Top Street Runner UP

Had a fun Friday night and was the track runner up in Top Street. This is the feature show on Friday nights and it is dominated by cars that typically run mid-tens or faster. Due to a weather related low car turnout, I was the 6th fastest car at the track and got pitted against the fastest "street" cars of the evening. I worked my way through the ranks and got some good breaks to make it to the final.

First I beat a 9.31 second S10 when he red lighted. Next I tree'd a 10.0 second Vega (.071 RT to his .106 RT)--I even had to let off to keep from breaking out at the end when he was charging hard and flew by me just after the traps.

I then went to the final round and accidentally knocked my shifter out of first gear (dooh) at the line while launching--a common problem that I had last year. The 9.35 second old Dart had an easy victory. Here we are lined up at the final:



I didn't set any performance records tonight and didn't mess with the clutch at all since for some reason I couldn't get my data logger to work. Anyways, my fastest time on this hot, very muggy night was an 11.556@120.82, which is in my norm. I can't complain though as the other cars in top street were gutted roll bar'd race cars. I run with a full interior and even have the spare tire and jack pack still in the trunk. And lets not forget those heavy Magnum 500's . . . . .

I did get to kick butt on a new stick shift Shelby too. Not sure if it was inexperienced driver or what, but it ran like a turd. Too bad my brother didn't get more of this run on video:



"Were did he go? Where did who go?" --borrowed from TopGun. I've seen these cars doing 12 second runs at nearly 125 mph so this guy has a lot of sorting out to do.

I did have a racing casualty during the Shelby run. Speed shifting from 1st to 2nd I ripped my wooden shifter knob right off the shaft!!!! WTF I thought as I looked in my right hand. Still had my senses enough to finish the run. Who carries an extra shifter knob to the track????? Luckily the little track speed shop had some super glue and after some initial careful shifting, it make it through the rest of the night.

Happy Racing!!!!!

P.S. Wow, an even 1500 posts!!!!

That was cool as hell! What rpm were you leaving at on the 2-step? What was your dial? "Kicked the living snot...!" LOL! Looks like she was running good Dennis. Very impressive.

Thanks Rick.

The 2 step was initially set at 4300rpm (including the filmed launch.) As the track cooled down I dropped to 4100 to remain consistent off the line. I shift at 6200rpm and during all the heats I dialed in a sandbagging 11.7 flat.

"that classic Mustang just kicked the living snot ....." OMG thats funny!
From the vid it sounds like you are doing a great job of rowing that old Toploader

Way to go Dennis. Making it to the final round against those "street cars" is doing great.

Does your track enforce the 11.49 and faster roll bar rule? You're going to have to "slow that Mustang down, Sally". My 240Z ran 7.18 which is way under the 7.25 1/8 mile rollbar rule at Irwindale. Didn't turn into a punkin or get kicked off the track but have slowed it down some since I don't want to put in a roll bar.

When's your next outing? I'm running in the heat (95*-100*)at Irwindale tomorrow.

LMAO!!!!
That classic mustang kicked the livin snot... HAHAHAHAHAHA

Great job!

That was a pretty funny. All thoughout the night the announcer made similar comments about our run when I came to the starting line. It was pretty embarrassing for the Shelby guy because he didn't get much faster throughout the night. Probably afraid of tearing it (or himself) up.

A friend pointed out that the Vega I tree'd WAS the Top Street points leader and has now dropped to #2.

Jim, yeah we have the 11.50 rule and our track tech "might" say something if I went consistently faster than that. No problem though as I am right where I wanted to be when I started racing and every 11.5x timeslip still puts a smile on my face. Of course one of my goals before the end of the year is to get at least one low 11 second timeslip . . . . . . Should I start to run too fast, I plan on reinstalling my turbo mufflers with the tailpipes. That should scrub 2 or 3 tenths real quickly.

Good luck in all that heat Jim!!!! Our next outing will be Friday night, weather permitting. Looks like it might be 79 degrees mid-day and will cool off for our evening race series.

I spent the morning checking out the car and again found no issues. I tossed a spare shift knob in my tool kit. My last 2 runs on the data logger downloaded fine and again showed no signs of clutch slippage so I backed the static pressure off another turn to 1040 lbs for the next run. Soon I should be finding the sweet spot and the 60'ers should drop.

That's great! Keep the video's coming. Your brother does a great job.

Congrats Dennis! Your car looks awesome launching and going down the track. Keep kicking the livin' snot out of 'em!!!!!

You have to love a good track announcer. Looks great.