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[David Graves]

I have had several folks ask me about what is going on with the race team, when the next event is etc .. so I thought I would keep a blog of the events of 2014 for the Blown Inheritance nostalgia drag racing team. If you enjoy it - great, if not skip over it ...

This winter there has not been a lot of work done to the car unlike last winter. Last winter the motor was freshened up with new rods, pistons, re grind the cam, heads redone with new springs & valves, added a shaft rocker system to replace the girdle that was giving me fits, disassembled and painted the chassis and then put it all back together. It was a lot of work. This winter, other than draining fluids and lots of inspecting not a lot was done to the car.

The first outing for Blown Inheritance for 2014 was the Dallas Autorama where we were a part of a 4 car display for the Southwest Heritage Racing Assoc which is the series we race in. The display got a lot of attention and it was a good effort for SHRA, just as the DACC display is for the club.



Looking forward, we have a test session on the calendar for March 29th at the Texas Motorplex. My son Chris drives the car and we will be renewing his license and get ourselves back into the groove before our first SHRA race on April 5th in Denton. We will also make a 1/4 mile pass or two (which we don't normally run as we run 1/8 mile in SHRA) in anticipation of our trip to the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion Heritage event in Bowling Green, KY this June. There they compete on the 1/4 mile and Chris needs some 1/4 mile seat time to get ready for that. Also testing at the Motorplex with us will be my daughter in law Tera who drives for another team out of Kilgore. The next weekend after the test session will be the SHRA Spring Nostalgia Nationals at North Star Dragway in Denton our first of 8 SHRA events in 2014. Last year we were very fortunate and finished second in the Nostalgia Eliminator 1 class, and with the anticipated increase in car counts that will be a tough effort to repeat in 2014, but we will give it a good try!

Our 2014 race schedule looks like this
March 29 - Texas Motorplex, Ennis - test
April 5 - North Star Dragway, Denton - SHRA
April 19 - Wichita Raceway Park, Wichita Falls - SHRA
May 3 - Little River Dragway, Temple - SHRA
May 24 - Ardmore Dragway, Ardmore - SHRA
June 12-14 - Beech Bend Raceway, Bowling Green, KY - NHRA
July 19 - San Antonio Raceway, San Anton - SHRA
Aug 30 - Ardmore Dragway, Ardmore - SHRA
Oct 4 - North Star Dragway, Denton - SHRA
Nov 8 - Texas Motorplex, Ennis - SHRA

We will likely do a display here and there to help promote the SHRA but for racing this is the schedule. As always, DACC members are welcomed to come see great nostalgia drag racing and you are always welcomed to hang out in the Blown Inheritance pit! Info on the SHRA can be found at www.SHRAracing.com. I will try to post updates throughout the year.
_________________
In My Garage -
'55 Bel Air Hardtop
'55 Bel Air 2dr Sedan
'56 Corvette
'67 Camaro RS
'69 Blown 427 nostalgia front engine dragster
'17 Indian Chief Vintage

[David Graves]

Fired the motor for the first time in 5 months (long winter!) this past Sunday in preparation of making runs this Saturday at the Motorplex for our one and only test session for 2014. We have had a rev limiter that hasn't performed as we like so had that checked out over the winter and we will see how that performs in our testing. It was nice to fire the motor and hear the tunes coming from it again.

video clip here - http://youtu.be/2oTzRiThM2o
_________________
In My Garage -
'55 Bel Air Hardtop
'55 Bel Air 2dr Sedan
'56 Corvette
'67 Camaro RS
'69 Blown 427 nostalgia front engine dragster
'17 Indian Chief Vintage

[David Graves]

Our scheduled testing went as planned, got 3 passes in and never got down the track, tire shake is our problem.. goes back to the last event of 2013 where tire shake bit us in our runs there and we went out in the 1st round, that continues and we are a tad lost right now but will work through it, we made significant changes to the car on each run but each run resulted in tire shake right off the line regardless, with our first race in less than a week we have little time to sort through this, we will likely test Friday night at Denton prior to the SHRA event on Saturday, hope to get 2 runs in with more changes to the car to see if we can get past the tire shake issue, I keep telling myself if it was easy everyone would be doing it ...

here's a picture while waiting in the staging lanes in Ennis .. both our car and my daughter in law's ride were there, Tera making license renewal/upgrade runs and she had much better success with a couple of 6.99 high 190 MPH passes in the quarter mile in preparation of their attending the NHRA Heritage event in Bowling Green later this year which runs on the 1/4 mile rather than 1/8 mile we normally run in SHRA .. .


_________________
In My Garage -
'55 Bel Air Hardtop
'55 Bel Air 2dr Sedan
'56 Corvette
'67 Camaro RS
'69 Blown 427 nostalgia front engine dragster
'17 Indian Chief Vintage

[David Graves]

Race 1 of 8 for the SHRA was this past Saturday in Denton. After much study and consideration from the events the weekend before in Ennis, it was determined a new set of slicks was needed. With two years and about 60 runs on them, the planned replacement mid year got moved up to now. So new Hoosiers were mounted and ready when we arrive at North Star Dragway Friday evening for a round of testing before the big race the next day.

A surprise visitor greeted us at arrival, as my son's best buddy Alex came down from Indy on his weekend off from the NHRA tour to surprise us. Alex has over 10 years of experience crewing on John Force race teams and now on the Don Schumacher/Matt Hagan team. His knowledge and input would prove very helpful to us over the next two days.

We unloaded Blown Inheritance and only made one hit Friday night, and with new tires the expected tire spin occurred. At least we got that out of the way.

Saturday was very cool and cloudy. The air was ripe for making lots of horsepower. All teams were given the choice to make a free time trial run before qualifying and we took advantage of that. Tire shake was not the issue like last weekend, but a light front end was as Chris had difficulty steering the car down track. Then in each of the two qualifying runs, in spite of taking power out of the motor and increasing tire pressures, the car continued to bounce the front end off the track making it difficult for Chris to steer. We ended up as the #12 qualifier out of 16 cars entered in our class - not where we wanted to be. For the 1st round, I fattened the motor up even more (made richer) to take even more power out of the motor to hopefully bring the front end down, along with adding 9 lbs of weight on the front end. Our first round resulted in the same, a dancing front end and in this case a Round 1 loss with a 5.49 ET at 129 MPH, well off of the 4.65 ET index we run against.



So needless to say I placed an order for more lead weight and in the next two weeks I will get the car serviced and ready for our second event of the year when we go to Wichita Raceway Park on April 19th for the Wichita Falls Nostalgia Nationals.

Here is a video of what we experienced pretty much on each pass in Denton. At least we didn't shake the tires!

http://youtu.be/LI-ntA2whhs

And it was great to see DACC members William Walker wheeling the family '55, Jim Leinart's '55 and Jim Baughan's '37 out competing in the SHRA Bracket Classes!
_________________
In My Garage -
'55 Bel Air Hardtop
'55 Bel Air 2dr Sedan
'56 Corvette
'67 Camaro RS
'69 Blown 427 nostalgia front engine dragster
'17 Indian Chief Vintage

[David Graves]

As promised here is the 'blog' entry from the SHRA Wichita Falls event.

After a less than spectacular event for us in Denton, we came to Wichita Falls with hope that we would rebound with competitive runs after adding weight to the front end of Blown Inheritance.

The weather was excellent, a bit windy but heck at least it wasn't 110 degrees like it gets in Wichita Falls. Wichita Raceway Park is a small but clean facility with concrete pits. We arrived early to set up for the 3PM 1st qualifying session.

Our first pass I had a fairly aggressive tuneup in the motor expecting good things with the added weight on the front end to keep it down so that Chris could steer it. The track surface was a bit lacking and the car spun off the line, a peddle job settled it down but we didn't get a good run. Chris said he thought the car never shifted, but he wasn't sure. Since we do it 'old school' we have no data collection device so it's all by sight, feel and sound. Our ET a 6.12 at 83 MPH. Without a lot of time between Q1 and Q2 I lowered the tire pressure in the Hoosier slicks to hopefully compensate for the poor track conditions. Our second and final qualifying run appeared to hook pretty good but this time for sure it did not shift to second. Again a less than competitive qualifying effort from the team with a 5.64 at 98 MPH that put us in the bottom half of the field.

With down time between the last qualifying run and Round 1, and with the help of another team we were able to get the transmission cable adjusted out so that the car would shift. No clue why this cable got out of adjustment but it just goes to show - it's always something!

So for Round 1 we had the runner up from Denton, the 'Bad O Man' altered in the other lane so we were going to have to be on our game. The car hooked great, the tranny shifted like it was suppose to but ... the driver lit a big red light from leaving a hair to soon. Chris normally cuts pretty good lights and with that comes the risk of red lighting. The time slip showed a 5.00 ET but with the 149 MPH speed the run likely would have been a 4.70 something run. Chris 'doubled step' on the start, which is where you start to take off and then realized 'whops' it's not time and then you lift and then hit it again. That first hit normally starts the clocks and that is why the ET was only a 5.00. The Bad O Man ran an off the pace 4.90 so he was there for the taking! Our opponent would go on to reach the final to race Tera (Chris' wife) and she would run the tables by being the #1 qualifier and winner of the Nostalgia Eliminator 1 class at Wichita Falls. Tera is the new leader in points in our class with Chris in the #6 spot but we hope to improve on that!

Here is Blown Inheritance warming the tires at Wichita Raceway Park.



Going forward, there are no big plans other than the normal service that has to be completed between races. I think we may have what we need to be competitive now as we move to the 3rd event of the year, it just took us two events to get there. Little River Dragway in Temple, TX is the next event for us on May 3rd and with just a little luck we may find ourselves more competitive with these guys. With the warmer weather coming, meaning less HP, I may find myself removing weight, but we will wait and see.

And fellow DACC member Jim Baughan and family were there competing with his '37 Chevy in BOTH the Old School Electronics and Old School No Electronics classes. Needless to say he was a busy guy! After having breakage in Denton, Jim nearly DOUBLED UP as he made the final round in both classes, winning the Elec class and was the runner up in No Elec!!!! That was an outstanding effort! With that Jim is now in the #3 position in points in the Old School Electronics class and #6 in the Old School No E class. Congrats to Jim!

Jim and Family in the Winners Circle!



Here is video of our last qualifying pass (clearly showing the tranny not shifting to high gear, watch his right hand) along with the Round 1 'double step' throwing up the big red light

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoCjh6w2bfM

AND .. here is a clip from the local Wichita Falls television news with a great shot of Jim making a pass in his '37 Chevy and a quick interview with Tera.

http://www.texomashomepage.com/story/d/story/drag-racingold-school-style-in-wichita-county/29986/ZfSP9DQrPECEwG3D6nVrpw
_________________
In My Garage -
'55 Bel Air Hardtop
'55 Bel Air 2dr Sedan
'56 Corvette
'67 Camaro RS
'69 Blown 427 nostalgia front engine dragster
'17 Indian Chief Vintage

[David Graves]

Team Blown Inheritance visit to Temple's Little River Dragway was full of anticipation.

This our third event of the eight race SHRA series, fell on the same weekend as the Lone Star Classic Chevy Convention, forcing me to make a choice. As badly as I wanted to join the DACC group in Houston, I had to choose to run the dragster with my son in Temple.

We unloaded early Saturday morning, and did our normal warmup before the first qualifying session. I had adjusted the transmission cable slightly at home so that Chris could find 1st gear easier than he was able to in Wichita Falls on our last run. However after the warmup there was concern that the cable still may be out of adjustment, and with enough time before our scheduled first qualifying run, I went ahead and pulled the tires and body panels off to access the cable and made yet another slight adjustment. That turned out to be a mistake.

In the first session the car did well and the driver did well, but again the powerglide would not shift to second. We made a off pace run and got back to the pits where I promptly took it down again and adjusted the cable back to where it was when we arrived in Temple. For the second session the car marched just like it has been trying to do since late in the first race in Denton and we ran a 4.63 at 152 MPH. Amazing what second gear will do for you! We are penalized for running quicker than our 4.65 'index' but that is ok - I can slow it down for our elimination runs. It showed that the car was running well and in the eliminations that were coming up all I needed to do to slow the car down a tad. That I would do by jetting the barrel valve to feed the motor more fuel, which would slow it down.

We went up for our first round match up and when I fired the big block chevy motor up, fuel began to spray out of the fuel pump in places it shouldn't be spraying fuel from. After just a few seconds I realized this run was not going to happen. Our opponent took a single run but tagged the wall in doing so and disqualified himself. This meant that had we been in the other lane we would have gotten the round win regardless of how poorly we ran.

So, after the 3rd event, Blown Inheritance has yet to win a single round of racing. Needless to say when the dragster got home, off came the fuel pump and off to California it went overnight to get rebuilt. Tera, my daughter in-law who has won the first two events in our class went on to win yet again for a 3 in a row streak. We plan to be ready at our next event on May 24th at Ardmore Dragway in Oklahoma ready to go rounds!

It has been a 'trying' first three races for our team but fun regardless. Knowing that we have a winning car just waiting for a win is what keeps us going. We are not in the points chase like I want to be but hopefully the next few races we will reverse the luck trend and start having some good luck come our way.


_________________
In My Garage -
'55 Bel Air Hardtop
'55 Bel Air 2dr Sedan
'56 Corvette
'67 Camaro RS
'69 Blown 427 nostalgia front engine dragster
'17 Indian Chief Vintage

[David Graves]

Well we have been waiting for Ardmore all year it appears …

The first 3 events we have had our issues, resulting in not winning a single round. We left Temple with a fuel pump that needed repair and a mysterious tranny shifting issue that began in Wichita Falls. After getting the car home from Temple the fuel pump was sent off to Gorr Fuel Systems who does my fuel pump work and sure enough a clip came loose that resulted in a seal failure which caused the massive fuel leak that we experience in Round 1 at Temple when the motor was fired prior to our burnout. Further after some discussion upon returning home, I decided to drop the tranny pan just to ‘look’ and see what I might see that could be related to the shifting issue. Good thing I did, as I found some things in the bottom of the pan that didn’t belong. So in an effort to make Ardmore which was rapidly approaching, I immediately recruited a gear head neighbor to help pull the Powerglide out and got it to Sullivan Motorsports in Dallas for a rebuild. Fortunately the fuel pump and tranny were turned around promptly and I got them both installed and we fired Blown Inheritance in the driveway 2 days before the Ardmore race. All checked out perfectly.

With the Memorial Day weekend being a big racing weekend across the country, races like the Indy 500 get all the headlines, but believe me the racing at the smaller venues like the Ardmore White Walls and Drags that we participated in is just as intense. We had hopes of doing better than our previous 3 races so far this year and we did not disappoint ourselves.

We arrived at the track early Saturday morning with the pits filled with racers. Our warmup went without incident and after a quick look at the weather stats I decided on the tune up to run with for the first qualifying effort. Chris wheeled Blown Inheritance right down the strip straight as an arrow and we turned a 4.67 ET at 151 MPH nearly dead on the 4.65 index we run against (again you don’t want to run quicker than 4.65 or you are penalized in qualifying or lose in eliminations). We couldn’t have been happier and after the first session we were in the #1 position. The second and last qualifying run, I made no change to the tuneup and the car marched just as it did in the first session with a 4.655 ET at 152 MPH, a perfect run for our class. That kept us in the #1 position after qualifying concluded and with 12 cars in the field we knew our work was ahead of us. The #1 spot got us the maximum points available for the Good Vibrations SHOOTOUT event that will take place at the end of the year that awards the winner $1000 so I was especially pleased for that as this #1 effort should keep us qualified for this special race later (points are awarded at each race during the season based on your qualifying position, and we have been behind the eight ball until now).

Our 1st round race pitted us against Jason O’Neill from Mesquite, a consistent running altered that had been running in the 4.90’s. We heard they were planning to lean on it so I knew we couldn’t take them lightly. However at the same time I wanted to take some power out of the motor to prevent us from going quicker than 4.65 which would put us on the trailer if we did. I adjusted the tuneup to slow it down. Our opponent did lean on it and ran a 4.78 and fortunately Chris took the win with a 4.68 at 149 MPH giving us our first round win of 2014 – thought it would never happen!

That moved us to a round 2 matchup against Kenny Stroud out of Oklahoma who was running well also. Knowing the way the elimination ladder was, if we won this round we would get a single in the semi finals due to the car count and put us in the final round. I left the tuneup like it was in Round 1 and at the green Stroud got out on Chris slightly but the big block Chevy in Blown Inheritance caught and past the altered with Chris lifting just before the finish line to ensure not to break out. Our 4.72 at 136 MPH took out Stroud’s 4.86 at 143 MPH. This advanced us to a bye run in the semi allowing us a free pass to the final. Some good luck for a change!

Looking at the numbers from the previous round indicated and Chris confirmed that he lifted before the finish line to ensure not going under the 4.65 index. Normally a 4.72 run for us would be a high 140 MPH run or even 150, but at 138 MPH indicates he was off the pedal just before the finish line. So the plan was to adjust the tuneup slightly and run it all out in the semi finals to make sure it was safe and would not run quicker than a 4.65 (since we had no opponent this round and could not lose). In the semi, Chris ran it through with a 4.75 at 147 MPH and with that gave us the info we needed for the final round. Our competitor in the final was local Ardmore favorite and last year’s series champ Steve Matthews. He is always tough, especially at his home track.

The final was over at the hit, as Matthews left to soon and lit the red light with a -.02 reaction time, giving us our first win of 2014 and Chris’ first win ever (Blown Inheritance won one race last year when I had a substitute driver). We ran a 4.74 at 148 MPH, I was looking for more but it got the job done. That gave us a jump in the championship points to 3rd place. Chris’ wife Tera went out with breakage after round 2 but she is still leading the points and has the target on her. Our next SHRA race is July 19th in San Antonio and with a little more luck maybe we can have another good showing and be a player in this points chase this year.



Also in Ardmore, congrats go out to club member Jim Baughan who has become a factor in the SHRA Old School bracket classes, and in Ardmore he took his ’37 Chevy to another win in the Old School No Electronics class, putting him in 2nd Place in points. He also runs Old School Electronics with the ’37 and is sitting in 3rd Place in points in that class!



Our next race will take us to Bowling Green, KY for the NHRA Holley Hot Rod Reunion on June 12-14th. This is a Heritage Series event for NHRA, our first to be a competitor in. For me this is more of a ‘bucket list’ adventure as I have always wanted to attend one of these events as a participant, but I thought it would be with my ’56 Corvette in the Show N Shine section. But to be able to take the dragster and compete fulfills a dream. Thousands of cars attend, some racing, some showing and it’s a full weekend of ‘Old School’ hot rodding that everyone should experience. We will take the week off from the daily grind to attend this event and I believe we have a qualifying session once on Thursday, once on Friday and the eliminations will take place on Saturday, all at Beech Bend Raceway. We will be running the quarter mile in the 7.50 Eliminator class and if we can get just one round win, it will be an overwhelming success for us. Actually just pulling Blown Inheritance into the pits at this event qualifies as an overwhelming success! Catch the action online with live video brought to you by BangShift.com beginning on Thursday June 12th running through Saturday June 14th, and the results will be posted daily on DragRaceCentral.com.


_________________
In My Garage -
'55 Bel Air Hardtop
'55 Bel Air 2dr Sedan
'56 Corvette
'67 Camaro RS
'69 Blown 427 nostalgia front engine dragster
'17 Indian Chief Vintage

[David Graves]

Report from the 12th Annual Holley National Hot Rod Reunion June 12-14 in Bowling Green, Kentucky

Well this is an event not to be missed if you like HOT RODS. This NHRA Heritage event is one of 3 major events for their nostalgia series in the country each year, one takes place on the left side in Bakersfield CA, another on the right side in Epping, NH and this one ‘in the middle’ in Bowling Green, KY. Several hundred race cars and several thousand Show and Shine cars make this event a sensory overload if you like ‘old school’ drag racing and cool cars. For the nostalgia drag racers, these three events are the biggest to participate in. Legends of the sport are there and honored, restored race cars are everywhere and the racing is nonstop for 3 days. This event in Bowling Green takes place at Beech Bend Raceway which is inside a huge amusement park with RV hookups, asphalt oval track, quarter mile drag strip and lots of space all along the edge of a river. An ideal setting for a hot rod show!

Blown Inheritance left Dallas on Tuesday AM early with a 12+ hour drive ahead of us. Chris and Tera were already there as they had been doing their photo gigs in that area for several weeks prior to the Hot Rod Reunion. In fact, they normally work this event, but this year both chose to race instead. Marlene and I made it to Kentucky by evening but not without going through several downpours along the way.

Wednesday is set aside for Tech Inspection, and with this being a NHRA event the inspection is a bit more detailed than what we normally experience. When our time came, we failed. Our seat belts were 2 months out of date. With few options, I had to overnight a new set to Bowling Green for early arrival Thursday morning so that we could compete in the weekend’s racing, which began on Thursday. I learned that your belts must be recertified every two years, so with a lighter wallet I did learn a little something else – don’t show up to a NHRA event with expired belts!

Thursday the belts arrived as planned and the car passed Tech. The schedule called for one time trial run on this day and the plan was for us to make a soft pass. This being our first full quarter mile run, (we run eighth mile back home in SHRA competition), I didn’t want to push the car or the driver hard. When the time came we were ready and Chris put it straight down the middle of the lane with a 7.78 ET on our 7.50 index – a perfect pass for our situation. This put us in the 16th spot out of 20 cars. Friday there are two runs scheduled and with that should be able to push the car and driver a bit more to get closer to that 7.50 ET.



On Friday rain took much of the morning, but soon dryer/cooler air took over with the passing of a cool front. Unfortunately the rain cancelled one of our planned runs, so we were down to one run before Saturday’s eliminations. With 20 cars in our class from all over the country, we needed both runs to get prepared for this tough field of nostalgia racers. Thursday’s run of 7.78 was in warm humid air, not conducive to making lots of power. With Friday’s air changing so much, I was almost back to zero with how to tune the big block up for the quarter mile. What I wanted to do was actually run a bit under our 7.50 index so that I would have a good feel for where we were with the tune up as I could slow it down Saturday for eliminations and get it above our 7.50 index. So I put a tune up in it that should pick it up and make that desired run under 7.50, preferably about a 7.45 or so. Well I did put a tuneup in it that ran under the index, but with a 7.28 ET at 184 MPH run, it was a bit too far! That meant I would need to really slow it down for Saturday’s first round race, which coincidentally would be against Steve Matthews from Oklahoma who is a fellow SHRA racer and who we defeated in the final round last month in Ardmore for our first win. Of all the cars in our class, we had to go against one of our own.

Race day Saturday dawned clear and crisp. Lots of anticipation was in the air as everyone knows it’s time to perform. Three days has brought us to this point and everyone wants to do well. I studied our past run data sheets and the current weather conditions several times before making the decision on the tuneup. We know Matthews will be tough and with him running in the low 7.50’s on both of his runs, his car is ready. But I had to make a drastic change to slow the car from a 7.28 to a 7.50 or slower. In drag racing terms, that’s a lot! I made my decision and after our warmup we were called to the lanes. Finally our time came and after both dragsters did their burnouts in front of the huge crowd the cars staged. With the loud exhaust sounds bouncing off the covered grandstands that makes this track so neat, the tree flashed to green. Chris and Steve blasted off the line with Matthews getting a very slight jump, both cars hooked up and screaming. But the big block Blown Inheritance was thumping and by mid track had caught and passed Matthews slightly. At the light Chris ran a 7.46, four hundredths of a second under our index and Matthews posted a 7.52 to take the win. The disappointed was soon forgotten as we know we gave it all we had and simply got beat by a good car and driver.

Here is a video link to a great on board view of our 7.28 / 184 MPH run

http://youtu.be/LLbRSuTJfrU

Chris’ wife Tera was in a different class, and on race day had the same fate, running quicker than her index and lost. There were many cars running quicker due to the drastically improved weather so it was almost expected.

We had a blast, and this was a weekend I will soon not forget. Below are just a few of my favorite photos that I took and there simply was no way I could see it all. Perhaps in the future I will return as a spectator so that I can take it all in. Oh and speaking of spectators, it was quite surprising to see DACC member Jim Leinart at the event on Friday. He wasn’t racing ‘The Goose’ ’55 Chevy but rather he had been driving one of his other ’55 Chevys on the Hot Rod Power Tour. He decided instead of going all the way on the tour, he took a detour and came to Bowling Green before heading back to Texas. It was great to see a familiar face so far from home. And I even got my photo taken with a guy named Garlits.

































Next up for Blown Inheritance we get back to racing in the Southwest Heritage Racing Association for event #5 at San Antonio Raceway in San Anton on Saturday July 19th. We hope to pick up some points on our class leader, my daughter in law Tera Wendland Graves.
_________________
In My Garage -
'55 Bel Air Hardtop
'55 Bel Air 2dr Sedan
'56 Corvette
'67 Camaro RS
'69 Blown 427 nostalgia front engine dragster
'17 Indian Chief Vintage

[David Graves]

San Antonio is a warm place in July.

Racing can be tricky when the ambient temperatures are pushing 100, the track surface can get to the 140 degree range and that can make for some difficult conditions. Luckily our event was an evening affair, with the first qualifying session at 6PM and the track temp was a cool 124 degrees!

At the last SHRA event which was Ardmore, we came out as the #1 qualifier and won the event. We looked forward to San Antonio to hopefully continue our winning ways, hoping for similar success but knowing the probability was against us having another knockout weekend like we did in Ardmore.

With the adjusted altitude pushing over 3100 feet for Q1, and water grains a high 122, making horsepower was going to be difficult. For our first run I reviewed some run data from similar hot and sticky conditions and tweaked it some (I just don’t have a lot of data for the weather conditions we were experiencing). The car went out and ran a conservative 4.87 at 146 MPH. Frankly I was hoping for better. So.. for the 2nd qualifying session I took some fuel away from the motor and it responded with a 4.72 at 149 MPH which put us in the #3 slot out of a 13 car field. This earned us some valuable points in the Shootout standings, a race that will take place at the Motorplex in Ennis at our last event of the year in November. (Racers earn points for the Shootout based on your final qualifying position at each event leading up to the final event of 2014, the top 8 point earners get to race for $1500 and I want some of that!)

Eliminations found us paired up for the first round with Steve Matthews (AGAIN) who qualified 9th with a 4.80. Matthews is always tough, was last year’s series champion and someone who we have raced way to much this year! In Ardmore, we beat Matthews for the event win in the final. Then in Bowling Green, KY at the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion we found ourselves paired for Round 1 and he took us out. Here we are in San Antonio against the Oklahoma runner again! I left the tune up alone, thinking the adjusted altitude would get better and result in a quicker run than our pass in Q2. Chris drove Blown Inheritance down a very slippery track for a win – 4.72 vs a 4.79. Chris was all over the track on the run past 300 feet and he almost crossed the centerline, but held on for the win. That got us a round 2 matchup against Dale McKee who drives an altered out of Heath, Texas. He qualified 12th and was having tuning issues that I am sure were related to the terrible air we had to work with. However I know not to take him or frankly anyone lightly. Dale ran a 5.29 after getting lose like so many were while Blown Inheritance put up another slippery run at 4.90 for the round win. The track was like ice! This got us to the semi finals and a date with Chris’ wife Tera who qualified #1 and was running much better than the rest of the field. Her previous round number was a 4.66 so I knew we were up against a wall. It is always a big deal with these two run against each other, especially when it counts! This one definitely counted (she is leading the points chase and we need to take her out to make up some ground on her!). In spite of my efforts to hop up Blown Inheritance some, (the car left fairly good with a 60 foot time of 1.11 which normally gets us in the high 4.60's) the car started skating around again past 300 feet and Chris had to lift and watched Tera storm to a 4.68 to put us on the trailer. She would go on to be runner up for the event.

So, we got out of San Antonio with a semi final finish and had a great qualifying effort that got us in the #3 spot and no broke parts that I am aware of. This qualifies as a good weekend in my book! We are in the second position for the Shootout event and we are in the second place in the Championship points chase. Tera leads both of these and with 3 events left (Ardmore, Denton and Ennis) it will be difficult to catch Tera for the Championship, but I can promise we are going to try!

Our next event will be back in Ardmore on August 30th for the Ardmore Hot Rod Reunion where all the SHRA classes will be in competition. This will be a hot race most likely just as San Antonio was and last year we were the runner up in our class so just maybe we will continue to do well as we move into the last half of the racing season.

Below is a shot of Chris warming the tires in San Antonio for the first qualifying run.


_________________
In My Garage -
'55 Bel Air Hardtop
'55 Bel Air 2dr Sedan
'56 Corvette
'67 Camaro RS
'69 Blown 427 nostalgia front engine dragster
'17 Indian Chief Vintage

[David Graves]

I wish all of our races were in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Since our last event during July in ‘hot’ San Antonio, there has been little activity for Blown Inheritance as we move through the dog days of summer. However the SHRA schedule had us going to ‘hot’ Ardmore, Okla at the end of August for the Ardmore Hot Rod Reunion show and drags, the 6th of 8 events on the SHRA calendar for 2014. Last year at this event we were the runner up in our class ‘Nostalgia Eliminator 1’. Earlier this year in May we won the White Walls & Drags SHRA event in Ardmore. So we had a little streak of good luck going when we cross the Red River and we were looking to extend it.

We arrived at the gates of Ardmore Dragway with the dragster in tow early Saturday morning. After setting up the pit and getting the car unloaded, we did our normal warmup routine and waited to be called to the staging lanes. A tremendous turnout of racers for this SHRA race put a demand on time as the two SHRA bracket classes had to run their first time trial session before it was our turn. This was a typical late August day in Oklahoma, with high temperatures near 100, a baking sun and there was a lot of water in the air. Not the conditions you want for to make easy horsepower. But having a big block Chevy with a 6-71 blower can overcome that with a little tuning. The conditions had us near 4000 ft adjusted altitude and water grains in the 120’s and I frankly don’t have much ‘good’ data for those conditions.

I selected a tune up for the first of two qualifying sessions we had on schedule and crossed my fingers hoping to get close to the 4.65 index we run in the eighth mile. Our first run went straight down the track and tripped the clocks at 4.69 at 150 MPH! Amazing how cubic inches and a blower can overcome poor air! For our second qualifying session about two hours later I did not change a thing and we notched a 4.70 at 150 MPH and that put a smile on my face. We had a tuneup that could compete today!

After the dust settled in qualifying, we found ourselves in the #1 spot in qualifying with our 4.69 pass getting us the maximum points toward the ‘Shootout’ in November and pretty much guaranteeing our spot in this special $1500 race at the end of the year. For the Ardmore race our #1 spot put us against the #5 qualifier and wouldn’t you know – it was Steve Matthews. He is a hometown racer in the Ardmore area, last year’s class Champ and we have faced him more times that I care to mention – but I will. We took him out in May at Ardmore in the final round, he took us out in June in Bowling Green in the first round, we took him out in San Antonio in round 1 and now we have him again in round 1 in Ardmore (and it’s his turn to win!). But he was running in the high 4.70’s with his small block methanol burning blown front engine digger and we had a tenth of a second on him based on qualifying. So when the tree came down he pushed the lights (tried to get a advantage at the start) and went red giving us the automatic win. We ran another 4.69!

Round 2 was the semi final as we had an 8 car field after a couple of teams dropped out after breakage in qualifying. The winner here was going to the final and the person in our way just happened to be Chris’ wife Tera who is leading the points and has a very fast car. We have never defeated her in eliminations and with Chris 2nd in points we needed to take her out to have any chance of catching her in the points. The sun was setting when it was time to run setting the stage for what was about to go down. Chris knowing she likes to stage last had a plan. The sport of drag racing seems pretty straight forward to outsiders but like a lot of things there is more than what meets the eye. With her lighting quick reaction times, Chris wanted to throw her off at the starting line by burning her down. This is a technique a driver uses to throw someone off their routine at the starting line. One of the more famous of all burn downs took place in 1971 at the NHRA U.S. Nationals where Don Garlits and Steve Carbone had one that became legend. You can see it in the link below.

http://youtu.be/Q4HCHNI1ZyY


Well 43 years later Chris planned to pull a similar trick. He would make her stage first and then hang her out a few seconds before going in himself. The plan worked and he took out his wife in what was a very CLOSE semi final round – his .0682 reaction time bettered her .1137 reaction time and then his 4.6889 was less than 1 thousand of a second quicker than her 4.6894! This was Chris’ first elimination win over Tera! See the ‘Burn Down In Ardmore’ video below from the ‘in car’ camera on Blown Inheritance.

http://youtu.be/4a_ugKsS-ys

That win put us in the final round, our opponent – Richard Brady who drives for the SHRA series sponsor Mallory Screenprint and Embroidery and who won the last race in San Antonio. Richard is a long time racer and cagey along with car owner Al Mallory. With their performance about a tenth of a second off from ours, we knew they would come loaded for bear. If Chris and the car performed just like they have up to this point, the event win should come our way. Again, I did not change a thing on the tuneup since weather conditions had not changed significantly. So under the lights at Ardmore Dragway the pair staged for the final run of the night. At the green Chris got a very slight advantage over Richard (.1002 vs a .1250 reaction time) and our hard charging opponent ran an improved 4.7391 but Blown Inheritance had again a oh so slightly better ET with a 4.7301 – again less than 1 thousand of a second at nearly 150 MPH for both cars. It was our slowest ET all day but still good enough for the event win! Ardmore is a good place!

We improved our 2nd place standing in the Nostalgia Eliminator 1 class, but still a good distance from the points leader Tera Wendland Graves. With two events left, we will not be able to catch her, but just need to hold off the racers behind us trying to take 2nd place from us. Our next event is Saturday October 4th at North Star Dragway in Denton for the SHRA Fall Nationals. The weather should be cooler and we expect a big turnout of racers at this event. From there we end the season in Ennis at the Texas Motorplex for the SHRA Championship Finals on Saturday November 8th.

Here is a photo from Ardmore during the second qualifying session.



Before Blown Inheritance hits the strip again, we will be a part of a special display at the AAA of Texas NHRA Nationals in Ennis when the big show comes to town on Sept 18-21st. Our car and Tera’s will be on hand promoting the SHRA Championship Finals in November to the huge crowd of NHRA fans, so we are looking forward to that! If you attend the event in Ennis, be sure and stop by at the display that should be on the northside of the pit grandstands. Look for the big purple canopy!
_________________
In My Garage -
'55 Bel Air Hardtop
'55 Bel Air 2dr Sedan
'56 Corvette
'67 Camaro RS
'69 Blown 427 nostalgia front engine dragster
'17 Indian Chief Vintage

[David Graves]

The next to final event of 2014 occurred October 4th at Denton’s North Star Dragway. Coming into the race, we are in the 2nd position behind my daughter in law Tera, with a slim to no chance of catching her in the championship points. In the Good Vibrations Motorsports Shootout ‘special’ race that we have earned points for all year based on qualifying at all the events, again we are #2 behind Tera with the same opportunity of not catching her. The Shootout will be run during qualifying at the final event in Ennis with $1500 up for grabs so I am pleased we will have a shot at that! The goal coming to Denton was to move closer to Tera in points should she stumble but for sure to keep 2nd place and not fall back!

The weather was excellent - cool and dry. You can’t burn moisture so dry air lets you put more fuel to the motor so I was expecting quick runs because of this. Club member Alan Strong was in attendance and was able to lend a hand in the pits when needed. Also, it was great to see Geoff Clark and his boys along with Dennis Gormley, Mike Cook, Jim and Christine Baughan and the girls (Jim was racing the '37 Chevy!) and maybe some others I may have missed. I was hoping for good results. Our first qualifying run resulted in a dropped cylinder (not firing), something you don’t see a lot in these cars. But the #2 cylinder was not lighting and raw fuel was all that was coming out of that exhaust pipe. The run on 7 cylinders resulted with a 5.07 ET at 143 MPH, not close to the 4.65 index we need to be running. When we got back to the pits, I pulled the #2 plug for inspection and adjusted the valves on that cylinder. Nothing seemed out of place so I really had no explanation for why the cylinder was not firing. I did load the motor up with fuel in the tune up since the air was so good, so my thought was perhaps I had to much fuel and for the second qualifying run I should lower the amount of fuel going to the motor. I made that adjustment and shortly it was time for our second and final qualifying run. With 13 cars in our class, I wanted to be in the top half and I was hoping for a much better pass this time. Instead, #8 was not firing this time. Chris ran the dragster through to a 4.90 ET at 148 MPH which netted us the #8 slot out of 13. Once back in the pits, I pulled the #8 plug and the ground electrode had collapsed against the center electrode and without a gap there is not spark! Why it did this I have no idea but I re-gapped that plug and tuned the motor with yet a little less fuel hoping for a good result for our 1st round matchup against a good running Dale McKee from Heath, TX in a blown altered. We got the call for 1st round and went up hoping for a solid run. The burnout looked fine and all cylinders were firing. When the green flashed Chris jumped .0398 seconds to quick and got the dreaded red light. When Blown Inheritance launched it went into tire shake so Chris had to lift regardless and we would have lost as McKee blasted to a near perfect 4.6587 at 156 MPH run!

What was learned? We seem to have a hard time running well in cool and dry air. I have very little good data for these kind of conditions but that database is building. I was trying to tune on data we had from earlier this year in Bowling Green, KY where we had similar air but in Denton the dropped cylinders and tire shake kept us from making a representative run. We got out of Denton still holding onto 2nd place in the championship points and Shootout.

We move to the Texas Motorplex in Ennis for our final event of 2014 on Saturday November 8th. This will be a really big event for the SHRA with a lot on the line between the championship and Shootout taking place. We finished #2 in the Shootout standings which pairs us up against Clay Cunningham who drives a very fast and beautiful altered from Dumas, TX. He will be tough. For the Shootout, we will have 8 cars race, and from that the quickest 2 winners that do not go quicker than our 4.65 index will advance to the final where the runnerup gets $500 and the winner takes $1000. I sure would love to get some of that! Our standings in the championship should be solid for the #2 spot behind Tera who will be the Nostalgia Eliminator 1 Champ for 2014. So it will be a race for pride and I hope that Blown Inheritance will be able to be competitive in what should be again cool and dry conditions when we square off in early November. If you get a chance to come out, stop by our pit, pull up a chair and enjoy some great nostalgia racing. Complete details soon at SHRAracing.com.

Below is a shot from the second qualifying session at Denton.


_________________
In My Garage -
'55 Bel Air Hardtop
'55 Bel Air 2dr Sedan
'56 Corvette
'67 Camaro RS
'69 Blown 427 nostalgia front engine dragster
'17 Indian Chief Vintage

[David Graves]

Blown Inheritance Closes Out 2014 Racing Season

It has been a fun year to say the least running across the region with our nostalgia drag racing series – The Southwest Heritage Racing Association. There are so many great racers, from our competitors with similar front engine nostalgia dragsters to the bracket racers racing their pre 1979 ‘door cars’. Everyone has the passion and everyone wants to help their fellow racers do well. It’s a great group of folks – as most car oriented groups are I have found. Last year Team Blown Inheritance finished #2 in points, and my expectations was a solid Top 5 finish in 2014. The competition simply gets better as more cars join the fun and that makes it hard to be at the top.

Coming into the SHRA Championship Finals at the Texas Motorplex, we trailed my daughter in law by a lead that we would not be able to overcome unless her Kilgore, TX based slingshot dragster simply didn’t show up and then we would have to qualified at the top and win the race. We have done that before but for the stars to line up again would be extremely unlikely. On top of the race event itself, we qualified for the Good Vibrations Motorsports Nostalgia Eliminator 1 SHOOTOUT that had $1500 on the line in a special ‘race within a race’. We were looking for green when we arrived at the Motorplex.

The race was Saturday, but we arrived Friday evening to hopefully get a couple of test runs in to see if we could get Blown Inheritance down the Motorplex and have something for them on Saturday. The pits were full of SHRA racers doing the same. Coming out of the last race in Denton, I was somewhat unsure of why we were dropping a cylinder randomly on our runs. What I found after getting the dragster back to the garage was a spark plug had a ground strap that was closed, which caused me a bit of concern as to why. I did a visual inspection in the chamber and could see a little shiny spot on the domed piston that indicated it had hit the plug. I began to think the worse - a stretched rod. After more time working through the issue, what I found was that I simply did not have that spark plug indexed to its proper spot. Bottom line is when you have a combustion chamber full of piston, you need every bit of room you can muster and if the spark plug is not indexed perfectly, it will touch. That was an easy (and cheap) fix.

We unloaded and did our warmup and headed to the staging lanes for the first of two planned Friday night test passes. It was ‘Friday Night Street Night’ at the Motorplex and so there were a lot of street cars making time trials, and frankly the track prep was not up to our liking. Regardless we were one of the first fast cars to make a hit, and with the track temperature low since the sun had set and the air was crisp, hooking up horsepower to this track surface could be difficult. And it was. Immediately when my son Chris hit the throttle the dragster lit the tires up and he idled down the track. My thoughts – I have way too much power in it or I am way off on the tire pressure. We got back to the pits and started to get ready for another run before time ran out. We listened to other SHRA racers make runs, they had the same issue. It was not the tuneup, it was simply that the track was not prepped for our kind of cars, but it was ideal for street cars. We packed up for the night and headed to the hotel knowing that Saturday was going to be a crap shoot for the 1st round of qualifying AND this would serve as the first round of the $1500 SHOOTOUT.

Race day Saturday in Ennis was a very comfortable day, ahead of the great chill down of winter that was scheduled to arrive a few days later. The sun was in and out of the clouds, so the conditions looked to be really really good. Our first qualifying session (which was the first round of the SHOOTOUT) would take place at about Noon or so, which means the track and air would still be cool. To advance to the final round of the SHOOTOUT, you had to beat your opponent and be one of the two quickest winners – meet those conditions and you are guaranteed $500 with a possibility of doubling that if you win the final of the SHOOTOUT. Our goal was to run as quick to the 4.65 Index as possible, win the race and advance to the final. We had opposite of us Clay Cunningham who drives a beautiful Fiat Altered out of Dumas, TX. In spite of coming from the panhandle and altitude, Clay adapts well to the conditions the SHRA typically runs which is more humidity and less altitude. We went up for our round and at the burnout the car sounded good. Fingers were crossed that we would lay one down. The green came down and Chris took off with the car starting to drift at about 100ft. Knowing this was eating up elapsed time he lifted rather than to risk getting in over his head. We came up empty in the SHOOTOUT and our 5.06 ET put us in the bottom of the field after the first qualifying session.

For the second session of qualifying, naturally I wanted to improve. I leaned the fuel out a little hoping for better results. At the green, the car marched right down the track and the scoreboard lit up with a 4.61 at 151 MPH. This was under our 4.65 index (and the run did not count) but that was ok as the car performed well, I just needed to slow it down a tad for the first round of eliminations. Our final qualifying position was #9 based on our 5.06 run in Q1.

Round 1 came at dusk at 6:30 as a couple of incidents on the track slow things down during the day. We had Brian Briggs from Lake Charles, LA who runs a injected front engine digger and had qualified #4 with a 4.71. We knew we could run with him if everything fell into place. But it didn’t. The car drifted again just like it did in the first session of qualifying and Chris had to lift. Briggs’ 4.653 would have been very difficult to beat regardless. This ended the season for Blown Inheritance.

We finished #2 in points just 46 behind Chris’ wife Tera. In one of those ‘what if’ stories, had our car not had transmission issues in Wichita Falls, and fuel pump issues in Temple, we might have been able to grabbed that top spot. But having the success and most importantly fun we had makes the points secondary in the big picture. Congrats to Tera and car owner Darrell Walden on a fantastic season!

Below is a link to the video we got from the 1st qualifying session and 1st round of eliminations, both runs aborted.

http://youtu.be/SI7AyrUFQcE

The camera failed us on our 4.61 run which I would have really liked to have seen. I will be purchasing more lead weight to stick on the front end for future rare races we might encounter with the prime horsepower producing conditions we had at Ennis – that is dry cool air and a sticky track. The extra weight would likely have cured the drifting issue.

Here is a shot from the Motorplex of our SHOOTOUT first round



And some of my favorite pictures from the 2014 season.


















_________________
In My Garage -
'55 Bel Air Hardtop
'55 Bel Air 2dr Sedan
'56 Corvette
'67 Camaro RS
'69 Blown 427 nostalgia front engine dragster
'17 Indian Chief Vintage