Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

From almost not making the race at all, to almost winning it all, this past weekend will be one for the history books.

After getting home from Orlando, I had a lot of work to do. I started by going to my local drag strip here in Shelby to try to get some more seat time and figure the tree out. I've been struggling mightily getting consistent reaction times in the car, and after a very sub-par performance at Orlando, I had to get back in the lab and figure it out. I made some great progress at the bracket race but there was still work to be done.

So after driving 10 hours back home saturday, I raced Sunday, then pulled the transmission out of my Mazda to swap starters and flex plates. Monday I put everything back together for that car including the trans, headers, diapers, plugs, and a few other miscellaneous things. Tuesday I loaded everything on to my double open trailer and packed the truck to head south again.

https://i.postimg.cc/3JDLfLqv/IMG-6901.jpg
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Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Then it was time to hit the road. What an unmitigated disaster.

I left my shop around 4:30 after work on Wednesday. Everything was going well until I had a blow-out on my trailer about 130 miles from the track. Not a huge deal, I had a spare that was pretty rotten but I felt it could get me the rest of the way if I took it easy. Unfortunately, while on the side of the interstate changing the tire, the alternator on my truck quit while it was idling with the flashers on. I was able to get the tire changes and limp to the next exit. At this point it was 11pm and no part stores were open to replace the alternator on my truck.

So I did the only thing I could do. I fired up the generator in my truck, ran a drop cord through the windows, stuck my battery charger on the windshield with the cords running under the wipers, and put the clamps on one of the batteries. I drove 45 mph for the rest of the trip and limped to the track. Unfortunately, the 40 amp charger wouldn't put out enough juice to keep everything running so I could only drive about 15 miles at a time before I had to pull over and let everything re-charge for 15 minutes, then hit the road again.

My 7 hour drive ended up being 13 hours, I pulled into Gainesville Raceway at 5am and slept for 1.5 hours. Then I got up, pulled through the gate once it opened, unloaded everything, warmed it all up (I was running SST and STK, the first two classes out) and made some qualifying hits. Over the course of the weekend I was able to get 4 new trailer tires from Greg Lubben who owns a tire shop not far from the track and a new alternator and serpentine belt from an O'reilley's about 15 minutes away. I spent all of my free time at the track working on my set-up to make sure when I was ready to leave, I could.

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Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Ouch! But hey Dawson whatever it takes to make it right? LOL was watching and rooting you on from Texas (we don't french kiss our sisters here that is arkansas.

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Geez, just call out the whole state, whydontcha? :D:D

Thanks for pulling for me man, it's really nice to know I've got folks in my corner!!!

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Was fun watching you get after it. Love the Stocker also, hopefully your next trip out is uneventful with the tow rig. That is enough to mentally take you out of the game once at the track. Nice recovery LOL!

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

I am very proud of my son. everything he has and has accomplished is through his own dedication, hard work, sleepless nights and most of all his own $$$. it may not look like much but it is his and he is very proud. nobody on the property is going to out work him that is a fact and i truly believe a win in stock is in the future. i was disappointed in his choice of dial in the semis but he does the dialing and the driving so i stay in my lane. he was aggressive the entire race holding some and driving the stripe. not bragging on him but the first three rounds he took .003, .005 and .006.

i again would like to thank all of you who pull for him and help and support him through your positive words of encouragement and advice. i tried to teach him at an early age to listen to people who know more than you and gain years of experience from others.

thats my boy.

ep

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Honestly I think it worked out well. I was so busy working on the tow rig and stressed about getting home I wasn't even worried about the race itself. I think I drove better because I had no more mental capacity to fret over the race lol

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Anyway, to finally finish of this arduous story, the race itself:

I managed to qualify 94th out of the 107 stock eliminator cars on the property and miraculously had the only other N/SA car covered by about .15. First and only round of class eliminations I was .032 at the tree and went 12.47 at 104mph to my opponent's (who was also in a 305 Malibu wagon) 12.80 at 101mph off the 13.00 index. Such an awesome feeling to get a huge win and celebrate with my friends and family.

First round of the race I had one of the closes races of the round. I drew Thomas Auger in his beautiful '65 Coronet. .019 and 3 above to his .033 and 2 above for a holeshot win by .005.

Second round, a little less tight of a win but one against one of my heroes and good friend Tim Stickles in his '80 Malibu sedan. .019 and 2 above to beat Tim to the finish line by .007. He was a little bit late and a little bit fast which made the race look right to me. I was sweating it until I got my win light on!

Third round I drew another gorgeous Mopar, this time in the form of Dwayne Scheitlin's 440 powered '70 Challenger in A/SA. Neither of us were in a hurry to get off the starting line, my .086 to his .104 left first however and I was able to parlay that into a double breakout win at -.005 under to his -.017 under, getting to the stripe .006 ahead.

Fourth round was a doozy. I drew Joey Shipp in his H/SA '69 Nova. Dead even up front, my .022 to his .023. He did a phenomenal job at the finish line rolling me through .007 but lost in the double breakout as I went -.006 under to his -.012 under. A nail biter for sure but I managed to sneak by him thanks to having a really good handle on the dial.

Fifth round I drew Stock Eliminator royalty in Brenda Grubbs in her breath taking AA/SA '69 Camaro. Unfortunately she pushed through the beams before her side of the tree came down and came up with an LB3A. I was .053 and went 12.418 off my 12.44 dial for the win.

My Sixth and last round came against my very good friend Orion and John Riley. These guys are some of the most dedicated and hardcore gentlemen I have ever met and dang good people to boot. I missed it a touch up front and left 2nd for the first time all day, .050 to his .024. He landed closer to the dial as I chased mine when I shouldn't have. I go 12.440 off my 12.40 prediction and end up .003 behind for the loss. Orion would go on to turn it red in the finals against Josh Decker. Congrats to both of those guys.

After a very long weekend of repairs and racing, I made it home Saturday evening and my drive was uneventful, a very welcome change from my trip down. Thanks again to everybody that followed along here on CR, FB, and on the live feed. It's been my pleasure giving some of you guys someone to root for and I look forward to doing it again soon! The stocker will be down for a bit while I wait on the SGMP double and Charlotte to roll around. In the meantime I'll have it apart again to address some persisting issues in the rear suspension.

Time to show my bracket car some love and get it ready for some outlaw index racing coming up. I'll be chasing a couple local points championships in it this year and I'm hoping for the best! I better get my nitrous bottle filled because I plan on using plenty of it!

A very special thank you, in no particualr order, to the following people, whom without, none of this success would have been possible:
Tim Stickles
Billy Wilson
Mark Lewis
"Super" Scot Lamar
Chad Taylor
Brad Plourd
Daren Poole-Adams
My dad, EP
My wonderful and understanding girlfriend of 5 years and #1 Crew Chief, Meg Mitchell


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Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Keeping the race track hot around here. Trying as best I can to keep my foot on the gas and stay as competitive as possible this year, even if it means leaving my comfort zone from time to time. I swapped out the monster truck tires in favor of some 28/10.5s for a local no prep index (6.30 index) race at Shadyside Dragway this past weekend. Made it to the finals where I was .016 take .005 to lose a double breakout by .0001. It's tough when the little numbers don't go your way after laying down a pretty solid lap, but I have to believe if I keep my head down and continue giving myself opportunities, I'll find some success.

After the race I went ahead and put the big tires back on in preparation for the first IHRA bracket series points race at Shadyside and the first 6.0 index race of the year for me. Looking forward to it greatly and hoping to win a little cash so I can afford to buy my next drum of fuel. Also stuffed some new plugs in it as the old ones were pretty tired. Now that everything is running pretty good and neither car needs mechanical attention, I finally had time to wash and clean everything, so the car got a spray wax while the truck and trailer got a bath. Feels really good to have clean, decent looking stuff to take to the race track for a change.

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https://i.postimg.cc/c415smS4/IMG-7048.jpg

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

I noticed my AR3934 plugs doing the same thing last season.... I dont know the cause, as nothing had changed with my combo after the dyno. Switching back to NGK this season.

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https://i.postimg.cc/gcHTF71T/IMG-7046.jpg

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Yeah I need to do better about checking these plugs. I've been running that brand for a while and the center electrode always wears down like this after a period of time. Mine gets quite a lot of abuse between quarter-mile racing and nitrous for index racing. Not to mention if all goes to plan, I'll make 200-250 runs in it this year. I try to change them out twice a year to avoid the engine breaking up as it often does when the gap grows to this size. If I haven't changed them out in time, it'll typically let me know.

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Well, going along with the theme this year, I just cannot seem to pull into the lanes right at all. Rode over to my local track Shadyside this past weekend to double enter in 6.0 index and the bracket race and was rather rudely shown the door in both classes third round.

.015 take .001 no good in the bracket race as my man was .003 dead 4.

.006 dead 6 no good in the 6.0 race as my man was .008 dead 1. .012 total package and .003 behind for the bye to the final. A bad beat and a tough pill to swallow.

Once again, I just have to keep making good laps and hope that the little numbers will start to go my direction so I can start coming out on the winning end of these good, tight races.

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Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

So curious minds want to know, is the left headlight up a speed secret? Would think you are giving up 1 to 2 mph. Just having fun Dawson it is fun following your journey, it is nice to see other broke racers doing the best we can with what we have. Love the grocery getter wagon too.

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Thanks man!

LOL the real reason I only have one headlight is that the scrap yard I raided to find headlight pieces only had the driver's side assembly. I've got some of the parts to mount the other side but not enough to make it work. The headlight I do have does work and folds up and down. I have the motor wired to a momentary switch on my switch panel and the headlight itself on the other side of the same switch. If you notice, the headlight is sticker bombed because the trim piece on top was off a grey RX7 so instead of painting it to match, I just covered it with decals. Now I can see where I'm going and wink at people at the same time.

Here's a pic of the car before I cut out the cover that was just welded in place and then another pic of what it looked like before I bombed it. Before I added stickers, it just looked like the car had a black eye lol.
https://i.postimg.cc/K8b7dzWR/IMG_4124.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/kgyN9Crw/IMG_7063.jpg

And here's a pic of the headlight on just after I jerry rigged it all together and before I painted and installed the plastic trim that surrounds the framing.
https://i.postimg.cc/6Q5rpPtK/686812...B23998FCA0.jpg

I know you didn't ask for all this and was just kidding, but I thought it was pretty neat so I figured I'd share.

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Little update on my build thread here:

After struggling mightily with the car's consistency I decided to take a few steps towards sorting that out. I hit up a good friend of mine in Jerry Cline and had a front end alignment done on my Mazda. I noticed it had begun to hunt really bad down track at speed and I felt like the car had none or positive tow in the front end. My suspicions were confirmed and tow was added and the alignment was corrected. I also threw some new to me tires on the car. I discovered the rear slicks on my car were much older than I previously thought and I think the sidewalls of my MTs were completely destroyed. The car was much much more consistent at the most recent race I attened but I ran into the buzz saw that is my father for the loss at 3 cars in the 6.0 index race.

I have had a pretty rough go since my last post on here. Still struggling to string enough winlights together to get in the winner's circle. Made the wrong decision at Rockingham dragway in there 6.0 index class at Duck X Production's Battle For the Thrones first round for the loss. Then the next race I hogged the finish line up on my dad in the semis of the 6.0 race at Shadyside dragway shortly after turning it -.001 red 4th round of the bracket race. Still turning loose like a hero and driving pretty good, just keep running into good runs or making the wrong call on the big end. My worst light at Shadyside outside of my -.001 red was .014 through 3 practice hits and 8 total rounds of eliminations. I'm thrilled by that to be honest but haven't seemed to be able to get the job done. I'll keep plucking away, I know my luck will turn around at some point.

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Getting new tires mounted and bubble balanced at our shop
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Semis with my dad. .009 5.996 taking a pile for the breakout loss.
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Great lick here, .005 dead .004 taking .009 stripe after killing about one hundredth at the finish line

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Dawson no sub for more laps in a car, great job. You should have told your Dad that if he wants a fathers day gift then he should have let you win the round...Hey just kidding. I am sure that was fun racing him, am sure there will be some trash talking at the dinner table LOL.

In 05 when we started running TS, the car we bought and was advertised that the tires looked new....NOT, we went to a race first time with the car at the track, damn near wrecked it on the top end started skating around. Come to find out the tires (Hoosiers) were old (no I did not check date code and that is on me). After putting new tires on went from running 7.80's not hooking and skating to hooking up and running 7.20's. After that we went to Hughes (through Donnie Pedan helping us) and they built us a converter then car started running 7.0's and dipping into high 6.90's. Keep digging love following you!

I am old and retired now but the memories are taking to the grave. Now the most exciting thing a do everyday is taking my Beano Pill for excessive Gas!

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Hope you are having fun at the 4 Wide in Charlotte !

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

aaaaand I'm back on my build thread after a brief hiatus.

It's been an awesome last few weeks of racing and I'm really excited about the way my program is trending! Had a great showing at the national event at Charlotte in my stocker making it down to the semi finals where I lost a double breakout to the runner-up Dennis Bargeron.

We would tangle again the following weekend at the Double National Open at Carolina Dragway. I managed a 3rd round appearance in Stock on Saturday, losing to the eventual winner and good buddy Kenny Anderson. Then I turned around and made it to the Super Street and Stock final on Sunday where I failed to get it done in both classes. Dennis Bargeron got me again in Stock where we had a really great race. .046 to his .050, he drops to dead three giving me .007 to get in. I out-stopped him to get .004 behind to go 7.941 off my 7.93 dial for the loss. Missed the tree to Chip Johnson in the final in Super Street, then failed to get far enough behind him to lose a double breakout by .004.

Not a bad weekend at all considering it cost me $840 to roll in the gate with two race cars in tow, entering all 4 National Opens as well as a pair of SGAS races that were being contested in conjunction with the Opens. Managed a 4th round showing in SGAS Friday night while the Saturday race was rained out after the completion of the open. After all was said and done I managed to break even on the entry fees after cashing in 3 out of 4 of the opens I entered.

I plan to keep the road hot this spring and summer! Two race cars for a one man band ain't easy but I'm still giving it 110%. I'm headed to Roxboro Motorsports Park to compete in there 6.0 index class and bracket race with my Mazda. I'm definitely due with as well as I've been driving, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow's races. Got the valves lashed and some maintenance done on the index ride, locked and loaded for the weekend!

ZMAX Dragway!
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Sunday drive down the 1/4 mile!
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Getting everything ready for Carolina Dragway!
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The complete rig with essentially my entire life's work in tow.
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My heaven.
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Getting my act together for this weekend!
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Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Another update coming in hot before another full weekend of racing!

I've had a whale of a time at the races the last few weeks and won a ton of rounds, I think I'm really hitting my stride this year. Coming off two final round appearances in Stock and SST at the D2 Carolina Dragway National Opens, I kept the road hot and eased up to Roxboro Motorsports Park 5/10/25. I doubled entered my Mazda in 6.0 index and Top Eliminator and made it to both class finals! Ended up taking the runner-up in 6.0, while my final round opponent and I in Top elected to split and quit. A good lick for me financially and a huge confidence booster after driving really good all weekend. I'll put a pic up of all the time slips, but during eliminations, I think the worst I let go of the button in either class was .024, otherwise it was mid-teen or better. Awesome Awesome weekend and I was so proud of the results.

Fast forward to this past weekend I went to Union County Dragway for another round of double entry in 6.0 and Top where I had similar results. Tuned it -.001 red second round of 6.0 index, but ended up making it to another final in Top where I was .022 dead 7 to be .001 behind a 4.60s dragster. A tough runner-up but good race overall. Once again, extremely proud of the result and the way I drove all day long. The car has been amazing since I put new rubber on all 4 corners and my 6.0 nitrous tune-ups have been on the money.

Tomorrow I head to Shadyside dragway to run a class called Baby Gangsters. It is a 6.30 index race on a .400 pro tree that is limited to 28/10.5 tires, door cars, no electronics, and no wheelie bars. It's a challenging class, but I threw the small tires back on my Mazda to do a little grudge and outlaw racing. I'll try to sneak back home and swap cars out in favor of my station wagon to get a few hits in on Sunday in preparation for the D2 double divisional coming up next week at SGMP. Really excited to get back to class racing and join my friends over there for a few days, it's gonna be a blast!

Roxboro staging lanes. Trying to get some of the heat out of the car after hot lapping it and being deep in both classes the entire day.
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Lots of laps! I didn't include a few by-runs I had in this pic, I believe I made 17 runs in total, all in a span of about 10 hours.
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Finals at Union
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Comically small car
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Winner's Circle with the entire rig!
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Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Since my junk is still in pieces, I'll live vicariously through you! LOL!! Awesome summer and it's just starting, great job!!

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Thanks brother! I'm trying to strike while the iron is hot! Historically, for whatever reason I tend to lose the feel for the tree through the middle part of the year every year, so I'm trying to race as much as I can before I start to struggle. I know that's not a great way of looking at it, but like clockwork for the last 8 years I just absolutely suck from mid-June to mid-August, so I'm trying to capitalize while I'm still driving good!

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Well I did end up making it to Shadyside Dragway for the Ronnie Buff Memorial King of the South race on Memorial Day weekend but I didn't make much noise. Ended up turning it -.001 red second round of the small tire index race and lost at 7 cars in the bracket race after missing the tree pretty badly. I returned on Sunday with my Stocker wagon in tow in an effort to get some seat time before taking it to SGMP for the double divisional 5/29-6/1. Didn't do great in it either but was glad to make some laps and get comfortable in the car after letting it sit for several weeks.

At the double divisional with my wagon... things didn't go great. The car was pretty good but the driver wasn't driving amazing and pulling in the lanes even worse. I qualified near the bottom of the sheet in both races and fell on the ladder poorly in both.

In the first race, I made a great lap against Darrel Bargeron first round, .012 and 3 above my dial to get the win. Than I ran into the race's eventual winner and absolute buzz saw Terry Taylor. My .007 reaction time and 12.801 off my 12.78 dial was a whopping .021 margin behind Terry's .003 11.235 off and 11.23 dial run. What a drag race but an extremely tough break after I felt like it was going to be my day. You can't get mad about making a good run and just flat getting beat, but it is frustrating nonetheless.

In race two, I struggled to hit the tree as good as I had in the first race. I was .054 and .046 in qualifying, a whopping .050 first round to Brent Wheeler's .019. Brent struggled to run his dial, running a little over 3 above wide open, but I could not run my dial either, going 1 above, quitting to 4 above. Still had a great time hanging out with all my friends and was thankful they decided to run 1st round of race 2 on Saturday afternoon so I could point home and get to church the next day. I didn't capture many photos, I'll post what I have.

I was very pleased to see they were actually performing a good amount of tech during this race, having people do some small tear-downs. They were checking several things like carb/throttle bodies, valve trains and cylinder heads, as well as cross checking casting numbers. I even heard they checked a Super Stock car and warned it for having a wheelbase that was .2' too short. I love to see tech making a resurgence in D2!

Tough race right here!
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Getting a small tear-down at tech after my second round loss on Friday!
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Speed-handles are my friend
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Fifth blown trailer tire this year. Sh!t is getting old. This happened at 1am on my way home later Saturday night
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Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

5th tire....is it punctures or wear etc? I'd be concerned after the second let alone 5th. Something rubbing, axle bent, etc?

Or is it the loose nut behind the wheel hitting potholes? LOL!!

Love the pic of you pulling the carb, in the whole picture, there's NO GRAY HAIR?? LOL!!

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

There have been several posts about trailer tires in the past. My trailer averaged about 1 tire a trip sometimes 2. I was using trailer tires, cheap, expensive didn?t mater. The final straw was changing a tire on the shoulder of i40 with 18 wheelers driving past at 75 mph. I switched to light truck tires and my tire problems disappeared. Still gives me the Willies! This is my experience.
Good luck!

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

I honestly don't know what the issue is. Never blows the same tire twice either side or either axle. The tries were all new at the start of last season, but I do race a lot to be fair. Now I'm putting old spares on it as I blow them, some from my trailer before I put new on and some from my dad's pile of spares.

And yes, no gray hair... yet.

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

I've thought about going to a passenger/truck tire moving forward because I can't keep blowing tires over and over. I do suspect I have found a big issue though. When I mounted my tires in the winter of 23 into 24, I did not replace the valve stems. Two of the 5 tires I've blow also had compromised valve stems when I went to dismount them. I've since replaced all the valve stems to try to avoid a loss of tire pressure and over-heating.

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

I got tired of blowing trailer tires, I put 14 ply tires on this year, should solve the problem.

Randy Wells
I/S 5628

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

If you can switch to 16 inch, do so and use a 14 ply tire. the tires I use are like for a logging truck. They?re 100 psi pressure, you have to put in good steel valve stems too. I go for five years and sell them for $200 a set. I haven?t blown a tire in the last 10 years.
Oh yeah, forgot to add: and Slow down! high speeds create lots of heat in the middle of summer on these ever smooth highways

Re: JP1738's Stocker and S/G car
 

Make sure they are heavy duty/high pressure rated metal valve stems.

Standard rubber passenger tire valve stems will not hold up.

Ruined two NEW tires on a Ford Excusion after the installer put in regular stems before I realized the issue.