A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.

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Ok, first National Event Ever Class Racing ...At least for me, first time towing this car too. And I made a big mistake as I often washed the car at a hand spray wash near the track (incl. carefully in the engine bay), but then would drive it immediately always. We did the same except on the trailer, and that mistake will show up later (at just the wrong time!).

Feb 2nd., 1995 Pomona, CA (air is crisp, cool out, but dry, snow on the San Gabriel Mnts., air is good, but no mine shaft conditions, too many water grains in the air. And 11:34 A.M., track is not yet right for Q-1, and I have a fresh converter installed and no tests but a dry hop or 4 in front of the house at home on a poor chip sealed road.

I will take it easy and feel out the staging, stall, flash and leave and adjust for Q-2...Light ok, needs adjusting down earlier though or a higher stall on the leave or both...leave shift 1-2 at 5700 and the car is in Drive. And it goes through and It shifted itself 2-3 at too early. (my log book shows an X). Q-1 17.074 -376 under on 17.45 GF/SA index.

Feb 3 Q-2 8:00 AM Adjustment time. (Both Tree and Stall Speed get after that light and manually shift the car and find out what it will really run).
Ok, that is a lot better, but red by a bunch -.069 Red (have not eaten yet today, and I need some food & less coffee...because Q-3 is a hot lap in like 17 mins), but the car is right it just ran a personal best 16.736 -.714 Under, and the best MPH so far. (It is not a Rocket by any means yet, but it was worth the money for the converter), and Q-3 is coming right up. And in middle of the pack, best Q position at that point in time for me so far, I am happy.

I have nothing to do but eat, car is maint. free budget car I can hot lap all day, and in less than an hr. our race day is over, until tomorrow at 8:00 AM.

I eat and ready at 8:17 AM Q-3 (light is nothing to write home about...I'll adjust that tomorrow, as I mainly wanted to repeat the pass or see if I can)...I stalled 100 RPM higher though 16.730 -.720 Under....Now we are getting somewhere at least with the car, if it will repeat like that I can work on me. Still not a rocket, but a reliable mid packer, but still know I am on the bottom half and will get a tough draw tomorrow.

We prepare the car up on jackstands, so I can warm up the car in the morning and at least warm up the transaxle, because there is flat no driving around the pits Sunday AM before first round and rain and fog are both in the forecast overnight and AM hrs. (our 1st Rnd call is for 8:00 AM), ladders are not ready yet when we leave to get lunch hit the motel, swim a bit and rest up).

Feb. 4, 1995- Get to the track, wipe car down as it rained earlier, still foggy out, quite cool and humid. Start warming up the car after checking the R-1 Ladder...Yup tough company I have Gary Emmons 1st round.

Car is up on stands front tires spinning in low gear we have about a half hour before the call, and just as the car reaches decent temperature, it just out of the blue shuts off.....and my grandfather is pointing under the car (and I am dumbfounded), why did the car lose fire?

I look up and he is standing there shaking his head and holding a 1 pc timing belt and it is in a line not a circle! Awwwww, crap. I am dejected, and he asked do you have another 1? I am worried about bent valves, he is asking if I have another Timing belt...I do, but....He says get it and I am thrashing already, looking for it and tools to do the work.

I changed to a new belt about a yr. ago, when I purchased the adjustable Cam Sprocket and offset keys, but did not do that in a hurry (I did save the old belt just in case though...that is the 1 I found in my spares box.

I do not have a lot of time, and am going to be really rushed to unbolt the right mount jack up the engine, slide belt over the mount, realign the Cam sprocket, Crank sprocket, the Intermediate sprocket all in the right points get that belt on (not off a single 12 degree tooth), no time to break out the books, just the tools, and pray....as he tells me no worries, it is a non-interference engine, the valves cannot touch those flat top pistons, so let's get this belt on now. (It hit me, while I had never had the head off the engine at this point, I had read everything I could about a 2.2L that I could get my hands on)...Books in mid 90's, no real internet yet folks, no youtube. And he was right, it can happen at full throttle and you only lose fire in the holes.

I relax and we thrash, we get the belt on, I think it is right, no time to warm it up again ,it fires up and sounds ok I am late but get there just in time, dialed a 16.72...and I am late on the tree, and Jerry flat drills me (I never had a chance), I can probably find the time slip somewhere, but my log book in the whole column just says the time, the dial in, and in bold letters -BROKE TIMING BELT AFTER PAIRING 1ST ROUND- and in small print at the bottom. G. Emmons 1st. rnd. loss I am (LATE). -First Rnd. Duck-

Crap happens, it was a long 6 hr tow home, looking at that belt later, it looked like it sat in a pool of water overnight right at the break point, and then I remembered that car wash, and the timing belt cover snout pools water there evidentially unless you fire it up and kick the water out and heat the block properly to dry everything out, so soap, water, and the degreasing chemicals weakened the belt.

Hey PHX Nats is in 2 weeks, then I am headed out for months of the best road trip of Nats, Div's., and Bracket racing ever, so head home nd get the car packed and prepped to head South and East, racing along the way!

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Once home, when we put the belt on that morning at the track in a thrash, it was a tooth off, retarded a full 12 degrees (which is not hard to do, if you do not have everything marked just right ahead of time, and recent marks that are not faded, and do not hold your head in just the right spot and angle when aligning the crank and intermediate sprocket(s) marks (you get (0_) instead of (o-) and that is exactly 1 tooth as there used to be a lot more in the way than there is today. (On the bright side though, my normal install on that particular cam is 3 degrees adv. using the D.C. adj. cam sprocket and a 3 degree offset key, so...In the end it was really worse than a tooth off and it kills the bottom end on this car, but helps the top. So that helped make that light even worse than it really was.

But, I knew to check it immediately once we arrived home. That is not the worst part, there is about a dollar sized spot of tranny fluid on the steel deck of the trailer right below the inspection plate on the transaxle bellhousing, but I have time to pull that converter out and find out what's up (12 days to fix things and Chandler is only 3.5 hrs Southeast). I hope it is just the Converter to pump seal..T.C.I is in Jacksonville, FL and I need to drive this car there via PHX- Nat., Ennis, TX,- Div. Houston, TX-Div. then Gainsville, FL-Nat., and I have family in JAX I will be visiting. Then Baton Rouge, LA-Div......Springtime Rains are in store though in a big way.

Car is fast enough for now, and so far (just a couple of passes consistent), an after a thrash, a pass like that sucks, but I can throw that out...this time. It is not much of a build thread yet, but things get progressively worse before they get better.

Rain, Bugs, and a long road trip, some improves along the way...later ok.

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Ok in hindsight I went and looked up that time slip, It was a bad light, but the ET was not as bad as the light made me feel, but anytime you line up against someone from the Emmons Clan from Pasadena, TX, expect to get a workout. I know now, what I did not know then (I had yet to meet them yet other than through a glass window in the other lane my first National Event competing, and I was paying more attention to myself and my car, than I was who was in the other lane), as I had raced up till then all over SoCal, NorCal, the Western Div. 7, a couple of deep southern 1/8th mile tracks (that I could not today even find on a map if I tried), when travelling to and from CA to to FL for 3 Winter Bracket Series in the mid 80's...83, 84, and 85...then when I went again not racing, but as a Contingency sponsor and distributor of Nathan's Wax in 88 I think, via Missouri, and always just drove straight through that 24 hr loooong drive across the Great State of Texas and never had raced in Div. 4...only had a season under my belt in Stk. Elim thus far.

But I did recognize those Black and Yellow Pyroil/Valvoline Cars (there was a bunch of em, so they were very hard to miss), and Valvoline/Pyroil was also the fluid Mfg/Dist. Sponsor that year (Every National Event you were entered in, you went to the Mfg. Midway and chose your products, A case of oil, another trans fluid, and other products like brake fluid, injector cleaner, etc., I never changed my oil so much in my whole life as that year.

I had nothing but time between events but to drive (find a track with a bracket event), and attempt to pick up some cash along the way in what I was a lot better at than class racing yet, so it was find a track racing along the way, change oil and compete until you reached the next Div. or Nat. event on my schedule or sit in a motel/hotel room and be bored. the car was ok, as was I at slow roll bracket racing...But, I learned I really don't like 1/8 mile racing in a snail. The Deep South was full of those then.

Back at home I pulled out the Transaxle for the second time in a week, 3rd time ever, and all 3 times on the ground car up on jackstands and not on a lift. Tody would rather pull the engine out completely with it attached then just the transaxle alone, but what did I know, I was a lot younger and stupid (I pulled the converter out), checked the converter to pump seal, no issue there, but found a tiny pinhole leak in the weld around the balloon weld, it was leaking, wasn't a bad leak, but it left a quarter inch wide band of fluid around the center of the inside of the bell housing that was sealed up on the bottom by an inspection plate w/ a single bolt, and running it would put out a drop a minute or two. (This was a very tiny leak, but a leak all the same. And I'm leaving on nearly a 3,000 mile trip before I will arrive in Jacksonville, FL.

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So, I called T.C.I. (and he said no way is there a pinhole in that converter), and I was running out of time (it is brand new under warranty, not going to have anyone else rework it...weld it, the converter works well, I had just run the 2 fastest passes back to back ever in the car in Q2/Q3, I need TCI to fix it only), I sealed the pinhole with epoxy (they can wire brush that off later), got a small loaf pan (like a tiny banana nut bread loaf), drilled a hole in it where the inspection plate bolt is located, stuck a sham wow shammy folded over in the bottom of that pan inside to soak up anything if it were to leak, and bolted on protection. And hit the road after loading up, headed for Chandler and Nat. Event #2.

Arrived and prepped the car and headed to tech. then a pre-race fuel ck after doing my thing, and sure enough they saw it in tech and asked (I told them what was up, and he said can you pull it off for me?). Sure...It took me a min and a 10mm wrench. He looked in the pan, and there was only a dime sized drop on the shammy material, asked how far I drove it and I said 3.5 hrs., and he handed it back and said put it back on, we would rather you not even leak a drop, and it appears to not be performance enhancing. Nobody ever even looked at that pan again at a National or Divisional event until after the Gainsville event...I think the word travelled to the east coast before I got there amongst Tech Inspectors.

But, after Gainsville, later when I got to Commerce, GA, the same Tech inspector from PHX was there, and he looked up underneath, laughed and said, ahhhh you got it fixed (that pan was gone). There is more to that story later.

I will not bore you with all the PHX. race details, let it suffice to say I received an arse whoopin from Jerry Emmons Round #1 (Emmons Brother 2 so far through 2 events 1st round(s), and Dad Harver ll ,and 1994's National Champ Harvey lll is wearing the #1 on his car is still out there, and guess where I am headed next? Div. 4 Ennis, TX and their home turf for The 1st Div. race of the trip, then Houston, TX for a Nat. Event. (Phx did require a coil replacement after Q-2, and I picked up some parts to add a New Autometer Fuel Pressure Gauge, a fuel petcock for easy sampling and Earls fittings and braided lines. Additions to be done along the way during long waits). The weather was great in PHX, hotel issues though I would not bore anyone with, and while My stuff was in my pit, under a tarp and blanket at Wild Horse (called Firebird Raceway in those days), in the middle of the night, right next to a friend's motorhome bedroom window, someone local (not necessarily a racer, as it had happened there a year before also), went through my stuff...only a couple of minor items missing, I had taken all really valuable stuff with me to the motel (including the car).

But, that will set a stage for the next installment.

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I leave PHX (after attempting to sell 5 gals of fresh VP C-12 in 1 of my fuel jugs, no takers @ $7.50 a gal it is going with me), heading south and east, next race Ennis, Tx, and about 20 miles from the Ft. Worth Outerplex on I think it was I-20 one of Texas DPS's finest is sitting in the center in the grass, I look down, I'm cool right on the speed limit, but he whips out anyway and pretty much just wants to ck. the vehicle for any illegal substances or contraband.

Parking at the track is tonight, still a ways to go, and just before sunset now, He would like me to unload everything on the side of the road, I have zero worries (ok, except the 5 gals of race gas in that fuel jug, but he already looked at that, smelled it and capped it back up satisfied it was only gasoline in a red jug), and he just wants his buddy's dog to do a walk around.

As I am unloading all of a sudden this feeling comes over me...I AM OK...but, someone went through much of my stuff 2 nights ago, crap...What if?

The dog shows up, sniffs around, and does not alert to anything of course, they left and let me load it aall back up. Guess who was working the event the next few days? Yup, same 2 Texas DPS Officer, we talked and I related what happened to me in PHX, and my momentary thoughts the night before, and they both laughed and simply said, yeah...That could have been bad.

He said you were cool and I knew it the minute you said ok and started unloading while I watched you. It's just our job, and we knew where you were heading.

Ennis (4 days 2/23-2/26), incl. a test and tune day before was great, until it rained us out just before 1st round, delayed to 3/11-3/12 (at first, then again after Houston, the Ennis Div. 4-1 was resched. for June something, and I will never make it back, they eventually refunded my entry for the race without issue and only charged me for the Test day!. (Heeeey I escaped a race without being slaughtered by an Emmons boy!) LMAO

Of course I didn't go any rounds, but had a total of 10 passes at the Texas Motorplex, the car is ok, but nowhere near a fast in TX as it was in CA, but the lights were better, just not in competition. (At least I truly met the Emmons Clan Of Texas, all of them), and they made me feel right at home, a great group of people, it was fun and relaxed until the skies opened up and poured buckets like you would not believe.

I leave Dallas heading for Houston and can barely see the road ahead as I am heading south on the Interstate, not 20 or so miles from the track, and Blue lights flashing in the rear view mirror. Crap what now, I was only doing like 35 mph, as was everyone else, and a different DPS officer again comes to my window in his smokey hat, and full on rain slicker, it is flat pouring out, just opening my window a crack and I am getting soaked inside the car, and he asks me If I would mind unloading everything on the side of the road in a deluge!

My eyes are huge, and I say are you serious? Then he smiles and says "as a heart attack"..."which is what you almost just had", then I hear this roar of laughter and sure enough the same 2 officer's from the track were standing at the rear of the car, laughing like crazy, while he explains they put him up to it and I could merrily go on my way now.

3/2-3/6/95 First Q- pass at Houston was a 16.90 -.550 Under with a .004 light (.504) in those days, but you know, things change...And, some things don't, as I was qualified #23 after Q-1, the highest so far to date, and in came the rain and washed all the fun out. The race will be entirely re-run (because the grass spectator parking lot was a mud pit and it will take 2 days just to pull all the cars and trucks out), We will re-run the entire event next week 3/9-3/12/95! (There goes that ok #23 Q Spot!) I cannot win for losing. 2 event dates in a row though and I have not be whacked by another Emmons! (in fact...NHRA transferred my rained out Ennis entry to the upcoming Baton Rouge Div., and The Emmons clan (Family), invited me to stay near them and set me up at the Pasadena Motor Inn near them (arranged a decent rate for me through local friends & invited me to the house for a few BBQ's and I had a great time visiting w/ new friends!

When I wasn't having a great time over the next 10 days I was playing with and testing 3 different cams, and actually picked up a crew chief for the Re-Sched. Houston race from Liberty Chrysler Plymouth who had parts and sponsor help. (Dad) Harvey, Jr. introduced us.

That 10 days was really a blurr, but I have notes, and had a great time while I was luckily marooned amongst new friends in South Texas! (The boys house at that time had as many Wally's, other Trophies and awards as Don Garlits Musuem in Ocala, FL!

I really appreciated my time with them, their hospitality was amazing, and cannot wait to see the men (cannot call them boys any more), again in the near future and was really sry and sad to hear they lost their Dad not too long ago.

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3/9-3/12, 1995 Houston, TX Nat'l Event was re-run, I actually won a round, and then the next round (as the fuelers were warming up, both dragsters and Funny Cars, I get my green and this huge red tinged cloud of unburned Nitro fumes wafts across the track, and I drive right into it, and I am now waaaay out on the other guy (not an Emmons though), I stand on the brakes, no smoke or sliding and just go through ahead and take the stripe and break out 13 hundredths. (warm up nitro clouds are no fun in a slow car..."I love the smell of Nitromethane, but My eyes were watering in the car with the windows rolled up and the vents closed, and for sure my lil' throttle body was sucking in all it could). I actually felt it pick up a bunch and the tach shot up faster than usual, and I could feel the break out coming by half track but there was not a thing I could do until late in the run, as he was a fast car. I just carried him by just too much. He was an A or a B car, I think Blue with White Stripes an Early 70's GT500 Mustang? My mph at 660' was up over +10 from all prior runs and I was down by 6 MPH at the stripe attempting to whoa up and not give it up. The light on either side wasn't anything to write home about, but were close together .036/.037 in his favor. What a crazy race, the car is still running ok, but the cam that is in it now is coming out, because it is not as good as another for consistency (even without Nitro fumes hanging heavy in the air).

Hey, I can laugh about the season from heck as this is 2.5 decades later, it has been fun and a nightmare all at once (still living the dream). Lol.

Next up Baton Rouge, LA -Div. 4 At least the entry is already paid as Div. 4 Director transferred Ennis entry to B.R., LA (where Harvey, Jr. says Imma gonna have some Louzianna Gumbo, and we gonna suck the heads off some crawwwwdads next! And he was surprised I did.

(So far completed 3 Nat's-1 rnd win/0 Div., and I squeezed in 1 Bracket race night in N.M. runner up, 2 in TX so far quarters and semis, and it isn't paying the bills.

Last thing though for Houston... Bob Frey with NHRA Today approached me early in Houston and said to me..."Is it true you are driving your Budget Stocker on Tour?" I said yes Bob, and he asked if we could do a 20 minute segment or something, I said sure, and during some downtime, we drove off property together and down a road by a bunch of trees and they had me drive up and down the road like I was travelling back and forth between tracks for B roll footage, then they sped it up in the clip and the accompanied interview happened about the experience so far, and it was fun, the final cut was like half the entire NHRA Today Episode and my wife taped it for me at home, it was an added bit of a surprise.

Glad I am having fun, because things with the car are going to go down hill only on the racetrack though, and pretty much never gets better. That bug of (what I just found out in 2022, and confirmed in May 2023 - a full throttle instant on off, on off, vacuum leak), that all the time in 1995 seemed like it was an ECU Rev Limit feature has always been there after the finish line since a bracket race long ago in Vegas, is about to start showing up at about 5,200 RPM in each gear, or actually anytime I go pedal to the metal (full throttle), for 2 seconds or more. and it is going to drive me crazy and cost a lot of money and zero good racing results.

It also affects the bracket racing, but not as much as the class racing. And it gets progressively worse over time.

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I messed up, sry...Gainsville is next up, after a trip to Jacksonville to visit relatives, then back to Baton Rouge, LA.

On the way to Florida I start having road trip issues, do the key flop dance and read ECU Codes...My MAP Sensor is no good, find a dealership, they hook up their Diag tool and the MAP needs replacing along with the ECU. I keep my ECU core though. Back on the road, (about 3 days in Gainsville with family I had not seen in years (My uncle has a beautiful Red Cuda he has had since I was a kid, and he loves Drag Racing, so he will meet me in Gainsville for a few days later), I did not have the time to pull the converter and get it fixed in JAX at TCI, back on the road & ck into the HoJo in Gainsville Motor Hotel. I prep at the track, and another Stock Racer Bernie Cunningham approaches me and says are you really staying in a hotel/motel, yup...He says I have a motorhome, my generator, trailer and racecar, and have the empty bed over the cab, rent from me, we will split/ share the weekly grocery bills and generator gas /water costs, and food cooking together, and we will just stay at the track together and travel together if you want and we work out the details. I explain sometimes I will go off alone to other events on my schedule that are not together with his (some Div. events I was attending elsewhere and some E.T. brackets, but the Nat. Events it works out). I would just meet up with him at the next venue.

The car is running tops now on the road, lets see on the track. Gainsville, FL, my miss is now at 5,000 RPM in each gear when full throttle it leaves hard, accelerates perfectly and about 5,000 it just pops and nose dives like hitting a rev limiter, and picks back up and runs fine to top of each gear, shift and does it again...every pass! Lights are ok, but the E.T. suffers and cannot even dial it well this way. Glad no heads up races.

I try everything, putting all 3 of my avail. ECU's in 1 at a time...and it does the very same thing (only at differing RPM's consistently, 5,000 on ECU 1, 5,200 on ECU 2, and 5,300 on ECU 3.....Not consistent between ECU's though, so I think since all of them are rebuilds (as they do not make new ones as the 1984 TBI is a 1 yr only model specific ECU they just keep rebuilding and recoding and selling them...today I have a collection of 7 of them, and they all test good)...Am chasing a bug and chasing my tail, and burning dollars but, far from home, entry's are pre-paid, I am not giving up pressing forward, chasing under hood vacuum lines and wiring is not solving the issue, reading my multiple Hanes and Chilton manuals I have with me, but I do not have a full dealer Repair Manual set, and back then the dealer's only had those (I have a full set now! in 2023).

At Gainsville in the lanes at the Gators awaiting Q-3, a local fan approaches me and we get to talking about my slow sled, and he is a very nice friendly guy, and he says, while you are in town, if you need to do anything to your car, I have a dyno tuning, and repair shop about 3 miles from here downtown (and it is the slow time of year), and you are welcome to come work on your car in my shop if you have needs at all, I have 3 lifts, a roller dyno and maybe we can work out that issue you are having...yeah you could not help but notice.

And I told him I really needed to pull my converter out and send it to TCI at JAX then reinstall it, and in the meantime maybe we could together attempt to chase down this other issue that is costing me a ton of losses , but mainly all my passes are now junk except a lot of great tree practice (1 mediocre .026 light, and all the rest at Gainsville were -.004 to .006...and I can deal with all of those, but the E.T's were crazy slow just barely under the index, and 1 pass just over it.