Spencerforhire weekend race report.

[spencerforhire]

Strange how changing a few little things can have big results. On Friday night I decided to try out an MSD crank trigger setup(Thanks to Pappy!) I've had for a couple of months but never got a chance to use yet this year. Wow; the car idles smoother and picked up big time on the top end. MPH # is now 142.53 up from 139.83. Almost 3 MPH is nothing to sneeze at; the math says that's 30+HP. Also, I've been starting to have traction issues with the car lately, but wasn't sure exactly what the problem was. Car went hard right at launch both Friday night time trials; as it turns out I had one Hoosier slick "going bad". No other way to describe it; one slick picks up rocks as you roll it through the pits and the other does not. Still have some wear holes left in them and they're worn evenly, but one has lost it's "stiction". I had bought a new pair of M/T 14.5x32's on Thursday, but ran out of time and didn't get them mounted before I left. Glad I took them with me; mounted them on Saturday morning(by hand no less) and immediately the car launched substantially harder and straighter than it ever had.
Between the new tires and the crank trigger, this weekend the Vega ran it's best 60ft time, 1/8 ET and MPH, 1/4 ET and MPH yet this year. Too bad I couldn't cut a light this weekend; had a couple in the .512-.517 range during time trials, but when it came down to competition I was all over the place and even had a .458 red. Really not sure where that one came from; I can count on one hand the reds I've had this year.
Although I personally didn't have the best weekend, it wasn't a complete loss; a friend of mine who lists "Spencerforhire Automotive" as one of his sponsors won all the marbles on Saturday, winning the Big Buck Box Gamblers with a .500 light in the final AND the King of the Hill against the No-Box winner.

[wheelzman]

 Good show Spencer

[Mr. Jean]

Sounds like progress to me. Beats mowing the lawn.

[stimpy]

our camaro ( 469 BBC, 3200 w/light driver , 3400 w/ my lard butt transbrake, w/11x29's ,ladder bar , 1.30's 60' 10.30-20's @130+, no giggle gas ) did the same thing I attribute it to the timing chain getting sloppy and the oil pump drive causing it to flutter and retarding the timing , as for the hoosiers , we had that happen too , its odd its like the compound hardens up , he changed out to M/Ts and didn't like them as the compound was softer and was ripping the tread away . our car sits in the trailer in the off time so it doesn't see sunlight or any UV , I am thinking its the tire gets hotter from the suspension hitting it harder on take off and cooks out the oils . we get about 1 season out of the tires then we swap them side to side and get about 1/2 more season before all traction fades and they smoke show .

[stimpy]

Aug 19, 2013 10:16:18 GMT -4 Mr. Jean said:

Sounds like progress to me. Beats mowing the lawn.

you missed a spot .... 

[spencerforhire]

linkLeave it to me to forget I started this thread on here; now I'm a whole month and 3 weekends of racing behind. So here's how it went:
Went to Cape Breton Dragway on the weekend on August 23-25 for both the Pro Tree series and an ADRA points meet; as some of you may know(my brother posted about it at the time) I didn't do too poorly. I qualified #1 and went on to win the Super Rod 9.90 division. Sounds kind of impressive until you look at it up close; only 8 cars registered; during qualifying,one grenaded a fresh motor and 5 cars broke out(awesome air plus a tailwind). If you're counting that leaves 2- me at a conservative 9.924 and one of the heavy hitters with a Street Roadster in the class at a 10.02 because he overcompensated for the tailwind and ended up with way too much time on the throttle stop. So getting the #1Q with a 9.924 was a shock to me.
Time for a little background; I don't use a throttle stop, so if I need to slow my car down I use various methods of de-tuning. First time trial that day was 9.742, so I dropped the timing from 38 to 30 deg., and changed the shift chip from 6500 down to 6000. Second time trial? 9.782; guess that didn't work. So now it's time to sandbag; something I don't really like to do. I normally like to be able to run wide open, but for the rest of the day I just lifted at 1100ft.
Now I have a bye in the first round because we're down to 7 cars, and I get the guy who's first in points with a big-block 67 Nova in round 2 and he red lights. He must have seen the red(I didn't) and he just took a Sunday drive and let me go. Now I'm in the final with the Street Roadster who was #2 in points; I cut a terrible(.611) light but the other guy's is even worse(.652). I go 9.932 and he just can't run me down. It was so close I didn't even know i won until I got the slip!
As a postscript to this weekend's report, I figured out where the "phantom" .458 red came from on the previous weekend- with the new slicks, the car is now picking the front wheels up out of the staging beams; had to add .040 to the delay box to make up for it. The souvenir pic from the CB track photographer shows the Vega hooking way harder than it ever has before-

i331.photobucket.com/albums/l454/spencerforhire_photo/cbaugmod.jpg

[wheelzman]

That's cool.  Flat black with the wheels in the air.

[pappy]

Nice shot, the scoop looks great !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[spencerforhire]

I better get with it or the season will be over before I get caught up-
Next race was at Raceway Park in Prince Edward Island over the Labour(yeah, that's how it's spelled here) Day Weekend; my third weekend in a row racing. I thought vacation was supposed to be relaxing? This wasn't really a great weekend; very rough seas for the trip on the ferry to get there, rough roads and high winds on the drive, overcrowded pits, a race track so rough and bumpy that my front wheels were bouncing into the air locking up in the shut down area. First time I've ever been uncomfortable or out of control in my Vega. I have made the decision not to return to this particular track for 1/4 mile racing; if they limit it to 1/8th mile runs only I have no problem. I'ts just plain dangerous, and a lot of other racers agree with me.
As most of you on here already know, my brother who had towed a lot further than I to get there went home with a kidney stone attack before he had a chance to make a pass.
Personally, I didn't perform very well this weekend; had a tough time getting used to a different track/rollout/lights and never cut a great light while I was there. Car ran pretty good with a couple of decent 60 ft times(1.39-1.40) and ran reasonably close to it's dial in- 6.26 on a 6.24 in the 1/8 mile racing on Saturday and 9.96 on a 9.95 in the 1/4 on Sunday. Went out in the second round Saturday(Beat a Pinto in the first round! Yeah, it's a Vega owner thing) and the race was called off due to rain just after I left after a first round loss on Sunday. I guess the upside of it being shortened by the weather is that I didn't slip too far in the yearly points tally. I think I'll keep the crewchief and fire the driver(lol, both me). Long drive home; ferry was overbooked so I had to take the bridge at the wrong end of the island; 4+ hours drive in the pouring rain.
Almost forgot; had to change a rear U-joint in the truck on Sunday morning, and by the time I got back, the front one was also clicking, snapping and vibrating at lower speed.

[spencerforhire]

Next on the schedule is the weekend of September 7th/8th at Dragway Park in Mirimachi New Brunswick, a track I'd never been to before. Qualified #6/16 and went a couple of rounds in the Super Rod(9.90) Pro Tree event , and due to my main competition going out in the first round, I'm now in first place, 16 points and 21 points ahead of the #2 and #3 guys with only one race left. As in the previous Super Rod race, I had a hard time slowing the car down, even resorting to installing a stop bolt where the pedal hits the floor. Still had to ease up at the stripe the first couple of rounds to keep it from going under and had a real heartbreaker in the third round; giving it away with a 9.899 breakout against the eventual event winner. This guy has a Pro Stock style Cobalt and can run low 9's; he had caught me at about 1000ft and was "playing" with me. I knew I hadn't cut a good light and held it wide open out the back door trying to keep him behind me.
Kind of like last weekend, the car performed flawlessly but I was inconsistent; a couple of good lights, but a couple of REAL bad ones, too. Figured out why after the fact; another racer pointed out that the tree is something like 20 ft farther from the starting line than what I'm used to at the two local tracks. I thought that I must have been imagining that the lights weren't as bright, but they were just further away.
I had no intentions of staying for the regular program on Sunday, only having made the trip for the 9.90 only. As it turned out, it was called on account of rain about an hour after I left on Sunday morning.

[spencerforhire]

Due to a bad weather forecast for the weekend of September 14/15, the last race in the Cape Breton Dragway schedule was cancelled. Just in time, too; Don called me to relay the bad news just as I was about to hitch up the hauler and leave on the 5-hour trip.
Bit of a bummer for sure to have any race cancelled, but I had really been looking forward to bettering my placement in the points. As it was, I ended up finishing in a 4-way tie for 7th. Not the top 5 I had set as a personal goal, but it is what it is.
So off to Greenfield Dragway for their last points meet on September 21/22, and also the second to last stop on the ADRA schedule. Kept the 9.90 tuneup in the car for the weekend and it performed pretty well, going a couple of rounds on Saturday in the gambler's race before getting "quick started" in the third round; my staged light just flickered as I bumped in and the starter hit the button before it fully lit or I was even close to ready. Pushed the trans brake button as the second yellow came on.
Sunday I qualified 27/52; the absolute worst spot. Got the #1 qualifier in round one. Actually beat him with a pretty bad(.593) light when he couldn't run his number. The  Vega spun in the second round and I lost to the eventual event winner. The one round win bumped me up from 15th to 10th in the ADRA points chase; right where I had set my goal for the season.
Another event where the car performed flawlessly but I wasn't on my game; never cut a good light all weekend.

[spencerforhire]

More than a month behind on my race reports; just too much on my plate lately. so here we go before my memory fails me-
Back to Mirimachi NB for the final race of both the ADRA and Pro Tree series on the weekend of September 28/29. Weather is cool traction is pretty good and the log book shows some best to date this season numbers even with the 9.90 tuneup. Ended up qualifying 11/15 for the Pro Tree with a less than ideal 10.018 pass; with a much quicker but throttle stopped car in the other lane I backed off at the stripe because I couldn't see him. Should have learned that by know; he blew by my at 150+ about 10 ft from the finish. Really wanted to qualify well; another #1 Q point bonus would have added some more cushion to my slim points lead in this series. Didn't get a good light in the first round; I'm already losing but it didn't matter; at about 1000ft the car backfired and shut off. I'm freaking because all I can think about is last year's broken timing chain episode. Got towed back to the pits(always embarrassing) and pull the valve covers but can't see anything bent or broken. Crossing my fingers I look under the distributor cap and find I can spin the rotor button and shaft around in circles. All that happened was the roll pin holding the drive gear had sheared off. 5 minute fix( I had another roll pin in a spare dizzy) and we're back in business. So I change to spectator for the rest of the day; I watch the next round carefully as my points lead has dwindled to 6 as the 2nd place guy has a 1st round win. When he loses in round two I can finally breathe; no one else is close enough to get past me; I win the Super Rod 9.90 Pro Tree series! My low budget, flat black, ugly duckling Vega has managed to beat some really nice(really expensive!) cars driven by experienced, winning drivers. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!
Sunday morning comes with heavy frost and awesome air; pitching the 9.90 tuneup and going back to full power nets me an awesome pass- 9.76@137+ with 6.202@113.20 in the 1/8th. best to date this year 60ft of 1.395 and even a RT of .512. I qualify ok at 28/77(big field for around here) but get "burned down" at the starting line in round one by an inexperienced racer. He took forever to stage and after 8 or 10 seconds of sitting there my trans brake "hiccuped"- The car lurched forward about 2 ft before the starter even pushed the button. Best I can figure, the solenoid overheated and disengaged momentarily.
So I slip a few places in the ADRA points back to 15th and the season is over; almost- we still have "Team Race" for bragging rights with each of the 4 tracks sending their 8 top points finishers to an end of the year invitational grudge race. Lots of good natured trash talk in the week in between, and it's close to home this year, only 1.5 hrs away in Greenfield.
A few good pics surface after I get back from Mirimachi, including a "photo op" I set up in the qualifying round Sunday morning with two Vegas; one black, one white with identical dial-ins.

[spencerforhire]

Time for my final race report of the year- On to Greenfield October 4,5,6th for the "Team Race";last race of the season for me; no more points to worry about, no qualifying passes; just some bracket racing for fun and bragging rights. I'm actually on the Cape Breton team, sneaking onto the bottom of the roster at #8. The 4-way tie for 7th in points actually translated to 10th after the tie breaker math was done. A couple of the other guys couldn't make the trip as it's 7-8 hours(only 1.5 for me).
First the good news; the Vega is ultra consistent all weekend with tighter numbers than it's ever produced before; 8 passes with a spread of only .06 seconds and 1 MPH in the 1/8th with 60ft times only varying .009. Best pass of the weekend is a 9.724(never gone that quick at this track before) with a 6.180 1/8(best this year period)Bad news in I still can't cut a good light; one .529 but a couple in the .750-.800 range; I think I've lost my "mojo".
Went out in the 1st round against the #1 Greenfield points leader; real bad(.775) light plus went a 9.84 on a 9.77 dial. That doesn't win races around here. We also had a gambler's race on Saturday; went one round against a broken car and then got my ass handed to me by a senior citizen in the 2nd round. Love those 65+ guys who have been racing for 45 years; they're tough to beat. Another gambler's on Sunday; went 9.782 on a 9.77 dial, but I had another .800 light and put myself on the trailer.
High point of the weekend was watching my brother Don finish runner-up in the Sportsman division of the team race.
Cool air and good traction did produce a couple of memorable pics; the Vega was launching harder(and higher!) than ever. 200+ passes on this motor; we'll have to see what a fresh "bullet' with an extra 100hp does next season .

[wildcatone]

[wheelzman]

Cool!