Went to Sydney yesterday (Saturday 25th) for round 5 of the championships. After last round's engine failure. I was no longer in the running for a place , especially after I was awarded no points at all even though I did a couple of runs that day, but I decided to at least support the bracket by turning up and racing. Gerard had his up and running and it was sounding good and strong. He's knocked out a couple of 12.7s at test and tunes so who knows what it's capable of. Anthony, James and Ezio made up the rest. Mine was sounding good off the trailer and on the warm up blat down the back of the pits. I thought this was a good sign but alas, I was wrong. Back to the pits and a change of plugs and turn the jets in a full turn. How's this sound?
Unfortunately because of the wheelspin off the line the time was bit slower than anticipated. 13.979. The previous run was 18.173 as you could imagine. 60ft time was lousy at 2.276 but terminal speed was 94.71 m.p.h. so once it gripped it took off. The saying goes 'if you want to break a drought, of which we are in the middle of, just put a drag race on.' Due to rain the third qualifying run was cancelled so it was a 'suck it and see' as to what dial-in to run. What have I got to lose so I dialed 13.5 as I've run that here with the old engine. First run against Mr Bracket racer himself, Ezio.
I ran a 13.802 against Ezio's 15.8 on a 15.75 dial. Gerard had the bye run and Anthony and James ran. Anthony runs a fairly stock 170 cu.in. Ford six and James runs a V8 Flathead. Anthony took the win.
Next run was Ezio and Anthony and James and Gerard. I had the bye run. I'll include my bye run video but only because I think you will get a better idea of how I ring it's neck. Once again lack of start line traction resulted in a slow time but 95.98 m.p.h. terminal speed. I was happy with that. Ezio over Anthony and James over Gerard. I've lost some of my wife's videos for some reason so I'll have to apologise for not having any of Gerard's runs.
Run 3 had me against Anthony and even though I did everything wrong, no traction on start line, missing a gear, I still managed to win. Gerard took the win over Ezio and James had the bye. At the completion of that we had 4 of us on 2 wins each. A countback of the last run had Ezio and James in the final due to them being closest to their dial-ins. James brought up the cherry so it was another win to Ezio. All round a good day's racing with no breakages. Two weeks time up to Warwick in Queensland for the Six Banger Nats and a week later, hopefully, Summerland Drags at Casino, NSW. Hooroo.
Just a shout out for my lovely wife/crew chief who sits through these long days, films our races, looks after me and does these race day data records for me.
Now that was fun! I like the format where you get to run everyone. More runs for everyone. And more videos. Yes, thankyou to your wife for her contribution to the racing enterprise.
This weekend was the annual Super Secret Fun Run when the Minneota Street Rod Assn rents Brainerd International Raceway so members can race for free. My car was there with my buddy Dave driving. He has very little seat time in the car but ran a best of 11.66 @ 118.The car bogs off the line and runs a lousy 60' time. have to squeeze the gas pedal rather than mash it. Any ideas? A great weekend with friends. And you could get as many runs in you wanted .Did I mention free?
How big is your carb? Try a run with the secondaries disconnected. That will tell you if you are over carbureted. Short of that play with the pump cam, pump squirters, and pump cam timing.
The Jalopy Journal
