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The marathon continues; the cars are going down the track hot and heavy this morning at the Street Car Super Nationals. Stay tuned all day as we strive to bring you the happenings from the event. Thanks as always to our sponsor, Comp Cams, for helping us to bring you the coverage from one of the most awesome races of the year.
Looks like Roger and the boys were hard at work last night repairing the stopping power.
In the first round this morning, Chris Groves busted out a 4.54 to solidify his top spot in the 275 radial class. The Vortech-boosted machine is making moves, especially in the elevated air here in the Sin City.
Kyle Bros Racing, with driver Jeff Kyle as pilot, were hard at work in the pits this morning making a few suspension changes to tame this sort of thing down. Kyle, who has Chris Tuten on hand to provide tuning services, has a Proline 450ci engine under the hood pumped up by a pair of Precision Turbo 88mm Gen 2 Pro Mod turbos.
Brother Quinn Kyle helps to manage the whole car, and Jeff credits him as the key to the car's performance. Kyle hails from California and typically runs at sea level. 'Here it's 3,500 feet, but over the years we've learned what changes to make for a baseline before we get here,' says Tuten. So far they've pushed the car to a 4.31 best elapsed time in True Ten 5, but last night did a big wheelie trying to push the car to somewhere they've never been. Tuten says they's working to keep the front end under control, and thinks if they can do that, then 4.26-4.28 runs are possible. The car has a torque converter from Cameron's Torque Converter Specialties -- Tuten's longtime sponsor -- and he says Kyle's performance is repeatable no matter the elevation, without spending tons of time swapping converters back and forth. This morning, Kyle, Tuten, and the crew were making suspension adjustments, scaling the car, and considering whether to make any more changes.
It looks like James Lawrence's career-best pass last night came at a cost, as the Dragzine crew was up bright and early switching the engine for the spare piece, which was delivered from California on Friday. Crew Chief Sean Goude says that one hole has a bunch of leakdown, and while that might be acceptable in a nitrous engine, it's not so efficient with the BlownZ's ProCharger-boosted piece.
H&H Racing's '90 Mustang runs a 540ci big-block Chevrolet built by Quarter Mile Performance in Chatsworth, California. It's topped with a set of Brodix heads and manifold, and is pumped up with a Chris Alston gear-driven F-3R 136mm ProCharger. Driver Kelly Henry built most of the car in his garage, with a cage update done by Dave Coppertop at Murray's Performance Garage. The Holley Dominator EFI system is tuned by Eddie Rios of Addiction Motorsports in Canoga Park, CA, and Henry says his best pass this weekend has been a 4.58 at 167 mph; he is battling serious wheelie issues and has strapped the struts and limiters down tight, along with dropping 50 pounds in the nose in an attempt to solve the problem. Last night he dropped a huge wheelie and broke the transmission pan and bent up some other undercar pieces. 'If I can keep the nose down, I think I have something for Eric Gustafson,' says Henry.
We’d guess that Larry Larson doesn’t like it when the intake manifold explodes due to an underhood issue. He was in the Fiscus pits this morning working the welder to repair the manifold — this is what the damage did to the carbon-fiber nose.
Shameless plug alert! Thanks to Paja Agotonovic for sporting the Dragzine stickers this weekend. We thought this was a neat photo with the track’s “The Strip” logo reflecting on the car. Paja’s running in both Radial vs. 10.5 classes — quarter- and eighth-mile, with the 10.5 tire. In the eighth-mile class, his Sonny’s nitrous-injected 903ci engine has propelled him to a 4.31 and the 17th spot, while he hasn’t made a full pass in the quarter-mile class, running a 7.05 at only 142 mph to sit ninth in the field.
Roger Rydell’s John Scialpi/Woppado Racing-built 2002 Camaro is a bad-to-the-bone machine that has some interesting applications of technology inside. We caught up with Roger in the hotel this morning and he explained some of the details to us.
The 14-71 blown, alcohol-injected Camaro relies on a 520ci, Keith Black Olds engine to provide motivation. Rydell recently upgraded to a two-speed Turbo400 from Mike's Transmission that's helped to calm the car down and make it easier to drive -- not to mention less temperamental. But that's not the uniqueness of this machine. See the Dedenbear nitrous controller in the right photo? At Scialpi's direction, Rydell has it plumbed into the fuel system and controlling a rack of solenoids that helps to ramp the fuel flow in as the engine can make use of it under load. Since the fuel pump is belt-driven and has a static flow rate, the timers that are built into the nitrous controller pulls fuel out at the hit and adds it back in as the run progresses. The box is also used to control the air shifter in the car, and is programmable with the push of a few buttons. Rydell also has it wired in with Deutsch connectors in case of a failure; he carries a spare in the trailer and can just unplug it and swap in a new unit and be back up and running in no time. This is the team's second time out with the new transmission, and they're still working to tune the car in and find the consistency they want.
Sometimes, you are the only guy to push the button on the camera at exactly the right time. Randy Walker’s one and only qualifying pass didn’t go exactly as planned.
The aftermath.
The brand-new 398ci Naiser Racing Components-built engine in Turbo Todd Moyer’s 275 Radial machine wears a set of Ultra Pro billet heads from Don Losito, an NRC billet intake manifold, and is pumped up by an 85mm Precision Gen2 turbocharger. The engine is based around a Dart block and these are the first hits on the new engine; crew chief Chase Driskell is sneaking up on the combination.
Paul Mouhayet. Outlaw Pro Mod. Need we say more?
There is something magical about The Strip at dusk.
Snug as a bug in a rug. This thing is nuts — he slams the gears all the way down the track, wheels-up on every shift.
Right before Mouhayet stopped the clocks with the number-one-qualifier pass, Troy Coughlin poured the power on to a 274mph blast and a 5.59 for the second spot.
In Outlaw 8.5, Ryan ‘Toaster’ Jones raised the bar yet again, using tonight’s final qualifying session to simply annihilate the field. 4.76 on that little dinky tire? At nearly 156 mph? There are no words for this sort of insanity.
Turbo Pro Mod finds Rick Snavely in the top spot with a 5.78 at 257.48 mph — 6 mph and half a tenth better than his closest competitor.
FINAL QUALIFYINGÂ RESULTS
Outlaw 8.5, 235 Limited, XDR
Outlaw 10.5/Radial Quarter Mile, Outlaw 10.5/Radial Eighth Mile, 275 Radial, Hot Street
Turbo Pro Mod, Outlaw Pro Mod
