 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Hot
Rod/Comp Cams Drag Week - Wednesday Miles Covered: 1,000
Roosters, Lencos, and Lifters…Oh my!
Dueling Thrashes – The two major stories of the day center on the two most visible cars participating in this event. Carl Scott and his infamous red Nova seemed to have a handle on the Big Block Power Adder class coming into Beech Bend today. Then things went horribly wrong. Scott wiped out one bank of pistons on an early afternoon pass. His 540-inch, nitrous-injected big block-powered Chevrolet looked to be a dead duck until his competitive spirit and the brotherhood of this event sprung into action. With cell phones buzzing and several competitors calling any and all numbers to locate pistons for the car, the search was hot and heavy. A set of four pistons was eventually located in Louisville, Kentucky, roughly 100 miles from the track. Tommy Kreisler, a competitor in the Daily Driver class, volunteered to make the bonsai run for the slugs as Scott prepared to tear his engine down. At the time of this writing, it is not known if the two have left Bowling Green. The answer will come in the morning when we open competition at National Trail Raceway here in Columbus, Ohio. No matter when they leave, they face the longest and most grueling leg of the road portion of this contest. The drive will most likely take them eight long hours. Do we think they will make it? This is what Scott told the Hot Rod TV camera crew, “We were number one in St. Louis, we are number one in Kentucky and we will be number one tomorrow. We are going to do whatever it takes. It is way too late in the game to drop out now.” The second thrash was less severe, but still tested the mettle of its victim.
Steve Atwell and his wife were in Verona, Ohio, roughly 120 miles from their hotel in Columbus, when he heard a bad noise emanating from under the hood of his rare Hemi Dart. Being the seasoned Hemi guy that he is, the noise sounded alarm bells. Atwell pulled into a gas station parking lot and surveyed the situation. After tearing the top of the motor off, he found two broken lifters. “Just before we left I grabbed two lifters, just in case. I am very glad that I did that, because we would be in a lot of trouble right now if I hadn’t,” Atwell said. A local man spotted the original Hemi car and stopped to lend a hand. By chance, a number of cars traveling in a convoy stopped for fuel at the exit and before long a crowd of twenty people was watching Atwell work his magic on the big elephant motor. It was a scene reminiscent of the 1968 U.S. Nationals. Here was a Hemi Dart being put back together in a gas station parking lot. The only missing elements were the bad haircuts and the tie-dye. It was a sight to see Atwell install the cross ram intake and the dual carbs back on the car. Near 9 P.M. the job was done, the motor was fired and the bad Dart was back on the highway. Again and again we see the true spirit of this event through its competitors and participants.
Man with a plan – There has been a slight paradigm shift in the thinking of the racers, especially those with a shot to win their class. Jim Neuenfeldt, who is campaigning a turbocharged 2003 Silverado pickup, said, “We’re starting to talk about strategy now because we think we have a shot at this. We are having an awesome time and we are second in our class now.” If anyone mentioned strategy to the racers on Monday, the common response was a quick laugh and something like, “we just want to make it to the end.” These guys and girls are drag racers, no doubt. The last two days of this event are going to be very interesting, especially when the racers try to turn the wick up to lower their average elapsed times. This is just starting to get good. a d v e r t i s e m e n t
Private eyes are watching you – No, we’re not talking about the bad 1980’s song. We are talking about the fact that the Hot Rod crew has done a great job keeping this event on track and by the book. Larry Larsen had been raising eyebrows during the first two days of the race because he would show up early, make one eight-second pass and be off the grounds by 10 A.M. At that hour, many of the other racers are just getting ready to make their first pass of the day. This was an issue because there would be no one else on the road to police what was going on. If he was traveling with the caravan there would be no question, but flying solo, there was room for rumors. In order to quash any potential problems, Hot Rod Editor-in-Chief David Freiburger sent Rob Kinnan out to play spy. “I followed him the entire way,” Kinnan said. When he stopped for gas I would drop off and pick him back up on the highway. There was never a tow vehicle around.” Kinnan tailed Larsen all day without being noticed and happily reported that Larsen drove that mean pink Nova the entire time and never came near a trailer or a support vehicle.
Is that what I think it is? – Speaking of Larry Larsen, his status as a legend in the making is only underscored by the fact that he his car is equipped with a five-speed Lenco transmission. Everything we’ve ever heard suggests that the Lenco is not exactly the best transmission for extended road use, but he doesn’t mind. “It’s really not that bad,” Larsen said. “We changed the oil in it at the hotel last night and it went ok. The only gear I have engine braking with is fifth, because it is a direct drive in that gear. Other than that it is not really too bad to run at all.” The team was worried that they would be rebuilding the unit daily because of heat buildup and sprag gear failures. As of now, that has not been an issue. Larsen’s car is powered by a 555-inch big block Chevy with a monster 14-71 supercharger perched on the top. The hot rumor going around the track today was that Larsen is really going to uncork the car in Martin, Michigan. He will swap pulleys and load it with race gas to pull out all the stops. Currently he sits third in his class and would need some monster runs to drive his average down low enough to be a real threat. a
d v e r t i s e m e n t
Cheap is cool – Andrew Maas of Colorado has one of the sleepiest cars on the trip, but one of the neatest as well. He is running the Daily Driver class and is averaging 13.50’s for the week thus far. The neat thing about the car is that it’s a four-door 1983 Chevy Malibu, like the one your mom drove you to school in. His is equipped with a 350 small block topped with Vortech heads, an Edelbrock carb and intake combo and backed with a 700R4 transmission. “We have a total of $2500.00 in the entire car,” Maas said. We caught him during a carb swap. “I live in high elevation back in Colorado, so we have to adjust the carb accordingly,” he explained. “We are going to see if this one picks us up any E.T.” He’s not the fastest guy in the field, but the Malibu proves that this event is accessible to anyone with enough imagination. No one said that your car had to be beauty queen or run sub-10 second laps to be cool.
Shiftless in Kentucky – Eric Neifert’s red 1967 Camaro is probably in the top three in the beauty department on this run. The car runs very hard, as well. In fact, it currently is the No. 1 car in the Naturally Aspirated Small Block class with an average elapsed time of 11.12. That’s not too shabby for a 383-inch small block with no nitrous or supercharger. Neifert ran into some gremlins today with his transmission, however. The nylon gear that spins the transmission governor was chewed almost beyond recognition. That’s not enough to stop a “Drag Weeker” though. Neifert tore into the transmission and removed the offending piece. He then went to the TCI Transmission representative who travels with the Comp Cams Performance Group trailer and asked what to do. The consultant told Neifert to pull the tail housing off the unit and make sure nothing metallic made it that far down into the transmission. Another racer had a spare governor, so Neifert made the repair and buttoned everything back up. The heat, humidity, and gross nature of transmission fluid did not make it a very pleasurable experience, however. “I am going to be one dirty individual,” Neifert said as he was lying under his car.
Checkpoint Charlie – Readers may have noticed the photo of the statue of a man holding grocery bags. In case you’re wondering, this was one of the checkpoints designated by the Hot Rod staff on the event route. Every day has brought an interesting surprise in the location and physical form of the checkpoint that everyone must stop at and photograph their car next to. Monday it was a roller rink called “Hot Wheels” in Missouri, Tuesday it was that 30-foot tall guy with his groceries in Illinois and today it was a 20-foot tall Rooster in Kentucky. The Hot Rod event staff has been very tight lipped about tomorrow’s
final surprise, but we have been told that it is the best of the bunch.
We’ll be sure to bring you photos of this unique feature of the
event.
a
d v e r t i s e m e n t |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
© Competitionplus 2005
|
|