MOPAR MADNESS @ DRAGWAY 42

[padam]

Some pics from the staging lanes.

 

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Anybody up here have a rocker arm and a valve cover gasket?

 

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Duster

 

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AMX

 

[snakeyes]

glad to see you guys are having a good time keep em coming

 

[vintage chromoly]

Our pit.

 

[Endangered Species]

What a great event! OST Dyno and Dragway 42 along with all of those who were involved with different classes and sponsors did an outstanding job. Last I heard, just under 300 cars...which in this economic atmosphere, that's damn good.

 

[Endangered Species]

A few more from today

 

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First and second round parings for Hemi S/S

 

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Semi Finals of Hemi

 

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Final Round of Hemi. John Rendes (W) - Ronnie McClelland (RU)
Both great racers. Congratulations to both!

 

[Endangered Species]

Final Round Nostalgia S/S

Jim Guy (W) - Jeff Millward (RU)
Again, both great racers.

Congratulations to both!

 

[snakeyes]

thanks again for taking the time to post all these wonderful photos

 

[padam]

I will preface my comments by writing that this is the first big event I have attended in 25 years, so I am a little out of touch.
There were a ton of amazing race cars at this event , and I love race cars above all other cars so I thought that was great.

I didn't really care for the event format though.
The all day track rental on Friday seemed like a waste of time.
The Friday and Saturday Gambler races were $50 a pop, and for guys like me that is usually 1 round (although I could have won my 1st round Friday if I had remembered we were running 1/8.)
With all the sponsors they kept anouncing, why not sponsor the gamblers race @ $20?
Saturday all day qualifying was kind of a waste for the bracket classes, why not do a bracket race both days?
Looked to be about a dozen show cars.
Maybe 10-12 swap meet vendors.
1 (Harlon Sharp) mfg boothe.
No tee shirt or info packet with entry.
I did have a great time and was very impressed with how Dragway 42 takes care of business.
I just think the event needs improvement.

 

[dvw]

My weekend was fun. Great to see a lot of people that I missed last year. Weather was a challenge with varying wind speed, and direction. Not to mention D/A up to 4300+. Car was very good. Slowed it to run 9.25. Took quite q bit of ballast. Last to qualifiers we went 9.256, 9.255. 60 ft grouping with ballast over Saturday and Sunday varied best to worst by .011. And that is foot braking with no rpm chip. The driver R/T wasn't as good. After 7 passes with the exception of a ok .031 I was stuck between .043 -.055. 1st rd was .021 had the guy by a bunch and lifted. My prediction was off by about .025. Looked like we had a 4-6 mph direct head win for a 13 minute period during that run time. Rd 2 I built in .015 for wind. By looking at data this time the head gusts stopped about 2 minutes before the run. Car ran 9.234. Unfortunately the driver was -.003. Track prep was good. Event ran in a timely manner. What didn't I like? Friday $40 6 pm - 10 pm T&T the guy says 3 runs only. I ask why ? He says to many cars. But wait. We have time to add an unscheduled gamblers race for another $50. Can I test during the gamblers? No. Then the next day I'm told that there was testing. The 2nd item is one race over a weekend. 180 miles one way for one race at $150 + $50 for Saturdays gambler +40 for Friday. Vs payout. Not the best value. And yes a weekend without parts failures doesn't exist in my world. On the way to the track My trusty 95 Cummins 3500 5 speed lost 5th gear. This is an on going issue with these transmissions. This is the 4th time since it was new. Pulled the camper off today and the trans is apart. Adding ballast Friday night for Saturdays runs I sat on my on/off switch linkage. Broke it in half. While trying to repair it we broke the switch itself. New one is on the way.
Doug

 

[Endangered Species]

My take - Great Event at a really cool track. This is my 3rd time racing at this track and is it Norwalk? (no) but 42 has it's own character that in some ways is better than Norwalk. (example - staging lanes down hill is great, especially when you start going rounds. Watching the race from your golf cart setting on top of the hill is really cool). Does it have the amenities like bathrooms, showers, free electric and $1.00 Ice cream that Norwalk has.. NO at least not yet, I know the owners are working on electric, bathrooms and showers. (they need to work on the ice cream thing) lol. Starting line was good all weekend, (like Norwalk). The staff is great to deal with (Like Norwalk) All and all the venue is great.
As for the event, The turn out was great especially considering this economic crap storm we are in right now. The owner of 42 said at the drivers meeting that he had no idea there would be this many cars show up. He was very appreciative of all of us being there. However Doug is right, the Sunday only race, and the $50.00 gamblers race was not very popular. And we didn't need to have a time trail on Sunday, we should race right out of the box. But we need to keep in mind that this is the first time OST Dyno has ever put an event on so we have to cut them some slack. As far as I'm concerned, they did a great job for the first time.
According to what I've gathered, this event will be back in 2023 and I'm sure they're going to improve upon it.
Oh by the way, OST having free pizza, pop and beer Saturday night made up for the $1.00 ice-cream from Norwalk. LOL

 

[Racer1210]

Great turnout for race cars and had a lot of fun seeing and spending time with my race friends that I have not seen for a while as I have been away from track for some time.
I kind of feel everything was a money grab aimed at the racers and for a race track to do that to the hands that feed them is not good.
We went early Thursday to partake in Thursday Night T&T only to find out they for some reason canceled @ last minute (to me I kinda felt like they was trying to force people that needed some track time to the $100 track rental Friday).

$150 for weekend race pass
$100 for track rental Friday for X hours track time
$40 for T&T Friday after 6:00pm
$40 for Friday night gamblers (which was run as combo and should not happen)
$50 for Saturday night gamblers (and again ran as a combo)

They still do not have any restrooms, showers, electric, or lighting in pits other than that the facility is a wonderful and top of the line drag strip.
One of the sponsors left Sunday morning with 2 Hemi cars because they was going to charge him $50 Saturday night to get another pass on one car in between races as he was trying to see if he fixed his problem and to me I think that someone that just gave them $2500 they should have been a little more lenient.
Would I go to the next one if they had another next year YES.
(but if ran same way I myself will pass on any after that)

 

[padam]

My guess is OST bit off more than they could chew.
I emailed them for info 6/27 and didn't get a response until 7/9.
I'm glad for them that business is so good though.

 

[Endangered Species]

Great turnout for race cars and had a lot of fun seeing and spending time with my race friends that I have not seen for a while as I have been away from track for some time.
I kind of feel everything was a money grab aimed at the racers and for a race track to do that to the hands that feed them is not good.
We went early Thursday to partake in Thursday Night T&T only to find out they for some reason canceled @ last minute (to me I kinda felt like they was trying to force people that needed some track time to the $100 track rental Friday).

$150 for weekend race pass
$100 for track rental Friday for X hours track time
$40 for T&T Friday after 6:00pm
$40 for Friday night gamblers (which was run as combo and should not happen)
$50 for Saturday night gamblers (and again ran as a combo)

They still do not have any restrooms, showers, electric, or lighting in pits other than that the facility is a wonderful and top of the line drag strip.
One of the sponsors left Sunday morning with 2 Hemi cars because they was going to charge him $50 Saturday night to get another pass on one car in between races as he was trying to see if he fixed his problem and to me I think that someone that just gave them $2500 they should have been a little more lenient.
Would I go to the next one if they had another next year YES.
(but if ran same way I myself will pass on any after that)

Tank and David Crosswhite left Sunday morning because they wanted to get right into racing not have the time trail in the morning. (They live in Virginia and had a 7 hr. drive home). I know this because Tank rode up to the drivers meeting with me and he told me they were probably going to leave because David had to be at work @ 7am.
Again, I don't think we should have had a time trial on Sunday. Let's get it on, so we can get home at a decent time. BUT to be honest Crosswhites did the same thing last year at Norwalk... They left Sunday Morning because of the drive home.
As far as the Thursday night T&T, 42 has one every Thursday, it's called "Thursday Thunder". They announced day's prior that they canceled Thursday Thunder because of the Traction Compound shortage. They did the same thing two weeks prior for Rock n Race. They said they wanted to make sure they had enough compound for the event, not waist it on a Thursday night TnT.

 

[padam]

Tank and David Crosswhite left Sunday morning because they wanted to get right into racing not have the time trail in the morning. (They live in Virginia and had a 7 hr. drive home). I know this because Tank rode up to the drivers meeting with me and he told me they were probably going to leave because David had to be at work @ 7am.
Again, I don't think we should have had a time trial on Sunday. Let's get it on, so we can get home at a decent time. BUT to be honest Crosswhites did the same thing last year at Norwalk... They left Sunday Morning because of the drive home.
As far as the Thursday night T&T, 42 has one every Thursday, it's called "Thursday Thunder". They announced day's prior that they canceled Thursday Thunder because of the Traction Compound shortage. They did the same thing two weeks prior for Rock n Race. They said they wanted to make sure they had enough compound for the event, not waist it on a Thursday night TnT.

I've always had the problem of not being able to get information.
Where did you hear about traction compound?
I only saw that it was cancelled