April 29, 2007
Our second gathering of the Palo Verde Hot Rods is complete. We were short about three cars from meeting our initial car count, but those that did show up left asking when are we getting together again? Speedworld gave us lane 2 in the staging lanes. We ran time trials from about 9:30 to just after noon. After an hour lunch break we ran our bracket race. And the results were the same as the initial race, Andy and his Mustang Cobra collected the winners share of the money. Donnie failed to stop Andy the first time, and I was not up to the task this tme, sleeping on the light while Andy was gone with an 0.06 light!
Ron Younger towed down from Prescott to race with us. Ron is the original owner of this 1971 El Camino. However it did not come from the factory with the 540 that is currently between the fender wells. This set up was good for some very low 11 second runs on a car that's still street legal! The motor was just put back in so Ron only made a few runs.
Rambo was back again with his twin turbo Mustang, the car has made it into the 11's this year. The roll bar was just installed in anticipation of quicker runs and avoiding the wrath of the track Tech Director!
Andy's Mustang Cobra is equipped with a factory supercharger. The heat we had that day warranted a little icing down of the intake before runs!
Larry Conrad and Steve Curry were out with a pair of late model GTO's. Larry's blue goat is an 05 model, while Steve's Silver one is an '06.
Mike brought out this loaner 2007 Corvette! Don't know if the Salesman knew where he was going with it! Joe read about our get together and got the urge to race again. He use to run back at Englishtown in New Jersey years ago. While he didn't have the fastest car on the grounds, he did go a few rounds with his '05 Kia! It's all about the driver and consistency.
Dan owns Performance Solutions http://www.performancesolutionracing.com/ He's done work on Rambo's, Andy's and my car as well as many other cars. This is a 2003 Mustang Cobra he just picked up and decided to wring it out some.
Rick & I were representing the Roush Mustang contingent. Both cars are 2006 models. My white one being a "Sport" model and Ricks is a Stage 1. Both cars are normally aspirated.
Rick was back out to race, but he left the Monte Carlo SS home this time and brought out this Impala SS. Matthew was back with his '92 Mustang.
Steve owns this 1973 Camaro motivated by a big block and a 6 speed manual transmission. Steve showed up after time trials but still wanted to race. He chose a 13.20 for his dial in based on previous performance over the years. He ran a 13.27 and won his first round!
This guy wasn't running with us, but was worth a picture or two! The full size Bronco had a big nasty sounding Ford motor in it. What was more shocking was when he ripped off a 10.80 on this pass!
Here are some pictures from qualifying and the first two rounds of eliminations.
The semi-finals had Andy running Joe. As I said earlier, consistency wins and Joe made it to the semi's. Andy did end up taking this match up. Due to and odd number of cars entered, I received the semi-final bye run based on being closest to my dial-in the previous round, a 13.98 on a 13.90 dial in.
Well, Andy got a great 0.06 light in the final while I left with a lethargic 0.2 light. He caught me at 3/4 track and forced me me to break out with a 13.89 on a 14.05 dial in.
Tonna gave Andy his 60% cut of the purse and then notified me that the owner of the car actually gets the 40% runner-up cut. I got a $20 drivers fee! I have to quit watching the races on TV when she's around :)
After our finals, a bunch of us hung out in our pit bench racing. Andy and Rambo started in on each other about who was running better. So this eventually ended up with a grudge match. Andy grabbed a red light one round too late (at least as far as I was concerned!) Rambo cut his second perfect light of the day running a 12.10 to Andy's 12.29. We were questioning the timing equipment after Rambo's first .000 light, but begrudgingly gave him credit after the second one.
Just Mustangs left in our pit at the end of the day.
We'll be looking at some night races this summer to deal with the heat. It might not be a Club Day where we can have our own lane and race, but we can all run the same class for fun. Keep checking back and I'll post more info on upcoming dates.
