Eric, I've been dropping CW for a few years now.  It's on the edge for high gear with the current set up so I can't loose too much total force as it starts to get mushy in the top two gears.  That is when I know I need to give it a 1/4 turn(as it wears, it looses bases pressure).

Doug, ya, nothing tragic.   Just sucks to loose out on gaining points(that I desperately need).   Gforce has parts on the way, car is apart, I pulled clutch to inspect, and everything is ready for reassembly.

A buddy had a much worse day then me.  His brand NEW Gforce GF5R got chunked.  Took out a 4th gear faceplated.  It got jammed into 2nd and 3rd gears.  He went to check clutch and apparently it broke the aluminum pressure ring at one of the stands!   I told him the only reason the transmission broke was clutch was too tight.  This kinda proves it, though it is not what he wanted to hear.  He was whining Sunday about only lasting 27 passes.  Then he admitted the clutch was hitting a bit firm.  Well, duh.

Saw you at Norwalk the other weekend.

Maybe 10 yrs back, Rick Smith(trick flow) was telling me that he could build me a set of heads that would really wake my car up.  Great, just need that winning lottery ticket .  I told him the only problem was it would not be an "FE" anymore because I'm sure it would be a custom billet whatever with a custom intake, blah, blah, blah.   I'm sure it would fly, but again, it would not be an "FE" anymore.

Rick worked with a local truck pulling guy on a SBF, so he was around the shop occasionally.

Lucky for me(and my pocket book) I like it just the way it is. 

My black car went 13 yrs til it finally used the contacts up.  Yup, gutter lane ornament!  Pulled home at 1 am, with a toe strap up the highway.  Ya, I like to be an "outlaw".  Of course the new Taiwan condenser that I put in with the new points lasted less then 100 miles.  I dug up a rusty used condenser from ?? years back and 2 yrs later it is still running fine. 

The only other problem is the Taiwan points don't have enough spring pressure to let it go over 5K rpm.  I figure that is safer then the 6K pill in the MSD soft touch.

Well......before I was really, really grey,  I was told I was Chuck Norris(in my jeans, leather coat and cowboy boots--my normal attire).  My friends call me Macgyver because I can build/fix anything.  According to the g/f when I hop on the Harley and I turn into Sam Elliot(from Roadhouse).  At the airport one day I was told I was Michael McDonald?  I told the TSA agent that I couldn't be cause I can't carry a tune in a bucket.





Me from 1996?  (on right)

If you were at the first two stick races you wouldn't be saying much...... .   I was fighting it at Beaver.  I finally got my "tune up" and feel pretty confident.  A little "luck" along the way doesn't hurt either.   Like the final round of Nostalgia, I was dialed 10.96, running a 12.4 Y block Sedan.  He left, I left.   The red lights came on both sides.........I was crushed.  Then my win light started flashing.  With NHRA's new ruling about first or worst and not showing the red lights til BOTH cars leave.  He was .-033 and I was -.012 so I took the win.  I ran it out and went 10.966 on my 10.96.  The ol dump truck motor powered battle wagon does me proud sometimes.  Almost gives the appearance that I know what the hell I'm doing.....    The run off against Saturdays winner I went .000 on the light.   Ouch.

In the semi finals of the Run off, I dialed up ONE(cause my slip showed the car had slowed down .005-.007 through the last run).  I put 10.97 on the window.   That is where I went 10.968 on my 10.97.  Ugh.  But the other guy had .01 better light and went dead on with 5.   I had to basically break out or just not get there.  Mathematically it was not possible for me to take the win.

Well, after a rough start to the 3 day event, I pulled it out on Sunday and won Nostalgia class. Then onto the King Ford Run off I went to the semi finals.

Weather was near perfect, except for some light rain on Friday morning as we entered the gates. Beyond that it was blue skies and perfect summer breeze for three days.

We started with 2 time trials Friday for the Gamblers race that afternoon. I have been having horrible time with my lights so I was playing clutch linkage and front tire pressures to get myself back into it. I was close, but with a -.004 first round I was not quite there.

Saturday we got 3 time trials and I was doing well on the lights and the car was running well, in the 11.00-11.03 range. Traction was good and it was carrying the wheels to the 60ft mark. My first faux-paw of the weekend was trying to finally try out the 780 carbs I had converted to single feed. As I was swapping them out I had to swap AN fittings on the carbs. Well my rear carb fitting was stripped and would only unscrew about 1 turn and lock up. I quickly decided to not go any farther. I then tried to get the fitting back in and NOT leak. It took a few adjustments but just short of completely stripping it, it quit leaking like a sprinkler. Ugh. My next major failure was after winnning first round with a .004 light.............I somehow, with much ado I never heard the call for second round and missed it completely. Ugh. My big issue was there was no one around me with Nostalgia class to "watch" for. The sound system is all that at Norwalk(Summit Equip Motorsport Park), but they had it turned down to "1" and you could barely hear it only if no cars were running. In the thick of things it was very hard to hear. It was my complete fault. Oh well. Sunday I turned the radio on in my trailer and had it blaring so that issue could not happen again.

On to Sunday, the car was running well, my lights were good and I went 5 rounds to win the class. That is where the King Ford run off comes into play. They take Sat and Sun winners and run them off. I had to run Sat NOS winner to advance. I stepped up really hard, put a .000 light on him! I then had to run the Street class winner. I adjusted clutch linkage and tire pressure and went .035 to his .025. I went -.002 under my dial. It was moot as he went dead on with a 5. There was no wiggle room if you do the math. That Street class winner(son of a fellow I raced with at DW42 for years) went on to beat the No box winner for King Ford!!! (Box and No box had run off to get a winner).

All in all a good weekend. I did find out that my helmet is out of date? WTH? I told them that I just was at Columbus and they didn't say anything(and Trails is very, very strict). He just said they musta not looked very close. He let me run but said I better get a helmet for my next race. Sooooo, I guess my winnings will go towards a new bucket, and a couple new fittings for the carbs.

Until I get a new photo acct set up somewhere, not pics to add.