Maple Grove Results

We left at 10:30AM Tuesday and drove until 1AM. Parked at a Rest Stop 50 east of Nashville.

Left at 9AM — and it rained most of Wednesday. While stopping to dump the holding tanks at about 3PM (in the middle of Virginia) — I checked the tires. I'd checked them about 60 miles earlier when I got fuel and they looked good — but now the wheel on the front of three axles on the right side had most of the tread chewed off. So we get out the drive on jack and get the middle tire on it, but the front tire still touches the ground. Naturally at this point the skies open up and it starts raining hard. Get the floor jack out and jacked the front tire off the airbag — but the lug spinner that is always in my trailer is gone. Go for my 1/2" breaker bar — and it too is gone. Naturally, no one took it out of the trailer and didn't put back!

I break the lugs put on by superman by jumping on the end of a 1/2 ratchet — and we get the tire off. Get the spare I bought with the trailer down from the attic of the trailer — and while it looks like the same wheel — the lugs nuts don't go into to the wheel (like a slick) so only 5 or so threads is holding each nut on. Then it is obvious that the tire is shorter. Instead of a 235-85-16 the spare is a 215-75-16. So I'm pissed and off it comes and the one showing cords back on.

I get on the CB and there's a Flying J service center 3 miles up. So I drive 45mph while everyone is honking at me and get to the Flying J. "Nope — we don't carry that size". After I ask who might he gives me a couple of numbers and tells me the WalMart ten miles back from where I came from might.

So I make the calls — and no one has anything. I look at the tire — and while it has air — there is zero rubber left on the tread and the steel is frayed and almost gone. It is after 5 — and if there was Goodyear within 50 miles — they'd be closed. I decide to chance it and drive to Walmart. Nope they don't have one. So I drive back past the Flying J and drove another 24 miles — to the next exit. Nothing in between except dead deer in the road. We go back to the Flying J and start getting on the Internet and making calls. After about 30 calls — no one still has that tire size.

I go into the Tire center at Flying J and explained that I'm from Texas — but will likely be living there at the Flying J — because I can't get a break of finding a tire. I asked how long it would take them to order one from Goodyear (they're a dealer). They can't do that because corporate doesn't authorize ordering that size.

I ask — can you think of anywhere I can get the tire. Nope! So I said — "if I offer $20 if you can find the tire — would you try harder?" Two calls later and she's found a LT (light truck) of that size at her father's NAPA store 40 miles away — and he'll wait until I get there if I leave now. While I need a trailer tire that holds 105 pounds of air — a light truck that holds 75 is going to have to do. I explain that my tire might not make 40 feet — would someone deliver for $50. He says he's by himself and can't do that. I asked if he knew of any kid that wanted to make $50 — and he said maybe his grandson. Sure enough — the kid wants the $50 and will be there in 90 minutes. Flying J tells me that they'll mount it for $25.

8:30 the tire shows and I get in line for the tire change. 9PM — I'm told that they won't do aluminum wheels. 30 minutes I argue — to no avail. I tell them I won't hold them responsible for damage — and both mechanics are adamant that they won't do it and they don't give a shit about my plight.

I finally get the lady to call her boss at home to tell him that I'll sign off on waiving damage. He says that he's ok with that if one of the mechanics says they'll do it. Both mechanics get pissed that she called the boss — one refuses and the other says he doesn't want to do it — but that she forced in in the corner. I tell him outside that I'll give him $20 if he can do it without damage — as he looks spiteful over this.

We get back on the road at 10PM and drive until 3AM. Got up at 6AM and got here at noon Thursday.

Friday it rained all day. We managed to get the cars teched in — but no qualifying happened.

Saturday we get a TT pass, and two Qualifying passes. Dallas' car is dead on. My car launches, dies, then goes like a raped ape for the rest of the pass. I'm getting a 140 MPH — but the car is only getting 9.6s and I need a 9.50. I spend the night looking for vacuum leaks, replacing gaskets, changing wires, etc.

Sunday, I draw Jeff Millward in the Other Woman — and he's tough. His car has been on the money and he's always good on the tree. He knows I've been having trouble — but I tell him I found the problem. He and I have run each other 4 times before — and are 2 & 2. My car does the same thing — but I stay in it and Jeff sees I'm going to catch him — and stays in it. He breaks out with a 9.9X on his 10.0 dial and I win. Dallas wins his round too.

Next round I have Doug Duell — and I'm his bitch as he's 3-0 against me, and I've beat myself in every race. After playing back my tachometer — I'm seeing that it is dying at the exact same RPM as my launch chip. So I launch my car with out the linelock (4-speed car) against Doug. Since I was in the right hand lane — I have to look over to the left at the light and my tach is on the right. So I have to launch my ear. I generally launch at 5400 — but must have launched at 6500+ as the car went straight up in the air — and I spun my tires through 2nd gear. I catch Doug just before the line and felt like I was going to break out — and lifted. I was wrong and Doug Won. Doug went on to win the event for NSS. Dallas went against Andy Warren — and they had a great race. Dallas put a fender on Andy at the end — and broke out at 10.98 vs Andy's 11.0. Andy went on to win NMC.

We left the track at about 3PM Sunday and drove all night (1640 miles) — getting home at about 6AM Monday.

NSS  Results Below.

Qualifying:

Top Speed 150.75 7066 John Dimino 7055 B/FX '66 Impala Chev 427 Stephanie Dimino Collegeville Pa 9.501 7270 A/NSS '64 Plym Savoy Mopr 535 Jeff Millward Columbia Station OH 10.009 7017 B/NSS '63 Dodge Polara Mopr 426 Joe Ewing Evansville IN 10.509
7681 E/NSS '65 Belvedere Chry 440 Jeffrey Hoblick Flushing OH 12.055
7106 B/FX '64 Thunder Bolt Ford 514 Jeff Roell Poughquas NY 9.559
7022 B/NSS '64 Thunderbolt Ford 427 Skip Koester Columbia Station OH 10.563
7193 E/NSS '63 Savoy Dodg 440 Cliff Sebrina Conowingo MO 12.08
7851 A/FX '64 Fairlane Ford 427 John Dimino Jr Norristown Pa 9.347
7601 B/FX '65 Coronet Mopr 580 Dave Schultz Richmond TX 9.634
7066 A/FX '66 Coronet Hemi 426 John Dimino Morristown Pa 9.412
7047 B/NSS '67 Fairlane Ford 427 Geary A. Bates Wintersville OH 11.74
7050 B/FX '65 Comet Ford 517 Kurt Neighbor Twinsburg OH 9.461
7777 A/NSS '64 Ply Wagon Plym 540 Doug Duell Newburgh IN 9.943
7464 C/FX '64 Dodge Chry 572 Joe Midile Medina OH 9.686
7434 B/NSS '69 AMX AMC 401 Lenny Mockalis Melrose CT 10.413

 

Eliminations:

ROUND 1 7681 E/NSS 4 Jeffrey Hoblick FlushingOH '65 Belvedere Chry 440 0.072 12 12.035 109.33 7047 B/NSS 11 Geary A. Bates Wintersville OH '67 Fairlane Ford 427 0.115 10.5 10.53 124.11
7050 B/FX 12 Kurt Neighbor Twinsburg OH '65 Comet Ford 517 0.047 9.5 9.528 134.02
7106 B/FX 5 Jeff Roell Poughquas NY '64 Thunder Bolt Ford 514 0.054 9.5 9.549 138.87

7193 E/NSS 7 Cliff Sebrina Conowingo MO '63 Savoy Dodg 440 0.049 12 11.979 112.88
7464 C/FX 14 Joe Midile Medina OH '64 Dodge Chry 572 -0.001 9.75 9.871 134

7601 B/FX 9 Dave Schultz Richmond TX '65 Coronet Mopr 580 0.148 9.5 9.816 143.46
7270 A/NSS 2 Jeff Millward Columbia Station OH '64 Plym Savoy Mopr 535 0.034 10 9.971 130.23

7851 A/FX 8 John Dimino Jr Norristown Pa '64 Fairlane Ford 427 0.15 9.25 9.249 145.5
7434 B/NSS 15 Lenny Mockalis Melrose CT '69 AMX AMC 401 0.034 10.5 10.424 120.55

7777 A/NSS 13 Doug Duell Newburgh IN '64 Ply Wagon Plym 540 0.177 10 9.897 135.97
7022 B/NSS 6 Skip Koester Columbia Station OH '64 Thunderbolt Ford 427 -0.074 10.5 10.457 128.08

7017 B/NSS 3 Joe Ewing Evansville IN '63 Dodge Polara Mopr 426 0.036 10.5 10.551 123.02
7066 A/FX 10 John Dimino Morristown Pa '66 Coronet Hemi 426 0.007 9.25 9.364 134.38

7055 B/FX 1 Stephanie Dimino Collegeville Pa '66 Impala Chev 427 -0.038 9.5 9.67 123.06
SINGLE 0

ROUND 2
7017 B/NSS 3 Joe Ewing Evansville IN '63 Dodge Polara Mopr 426 0.042 10.5 10.514 124.18
7193 E/NSS 7 Cliff Sebrina Conowingo MO '63 Savoy Dodg 440 0.007 12 12.051 110

7851 A/FX 8 John Dimino Jr Norristown Pa '64 Fairlane Ford 427 0.221 9.25 9.287 143.81
7681 E/NSS 4 Jeffrey Hoblick Flushing OH '65 Belvedere Chry 440 0.152 12 11.955 110.31

7777 A/NSS 13 Doug Duell Newburgh IN '64 Ply Wagon Plym 540 0.053 10 10.132 116.01
7601 B/FX 9 Dave Schultz Richmond TX '65 Coronet Mopr 580 0.075 9.5 9.763 138.31

7055 B/FX 1 Stephanie Dimino Collegeville Pa '66 Impala Chev 427 0.039 9.5 9.615 125.06
7050 B/FX 12 Kurt Neighbor Twinsburg OH '65 Comet Ford 517 -0.007 9.5 10.636 90.68

ROUND 3
7055 B/FX 1 Stephanie Dimino Collegeville Pa '66 Impala Chev 427 0.149 9.5 9.584 125.29
7017 B/NSS 3 Joe Ewing Evansville IN '63 Dodge Polara Mopr 426 0.049 10.5 10.494 125.06

7777 A/NSS 13 Doug Duell Newburgh IN '64 Ply Wagon Plym 540 0.101 10 10.005 132.14
7851 A/FX 8 John Dimino Jr Norristown Pa '64 Fairlane Ford 427 0.075 9.25 9.305 142.29

FINALS
7777 A/NSS 13 Doug Duell Newburgh IN '64 Ply Wagon Plym 540 0.05 10 10.124 114.16
7055 B/FX 1 Stephanie Dimino Collegeville Pa '66 Impala Chev 427 0.067 9.5 9.738 121.92

 

My guess is that puts Stephanie 'Princess' Dimino in first, Doug in second, Skip in third, and Dave Schultz in fourth. Joliet is the next race. There photos of the aple Grove event at:

 http://www.streetlegaltv.com/photos/showgallery.php/cat/534

 

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Chicken Hawk Totaled - Ted Harbit Hospitalized

 

 

Ted was racing the car at a 1/8 mile track in Muncie, In. when something let
loose, and he lost the car in his own oil. The car got up on the guardrail and
rolled ten times.Ted was pinned in the wreck for quite some time. He’s now in
the hospital with a collapsed lung, couple of broken ribs, a broken shoulder,
and cuts and scratches.

The Chicken Hawk is one of the most famous Studebaker race cars — with Ted
racing it since the 60s. I think I remember a story that he bought the car for
$30 in 1960.

His previous pass was a 6.46 in the 1/8. That’s pretty sobering for this guy who
does high 5s in the 1/8 — but then goes another 1/8 for low 9s at 150MPH.

A high resolution image of the above is use for a wide variety of items NSS/Big Red Ram Value T-shirt $11.99 NSS/Big Red Ram Jr. Ringer T-Shirt $19.99 NSS/Big Red Ram Men’s Sleeveless Tee $17.99 NSS/Big Red Ram Ringer T $17.99 NSS/Big Red Ram Sweatshirt $32.99 NSS/Big Red Ram Hooded Sweatshirt $37.99 NSS/Big Red Ram Calendar Print $6.99 NSS/Big Red Ram Mug $13.99 NSS/Big Red Ram Tile Coaster $7.50

2008 NMCA Point Championship While it is out of order chronologically, here is how the Championship Points worked out after the Memphis race last year. First Place was TD Holland, and Second Place was Skip Koester. Below is 3rd through 10th.

Fastest Street Car Magazine Says This Site is Bitchin

NMCA in Bowling Green We loaded up the stacker and the motor coach last week and left Wednesday for the 1000 mile trip to Bowling Green. We arrived there Thursday noon and set up the pits. Thursday night and Friday morning it rained, and we took the cars to tech in while it was only sprinkling. We were the second and third cars to tech in. We immediately put the cars back in the trailer and wiped down. At about 3PM, they had the first part of the track dry — so the opened it up for 1/8 mile Time Trials — hoping the exhaust and hot tires would dry the top end enough to start qualifying at 5PM. The top of the track was seeping — and so they kept with the 1/8 mile until about 6PM — when everyone was warned that a major storm was coming in — and the track was closing at 6PM to batten down the hatches. We personally passed on making any of these 1/8 mile passes. It rained like Hell all Friday night and was sprinkling Saturday morning. The weather forecast was for rain through Sunday — and I was expecting the NMCA to hold the race over to Monday. I rode the scooter up to the line at 10AM — and there wasn't a NMCA official to be found. No doubt they would have been pummeled with questions they didn't yet have answers for, so they hung out in Race Control. There was a rumor by someone who is a pretty good friend of the track owner — that Charlie was waiting until noon to see if the forecast would change — and would announce if they'd run, cancel, or reschedule. At 11:30, it was announced over the speakers that the race would be rescheduled. A couple of us NSS guys snickered that it wouldn't be rescheduled — but if they announce it was cancelled, there'd be a run on people getting refunds, which the NMCA didn't want to deal with at the moment. We pulled out of the track and noon — and drove the 1000 miles arriving home at 3:30AM

Mopars At Motorplex Report

There's a Mopar club from the Fort Worth area called Cowtown Mopars, which has an event at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, TX, called "Mopars at Motorplex". The event this year was to be held on April 18th — but that was rained out and the rainout date was April 19th.

The week prior I ran the Big Red Ram in Florida, and the week after I would need to run it in Bowling Green, KY. The morning after this race, my wife and I were getting on a plane for a week in the Bahamas to celebrate our 30th anniversary. I didn't want to chance breaking Big Red Ram on a non-points race and not having the time to repair — so this was a time to try out my recently completed backup car, Texas Black Magic.

Texas Black Magic was my car while Big Red Ram was being built — but I windowed the motor in it about three years ago. The motor that I use to run in Big Red Ram was pulled and rebuilt as a 580CI, and put into this black car. Other differences are that this car is an automatic vs. 4-speed, a 4-link vs. ladder bar, and runs 33" slicks vs. 31" on the red car.

The car had no test time — and the race was the actual first time out in three years. In Tech — it was leaking water. Back in the pits we found it to be a gasket between the water pump, block, and elephant ears. I missed the first T&T fixing that — with the help of Damon, Cruise, Slim, and Dallas.

In the second (which was the last) T&T, the car launched great — but broke up at about 6800. To make things worse — it had been three years since I had raced an automatic — and I yanked the shifter hard like a 4-speed and skipped 2nd gear. Worse yet, it is an automatic reaction of a 4-speed racer to kick the shifter up into neutral when he crosses the line. That same reaction will get you second gear in an automatic — for a brief second, which thankfully didn't appear to hurt the car. I passed the shack to get my time slip — and was told that I was leaking oil at the line. I did a 10.1 @ 139mph missing 2nd gear.

Back in the pits I'm cleaning up all of the oil under the car and tightening bolts and fittings — and had to miss my first of two qualifying passes. I decided with the car breaking up — to put an A/NSS on the window — for a 10.0. I make the second qualifying pass — and did a 10.1 with steam coming through the hood. It turns out that all of the hands helping me with the water pump gasket, the one in charge of the top hose never tightened the clamp. The hose blew off and the water blew out. Back in the pits I'm looking for clean water and slowing adding it back into my hot engine. I'm also finding that my 4-year old batteries are weak and not holding a charge well. I'm putting a charger on between rounds — but the car is still cranking slow.

Getting the worst qualifying number in my only pass gets me running the Top Qualifier in the first round of Eliminations. I beat him on the tree for the win — but when I get the car back to the pits — I'm leaking oil again. I get that all cleaned up and we find it is between the oil pump and the block — no way to fix it at the track. Since I was running the Top Qualifier in the first round and won — I drew a Bye in the second round because of an odd number. Because of the car being so sick — I didn't do a burn out or run the car hard — but just drove it down the track.

In the Semis I was going against a much slower car, and he cut a near perfect light while I waited for mine. The car was just too sick to run him down — and so I got third place.

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