A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.

[Dick Nearhoof]

From -.15 under in Vegas to -.71 in Pomona Very impressive. I surely admire your philosophy to never give in to a problem!!

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Originally Posted by Dick Nearhoof

From -.15 under in Vegas to -.71 in Pomona Very impressive. I surely admire your philosophy to never give in to a problem!!

E1 it ran -.789 after -.008 to a -.005 lights in E1 (both going after trip zip), I knew he was as he was dialed hard and I knew we both had to go for it), These first 4 events have been a large learning curve for me, as of Sept. 2023 forward have been my only experience w/ the LED tree, all my other passes were 5 10ths 5 amber or 3 amber flood light lit trees and I knew it would take some time, still working hard experimenting w/ coffee and food intake to find the right early morning racing combo (I am too up on the wheel, and just a few thou on the wrong side of the tree so far...Thanks Dick!

The car though, is doing exactly what I have asked of it so far, zero complaints there. The air was great (fantastic), in Pomona, just as it was back in Feb 1995 the last time I ran it there it ran -.721 under in GF/SA, at same Index, and a little lighter.

Just about to start some further changes on the car this off season.

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Originally Posted by David Lee

I am going to report you for having too much fun!!!

My wife and 3 boys already know! And yes, after sitting out 26 years, I am flat having a blast! I feel like it is 1975 again, not yet my most successful season of 1984, but I hope that is coming (If I can just slow my leaves down a few thousanths, to as green as I have been red so far, I will load that tree up in the hatchback and steal it!)

Going fast was never really a part of my competition equation, but side by side in the lights is what excites me, and to do it with even much faster competition is more fun than I can even imagine attempting to bring it down to an inch! (David, to get to race with many of the best Stock racers in the country at Las Vegas & Pomona at season's end in only my 3rd and 4th event back in the saddle, was a dream come true, and it is beyond fun!)

It is a blast! (I just get at this late stage in life, to stay out there on the track doing it, every pass, quite a bit longer than anyone else does!) It is though too bad NHRA has that rule of not aiming a camera at the competition, because if they did not, I would mount a go-pro under my rear bumper so everyone could see the under chassis view I see in my rear view mirror of the competition when they go wheels up, usually when I am about to cross the 660' mark, it is to die for!

I don't know if anyone else noticed or not, but my last pass of the season, was -789 under, almost 4/10ths off the EF/S Record as far as E.T., but was 4/10ths of a mile an hr. faster than the MPH that was set at. When you pilot a slow heavy sled, the little things are big accomplishments.

That is only a tiny increment, but knowing the car like I do, I can switch to the front street tires, and run 2/10ths slower, but pump that up at least 1 MPH faster. Another small increment.

To see, and be with old friends again, all doing what we love to do...I am just getting started having fun!

[Billy Nees]

So Gary, any plans for this off-season?

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Originally Posted by Billy Nees

So Gary, any plans for this off-season?

Billy, sorry to leave you hanging since November, but I had a ton of changes planned for the Winter when I left for Pomona, and all that changed when the car went as fast as it did w/zero changes including short shift points compared to Las Vegas.

I got home, after John Irving was kind enough to drop my car w/all support gear inside it packed to the gills at home before his heading back up to Boulder City, and for a month (outside of giving the car a much needed bath the next morning), was highly conflicted as to whether or not to even touch it!

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I knew it needed a repair, after we bounced it hard on the trailer loaded down with all that was in the car), coming through Needles, CA, as the strap holding the header collector had broken loose under the car. Making it a nightmare to get off the trailer. So, first I fixed that.

Then, I had purchased new front and rear brake hoses, so installed those on all 4 corners, and flushed and re-bled the entire brake system again.

And stared at the car doing a deep dive back into all data since the early 90's forward, and still not knowing which direction to begin to go, wasted the month of December and finally decided to do something very new. See if I can actually legally diet the car to the natural class of DF/S...How far can I really get to bottom of the class.

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I had redone the interior of the car headliner down back in the 90's, but never removed the carpet. So I started gutting the interior first. And at the same time started to remove all perm. and temp ballast. Once the seats, console, carpet, underlayment, seat belt ends were out, I started weighing everything and listing all coming out, and going back in later. Using scaled weights, and had a starting point.

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It was also time to get rid of that junk stock shifter once an for all, ordered my choice of B & M gated shifter, something I can bang rather than slide. And never risk slipping it into neutral. And a decent tunnel mount to mount it on, and started modification of the Console to slide over it if I go back to EF/S again later.

But, once (for the very 1st time since the car ran down the assembly line in December 1984), that the quite dirty carpet, and 42 lbs. of very heavy underlayment was out of the car, I finally realized very quickly why the car was so dang heavy.

The floor panels and up the firewall up high for some unknown reason was plastered 3/4" thick all over with heavy black mastic seam sealer (like tar w/ fibers in it everywhere, and every floor drain plug was over filled with that heavy crap, and zip broke out a hook knife, the shop vac and started chipping, scraping and vacuuming up the mess, and did so for more than a week. Pics to follow.

Once I was done vacuuming the first time, I weighed out 24 lbs.of the chippings and scraping. Time to see what was left, found a few cans of bright silver paint in the spray paint cab. And sprayed over the mess, easily showing what I still needed to work on removing.

The second go around was another 20 plus lbs. And sprayed again.

Layed the carpet out on the driveway, broke out the power washer, put together a concoction of soaps, and got all that dirt, stains, and carpet backing that turned to dust over the years out of the carpet,, hung it over the fence to dry,, then weighed replacing it or using the old much nicer now looking clean carpet, it weighed much lighter now, and was already form fitted, so decided not to replace newer, it was light.

And got to work removing the stock shifter and cable, preparing for the new shifter and mount to arrive. And installed the new shifter and mount, fabled up the cable end in the engine bay, and got that all mounted and working correctly and adjusted.

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I actually started with the passenger side auto window that was sticky, pulled door panels off cleaned away all the old hardened grease on the rails, sprayed w/ silicone lubricant, and both slide like new again up and down. And measured up for a passenger window outer upper belt window scraper I damaged attempting to get that slow passenger window up once in a hurry. Have not found that replacement part quite yet but a line on a few new ones.