JP1738's Stocker and S/G car

[JP1738]

Anyway, to finally finish of this arduous story, the race itself:

I managed to qualify 94th out of the 107 stock eliminator cars on the property and miraculously had the only other N/SA car covered by about .15. First and only round of class eliminations I was .032 at the tree and went 12.47 at 104mph to my opponent's (who was also in a 305 Malibu wagon) 12.80 at 101mph off the 13.00 index. Such an awesome feeling to get a huge win and celebrate with my friends and family.

First round of the race I had one of the closes races of the round. I drew Thomas Auger in his beautiful '65 Coronet. .019 and 3 above to his .033 and 2 above for a holeshot win by .005.

Second round, a little less tight of a win but one against one of my heroes and good friend Tim Stickles in his '80 Malibu sedan. .019 and 2 above to beat Tim to the finish line by .007. He was a little bit late and a little bit fast which made the race look right to me. I was sweating it until I got my win light on!

Third round I drew another gorgeous Mopar, this time in the form of Dwayne Scheitlin's 440 powered '70 Challenger in A/SA. Neither of us were in a hurry to get off the starting line, my .086 to his .104 left first however and I was able to parlay that into a double breakout win at -.005 under to his -.017 under, getting to the stripe .006 ahead.

Fourth round was a doozy. I drew Joey Shipp in his H/SA '69 Nova. Dead even up front, my .022 to his .023. He did a phenomenal job at the finish line rolling me through .007 but lost in the double breakout as I went -.006 under to his -.012 under. A nail biter for sure but I managed to sneak by him thanks to having a really good handle on the dial.

Fifth round I drew Stock Eliminator royalty in Brenda Grubbs in her breath taking AA/SA '69 Camaro. Unfortunately she pushed through the beams before her side of the tree came down and came up with an LB3A. I was .053 and went 12.418 off my 12.44 dial for the win.

My Sixth and last round came against my very good friend Orion and John Riley. These guys are some of the most dedicated and hardcore gentlemen I have ever met and dang good people to boot. I missed it a touch up front and left 2nd for the first time all day, .050 to his .024. He landed closer to the dial as I chased mine when I shouldn't have. I go 12.440 off my 12.40 prediction and end up .003 behind for the loss. Orion would go on to turn it red in the finals against Josh Decker. Congrats to both of those guys.

After a very long weekend of repairs and racing, I made it home Saturday evening and my drive was uneventful, a very welcome change from my trip down. Thanks again to everybody that followed along here on CR, FB, and on the live feed. It's been my pleasure giving some of you guys someone to root for and I look forward to doing it again soon! The stocker will be down for a bit while I wait on the SGMP double and Charlotte to roll around. In the meantime I'll have it apart again to address some persisting issues in the rear suspension.

Time to show my bracket car some love and get it ready for some outlaw index racing coming up. I'll be chasing a couple local points championships in it this year and I'm hoping for the best! I better get my nitrous bottle filled because I plan on using plenty of it!

A very special thank you, in no particualr order, to the following people, whom without, none of this success would have been possible:
Tim Stickles
Billy Wilson
Mark Lewis
"Super" Scot Lamar
Chad Taylor
Brad Plourd
Daren Poole-Adams
My dad, EP
My wonderful and understanding girlfriend of 5 years and #1 Crew Chief, Meg Mitchell

[JP1738]

Keeping the race track hot around here. Trying as best I can to keep my foot on the gas and stay as competitive as possible this year, even if it means leaving my comfort zone from time to time. I swapped out the monster truck tires in favor of some 28/10.5s for a local no prep index (6.30 index) race at Shadyside Dragway this past weekend. Made it to the finals where I was .016 take .005 to lose a double breakout by .0001. It's tough when the little numbers don't go your way after laying down a pretty solid lap, but I have to believe if I keep my head down and continue giving myself opportunities, I'll find some success.

After the race I went ahead and put the big tires back on in preparation for the first IHRA bracket series points race at Shadyside and the first 6.0 index race of the year for me. Looking forward to it greatly and hoping to win a little cash so I can afford to buy my next drum of fuel. Also stuffed some new plugs in it as the old ones were pretty tired. Now that everything is running pretty good and neither car needs mechanical attention, I finally had time to wash and clean everything, so the car got a spray wax while the truck and trailer got a bath. Feels really good to have clean, decent looking stuff to take to the race track for a change.

[cad]

I noticed my AR3934 plugs doing the same thing last season.... I dont know the cause, as nothing had changed with my combo after the dyno. Switching back to NGK this season.

[JP1738]

Originally Posted by cad

I noticed my AR3934 plugs doing the same thing last season.... I dont know the cause, as nothing had changed with my combo after the dyno. Switching back to NGK this season.

Yeah I need to do better about checking these plugs. I've been running that brand for a while and the center electrode always wears down like this after a period of time. Mine gets quite a lot of abuse between quarter-mile racing and nitrous for index racing. Not to mention if all goes to plan, I'll make 200-250 runs in it this year. I try to change them out twice a year to avoid the engine breaking up as it often does when the gap grows to this size. If I haven't changed them out in time, it'll typically let me know.

[JP1738]

Well, going along with the theme this year, I just cannot seem to pull into the lanes right at all. Rode over to my local track Shadyside this past weekend to double enter in 6.0 index and the bracket race and was rather rudely shown the door in both classes third round.

.015 take .001 no good in the bracket race as my man was .003 dead 4.

.006 dead 6 no good in the 6.0 race as my man was .008 dead 1. .012 total package and .003 behind for the bye to the final. A bad beat and a tough pill to swallow.

Once again, I just have to keep making good laps and hope that the little numbers will start to go my direction so I can start coming out on the winning end of these good, tight races.

[nickh]

So curious minds want to know, is the left headlight up a speed secret? Would think you are giving up 1 to 2 mph. Just having fun Dawson it is fun following your journey, it is nice to see other broke racers doing the best we can with what we have. Love the grocery getter wagon too.

[JP1738]

Originally Posted by nickh

So curious minds want to know, is the left headlight up a speed secret? Would think you are giving up 1 to 2 mph. Just having fun Dawson it is fun following your journey, it is nice to see other broke racers doing the best we can with what we have. Love the grocery getter wagon too.

Thanks man!

LOL the real reason I only have one headlight is that the scrap yard I raided to find headlight pieces only had the driver's side assembly. I've got some of the parts to mount the other side but not enough to make it work. The headlight I do have does work and folds up and down. I have the motor wired to a momentary switch on my switch panel and the headlight itself on the other side of the same switch. If you notice, the headlight is sticker bombed because the trim piece on top was off a grey RX7 so instead of painting it to match, I just covered it with decals. Now I can see where I'm going and wink at people at the same time.

Here's a pic of the car before I cut out the cover that was just welded in place and then another pic of what it looked like before I bombed it. Before I added stickers, it just looked like the car had a black eye lol.



And here's a pic of the headlight on just after I jerry rigged it all together and before I painted and installed the plastic trim that surrounds the framing.


I know you didn't ask for all this and was just kidding, but I thought it was pretty neat so I figured I'd share.