A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.

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Almost net 100 lbs. removed just from under the carpet, and I still have probably another 20 lbs. alone up both sides on the firewall, that I can remove another time (I flat got super cramped and tired of scraping up the firewall under the dash, pedals, etc., so left the rest above the carpet line.

My math (on paper at least), at this point said w/ the empty 14 lb. weight box/torque strap combo, still inside the engine bay (So I can adjust wt. later), that I was going to scale about 20 lbs above the DF/S min. wt..

Time to install the carpet, shifter mount and new shifter, and make some adjustments to the console to slide over it and remount in the future (if going back to EF/S later I will need that weight), just thinking ahead as dropping the weight also requires it to run .95 seconds faster just to make the DF/S Index, and with the stock ECM/PM at elevation would still be a miracle 345 lbs. lighter (I don't care how far under it can run at Pomona (or any near sea level track), I am stuck w/ the lousy elevation and ever worsening DA (corrected not enough at even +3/10ths), of Las Vegas being my home track, Phoenix next closest, then Pomona, and Bakersfield, Sonoma, etc....On to the shifter install, replace seats and the rest of the interior trim.

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I dropped out 2 dozen engine bay and pics here so as not to bore those reading the thread, as it took 2 bracket installs to get it just the right angle so it was really smooth shifting, and adjusted perfectly.

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Next up the Console fabrication adjustments, will it fit over the top, yes, but needed the Auto Window switch plate completely shortened & reworked. And it was a battle (but I later got it to fit over the new shifter base and mount, more on that after DF/S testing).

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New Class designations?

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Not pics of the brake hoses replacements I did to my race car, but I replaced all the front end parts on a neighbors Toyota van (Upper and Lower Control Arms, Ball Joints, Inner and outer tie rods, etc.), just as soon as that job was out of the garage and headed for the alignment shop that required his replacements before he would/could align it...I pulled back in my car and since I already had the tools and materials out I did my new brake hoses, flushed and bled them again. But, I was so tired at that point I forgot to take pics of The Daytona work. Lol.















Ok, now the Stocker is in DF/S trim, I calculate d it was within 20 lbs of min wt. for the class w/ me and my helmet in the driver's seat, And readied the car for Div.7 1-2 Double, arranged transport and storage in Chandler , and to and from Phoenix, then Las Vegas (including Storage about 8 miles from the Strip at Las Vegas Speedway (right off the Strip), started working on the Race season Schedule....Then the wheels came off and I ended up with Covid and in the hospital.

I missed the first 2 Div. races of the season along w/ the testing at Las Vegas through the Bracket races I had also planned to test the DF/S weight, also missed Crewing for Scott McClay at same events at Phoenix, but lived through the illness to race again. Next up a S/SS Combo race and some good test dates earlier in March to ready for it once healthy again, We secured the Storage in Las Vegas at the end of January, and moved the car to Las Vegas early March, right after I recovered.

Better a late start to the season than a never start!

Las Vegas, Summit Bracket race #6 Mar. 9,2024 was the first chance I had in 2024 to test the car in DF/S trim. And did something really stupid with the slicks (live and learn, even late in life), because I was tired of them leaking down slightly at night. It involved Slime, and that just unbalanced the tires and rims so bad I removed them immediately after 1 single pass, had my wife take them to a tire shop and they would not touch them, ended up taking them home, asking Big O Tire on Monday to break the beads for me, took them home and flushed them both out with water till clear, took them back to Big O Tire (Thanks guys!), I then had them fully dismounted, Dried off inside, coated w/ dawn dish detergent air dried, had the beads of the rims cleaned well, and remounted and balanced perfectly fixing the issue properly.

In the meantime I made passes on the Street tires on that Saturday, and a test day on Sunday at Las Vegas for an import race (I was able to get a dozen hot lap test passes), in on Sunday (making small minute changes, to ignition timing (among other things, fan on/ fan off, just a bunch of do these things make it faster changes...nope on all but 1 of them), both up and down, etc. and it allowed me to test a few theories, most of which were immediately reversed, since none were for the better (the car is pretty solid as is, but I noticed it had developed a minor rear cam seal leak after the first 6 hot lapped passes, just a tiny leak, and only when seriously hot lapped, but a leak all the same. I cleaned it between passes and made sure I replaced that seal before the combo race in a week.

Though track prep was good for the first 2 passes Sunday morning, there were a crapload of very fast FWD Turbo or otherwise boosted nitrous FWD cars that instantly wore all of the rubber and glue off the track in both lanes in only the FWD tire stage areas, and there just were not a lot of Rear wheel drive cars running at that Import Event to lay down rubber on the bare patches, so for the first time in forever it was hit and miss on spinning on my street tires, hook 1 time, spin the next...But, I cannot complain, I only paid 35 bucks for an all day test session! (Scales were of course not open, and will not be until the 4 Wides Nat. and the LODRS Double at Vegas).

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Next race date up was at Las Vegas, the MATSLV S/SS Combo (Put on by Phil Mandella), Fri. Sat, Sun. Mar 14-17, 2024 and I entered, it rained a lot, we had wind, usual Spring weather, but a lot wetter than normal, and finally got Qualifying and the race in after a lot of track drying and on track incidents, wrecks, popped chutes behind the starting line, etc (not those competing in the combo), but all the other classes they were running. It was a fantastic time, fun in all respects, I will return to it again next March, I just was flat worn out by the time we finally got to stage up for first round Saturday evening after an extra hour and a half due to a big wreck cleanup, and a huge temp drop outside, and I was aced out at the tree By a Kennedy Brother in a very fast hard charging Bright Yellow Mustang Fastback. And there was still time to call for my ride to storage, get the car put back in towing trim, loaded up, move it across to the spectator parking area, get a lift, get the car safely tucked into storage, as my wife was already on the way, and grab a good meal before she arrived, get home late Saturday night and sleep in my own bed. Sadly I missed the rest of the rounds. I did read about them though, Thanks to all I had fun, but...

Through all the changes to get that car down close to DF/S weight, it just is not ready to go that direction (yet), as I could not even get it to run in the high 16's in the Altitude of Las Vegas reliably. And it needs to reliably run at least a 16.85 Corrected Index. I did in testing hit close to it twice (both high 16's), but not that weekend, I was more like 17.09-17.11 (in Drive), reliably where I short shift at 5,200-6,200, or 5,400 -6,400....Future changes will allow me to go there (Converter loosened, higher stalling leave, Manual brake conversion, back to the higher lift cam, and The planned tap/tap/laptop tuning of an aftermarket EFI ECU system upgrade that I can actual lean out finally in the rotten Las Vegas Air conditions.

All those are still planned changes (some sooner than others), but, I put it immediately back into EF/S weight Trim before the April 4 Wides, and the LODRS Double (plus 2024 Div. 7 Class Racing), that I registered for (also was set to crew at all 3 of those races for Scott McClay in his Comp Elim. Entry)....More on that in the next hr. or so!At the MATSLV S/SS Combo Race.

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Back to that month of December 2023, I wasn't just staring at the car, I was doing a deep dive into all the available data from the very first trip to a drag strip with the car, all the trials and tribulations of attempting to turn the slowest budget class car in the world when it fit in FF/SA, but I ran it in GF/SA, into at least a great consistent slow bracket car (all the troubles it started having after my first half dozen wins in the Street Bracket, and those issues just about started when I started messing with the car to make it faster to start competitive Stock Eliminator racing it in early 1994, then things progressively just got worse and worse in 1995, 96, and 97. Leading me to park the car until I could get a real hold of and resolve the issues.

That part has been resolved. Since I started bracket racing in 1975, I drove a lot of slower cars, street was the starting point, driven some that were very consistent though slow, and some that were not. Some were easy to win with, and some never garnered a win no matter how hard I tried...like my very first 4 speed race car. That was a long 8 month drought, I could not sell that 62 Dart fast enough.

Then, I purchased a 63 Polara, because a friend needed cash, and lucked out into the best (wininningest), race car I
ever owned, it was built or prepped by Peter Berkuta (sold it to Richard Gabaldon, the first time Pete drove it to tempt Richard into buying it, Pete won with the car that night Heavy Bracket 3, a week later Richard won the same with it first time he raced it, and a few months later (I had expressed an interest in buying it), he called, asked if I had 3 grand cash, I did, went to the bank on the way to Terminal Island - Big Willy's LA Harbor outlaw track, met me there, and sold me the car, and in a couple of hrs. I won with the car, then a week later after a 3 hr. track rental at O.C.I.R in Irvine, CA I won a big Popular Hotrodding Magazine race with that car, and a lot of wins followed that 1, more than any racer deserved, as it was one of those fill drive it to the track, fill it up, runi it, dial down a hun and run dead on w/ a zero kind of Bracket cars.

Just drive it the same, and it was a winner, but it was an 11 flat Mopar, running 12 flat, as it hade no rollbar or cage, and I loved the 5 amber 5/10ths tree w/ flood lights. It was just a magic Bracket car, a more than a few called me Lucky!

Socal racing in those days, either driving it to/from the track, or trailering it, there were so many tracks from Carlsbad, to insland empire Riverside, Irwindale, O.C.I.R., T.I., LA County Raceway, Bakersfield, it was the heyday of Southland tracks for any NHRA Bracket racer, each track was open at least 2 days a week, and we could race somewhere, everywhere 5 to 7 days a week, and you could catch a race on the way back from wherever you raced last night, catch a few zzzzz's in the car upon arrival, and race again tomorrow.

So, looking at all the data, from 1993 forward on this slow budget Stocker, it is currently a very consistent slow Bracket car. One of the most I have ever driven of you look at it from a driver perspective (it has had a few little new build bugs since I first ran it on a quarter mile strip again last September)
, but those were to be expected to pop up. Fixed em moved on. The car is sound, the car at elevation is slow, but that trip to Pomona shocked me (- .126 under at Vegas, nearly 8/10ths under at Pomona in 3 passes -.797 under).
My deep dive said I saw those numbers before at Pomona in Feb 1995 log book showed 3 passes -.701, -.703, and -.721, then I broke a timing belt mins from E1 Sunday.

Now, the driver, I sat out of the sport completely for 26 yrs., I knew it would be a tough return at 66, no longer a kid, no longer even middle aged, and the biggest 3 challenges were, the LED Tree, no longer 11-12 spots on an incandescent bulb to choose from for a spot to leave on (crap, in my heyday of decades long gone by...mainly the 1984 season, I foot braked, and counted down on a 5 amber tree from the top bulb down, nodding my head at the center of every bulb), try that on an LED tree.