Pontiac Pavement Pounders Shootout SoCal Edition, Part III

The racers selected for Part III of our SoCal Pavement Pounders Shootout are a diverse group, running everything from traditional-powered, bracket style A- and F-bodies to a late-model, front-drive GTP and even an LS1-powered Firebird. We also picked a Firebird roadster that can't quite seem to decide what generation it is.

Feeling blessed to have a patch of perfect weather and solid track prep at Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale, California, we basked in the sunny, cloudless, 70-degree day, enjoying some of the best air that LACR had seen in quite a while.

This month, we highlight Jim "Old Man" Taylor's '64 Tempest, Hubert "Hubbe" Olofsson's '69 Firebird, Lindy Lindholm's '70 Ram Air IV GTO Judge, Roy Brewer's '74 Firebird, Josh Gordon's '98 Grand Prix GTP, and Jay Reichenthal's '01 Formula. Can late-model, high-tech power keep up with Traditional Pontiac brute force? Will age and experience trump youthful exuberance? Can that wild-looking Firebird roadster run as hard as it looks? You're right where you need to be to find out, so follow along as we bring you Part III of the SoCal Shuffle at LACR.

At the Track
As mentioned in our previous installments, we had some of the best racing weather and track conditions we had seen in years for Southern California and the best we'd ever seen at LACR. The combination of barometric pressure and actual elevation gave us an equivalent altitude of 2,700 feet, which was excellent for this facility. Effective altitudes here can easily top 8,000 feet or more. Correction factors were 0.9679 for e.t. and 1.0337 for the trap speed. The track surface at LACR seemed to work quite well for our competitors for most of the day, though some were noting some slickness late in the afternoon.

Jim "Old Man" Taylor
Jim's record-keeping skills were top-notch. His detailed account of every run helped him quickly isolate an ignition problem that was hampering the performance of his '64 Tempest. He noticed in his second and third run that his 60-foot times were more than a tenth off and he was giving up three tenths on the top end. Going through the basics, he found that his plugs were misfiring. A quick change of plugs and the ignition miss was gone and performance was restored. Jim's car was one of the vehicles that was experiencing traction and handling issues due to the track "going away," as he put it. Nevertheless, his best-corrected time of 10.71 at 123.58 mph indicates that his combination is well thought out, and his later runs show that even when the track wasn't up to snuff, the Tempest's performance was quite consistent.

Hubert "Hubbe" Olofsson
Hubbe's '69 Firebird is a bracket racer's dream, fast and consistent enough to run with the pack and low maintenance while at the track. The car's combination is fairly mild, but it is still quick due to the Bird's low weight and slippery aerodynamics. While they were at the track, Hubbe and Lisa Ann were merely fine-tuning an established setup, making adjustments to tire pressure and launch technique to maximize performance. Hubbe was happy with the performance of the first run and was actually able to improve on it. His best run, his third, a corrected 10.30 at 129.80 mph, came by way of a longer burnout. Subsequent runs had him slightly staggering the tire pressures, 6 psi in the left slick and 5.5 in the right to compensate for the slick track, and the results came close to his best of the day.

Lindy Lindholm
Lindy is a brave guy. He actually runs his original '70 Ram Air IV GTO on the strip, knowing what they are going for in the collector market. Even more amazing is that his car still has the original engine bolted between the fenders. He is well aware of what a hit he would take in the value if he hurt the numbers-matching block, so he preps it between rounds to ensure a happy, safe environment for his Ram Air IV. It's a runner to be sure, with a best corrected e.t. of 12.15 and a best corrected trap speed of 110.64 mph in separate runs. Lindy's first run was not what he hoped for and he wisely got out of it. After that, though, the Goat was "as constant as the northern star," varying by only 2 hundredths and 0.8 mph for the rest of the day. His secret was simple--let it properly cool down between runs. Hot lapping might be more fun, but it's harder on the car and can cause performance to suffer. If you're looking to learn how to go rounds, you do what makes the car the most consistent and Mr. Lindholm knows what he's doing.

Roy Brewer
Like Lindy Lindholm, Roy Brewer is another racer whose first run in his '74 Firebird was not where he wanted it to be, but he quickly pulled it together and did what he had to do to get the consistency bracket racers so desperately need to win. After a failed attempt to get proper traction, Brewer the elder kept getting better every run, laying down a corrected best of 10.30 at 131.48 mph. Strangely, it seems for this particular car the track actually got better throughout the day, as Roy didn't change his tune, launch technique, or shift points, yet the short times steadily improved. Moreover, the Firebird got quicker at every measured point on the track. Whatever the reasons, the car ran hard and picked up every time.

Josh Gordon
Josh's front-drive '98 GTP had its best run ever at LACR during our shootout--a milestone he has yet to surpass--a corrected 13.15 at 104.12 mph. He was tuning his car in both old school and high-tech fashions. First he was playing with tire pressure and launch rpm, but he was also using a ZZ Performance air/fuel controller. This little gizmo is used to fine-tune the air/fuel ratio at your choice of rpm levels. You can add or take away small amounts of fuel, usually in 1 percent or 2 percent increments, to help prevent knock retard or lean out an excessively rich condition. The neat thing about it is that you can add or subtract wherever you want it, so it can truly fine-tune a calibration. The combination of the AFC, adding rear tire pressure, and softening the front tires, helped Josh reach a new performance plateau. Who says newfangled and old-timey can't work together?

Jay Reichenthal
Jay's own notes say it as well as anyone: "ET consistency is my game, and as you can see, the car varied by only 3 hundredths all day." Not only that, there was only 0.579 mph separating the slowest and fastest trap speeds. Of all the cars out there, Jay's was the "Mac Daddy" of consistency at the shootout, making the most repeatable runs we've seen in quite a while. Jay was like a machine, running a corrected best e.t. of 12.76 and a best-corrected trap speed of 106.41 mph in different runs. Another interesting point is that the '01 Firebird Formula was consistent to the point of being locked into a particular performance level. Jay was actually trying to get the car to go quicker, varying tire pressure by 2 pounds and altering launch rpm and shift points by as much as 300 rpm. Try as he did, though, he wasn't able to significantly alter his times one way or the other. From a performance standpoint, you always want to go faster, but from a bracket racing view, it's a fine thing to pilot a car that you can't make inconsistent.

Conclusion
Our West Coast shootout was a great opportu-nity to see how a diverse group of Pontiac race cars achieve impressive performance and consistency levels using different approaches. There are lessons to be learned here from all of our Pave-ment Pounders Shootouts, from engine recipes and chassis setups to track tuning and driving strategies. No matter what kind of Pontiac you have, there are ideas you can apply to your own car to go faster.

Once again, a big "thank you" to Dave Anderson and Pontiac Drag Days, as well as LACR owner Bernie Longjohn, for their help organizing and executing the largest shootout we have yet completed. We'll conclude our coverage of the '05 So Cal Shootout with the last six racers in the next issue. Don't worry--they're worth the wait!

Owner Bio: Jim "Old Man" Taylor
In order to prevent him from being confused with HPP's tech contributor who has the same name, this Pontiac racer goes by Old Man Taylor, or OMT for short. Jim hails from Escondido, California, and has been racing on and off for over 40 years. He still owns the '64 GTO that he took delivery of on March 28 of the same year. The 64-year-old grandfather of four built this Tempest in order to keep from breaking parts on his GTO. "The Tempest is special to me because my wife provided me with the up-front money to buy the project car," Jim says. "She was not particularly interested in cars but shared in my enjoyment. She passed away on January 6, 2004. We had been married almost 40 years." Thus far, Jim's favorite moments in his Tempest were winning the Pro-Bracket class in the '04 Pontiac Drag Days eight-race series; his first event win at the March, 2001, PDD race; and the first time racing the Tempest after eight years of part-time construction. In addition to the Tempest and GTO, Jim also owned a '69 Catalina wagon with a Tri-Power-equipped 428, and a gold '78 Special Edition four-speed Trans Am.

Owner Bio: Hubert "Hubbe" Olofsson
A native of Sweden, Hubbe now lives in Corona, California, and runs a transmission shop that is quite popular with the local Pontiac racers. He also has, without a doubt, one of the most unusual Pontiacs to ever line up to a Christmas Tree. It started life as a '69 Firebird convertible, but has become something much more unique. "The car was acquired through a trade for a radiator!" Hubbe says. "From what was once a stack of tubes and a blueprint,(with the help of an Alston chassis kit), emerged my own creation. It is special to me because it represents personal freedom. It's different from anything out there and was handmade, not bolted together." Fifty-two-year-old Hubbe also shares the driving duties with his girlfriend, Lisa Ann Paul, who has been racing for a year now. From the looks of it, she's hooked on racing. "Even now when I see the win light," she says, "it feels like the first time!"

Owner Bio: Lindy Lindholm
When it comes to brand loyalty, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone with more Pontiac blue running through his veins than Lindy Lindholm. He's been racing for 44 years and has always run Pontiacs. The 60-year-old civil engineer, who resides in Yorba Linda, California, has even driven for some famous Pontiac NHRA Super Stock racers of the day. Lindy has a particular affinity for GTOs, and as he puts it, "I wanted the fastest stock production model built in the musclecar era." His choice was a '70 Ram Air IV GTO. Though his beautiful Atoll Blue Goat remains close to stock, it has run a best of 12.40 at 107.49, due to careful preparation and tuning. In addition to the GTO, Lindy also has an '05 GTO, an '02 Collector Edition Trans Am, an '89 Indy Pace Car Trans Am, a '74 SD-455 Trans Am, and a '64 GTO convertible. Sounds like an impressive stable of hot Pontiacs!

Owner Bio: Roy Brewer
At 68 years of age, Roy Brewer is the eldest driver in Pontiac Drag Days' Pro Bracket, but don't think for a moment there is any sign of him slowing down. With a personal best of 10.34 at 126, he's in the thick of it whenever he races. Roy has also had a colorful career outside the racetrack. He and his son Ken "Ace" Brewer currently run Pacific Performance Racing. "I also spent 37 years as a longshore foreman on the Los Angeles waterfront and spent another 13 years as a roller derby skater," Roy says. Obviously, his competitive nature was well established by the time he started racing 11 years ago. In addition to his Firebird race car, Roy has also owned a '61 Bonneville.

Owner Bio: Josh Gordon
Las Vegas, Nevada, resident Josh Gordon's approach to racing Pontiacs is a definite break with tradition, but it nonetheless represents a lot of work, both in the preparation of the car and perfecting his driving technique. "We bought a '97 GTP for my wife to use as a daily driver," Gordon says. "I ended up finding excuses to borrow the car because it was so much fun to drive. When I went out looking for a new truck, I found a red '98 GTP. I fell in love instantly and ended up driving it home that day!" With its healthy supercharged V-6 and front-wheel drive, Josh's '98 GTP isn't the easiest car to launch, but when he won his first Pontiac Drag Days bracket in May 2004, he knew he was hooked. "That's when I realized I will probably be doing this for the rest of my life." His father just purchased an '04 GTP, so as Josh explains, "We are the real-life supercharged family!"

Owner Bio: Jay Reichenthal
With over 40 years of drag racing experience, Jay Reichenthal has an eye for solid combinations. The 61-year-old hospital administrator has an affinity for frills-free performance cars, saying that, "I wanted a base-model stripper like I used to run in the '60s." His choice for a race car is a more modern interpretation of the theme and comes in the form of an '01 Firebird Formula. The combination is working well for him. He has, for the most part, left the engine alone and concentrated on the transmission and rear suspension to maximize the power the already potent LS1 brings to the table. With it, Jay has scienced out a consistent combination that was able to take him to the semifinals at the Summit Race of Champions at Sears Point Raceway--his first race with the car. Jay has also owned other Pontiacs in the past, including a '60 Catalina and a '95 Firebird Formula.