AT THE RACKWicked reaction times and neck snapping 60-foots happened with the overcast skies saying whoa--and the weather radar saying go--at Kanawha Valley Dragway, in the heart of West Virginia. As reported in the two previous Mountain State shootouts, rain wasn't a factor but the mid-80 percent humidity surely was. The wet stuff did hold off long enough to get a respectable 73 degree temperature, and an unobtrusive 3-mph breeze wasn't a factor on that July day. Although the track was properly prepped by Kanawha Valley's crew, the starting line was still a hit-and-miss proposition. But one look at the unwavering ETs recorded by these guys and you would have never known. Of course, our 1/8-mile venue required converting the times for the 1/4-mile, so we multiplied each 1/8-mile ET by an averaged NHRA formula of 1.555 for your bench-racing enjoyment.
Kenneth SimpsonMr. Simpson found his torquey 462 to be a little apprehensive about Kanawha's starting line. "I thought traction was great at first, but later on I started to have trouble on the line," he lamented. He did his best to tune the 1963 Tempest between rounds to counter the unpredictable track, but found his first run to be all that she had, Captain. Fourteen pounds in the tires, 36o in the engine, 2,500 revs on the line and 5,200-rpm shift points brought a 1.44 60-foot and a 6.84 ET at 98.23 miles per hour. Switching that number over to a quarter-mile estimate equates to a 10.63.
Ted Robb Robb's '62 Cat and its bored-out mill were ready to steal the show at Kanawha, but there was one problem: too much traction! "The car felt good, but I ran into one thing: that track had excellent hook, and it felt like I was twisting a tire on the rim. I was afraid I would spin it off--that's why I only made two runs!" A gripping fact indeed, and it happened when Ted filled the 401 with 44 degrees of timing and got those under-inflated tires sticky. His best run was the first, with a 4,500-rpm launch, a 1.64 60-foot, and a 7.61 at 89.06 mph. Converting that to a 1/4-mile time results in an 11.83.
Roger KeelingWith most of his 60-foots in the 1.30s, Roger's tunnel vision-inducing Firebird was a joy to watch: coming off the converter at 4,200 rpm, the '02 Bird's nose would jerk into the air then dive for the hardtop, with the mystery-mill 355 being held at WOT all the way. A few seven-grand shifts later, Keeling would pass through the traps in the 6.40 range. "She seemed to hook well except for my fourth run," Roger quipped. His best run was the first--with 33* of timing, #72 jets and AN rods, and the tires at 11 psi, he went 6.42 at 105 miles an hour. That, my friends, equates to a stellar 9.98 in the quarter.
Bill Hoy/Jack TreolaThis two-man team has trophies on the wall attesting to this '68 Bird's capabilities, so it came as no surprise to those in attendance that the ETs landed dangerously close together all day. "The line was good and traction was great for us the whole day," said Jack. 7.0X became a familiar sight as the shootout wore on, but on the third run, with the tires at 17 psi and the timing at 34 degrees, a 2,800-rpm launch flashed "1.49" on the scoreboard. After the Turbo 350 threw a few shifts at 5,700, the 403 wailed to a 7.01 at 95.75 miles an hour. Make that comparable to a full pass and you have a dead-on consistent 10.90 Pontiac.
AJ WhiteAJ's near-stock '02 WS6 was the least modified ride in the group, but that didn't mean that it wasn't powerful: the Z06's LS6 manifold started gracing LS1 F-body engine bays in 2001, which gave these seriously underrated mills even more power. AJ relied on a laptop and Auto Tap software to tweak the 346-inch aluminum mill between rounds, and minor changes to the tire pressure and air/fuel ratio kept all six of his best runs within a few thousandths. "The track conditions were better than usual and I was hooking up well," he said. Run eight, with the air filter removed, proved to be his quickest of the day. A 2,800-rpm launch made for a 1.71 60-foot time and culminated with an 8.07 ET at 85.02 miles an hour. That means that this slick and hi-po converter-equipped Fourth-Gen. would turn a 12.55 in the quarter.
ConclusionWhat a way to finish out our West Virginia shootouts. The most impressive thing about this group was its adaptation to somewhat tricky track conditions--when you take into consideration the combined 93 years of experience, you would bet they would know how to read a track--and that experience showed. From a spectator's standpoint, it was great to see these racers in action. And when noontime came around, the lunch spread provided by the Almost Heaven chapter and cooked up by Peggy Cowen was a godsend after a long morning of racing--thanks, folks. And our heartfelt thanks also go out to Kanawha Valley Dragway's crew, who catered to our every need that Sunday, and Bill Muck, who organized these shootouts. Later that night, when our hard-driving participants were spread to the four corners and the Road Warrior climbed out of the West Virginia foothills and pointed its snout toward Jersey, its occupants had a newfound appreciation for bad-boy Ponchos that live to scalp the competition.
SIDEBARWe couldn't let this shootout go to press without mentioning Stan Legge and his righteous '67 Goat. Stan, a 53-year-old Milton, West Virginia resident, had been racing a mere seven days when he arrived for our shootout. Stan was there to help out the staff that day and graciously offered up his '67 GTO as an alternate, should one of our participants not show up. He of course had a very cool combo stuffed into his GTO: a '67 YH-code 428 block, which was loaded with a 068 cam and wore #670 heads. The Turbo 400-equipped Goat with a 3.42 rear gear ended up making about a billion runs, but his Poncho needed a little more sorting out, and his 10-second 1/8 mile times were off the pace for this combination. Regardless, Stan was a class act and a quick learner, and there's no doubt in our minds that more track time is in store for Stan the man as are quicker ETs for his GTO.