archives

After a few months of doctors, x-rays, MRI's, physical therapy, and a few delays in getting all the aspects of our program together we were finally able a few passes in the FlashBack this last Friday night.
The situation with my back is still good and bad…well, not really much good but I can walk okay again so there's something to be said for that. With that in mind I didn't want to do anything that would put us back to square one as far as the mobility goes so we tagged Dwayne to make the first few shakedown runs in the car. Then we planned on me jumping in to make a full pass later.
Now, the FlashBack is set up for me to drive and me alone, everything is set to where I want it and where I'm comfortable with…right or wrong that's where it's at as it's been there for around the 15 years we've run this car. Then we throw Dwayne into the seat…so we had to make some modifications so that Dwayne would be able to get the throttle floored and be able to operate the switches (and instructions on which switches to hit and when…that ended up being the biggest hurdle [Ha Ha]) all while being safe enough to drive.
After three interesting passes that were generally a little quicker and faster each pass it was getting late and if I was going to make a pass now was the time. The car was going straight and the engine and transmission seemed to be operating smoothly…Dwayne was finding ways to drive the car that I had never thought of but was getting the hang of things. We'll get him few more laps later to square things away. Like I said, the car was sounding very good and I was ready to jump in and make a pass so we turned up the wick just a bit and I got into the drivers seat. The reaction time was excellent…the wheels up launch was a thing of beauty…and my back pain disappeared for about 10 seconds…man it felt good to make a pass again!!!
We've got a few more loose ends to tie up on the truck, trailer, and car yet…even after all this time there's still more to do. We'll take the racing as we can, I'm keeping up with the stuff I need to do for the back so we should be okay and if not we've got some good “shoes” to fill in if need be. Jim (Diamonds Body Shop) and I are headed up to Brainerd for the NHRA Nationals this weekend to get our yearly fix of nitro-fun then we'll be ready to hit the track running after that.
We've added the Wounded Warrior Project and Move America Forward folks' names to the car this year as well…both do tremendous work with our troops. If you can, go to their websites and make a contribution on behalf of the heroes that are putting it all on the line for those of us back here at home.

We started off the end of the season by putting on a new set of rear springs on the FlashBack as we'd just flat run the heck out the old ones. We were able to register a slight improvement on our 60 ft times but it was very clear that the rear slicks were in need of replacement as well. The FlashBack was trying to give us better performance off the line but she just wasn't able to unless the track prep was right on!
Our third round loss on the 9th of September was another close one, we had just put down a perfect reaction time of a .000 in the previous round but the third round light went south on me and we ended up running a 10.581 off of our 10.59 index and we brokeout.
Our next outing was a two-day event with a ¼ mile race on Saturday and a 1/8 mile race on Sunday. We set our index at a 10.61 on Saturday and set down some very good reaction times along the way: a .011, then a .010, and then a .011 again. The day ended as my reaction time slipped on the last pass to a .081 and even our excellent run of a 10.614 off of the 10.61 index wasn't able to get us the win at that point.
We came back Sunday for the 1/8 mile race and we had the index set at 6.66 for the race. Our -.005 reaction in round one fouled away a great pass of a 6.668 and being so close the decision was made to “Buy Back” into the race. We knew we had the car dialed-in and the car would run what we wanted. If we could keep the light green we'd have a chance at this one! With that in mind we got everything ready for round two. Well, we ran an even better 6.664 pass off of our 6.66 index but this time our bad reaction time (.071) was the cause of the loss…we were too “green” at the start.
The good news was that the new tires were hooking great and the consistency in the car was scary…now for a driver tune-up!!!!
We headed out for a Test Day in October and played around with the launch rpm and the jetting…after six hours we ended up where we started anyway but we did have the car back into the 10.40 range once again.
The last race for us in '06 was the season finale of the Midwest Open Comp Series. We had a cool and windy day to contend with but at least it was dry! We had over 80 cars show up for the day's activities as we got a lot of Mustangs and a few GM products showing up by advertising the days events on a few of the websites. We had a field of nine cars entered in the Open Comp race and the results can be seen at our website www.elimn8u.com . There's a link to the Open Comp race results on the home page. We survived a bad light in the first round and ran right on our index in the second round (10.487 on a 10.48). We had another bad light in the Semi-Finals and ran a 10.453 off of the 10.48 index trying to get the win.
We did end up maintaining our points lead in the points chase and walked away with the first place plaque so it wasn't a bad day in the end.
The next two weekends we spent pulling the engine, transmission, and getting them delivered to Midnight Machining and Transmission Rebuilders for a check-up. The tranny looks like it will need some attention and the engine….well the block is shot once again. I guess 650 horses is just too much to ask from the stock block…We did get three years out of this combo and that's a whole lot longer than we'd been getting out of them. This was totally unexpected and quite a kick in the head to be honest…So, we'll be trying to get a hold of a DART block, a new crankshaft (the old one is fine but the new block requires a different one), and a new set of pistons to go with the bigger bore-size of the new block. We're contemplating setting up a combo for a different class to compete in but not sure what we're doing at this point, I've got to see what's going to work ($$$) and what's not. It's very discouraging to say the least but it may open up some new opportunities and after scattering three or four blocks now it quite obvious that in order to run as fast (FASTER) as we have been we need a dedicated race block.
This puts the skids on us getting to the PRI Show, so to all of those we usually get to stop and “Hi” to…we'll see ya next time around!!

The first passes of the '06 season were at Tri-State Raceway and the results weren't quite what we were expecting.
Our first pass of the season let us know that didn't quite have the shift linkage on the transmission adjusted correctly. I realize that it had been a few months since our last pass but I was still pretty sure that we were supposed to have three forward gears and not just two. After some readjusting of the cable back in the pits by Scott we were ready for another attempt. The second pass was looking much better at the launch but as we neared the finish-line the engine's sound changed and although I didn't hear or feel anything drastic happening I knew that something wasn't quite right.
     We loaded up the car and headed over to Dwayne's house to get some supper and take a look at the car. At Dwayne's we quickly found the problem, a broken rocker arm shaft in the valve train. Fortunately nothing else appeared to be damaged other than that. Scott stayed behind to start tearing things down as Dwayne and I headed back to my garage to get some spare parts to see if we couldn't get something to work so we could make a few more passes come Sunday. After the 180 mile round trip we were able to get the engine back in one piece, fire up the grille and fill our bellies, defrag Dwayne's computer, and get in a few hours of much needed sleep.
     To say that I was nervous Sunday morning would be an understatement…but when we fired the engine up it sounded as sweet as ever, now to get in a good run! Our first pass had us running a 10.301 at 131.91 not bad for our first pass considering that the 60 foot time was a disappointing 1.463 second time. We should be closer to the 1.40 to 1.42 range and that would equate out to about a 10.25 time. The next two passes found the weather getting warmer and the traction getting worse, so we decided that we'd done enough for the day as there really wasn't much hope of improving those numbers. The 131mph was the best ever for this combo and the 10.301 was equal to our previous best so we felt pretty good about the way the car was running.
     The next weekend was a three day outing at Cedar Falls Raceway. At Friday nights Test & Tune and we were able to run a 10.26 with a somewhat still lacking 1.42 60 foot time. We still should have some left in this combo and be able to go even quicker yet! The weekends' races left a bit to be desired for us though. We started off great…excellent reaction times of .003 .013 .013 (.000 is perfect) and then in the third round we left a little too soon with a -.011 foul. Our elapsed times were between the 10.329 and 10.351 range as the weather got warmer. Everything was going according to plan right up until we fouled out that is. Sunday's race was not one of our better outings to put it mildly. We were given two qualifying passes and I missed the shift points on the second pass…so we were somewhat unsure of what to set the index at for round one. We actually hit it pretty close as we ran a 10.364 off of our 10.35 index but my poor reaction time was the reason we were beaten. Knowing that we could do better we jumped back into the races “Buy-Back” round. The reaction time was much better but we came up .029 of a second short at the finish line this time…when it not your day, it's not your day.
     The following weekend we ran into some warm, muggy weather for the first time and the ET and MPH numbers showed the effect of that as we were a couple of tenths and a few mph off from previous outings. The results pretty much mirrored the previous events for us though. After putting up a near perfect reaction time in qualifying we got caught sleeping in round one and still we may have managed to get the win if the car hadn't lost a tenth of a second in the ET department as well. On Sunday the reaction times were decent once again and in our second round loss we actually posted a very good .023 reaction time…our competitors' .012 was just enough better though. We both broke-out (ran too fast) but we were .040 too quick and he was .037 too quick so we were on the wrong side of that equation as well. We've been close but just not close enough so far!
     Our Midwest Open Comp Series event was up next and we were looking forward to some ProTree style racing once again as we'd had to pass on a couple of the big National events this season. We arrived on Saturday and got the FlashBack unloaded, warmed up, and ready to go…then the rains hit. A couple of big cells were passing by and the day was officially cancelled at that point. Sunday arrived partly cloudy, warm, and humid…but no rain in sight! We put together a nice string of reaction times during the day all the way up to (and including) the finals. Unfortunately, once again, we came up just short…a few thousandths of a second!! We had added a new tachometer to the FlashBack a few days prior that allows us to playback the run on the tach back in the pits to review the run…and keep track of the shift-points. I must not have reset it before the last run because it didn't record that pass…I'm pretty sure that we missed the 1-2 shift point on that pass and is the reason we were a little slow but we couldn't verify that for sure.
     The FlashBack isn't launching quite as well as I think she should be at this point and we need to get that sorted out yet. Other than that she's running fine and if we can just get the drivers head back into the game I think we'll be able to get things back on track…we've been close to getting it done but in a sport where thousandths of a second make a huge difference it's tough to make up for any mistake!

It's only February and we're already getting things geared up for the season to begin. For us that means about April, we can still get some of that nasty white/cold stuff then but generally not...generally.

The car's already been to Diamonds Body Shop for some minor "face-lift" work...gotta keep the old girl looking good...she's one vain ole gal!!

We've had the engine up at Joe's shop, Midnight Machining Inc, where we performed a leakdown test and took a quick look at the inner workings to see how things were holding up. The leakdown numbers were very impressive as well (after Joe showed us how to actually set up the equipment). After two seasons of racing the engine looks fantastic inside! The Calico Coatings coated bearings and piston skirts look like we had installed them last month not two years ago! I've been telling you guys that these Red-E / Synergyn lubricants were the real-deal and it shows! The only things that we replaced will be the old valvesprings, relatively cheap insurance. We found one "minor" problem with the rockers and the guys at T&D are correcting that problem for us. When we'd sent in the rockers to be repaired, two pair at a time, a couple of the exhaust rocker bodys used weren't the correct ones for our combo. The difference is slight and Joe is the one who caught the problem...once again.

The guys at Quick Fuel Technology have taken possession of our 950 cfm carb to "soup it up" for us with some of their newly designed pieces. Hey, it was worth over a tenth and hald of a second for us out of the box when we bolted it on and I'm curious to see how much more they can squeeze out of it for us this year!

We've got a new set of Kooks headers from Holcomb Motorsports that will head out to Calico Coatings for some of their 'magic' before they get installed. Holcomb also supplied us with the new Flowmaster Outlaw mufflers too...I've always liked the sound those guys at Flowmaster produce and now we'll get to hear more of it!

PA Transmissions refurbished our #1 transmission for us as well as recertifying the bellhousing so we're all ready to go in that area as well. Everything inside still looked pretty good to Harvey and the crew so we don't anticipate any problems there.

We've got Doug at Quick Performance looking into a different center section for our tried and true 9" rear axle...we could stand to improve that area on the car so we'll see what we can do about that.

We've got other parts coming in to finish off and update other areas from our sponsors and friends listed below and so far it appears that everyone is willing once again to let us be a part of their team...to all of you I say 'Thank You'...we wouldn't make it out of the garage without the support that you supply to our team.

Vol. 15 No.3 Summer 2006

     The summer started off a bit shaky for the Glory Days Racing Team as we were shutdown on the line in the final round at Tri-State Raceway. We were told we had water leaking out from underneath the FlashBack as we completed our burnout process. Needless to say we weren't too happy with the situation as we felt, at the time, that the only water we were "leaking" was the little bit of water that accumulates in the fins of the radiator from out cooling down process back in the pits between rounds. We loaded up the car and went and congratulated the day's winner, Jim Winters Sr. and his nice '65 Falcon.
     After checking over the engine and cooling system we made a quick call up to Joe at Midnight Machining for some direction...we had a loss of coolant in the radiator and some of it has ended up in the oil. After all the checking and testing was done the head gaskets were found to be the problem, we had used a set that we had on hand over the winter and not re-ordered the usual SCE set we normally run...it bit us in the rear! Dwayne and Scott headed over the next weekend for a thrash to make the necessary repairs so that we could make the next race, the Night of Fire event at Cedar Falls Raceway.
     It was hovering around the 135 to 140 degree range inside the car during the day of the Night of Fire event so I guess the event was living up to it's billing! The Outlaw SuperStocks, the Nostalgia cars, and the jet-powered vehicles put on a very good show for the fans once again...we managed to lose by running .002 too fast during our second round of racing. The car was still running a bit sower than where I was going to be comfortable with but due to the heat we were dealing with I wasn't too concerned. We put down a number of 10.731 at 125.81 and had our index set at 10.73 for the race. We ran a 10.728 in our second round lass. It was good to see Rick Bauer from Re/Max Home Group as well as Jim and Tami from Diamonds Body Shop out there to cheer us on...I wish we could have gone a few more rounds!!
     The next weekend we hauled out the FlashbBack for night of Test & Tune action. Our baseline run of a 10.672 at 126.05 was a little better and a quick jet change in the carburetor lowered that to a 10.621 at 126.58. We were scheduled to swap the tires at this point so we did that and made no other changes to the car and we went out and ran a 10.620 at 126.41 mph. The next pass we decided to try and retard the timing...the results were skewed by the fact that my launch was less than ideal due to driver error, but the mph fell off by quite a bit and so we decided to go the other direction and advance the timing for the next pass. That looked to be the wrong direction as we fell off to a 10.658 at 126.03 on what was our last pass of the evening.
     The next outing was another of the Midwest Open Comp Series races, this one at Cedar Falls Raceway. We had some cloudy conditions and the car was still running a bit "off" as far as I was concerned. With a test pass netting us only a 10.73 at 124.72 I was still trying to get a handle on the combo. On our three qualifying passes our 1000 foot ET's were very consistent at 8.894, 8.908, and 8.907...our 1/4 mile times varied a bit due to the nature of our qualifying process but based on the 1/8 mile and 1000 foot times we were consistent, slow but consistent.
     Our first two rounds were won by foul-starts by our opponents and we ran a 10.723 and a 10.726 in those races off of our 10.65 index. We had qualified too hard with that 10.65 time as there was now no way we were going to be able to run that fast on this day, but now we were stuck with that number and had to deal with it. In the final round our opponent would be running on a 10.64 index...pretty much a heads-up race! His previous runs were both in the 10.75 to 10.76 range so I felt we had the edge there...if I could only manage to get the better reactionn time I was confident that we could get the win too. We upped the rpm chip so we could leave the line a little harder and hopefully quicken not only our reaction time but improve our ET as well. We needed those improvements as well, our run was a 10.708 and our opponent ran a 10.704 but our better reactio time (a .024 to his .050) secured the win and put us into a nice lead in the points chase as well.
     We ran another compression check and leakdown test on the motor since that last outing, we've installed a new cap and rotor, we've reset the timing back down a few degrees and we'll up the jet sizes a few to compensate for the cooler air this time of season...everything looks okay at this point and I'm still at a loss for our "slowness"...but as long as it's running and we're wining I won't complain...too much anyway!

    Wow, April already!!! Race season will be starting very soon and here I sit with myback aching like all get out and we're getting about four inches of snow today!
    Since the end of last season we have gotten some new parts for the FlashBack in hopes for some quicker and faster times...as well as some increased longevity.
     After years of saying we needed a DART block we finally were able to get it done with the help of Van Greer from Nickels and the guys at Dart Manufacturing. We went with the larger bore sized block to gain some "easy"cubic inches. That led to us also needing to get a new crankshaft and a set of new pistons to complete the combo. The folks at Eagle Specialty Products and Diamond Racing Pistons got us what we needed in those areas. A new Mezerie waterpump and Powermaster XL battery was sent out from our Atech boys along with some other much needed items. All of the parts are up at Midnight Machining for Joe to work his magic on and I can't wait to see what this combo will do for us!
     The tranny has been freshened up by the good guys at Transmission Rebuilders in Waterloo, Iowa with the internal pieces supplied by the folks from Performance Automatic so we should be ready to put her through the gears!
     In between a nasty ice storm and a blizzard we attended the Hot Rod & Restoration Show held in Indianapolis once again. It was nice to be able to touchbase with some old contacts and make some new ones as well, it's a growing show and always a good time!   It was also cool to get the chance to hear Edsel Ford II speak as he was the representative for the Ford family in honor of the 75th anniversary of the 32 Ford.
     The other major piece of news is our acquisition of a "new" trailer to haul the FlashBack around in. It's a 26 foot enclosed trailer that the previous owner had just purchased last fall and now needed to sell. It's over at Tags-N-More as Scott's adding some interior lights and wiring to it so it's more user-friendly for us at the races. Plans are to also paint the floor and have Dwayne at Undercover Hotrods apply some Lizzard Skin to the undercarriage to help seal it up and protect it from the elements.
     We've got a lot to do in a short amount of time and right now I can hardly even move...but we'll GIT-R-DONE!!!!