Network
Thursday
We are rolling for day two of Lights Out 11 and trying to get some more qualifying in as inclement weather approaches. Good for us it is taking it’s time moving west but keeping the sun at bay allowing the track to stay cool.
Mark Woodruff has a brand new car out of B&B Race Cars that will be driven here this weekend, and at select events, by Craig Sullivan. The build has taken about eight months with power coming from a Vizner Engine Development 4.6 bore space billet small block with twin 98 MM Precision turbos, 700 CC Billet Atomizer injectors and backed by an M&M 2 speed trans and lock up converter. The wiring was done at B&B by Savannah, Georgia based Michael Bunton from MJB Performance and engine management comes via an FT600 from Fuel Tech and tuned by Joe Oplawski from Hyperactive Performance Solutions.
“We got the car buttoned up Saturday and went straight to Fuel Tech for dyno tuning and get any bugs we could worked out before coming here…” Mark told us as they prepared the car for it’s maiden voyage. The Cynergy Composite body is bathed in gorgeous blue by Crossthreaded Customs.
Tom Blincoe is all fixed up by David Monday Race Cars after a crash at the US Street Nationals. They worked hard to repair the car including a new front end and sit twelfth in Radial vs the World with a 3.89 at 185 for the Procharger equipped entry.
There is always a few unique cars here at Donald’s events and this one belongs Craig Miller out of Savannah, Georgia. Craig raced was racing Pro Modified and was in an accident and took some time off before getting back behind the wheel and renewing his license last year. He plans to run four or five events this year and is entered in Open Comp and 6.0 Index. “I plan to race a few events this year and have some fun, drink a little beer, cook some steaks and have a party.” Craig said, and further quoting a local Savannah NASCAR racer “I’ve never won a race but never lost a party”. It takes all kinds of folks to make these event what they are and we can’t forget the racers that are not the star of the show or have the prettiest car or lots of money. Drag racing is the most grass roots form of motor sports going because you don’t have to have a professional built race car to come out and have a great time doing it.
Round 1 Qualifying Limited Drag Radial, Limited 235.
Chris Alston Jr. made the trip out to race here for the first time this week with his Camaro. He normally runs in the PSCA XDR class, and Radial vs the World and small tire no time events in California with Bodie. “The first hit was perfect, we had high hopes but the next one kinda evened us out. We had a decent baseline but got too aggressive on the next run but have something good we can work with now to go a little faster…” Alston said. They have run at 3,250 lbs. in XDR trim and left it alone so it didn’t upset the chassis set up after traveling 42 hours to get here. Plans for 2020 include four events with Team Bodie for the small tire events and probably come back here in the fall. A Minor Brothers Hemi sits between the frame rails fed by an F3R 136 Procharger and has been 4.30’s so far with a goal of running in the teens.
Brad Edwards is behind the wheel of a new car at his third event with it and working hard to get it ironed out. They have yet to make a full pass under power and tore up some bearings here this week after a cam dowel came loose. They had to get into the bottom end twice here and things are looking up now after finding some other issues. The car was topping out the shocks and the crew spent most of the night cutting and welding after some consultation with Mark Menscer to get things squared away, which included remounting the shocks and massaging the drive shaft tunnel to allow full travel with the different suspension set up.
A conventional Pro Mod chassis doesn’t really have anti squat percentages like a drag radial car and so isn’t built to allow the tremendous separation of the rear suspension. That is all fixed up now and the tune is good so Brad, the crew and car owner Neal Wantye are looking forward to putting the power down and making some real progress. Plan are in the works for two new cars, one on small tires and one on big tires later this year. Power for this one comes from a Hemi engine fed by a Procharger which is now under the care of Pete Harrell from HED. Brad was qualified after round one in 14th with a 3.96 at 167.
Limited Drag Radial racer Scott “ The People’s Champion” Husted has struggled recently with getting the car to make full runs but finally figured some things out this week testing in Bradenton before making the trip up, scoring several full pulls in the mid four teens. The car has wanted to either wheel stand or kick the tires after changing the rear end which featured different mount locations and a fresh engine making more steam from Fast Forward Race Engines in Elfers, Florida. Scott found some issues in the fuel and timing mapping here and is hoping some changes there will have him back on track and making clean runs. “ We were running mid teens just trying to go A to B and be consistent, hopefully we can get it all worked out and get in the 4 oh’s with everyone else. Scott runs AMS 2000 Hitmaker boost control, Fuel Tech FT 600 engine management, Weld Racing wheels, Motion Raceworks.
Radial vs the World and X275 before the call was made the sweep and cover the track with a tarp. A new thing the management started here this weekend which already showed it’s usefulness in keeping rain off the surface of the track last night, significantly reducing the time to prepare the surface for the day. As of now the schedule is for the track to go hot at 10AM Friday morning but the weather will have the last say on that.
Round Two Qualifying
Round 1 Qualifying Radial vs the World, X275.
Jim Howe drives the “Honky Kong” blown Camaro in Limited Drag Radial and is currently qualified fourth with a 4.16 at 180 MPH. The run was a solid tenth off pace from his off the trailer 4.05 on Tuesday but the air was bad and had over 90 percent humidity during the first qualifying session Wednesday night. He also switched to a new MSD CDI style ignition from a magneto and is still learning the tune up with the different characteristics of the ignition system. The engine is a BAE Hemi built by Jim and Brett Moore with a lot of help and advice from Jeremy at Brad Anderson Enterprises, it’s topped off with a Hammer Supercharger done by Troy Critchley.
Rob Hamby is a long time competitor here at Lights Out both in Outlaw Drag Radial and Pro 275 with his Corvette and debuting this Chevy II here at No Mercy last year. He runs a Billy Albert Racing Engine big Chevy with plenty of nitrous and backed by a Cameron Torque Converter and Transmissions unit backing it up with the Nova built out of Robert Hays Motorsports. He went to the semi finals last year before the rain and is definitely looking to better that here this weekend. He rolled in Thursday morning so has not qualified yet. He is sporting Pro Fab Performance Plus and Frankenstein Engine Dynamics colors here this weekend for Don Lamana who was unable to make it here after a fire at the US Steet Nationals last month in Bradenton that damaged the car.
This week the delayed by fire Horsepower Wars 10K Shootout will be contested here at Lights Out 11.
A freak trailer fire put a stop to the race at No Mercy X last year and the teams are here on the property to get it done this weekend. Two of the four teams made runs today with the folks from Midwest Mayhem making the best showing running a low six second pass by driver Joey Hiykel. Shown are Jordan, Brad Vasco and John Walton.
Lyle Barnett from Team Bigun is the driver of The Moonshine Missle and we spoke with him about what is happening in the pits as they prepare to make the maiden voyage on the wagon. They had a problem wit the supplied ignition box with the 2 step function not working. “ The guys over at Holley/MSD stepped up and said whatever you need lets get it going so you guys can get on the race track. Tehy got us hooked up and the guys are getting it wired in now but it’s a matter of time before they call us up and that time is running out. We hope we can get it set up and tested before we have to make a pass.” Lyle Barnett filled us in Thursday afternoon.
Keith Berry is the driver for the Comp Cams Dream Team and he got us up to speed on the current situation. Their Mustang basically burned to the ground on in the fire being on top of the trailer and their car bore the burnt of the damage of the four cars in the show. The Dream Team runs a 5.3 LS with an older 80 MM Ultra Street class legal cast wheel turbo. The car is owned by Keith and Jesse Adams and will go to Comp Cams for some R&D work after this event and Jesse will drive the car at Woostock later this year before heading back to California.
