I am officially,a Class Racer
 

This weekend I attended my first divisional at Dallas Raceway with a stocker. I started this project in Feb of 06. It's been a long road but worth the trip. Me and a friend built this car. I bought a good roller and redid some of it to my liking. I also built the engine and trans. We went up on Friday tore down, I wanted to be sure I was legal. Well I passed tech and it went down hill from there. Fridays night test & tune sucked I ran a 12.63 on my 12.75 index. Pulled it in the pits, it was smoking bad out the valve covers, I thinking what the %#%$. I ran a 12.06 in testing last year at the same track. Well by now I thinking the improvements we made over the winter, might not have been improvements. Saturday morning readjusted the valves and drained the brake in oil out and put fresh oil in. First run cut a 040 lite and run a 12.63. Now I am thinking lets go for consistency. Second run cut a perfect lite and run a 12.47 so there go's the consistency theory. First round of eliminations I paired up and the first two cars down the track. Well I turned the big red on with a .496 and run a 12.49. Sunday morning made some more adjustments and run a 12.38 with a .480 red lite. First round of eliminations paired up and the last two cars down the track. I cut a .081 lite and run a 12.37 with a 9 ,so my weekend is over. Even though I qualified last each day, I was happy because I qualified under my index. So would I do it all over again, you bet I would. I met a lot of nice people this weekend and the IHRA staff could not had been any better.

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

A rough outing at the races beats a great outing anywhere else!!!! Congrats on your first "official" outing.

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

I agree Alan,welcome to the mix. Glad to see you get your car down track running the numbers you did.Track time will help iron out the rough spots. Hope to see you at the LODRS event in Ennis in a few weeks.

Bob Unkefer
4409 D/SA

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

Congratulations Alan. Running under the index the first time out is very encouraging. Enjoy!

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

And no pictures?

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

And your now officially in the Nitro Joe's Drag Racing Stats for 2010

And the crowd goes wild, lol

But anyhow Congrad's and welcome to one of the nicest group of people you will ever be associated with.

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

Congrats to you Alan !! Sounds great, even after all the turmoil !

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

Welcome aboard!

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

rayfin a pic of his car is on my ihra crandall pic post.

Alan it was good to meet you and well see you down the road at the next one. Ed

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

Alan -- Unk nailed it -- after a few races the problems you're facing today will lessen ........

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

I had one of those weekends. Overheated the motor, spun #3 rod bearing,swapped out with a junkyard shortblock couldn't run the Index lost oil pressure and never let off the gas just because I wanted that engine to feel like I felt.

http://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCSt...r2004#indextop

After taking a while to get that bad taste out of my mouth I got back on it and did things right, took my time, tried not to spend bad money, did a good bit of bracket racing first and this time my good friend and I went from bottom and close to the bottom to close to the top.

http://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCSt...r2008#indextop

But next time out for the Cajun Sports Nationals both of us in the top 10 with my 1st #1qualifier and the Q/SA record.

http://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCSt...r2008#indextop

Now the reason I refered to both of us is we are both 1st generation racers under 35 who do most of our own work, run limited amount of races due to family, work, and money and used Combinations that held special meanings to us. I bought my truck brand new in 96 and it was the first S10 stepside driven off of Jerry Lane Chevrolet's lot in Baton Rouge, LA. Now we have had plenty of help from many older and not so old racers and I can honestly say some of the nicest people I know I have met at the track. Now even though I don't race near as much as I would like which still kind of makes me feel a little like a outsider I welcome you to Stocker Racing and I hope you continue to plug away at it because seeing what you can do with basically nothing has got to be what I find most enjoyable.

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

Congratulation Alan it took me three years to be one tenth under when racing in G/SA and another three years two more tenths so you're doing well. Don't forget one change at a time.lol

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

In the pics witch car is Alans

Hammer

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

Congrats Alan, maybe later in the year I can join you.
As for now the only thing my motor is powering is a dyno.
Also hope Ron is doing ok.
Are you going to Houston national this year?

Congrats again
Armand Keller

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

My car is the brown Olds Cutlass. It's a 85 307, one of the old give away cars. It was originally built by Ron Garey and I bought from Jim Garey. I also had the pleasure of meeting Tony Cowell who use to drive the car along with Bill Robinson for Mr Garey. It was neat to here the old story's about the old car. A lot of people remembered the old car and said it was good to see it back, doing what it was built for and not bracket racing.

Ed it was great meeting you and your son. Will see you in pine valley, going to change some thing back and try to get back to were it was. I know I need some suspension work, from the track photo I am killing the back tire.

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

Nice car. I remember Ron from the old Chesron Olds days.

Hammer

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

Alan I remember seeing you at Crandall, seems like we made a qualifying pass together. Its nice to hear someone talk about the sense of accomplishment that one feels by becoming involved in Stock and Super Stock racing. I just wish that I could buy a bottle of your enthusiasam. When I couldn't even run the index you couldn't keep me out of a racetrack, I wish I could get that attitude back again. Good luck to you!

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

Alan, I saw both of Ed's pics of your car , and it does look good, man ! You have done well with that ! I want to know how you got it light enough to run J !!!! I dont know if I can get mine light enough for that, maybe a 100 heavy for J....maybe.

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

I would like to think everyone ,for there comments and encouragement. Thank you it means a lot to me. Kenny my min weight is 3170, my car with me in it and no ballast weighs 3200. I was thinking about running K/SA, but I would have to add about a 100lbs but I think the car would work better. It would have a lot better weight distribution. When I bought the car I took it all apart except the front end. I scraped a ton of body sealer off, and anything it did not need was left off. I can still take about 60lbs more off the front end but it would be expensive.

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

Wow, I know the only dum dum mine has, has been in the seat ! I'll just keep pecking at it.

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

On my first outing in the new Stocker, my car went 3/10 under the new index, at what everyone calls a 2/10 slow track. So that could feasibly put me 1/2 second under at other places. I was totally stoked, and fully understand your enthusiasm. My project took 6 months from start to finish, and with a few more mods and some fine tuning, hoping to get well under the index. Having a ton of fun, and can't wait to hit a divisional.

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

Hey Alan congrats on getting it to the track. Now maybe Ron can get the Daytona going. I should talk still have the Challenger on the rotisserre.

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

Alan give a couple of enthusiastic pat to Jim on the back. Nice to see your accomplishment next year you can install lightweight brakes and hubs, titanium rods and linkages on the front end.lol Seriously you're there, now work on consistency(lights and et) and you'll be able to trailer Dan Fletcher soon. lol Good-luck.

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

I envy you Alan. Congrats!

Damn I wanna race too! Anyone rich out there who wants to ship a car over to Sweden and help this kid out? :rolleyes:

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

Alan, I know how you feel about classracing, I started this 4 years ago, after running Super Street for 12 yrs, and have enjoyed every minute of it, well except 2nd rnd Dallas. But I cant wait to get back out there and keep improving, may take a while but I will be back. Hopefully i can make a couple of races just to be their with my friends and I will look you up. Good luck

Bob

Re: I am officially,a Class Racer
 

I'll chime in. I'm envious as well. I blame my partner and buddy of 30+ plus years, Tod, Lane. He not only found the Firebird but put the bug in my ear that we could build a class car. Now, I just about have enough pieces that this thing can begin to take shape. Just got my 8 point roll bar, subframe connectors, Cal-tracs and split mono leaf springs this afternoon. About ready to start tearing the car apart to rebuild it.

I can't wait to add an IHRA # to my signature and it mean something (the car has made a pass down a track)! At a legitimate event.