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We got some cars down in qualifying this morning before the rain stopped today’s racing. We are in a holding pattern for a while till this clears up. We will be here updating as weather allows us to roam the pits until we are back to racing.
A special thanks to our presenting sponsor, Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels for their support of our year-long same day race coverage.
Vince Fuller had the distinction of the first car down the track this morning and the first car to crash. He got into a wheel stand early, got into the wall and breaking the oil pan. The car was built by Lyons Custom Motorsports with a LS engine by Shawn Bryson on nitrous from Induction Solutions. He is running X275 this weekend and will be back if they can get a new oil pan. The team hails from LaFayette, Georgia.
Eddie Harrison and crew had to swap the rear in their Outlaw 10.5 Camaro. The Proline Racing powered car is qualified 5th with a 5.13 @ 121, obviously clicking it early on that run.
Steve Morris was fighting some electrical issues yesterday and should have that fixed up this morning. They were swapping on a new set of radials for the weekend.
Blake Catalanotto put his New Orleans based 67 Camaro in 4th position in X275 with a 4.69 @ 150 MPH. Carlo Marthis does the chassis and the car is powered by a Huntsville Racing Engines big block with Induction Solutions on board for the nitrous. He runs a Proformance TH 400 with a PTC converter. Blake is happy with the 4.69, which is a new personal best ET, they will be looking to run a little faster when we get back to qualifying.
Scott Jones owns this Outlaw 10.5 Camaro driven by Brian Neal sporting the Moonshiner wrap based out of Spartanburg, South Carolina. He runs a PAR Motorsports big block nitrous combo in a Donny Gibbs chassis. The car has been done about a year and a half and has been 4.30’s @ 178 with about 20 runs on the car to date. The sponsor wrap is from Moonshiners Reunion which has two events a year in Spartanburg at the Plum Hollow Farm. Scott owns Jones and Sons Truck Repair with five locations in the Carolinas.
The "IQC" I Quick Crew hails from Illinois and Wisconsin and made the trip down to Georgia to watch the baddest race of the year. They are involved in the grudge scene at Great Lakes Dragway and No Limit Raceway rolling ten cars deep. Sponsors are Fast Motorsports, Clocks Off Racing and Nitrous Pig Racing. The race has been called for the day. We will be adding some coverage from the pits as weather allows. Photo courtesy KDubs Photos.
The Mark Woodruff crew last night after doing some regular maintanance. He uses a M&M TH 400 two speed transmission. Mark Micke used his car for a test bed last year with excellent results using the ATI case.
Jim Plimpton aka "Dr. Ford" brought the Fearmont down from Wisconsin to compete in X275. His son Jimmy Jr. is behind the wheel this weekend. Photo courtesy Kelly Leslie.
Jimmy Plimpton Jr. ate a piston in qualifying last night. He did qualify 11th with a 4.79 @ 149. He was hurt before the run and still earned a personal best ET4.79.88. They tore the engine down last night and had to hone one cylinder. Tommy from Mac Fab Beadlocks is over there now lending a hand getting it back together. Photos courtesy Kelly Leslie.
Night Pit Notes
Dr. Ford and crew got the engine buttoned back up and were installing the headers when I left their pit tonight. It was a long wet day for Team Plimpton but they are ready to run now.
Tommy is welding the ring on a set of wheels in the Mac Fab trailer. They have done many sets of wheels this weekend, gotta love same day on site service.
I stopped by the ATF pits to find Shawn Ashe and Danny getting honing their reaction times. I stepped in to try my hand at it for a few round before Jason Gatlin pulled me aside to shoot some new products.
Jason has developed a pressure relief valve to help control the pressure inside the converter. With today's converter technology many racers have had issues controlling internal transmission pressures. This is the second generation valve which has been under development for about six months and is in use on several cars this weekend.
Jason is also developing TH 400 billet valve bodies for various applications. This is the first prototype with Shawn set to test a working model at the teams next outlaw event. The new design will feature an internal solenoid in an effort to improve the release time on the TH 400 trans brake.
ATF will also be marketing these supercharger bells designed to inprove the efficiancy or the various units on the market. This is the F1-R version.
Chad Opaleski dropped a valve seat on his qualifying attempt in Outlaw Drag Radial. Dan Neumann and Rob Zarcone drove the head to Nelson Competition in Pinellas Park, Florida to get it fixed up. They were on their way back and should have got to the track around midnight. Luckily for them and several other teams the rain delay has allowed them to make repairs, lets hope mother nature shines on us to get the race in as well.
Once the rain let off enough Donald Long had the hospitality up and cooking for the racers and whoever else was on hand to grab some complimentary food.
