The fourth installment of our Pavement Pounders Shootout, held at the Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, just prior to the annual Ames Performance Pontiac Tri-Power Nationals, features a pair of 1969's best Pontiacs. The first of our two racers prefers the one-year-only look of the Firebird, while the other loves his ultra-rare (factory Ram Air IV) GTO so much that he's had it for 32 years.
Ray Klemm of Parma, Ohio, came to conquer the track by posting his best time ever in his '69 Firebird. It's equipped with a 455/462ci engine,
No. 62 heads, a Turbo 400, and 3.70 rear gears. The power is there, but are the tires willing?
Dave Laudenschlager of Walton, Indiana, brought his Ram Air IV '69 GTO, but for racing, it features a 455/463ci engine, Edelbrock heads, a Turbo 400 trans, and 3.55 gears. Will the bigger cube combo deliver the low e.t.'s he's looking for?
Weather Report
The temperature at Summit Motorsports Park during our Shoot-out ranged from 73.9 to 78.1 degrees. Barometric pressure was measured at 30.06 hg and the dew point was 53.1 degrees. This track is 853 feet above sea level and density altitude ranged from 2,022-2,296 feet, so we'll use a factor of 0.9731 for e.t. and 1.0283 for mph for 2,300 feet to chart the theoretical best performance at sea level. This will be done on the best pass only, based on e.t.