Pictures from NMRA Columbus 2009

A few pictures, mostly of the decals. Enjoy...

looks good damon

looks good is that some of Dan's work ?

It's my work ,thanks for the compliment Randy..Looks good Damon..thanks again

thats what im talking about Dan !!!!!!!!!!!!! they look sweet !!! cars look great guys

Dan is DA MAN!!!

Dan Dan tha sticka man............ Looks dang good Dan.

You sure can tell what sand box Damon's playing in.


Same one I like to play in.....................

What's up with that 428 badge on the hood in pic #5? You holding something out on us? Just razzing you a little there.

Looks good Damon, Looks like i'm not the only nut hugger

bbf-falcon wrote:Looks good Damon, Looks like i'm not the only nut hugger

You're not alone, Rick!

Looks good guys.

One thing about it Blake ...we play nice in our Sandbox

looking good fellas! What was the turnout like?

8liter wrote:looking good fellas! What was the turnout like?

Turnout wasn't too shabby, seems like NMRA bracket racing is declining though. (NMRA management) imo

56Tbird wrote:One thing about it Blake ...we play nice in our Sandbox

Yeah till some cat takes a crap in it................ then it's a different deal altogether

Your right we don't let no Stinkycats poop in our sandbox...it gets ugly real quick then

schmitty wrote:What's up with that 428 badge on the hood in pic #5? You holding something out on us? Just razzing you a little there.

I used to run a 428 and then a 427 in the car before the 385 series engines. I left the 428 badges on the car to confuse people

NMRA Columbus 2009

We loaded up and headed to National Trail Raceway in Columbus OH for the NMRA event the first of September. Arrived Thursday around 2PM and met up with Tore from New York. Tore has the baby blue Torino Cobra. Plans were to get registered and teched Thursday afternoon however the NMRA employees who handle that section weren’t due in until Friday morning. So we paid an extra $45 each just to drop the trailer… But we did get everything set up and BS-ed with a few people.

Right before dusk Chuck and I cruised up through the staging lanes and then walked the track. 660’ of concrete and then 660’ of asphalt. Man the right lane was ROUGH at the start and both lanes had some hail damage from chipped concrete. Several spots had been cut and repaired and the left lane had a little bump transition from concrete to asphalt at the 1/8 mile marker. The groove in both lanes started out offset to the center of the track and then gradually moved in towards the center some more. Based on what I saw, I would chose the left lane over the right.

Thursday night the place was quiet at around 10:30 PM. So Chuck and I cruised out to the gate to chat with some people that were still awake. Talked with a few guys for about an hour then headed back to the RV when the Mall Cop said “Where are you guys going” I was about to sic Chuck on him LOL!

The weather was nice all weekend however with the track at 900’ and the Barometric Pressure hovering between 29.98 and 30.05 we weren’t going to set any records. According to my data, the car should run in the mid to low 9.40’s through the ¼

Friday morning we get the cars warmed up and head off for TNT from 11:00AM to 3:00PM “Open Time Runs”. Qualifying begins at 3PM. I figure that I can get 3 test runs in before the first round of qualifying. First is a Base run with no changes except I turn in my transbrake 1 turn in order to slow down the cars reaction (I’m redlighting on a .500 Pro Tree in the -.031 to -.043 range). In the past I’ve been a foot braker so this is still fairly new to me.

First Run: 11:49 AM in the left lane.
Temp 79F
Humidity 27%
BP 29.99

R/T -.062
60’ 1.425
330’ 3.943
1/8 6.066 at 115.65mph
1000’ 7.901
¼ 9.465 at 143.64mph

WTF! -.062? Really? And my short times are off by .05+ The car should have run about 9.41-ish Oh well. Back to the pits, jack up the car, call Bill and discuss moving in the transbrake another 2.5 runs to try and slow down the release. I also take out 6 degrees of timing at the box to try and slow the car down a tenth or more.

Second Run: 12:54 PM in the left lane. –6 degrees timing and transbrake in 3.5 (Also out 3.5).
Temp 82F
Humidity 24%
BP 29.98

R/T -.039
60’ 1.416
330’ 3.939
1/8 6.069 at 115.22mph
1000’ 7.914
¼ 9.488 at 142.57mph

Still going Red! Car really didn’t change much with –6 degrees of timing? Lost .023 through the ¼ and lost 1 mph through the ¼. I would think that the difference would be much more. I mean the weather changed slightly for the worse and that should slow the car down a smidge. Screw it, I’ll just hit the brakes about 100’ before the 1320 stripe like I did at BG last year and then wing it. Still need to fix this red light issue. So I’m on the phone with Bill again and we decide to turn in the tranbrake another 1.5 turns. That equals a total of 5 turns in and is also 2 turns out. I change the jets from 92 square to 90 square due to the less than desirable air.

Third Run: About 2:20PM. The car won’t do a burn out. What the hell? Back up and try it again but it acts like it has NO power? This happened one time in Chuck’s car and it was a broken sprag. So I back out and head back to the pits. I’m on the return road and nail it in first gear and NOTHING! Either the converter is tight or I just lost 4 or 5 hundred HP. Stop and try the transbrake on the wood with a 3900 chip and it won’t hit the chip, looks like about 3300 to 3500 rpm. A-HA! Must be a broken sprag. But just to make sure I jack up the car and back the transbrake adjuster bolt out to 3.5 turns like on run number 2. Drive around the pits and no change. Still a dog in 1st gear and on the brake the same thing as before. Gotta be a broken sprag in the converter.

I make a few phone calls and The Band of Brothers comes through. Rick (Lil’ Tweety) drives 1.5 hours and brings me two converters to try, one (A Neal Chance bolt together) belonging to his friend. Rick arrives around 8PM as the transmission hits the ground. Rick can’t stay long and must get to work at 10PM. BTW thanks to Rick, his friend and all my friends at the track that helped me drop the trans in 1.5 hours. Now it’s dark and I’m doing some eyeballing with my converter and then we remove it to try the Neal Chance converter. Can’t get it into the trans and by the looks of it it’s gonna be too close to the flexplate anyway. We then try Rick’s converter, get it in the trans and it’s too close to the flexplate. I need more clearance. So at least we tried. We pack everything up in the trailer and winch the car inside. I hit the showers and for the rest of the weekend I’m Chuck’s Pit Biatch!

Chuck qualifies #14 (Correct me if I’m wrong Chuck) and goes 3 rounds - down to 8 cars. In the second round Chuck laid down the smack with a .001 light against David Watson and his BEAUTIFUL Red BBF 67 Mustang. You guys should see this car, it’s BEAUTIFUL! Up top David can’t catch Chuck and breaks out on his 9.71 while Chuck also breaks out on his 10.13 but not as bad as David. Due to the better weather I told Chuck to be careful, his car will most likely run quicker than his qualifying time of 10.23 – 0.10 and sure enough he did. In the 3rd round he should have ran the number because the temps had increased. He still ran too quick, we figure the engine is getting good and broke in now so it’s making a little more power.

On the way home we lose a trailer tire just outside of Columbus and swap it for the spare. Get home after midnight and man I was TIRED!! Had a great time but it would have been more fun if the car was working. There was plenty of entertainment including Matt and Ronnie throwing wieners at each other, don’t ask! LOL! Also got to hang out with some new and old BBF Friends like Big Shank, goinpostal, Mark Miller, Rick & Sooz, Wayney, Smack Jack (Nice Truck) and his friend in the Falcon. Met some new BBF Friends like sptbird and his beautiful Red mid 80’s T-bird who we recruited to the BBF Forum and Bruce Parker (He loaned me a converter adapter to try, Thanks bud!). Plus many more like David Woodside and his BBF T-bird, man you guys should see the paint on David’s car, it’s BAD ASS! I’ll get a picture next time. David Watson and his Red 67 BBF Mustang previously mentioned. Also ran into Gary who used to own Chuck’s 70 Mustang. He should be at BG with his bad ass T-bird! Sorry if I forgot to mention anyone. Overall the hospitality from my fellow racers was outstanding. Always lending a helping hand.

Now fast forward. I have the converter checked out and it’s already spragless AND looks brand new. Time to look elsewhere for the issue. Hindsight being 20/20 I should have checked other things before i.e. timing retard or whatever. I’m going to put it back together this week/weekend and see if I can diagnosed the problem. If it is the 7AL-3 box then I’ll have to send it back to MSD for repair and beg, borrow or steel a 7AL-3 box from someone OR use dad’s 6AL Box and just footbrake it in BG.

I’ll keep you guys posted as to what I find. I’m also going to throw in a fresh set of AR3934 plugs just in case. I’ve checked the advance mechanism in the MSD dizzy and it seems to be working fine.

Damon I have a fresh rebuilt 6al (my backup)and a two-step set-up I can take out of the truck if you need to borrow it for BG.

lghting94 wrote:Damon I have a fresh rebuilt 6al (my backup)and a two-step set-up I can take out of the truck if you need to borrow it for BG.

Thanks bud. I'll keep you posted on what I find. If I use a 6AL I'll just borrow the one from Dad's Camaro. I may need the two step...

Hopefully I'll know for sure by this weekend.

Appreciate it.

No Problem just let me know I can have it out in 5 minutes(or less), I havent been using the two-step due to major traction issues when using the transbrake.

Damon, I have a spare 7AL-2 if you can use it until you get yours fixed.

Damon,

Thanks for letting me use the air mattress and sleep in the trailer,i wandered what time you and Chuck got home.How was the transmission in Chucks truck i thought you mentioned you thought it might not of been working right.I got home at 6:30 Sunday night after i left Columbus,i just wish i would of got to see your car run.I kind of wander if it's your msd box since you took timing out of it and then the car didn't seem right after that?I know it sucks watching,it doesn't seem that bad at first till you realise you don't have your own car to race.One of these days hopefully you guys will get to see my car run somewhere,i did drive it about 8 miles tonight was running great.Thanks again to You and Chuck and his parents for the hospitality,tell Chucks dad i still have that other box of pop tarts yet i haven't ate any of them.

Later Mark.

Thanks guys! It means a lot to me. I'll let you know as soon as I can diagnose the issue.

Mark,

Chuck's trans seems to be fine now. I think the fluid got too hot in the slave cylinder.