Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri area racer Ernie Dampier purchased the former Radial vs The World C6 Corvette over the winter that had previously been campaigned by Rodney Massengale, and with the help of Adam and Isaac Preston, converted the car over to Limited Drag radial trim. In addition to adding nearly 800-pounds of ballast to get it class legal, the 670-inch Pro Line combination had to be converted to 88mm turbos. The fuel injection was also switched over to Holley EFI. Dampier and the Prestons tested last week in Holly Spring, Mississippi, where Dampier pedaled his way to a mid-4.20 best.
“Last year I bought one of Rodney’s other cars, a white Camaro, and raced that in Ultra Street. I decided after the year was over I wanted to do something different so I bought this from Rodney and we’ve been giving it a makeover and changed some stuff on it,” Dampier explains. “The test at Holly Springs went really good, but ever since we showed up here it’s been fighting us. But I’m pretty excited about getting it al lined out and racing with it this summer.”
Yesterday, Dampier spun the carbon fiber driveshaft on the bonded yoke, and then in his second testing attempt this afternoon, fired the engine and, not liking what he heard, shut it down and was pushed away. After removing the valve covers, he and the Prestons found a lifter on the right bank missing — its whereabouts, of course, will determine his fate this weekend. For Dampier, who’s in the boat transportation business in one of the boating capitals of the United States, it may have been a weekend better served on the water.
Ohio’s Firepunk Diesel is chasing the outright diesel record with Edgar Artecona’s former Pro Stock Truck Chevrolet S-10, which they’re campaigning with the Midwest Pro Mod Series this weekend. The truck was shortened a full 10-inches in the offseason and updated to 25.2 specs in an effort to improve the front-rear weight balance. Noted ***Miller: “With the weight of the engine (estimated at 1,200-1,300-pounds), it was pretty front-heavy and we thought it would be pretty advantageous to shorten it up to get that weight balance. We got pretty close to our goal — we’re down to about 52-percent front weight bias, which is a l0t better than the 57-percent that we started out with.”
The truck is powered by a cast-iron 6.7-liter Cummins with a Wagler billet aluminum cylinder head, with boost provided by a 91mm Garrett turbocharger paired with two stages of nitrous decided to the spooling process and three larger kits plumbed into each intake runner in a maze of metal lines and jets. All told, it’s estimated to produce around 2,500 horsepower and enough torque to tug a locomotive through its Rossler Turbo 400.
Firepunk brought the new build out mid-summer last year with an 88mm on it, recording to a best of 4.48 at 169 mph to date. With a new set of Menscer shocks under the truck, the team is hoping to challenge the 4.28-second radial tire diesel record set by Ryan Milliken last month. At 3,140-pounds — certainly the heaviest Pro Mod entry on the grounds — being competitive may prove challenging, but surpassing a 4.28 is very much mathematically possible.
Unfortunately, a trail of death smoke on a late afternoon test hit may have spelled an untimely end to the weekend for this group.
A special guest was on hand for testing today: former NHRA Pro Stock competitor Mark Pawuk, putting laps on his Factory Stock Showdown Dodge Challenger Drag Pak. Fellow Don Schumacher Racing stablemate Phil Shuler joined Pawuk to assist in preparing the car before he departs for Houston to work with the various DSR nitro teams.
PDRA Pro Nitrous star Tommy Franklin wasted little time in leaving his mark in his Midwest Pro Mod Series debut, storming to a 3.67 to pace the nearly 30 cars on the property. Twenty four cars took a time in the opening session, and despite the warm conditions, the bump spot already sits at a strong 3.823, held down by Kentucky local Stephan Stringer. Texas Justin Jones checked in second at 3.686 in his blown C7 Corvette. Ali Aryan sits third at 3.695 and Missourians Randy Merick and Daniel Pharris round out the top five, at 3.705 and 3.709, respectively.
Joel Greathouse
Limited Drag Radial has an impressive presence for its second points series stop, as 30 cars took to the Beech Bend Raceway this evening. Madison, Alabama’s Neil Hawkins parked his big-block Mustang led the way at 4.135, just ahead of the 4.156 by radial tire vet Andy Manson.
Oakland, Kentucky’s Joel Greathouse made the hometown crowd proud as he led the 15 entries in Ultra Street at 4.669 and 152.14 mph. Rodney Ragan checked in second a 4.690, as Daniel Large, Paul Smith, and Jesse Coulter rounded out the top five at 4.776, 4.801, and 4.806, respectively.
Rich Bruder unloaded on the X275 field in the qualifying opener, proving to the 21 other cars in the category what the muggy Beech Bend track has in it, storming to a 4.290, compliments of a 1.03 short time to put a tenth and a half on the rest of the class. You have to go all the way back to a 4.475 to find number two qualifier Randy Matlock. Just four cars clocked runs in the forties.
In a tough session of Radial vs The World that saw just five cars run in the 3-second zone, the nitrous-assisted machine of Jack Greene topped the sheets with a stellar 3.738. Behind him sit three twin turbo cars and one supercharger: DeWayne Mills second at 3.777, Paolo Guist at 3.780, Mark Woodruff with a 3.806, and Ken Quartuccio’s 3.815.
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