Come on, race season is coming up. Are you ready? Excited? Broken? No time? No desire? No money?

New slicks came in beginning of the week, have to have them mounted. Need a new windshield also, already have the Lexan just have to get it cut and changed out. The rest of the yearly bits have been done. Should be ready for next weekend!!

I will start working on the 318 tomorrow. Have been working on my fishing boat, and getting the sailboat ready for sale.
Have the intake gaskets, just need to put it together. Weather warmed up 2 days ago.

Unkle Krusty said:

I will start working on the 318 tomorrow. Have been working on my fishing boat, and getting the sailboat ready for sale.
Have the intake gaskets, just need to put it together. Weather warmed up 2 days ago.

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Forgot. Hope you do well this year and the trailer tows okay.

33 IMP said:

Two cars, both need work. A couple years ago, had two tracks within 20 miles in either direction. Both closed.
Now have one track five minutes away... that only divisional or pro racers can use.
Nearest track I can use is now 125 miles (San Diego, or Vegas.). Thirty years ago that wasn't a problem. Now, it is.
I used to haul my junk to work Thursday morning, head straight to the track after, be there before the gates opened. Time has sure passed that by!
So..... old and tired, lost desire. Not enough desire to pay somebody to do what I can do, if I felt like it.
If pomona opened their street legal program again, I'd be in the garage 24/7.

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I'm now, sort of living vicariously thru the members here, again...

Yep same here sort of
from 1975 to 2020 was at it hard, 16-61, for 45 years
sometimes 5 days a week, when we still had local tracks,
or those reasonably within 1,200 or so miles, western tracks
when I wasn't traveling all over the USA, match racing...

I did detuned my current 68 RR, milder smaller Org. 383/392ci short block,
less comp., less Hyd. Roller cam, less valve spring, a lot less fuel,
still has the RPM alum. heads & a nice low deck 6bbl, just detuned again
w/some pretty parts, it's just a 'street beast' now
no real track time, no tracks anywhere near here now...
I assume it's still 'relatively quick' for what it is...

Infinity/Sears Point Sonoma is 207-ish miles,
4-5 hrs on a good day, when Bay Area traffic isn't insane...
Sacramento is closed now, it was the closest 145-ish miles,
I used to live 12 miles from Sacramento Raceway...
along with many others
Bakersfield is 240-ish miles
Redding is 270-ish miles
Fremont closed decades ago, was my favorite track (I lived far closer too)
Samoa (Eureka) raceway on the North Coast about the same 275-ish miles
IMO It's just not a great or viable situation out here...
Not for part or full time drag racing, anymore...
Not without, many hrs of driving there & back,
or having to do hotels & stayovers, adding far more expenses...
Been there done that for decades, but not now...

We once had 27 tracks, here in Ca. when, going with my stepdad Bob
& then I started, many of them closed shortly after, I turned 16/1975...
I've been to 'the last race', of way too many tracks here...

I'm retired, mostly on a fixed income & my investments...

I'm still happy, enjoy it still, I'm just not going everywhere
with my hair on fire...

I'm not 'a great spectator' either, on TV is OK, at the track, nope...

Any or all the remaining tracks in Ca.,
I did like Orange Co Int. & Ontario, Riverside, Lions, or LACR
Most SoCal (*shitholes traffic) especially, are too far, for to drive a test & tune,
hell most are closed now too, or just 'bracket racing crap'...
I grew to absolutely hate bracket racing,
with dial ins...
I liked it when it was 'bring what you got & line then up,
heads up &/or race, best car wins',
when it was not so much electronics, all these remote-control cars now
Preferred & almost exclusively raced Pro-Tree 0.4 tenths,
on any of my 8-7-6 sec. cars
Not sportsman tree *****, 0.5 tenths ****
(but, I did like 'comp. eliminator' no break outs, & race on an index,
espec. with the weight per cid rules, evened it out some, when everyone started
to build giant engines, even for S/ST, S/G or S/C throttle stops & delay boxes,
kill all the power, for a second or more, "crap")
or the tracks are just closed most the time,
with no T&T even offered or because of insurance/extortion crap/prices...

I sold most all my 'real racing ****', & my last good viable tow rig
(all the real racecars, extras & spares crap, all went with the cars, when sold)
& trailer/s BigTex 20' open & Featherlight 43' 2 car enclosed,
I starting selling stuff off in like 2018-ish
to 2020 the truck 02 F350 4wd 7.3ltr Diesel PS 6 speed dually

I did keep my 'comp license' current, until just recently...

I still have a bunch of the performance/race stuff in the garage
many parts still new in the boxes,
mostly now for B-Body MoPars
TF727 Turbo manual rev. TB w/rear band apply, MP converter,
SFI B&M neutral bal. flex-plate
QA1 tubular suspension components/K member,
adj upper CAs, tubular LCA, dyn. strut rod
used headers (won't fit with my Rack),
a couple of fuel pumps/mechanical Holley & Electric Aeromotive
DC/MP Chrome-Street/Strip & Gold-Race CEI control boxes
may use some of them someday again, it ain't going anywhere...

it's truly amazing
how much money isn't drained out of my bank account/s
or spent on the CCs now

Enjoy life people, do what makes you happy or makes sense anyway...

I really liked bracket racing, but I did it with slow cars and no electronics.

33 IMP said:

Twas. 6'3", wearing glasses since puberty, lol. (I stopped doing that going blind stuff as soon as I couldn't see good....)

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Oh! Well hey, don't expect you to remember that many decades back but I went by AJ and either drove an 81 Accord or a 78 Pontiac GP and always did the brackets after Mustang Al got me addicted. I think we spoke a few times, probably me asking about your car and you being polite about my boring junk

Budnicks, you were MUCH more dedicated than I was. I think I've only been to Sonoma a couple times, once for a Nascar race, and once for a firestone-centerline finals race with a friend's 440 Duster (727/60). Almost all of my racing was on southern California tracks.
One of these days, I'm gonna figure out how many, and how many are now gone. 10+ gone, for sure.
Can you believe there's not one dragstrip (other than pomona) in all of Los Angeles County?
( the ONLY tracks currently open are kart or bike tracks)

I STILL wanna make passes, (maybe not "race") but a 250 mile round trip to race in 100+f heat at Vegas is draining. (97 degrees here today, at the moment).
I used to drive my 11 and 9 second cars to pomona for the street legals. That's not gonna happen any more either.

OneWheelPeel said:

I really liked bracket racing, but I did it with slow cars and no electronics.

Oh! Well hey, don't expect you to remember that many decades back but I went by AJ and either drove an 81 Accord or a 78 Pontiac GP and always did the brackets after Mustang Al got me addicted. I think we spoke a few times, probably me asking about your car and you being polite about my boring junk

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The most memorable part of Brotherhood was going over the bridge.

come on guys buck up

I am already hard at it . 2 away trips for 2 rain outs either after 1st rnd, lucky for me , or after qualifying unlucky for me . So over 4500klm for no result .
And I'm off to South Australia on 27th for round 3 , 15 hrs each way . And thanks for diesel sky rocketing in price , more than $11.00 a gallon here . Lucky I drive a 4 cylinder diesel ute and open trailer . never met a hill it didnt slow down on .
Everyone ages , grab anything you can while can .
I really enjoy running a national series , less sometimes the people . I am looking at going to box class maybe next year . That will be a learning curve for sure , class goes from 8.50-10.99 and is pretty darn tight . Maybe its a kneejerk response , I will see .
Doug I look forward to hearing how your season goes .

Tex

I would love to see what Doug's car will do at Cecil or MIR.

Turning 75 soon and can't do it anymore plus the close by 1/4 mile NHRA track closed recently and can't stand 1/8 mile so ALL of my stuff is going away plus I just don't have the big bucks anymore to play with....hate it but that's life.

3sloppydogs said:

A number of years ago 75-80 dragaway closed. That kind of took the wind out of my sails. It was only 1/2 hour away at the most. Summer friday night just sitting around someone alway suggested to go and we did. We would load tne grill and cooler and you could back up next to the track and grill, drink whatever and have general good time.
Mason Dixon raceway is the next closest but we have to make an effort to get there through the frederick traffic and people heading to the mountains for the weekend. It is fairly rare we do that.
I miss 75-80

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The old HIS track was like that (Houston International Speedway). It changed names a few times but it was the only drag strip around the south east end that was 1/2 hour away. Crappy track but it was our home track. Still miss it and all the friends that went there. Most are gone now and the ones still living are....well....what can I say. Lots of memories there. That crappy track is where I ran my first 10 second pass....first pass was a scary one too lol

Looks like the first points race for us is mid May.
I've been hoping to get out and get down the track before then. I have so many things going on I havent had a chance to play at all this winter.
I still have to replace the convertor in my 68rfe in my dodge to tow our enclosed trailer... and then Reverse quit on our main farm tractor. Dealer said 20-30k to make the tractor backup again. That ain't happening! Another project that I'll have to tackle instead of something fun. Oh well...at least it goes forwards.

dvw said:

I crewed on Koffel’s B/D many years ago. Lot of work. Im piecing together a race pac but don't have all the senors yet. Maybe midsummer.
Doug

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Let me know what you need from racepak. have quite a bit of stuff new in the package

2025 was not good race year, only got out 3 times and had some gremlins the first 2 times out. Finally got things figured out at Norwalk but lack of seat time didn't help. So over the winter I planned on replacing roller lifters and valve springs regular along with maintenance. Pulling out the pushrods a few of the lifter pucks that the pushrods sit on stuck to the pr and fell out in lifter valley. Once I got the heads off and a valley plate I started picking up the pucks. One had fallen down inside the motor, damn, pulled oil pan and wasn't there, looked up in the block and about $hit. Stopped right there and out came the motor and off to machine shop. Thrust bearing was chew up along with crank. All back together, new crank, bearings, rings, and main cap. Talk about lucky! If that puck hadn't fallen down in motor 2026 would have been a catastrophe.

I found a bad cam lobe lin 2024 after a alternator nut fell on top of the #4 piston. Fortunately it was when the motor was being rolled over to remove the trans. I keep a log of valve lash. The damaged lobe hadn't changed. 001" in 4 years. God watching over me.
Doug

NSS Guy said:

2025 was not good race year, only got out 3 times and had some gremlins the first 2 times out. Finally got things figured out at Norwalk but lack of seat time didn't help. So over the winter I planned on replacing roller lifters and valve springs regular along with maintenance. Pulling out the pushrods a few of the lifter pucks that the pushrods sit on stuck to the pr and fell out in lifter valley. Once I got the heads off and a valley plate I started picking up the pucks. One had fallen down inside the motor, damn, pulled oil pan and wasn't there, looked up in the block and about $hit. Stopped right there and out came the motor and off to machine shop. Thrust bearing was chew up along with crank. All back together, new crank, bearings, rings, and main cap. Talk about lucky! If that puck hadn't fallen down in motor 2026 would have been a catastrophe.

View attachment 2010451

View attachment 2010452

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What kind of hp / cubes / and runs on it? That's a factory cap?

493ci about 200 runs. HP ?? 10.20's 130mph at 3500lbs

NSS Guy said:

493ci about 200 runs. HP ?? 10.20's 130mph at 3500lbs

View attachment 2010490

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Yuck. So 750- 800 ish. Maybe.
Glad you found it

I am always excited to go race, but fun, non competitive racing. I run my 69 GTX, which is just a street car. I was really thinking about getting some wrinkle wall slicks (currently running MT Street Slicks) but I don't race all that often and I'd probably start breaking stuff lol.

I race at Alien City Dragway in Roswell, NM. It's right on the airport. They only run once, maybe twice a month.

threewood said:

I am always excited to go race, but fun, non competitive racing. I run my 69 GTX, which is just a street car. I was really thinking about getting some wrinkle wall slicks (currently running MT Street Slicks) but I don't race all that often and I'd probably start breaking stuff lol.

I race at Alien City Dragway in Roswell, NM. It's right on the airport. They only run once, maybe twice a month.

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Worthwhile if you did a lot of racing, and you didn't wanna wear out your street slicks (drag radials, or bias et streets?)
If you've got drag radials, and your car hooks, it won't be any quicker or faster on wrinkle walls.
If it doesn't hook, or doesn't hook sometimes, wrinkle walls could be a good investment.