Tried Out This Bracket Racing Thing....

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clinteg

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I really never was interested in bracket racing and I didn't build the car to bracket race. I just wanted a quick street car that I could take to the track and just run it. So last weekend at the Hot Rod Reunion at Mo-Kan Dragway I entered into the Super Modified class.

Back story real quick. I haven't ran the car at a track since November 2015, I installed a HDK coilover front end earlier this year so I had no idea what it would change, I've never tried to cut a light at TNT and grudge nights that I normally would run so I had no idea when to launch, and I've never bracket raced before.

So a bunch of firsts that I thought would stack up against me from going very far in eliminations. Each time I won a round, the excitement kept building and I didn't even know how to react. After trying out this bracket racing thing, I get it now. It really is fun. I never liked watching it but competing in it is a blast!
Here's the result:

 
It really is alot of fun! The competition gives me a huge rush!

My first time bracket racing I was so excited that I left as soon as I saw the top yellow come on! I couldnt wait any longer! Haha!
 
It is a lot of fun to participate! It also is fun to sit at either end to see who gets the hole shot or who can run down the slower car at the finish without breaking out.
 
That's cool.
10.60's is a fast street car, wouldn't take much for 9's.
I watched a couple of your videos too... I loved the reaction of your son, I've got a 6 year old grandson.
I really liked the 69 fastback too.
 
My first time bracket racing I was so excited that I left as soon as I saw the top yellow come on! I couldnt wait any longer! Haha!

This had me rolling! HAHAHAAA. I was so mad at myself for red lighting but that's the game. .03 was what I red lit.

That's cool.
10.60's is a fast street car, wouldn't take much for 9's.
I watched a couple of your videos too... I loved the reaction of your son, I've got a 6 year old grandson.
I really liked the 69 fastback too.

I've thought about a touch of nitrous to make it dip into the 9's, but I also don't want to add all the extra safety equipment to get there either (not that they check any of that per the NHRA rules around here anyway). Motor wasn't built for nitrous so that also steers me away from it. It should be a solid 10.50's car, but I haven't been able to turn that 60' down yet to get there. Will address the 4 link issue over the winter and that should help. That's why I didn't run my MT ET Streets because there is no consistency with them on this car the way it's set up.

That was actually my nephew and sister in that video with my grandmother in the front seat. It's always fun to give rides to people who don't know what to expect. "Run with some family" is a good one too. My uncle in the front seat was a hoot. I'd never seen him so animated before.
 
10.60's is one fast ride and if it's pump gas to boot it's even more fun . there aren't too many cars out there doing what you can do . Congrats , try index racing with a pro start , even more fun . Good luck .
 
10.60's is one fast ride and if it's pump gas to boot it's even more fun . there aren't too many cars out there doing what you can do . Congrats , try index racing with a pro start , even more fun . Good luck .

Yep it's a pump gas car. Has the iron W2 race heads with 51cc combustion chambers. With the 4" stroke, the diamond flat top pistons made it 13.9:1 CR. When I had it rebuilt, I told my engine builder that I was tired of running race fuel around town and that I wanted it to run pump gas (91 is the best we can get here) and still run 10's. Installed a bigger custom roller cam and custom made JE pistons with -25+cc reverse dome. Heads were also ported by Chad Speier. Made it 11:1 static, 8:1 dynamic CR. I pull timing to 28 degrees for 91 and advance it with race fuel mix. It still ran 10.90's at 28 degrees timing the first time I took it out to TNT.
 
Bracket racing still sucks... Glad you enjoyed it!

For guys like us it's mostly all bracket racing.
Super Pro, Street.....
8.90, 9.90 or 10.90 index.
Stock and Super Stock is basically bracket racing too except for class eliminations where it's still heads up.
 
Good for you, now you're hooked! Glad to see you having so much fun!
If you are wondering what the next thing to buy is, I would suggest a racing jacket. I'm surprised that they let you run without one at that ET.
Have, fun, go fast, but be safe!
BTW, have you ever been to the track just outside Manhattan? I used to go there in the 70's when I was in a the Army.
 
Good for you, now you're hooked! Glad to see you having so much fun!
If you are wondering what the next thing to buy is, I would suggest a racing jacket. I'm surprised that they let you run without one at that ET.
Have, fun, go fast, but be safe!
BTW, have you ever been to the track just outside Manhattan? I used to go there in the 70's when I was in a the Army.
they let you go 10.60s without a jacket.....

They must actually do tech inspections where you guys are lol. At this event, no one looked at my car whatsoever. There was no tech inspection. If they saw something that was suspicious while you were up, then they'd tech you. Of the times I've been to the various tracks, I've never had belts, helmet, roll bar, anything tech inspected. I've been asked if I had an overflow bottle one time lol. My buddy ran 11.20's at the local track 3 different occasions and the track never said a word. I have video to prove it too. But I will look into getting a jacket just because it would be better to have one if I needed it than not.
 
Nice! Chad Speier Does some very nice work. Tell me about your intake and your cam and it's specs.
 
Nice! Chad Speier Does some very nice work. Tell me about your intake and your cam and it's specs.
Brought back a horde of memories. got a kick out of you breathing harder and harder , especially in the 4 th round. redlights suck, been there and done that. letting off too early sucks too, as does watching a 7 second spot disappearing in the final round. you may be hooked for good! enjoyed the in car, made me want to go racin again !
 
Nice! Chad Speier Does some very nice work. Tell me about your intake and your cam and it's specs.

Chad was reluctant to do the work since they were iron heads lol. He was showing me what I needed to do in what areas and said that I could do it. I, not having any experience with head porting, didn't trust myself and I didn't want to mess up those heads. So he shot me a fair price and I let him do the work. He said that the way he ported them may not show huge numbers on a flow bench but will be realized on the live motor. Something about the air velocity through the ports, etc. He posted about it on here after I had the heads done and explained some things about head porting and what was really important about it. I'd have to go find the thread. But it was interesting. They flowed 295 cfm on a 4" port, which my cylinders are actually 4.035" so that number is a little bit conservative. They flowed about 5 cfm less across the board with my original intake valves which had a knife edge on them. He flowed them when I was there to compare the Rev valves he used to my originals. So I ordered a custom set of intake valves from Rev (there wasn't anything off the shelf that met the specs I needed). The intake he just gasket matched. No other work was done to it so it's essentially a stock Victor W2 intake.
Cam is Comp Cams custom ground to .645/.645 266/277 @ .050 on a 106 LSA.

Brought back a horde of memories. got a kick out of you breathing harder and harder , especially in the 4 th round. redlights suck, been there and done that. letting off too early sucks too, as does watching a 7 second spot disappearing in the final round. you may be hooked for good! enjoyed the in car, made me want to go racin again !

I did notice later when I watched the videos how hard I was breathing! Better than holding my breath like I normally do until I about pass out hahaaa.
 
Cool, thanks. I get the head flow thing. I had my heads flowed and the report came back it was on a 4.125 bore. Who the hell runs a 4.125 bore? Few of us, very few.

So I had them reflowed by my local guy on a 4.03. The numbers were a good bit different! But still very good.
 
Cool, thanks. I get the head flow thing. I had my heads flowed and the report came back it was on a 4.125 bore. Who the hell runs a 4.125 bore? Few of us, very few.

So I had them reflowed by my local guy on a 4.03. The numbers were a good bit different! But still very good.

Haha yeah, who runs a bore like that lol. Here's the thread where Chad posted up some good reading material Head Porting Recomendation?

When I bought the car, the guy supposedly sent the heads off and they told him they now flowed over 320 cfm after they reworked them. Well that was a big joke because Chad was measuring them something like in the 270's. Saw that for myself in his shop. Someone ripped off the previous owner big time (may he R.I.P.).
 
Haha yeah, who runs a bore like that lol. Here's the thread where Chad posted up some good reading material Head Porting Recomendation?
Yea! Who or more accurately, how many of us run a 4.125 bore. If you do, GREAT! I'd love a large bore engine like that except I do not have the entrance fee. IMO and belief, most run at .030 - .060 at a max on there engines. A .060 - 340 4.1. Another .025 is missing. Given that 340's are disappearing and there worth is going up a good bit, a much cheaper 360 is much more Attractive. 4.0 bore stock....

My heads went;

........ 4.125 ......... 4.04
.100 - no report ... 60
.200 - 122 ............115
.300 - 180 ............172
.400 - 228 ............230
.500 - 278 ............275.7
.600 - 308 ............294
.650 - 312 ........... not reported (dang it!)
.700 - no report ... 288.6

I try and not look into things to much.
 
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