My 22 days before Indy

[Jim D'Amore]

As the title of the thread states, 22 days before Indy I was notified by the head of NHRA tech that the pistons for the 302/350 HP NA Cobra Jet combinations (which have been on the approved product list for the past 4 years) must be changed. Two weeks prior to that they changed all the cylinder head casting numbers around, deleting some and adding others...at that time it made half of the motor legal and half illegal
Still to this day I don't understand. The 2013 350 HP NA Cobra Jet only came with 1 style cylinder head. That means 1 part number for the left and one for the right! I have been threatened, harassed, and criticized since Gainesville by the Michigan Mafia. Mike Pustelny, Charley Downing, and the self-proclaimed "God father of the Cobra Jet" Jim Ronzello. The self-proclaimed God father who was never once on Ford's payroll for the Cobra Jet program. For someone who wasn't in the actual program, he sure does have a massive amount of Cobra Jet parts and BIW car's in his garage. Maybe that is why Mike Dellihanti is no longer with Ford Performance

After showing up to Indy with my New Pistons and Out of the box Cylinder heads we started to make head way on getting the car down the track. On the 3rd run we wound up going 9.38. With what I had left in the tune up and RPM launch change I figured it would go in the 20's. That is when we were told the motor was sealed and that the next morning we would have to bring the car to the tear down barn and pull a piston. This was the 3rd complete tear down we faced in the same year. Even though I could have turned it up and run faster it still wouldn't have been good enough to win class in FS/C. I jumped 2 classes to stay away from the Michigan Mafia, because of all their threats leading up to this race and at the event. One of them was in E and the other in D. So we decided to race in C. I should have added 300lbs to the car and ran E because that would have put us in the 9.60's. The fastest E car was going 9.94.

I guess the moral behind this story is if other competitors don't work on their ***** and make it fast that you aren't allowed to do it either. So as I am following Wesley to the big NHRA tech trailer to get the certified scale to weigh my piston and rod as I stepped inside, sitting right on the tech director's desk where the computer was I saw a hero card and it made me understand why I was there...That is when I was also told there was numerous phone calls and emails from the Michigan Mafia to tear me down for the 3rd time this year. So I took a picture with my Rod and Piston in front of the hero card. Gotta love it!

[lstanford]

Nice hero card. Jimmy should be proud.

[pmrphil]

That makes me wonder why they didn't extend the same courtesy to Gary Summers???

[Ralph A Powell]

More like the Michigan Crybabies? There's always a backdoor in the automakers factories!

[davidhuff]

Wow,you can not make this Bull **** Up.
Sent PM

[kdanner]

Somebody must have poked the bear.

-or-

When you're already in a hole, stop digging...

[MR DERBY CITY]

Jim, I believe you are giving way too much credit to the MICHIGAN MAFIA....Also, it’s never a GOOD idea to run 1.20 under in order to be factored into the next class ....REGARDS .......

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by MR DERBY CITY

Jim, I believe you are giving way too much credit to the MICHIGAN MAFIA....Also, it’s never a GOOD idea to run 1.20 under in order to be factored into the next class ....REGARDS .......

I thought you were going to say "wrong section" of this site?

[Jim D'Amore]

Originally Posted by MR DERBY CITY

Jim, I believe you are giving way too much credit to the MICHIGAN MAFIA....Also, it’s never a GOOD idea to run 1.20 under in order to be factored into the next class ....REGARDS .......

I would like to say the same but the facts are the facts. Back in the day, when Daddy Warbucks 2 was running fast, Jimmy made it very clear that he was not happy and pushed us around then. When Roy Hill went fast he bitched and moaned about him. We have taken Daddy Warbucks 2 apart 9 times in competition. We have now taken the NA Cobra Jet apart 5 times. Jimmy has told me himself, that it was because of him. I understand he builds and runs the same combinations we do. We just wish his motors were as fast as ours so we could just race heads up instead of having to pull pistons out constantly.


As for going .120 under the index we did not try to do that. We put an extra 140lbs in the car and did not believe the air was so good. But when it happened we accepted the beating we took from the Michigan Mafia and decided to go to FS/C.



Jim D'Amore

[kdanner]

May 25th:

Originally Posted by Jim D'Amore

I guess we'll have to make it a natural D car so we can go to C..

June 28th:
"But now we are trying to make the car a natural D car which we will do by years end." http://classracer.com/classforum/sho...492#post591492

June 28th again:
"We are trying to make a D combination so we fit in a class" http://classracer.com/classforum/sho...499#post591499

June 28th for the 3rd time:
"Or you can let us go on our way to make just the 14 a Natural D car" http://classracer.com/classforum/sho...507#post591507

June 29th:
"the car needs to be a natural D car so we can go up to C" http://classracer.com/classforum/sho...534#post591534

And now September 5th:

Originally Posted by Jim D'Amore

As for going .120 under the index we did not try to do that.