[Pinballer]

Looks like the 'baby' is only to the crawling stages so far.

I did get a chance to test last Friday night, or at least showed up at the track anyway. Got through tech at opening bell, and being the newest thing not seen yet in these parts, drew a little attention from some other participants before the racing started. Received several nice comments about the car which was pleasing to hear. Other comments were more of total surprise when they saw the 6 cylinder sitting in the engine bay. Lots of explaining to do...many answers to questions.

Now-- the first run was simply supposed to be taking an easy lap and see if everything worked. Before I could get onto the track surface, a guy on the sidelines came running up and said there was something leaking. Had a fuel fitting underneath that was dripping some, so we aborted that run. Took a little while to repair, but got things back to good again.

By now daylight was fading pretty fast, but got one run in where I could see what I was doing. The easy 8th mile pass leaving at 1000 rpm with a bogging carb, an .080 shallow staged light (need to practice!) and lazy and way too early unassisted shifts, netted me an 11.42 at a lofty 59 mph with a 2.42 60'. Now that your laughter has subsided, it wasn't exactly what was hoped for either, I had dreamed of something in the high 10s on the initial try, but I guess it wasn't time to set the world on fire yet. It was too dark out after this run to try anything without making a couple adjustments to the the carb and kickdown linkage, and I realized I had left the flashlight in the other truck back home, so packed it up and will hope for more next Friday night.
I will say that even on the one and only shakedown pass so far, the car surprised me in one aspect: with the additional rear gearing from stock, it sure pulls decently when it gets into high gear, so maybe there's a ray of hope to build on for the next session.
Gotta chip away on that low end now.