accomplish the goals that I set for myself. In 1995, 14 years ago, I wrote a letter to George Bryce (who had never heard of me) and told him that I was going to be a NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion. When I wrote that letter, I had never even sat on a Pro Stock bike yet. To the world, I was just a girl with a ridiculous dream. No one knew who I was, I had no money, no big racing last name, no connections to the sport what so ever. But what I did have was passion, determination, will power and the most stubborn “I’LL SHOW YOU!!” attitude ever!

I told lots of people what I wanted to do and everyone laughed at me, except, of course, my parents, and George or Jackie Bryce. My mom especially has always told me that I can accomplish anything! Everyone else looked at me as if I had lost my mind. But not George; he told me that we could win together and, oh boy, did we win: 41 wins and three world championships. What a ride! Thanks George and Jackie, and thanks to everyone at Star Racing for taking a chance on the girl with the crazy dream.

I did exactly what I set out to do. I accomplished every goal that I made for myself before I started racing. Along the way, I set a few more goals and I accomplished all but one. I really wanted to drop the title of “Winningest Female Racer” and gain the title of “Winningest Racer” in Pro Stock Bikes. I guess I fell just short of that one.

As I look back on my career in racing, I do feel a great deal of pride but I also wonder if the sacrifices that I made were all worth it. Being a female in this sport can take it’s toll in several different ways. I won’t take the time that I would need to explain every detail, but I will tell you that it was very difficult for me at times. My racing career was really hard on my family and was especially hard on any relationship I tried to have. I took a public bashing for quite some time because of my name changes. I had two failed marriages, due mostly to the demands of a life and job away from home. In a similar situation, I had a business nearly bankrupt me because I couldn’t be here to oversee what was happening while I was gone. My brother and I didn’t speak for almost two years because my “distance” from the family literally came between us. But most important of all, I am still childless. I don’t even think I can explain the feeling of being a 39-year-old woman who doesn’t have a child. It’s just not natural. I have lived every day for at least the past 10 years with a giant hole in my heart. I chose to put off having children until later in life, but I never really thought it was going to be this late.

God has given me another chance. At the beginning of the 2009 season, Shirley Muldowney contacted me to ask if I would be interested in driving a Top Fuel dragster for her. Despite what I had been feeling for quite some time, I did not hesitate to say yes! Just days before that call, my mom broke down to me and said how happy she was that I wasn’t racing anymore. She said that my family wanted me home and they wanted me safe. She said that she thanks God everyday for allowing me to have the career that I had without ever being injured. I reluctantly called to inform her of my decision to pursue a Top Fuel ride, she somberly replied “I’ll support whatever decision you make, I just want you to be happy.” Those words rang loud and clear in my head for several months. Although the idea of racing with Shirley, and especially in a Top Fuel car, excited me so much that my spine tingled, I couldn’t lie to myself about what was really going fill the hole in my heart. At the final hour Shirley informed me that the deal fell through, I felt so many different emotions at once. I was sad, but happy. Scared but relieved. Mad but glad. I knew that this was my sign. It was time for me to close this door and open the next one.

I was scared that my friends and some of my family would be disappointed. I had actually been believing that “Angelle the racer” was all that they cared about. I didn’t think that anyone wanted to know me for me, but only because of my racing. This had really affected my self esteem and had caused me to be extremely insecure. But when I told them, they all seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Then I knew that they really do love me and that I was doing the right thing.

The best thing of all happened after that. My boyfriend of three years, Seth Drago, took me up in a hot air balloon ride and asked me to be his wife. How romantic! I knew just then that he loves me for who I really am. He doesn’t care if I am on TV, how much money I make, what sponsors I have or what “title” I hold. He just loves me for me and that’s all there is to it. I couldn’t ask for anything better in the whole world.

So this time around, my sacrifices are going to be a little different. My focus will be on Seth and the children that I pray God will bless us with. I will soak up every moment I get with my friends and family. I am going to live my life in the slow lane for a while. I am going to enjoy a normal life in the real world.

I want to thank all of you who rooted for me. Thank you for your support, for your friendship and, most of all, for your prayers. You have no idea how much it has meant to me over the years. I may have missed out on a lot with my friends and family at home while I was racing, but I sure do have lots of memories from my extended family and friends that I made on the road. I was very blessed to have met so many of you. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: You all really were the wind beneath my wings!!

Thank you for reading my blogs. I hope they were at least a little entertaining for you and that you have learned something about me that you might not have known otherwise. Beneath the helmet was just a girl chasing a dream; I hope you’ll do the same in your lives. It’s never too late to get what you want! Champion the right to be yourself. Dare to be different. Live your own life and follow your dreams, for in the end, if we live truly, we shall truly live!

God Bless each and every one of you.

The V6 was really, really disgusting.

We decided to have a little fun with granny before the build begins, so we pulled the fluids out of her, started her up and took bets on how long she would last.

Check it out…!!

With the Malibu being a full frame car, with a perimeter outer frame, we’re going to be adding inner frame rails for the 25.5 spec, and tying up the control arms structure into the roll cage for more rigidity. The Malibu actually has a nice suspension design from the aspect that it’s easy to add support to both the upper and lower control arm locations.

We’re going to walk you through all of the steps we go through so you can do this to your own G-body. Of course we’re using TRZ Suspension and QA1 front and rear shocks in the build, as mentioned, so when we get to that stage we’ll give them props there! The Mini tubs will allow us to use our Mickey Thompson 295/65 drag radials and tuck the body nicely without it looking like a stink bug.

Check out the photo sequence and captions below.

Sadly, the stock bench seat had to go. We’ve got a fresh new Kirkey seat to go in here instead. I really wanted to keep the bench seat, but nightmare’s of crashing at 160 mph erased that quickly as I imagined myself tearing through the stock 30+ year old fabric and springs.

We already had used some aircraft stripping agent to remove the coating from the trunk area, plus 30 years of grime. Looks nice huh.

The Cornwell Plasma cutter is our friend today. We’ll use a combination of the plasma cutter, cut-off wheel, and a sawzall to remove the wheel wells.

Before we starting cutting out the stock tubs, Mike Ryan started by cutting out the connected sheetmetal between the rear trunk hangers and the wheel tubs. They are tack-welded here. We’ll be getting rid of the trunk hangers and go with a pin-on trunk since the hangers are huge and gangly, and they are where our Chassis Engineeing Mini Tubs are going.

Here you can see the rough cuts that Mike is making with the Plasma cutter from the inside of the well.

The wheel tub is really made of two pieces in most cars, and the G-body is no different. You can see the seam line here, as we used the plasma to cut out the inner well.

The way the wheel well looks after the rough plasma cut.

Mike wants a nice crisp line for doing the mini tubs. Here you can see he used masking tape (not finished yet) to start a line that he is going to use a cut off wheel to follow to make a nice crisp cut on the inner sheetmetal for the wheel tub.

Finished after trimming nicely.

A cut off wheel is used to remove the outer wheel well. A plasma cutter will burn through your sheetmetal so it’s a no go.

Nobody said chassis fabricators had it easy.

All finished and ready for final trimming!

Sometimes you are in the right place at the right time. This time, we were. We’ve been working with Currie Enterprises on a few different projects, and it just so happened that Project Grandma’s need for a new rear end intersected perfectly with a top-secret project at Currie.

Currie’s New Fabricated 9-inch Housing and Rear End. Now, you probably have never seen this before, and that’s because it has never been available before, and we have the very first one.

You can search all you want at Currie’s web site. With no luck. This is our scoop, and very shortly you’ll be able to check out everything.

We’ve been sworn to not tell you anything else, other than that we’re going to bring you the exclusive scoop on this very shortly. Until then, you’ll need to enjoy some of our quick snapshots. The only thing we are allowed to tell you about this rear end is that it will be available in both “race” versions and full bolt-in versions.

And, you can see in the background, the backside of our new Billet Specialties Street Lite wheels that we’re using along with the M/T Drag Radials. We’ll make sure to show you more beauty shots soon, but for now you can check out the photo’s below of our 7-second ready G-Body rear end custom built by Currie for stock suspension.

Let’s say you are a classy guy with a passion for dirt track racing and classic Detroit muscle. Well…..we’ve found the perfect car for you! Posted on Craigslist is a classic 1968 Camaro.

Looking at the picture and reading the description, there would be little work involved in making this thing a top notch dirt track street stock race car. According to the owner; the car has all metal body with a mini tub for rear wheel clearance. There is a Ford 9″ rear end and a locking brake tranny for those monster he-man burn outs. The posting says that the car already has a roll cage. There is however, NO ENGINE. Asking price is a cool $5,000 or best offer. The owner says “MAKE ME AN OFFER” (951) 927-6171.

Looks like the car is already primer gray and the exterior lights and trim are removed. Put your best engine in it, knock out the windows, weld the doors shut, throw some numbers on the top and sides and you’re all ready to hit the track in classic style. You may not win but you’ll sure look great.

The Aeromotive fuel system

Switching from an EFI system to a carburetor is not as easy as just pulling off the throttle body and slapping on the 1050. There are many other components that need to be changed out as well, including the fuel system. The fuel system in an EFI application needs to supply gas at 75 psi or higher, a far cry from the single-digit pressures required by our carburetor. Keeping the EFI pump would mean regulating it so far down that the majority of the fuel would be bypassing the carb and returning to the tank, building heat and killing the pump in short order. To avoid all of that, we installed a new Aeromotive fuel system designed to supply fuel at an appropriate pressure and volume.

Having the correct components for your application is critical to how it performs, and this Aeromotive system was matched to Project Grandma’s needs. The Eliminator fuel pump (p/n 11104) is able to support a 2300 HP naturally aspirated engine, which will be more than enough for our 970 HP needs. A 100 micron stainless steel element pre-filter screws straight into the suction side of the pump, and a -12 fitting connects the pre-filter to the fuel cell.

The pressure side of the fuel pump drops down to a -10 fitting and from there goes through a 10 micron paper filter, then forward under the car to the fuel log. The Aeromotive fuel log (p/n 14201) has a cool feature added to it – where each side of the log attaches to the carburetor, there are swivel points that allows the user to position the log up or down up to 20 degrees for clearance of throttle stops, nitrous plates, spacers, or other components.

From the opposite side of the log a -10 line runs back to the regulator. The two-port bypass regulator (p/n 13212) is fully adjustable from 2-20 psi, which is perfect for our carbureted application. A -10 line was used as the return line from the bottom of the regulator back to the fuel cell.

Even though installing the fuel system was very straightforward, there is one important rule to remember that can mean the difference between life and death for the fuel pump. Using the wrong filter, or not putting them in the correct order can harm the system. Jesse Powell of Aeromotive explains, “One of the single greatest issues we take phone calls on are filters being in the wrong location, or the wrong size filters that will cause the same problems.” The free-flowing 100 micron stainless steel filter that goes before the pump is designed to catch the large contaminants that would harm the pump. The 10 micron paper filter is what will catch all of the remaining debris that would plug up the carburetor. Mixing the two up can have serious consequences. “The reason the system needs to be set up this way is because the Eliminator fuel pump, or just about any other fuel pump out there, can push fuel out a lot easier than it can suck in,” says Powell. Putting the fine, 10-micron filter on the inlet side will damage the pump by overstressing it as it fights to pull instead of push. The rule to remember is, “Stainless = Suction, Paper = Pressure”.

It was a happy Todd Moyer (top left) and team after making a pair of three-second passes yesterday—their first ever in the “threes”—during Houston Raceway Park’s DragRaceHose.com Spring Warm-up Test Session.

Moyer and his Flowmaster Extreme 10.5 twin-turboed ‘04 Cavalier, fresh from some updating work at Terry Murphy’s chassis shop, first turned the trick with a 3.983 at 196.59-mph blast, then came back with the 3.96 at 197.74 shown above.

With the ADRL season-opening Universal Technical Institute Dragpalooza VI presented by Safety-Kleen scheduled for Mar. 19-20, at Houston Raceway Park, it looks like Moyer’s a real contender to join the exclusive Mickey Thompson 3-Second Club for the XTF racers.

(Scott Singleton photos)

Either way, courtesy of ADRL’s Agent 666, check out them out:

First Look: Hamstra’s New Paint

Fresh out of the paint booth and just in time for final assembly and testing before the ADRL’s season-opening Universal Technical Institute Dragpalooza VI presented by Safety-Kleen, come these exclusive images sent to your Agent of Jason Hamstra’s new Garret Race Cars-built ‘69 Camaro Pro Extreme entry.

Following a design by Larry Williams, Brian Olson (yes, he of the crack ADRL at-the-track announcing team) and his guys at Olson Paint & Body in Peru, IN, laid down the “nine or 10” hues of House of Kolor candy on the eye-catching Camaro.

“My main man, ‘Cougar,’ along with my son Drew Olson, Drew Chilcutt, Brian Jones, Matt Rasmus and pretty much every single person at Olson Body and Paint have worked literally around the clock to get this done,” Olson told your Agent. “I’m pretty proud of them, especially since this is the first Pro Extreme body we’ve ever painted. I think it turned out great!”

Your Agent agrees. Hamstra, the 2009 ADRL Rookie of the Year, was always fast, but if his performance remains even close to how sweet his new ride appears, the candy should be disappearing pretty quick.

(Photos courtesy Olson Paint & Body)

Castellana’s New PN Camaro

These images arrived in your Agent’s in-box early this morning, depicting the brand-new ‘69 Camaro that Mike Castellana will campaign in Pro Nitrous under the Al-Anabi Racing banner this year.

The car was built by Jerry Bickel Race Cars in Moscow Mills, MO, and carries a Reher-Morrison powerplant up front, draped by one of the new, ultra-light Cynergy composite bodies.

Testing with the car should begin this weekend with its ADRL debut scheduled for the Universal Technical Institute Dragpalooza VI presented by Safety-Kleen Mar. 19-20, at Houston Raceway Park.

(Photos courtesy Cynergy Composites)

“ODRA is a group of successful business people combined with a group of successful drag racing professionals,” explained Bryant. “We have come together to provide a first class Outlaw Drag Racing experience. Our goal is very simple. We want to bring a high quality product to the racers and the fans. You are our clients and customers. Yes, we do believe that our racers are our clients, and fans are our customers, and we want to earn your business.”

That the ODRA is being backed by business people and not just racers holds merit with us for their prospects in the long run. With the explosion of independent series in the last two years, and how successful they have been, it will be interesting to see how ODRA does. Will they experience the success of the ORTC-style events, or will they have to fight tooth and nail for decent car counts?

Official ODRA Race Schedule:

• April 2-3: I-22 Motorsport Park
• April 2nd – 3rd- I-22 Motorsports Park – Eldridge, AL
• May 28th – 29th – U.S. 19 Dragway – Albany, GA
• June 18th – 19th – Hub City Dragway – Hattiesburg, MS
• July 23rd – 24th – Montgomery Motorsports Park – Montgomery, AL
• August 13th – 14th – Macon National Dragway – Macon, GA
• September 17th – 18th – Holly Springs Dragstrip – Holly Springs, MS

If you have any questions about this new series, contact: Karen Bryant, ODRA – Race Director, Phone: (205) 337-6760

Kurt Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, will return to his drag racing roots during the 41st running of the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals March 11-14 at historic Gainesville Raceway.

The driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge for Penske Racing is set to get behind the wheel of his rebuilt 1970 Dodge Challenger next weekend to compete against a field of between 70 and 90 veteran Super Gas racers who no doubt will be champing at the bit to line up against one of the biggest names in motorsports.

Busch will make a minimum of three time trial passes on Thursday March 11 and the field will return Friday morning to begin eliminations.

“Gainesville is one of the marquee events on the NHRA calendar and it’s a privilege to compete against the best Sportsman racers out there,” Busch said.

Busch bought the Dodge Challenger in 2008 and began the process of getting it into race shape in March of 2009.  The car is powered by a stroked 6.1 liter Hemi, weighs 3,000 pounds and puts out a 1,167 horsepower. While Busch feels at home behind the wheel of his Sprint Cup car he is aware that this will be a new and exciting environment for him.

“Sportsman racing is no different than any other type of racing, you need seat time.  I spent over 30 hours at Roy Hill’s drag racing school, and have had two tests in my own Challenger, but that’s nowhere compared to the seat time many of these guys have in their own cars.  We are going to go out there and do our best competing against these talented Sportsman racers,” Busch said.

Busch’s love affair with drag racing began back in the early 1990s when he met a pair of Las Vegas based NHRA racers, George Marnell, a Pro Stock racer, and Dave Bush (no relation), a Super Comp competitor. And when Kurt began driving in the Sprint Cup Series for Penske Racing, he got to know NHRA Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon as both were sponsored by Miller Lite.

He got the idea to compete in an NHRA event after taking part in the opening night of zMax Dragway in Concord, N.C., in September 2008 and one of the rare off-weekends in the NASCAR schedule coincided with next weekend’s 41st running of the prestigious Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals.

For tickets for the 41st annual Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals, log on to www.ticketmaster.com or call 800-884-NHRA (6472).

So far, it’s been an amazing start to the 1320 activities in Bakersfield, with great car counts and pretty nice weather combining for the start of a historic weekend. It’s been a weekend where old meets new, and Ron Capps, Gary Densham, and some of the Pro NHRA drivers are on hand not to sign autographs, but to race. Capps is qualified in the #1 position as of Friday.

[media-credit name="Darr Hawthorne" align="alignright" width="320"][/media-credit]

Drag Racing Online has complete photo galleries and results, like this match up between Densham and Capps.

Although Dragzine.com wasn’t able to be there – there is excellent coverage from around the web, including on Drag Racing Online. You can click here for the DRO Coverage. DRO is providing round by round coverage complete with race results, tip sheets on the Nitro classes, and photo galleries.

BangShift:

The guys from Bangshift.com decided to set up a free live video feed from the event, powered by LiveStream. If you’re checking this out during this weekend, click this link to watch the video. Chad and Brian are also busy filling up the BangShift.com photo galleries.

Competition Plus:

Providing a full race notebook and event coverage from the 52nd March Meet, check out the event notebook from CompetitionPlus.

Next year, we’ll be there. We’ve got our staff at the NMRA Ford Nationals in Bradenton, Florida this weekend providing same-day coverage on www.StangTV.com, but hopefully we’ll have a few more nickels in the ol’ coffee jar by next year. Expect some top quality DZ coverage next year.

NHRA's Live Timing System allows you follow the on-track action in real time.

It could be better than sitting in the stands. If you’re a fan of NHRA check out the NHRA Live Timing system that NHRA debuted with the help of Motorola at this year’s Pomona event. Essentially what “LIVE TIMING” does is allow fans to follow the on-track action with seeing full incremental times and speeds from each pair of racers as they go down the track. I played with this yesterday and it’s trick. Check it out today if you don’t have the ol’ Lady to keep happy on Valentine’s day. Heck, even if you do, squeeze in a few minutes.

Plus, NHRA is going to offer a few extra features – data archives and crew chief information for those that want to pony up a little extra.

The official press release is below:

Live timing from NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series events is coming to NHRA.com.

Beginning Thursday, Feb. 11, with the start of the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series and the 50th running of the Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals presented by Valvoline at historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, live timing will be available to all NHRA.com visitors. Motorola NHRA Live Timing can be accessed through the NHRA.com home page or at www.nhra.com/livetiming/livetiming.aspx.

Motorola NHRA Live Timing will feature live timing from NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series events so fans at home can follow the action as it is happening on the track, including all competitors and categories, full listings of incremental times and speeds, updated qualifying and elimination ladders, current weather and atmospheric conditions at the event, and complete race archive data back to the 2009 NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway.

Through the O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals presented by Pennzoil in Houston, in addition to the live data, NHRA is making available the complete archive timing data to all NHRA.com visitors. After this introductory period, NHRA members will have access to the archive data as a benefit of their NHRA membership. Non-NHRA members can purchase complete archive data for a special introductory price of $19.95. All visitors to NHRA.com will have access to free real-time data.

Additional features that will be added in the coming months include comprehensive downloadable crew chief data from all NHRA Full Throttle and Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series divisional events. The crew chief package for NHRA members will be priced at $99.95 per year and $168.95 per year for non-NHRA members.

The drag racing media, by and large, has stayed away from this story, but it has been taken up by message forums all over the world. But we have been talking about this situation for a few weeks, and I just finally wanted to talk about this once Dragzine.com was launched.

This situation has affected a lot of lives and reputations, and it also involves money and financial support. Not just of Al Anabi but for Al Anabi’s partners such as the ADRL, and thus, ADRL’s sponsors. That makes it a mine field. It even extends to media sources that cover Al Anabi, ADRL, and want access to it’s drivers and racers or who are afraid of getting sued. And unfortunately, those freedom of speech issues are another hot button, as popular forums such as Yellow Bullet and Pro Mod Zone have contained posts from users that are inflammatory and accusative, at best.

First, I think the right course of action is to look at the facts and the allegations.

The Facts:

• Moe Atat was involved in a 2-vehicle street race on October, 2001 that resulted in the death of a women (Denise Jones) who was a mother of 2.
• Atat was not driving the vehicle that was in the actual accident.
• Four uniformed police offers were on scene watching the street race as spectators.
• Two police offers were suspended for 10-days; 2 for 3-days.
• Charges were filed against Atat for second-degree Murder, failure to stop at the scene of a serious personal injury accident, and two counts of felonious driving and drag racing.
• Atat was on welfare, but owned several homes, raced expensive cars, and owned luxury vehicles.
• Police believe Atat was a drug-dealer when in the US, and they believe Atat continues to traffic in the drug trade.
• Atat fled the country after failing to appear in court for trial.
• Atat was featured in the America’s Most Wanted television show.
• Atat has been racing for Al Anabi in the Middle East in the Arabian Drag Racing League
• Sheikh Al-Thani and the ADRL received a great amount of negative publicity because of Atat’s involvement with Al Anabi and the Arabian Drag Racing League, which is closely linked to the ADRL
• Sheikn Al-Thani asked Atat to step down, and has disassociated Al Anabi Racing from Atat.

ADRL’s Involvement & the Potential of a Lawsuit

When the heat started coming hard and heavy on Al Anabi and the Arabian Drag Racing League where Atat was competing, the third part of that triangle – the ADRL – started coming under heavy fire. Specifically, ADRL and Arabian Drag Racing League President Kenny Nowling. The commentary on the ADRL and Nowling was harsh, direct, and definitely personal. This came at a time when ADRL was trying to extend it’s relationship with key sponsors including the National Guard, and was riding the hot streak at the hottest, fastest growing racing series in the country.

During this, Nowling let it be known that the ADRL was preparing to strongly consider suing for slander and libel, both possibly to the message forums and the posters themselves. Beyond that, Nowling, was quoted by Competition Plus stating that letters and emails were sent to sponsors: “I don’t begrudge those who disagree with us. But, I do have a problem with those who cross the line and make false accusations in the form of letters and emails to our sponsors, whom we have worked tirelessly to bring in to benefit our racers and  race fans. They made accusations in written letters that I was harboring, aiding and abetting a fugitive wanted for murder. I’m not going to get into all of the details of Moe Atat, that will be for another day. All I can tell you is that what started as harmless opinions on message boards have threatened my livelihood.”

Recently, the talks of the ADRL lawsuit diminished in visibility – at least publicly, although we can’t speculate what action was taking place.

Sheikh Al-Thani has helped take the ADRL and Arabian Drag Racing League to new levels.

Sheikh Al-Thani asks  Moe Atat to Leave Al-Anabi

Less than a week ago, Sheikh Al-Thani, the owner and financial backer of Al-Anabi, asked Moe Atat to step down from the Al Anabi racing team. The complete letter is below, and according to Competition Plus, “The following statement is provided on behalf of Sheikh Khalid Al Thani and Al Anabi Racing. Please direct any questions to Puvanesan Kay, Aequitas Law LLP (U.K. Barrister) or Chris Rodi, Woods Oviatt Gilman LLP, (U.S. legal counsel) at info@aequitaslaw.com.”

Letter from Al-Thani:

It has come to my attention that my and Al Anabi Racing’s relationship with Mustafa Atat has recently been the subject of considerable discussion. The comments centered on Mustafa’s involvement in a race in Detroit, Michigan, in 2001 which resulted in the tragic death of an innocent bystander. As a driver of the other car in that race, I understand that Mustafa has been charged with several serious crimes in the United States.

I did not come to know Mustafa until 2007 when he settled with his new family in Qatar. I do not know exactly what happened in Detroit, and do not fully understand the details of American law. In particular, I only recently learned that the murder conviction of the other driver in the Detroit race did not preclude Mustafa’s being found guilty of that same crime, an unfamiliar notion in my country. As such, I do not think it is appropriate for me to attempt to respond to the many allegations that have been made about Mustafa.

There have also been allegations made about the integrity of our team and other members of the Al Thani family in Qatar. These comments have been categorically untrue and unnecessary. Some have even bordered on racist. Luckily, I know that the overwhelming majority of race fans are above these types of ad hominem attacks. I hope that, in the future, anyone who does not know me, my family or my team personally will attempt to do so before making baseless personal attacks.

Although I do not think my commenting on Mustafa’s situation is appropriate, I also recognize that this situation continues to effect many people. Mustafa has been a talented and dedicated member of the Al Anabi Racing team. However, out of respect for all involved in the tragedy in Detroit, including the family of the victim and the others injured, and also out of respect for the United States racing community which has warmly welcomed me and many of my team members, I have asked Mustafa to separate himself from Al Anabi Racing here in Qatar. I expressed my hope that he will take the necessary steps to resolve his personal legal issues.

I wish to express my heartfelt sorrow for the family of the victim and all those involved in the tragic accident in Detroit in 2001. I hope that the rest of us can respect their privacy and return our focus to racing, where it belongs.

Very truly yours,
Sheikh Khalid Al Thani
Al Anabi Racing [2/3/2010]

Inside this letter, Al Thani clearly laid out his case for his involvement with Atat.

1. He is unaware of what happened in Detroit, and unsure of the American laws.
2. He acknowledges the allegations about Al Anabi, but asks that in the future, anyone that does not know him, his family or team, will attempt to “know him” before making attacks.
3. He says that Atat has been a “dedicated” member of Al Anabi, but that out of respect for the victim and others, and the US racing community, he has asked Atat to separate himself from Al Anabi.
4. He hopes Atat will resolve his personal legal issues.
5. He express sorrow for the victim and others involved.
6. He hopes that the victim’s privacy can be respected and that the “rest of us” can return our focus to racing.

Where do we stand today? Atat has lost his drag race ride, but is still a fugitive from the US. The ADRL has not commented on the lawsuit for a few weeks, and of course, would love this issue to go away so they can focus on their business. Al Anabi is still reeling from the negative publicity.

Moe Atat in Qatar as part of the Al-Anabi team.

FIVE POINTS ABOUT ATAT, AL ANABI, AND ADRL

1. This was never about Street Racing or Murder.

I used to street race. I started when I was 16, and street raced for about 6 years until I was 22. I probably engaged in at least 20 unofficial “money on the line” street races, but as many as 200 or 300 speed contests on public roads. I liked the scene, never saw anyone got hurt, and essentially, was ignorant to all of the downsides. I only stopped when I realized the tremendous risk outweighed the thrill. I don’t believe I’m a bad person, nor did I intentionally attempt to put anyone in harm’s way. How many people reading this have engaged in an impromptu street race against a friend’s car on a public street?

That being said, I firmly believe that if there is an accident in a street race, the parties should be held responsible in court. Even me. I easily could have found myself in Moe Atat’s shoes when it came to the death of a street racing bystander and mother of 2. That being said, all of the outrage that was directed at Moe Atat, and to an extention, ADRL and Al Anabi, had nothing to do with the accident that killed one and injured two.

Outrage comes from a lack of justice, and from people that run from justice. Atat ran away… never paid the piper. Never faced his victim’s family. And that was why this blew up so badly. Moe never really killed anyone, he didn’t do anything that any of the rest of us couldn’t have had happen to us. Although all of us have pressed that throttle down hard on a public street.

I knew Moe Atat. The reality is that far before this situation ever occured, we all knew Moe Atat was not going to church on Sundays.

He raced with the NMRA when I was the company President and founder of the series. It was rumored that Moe’s money did not come from legal avenues, but Atat was very polite to the officials in the series and always complied with anything we asked of him. Whether you believe that his act of street racing, and the consequences, should have resulted in him being jailed for life, or getting probation, something EVERYONE believes in is the very act of justice – your day in court. Innocent or guilty – we are all the same in the eyes of the law. And that injustice is why this issue has become a firestorm for all involved parties.

2. Al-Anabi: Middle East Money + Atat… Racism plus Perception?

Al Anabi and the Arabian Drag Racing League made a mistake associating themselves with Atat. That is clear to all parties, including Al Anabi themselves. Sheikh was very clear in his letter that he recognized that his relationship with Atat damaged his reptuation in the United States, and knowing what he knows now, I’m sure he never would have initiated the relationship. That being said, it’s quite possible that Al Anabi did not know the extent of what happened in the United States when he brought Atat into his team. With someone of Al Thani’s stature, it’s quite possible that those who did know were afraid of informing him.

So giving them the benefit of the doubt, it was further complicated by the fact that some Americans have a racial bias against people from the middle east. With everything that has happened in Iraq, Iran, and with movies like The Hurt Locker in the public’s mind, Al Anabi’s involvement with Atat only fueled that situation.

The truth is, Al Anabi made a mistake, but it had nothing to do with them being Middle Eastern. This just as easily could have happened in the United States with white guys from Georgia.

3. ADRL: A Lose-Lose Situation?

The ADRL and Arabian Drag Racing League was in a lose-lose situation through this entire process. On the one side, they had Al Anabi who were huge supporters of the organization and helped it become successful. And it’s not even clear how much Al Anabi knew of Atat’s situation. On the other side – the perception of the United States drag racing community was that any association with Atat and those of his ilk, through Al Anabi, only devalued the ethics and morals of the ADRL. Financial resources also played a part in this, as no doubt the financial success of the ADRL is linked to the support of Al Anabi to some degree.

Next thing the ADRL knows, they are under heavy fire from online message forums and racers all across the country for their relationship with Al Anabi, ADRL, and the Arabian Drag Racing League.

So, did ADRL handle things the correct way?

In my opinion, whether the ADRL had any direct involvement or not with Atat, the ADRL was in a massive lose-lose situation where truly they had no “right answer”. Atat was part of Al-Anabi, and Al-Anabi was backing the Arabian Drag Racing League of which Kenny Nowling of the ADRL was President. I can’t imagine how challenging this entire situation was for Nowling. His organization has done a tremendous thing for troops and american military all over the United States, and this truly was a lose-lose, no-way-out situation.

The real problem is, with the ADRL’s visibility and growth – especially with Corporate America (i.e., see our news piece on Summit Racing’s sponsorship of ADRL racer Pete Berner) — they are now under the very bright lights of very public scrutiny. The bar is raised, and they have be more proactive, more morale, and more “good” in everything they do. I’m sure that if Kenny had this all to do over again, he would have distanced the ADRL from Atat much more quickly. Atat certainly did not kill anyone, but in the eyes of the public, the association was close enough.

I think the key word is “Good”. If ADRL wants to be a premier player – think of NASCAR as an example. They need to be clean, happy, and safe. And that means puppy dogs and apple pie and maybe a LITTLE controversy between the racers. Now that they’re big time, they need to be extremely cautious moving forward.

4. Message Boards vs Drag Racing Media – Freedom of Speech or Flame Wars?

Main stream drag race media generally did not cover the Atat story. Print magazines or online verisons. It’s too bad that Scott Sparrow wasn’t still publishing Inside Motorsports when this came along, because he would have been all over this. However, the online forums and blogs that cover drag racing picked up and played a large part in this story. People within those forums, for right or wrong, expressed some extremely strong opinions about Atat, the ADRL, Middle Easterner’s in general, and of course, Al Anabi. In my opinion, that information exchange and dialog, is what freedom of speech is all about. We don’t agree with many of those opinions or statements, and they may be crude, rude and hurtful. They may be right, wrong, indifferent or biased. But the freedom to criticize is part of what makes this country strong.

Personally and professionally, god knows both myself and the different companies I have been involved with have come under attack or been criticized for decisions made. Some for right reasons, many wrong, and others – just because. I can relate to what the ADRL went through, and Kenny personally, because it is so difficult to be at the top of the mountain of an organization and feeling like everyone is throwing darts at you. You want to throw back so badly, to get your own justice, to sue for libel, slander, and just generally shut up those bastards talking about you. But you can’t, and even if you do, you won’t win. And even if you win, there will be some other bastard tomorrow.

In the online circles, it’s pretty clear that there were some individuals that went “over the line.” And in my eyes, over the line meant writing or calling sponsors with the accusation that ADRL or Nowling was involved with harboring Atat. I understand the passion behind getting Atat to justice, but there is a fine line between the situation Nowling was in, and actually actively hiding Atat. It was actually the opposite. Nowling is not an agent of the United States government, and it’s not his obligation to bring Atat to justice personally. From what I’ve heard behind the scenes, Nowling was torn up over the entire situation, and had his hands tied equally politically and professionally.

That being said, social media definitely showed it’s power as it indirectly caused Al-Anabi to drop Atat.

5. What of the Real Victims?

The real victims in this case – obviously – are the ones getting the least attention. The children of the women who died. For some reason, on that night, at that moment, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, facing a pair of headlights going over 100 mph in the wrong direction. Fate intervened, and because of forces beyond she lost her life, and her two kids lost a mother.

I could have just have easily caused the same accident, when I was 16 and I was racing in the San Fernando Valley on Saticoy Ave with my 1990 Mustang GT. But, at that moment and others, fate was on my side, and it kept me and other road-goers safe.

So What Now?

Moe Atat will likely never make another quarter-mile pass in heads-up competition.

I think Al Anabi’s letter was a step in the right direction, and ADRL has done the right thing by letting this situation start to die off. ADRL and Al Anabi need to get as far away from Atat as possible, and also make sure to avoid any relationships like this in the future. In every other situation, ADRL and Al Anabi have seemed to have always conducted themselves as “Best of Class”. So, let’s give them the closure they are asking for, and over time, forgive and forget.

What of Atat…? True closure will never happen until Atat comes back to the United States and has his fate decided by a court of law for what occured. Guilty or innocent. Will that ever happen?.. I don’t know.

But what I do know is that Atat has been brought to justice at some level….

He’s actually lost the sport he loves.

Here’s something Chris wrote about pulling the parachute when in trouble:

It happens, and it’s every drivers worst nightmare.  Something thought about, but only talked about in hush voice, and even then on rare occasions.

You are roaring down the track at 100+ MPH when all of a sudden, without notice, your car starts dancing out of control, what to do?!  Of course you should try to regain control of the vehicle, stay out of the gas pedal, and let instinct take over.  But 1 tip in addition to this is to pull the chute. Pulling the chute will not only slow the car down, but keep the back end of the car pointed towards the tower.  With the back end pointed towards the tower, the chance of your front wheels giving you control of the vehicle is much greater.  Remember steering a car only works when the front wheels are on the ground, with solid contact and rotating.  It’s nearly impossible to control a car that’s sliding sideways; you are pretty much just along for the ride.

So if you are a relatively new racer, check out his Top 10 Drag Racing Tips article. Nice job Chris.

Here is the original press release:

Pete Berner is excited to announce a new partnership with Summit Racing Equipment.

Berner will fly Summit colors in 2010 as he chases the ADRL Battle for the Belts Championship.

“It is truly an honor to be associated with Summit Racing Equipment,” said Berner. “They are one of the finest businesses in the industry. Besides being the top mail order company, they are an upstanding business that puts the racer first. I feel privileged to have Summit on the side of my car in 2010 and beyond. I’ve gotten to know Jim Greenleaf [Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports and Event Manager] and his team well, and they are excellent individuals who have a passion for the sport of drag racing. It’s great to have people like this supporting the industry and racers from grassroots to professional level.

“The Summit team and I have a similar vision and passion for racing and a commitment to excellence, so I feel like this is truly a great fit for both of us. We are both excited to run the full ADRL schedule in 2010 and pursue the next level for Summit and Pete Berner Racing. Summit has a strong presence in every drag racing venue and we hope to only increase that in the ADRL.”

“Summit Racing is pleased to announce a partnership with Pete Berner in 2010,” Jim Greenleaf said. “We’d like to establish a presence in the Mountain Motor Pro Stock class, and Pete’s dedication, drive, and professionalism make him an excellent choice to fly the Summit Racing Team colors. We look forward to supporting Pete as he competes for another Mountain Motor Pro Stock championship.”

This was the original render for the Berner Team.

“The Summit commitment to the individual racer, as well as the sport as a whole, is really a thing to take note of,” continued Berner. “I certainly have as I’ve become familiar with the company over my years of racing, and it has given me a deep respect for Summit Racing Equipment.”

Along with the full ADRL schedule and other select Pro Stock events, Berner’s Summit Racing Equipment GXP will be on display at car shows in Chicago and Detroit.

“We’re certainly looking forward to being a part of the Summit team. It is truly an honor for me and my team to have the opportunity to represent Summit, and I couldn’t imagine a better company to be associated with.”

Forum Member TopFuel@Lions made the case for Lions Dragstrip, saying:

The greatest drag strip of all time? Easy answer on this one. The one and only Lions Drag Strip located at the famous intersection of 223rd & Alameda, Wilmington, California. No other track then or today will ever, ever, match the magic of the “Beach.”

However, Bobby Bennet, the owner of Comp Plus, suggested that “Spartanburg Dragway” should take the cake.

So, who is the Best Dragstrip of All Time?

We’re going to say Pomona. Not so much because of it’s heritage, but because of all of the memories that have been laid down there for generation after generation.

What say you? Comment away.

Dragzine.com will deliver the hard hitting news and event coverage that hardcore drag racers crave. Updated daily are rumors and news from NHRA, ADRL, NMCA, Outlaw and DragRadial events, not to mention videos, hardcore tech articles and interviews. It’s Hardcore Drag Racing. 24 Hours a Day.

Our full-time staff and freelancers live and breath the 1320 every day. Our goal is to deliver to you the quickest, most timely news, rumors, and insights in the drag racing world. You will also find some of the best technical content on the web — from installations, dyno tests, project vehicles and more.

Mickey Thompson Tires has helped make Dragzine.com possible through the sponsorship of the event coverage on the web site. Special thanks to their entire team. They are really doing something special giving back to the drag racing enthusiast through their support of this web site.

This is a BETA launch, meaning not everything is guaranteed to work perfectly. But please do give us your feed back. And know – that if you bleed drag racing, you’ve found your web site.

Allen Johnson took home $50k. He'll be shooting it again for 2010.

The K&N NHRA Horsepower Challenge – which is a bonus-style event for NHRA Pro Stock Racers, has been renewed, announced NHRA. In this difficult sponsorship environment, this is a plus for NHRA Pro Stock racers, who have been under pressure financially to keep sponsorship support. Thanks K&N for the support.

The official press release is below:

NHRA and K&N Renew Sponsorship

GLENDORA, Calif. — NHRA announced today it has signed a contract extension with K&N Engineering, Inc., locking in the company’s sponsorship of the popular K&N Horsepower Challenge, a lucrative bonus event for Pro Stock competitors, through the 2012 event.

The K&N Horsepower Challenge is a special race-within-a-race bonus program for the top Pro Stock drivers in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. The K&N Horsepower Challenge is contested during the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio. The race features a special elimination pairing with eight Pro Stock drivers in the field, including seven who accumulate the most points in qualifying during the 23-race Challenge series, and one driver who is selected to the starting lineup for the event via a special fan vote.

As part of the K&N Horsepower Challenge, K&N will conduct a fan promotion during the running of the series and will present a new Harley-Davidson motorcycle to a lucky fan during the finals of the K&N Horsepower Challenge. In the promotion, eight lucky fans will receive a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park for the event, where one fan will be selected as the winner of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Each finalist will be paired with a K&N Horsepower Challenge driver during pre-race ceremonies and will be introduced on stage with the driver.

“We are pleased to extend the sponsorship of this important bonus event for Pro Stock racers with our friends at K&N Engineering,” said Gary Darcy, senior vice president of sales and marketing, NHRA. “The K&N Horsepower Challenge certainly brings an increased level of excitement to the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.”

The winner of the K&N Horsepower Challenge will earn $50,000, and the runner-up will earn $10,000. The two semifinalists will earn $3,000 each, while the four first-round finishers will receive $2,500 each.

“K&N is committed to making the Horsepower Challenge the premier Pro Stock event at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park,” said Steve Williams, vice president, K&N Engineering. “This year we are paring up eight lucky fans with the top eight drivers for a chance to win a Harley-Davidson Street Bob motorcycle, all they have to do is go to KNfilters.com, vote for their favorite driver and register to win.”

The K&N Horsepower Challenge features an overall purse of $145,000. In addition to the $76,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge, K&N also will award $69,000 in qualifying bonuses to quick Pro Stock qualifiers throughout the K&N Horsepower Challenge series. Low qualifiers earn $3,000 at each of the 23 events in the Challenge series.

Last season Jeg Coughlin claimed his third title in the prestigious race-within-a-race bonus event. Other past winners of the K&N Horsepower Challenge include Greg Anderson, Dave Connolly, Kurt Johnson, Warren Johnson, Darrell Alderman, Larry Morgan, Jim Yates, Bruce Allen and Bob Glidden.

K&N Engineering has been a major NHRA contingency sponsor for many years and has been the title sponsor for several NHRA national events in the past.

K&N is located in Riverside, Calif., and has more than seven hundred employees. Its 400,000 square foot manufacturing and distribution facilities produce the world’s best air filters that are reusable. Besides creating the first reusable performance air filter, K&N also produces the Wrench-Off oil filter and complete replacement air intake systems, adding horsepower for most cars and trucks.

Headquartered in Glendora, Calif., NHRA has 80,000 members and 140 member tracks nationwide. As the primary sanctioning body for the sport of drag racing in the United States, NHRA presents 23 national events featuring the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series and NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series. Two NHRA-sanctioned bracket racing series provide competition opportunities for drivers of all levels: the NHRA Summit Racing Series and the NHRA Drags: Street Legal Style presented by AAA. NHRA also offers the Jr. Drag Racing League for youth ages 8 to 17. In addition, NHRA owns and operates five racing facilities: Gainesville Raceway in Florida; Atlanta Dragway in Georgia; National Trail Raceway in Ohio; O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis; and Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in Southern California. For more information, log on to NHRA.com, or visit the official NHRA pages on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

In what might be the toughest class in all of Mustang doorslammer racing, Urist has climbed to the top and stayed there, despite a grueling commute from his New Mexico home to the east coast race venues, streaks of bad luck that would have been season-enders for any other team, and the constant pressure of competition in a class that is seeing low sevens at 200 MPH on a true 10.5-inch tire. Urist always has something interesting to say, so here at the start of the 2009 season, we thought we’d ask him to take a look back, and a look ahead.

Visit Nitto Tire’s John Urist Microsite

Three years, three consecutive Super Street Outlaw championships. Are you worn out?

No, I don’t think so. It feels the same as it does after every season; I’m glad it’s over. I can get back to concentrating on keeping the lights on around here, along with everything else. I think that’s one of the things for me – I view every year as a challenge and something I look forward to

Back in 2000, you came out of virtually nowhere, and in the years since you’ve almost become the public face of the NMRA’s racer community. What’s it been like?

It started out as a hobby, something that I wanted to do; I always enjoyed cars, and then I got involved in drag racing. My father wasn’t involved at all, so I didn’t have a foot in the door, so to speak. I basically did it all myself and decided that this was what I wanted to do, and the last ten years have been great. Things have gone basically the way I wanted – we didn’t have success at first, but we’ve worked on it until we’ve gotten to where we wanted to be.

What about before coming into the NMRA? You were just a college student at the time. Where did you get your experience?

I was in the engineering program at my school, but then I switched to management and got a degree in business management. At the time, I was building custom headers and cars for local people, and I’ve always enjoyed being hands-on. That’s when I decided to give it a try being in business for myself, and that’s when I started Urist Racing and started doing some Mustang and street-car fabrication and race-car stuff that catapulted me into what we’re doing today.

The experience has come from many sources. When I started out, I learned from good friends of mine that had been racing and working on Mustangs for years before I started. Mike Abdalla was racing back then, and I was able to pull information from those friends, and then just used trial-and-error over the years of trying different things and doing research; reading the different articles in the magazines, stuff just like what you guys are writing today just trying to gain the information and build upon it. You can’t beat hands-on experience, so we were just taking it to the track to see what we could do.

You’re so remote from the epicenter of the NMRA, being all the way out in New Mexico. Do you feel like that hurts you?

It definitely does. We basically haven’t been able to test for ten years, because the elevation difference is so great. We have a local track, but it’s at 6000 feet of altitude. The horsepower of the car is different because of that, which affects how the chassis works, so we’re not really able to test. We basically have to show up at the track and go from there, or we’ll drive to Phoenix or Oklahoma City to test. There’s minimum of at least an eight-hour trip for us every time we want to go to the track, which is different from those guys who can just make an evening of it and can get to and from the track and test every weekend. We have to work a bit harder to have everything together when we show up.

Having run all three combinations, were any significantly easier or harder than the rest in terms of maintenance/upkeep or tuning?

I would say that the supercharged car will have more engine maintenance, while a turbocharged car will definitely have more transmission and torque converter maintenance. Not necessarily breakage of the parts, but an attention to detail while inspecting everything between rounds and races, because they put an added strain on the car. You need to make sure you’re checking everything all the time.

How difficult is it for you and the rest of the team to coordinate keeping the car at the top of the heap?

We have a great team that pays their own way. Our budget is not what I believe most people think it is – our crewmembers are dedicated to helping our team win. They come to the racetrack early, where everyone meets up and we get started working on the car to maybe get a couple of test runs in early. We try to make sure we’re ready to go on Friday. Everyone knows the car real well, and we try to take that into consideration when we’re making plans.

What about the crew? The Hellion gang is legendary for its work ethic. How do they make it easier for you as a driver?

I think they understand that everyone has a certain job that they need to get done in order to be successful, and they don’t expect everyone else to do that. They work together to make sure that all of the maintenance is done so that I can spend time looking at the computer and the tune from round-to-round so I can make changes. When you have a crew that’s seen pretty much every scenario that you could have at the racetrack with the car, the information that you get from them is very important. If they see a crack in a pipe, or something else that’s wrong, they’ve seen those parts and potential failures for years already, so they know what to be looking for. It keeps the car running and it keeps us having fun at the racetrack.

I start with all of these ideas, but I couldn’t follow through without all of the support that I get. When I started, it was my grandmother and my family, and since then it’s been my partner and my team and all of the friends and sponsors that support what we do. I couldn’t have gotten to this level without the help and support of all of those people combined and I think it’s definitely shown.

Is there a set routine that your team follows every single time down the track?

Absolutely. We have a process that we try to follow every time. Obviously, there are times where it doesn’t go the same way, if you have to repair the car between rounds, or weather, something like that. There are many factors that play into it, but everyone stays calm and collected, and that makes its way through the team all the way to me. We just show up and try to make a good pass.

Take us through a run in a Super Street Outlaw car.

It’s pretty similar to most runs that anyone would make in their racecar. Once we tow to the lanes, I usually don’t get out of the car. I started that after watching Mike Murillo sit in his car while waiting to run. I remember watching him sit in the car instead of getting out and walking around, so I basically started staying in the car as well. I believe that’s the best way to stay calm. Once I get the car started and pull to the line, Nate gets me through the burnout box and we wait and see how much time the other guy needs. One of the big things is that we race in the summertime, and staying hydrated with all of the gear on becomes an issue. Heat and humidity definitely play a part. Your body temperature will play a part in how you feel at the starting line, so I try to keep that as consistent as possible. Once I make the run, I pull the chutes, go around the corner, and hope we won.

Did you find it a challenge to step right into a brand-new car just before the season began?

Oh, definitely. It was the biggest challenge that we’ve had. My previous car had been a work in progress that we had maintained over the last seven years – it took us that long to really have success with that vehicle. I saw a possible performance advantage to going to the new car, so we tried to build one for the last year and on top of that keep it a secret, for the entertainment value. It’s amazing how well everything went as planned with the new car. We decided that we were going to do a bunch of updates that we had realized needed to be done with the old car and were able to implement those right into the new one; maintenance and safety issues were at the forefront of that.

It worked out perfectly. The first race we had a few bugs, but given that we were able to put it into the 7.50’s and win the first event out with it made it easy for me to consider it a success. We focused on making it easier to work on, and I felt that the performance advantage of less surface area with the Fox car made it worthwhile to build. Mainly, the biggest thing was to modernize our program. There are always inherent things with certain cars that you can’t change unless you start from scratch. We took a championship car [the ‘00 Saleen] and applied all of the things we had learned with it to this one [the ’93 notchback]. I thought we were at a disadvantage with the old car, and we built this one in order to try to stay ahead of the curve.

How much different is it to drive this car compared to the chassis you were in before?

Driving is much different. From where I sit to how it feels sitting in the driver’s seat, it’s completely different. The vision in the older cars is better – you’re sitting much higher in relative position to the top of the door. Where the hood is positioned, the steering wheel, it’s just a different car. When you’re used to the same car for seven years like I was with the Saleen, you’re just used to certain things being a certain way. The new car is 180 degrees different from the old one as far as that ‘feeling’. That took some getting used to – I’m still getting used to it, and where everything is located and how we drive the car.

Do you think there’s a limit to the 28×10.5 tire?

There will never be a limit to it – as long as you can make more power you’ll always be able to go faster. However, I do think that there’s a pretty good threshold on how fast you can short-track at a certain weight. One of the things that people haven’t touched on over the years that I think is important is track prep and technology at the racetrack, not necessarily the car. It seems like every year we’re getting on better and better racetracks – companies like VP that are doing their best to create traction compounds; track owners that want to have a reputation for the best track around, that all makes the tracks better. When the tracks are better, we go faster. That’s part of what makes it fun. This year we’re going to have to learn a new track, too, by going to ZMax in Charlotte – that’s one of the tracks nobody’s been on yet. We’ll have to see how it goes.

Who handles the tuning on the car?

I handle all of the tuning. We’ll talk about track conditions and make changes round-to-round, but I make the final changes on the computer for the car.

Some of the most legendary drivers in the street-legal arena have ‘made their bones’ while piloting an NMRA Super Street Outlaw car. What’s kept you coming back to the class instead of moving on to something else?

I think that some of the other drivers have decided that they succeeded and wanted to move on, or wanted to go faster. I’ve just promoted wanting to go faster with the class that I started in. I feel that Super Street Outlaw is the basis for many of the classes in the NMRA today. Drag Radial, for example, and some of the other ‘street’ classes are really just derivatives of Super Street Outlaw. You know, a full bodied car with windows and glass, with no huge tubs and a small tire, so it looks like a normal vehicle, and then you just put a large engine in the car that makes tons of power to see how fast you can go. These other classes have basically gone with out rules, no engine restrictions or anything.

I feel that the challenge for me is to work within the class that has restrictions; if everyone’s handed certain guidelines, you really have to work that much harder, and it’s that much more scientific to figure out how to go fast with those constraints. I’ve enjoyed the challenge year-to-year, and with all of the racing we’ve done over the years on this tire I feel like we have a pretty good grasp on how to make it work.

Where did the idea for Hellion Power Systems come from?

Hellion is the first song on the Judas Priest album ‘Screaming For Vengeance’. During the time that Urist Racing was my main focus, I had been asked to build a lot of custom race turbo kits. I was getting a lot of phone calls about the turbo kit companies that were in business at the time, their products, the wait times that people were experiencing when ordering from them, and I knew I could do it better. I decided to build street-car turbo kits the way that I wanted to build them, the way I thought they needed to be done, which was to have them fit and be in stock when people wanted them. We worked with Bassani Manufacturing to meet that need, and basically that’s what we’ve gotten into and I really enjoy it. It came out of a need that had been there for years. We’re ready to take it to the next level.

Where do you find the time to actually work on the car? Your business must keep you pretty busy.

That’s just our work ethic. If it’s really early in the morning or late into the evening, we’ll do what we have to do to get it done. Everyone trusts everyone else to work on the car, so it’s not just one person that can do a particular task – one person can do many things, so that doesn’t hold us back. As a team, we spend most of the time getting the car together, but I’ll stay until 1 or 2AM if needed to get the car ready without impeding on business and daily operations that we have going on over here. If there’s some free time during the day, we might work on it from time to time, but it’s usually either between 6 and 8AM or after 5:30 when the shop shuts down and we’ll work as late in the evening as we have to. Most of the racecar preparation is done by me before we get to the track, and the maintenance is done by the entire team at the track. We used to bring the car home between races, but with fuel costs the way they were last season the car never came home all season. We did all of the maintenance on the road, and Nate and I even changed engines a couple of times that way.

Is there anything left for you to achieve in SSO? Also, do you plan to switch to Pro Outlaw 10.5 at any point?

I can’t say what we’re going to do or not do. We’ve worked with Nitto Tire on the development of their new 28×10.5 drag slick, which fits right into Super Street Outlaw. Also, since we run the two-car team with Dwayne [James] driving the Pro Outlaw 10.5 car, we’re looking to gain some data and experience with that car and class. You never can tell what the future brings. We tend to go on a yearly basis – I don’t tend to view my success on a long-term outlook like many people tend to do. We just love doing it, want to be successful every year, and be challenged while doing it. That’s by racing other people that are very good at what we do, and that’s probably the biggest challenge.

How much does the time and travel affect the personal life?

I think any partner that’s going to support a racer really needs to understand the racing and what it involves. I don’t think you could take someone that’s outside this circle and throw them into it to where they’ll understand the need to work until midnight on the racecar, or the need to drive all night to make it to the race, the sense of urgency and desire that it takes to be successful at this. I’ve had many people around me in the past that appear to enjoy it, but I don’t think that they understand what it’s about. Even after me being very clear, they still didn’t understand.

Anyone that supports one of our racers and travels along, as far as a wife, girlfriend, or family, those people are very important. My immediate family, my parents and my sister, they’ve grown up with me and know what it takes, and that’s why they are the most important part of my support system race-to-race. They understand the needs and they’ll always be there for me. Even with my friends – I’ve had friends that have come and gone as far as race support goes because it’s so difficult.

What does the future hold for John Urist?

Racing, production, development of new turbo systems, development of new racecar parts and excitement. With the economy being up and down right now the future is always somewhat uncertain, but you’ll always have competition of people wanting to race at different levels, and we’re going to try to meet those needs here or there.

Whether it is piecing together junkyard turbos or burning a 3-day weekend to do your first cam install, the end result is hopefully more power. If you are doing it right, everything else is going to suffer the consequences, and it doesn’t do you any good to build a killer motor if all it does is twist axles and spit pieces of ring gear out. The time-tested Ford 9-inch rear has proven itself in everything from quick street cars to blown alcohol dragsters, and there are a bunch of different companies making true bolt-in 9’s that don’t require a bunch of work to install. We talked to some of the leaders in the rear end game, so they could give us a complete overview of their 9-inch upgrade options for the Mustang.

The Players:
• Chris Alston’s ChassisWorks
• Currie
• DTS
• Moser
• Strange Engineering

Whether it came with a 7.5 or an 8.8, your Mustang has a dangerous flaw – C-clip axles, which are retained at the center, are notorious for letting a wheel part company with the rest of the car if one breaks. If you’re lucky, the disk brake assembly may keep you from spontaneous tricycle ownership, but if you’re not (or you never upgraded from rear drums) that wheel may just make it to the finish line before you do. Stronger C-clip eliminator axles, housing braces, rear end covers with cap supports, and a bunch of other fixes are out there for the 8.8 (and even the 7.5 for the true masochist), but the real solution is an upgrade to the 9-inch.

Why a 9-inch?

To learn why a 9-inch solution overshadows an 8.8, we spoke to Brian from Currie Enterprises. “The 9-inch has three pinion bearings. All rearends have two pinion bearings on the pinion shaft, but the 9-inch also has the third pinion bearing on the head of the gear that prevents gear head deflection under heavy load applications, such as launching a drag car,” he explains. “The 9-inch is built with the tapered Timken-style roller axle bearings that have tremendous load capacity, as well as side load capacity for road race cars. It also has positively-retained axles as a standard feature. It has no C-clips and no C-clip eliminators.”

Dollar for dollar, building an 8.8 rearend is not a cost-effective solution when compared to a 9-inch. If one were to buy an 8.8 new, the cost would be greater than a 9-inch while retaining less integrity in regards to strength. While there are some builders who do use 8.8 rear-ends in hobbyist/car show/street applications, they’ll never have the brute strength of a 9-inch or the availability of the world of aftermarket parts that the 9-inch has.

Now, the grassroots builders out there are thinking, “There are several Fords that offer 9-inch rear ends that I can pull from the junkyard.” While it’s true that there are still a few out there left to be found, Strange Engineering points out that, “you must keep in mind that these housings were not made for race cars. They were made for old sedans from the production floor. Not many production cars came with more than 400 horsepower. These days, cars come with far more horsepower and are even further built. The aftermarket housings are designed with that in mind.”

Another factor to consider is ease of installation. A salvaged stock 9-inch housing will have to be adapted to your Mustang’s four-link suspension and shock mounts, which takes some fabrication skill and careful measurement. An aftermarket 9, on the other hand, will arrive at your door ready to bolt in, and can be ordered with just about any combination of features you can imagine. With the scales tipped so far in favor of a new 9-inch, let’s look at what’s available.

Moser

- Custom made to order
- 1964 – 1974, 1979 – 2008
- Prices start at $885
- 2 Day Turn-around time

Moser’s Kip Hayden explains, “The 8.8 is a very good rear and will handle what the street/strip type application requires, but for a full time drag car, a 9-inch is your choice. Unlike the 8.8, there are gears manufactured specifically for high horsepower, drag-race-only applications called Pro/Competition gears. The drop-out center of a 9-inch enables the freedom to make gear changes at the track and allows you to have more than one center section that can be swapped out for different types of applications, making the 9-inch more universal.”

Moser offers a Stamped Heavy Duty 9-inch housing as well as a fabricated “M9” housing to replace the stock 8.8 rear-end for Mustangs from 1964 – 1974, and 1979 – 2008. A complete line starts at $1195 for a race-only rear-end and $1255 for a street model. Available options include a $140 installed back brace and an economical Ford Motorsports brake kit for $459, or Wilwood disc brakes with a parking brake for $630. They go as far as to offer custom widths at no additional charge.

“It’s conservatively stronger than stock, it’s got the Mark 2 tubes, it’s a very versatile piece. It comes with a retention system that is far better than an 8.8 with the C-clip axles. If you break a C-clip axle, the axle, your tire, everything comes out – there’s nothing to really hold it in, so you’re not only losing your axle, a wheel, a tire, and a quarter panel, but you’re endangering lives at that point. The 9-inch is a semi-float axle that is retained at the housing end. Therefore, if the axle breaks at the spline, which is the normal point of breakage due to horsepower, your axle stays in the car. You still retain drivability and you can bring it to a safe stop.”

Not unlike a decent burger joint, Moser ‘won’t make it until you order it.’ Because of the extensive list of options for a wheel-to-wheel rearend, the range of pricing is extensive and depends on the options that are needed. The base model housing and axle package starts at $885 and the fabricated version starts at $1000. The average turn-around time of a Moser package is two days and all parts are made in the USA.

“Part of what makes us different from the competition is fact that we have a standard 2-day turn-around. If you place an order in on a Monday, it’ll leave my facility on Wednesday. We also have the largest customer service department in the industry. We have no less than 12 people on the phones every day answering calls, technical questions, and sales.”

Currie

- 100% New Content
- 1964 to 2008
- Prices start at $1100

“Dollar for dollar, we don’t recommend the 8.8 at all. If a customer comes in to buy a rearend, an 8.8 is just plain not cost effective when a basic 9-inch is cheaper and stronger. We can do build ups on customer 8.8’s and we do occasionally build an outright 8.8. A Currie-built 8.8, which features 9-inch style housing ends and axles is a much more versatile unit from a performance standpoint. However, the 8.8 will never have the brute strength of a 9-inch or the backing of a world of aftermarket parts like the 9-inch has.”

Currie offers rear-end housing and axle packages that are completely bolt-in for all Mustangs from 1964 to the current 2008 model. While a basic housing and axle package for a Fox-body runs at around $1100, a complete rearend that is ready to run with basic disc brakes and a Posi starts at about $2700. In comparison, rearends for S197 Mustangs start at $1300 and the ready-to-run model starts at $2550. These packages can be upgraded or downgraded and the cost will reflect as much.

One point that Currie stresses is the advantage of not using any reconditioned parts, if the customer so desires. “We offer 100% new content – so the rearend can be a completely new unit. We also offer a lot of the housing and third member components in a reconditioned form – while supplies last – for the budget builder. Also, the ABS and stock rear disc brake retention on the 05-08 rearends is an awesome feature that makes the swap amazingly painless. We also offer high-end adjustable heavy duty control arms for the Fox and the 05-08 models.”

We asked Brian for his thoughts on making an 8.8 rear-end as durable as a 9. He explains, “Yes, we honestly can make it close to as durable, up to a certain horsepower level, but is it worth the cost incurred? We don’t think so – but we build them anyway for the guy that believes that it does make sense.”

Strange Engineering

- Made in conjunction with Ford for a true bolt-in application
- 1979 to 2008
- Prices start at $980

J.C. from Strange suggests that the 8.8 is capable in street applications. “The 8.8 is a pretty stout unit, and with the right parts in there, it is capable of handling quite a bit,” he explains, “but what I always tell people is that once you start to fail the ring gear in the 8.8, there’s nowhere left to go.” The benefits of the 9-inch, according to J.C, are that it has a stronger ring and pinion, a stronger housing, and a better gear ratio selection. The most important reason to go with the 9-inch, as Strange sees it, is the peace of mind that you get in regards to racing.

The retail cost of the housing is $605 and the optional back brace is $185. The street axle package starts at $379.20 and the race axle packages begin at $439.49. A complete unit without brakes, including the housing, center section, and axles starts out at $2173.85, and the top-of-the-line setup goes up to around $3200. They offer the housing in multiple packages including a 31-spine street application, which comes with a traction-lock Posi or a True-Trac. They also offer a 35-spline setup, which is more of a street/strip application, using a Detroit Locker, and the race version which is available in 35-40-spline configurations with a spool.

“The banjo portion, which is the center of the housing, has internal gusseting to further strengthen the tubes. The tubing that we use is a 3-1/4-inch tube with a 1/4-inch wall which makes the housing much more rigid and helps keep the tubes from being bent; something that the 8.8 is prone to. Not only is the tube welded around the banjo, but a portion of the tube is actually exposed in the center section and is welded to the center banjo as well, making the housing more rigid.”

One thing that sets them apart from the competition is that Strange Engineering designed the 9-inch bolt-in housing in conjunction with Ford, which actually approached Strange to help develop the rearend that they originally sold in the Ford Racing catalog.

Drivetrain Specialists (DTS)

- One-on-one consulting to determine what to build for each customer
- Prices start at $2250

Sandy from DTS notes that the difference between an 8.8 and a 9-inch solely depends on the application that the vehicle is being used for. “It’s not easy to say an 8.8 is better than a 9-inch or vice-versa; there are pros and cons to both, but it still is determined by horsepower and what the customer wants the vehicle to do.” When asked what types of drivers are buying their 9-inch upgrades, we were told, “Drag racing enthusiasts or those who have over 800 horsepower.”

For 1979 to 2004 applications, DTS offers an entry-level 9-inch package starting at $2250 which includes a new housing, a new third member and pinion support, a Trac-Loc or TrueTrac limited slip differential, alloy axles, choice of street gear, yoke and strap kit, bushings in upper ears, and a choice of housing ends. Upgrades include chromoly tubing, a Detroit Locker, 35-spline axles, pro gears, cryo-treating, and several different choices of brake kits.

DTS does not make custom or specific kits. However, the process of buying a 9-inch rear-end is brought to a more personal level, by speaking with the customer to determine what is needed given the expected amount of horsepower. DTS caters to the specific application and helps the racer or hobbyist develop a rear end that suits any particular application.

Both Sandy from DTS and Kip from Moser note that the frictional losses are not drastic going from a 8.8 to 9-inch rearend, and that it is a must to upgrade at a certain horsepower level. The agreed number between the two is that you lose approximately 3% going from the stock 8.8 rearend to a 9.

Chris Alston’s ChassisWorks

- Every part is built in-house
- A complete custom build has a 1-week turn-around time
- Prices start at $650

Chassis Works offers a variety of applications for their bolt-in 9-inch rear-end from 1979 to 2004. Each housing offered by CACW receives billet, ‘late big’ Ford (Torino) housing ends. Doing this allows for use of a stronger, large-diameter axle shaft by reducing excess material normally present for the seal seat. A bare housing in mild steel starts under $650. If you want a chromoly housing with an anti-roll bar, that cost would be about $1700. The axle tubes are three inches in diameter and welded along the internal tube gusset as well as the tapered edge of the center section.

Tim McCain of Chassis Works does his best to explain the 8.8 phenomenon; “There’s always somebody with an 8.8 that lives, no matter how much power you throw at it. However, there’s just far more aftermarket support and stronger components available at a more reasonable price for 9-inch stuff. We don’t have any housings or components for an 8.8-inch rearend. Our bolt-in coilover conversion can be bolted up to your stock housing, but other than that, all we have are upper and lower control arms. When you start to get in to that housing itself, there is so much more stuff available. I haven’t done the research to check dollars for dollars, but I would imagine it would be cheaper to build a 9-inch if you start from scratch. In the grand scheme of things, it’s cheap insurance, I believe. You can build a fully-outfitted rearend that will set you back $4000, but you can put it in and forget about it. You know those parts won’t get hurt. It’s hard to put an arbitrary number on when you need to switch because there are so many variables; the weight of the car, if it is a transbrake car, if it is a footbrake car, if it is a stick shift, if it’s on slicks or street tires, how well it hooks – there are so many variables. You can have a 2000-hp car with an 8.8 and it’ll live because it never hooks up. Or, you can have a 600-hp car that weighs 3400 pounds with a transbrake that will kill it. If you can afford it, I would always recommend a 9-inch rearend. If your car has a ton of power, you are going to find a weak spot, and that’s the first thing to go. You end up buying it twice if you break it.”

According to McCain, “We make as much of our parts in-house as possible. We have millions of dollars worth of automated machinery. We have robotic welding and we have quite sophisticated programming equipment and scanning equipment. With all of our stuff, you can better control quality, the design of things, the supply of products, everything like that. If you make it in-house you’re not dependent on somebody else for your products. Anything that is feasible to make ourselves, we do. Our housings are made from scratch in our buildings. They come in as tubing and flat steel and we make the rest of it here. We can build them in various widths depending on what you’re doing, and besides the Fox-body stuff, we can build them for street cars, full race cars, whatever specs you need in mild steel or chromoly. Usually, the turn-around is very rapid as far as custom ordering. Normally, I’d say a week is about the time a custom housing can be built and shipped. That is because we build it in-house and we have a great system to make sure it is exactly correct and it’s exactly how you want it.”

Every package comes complete with the parts you need to get it done and installed. “Almost everything we ship out, we have all the nuts, bolts, and hardware. We don’t want to send you a part and then say, ‘now you need to go down to your hardware store and pick up these nuts, bolts, and washers.’ We have everything we can possibly put in it with exhaustive instructions for installation,” explains McCain.

A little personal experience…

I am a grassroots racer myself and daily-drive my track car to work day in and out. To keep my car commutable from point A to B, it makes sense to reinforce or buy parts to replace those that are known to go dodgy. For the most part, upgrading to a 9-inch rearend is a necessary precaution. Racers know that in certain conditions, downgrading or detuning to reduce power is the only solution to make a full day of racing possible. With a more heavy-duty rearend, you can have the peace of mind that comes from knowing that the rear end will not be the weak point to your ride. Although there is the 3% additional frictional loss and the minimal added weight that comes with a 9-inch rear end, at a certain point, it is completely necessary to upgrade from the 8.8. The downsides are slight, and in my opinion, are small prices to pay for the durability of a bolt-in 9-inch rearend.

We set up our Project Grandma with a MSD 7531 box and Pro Data software, and used it to control and setup our Edelbrock/Musi 555 EFI engine. Even we were in need of some education on how to get the most out of this powerful device.

Check out the series of 5 videos we shot for MSD with Joe Pando of MSD… it tells you EVERYTHING you need to know to program an MSD 7531 or any MSD box that uses the Pro-Data software..

You can also visit MSD’s web site directly for more information on the 7531:

Video 1: Overview and Basics of Pro-Data MSD Software

The weekend of October 16-18th brought the Goodguys Rod and Custom Association’s Second Nostalgia Drags to Bowling Green KY. For those who have never been to a Goodguys event, they really put on a top-notch show.  This multi-event weekend had a little bit of everything for everybody.

There was a swap meet that included a Car Corral with cars for sale, as well as a show and shine that had approximately 72 race cars. Live entertainment was provided, along with several show classes and awards. There were many different classes showcased, including: Ya Gotta Drive ‘em; Homebuilt Heaven; Mighty Muscle (’55-72); Goodguys Builder’s Choice; Trick Truck Corral; and Suede & Chrome. Some of the many special awards given out included: 2010 Muscle Car of the Year Finalist; Goodguys Builder’s Choice Awards; Gazette Pick and Street Rodder Top 100 Event; and Best Ford in a Ford. A Manufacturer’s Midway was also up and running, so the spectators could go and check out the latest offerings from some of the biggest names in the performance industry.

The highlight, of course, was three days of Nostalgia Drag Racing, weather permitting – which, at times, it did not.  They managed to get about a day and a half of racing in, but the racing that did take place was filled with excitement. The different racing classes included: a couple of 1/8 mile shootouts; Hot Rod Eliminator; Nostalgia Gas; Nostalgia Comp; B Gas; and Pro Comp I and II. The Big Boys were also in town, with both Nostalgia Funny Car and Top Fuel. The highlight of the meet was to be the third match race between Fuel Altereds “Pure Hell” and “Nanook.”

Friday Highlights

Friday should not have been called qualifying day, but the “Race That Never Happened” day, as the unpredictable Kentucky weather struck. There was beautiful weather in 2008 – not so much this year. The competitors and people milling about the pits were in good spirits, even though there there was some disappointment. The cold drizzle that started in the morning never let up enough for the track crew to get the track in race condition.

While there wasn’t any action on the track, the pits were alive, as several teams were working hard to prepare their cars to battle it out the next day. The low hum of the pits was periodically interrupted by the sound of a engine exploding to life. The two Fuel Altereds of Rich Guasco’s “Pure Hell” and Dave Hough’s “Nanook” really woke up the pits, with the starting up and shakedown of their motors. Their third and final match race of the year was being touted as “the race to watch this weekend.”

Friday ended with a visit to the manufacturer’s midway, and walking around to look at all the cars in the Goodguys show area. Everyone was really looking forward to watching some great racing on Saturday.

Saturday Highlights

Saturday started out about the same as Friday. However, the rain finally let up, and the Beech Bend crew got the track ready for racing. It was going to be an interesting day! The first pair of cars started down the track at around 12:30pm.  With an overcast sky most of the afternoon and a constant breeze, traction proved to be elusive.

Some classes had time for multiple qualifying runs. The first class to run was the Goodguys 1/8 Mile Street Rod Shootout. Jiggs Lindhorst’s ’34 Pontiac ran a  6.919 @ 98.58mph to Larry Mayfield’s ’68 Olds 442′s 6.865 @ 98.33, to claim his sixth Goodguys Shootout (but his first in Bowling Green). The closet race of the class was between Lindhorst and the ’63 Impala of Ralph Dehne.  Lindhorst clicked off a 7.324 to Dehne’s 7.351 in quarter final action.

Next up was the 1/8 Mile Hot Rod Shootout. Chris Cowles drove his ’70 Nova  6.953 @ 96.05, knocking off Darryl Scott’s 7.728 @ 91.84 to repeat as class champion in 2009. Throttle control and patience was the name of the game all Saturday afternoon. The sun even made an appearance for a period of time. As class qualifying started out in earnest, the fans were given quite a show.

With wheelstands, wheel hops, and unexpected lane changes, hats go off to the drivers for their great driving. The clutch dust was flying out from underneath the alcohol and nitro cars as they were trying to hook up on the track. There was only one Top Fueler dragster that took advantage of the late session, and that was Odie Coker in the car of Charlie Smith. The nitro cars were definitely having traction issues. On hand for the afternoon was a field of nine nostalgia funny cars. They hit the track around 3:30, which was just about the time the sun made its brief but welcomed appearance.

The race that everybody was waiting for was the nitro fuel burning Altereds. This was the third and final match race between “Pure Hell” and “Nanook.” They were tied at one win apiece, but alas, it was not to be. The shakedown run turned out to be a one man show, as Vince Generalao shut down in the box because Nanook developed a fuel leak. Jason Richey, on and off the throttle, took Pure Hell down the track, laying down a 10-second run.

Here are Saturday’s final qualifying results:

Nostalgia Top Fuel:

1. Odie Coker, Kieffer, OK 18.365 @ 38.26
2. Dave Miller, Cedar Hill, MO 7.716 @ 156.63
3. Howard Haight, Brownsburg, IN 7.776 @ 141.40
4. Kevin Brewer, Muscatine, IA 9.017 @ 79.60
5. Tom Steed, Billerica, MA 9.479 @ 94.95
6. Joe Krupinski, Salem, IN 10.613 @ 78.67

Nostalgia Funny Car:

1. Steve Nichols, Newark, DE ’70 Camaro, 6.109 @ 231.95
2. Peter Gallen, Broomall, PA ’74 Chevy Vega 6.374 @ 196.73
3. Greg Jacobsmeyer, Florissant, MO ’70 Dodge Challenger 6.382 @ 221.34
4. Anthony Bronge, Chicago, IL ’69 Camaro, 6.398 @ 220.08
5. Kevin Lennon, Merriville, IN ’78 Plymouth Arrow 6.463 @ 221.85
6. John Dunn, Monticello, IL ’73 Duster 6.504 @ 223.99
7. Paul Romine, Indianapolis, IN ’79 Ford Mustang 6.529 @ 197.74
8. Shawn Bowen, Grand Blance, MI ’77 Pontiac Trans Am 6.825 @ 153.53
9. Randy Baker, Waukee, IA ’70 Ford Maverick 8.927 @ 154.02

Pro Comp I

1. Frank Cervelli, Mt Holley, NC 7.130 @ 186.95
2. Richard Edwards, Terre Haute, IN ’48 Fiat 7.138 @ 189.07
3. Steve Walczak, Rochester, NY ’32 Bantam 7.247 @ 181.98
4. Larry Dixon Jr, Plainfield, IN ’27 Ford 7.374 @ 154.74
5. Shawn Evans, Lovington, IL 7.444 @ 183.77
6. Driver Not On File 8.648 @ 187.99
7. Don Slout, Williamsport, VA ’48 Fiat 14.630 @ 99.22

Pro Comp II

1. John Umlauf, Rolla, MO 7.518 @ 148.10
2. David Shaffer, Lincoln, IL ’33 Ford 7.703 @ 171.99
3. Derek McCuiston, Troy, OH 7.717 @ 170.86
4. Pat Malloy, Buchanon, VA 7.799 @ 169.38
5. Dennis Merkt, Ferguson, MO 7.835 @ 176.03
6. Jeffrey Sanborn, Shelbyville, TN 7.863 @ 170.84
7. Tim Schwent, Hillsboro, MO ’32 Bantam 7.907 @ 166.42
8. Wayne Sears, Middleton, OH ’32 Bantam 8.128 @ 183.94

B/GAS

1. Rob Davis, Lawrenceburg, IN ’67 Nova 8.539 @ 158.09
2. Randall Bolles, Slaughters, KY ’68 Corvette 8.540 @ 100.24
3. Darryl Wathen, Utica, KY ’41 Willys 9.061 @ 117.73
4. Paul Johnson, Sheppardsville, KY ’68 Camaro 9.378 @ 121.08
5. Elden Miller, Lawrenceberg, IN ’33 Willys 9.697 @ 98.85
6. David Donaldson, Washington, IN ’48 Thames 10.346 @ 91.48
7. Larry Grenke, Muscatine, IA, ’63 Plymouth 11.701 @ 78.01

Sunday Highlights

What a difference a night makes, as Bowling Green woke up to clear and sunny skies. The temperature climbed into the high 50′s and the ET’s reflected it!! With all the fuel issues taken care of, Nanook and Pure Hell lined up for their match race. What a race it was!!! If you’ve never watched Fuel Altereds run, then that needs to be on your “bucket list!!” It is always worth the wait, as these 2000 horsepower, short wheelbase cars run on the edge of total chaos. Pure Hell took the bragging rights, with a 6.647@ 161.11 to Nanook’s 7.692 @ 141.02. With Pure Hell packing the front wheels to almost half track, the fans got the show they were waiting for.

The racing was really rocking as the track conditions continued to improve. Howard Haight won the Top Fuel title for the seventh time at Goodguys, defeating Odie Coker, who red lighted in the finals. Haight’s “Nitro-Diction” rail was the only Top Fueler to run in the 6s in every elimination round. Peter Gallen’s “Poverty Stricken” ’74 Vega fought through a full field of nostalgia funny cars to win his first Goodguys title.

The ’48 Fiat of Richard Edwards took the Pro Comp I title. The two-time winner in 2008 racked up his first win in 2009, with a 7.088 on a 7.00 index. Steve Knopp won the 7.50 Pro Comp II bracket with a 7.536. The B/Gas class always puts on a good show and they did not disappoint this weekend!!! Running on an 8.50 index, winner Darrell Wathen showed why he ruled the competition Sunday. He ripped off an 8.503 in the semi-finals, then backed that up in the final round. Wathen defeated the show-stopping, wheelstanding ’63 Plymouth Belvedere of Larry Grenke, with an 8.505. It doesn’t get any better than that. Here are the final results from Sunday. Well worth putting up with the weather to watch some great racing!

Official Race Results:

Nostalgia Top Fuel

Winner: Howard Haight, Brownsburg, IN 6.426 @ 234.70
Runner Up: Odie Coker, Kiefer, OK 7.037 @ 204.76 (foul)

Nostalgia Funny Car:

Winner: Peter Gallen, Broomall, PA ’74 Vega 6.107 @ 241.37
Runner Up: Steve Nichols, Newark, DE ’70 Camaro 7.766 @ 205.54

Pro Comp I:

Winner: Richard Edwards, Terre Haute, IN ’48 Fiat 7.088 @ 191.10
Runner Up: Steve Walczak, Rochester, NY ’32 Bantam 7.041 @ 190.40 (foul)

Pro Comp II

Winner: Steve Knopp, Shelbyville, IN 7.536 @ 184.32
Runner Up: Gayle Jenkins, Mt Sterling, IL 12.000 @ 81.97

B/GAS

Winner: Darrell Wathen, Utica, KY, ’41 Willys 8.505 @ 145.22
Runner Up: Larry Grenke, Muscatine, IA ’63 Plymouth 10.000 @ 103.72

Nostalgia Comp
Winner: Tommy Cook, Columbia, KY ’34 Roadster 8.563 @ 147.13
Runner Up: David Seacrest, Austin, AR 8.107 @ 166.52

Nostalgia Gas

Winner: Mike Shahan, Bainbridge, IN ’65 Falcon 10.382 @ 108.73
Runner Up: C.B. Bagshaw, Mooresville, NC ’66 Nova 12.437 @ 59.22

Hot Rod Eliminator

Winner: Brad Spires, Avon, IN ’70 Nova 11.156 @ 115.93
Runner Up: Tom Kovacs, Mooresville, IN ’69 Firebird 10.509 @ 125.93 (foul)

1/8th Mile Street Rod Shootout

Winner: Jiggs Lindhorst, New Berlin, WI ’34 Pontiac 6.865 @ 98.93
Runner Up: Larry Mayfield, Owensboro, KY ’68 Oldsmobile 8.723 @ 79.61

1/8th Mile Hot Rod Shootout

Winner: Chris Cowles, Bowling Green, KY ’70 Nova 6.953 @ 96.05
Runner Up: Darryl Scott, Elizabethtown, KY 7.728 @ 91.84

Complete Gallery Below (Click on image to enlarge):