New Guy from Iowa with a B/S Nova

[Dave Weeks]

Hello everyone, I have been lurking around here for a few years and finally decided to introduce myself now that I have a car. This stock eliminator thing started for me 5 or 6 years ago when Paul Merolla was stuck in a truck with me for 15 hours on our way back from the Bonneville Salt Flats. During the trip we talked about the 66 Nova he was building as a class racer. He informed me what class racing was all about and answered all sorts of dumb questions I had. I then decided to build a car. I bought a 64 nova 2 door post, but soon realized building a car is quite time and money consuming, so I sold it and lost the dream for a bit.

A few years later after Paul finished his Nova I went and watched him race and that got me interested again so I bought a project 67 Impala 2 door but soon came to the realization that it was too big of a project to take on a if I wanted to race in the next decade. So I sold it, but this time I did not loose the dream. I early 2014 I decided I needed to buy a stocker so I told Paul and my wife Becky that I was going to sell all my projects , parts and junk that I had been collecting and buy a car that was ready to race. I believe that they both had there doubts that I would go through with it. I also needed a truck bed camper so I could stay at the track overnight and get the full race experience. So I bought a camper and a pitbike, and now I was a tag along, annoying question asking, pit side spectating wannabe racer. I followed Paul around to a handful of races in the Midwest and met a ton of nice people that taught me about how class racing worked and kept me motivated to get a car. I then met Bill Bogner at Kearney, NE in October who had the car I wanted for sale. A Nova with a stick. After chatting with him for a few months and stringing him along we came to a deal on his 70 B/S Nova. Paul told me a few months before that if I bought a car we could use his dually and enclosed trailer to pick it up. ( I think he told me this believing I would loose interest in buying something). Ha, I showed him, I called him on a Wednesday and asked him if he was ready to fulfil his offer to pick up a car with me on the following Saturday. He said he was up for an adventure so we made plans to drive 700 miles round trip to pickup my new toy in a possible blizzard. Bill was kind enough to meet us half way and save us an additional 700 miles. On Saturday Jan 31 Paul and I made the trip, and meet Bill and his son in Mitchell, SD in the sub zero temps and got the car. Thanks to Bill and his son the car the deal and car transfer went smooth. It was white knuckle driving on the way back for Paul (thanks Paul for driving, I didn't want to crash your truck.) Maybe his 2wd Duramax Dually in a blizzard was not the best choice. We did make it back safely and got the car into my shop. (slicks are surprisingly good on snow.)



Now I just have to learn all I can about the car, get my nhra stuff in order, buy safety gear, buy an enclosed trailer and learn how to drag race before April.


Thank you Paul for putting up my questions and keeping me on track. Thanks to Bill Bogner for putting up with my calls for a couple months while i strung him along about buying the car. Thanks to everyone I talked to at the races for taking the time to answer questions about class racing. (Jim Parsons, John Hladky, Dwayne Dickens, ...) I plan on making it to a handful of midwest class racer events this year and some local bracket events to get my feet wet and figure the car out.

[Jim Cimarolli]

Great looking car! Good luck to you and hope you have lots of fun.

[Pistol Pete]

Welcome to Stock Eliminator & Have Some Fun.

[BA1927]

Good Luck with the car and have some fun and hope you get lucky - "I would rather be lucky than good myself" Bob

[t.tosto]

Nice car, Hope to meet you as I hope to make some races up your way this year. What engine combo do you have? Tony Tosto B/S 69 Camaro 3050.

[Dave Weeks]

Thank you, it is a aluminum head 375hp/402.

[Bob Don]

Good luck with your racing. You've joined a great group of racers.

[Alan Roehrich]

Nice ride, Dave, welcome to the asylum.

[Tony Corley]

Very nice looking car, and cool story! Good luck and have fun!

[Jim Parsons]

Dave, congratulations on your new ride,” that was easy ?”

We look forward to seeing you and your wife at the races having fun with the rest of us.

Jim & Linda Parsons

F/S 5305