Best times:
 RT	60 ft	330ft	 1/8 ET	  1/8 MPH  1/4 ET   1/4 MPH
.508 	1.963 	5.678	 8.637	  83.95    13.464   105.04
       6/6/14  7/30/97  6/6/14   6/6/14   7/30/97  8/21/01

08/26/95 Bunker Hill

09/27/95 Muncie

10/10/95 Muncie

04/10/96 Muncie

05/18/96 Bunker Hill

06/05/96 Muncie

07/20/96 Muncie

08/24/96 Bunker Hill

09/28/96 Bunker Hill

10/13/96 Bunker Hill

07/08/97 IRP

07/30/97 Muncie

07/03/98 Rt 66 Joliet

07/10/98 Great Lakes Dragway

10/16/98 Rt 66 Joliet

5/26/99 Rt 66 Joliet

8/21/01 Rt 66 Joliet

6/06/14 Lyons Raceway

August 26, 1995 Bunker Hill race summary

Best ET:  9.007 seconds
Best trap speed:  73 MPH (6500 RPM in 2nd gear)
Best reaction time:  .72 seconds (.50 is considered perfect)

After 3 practice runs that varied from 9.007 seconds to 9.6 seconds (I got worse each time) I took a shot in the dark and picked 9.20 seconds as my index. In the first round of eliminations I was staged next to (unknown to me at the time) the current track champion in the street class. Since his index was 11.68 seconds, he got the light ~2.5 seconds before I did. Watching your opponent go down the track while you wait is not good for the nerves!

When I crossed the line, I was sure I had caught him. I saw 9.21 seconds flash up on the board (10 mS off my index!), but the win light was on his lane? Despite the fact that he was much farther off his index than I, his better reaction time allowed him to win by 13 mS. Oh well.

This sport can be very addicting, and expensive. Post race analysis can lead to many $ spent at the speed shop.

Sept. 27, 1995 Muncie Dragway timeslips:

Reaction     1.197    0.807    0.658  
60 ft        2.455    2.238    2.324
330 ft       6.339    6.015    6.077
1/8 ET       9.526    9.254    9.231
1/8 MPH     76.85    74.04    77.49
1/4 ET      14.480   14.265   14.129
1/4 MPH     96.63   100.03    99.76

Oct 10, 1995 Muncie Dragway timeslips:

Reaction      .685     .519     .653     .527
60 ft        2.460    2.394    2.080    2.215
330 ft       6.350    6.343    5.789    5.925
1/8 ET       9.515    9.565    8.899    9.072
1/8 MPH     76.98    76.81    79.38    78.33
1/4 ET      14.552   14.602   13.870   13.931
1/4 MPH     95.33    91.52    92.41   101.36

April 10, 1996 Muncie Dragway timeslips:

I swapped my 4-spd "toploader" for a Tremec 5-spd, installed an electric fan, an underdrive alternator pulley, new shocks, a Centerforce clutch, an explosion "proof" bellhousing, and a 1/2" carb spacer over the winter and had to try them out. The shift handle on the 5-spd came loose causing me to cram my hand into the dash. Then the engine got warmer than I like (Ford doesn't put numbers on their temp guages so I don't know how hot), and didn't want to restart. Then I discovered that the dash lights were shorted out, so no visible speedometer on the way home. Luckily the tach light was separate and working. Oh yeah, and the clutch linkage was binding on one of the header tubes.

I think the MPH improvements were mostly due to less lost time shifting. Standard radials limit the 60 ft times to around 2 seconds at best. Soft compound drag tires would cut almost 1/2 second. I'm also losing time when I hit second due to wheel-spin and subsequent wheel-hop.

Saturday, May 18th, 1996 -- Bunker Hill:

I added a temp guage & put the normal alternator pulley back on to avoid battery charging problems. My practice times & MPH were really consistent (except the last run). Either the engine loaded up, or I just had severe brain-fade & didn't get on the gas quick enough, because I almost stalled the engine. I'm sure I left on the wrong bulb. Maybe it was just too much sun(burn). Oh well, I got farther than last time.

Wednesday, June 5th, 1996 -- Muncie:

Saturday, July 20th, 1996 -- Muncie:

The weather was so beautiful (high of 75, sunny, light NE breeze), that I couldn't resist going racing. Muncie's attendance was down, due to the Super Chevy weekend at IRP, which also made it better for me. I still have the car tuned for better gas milage (12 degrees initial timing, #69 primary jets), which seems to be hurting my top-end power more than I anticipated. I was attempting 6000 RPM shift points on the first pass, and dropped to 5500 RPM shift points for the remaining passes. I had more trouble shifting into 4th than ever before, but I still don't understand why. I'm sure a better shifter would help. I won the first round by .056 second with a 13.973 on a 13.80 dial-in, against a car that ran an 18.489 on an 18.10 dial-in. I would have lost the second round of eliminations, but my opponent went .2 seconds under his 21.69 second dial-in. We were down to about a dozen cars on my last round, and it was the first time I ran against a faster car in eliminations. How I managed the 1.991 60 ft time is a mystery to me, but I know I left really hard and smooth. He had a .532 reaction time against my abysmal .848, and I lost by .331 seconds. By this time it was 11:00 PM, I was very tired, had a headache, and needed to go home anyway.

Saturday, August 24th, 1996 -- Bunker Hill:

Another great summer day, mid 80's & perfectly clear and calm. I dialed in at 9.00 for the first round of eliminations, and broke out by .007 seconds, but my opponent broke out by .2 seconds, handing the race to me. The .508 and .517 RT's had me really psych'd up for round 2, but my starter wasn't co-operating. Some friendly spectators push-started me to get to the staging lanes, but the car died right after my burn-out, and the starter couldn't turn the engine over. More spectators push-started me so I could drive home. I'm pulling the electric fan to eliminate its battery drain, and putting a new starter in.

Saturday, Sept. 29th, 1996 -- Bunker Hill:

Attendance was way down for some reason. Maybe its just too late in the season or maybe the rain Thursday, or maybe it was just too cool (high of 61) and windy. This allowed plenty of time for practice runs even though I didn't get there until after 3:00.

I fought severe wheel hop problems all day. I just couldn't seem to control my launches well enough to avoid it. My runs weren't very consistant, but I knew a good run would be aroun 9.00, so that's what I dialed in at. I really blew it on the launch though when I red-lighted. At least I proved that the new starter fixed my starting problems, and using the original flex fan instead of the electric fan fixed my cooling problems.

Sunday, Oct. 13th, 1996 -- Bunker Hill:

This was Bunker Hill's last day of racing for '96. Beautiful Fall day, with a gusty SSW wind (up to 30 MPH). I don't know whether the tail-wind is what pushed me into the quickest I've ever run at Bunker Hill, or the suspension mods. I took all the slack out of the traction bars, and installed 1" lowering blocks last weekend.

If I hadn't changed my index, I would have won the second round. My competitor broke out also.

Tuesday, Jul. 8th, 1997 -- Indianpolis Raceway Park:

I had heard that the starting line at IRP was slippery, and its true. This is the first time I've run with my new Edelbrock 750 CFM carb, and a Hurst shifter. No missed shifts now. Everyone else I've ever talked to ran these carbs "out-of-the-box", but I had to change main jets and rods to get it to cruise reasonably. I still have a slight lean stumble on part-throttle accel, and very poor 1000 to 2000 RPM performance. I've tweeked the timing so I can shift at 6000 RPM for 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd, but sometimes I run out of power by 5500 in 3rd.

Wednesday, Jul. 30th, 1997 -- Muncie:

It was a beautiful evening, so I finally trekked over to Muncie. Theres no question that Muncie's track has the best grip, and is the quickest track around, but its also very popular. There were 40 motorcycles and probably 150 street cars there, plus quite a few trailered cars with slicks. Unfortunately, such a large group makes for long waits between passes. The track lights also broke down for about 20 minutes. I didn't try to compete in the trophy race, and its just as well, I only got two passes in and would have picked a 13.6 dial-in and broke out on the 13.464. Its obvious that the car likes cool weather and a slightly cold engine.

Friday, Jul. 3rd, 1998 -- Route 66:

I finally made it to the track, but got rained out just as I was staging for my second pass. Route 66 is by far the nicest (and newest) facility I've ever seen. Test & tune night was a little steep though, at $20 to get in, and another $10 to race.

Friday, Jul. 3rd, 1998 -- Great Lakes Dragaway:

Great Lakes Dragaway isn't any cheaper than Rt 66, in fact they charge sales tax on the tickets. The tech inspector gave me a pretty hard time about not having a helmet, thats why I sandbagged the first two passes. More than two passes quicker than 13.99 and I was to be kicked out. This is the first time I tried racing w/o the traction bars. I really didn't lose much, but the last launch was back in the bad wheel-hop zone.

Friday, Oct. 16th, 1998 -- Route 66:

I had to use my rain-check by the end of the season, and there isn't much racing season left. I really like this track, I just wish it wasn't such a pain to get there through rush-hour traffic. I was really quite pleased with the first two passes. I blew the launch on the last one, trying to launch too hard.

Wednesday, May. 26th, 1999 -- Route 66:

Finally got a chance to test the Performer RPM and 4-degree advanced cam. My reaction time stinks, guess I'm getting rusty. I blew the 2-3 shift on the second pass, my hand slipped off the shifter. I must have fell asleep at the tree on the third pass, but made up for it with a really good pass. Temperature was in the mid-70's for all the runs.

The car died on the way into the pits, not far from where I wanted to park anyway. I didn't give it a second thought until I tried to restart it, and couldn't get any spark. I messed with the wiring, then pulled the distributor cap and cranked it over. The distributor wasn't turning! I thought I broke the timing chain, because I thought the distributor was OK. I had to have the car hauled back home on a truck. When I got it apart I found that the timing chain was fine. A tiny piece of steel was jammed in the oil pump, which caused the distributor to sheer the roll pin for the gear.

Moral of the story: When rebuilding old engines with questionable histories, replace the oil-pump pickup assembly! There wasn't any visible debris in the pickup, but when I started tapping it against the floor, out came many pieces of an old factory plastic timing gear. That chip of steel probably came from an old timing chain that was replaced prior to when I purchased the block in 1980, and has been in there ever since!

Tuesday, Aug. 21st, 2001 -- Route 66:

2 years is a long time between runs. The new TFS cam and heads performed very well. Having a cooling problem though, due to running the wrong water pump pulley. New pulley is on order. Its obvious that the power is there with the top-end speeds consistantly higher than ever before. My launches really stunk. On the first pass I broke one of the lowering blocks. Didn't know what happened, but knew the car was very squirrely on every shift including 4th at the end of the track. Luckily some friends (Jeff Knopp and his brother) lived about 30 minutes away and helped get some tools to remove the remaining portion of the lowering block so I could make 2 more passes. As good as the second pass looks, it was still a terrible launch with bad wheel-hop and I short-shifted into second which just resulted in more wheel-hop. I've got to find a decent set of traction bars.

Friday, June 6th, 2014 -- Lyons Raceway, Lyons, Indiana:

After 13 years and many engine problems, college bills, etc. I finally decided to take the car to a local track for some test and tune runs. While I thought the engine was running well on the street, it didn't do well on the track. I'm hoping it is just a very gummed up carb, since I haven't taken it apart and cleaned it since I installed it in 1997. Letting the car sit about 5 months every winter certainly doesn't help matters. It's probably good that this is only a 1/8 mile track, since the car was running so poorly.

The change in R/T measurement did confuse me. Everywhere else used 0.500 as the perfect reaction time, with anything under that considered a red-light. At Lyons, the perfect R/T is 0.000. I don't know if this is a general change or specific to the timing equipment at this track.