26 August 2013 – First Race After Summer Hiatus

After a successful night of testing at Irwindale Speedway’s Drag Strip, we learned that the Magnum is very capable of cutting good lights and launching hard off the line. Thanks to companies like The Driveshaft Shop, Wavetrac, Unitrax Drivetrain, Weld Racing, Mickey Thompson Tires, Wilwood, TCE Performance, Strange Engineering, and especially Mountain View Performance, we got down the track successfully at Irwindale and ran a 7.14 best elapsed time on their 1/8th mile.

We were hopeful and excited for the potential of things to come at the next NHRA Summit Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this past weekend. One of the problems we were having in the last few months was cured when Dave Beckley of Mountain View Performance fabricated a solution for our belt-shredding problem. Before his brilliant fix, we were only getting three runs per belt because of the belt “walking” on the idler pulley that was shredding the material. Thanks to Dave, we are getting a lot more life out of our belts!

We had a couple of things to do before the race began on Saturday night. Before the Friday night test session we decided to bring the car in to MoparMax’s official Las Vegas race shop, Hot Rods and Horsepower. We wanted to inspect all of the new parts on the car to make sure everything was in ship shape before the long stretch of racing ahead. While there, Jason and Scott, who both race the Outlaw 8.5 class at the track, gave us some helpful tips on suspension set up and tuning. Without their advice, we would not have had the same success on the track. So a big thank you and shout out to them for their help!

Friday night brought the new “Showcase” class at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In this new class during the Friday night Midnight Mayhem, the racers are allowed to use slicks, have up to two crew members at the line, water in the waterbox, track prep, and the ETs and reaction times are not displayed on the scoreboards. Only the driver gets to see their timeslip, and their opponent does not know what the other ran. This was a perfect addition to the regular test and tune because it was a better simulation of an actual race test and tune. We were able to obtain usable launch data, good information about the ETs, and also what the reaction times were like with the new set up. Saturday’s testing came much easier having already started this process the night before. I was cutting good lights in the car, and the 60’s were down in to the mid 1.5s, which is the best the car has ever done. The Showcase also brought out some hardcore fast street cars and there was some serious grudge racing occuring to delight the spectators.

On Saturday, the first round brought an electrical glitch in the transmission, and the car did not run its dial. So we were out for the race. But with 4 races left to go before the end of the season, I’m confident that we can go some rounds in the Magnum, it’s hooking and running consistantly now. I’m really looking forward to the next race! Come on out to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend August 30th to September 1st, and also the next weekend, September 6th to the 8th!