Here we are, the first few days into the 2017 racing season and we are already gearing up for it. To recap, we started our foray into NHRA drag racing as an owner/driver with the 2016 season. Driving a car that was built out of spare parts laying around a friend's shop, we built a 1970 Plymouth Super Runner. This is one of only two known to be in existence in the world! It is a 1970 Plymouth Satellite chassis with a 1970 Dodge Coronet front half and a 1969 Plymouth Road Runner rear lights and bumper. It has a 440 Wedge motor bored out 60 over with cast rods and crank and a 750CFM carb over an Edelbrock manifold. On paper, it puts out 650HP at the crank. This is all coupled to a Tourqeflight transmission.
We debuted the car in February and over the course of our first year, we have seen passes as fast as 11.83 seconds. Through the year, we have managed to get 10 top 5 qualifier positions with 9 of those being in the top 3 out of 12 events. We made it to the the Semi-Finals 4 times and the finals twice with both final rounds being wins. By the end of the season we finished 2nd in points and got the track rookie of the year honors. Not bad for our first season!
This season we are going to approach it like last year and just try to go rounds. Where we fall in points will be what it is. A championship would be nice, but we will let that fall where it falls at the end of the year. We plan on running the full year in the Sportsman class during points nights and during non-points events we plan on putting the tunnel rams with dual 750CFM carbs on and work on getting seat time in the Pro-Sportsman class (<12.0 seconds). This will help us get experience racing against others with delay boxes, transmission brakes, Nitrous, etc. with out foot brake car on all motor.
Over the winter, we are installing an MSD ignition system and a roll bar setup in the car. This will help with the tunnel rams and have us ready for when we break the 11.50 second barrier (which is when you need a roll bar). We are also going back through the car with a fine toothed comb just to make sure everything has held together from last year.
We hope to see you at the races this year. The season is slated to start in February and will again run through November.