Hello All,
Just got home from Nashville, and I wish that we could have stayed longer as a good time is being had by all, even with the rain. The Opryland in BNA is far superior to the new one in Orlando.
As for the Drags, here is what I saw..
Tuesday nite test and tune ended in a few of the more promising fast cars encountering problems. CAPs Koerner broke a half shaft(not one of mine)and a nitrous burp did minor damage on the intake of another tuner viper. My brand new clutch was slipping from the very first pass, and another new car had "unbreakable CV-Joint" breakage. CAPS did get a replacement shaft. Crazy, wacky problems that were not expected.
The DLM camp had more presence than that from Dodge itself. Lots of powerful cars around the trailer and on the track. I did not remember many e.t's of the DLM cars but most ran low 11's at 130+ mph. I believe that Ben Treynors car(s/c with NOS....you will have to ask him for details) was the only one to top 140 mph.
TNT had a large presence as well, with a Prevost bus and a number of host trailers and Vipers. I believe that one of their customer cars ran 10.14..........please correct me if Im wrong about that.
Wednesday racing was being rushed along because of the threat of imminent rains so all I can relay is the information from what I saw in the unlimited class.
Albert, who had by far, the most powerfull sounding car, ran a 9.99 but was having problems during qualifying and I belive red lighted in round one. Lee Saunders(of BTR fame for kicking the **** out of 1badGTS in Jersey) ran 10.20 and defeated a brand new HMS Venom 1000 Twin turbo, driven by a freind of mine..Jamie Parker..a very clean and good sounding car, it ran 138 mph! Steve U. ran 10.03 for the fastest e.t of the event(race day)and I don't remember who he raced in round one. I was defeated by the RSI car...but really by my lack of a clutch as I ran only a 10.89 with a 1.998 60' time. My .550 light and 142 MPH wasn't enough to hold off the 10.10 e.t of that car. There were two other pairs of unlimited cars in round One, I can't remember the pairings and who won or lost. Rain ended the event after round one.
A couple of other high notes, Mike Stewart ran 11.79 in mod 1........chuck 98/rt better get busy, Jack B. in mod 2 ran 10.69 with headers/exhaust/nos, Geroge Bryce ran 10.20's on motor, and Jim Gardina(tooth58doc)pulled the front wheels 4" off the ground at the starting line...then exploded the clutch. I wouldn't believe it if i didn't see it myself. His car has stock suspension, just hoosiers/headers/nitrous.
It was a pleasure finally meeting all the Houston crowd, Jason Heffner, Toofast Scott, and everyone else. I look forward to doing this again soon.
Tom
Http://btrviper.com