"Live From" Numidia Dragway

[Paul Precht]

I run valve bodies that hold the low and reverse band in first, even if you break the sprag you'll never turn that drum fast enough with a band holding it to explode the drum. Those valve bodies that don't hold the band should be thrown out.

[CMcAllister]

People have been preaching to these guys for years. And plenty of them reply "been doing it my way for years and nothing ever happened".

No need for this to happen. With no low band apply in low gear, and the roller clutch completely fails under load in low gear, the engine freewheels. At somewhere north of 5000RPM x low gear ratio - 12000+RPM - the cast OE front drum explodes.

The use of an aftermarket steel or aluminum drum and/or a low band apply valve body, prevents this from happening if the roller clutch fails.

Just because the car moves in low gear doesn't mean the roller clutch hasn't failed. I've seen them in transmissions that came out of a car - that was being driven but had the rear end recently broken and repaired - with half the springs mashed and only half of the elements holding. This can happen with a 904, but the 727 is the one with the heavy OE drum that blows up.

Failing to follow instructions for how to drive the car and/or a driveline or rear end failure under load in low gear will kill the roller clutch. Sometimes it still works well enough to get it into the water or to the starting line, with ugly results.

[Gmirza]

Glad to here the drivers are ok. I guess I was mistaken on the truck.

[ken robinson]

It was good to be at there track . See some friends .I broke a brand new trans on the first pass mid track ( planitary ? ) rev limiter saved the new motor , I was told the M200 was faster than my coan TH350 , fast alright as in it put me on the trailer fast . At least no oil down , no guard rail or taking somebody else out . Didn't bring a spair so just hung out sat , headed home sun & swaped out trans ready for epping hopefully

[Ken Miele]

Hey Ken, sorry to here about your bad luck. Yesterdays eliminations finished around midnight, and with 344 cars and lots of down time The track did a great job getting it all done.

Forgive me as I don't know who the winners are as am not familiar with there names. I do know Jeanne Linke went 5 rounds in Pro in her Stocker and Anthony Fetch went to the quarters I believe, and Dan Northrup went to the semis in Super Pro.

Here are some tight finish line shots from this mornings first round in Pro.

[Ken Miele]

Next batch....

[Keith 944]

Thanks Ken got a good shot of me getting spanked. (The 2 mopars running I’m the orange/black). Some tough racing here for sure