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The F.A.S.T. and Factory Stock NPD Summer Nationals

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The 10th annual F.A.S.T. and Factory Stock Summer Nationals did not disappoint. Despite the high gas prices, dour economy, 50 degree weather and rain being forecasted for Friday, the F.A.S.T. races ran two races simultaneously to help attract more cars to the class.

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Dave Dudek`s '69 HEMI Road Runner just keeps stacking up the wins. Midway through it`s 5th year in a row, she`s only been beat once single race. Fighting a starting line bog all weekend the 'bird hung out in the 10.40 range, still enough to pull off another win.

US 131 Dragway in Martin, Michigan was host to the main event, the 10th annual NPD Summer Nationals, while on the East Coast at Maple Grove Dragway, a contingent of 11 F.A.S.T. Mopars raced for Mopar supremacy.

When the gates opened Friday morning, the muscle cars started rolling into US 131 Motorsports park, filling the pits up in little time. In all, 76 cars showed up to do battle at the Martin, MI venue.

With the rain finally parting and the concrete starting to dry from the early morning sprinkles, you could almost smell the rivalries starting to brew between the makes.

At about 11am, the OK was given to start running the cars in both the F.A.S.T. and F/S classes.

Friday was merely for qualifying, basically leaving the staging lanes wide open for each racer to get to make as many passes as he or she sees fit. At the end of the day, your fastest pass of the entire day is now your qualifying ET.

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Yvonne McNicol`s gorgeous '71 Buick GS is new to the F.A.S.T. class and was fighting new engine blues. This may be a Buick to watch in the future.

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Don Giannone`s 66 Chevelle ran a string of 10-second passes and was favored to end up against Dudek in the final round, Don`s Chevelle lost in an upset against Dales killer looking '69 ZL1 Camaro in the semi final.

It doesn’t take long for the pecking order to work itself out. Towards the end of the day, these boys were letting it all hang out to improve their qualifying positions. With seemingly nothing at stake for these racers, everything was at stake.

Brand loyalty means more to some of these guys than any amount of money or trophy you can give them. Plenty of guys come out to have a good time and just enjoy the racing and camaraderie, some of the guys show up to flat out lay it down.

For the more serious guys, the Quick 8 is where they want to be. In the Factory Stock class the fastest eight qualifying cars pair off in a Sportsman’s-type ladder, in F.A.S.T. they pair off using a Pro ladder, everybody left over runs in a mini 2-of-3 shootout with a car that best matches their qualifying ET, this helps keep the racing close and exciting.

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Tony Dicicco`s beautiful 1970 Super Bee is powered by a mild Dudek-built F.A.S.T. HEMI. Heavy and streetable, Tony managed to pull off 11.20 @ 126 and there`s still plenty left in her.

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Dale Waligora`s '69 ZL1 Camaro ended up in the final round against Dudek after upsetting Giannone. Running 11.0 @ 127, this combo still has much more left to show.

This class is growing and growing, and with that comes growing pains. Most of the cars you see at the top have gone through pretty intensive tech already. Bob Karakashian, Julie Pennington, Rick Mahoney, Jimmy Johnson, and COPO Pete to name a few have been P&G’ed for cubic inches, searched with bore O-scopes, compression checked with a K-tech whistler, valve spring pressure checked, converters checked, etc. For the most part, the faster cars are almost always found to be legal.

The rules are pretty strict when it comes to the Factory Stock Class leave little “wiggle room.” Crankshafts must retain stock stroke, stock size bearings (i.e. no Honda rod journals or tricks like that), no knife-edging or lightweight aftermarket cranks. Most of the top cars in the class are running indexed cranks and all that good stuff. The factories just pounded these cars together, here with the crank and every other part of the entire engine, top racers are blueprinting each part to a maxed out factory spec.

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This weekend, Julies Pennington's number-one qualifying L88 Corvette was checked again for valve spring pressure, converter size and stall speed, that the transmission shifted on its own through all the gears, electric fuel pump, programmable ignition, rockers, aftermarket shocks, the works. Her car passed everything checked with no problems and clicked off an amazing 11.29.

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Jim Key's is the original owner of this 3000-mile '67 HEMI Coronet R/T. Saturday, Jim mustered a string of 11.70 passes. With a best of 11.72 @ 119. This maxed out Dudek-built HEMI is rumored to have pushed out over 560HP on the dyno at Modern Cylinder Head, in Clinton Twp, MI.

Each make had a plus or minus on deck height, CC’s, rod length, etc. The NHRA Stock Class has these numbers in print for each make and model. The factory Stock class has a simple compression rule. You can run 1.5 points over advertised compression or the final NHRA compression number, whichever is greater. Heads too, must be correct for the year, make and model claimed, and no porting of any kind allowed. Must be stock.

The camshaft lift (at valve) must be within 2-percent of factory specifications, while the engine must pull 16-inches of vacuum at idle. Valve spring pressure cannot exceed 130lbs seat pressure. Intake and exhaust manifolds must be unmodified, unported in any way. They must also be correct for the year, make, and model claimed.

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Jeff Patterson`s 71 Duster 340 clicked off several mid 11-second passes, as Bob Karakashian's HEMI 'Cuda has been a front runner in Pure Stock racing for years. Bob's 'Cuda was a tad off this weekend and still managed to rip off a string of 11.90s. Larry Kirkum's '69 427 'Vette always a front runner ended up in the final round against Pennington's L88. Larry Weymouth's '74 small block GTO ran mid 11's first time at a F.A.S.T. event, talking about weird killer combo. Look for this car to be in the hunt for the fastest small block.

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Rick Mahoney's '68 400 Firebird has upset the food chain in the F/S division, Set up by Scott Teiman, this Ram Air II Firebird was built from the ground up to compete in this class, maxed out in every aspect this little bird has passed every tech thrown her way. You starting to get an idea of what's possible in this class.

Carburetor must be stock, including choke assembly. Stock rocker arms must be use. Transmissions must shift on its own (no manual valve bodies). The torque converter must be within 1-inch from stock diameter and stall speed cannot exceed 2,200rpm. No spools, no aluminum driveshafts, no electric fuel pumps or regulators, no programmable ignitions, no gutting or acid dipping to remove weight from the car…you get the picture. These bad boys have to be pretty close to stock.

Heck, even the tires must maintain a minimum of 1/16 thread at all times.

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Qualifying ET`s for Factory Stock Friday:

1) Julie Pennington ’69 L88 ‘Vette 11.2954 122.39
2) Rick Mahoney ’68 400 Firebird 11.5586 120.92
3) Jordan Pennington ’69 L88 ‘Vette 11.6022 119.93
4) Larry Kirkum ’69 L88 ‘Vette 11.6268 119.64
5) Bob Karakashian ’70 HEMI ‘Cuda 11.8676 117.03
6) Jim Keys ’67 HEMI Coronet R/T 11.72 119.62**
7) Jim Spetzman ’69 Super Bee 11:993 114.67**
8) Tony Ragia ’70 396 Nova 12.0817 114.49
9) Paul Petcou ’70 Challenger 12.1209 113.32
10) Ken Kiebel ’66 427 ‘Vette 12.1875 114.92
11) Mike Cilano ’70 HEMI Road Runner 12.2221 118.40
12) Edward Keim 69 427 Camaro 12.2727 114.36
13) Jeff Morgan ’71 ‘Vette 12.3235 115.38
14) Scott Wilsey ’69 440-6 Road Runner 12.3716 111.39
15) Menza Dodge ’70 GS 455 Buick 12.4213 108.32
16) Bruno Beltrame ’69 GTO 12.4470 113.92
17) Matt Holthaus ’70 Road Runner 12.4942 109.88
18) Dan Jensen Pontiac Tempest 12.4947 108.59
19) Rick Watson ’68 Firebird 12.4996 110.15
20) Pete Papazian ’68 GTX 12.5110 115.35
21) Scott Pennington ’70 Camaro 12.5814 110.30
22) Mark Weymouth ’70 Judge 12.6010 112.93
23) Paul Richards ’69 Camaro 12.6395 111.94
24) Nick Tomlinson ’72 GS Buick 12.6686 107.82
25) Mike Leyes ’69 Road Runner 12.7454 110.16
26) Ron Schnaman ‘ 71 GTO 12.7666 105.93
27) Mike Waligora ’69 Judge 12.7707 110.99
28) Paul Aragona ’74 T/A 12.7751 106.21
29) Ron Hammer ’71 GTO 12.8173 107.72
30) Steve Vanderwall ’69 Mustang 12.8594 107.98
31) Jim Jerichow ’70 Buick Stage 1 12.8622 106.17
32) Rich Johns ’70 Buick CSX 12.8699 107.17
33) Steve Arp ’70 Chevelle 12.9002 107.43
34) Kent Gardner Buick GS 12.9172 104.95
35) Mario Domonte ’72 T/A 12.9271 108.18
36) Jeff Sawruk ’69 Pontiac 12.9934 106.17
37) Jeremy McNicole ’70 Buick GS 13.0247 103.60
38) Chris Smetana ’70 T37 Tempest 13.0326 108.57
39) Owen Simpson ’70 Nova 13.0595 105.06
40) Steve Hodges ’70 Challenger 12.661 112.97**
41) Jim Maher ’69 Chevelle 13.2069 106.41
42) Dave Dupuid ’72 GTO 13.2211 103.85
43) David Hemker ’70 Buick GS 13.2686 102.58
44) Steve Abbash ’69 GTX 13.2889 103.78
45) Amanda Waligora ’70 Camaro 13.2953 104.81
46) Donny Brass ’66 ‘Vette 13.3289 103.29
47) Larry Dupuis ’70 GTO 13.3491 103.13
48) Eric Simpson ’71 Monte Carlo 13.3988 100.55
49) Mike Hurd ’70 Chevelle 13.4103 106.41
50) Ted Harbit ’63 Superlark 13.4963 105.92
51) Bon Witt ’69 SC/Rambler 13.6262 103.37
52) Tim Clary ’69 Olds 13.6637 99.94
53) Don Vincent ’67 Chevelle 13.7581 102.90
54) Chris Jones ’70 429 Torino 13.9334 101.51
55) John Miller ’65 442 13.9727 98.34
56) Kevin Fisher ’70 442 13.9904 97.35
57) Danille Miller ’72 Buick 14.0162 96.06
58) Ron Waligora ’69 GTO 14.0199 102.10
59) Richard Poe ’63 Studebaker 14.4511 94.30
60) Randy Adams ’70 Cutlass 14.6053 95.49
61) Jeff Ancil ’66 Chevy II 14.6277 93.71
62) Seth Jones ’74 Duster 14.5040 94.11**
63) Tom Papazian ’66 Chevelle 14.7750 94.66
64) Cameron Payne ’64 Impala 15.3241 89.62
65) Rhonda Clary Ford 15.6625 86.86
66) Rick Slomka ’65 Grand Prix 16.2035 83.49