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Team 'Blown Inheritance' Nostalgia Drag Racing Blog 2016
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David Graves
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 7:36 am    Post subject: Team 'Blown Inheritance' Nostalgia Drag Racing Blog 2016 Reply with quote

It's almost time to start off the 2016 racing season, and with that this blog for the 3rd year in a row where you can follow along the entire season of action.

Last year, we finished within 1 round of racing of being at the top of the points at the end of the year. We lost the championship on our last pass of the 2015 season on a controversial decision (you can read about that in the last entry of the 2015 blog), so for 2016 we hope to be in a similar battle for the championship. As like last year, there are teams within the SHRA that have spent time and money to improve their race cars, and the competition will be tougher than ever!

For 2016, Blown Inheritance will be running a little tighter on the budget (a budget that was already one of the tightest in our class!). We did not do any major teardowns over the winter, but did have to replace our injectors that were on loan to us. I got a new Hilborn injector set up just like our old one from Alkydigger.com and then sent the fuel pump and new injectors to Gorr Fuel Systems to be flowed during the winter. This is a crucial step in having a good starting spot to tune from when running a blown and injected race motor, and our expectations are to have very similar performances like the old setup thanks to Gorr. Time will tell on this one.

The other winter project was to pull and repair the oil pan that was damaged in Wichita Falls last year when a bumpy shut down got Blown Inheritance bouncing after a 150 MPH blast down the 1/8 mile. A pretty good hit on that particular run bent the pan and ripped the engine diaper completely off. Some of the tracks we run at are not the smoothest in the shut down and I will be reminding my son Chris (who drives Blown Inheritance) to be careful when we return to that track this year!

Oh and one more thing, new slicks for the season were mounted over the winter.

The first 'event' for the race team was a SHRA display at the DFW Auto Show in March. Blown Inheritance was one of three cars in the display that also featured a NE3 class altered and a Mopar that runs in the Nostalgia Super Stock class in SHRA. The fun part of these types of events is allowing little kids to sit in the cockpit of the dragster and seeing them smile and ask lots of questions.



We have not fired the motor yet as of this writing so that is on the agenda to do soon as our first race is quickly approaching on Saturday April 2nd. We had hoped to get some testing done but delays in various things have gotten in the way and my driver is not always in town. We may end up having to spin the new rubber and see how these new injectors react at Temple in the first qualifying session, not what I wanted to see happen but time has gotten away from us. If we can, a weekday test session in Denton might take place but that is uncertain at this time.

Our race schedule for 2016 looks like this -

April 2nd - Temple, TX
May 7th - Denton, TX
May 28th - Ardmore, OK
June 11th - Gilliam, LA
July 16th - Noble, OK
August 27th - Kennedale, TX
Sept 10th - Wichita Falls, TX
October 1st - Denton, TX


So, race #1 in Temple is about to be here!


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David Graves
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 7:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This first race report will be very little about our performance as that frankly is not important. Our first race of the season was marred with the death of one of our really good guys of our racing series. This unfortunate non racing occurrence has shaken the SHRA. We are a very tight knit group, and our racers and events are very laid back and fun, but competitive. That attracts good folks I think, similar to what I think makes the DACC a great car club. When you lose a key guy, one that is so well liked, easy going and simply a cool dude, well before his time – it hurts.

A medical incident of some sort claimed Iowa Park, Texas racer William ‘Bee’ Godwin at 59 years old at Little River Dragway in Temple during the SHRA Little River Nostalgia Nationals. Making it even more traumatic was that Bee was in the final round of his class Nostalgia Eliminator 2. He left the line for what turned out to be his final run and shortly after that he passed out. His front engine dragster was not at full speed, he drifted to the left, head slumped to the side and the car drug along the guardrail until it ended where at the end of the shutdown he hit the final barrier of the racetrack at a slow speed. CPR was performed immediately as we have a fully trained paramedic on site who is also a racer. Emergency personnel arrived shortly and took over. After what was a grueling long period of time while I did my best to console his wife Sharon, he was transported to the local Temple hospital. Marlene and I took Sharon to the hospital to be with her husband, but shortly after we arrived we got the bad news at about 2AM. It was tough for everyone.

I had joked with Bee earlier in the day about him beating us last year in Shreveport, when he decided to change classes and move up to our class Nostalgia Eliminator 1 for one race. He decided he wanted to ‘tip the can’ and burn some nitro to see if he could get his beautiful slingshot dragster to pick up enough performance to run in our class for this next year. That day he was lost on the tuneup, but we drew him in eliminations and he beat us in an upset. Had we won that round in Shreveport, later we would have had enough points to win the championship. So I was giving him a hard time about that and we had a good laugh about it. Bee had also recently change slicks, to the compound we run and we compared notes on what we thought about that. A pretty typical race weekend with Bee. His wife Sharon races also with a ’59 Corvette and they were always together at the track having a good time.

Bee was on the Nostalgia Eliminator Rules Committee for the SHRA and we depended on him in a lot of decision making. He was also the 2013 SHRA NE2 Class Champion. You hate to lose friends and Bee and Sharon are good friends. To have to witness and live this nightmare with Sharon so intimately was very difficult for me. She was devastated and lost. She wouldn’t accept it, said it was a dream. Frankly I was having the same feelings, but I held it together for her – and Bee. I hope to never have to do this again, but will for any friend of mine.

Blown Inheritance had a great event before this. Some drama with a leaky fuel pump during the week leading up to the event almost kept us from racing, but an overnighted seal did the trick. We didn’t qualify as well as we would have liked and actually had our best run of the two thrown out due to a malfunction in the timing system electronics. But we made it to the final round with a little luck and were in line next to run behind Bee when his incident occurred. We will run our final round of this race during qualifying at our next event on May 7th at North Star Dragway.

Here is a shot of the always happy Bee Godwin and another of his beautiful slingshot dragster. RIP my friend.




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acardon
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 7:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

He went, doing what he loved to do. If you have to go, that would be the ideal way.
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 8:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The SHRA Spring Nostalgia Nationals are on tap for Saturday May 7th at Denton's North Star Dragway, the SHRA and Outlaw Fuel Altereds will be in competition so it will be a over the top day of nostalgia drags. Action will get underway about 1PM with the first time trials so come out for a taste of some great grassroots racing and be sure to stop by the Blown Inheritance pit and say hi!


Event Info here
http://shraforum.proboards.com/thread/466/event-north-dragway-spring-nationals

And with my son being in the photography/graphic business, he knows some very talented picture takers, and at the last event in Temple his buddy Randy Anderson did some experimenting with black and white 'film', like we used in the old days! Old school drags and old school photography made for some interesting images as evident of just a few of our ride -









And here is some black and white of DACC member Jim Baughan in his '37 Chevy coupe and a nice shot of a '57 ...




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PostPosted: Sun May 15, 2016 10:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Denton May 7

This blog update has us at the second event of the year for the SHRA this time in Denton, and Blown Inheritance has unfinished business from the last event in Temple. At Temple we made it to the final round and were in the staging lanes to run that final but was unable to get that run completed due to the incident involving fellow racer Bee Godwin. So, the plan became we would run the Temple final in the second qualifying session at the Denton race. Our opponent, Richard Brady drives Al Mallory’s injected rail and can put a number up when the weather is dry and cool, like it was in Temple a month ago. Warmer, humid air can affect the performance of injected cars, where blown cars like ours can create their own air to some extent. In Temple the adjusted air was at or below sea level, where Denton the air was over 2500 feet. This adjusted air is a combination of humidity, temperature, water grains, barometer etc. This is the air the engine ‘thinks’ it is in. With the change in air, I was hoping for good things for this final. But first we had our first qualifying pass to make, and the tune up I selected gave us a high 4.60 with similar air in the past. As they say, we don’t race them on paper and my expected 4.69 was a 4.99. Needless to say I wasn’t happy. I found out that Brady ran a 4.93 in his first qualifying run so both cars were off the pace. The second of two qualifying runs would be our Temple final round for all the marbles, so I decided to take a big step towards leaning the fuel out for this next run and hope for the best. It came our time to run and as the cars staged Brady left way early (later found his transbrake didn’t hold) and he got a red light, while Chris wheeled Blown Inheritance to a 4.72 ET at 149 MPH. That got us the Temple win, and put us in the number three spot in qualifying out of eleven cars in our class for Denton.

I was feeling pretty good with the response I got from the motor with the tune up change, so I elected to leave everything like we had it for round one. The call went out for round one and we made our way to the staging lanes, where our first opponent would be Steve Dunkin in the ‘Foolish Pleasure’ slingshot. Dunkin qualified in the eight spot, but he can be pretty inconsistent, running slow and then run quick. He can step up anytime and put one on you. Finally our time to run arrived and the call to fire them up went out. Dunkin fired but Blown Inheritance did not. Normally, the motor fires right up, but I spun it over and over and over – nothing. Dunkin waited while I frantically tried to determine why the motor would not come to life. Finally, I waved him on and accepted defeat. Dunkin went on and ran way under the index, meaning had we been in the other lane the win would have been ours. What a disappointment. Naturally I was concerned as to what kept us from firing up. When we got back to our pit, I started taking things apart, and eventually determined that the mag kill switch had failed. It’s the familiar story of a $1.50 part stopping what could have been a $500 payday for us if we had won. As the race went on, upsets were common and most of those at the top of the points fell in round one. We had the points lead with the Temple win, and by the end of the Denton race we had only fallen to second place, so we dodged a huge bullet. I’m just thankful that the problem wasn’t major and we quickly identified it. We should be ready to go at the next event in Ardmore on May 28th. Below is a shot from Denton. And congrats to fellow club member Jim Baughan who has won the first two events in his class with his ’37 Chevy Coupe and has a huge point lead in the Old School No Electronics class!



And before the racing got underway at Denton, the SHRA paid tribute to our friend Bee Godwin who we lost at the last race in Temple in a non racing incident. Two of Bee’s fiercest competitors line up after making big burnouts and idled down the drag strip with the SHRA family looking on and it was all captured in a wonderful aerial video, check it out below.

VIDEO LINK - https://youtu.be/-tOABHkQWyA


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PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 2:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ardmore May 28

No timely updates until now thanks to a lighting strike that took out my computer on June 12th (and other things) and through the long process of trying to fix the computer (success), recover data (not successful), the long road to become digitally plugged in has begun, part of that being re-establishing passwords that were stored in long lost data that I did not have backed up, thus no updates here until now. (Note to self - always backup data).

The Ardmore event simply put was rained out. We actually loaded and were on our way to Ardmore and got the notification as we crossed the Red River into Oklahoma that the event was postponed. A freak rainstorm dumped several inches on the racetrack located just a few miles up I-35 from Ardmore and flooded the pits in the early morning hours with no chance to dry out by race time. The city of Ardmore didn't receive a drop of rain. So we made a U turn and returned home without spinning a tire. The event is rescheduled for August 13th. Next up is Shreveport on June 11th.
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 3:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shreveport June 11th

We got into Louisiana excited to get some racing in after a bit of time off. At the last race we actually raced in, you may recall a faulty electrical issue kept the engine from firing in round one. Initially it appeared to be a faulty kill switch that grounds the mag. But once home and with further inspection it was determined that something in our fairly simple electrical circuit other than the kill switch failed. Being that the magneto is truly old school and has points and is not electronic like most are today, it is more difficult to 'manage' a points mag than it is a electronic mag. There are no MSD ignition controllers for this. So early on in this adventure I installed a specially designed rev limiter for points mags to prevent engine damage should something break in the drive train. Along with that I installed a shift light which isn't as straight forward as it is with electronic mags due to the points and the electronic field it generates around the motor. Over time, the shift light would never work right, coming on as soon as the engine got up to around 3000 RPM due to electromagnetic interference (this isn't an issue with modern electronic magnetos). After painstakingly working to electronically shield everything, the thing still didn't work right. So eventually the shift light came out over a year ago and Chris shifts on feel just as he has from day one. The rev limiter, electric line filter remained. And as time went by the rev limiter became ineffective for some reason, but I left it in there. After the motor would not fire in Denton and getting back home with the car, I isolated the kill switch and tested it - no issues. So the mag was being grounded by one of the other components. So I took the non functioning rev limiter and line filter out and all is well now. All that junk cost me several hundred dollars and didn't work anyhow and it cost me a race win in the long run!

The race in Shreveport got into some delays as we progressed through the evening due to a little rain and a couple of excessively long clean ups of fluids on the track. Things were a bit out of whack as the track manager was not on site due to a family emergency, and without his leadership the track workers seemed to be lost when it came to clean ups. This is a normal part of drag racing, cleaning up oil, tranny fluid or whatever that gets deposited on the track when something breaks. But for some reason these guys were having a very difficult time dealing with it. We got our first qualifying pass in, running a 4.77 - I was looking for alot more and closer to our 4.65 index. We never got that chance to improve. After 8-9 hours and at 11PM the SHRA decided to pull the plug on the event. With 3-4 rounds of racing remaining (we had already decided to forgo the second qualifying session), it would be 3AM or later before we would finish the race. We loaded up and got out of Shreveport! Points were awarded based on the one and only run everyone made, and with that kept us in the 2nd spot. But the car wasn't running well, and with no budget or time to test, it would be mid July before we would run at the next event near Okla City and try steps to make this thing run quicker.

Here is a shot of from our one and only pass.


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PostPosted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 2:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote



Noble, Okla – July 16

Since our last event in Louisiana, with only one run and feeling the car was not performing well, I decided to do what was required to speed up the blower and get more air in the motor. Normally this isn’t a big deal, simply put a smaller pulley on the blower and you get more air in the motor. But our setup as it was had us limited on going with a smaller blower pulley as the idler pulley was adjusted out as far as I could get it. To fix that I would have to get a larger idler pulley to allow me to put a smaller pulley on the blower. So, that is what I did, obtained a larger idler pulley, got a couple of smaller pulleys for the blower and showed up in Oklahoma with the smaller pulley on.

The air was bad in Oklahoma, hot and humid which resulted in high density altitude and lots of grains of water in the air. You can’t burn water and you like to have lower density altitude as that gives you more oxygen to burn. But the smaller blower pulley was to compensate for that. Our first qualifying run was made in 104 degree air with 140 grains of water and 4400 ft of density altitude, in other words horrible air. Frankly we seem to run well in this kind of air and I reviewed old data and made similar adjustments to our better runs and expected even a little more with the smaller pulley on the blower. But that didn’t happen, the run produced a 5.07 ET, our worst run of the year so far. So with that, we headed back to the pits and I began to seek opinions (everyone has one). One friend was there that use to drive nostalgia Top Fuel and is a performance engine builder in Oklahoma, someone who I highly trust and have known for years. After explaining what we have been through this year, he suggested I put the old injectors (smaller) on the blower, add a couple of degrees of timing and see what happens. I normally do not adjust the timing as we have been able to perform well without messing with it and I have been told that adding more timing is hard on crank bearings and I don’t need that. But our Pal said a couple of degrees won’t hurt it and he knows better than I so 2 degrees were added and we swapped the new larger injectors out for the old smaller injectors, all just in time for the second qualifying session. On that run a much improved 4.77 popped up on the scoreboard and that was very encouraging. But we were still a tenth off where I wanted to be, closer to the 4.65 index we run.

We came into this race second in points and I surely didn’t want to lose any ground. Our first round competitor would be a car we should be able to defeat – on paper. But we know we don’t run the races on paper. I added another degree of timing after checking a few plugs (looking for small specs of aluminum from the combustion chamber) to make sure we were not pushing the timing too much. All looked good. I leaned the fuel a little on the tuneup and the plan was for Chris to run it to about 100 ft of the finish line and if he was ahead, lift off the throttle to prevent from breaking out (running quicker than our 4.65 index). This was because we simply didn’t know how quick the car might run and I didn’t want to lose by going too quick. When the lights went green our opponent red lit, giving the win to us automatically. Fortunately, Chris saw the red light and was quick on his toes to know if we broke out (ran under the 4.65 index) we would still get the win as the rules say a red light trumps running to quick when deciding a winner. So he kept his foot in it the entire way and it ran a 4.61 at 155 MPH in the eighth mile! We had our car back! So back to the pits to get ready for round 2 with a plan to slow it down some, but not much as we were against Andy Mears who runs a ’57 Chevy funny car and is plenty tough. About 45 minutes later we were back on the starting line ready to run, Andy does his burnout and quickly backs up, Chris behind him. Chris always likes to stage first and by the time Chris was backed up Andy had the top stage bulb lit. I knew this was going to throw Chris off his routine. I am in front of Chris guiding him in to the staging lights and Chris is hurrying his routine. I can’t communicate with him but if I could I would have told him to slow down, let Andy sit there and wait. But Chris quickly lit the first bulb and I moved out of the way and just as I did Andy lit the second bulb, Chris immediately lit his second bulb and waited for the green light. Knowing this would be a close race, Chris knew that getting off the line quickly could be the difference in winning or losing this race. He couldn’t wait and anticipated the green light, double stepped it and drew a red light, giving the ’57 Chevy funny car the win. Pure driver error. Oh well, it happens and lessons were learned. He will know next time if someone rushes up to stage, he will just let them sit there and do his normal deal and not feel obligated to hurry up. We leave Noble with the points lead, but with several racers right on our tail.

We head to Ardmore Oklahoma on August 13th to run our rained out spring race. I would rather be in Bowling Green, Kentucky for the Tri Five Nationals that weekend but the stars didn’t align on that for me. We have won a couple of times in Ardmore, so with the car running much better I feel good about going into the last half of the season.

A shot from Noble, Oklahoma of Blown Inheritance.

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2016 1:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The August 13th event in Ardmore cancelled again due to rain, (this was a makeup from a rainout in May!). No makeup date available so we will lose this race. 'Blown Inheritance' will sit idle and wait for the next SHRA event on August 27th at Texas Raceway in Kennedale. This puts us with 3 races left (Kennedale, Wichita Falls and Denton) so our need to perform well to maintain our points lead increases as we have one less race to make up a bad weekend with! The car is running well right now so we should be in the hunt. Hope to see some DACC folks attend the Kennedale event, be sure to stop by our pit!


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'56 Corvette
'67 Camaro RS
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2016 3:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Kennedale, TX - August 27

The SHRA racing season has been tough for a number of reasons this year, and with this last race at Texas Raceway in Kennedale it continued. Many of our racers arrive at the races on Friday evening to get their pit space set up and perhaps get some testing done in preparation of the upcoming event. The SHRA family had a tragic accident Friday before the Longhorn Nostalgia Drags when Nostalgia Eliminator 2 racer Ron Muncy was involved in a single car incident on the track and succumb to his injuries. Ron was an accomplished longtime drag racer and was currently 3rd in points in the NE2 class. His death put a somber mood on the following day’s racing.

For the ‘Blown Inheritance’ team, our goal in Kennedale was to protect our points lead in our class, Nostalgia Eliminator 1. After getting our performance level back after some changes at the last event in Noble, Okla, my optimism was high. Trying to stay focused was difficult with the loss of Ron the night before. In spite we pushed on and in our first of two qualifying runs, we made a respectful pass of 4.70 seconds at 151 MPH to take the top spot after the first session. A great run off the trailer. Wanting to improve on that, I decided to make one adjustment – lean out the fuel mixture a tad and see if we could get closer to the index of 4.65 without going under that. About an hour later we were called to the lanes and our run produced a 4.62, quicker than our ‘index’ of 4.65 and so that run was thrown out since we had run 4.70 previously. This gave me the indication that I needed to slow the car down a tad for eliminations, which I would do by richening the fuel mixture. With the weather in the upper 90’s and lots of grains of water in the air our car was doing well in spite of the conditions. At the conclusion of qualifying the elimination ladders is determined by your final qualifying order and we grabbed the top spot and maximum points. With the tight points battle, we wanted every point we can get. Going into eliminations we were paired against Chris’ wife, Tera who had qualified #5. She is always tough and her car owner can get the maximum from the car. Getting a first round win was crucial for us to fight off 5 racers who are within reach of the top spot where we sit in points. With our car running so quick, I wanted to slow it down just a little to ensure that we did not run quicker than our 4.65. With Tera sitting in 6th place in points, she needed to do well at this event if she wanted to remain a contender for the 2016 class champion, so I knew she would bring her best to the starting line. At the green, Tera got out on Chris by just a hair, and took it all the way to the finish line taking us out with a 4.68 to our 4.74. Blown Inheritance slowed down almost a tenth of a second, much more than I wanted or anticipated and looking back I should have left the tuneup alone and had Chris simply drive it differently. Ouch. Tera would go on to the final and would lose to our closest rival in the points Richard Brady. His win and our first round loss put Brady in the points lead, and we fell to 2nd place with two races left and 5 racers all with a shot at the championship. The will be a battle until the last race just as it was last year.

We have two events left, September 10th in Wichita Falls for the SHRA Bee Godwin Memorial Nostalgia Nationals and Oct 1st in Denton for the SHRA Championship Finals. To win the championship, the goal is simple. We must perform better than the competition. We have finished in the 2nd position every year since the SHRA was formed 4 years ago and we want the top spot worse than you can imagine. With six race cars in our class all within reaching the top spot by the end of racing on October 1st, it is going to be a fight to the finish, and one we are up to!

Below is a shot of Blown Inheritance from Kennedale. Also, DACC racer Jim Baughan continues to make huge strides in defending his 2015 championship in the Old School No Electronics class with yet another win in Kennedale. Congrats to Team Baughan!




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PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote



This Saturday is our event in Wichita Falls, and we must do well to stay in the championship hunt! There is a live feed from the track, it may or may not work, for sure there is no audio but I am told video only at this time. So tune in about 3PM when all 6 classes of the SHRA will be in action, 'Blown Inheritance' will likely run sometime for our first qualifying run after 3:30 or so. Jim Baughan with his blue '37 will run in two classes, so he should be up early two times, then the run order repeats. Check it out if you can .. I am told the login and password are 'wrp'

link to feed here - http://204.154.246.96:82/
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2016 10:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wichita Falls Sept 10

There were two goals for Team Blown Inheritance coming to the Bee Godwin Memorial Nostalgia Nationals. First, to remember and reflect back on our good friend Bee Godwin. Second was to perform better than our competition in order to stay in the hunt for the championship. We accomplished one of our two goals.

The drag strip at Wichita Raceway Park was dedicated and named ‘Bee Godwin Blvd’ during our event. There was a record turnout of nostalgia drag cars for this event, one of the largest yet for the SHRA. It was a great event in honor of our pal who we lost during the Temple event earlier this year due to medical issues. His family from Maryland, Colorado and more attended and we had a big balloon launch sending messages to the sky to Bee. It was quite an event in that respect.

Out second goal we came up short on, but not due to lack of trying. Good luck plays a part in everything in life, and we have had our share. But with it comes a little bad luck sometimes. Our first qualifying run off the trailer went pretty much as planned. The air was cool and dry in Wichita Falls this day and horsepower was there for the making. I gave the blown big block a tuneup that I thought would put us right there at the 4.65 index we run against and boy did we get close. A 4.6479 is what came up on the time slip, just 2 thousandths of a second from perfect! Wow was that nice to see, but at the same time it was quicker than our index of 4.65 which means we go to the bottom of the list of qualifiers, you can’t run quicker than 4.65 or you get penalized. All we needed to do was slow down just a hair, which frankly could be done by Chris when he stages the car. Simply deep stage at the start line and it takes away just a little ET and we should be there. That was the plan for the second and final qualifying run. Out time came to run and we expected to run a number that would grab the #1 qualifying position or very near it and the valuable points that come with it. Chris staged the dragster, the lights came down and he hit the throttle, only to immediately lose power. He idled down the track to a 16.90 ET at 26 MPH. With no idea what had happened we went down to pick him up at the end of the track and a simple fitting on the throttle cable failed. As soon as he hit the throttle it broke, closing the butterflies and only an idle was to get him down the track. We qualified in last position out of 10 cars in our class. That hurt! Number 1 in points Richard Brady had a slim 14 point lead over us coming into Wichita Falls, he qualified #1 and got the maximum qualifying points available, while we got the fewest. Regardless we had a mission to do well in eliminations and we had a car that could do just that. Our first round was against Steve Dunkin who will get you if you make a mistake. We didn’t and our 4.82 took out his 4.87 for a round 1 win. Brady also won his 1st round. For the second round due to the ‘luck’ factor, Brady got a bye run as we had an odd number of cars competing, while we had to run Carl Johnson who was sitting in 3rd place just behind us in the points. This turned out to be a good race, and one that we won when Johnson ran a 4.60 (under the 4.65 index) and automatically lost, we ran a solid 4.68. Our next round opponent would be Richard Brady who also ran a 4.68 in his 2nd round bye run! This was a race we had to win. I had a discussion with Chris, and our plan was to leave the tuneup like it was. The air was getting better and both cars likely would run better. Our’s has a blower, Brady’s is injected. The good air equaled the playing ground as with a blower I can ‘make air’ when there is none, injected cars can’t and have to deal with the air they got. With the air good, we both could make plenty of horsepower. This was going to be a drag race! We were called to the line, Brady fired up and I attempted to follow. The starter had been making strange noises beginning at our first qualifying run and progressively got worse. While I had it in the back of my mind, I hoped that the starter would get us through the event. It didn’t. I could not spin the motor over, the starter just made a terrible noise and nothing else. We had to watch as Brady took the win with a 4.62. Brady would go on to win the event, grabbing the maximum amount of points available. This gives him a 43 point lead, one that mathematically we could overcome but highly doubtful. Brady would have to have just a terrible showing at Denton on October 1st in qualifying and get beat in Round 1 and then we would have to qualify at the top, win the race and with a little luck overcome his huge lead. Tough deal. Frankly our real issue now is to just hold on to 2nd place in the points as Chris’ wife Tera has climbed to the 3rd position and is only 1 point behind us! With us finishing in 2nd place for the past 3 years, I would hate to break our streak!

So before the SHRA Championship Finals on October 1st in Denton, I will address the starter issue, service the car and be ready for the final SHRA event. For ‘Blown Inheritance’, this will not be our final event of 2016 however. We have made plans to attend and compete at the 25th Annual California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, California later in October. We will tow out to the west coast along with several other SHRA racers including Tera’s car owner, so both Graves’ will be in action out west. Should be good time and one of those bucket list items for me.

Below is a shot of our warmup before Q1.




Join us in Denton on Saturday October 1st for the Finals! Jim Baughan looks to repeat as class champ in the Old School No Electronics class so DACC will likely get a repeat class champion!


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'55 Bel Air Hardtop
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'56 Corvette
'67 Camaro RS
'69 Blown 427 nostalgia front engine dragster
'17 Indian Chief Vintage
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David Graves
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 28, 2016 9:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

As I was getting ready for our last SHRA event for 2016 and performing normal routine service between events, a major issue was discovered. I discovered that the lower frame rail on the left side just at the front of the fuel tank was broke. As you can see in the photo, it’s a clean full break. So .. this resulted in a full detailed inspection of the chassis, and an emergency repair in order to make the SHRA Championship Finals this Saturday. As seen in the second photo, the bottom rail was repaired. This was accomplished by cutting out about 6 inches of the tubing, sleeving it inside, then attaching and welding full size tubing that was halved. A big thanks to our partner Meyer Custom Machining & Fabricating In Denton for the quick response! Our plans over the winter have now been adjusted to include having a new chassis made to replace this one, that dates back to the late 60’s. Even with the many updates and such, I feel that if we are to continue to race, a new chassis is required. It will be a busy winter for Blown Inheritance.

But first we have a race to win on Saturday, then we will be making final preparations to head to Bakersfield, Calif for the 25th Annual Hot Rod Reunion later in October before calling it a year!

BEFORE



AFTER

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'55 Bel Air 2dr Sedan
'56 Corvette
'67 Camaro RS
'69 Blown 427 nostalgia front engine dragster
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David Graves
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Joined: 02 Jun 2005
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 9:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Denton, TX – Oct 1

The Championship Finals. This is where officially the season champs are decided and acknowledged. Some Champions come into the event with enough points to be the Champ without spinning a tire, some Champions are decided during this final event up to the final round. In our class, Alkydigger Nostalgia Eliminator 1, ‘Blown Inheritance’ came into this event in 2nd, behind Richard Brady by 41 points and in front of Tera Graves by 1 point. The only way we could get the championship title is by qualifying at the top with Brady at the bottom, then Brady would have to go out in Round 1 and we would have to win the event. Longshot is the best description.

But before that, lets reflect back on the last race. It was in Wichita Falls that a faulty starter kept us from racing Brady in the semi final round. That event Brady would go on and win, qualified #1 and walked out with every point available, and made our effort to catch him nearly impossible. But that faulty starter kept us from running and unknown to us we had a broken tube on our chassis that was not discovered until after I got the car home from Wichita Falls. So in the big picture it likely was a good thing that starter failed! The faulty starter I sent to be rebuilt, and replaced it with a spare I had that I did not know the history of. I installed it at home and spun the motor over enough to build oil pressure with no issues, so problem fixed .. or so I thought. Saturday on race day, doing the normal routine we perform where we warm up before the first qualifying run of the day, I connect the battery to the starter and hit the button… problem remains! I am not believing this! It just so happens we are also ‘racing’ in the first qualifying session for the Dooley & Sons Hot Rod Shop Shootout that we qualified for earlier this year. $500 is up for grabs along with bragging rights and I sure want to take my place in that ‘race within a race’. But the starter is junk. Across the pit, a fellow racer sees and hears the issue. He comes over and says he has a spare starter for a big block Chevy and I can use it if I like. Not knowing if the flywheel is loose, or something else is wrong I am hesitate to take his offer – I don’t want to race an unsafe car. With the help of a couple of other racers who eyeball the situation, they confer with my observation – all looks good and I just have another bad starter. So on goes this borrowed starter and once buttoned up the car fires up and we get a quick warmup done before the first round of the Shootout (and our first qualifying session for the event!). The below photo shows our thrash with the starter!




8 cars are in the Shootout, and those cars are paired up and race each other in the first of two qualifying runs for the event taking place. Then the two quickest winners face off in the second qualifying session for the final, and the winner pockets $500! So the goal is to ‘win’ that first session and be one of the two quickest winners. I look over past data as I always do and determine based primarily on weather, a tune up and apply those settings. I want to run as close to 4.65 as I can without going quicker in order to win and be one of the two quickest winners. Decisions and adjustments are made and we are called to the line. The run goes perfectly, we win and we run a 4.654! That’s 5 thousandths of a second from going too quick and being disqualified! We nailed it! So when it’s all said and done its Chris in our car against his wife in the Walden Power Equipment blown digger for the final! Tera ran a 4.73 to be the second quickest winner so with our near perfect run my plan is to slow our car down a tad, while Darrell (Tera’s car owner) plans to step his up. About an hour later it’s time for the Shootout Final and we tow up to the line. Burnouts are completed and cars stage. The green light comes on and they leave together – literally! Reaction times are .0326 for Tera and .0389 for Chris. They fly down the 1/8 mile dragstrip at nearly 150 MPH and the scoreboard lights up on Tera’s side as the winner. If it were not for electronic timers, the race would have been a tie! The below photo shows the results as they hit the finish line, in the right lane Tera’s 4.7263 defeats Chris’ 4.7264 in the left lane. When you take in the reaction time and the ET, the ‘Margin of Victory’ (MOV) is 7 thousandths of a second! What a race!





SO, with that out of the way, qualifying for the SHRA Finals is also complete and our earlier 4.654 puts us #1 in qualifying. Now it time to see if we can win a race. Brady has qualified #6 so we have gained a little on him. But if he wins his 1st round matchup, the chase for the championship is over. 13 cars are running today and we are all called for 1st round eliminations. Brady is ahead of us and we watch as he defeats his competitor and ends the championship hopes for us. We go on and focus on trying to win the event and end up getting lucky and go three rounds to the semi finals. But each run we fight tire spin and on each of the runs I try to adjust power and tire pressures to get past this but without luck. We are defeated in the semi finals by wouldn’t you know it – the new champ Richard Brady! We finish the season in 2nd place in points, just as we have the previous 3 years! We fight off Tera who was just one point behind us coming into Denton, but with our better qualifying position and going 1 round more than her, we securely take 2nd place in the points battle. Here is a photo of Chris at the wheel of ‘Blown Inheritance’ during eliminations.



I can’t finish this without giving a shout out and hearty congrats to DACC member Jim Baughan who took his ’37 Chevy to a back to back championship in the Old School No Electronics class. His Mom and Dad flew in from California to take in the action and in fact his Dad drove a ’57 belonging to Jim in the same class as seen below. It’s quite a feat to win a championship, and it REALLY quite a feat to win 2 in a row! Congrats to Jim, Christine and the girls for taking another SHRA Championship trophy home!





For ‘Team Blown Inheritance’, it’s a relatively quick turnaround as we pack and get ready to head west for a ‘Bucket List’ item when we show up in Bakersfield, California and compete in the 25th Annual California Hot Rod Reunion on October 21-23 and close out our year!
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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
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David Graves
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Location: Warsaw, TX

PostPosted: Sun Nov 13, 2016 9:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bakersfield. Calif - Oct 21-23

On a Monday morning in mid-October I loaded up ‘Blown Inheritance’ on my open trailer and pulled out heading to California for the 25th Annual California Hot Rod Reunion at Famosa Raceway near Bakersfield, Calif. This is definitely a bucket list item for me to be able to run our front engine nostalgia dragster at the epicenter of nostalgia drag racing which is Bakersfield. Lots of drag racing history at this track and a lot of that history has been recognized and preserved there. California has a strong nostalgia drag racing movement with regular races at Bakersfield throughout the year. Going into this I knew we would be at a disadvantage with our limited quarter mile exposure and running in what should be cool dry air, totally unlike the warm humid air at home.

The plan was to arrive on Wednesday for parking. With over 500 race cars attending this event, parking can be a challenge. I met up with my daughter in law’s car owner in Denton that Monday about noon, where we paired up and along with Chris and Tera headed west. The weather was perfect and our two and a half day driving trip was flawless. Needless to say, the scenery is outstanding (once you get out of Texas!). We arrived as planned on Wednesday about 1PM, and after an hour or more wait finally got parked, unloaded and set up camp for the event. Marlene and my bud George who assists with the car were to fly out on Thursday evening to complete our crew in time for Friday’s first runs. But before that, we had to pass the stringent NHRA tech inspection that takes place on Thursday. We normally don’t get this level of inspection back home, but with this being an official NHRA sanctioned event, nothing is left to chance. The inspection consists primarily of looking at dates on seat belts, fire bottles, chassis inspection, etc. All of these items have a SFI label with a date, and each item has a ‘life’. Depending on the item, that life can vary from two years on up. Once you pass that date for the particular item, you must have that item recertified by the manufacturer or inspected and a new tag attached. I had prepared for this earlier in the year before racing began, having sent the fire bottle off and blower straps for recertifying in anticipation of this trip as I knew they would expire before the end of 2016. The only thing left were the seat belts which I had done promptly after our last race in Denton this year. There was a NHRA inspector at our last event in Wichita Falls and it was then I had the chassis inspected and brought current. All the effort paid off as we passed the inspection in Bakersfield without a single issue. So now all that was left was wait until Friday for our first of two planned qualifying runs.

There was a lot of anticipation on Friday for our first pass. We had to be at the track earlier as our class ‘Nostalgia Eliminator 1’ runs early. Our index for the quarter mile in this class is 7.60 seconds. On Thursday during the down time after the tech inspection, I dug through data looking at our past runs which are almost all eighth mile passes. I have to guestimate what those runs would convert to in quarter mile. The bottom line is I have to slow the car way down from what we normally want to see the car run in order in the eighth mile in order to run the 7.60 quarter mile time. And with the ripe air for horsepower, that would make it a challenge. I put a larger pulley on the blower to slow the air into the engine down and richened up the fuel going into the motor which all should contribute to bringing this thing down enough to be close to 7.60. But it’s a guess. First thing Friday morning we do the warm up and then wait for the call for our class. It wasn’t but a short wait and that call was made. We towed up and I could tell Chris was a bit nervous for his first run at this legendary track and running a quarter mile instead of the eighth mile we normally run back home. That is twice as long, and when you’re in the seat going 175 MPH, those extra 660 feet really seem to take forever. I know it does standing at the starting line watching the car go down track! But all went well, we made our pass without any drama and the car hooked and blasted through with a 7.594 ET! Just 6 thousandths of a second from the perfect 7.60 index! Team ‘Blown Inheritance’ was ecstatic!

We got back to the pits, refueled, caught our breaths and reflected back on what just happened. Blown Inheritance just went down Famosa Raceway and nearly hit the number right off the trailer! So, after some thought, the plan was to not change a thing as the air should get worse and have Chris stage the car just a little deeper which should scrub off some time and see what we get. It wasn’t long when we got the call for our class to make the next and final pass of the day. This time the car again ran flawlessly, netting a 7.677 and putting us in the #15 spot out of 29 cars. All the cars but 6 are California based race cars and we are the only Texas car.

Saturday the weather is identical to Friday. Comfortable and dry. I wasn’t looking to change a lot, but did want to pick up some ET. The schedule calls for two qualifying runs today, but at this event you must be flexible as our class along with many of the others are filler for the main attractions, nostalgia Funny Car and nostalgia Top Fuel. We get the call for our first pass of the day and make our way to the staging lanes. The air is a bit better than that 2nd pass Friday, so without changing anything on the motor we expect to pick up some. The car again makes a flawless pass, running a 7.658. I was wanting more. So, the plan was to make a pulley change for the next pass and see what happens. But we didn’t get that next run. The schedule changed and our first round of competition would be our next pass and take place soon. This threw us a curve as I really wanted to get that final qualifying run in with the smaller pulley to see what effect it had. Regardless, I made the change anyhow as we needed to be closer to our 7.60 index. We simply needed more ET if we planned to win this first round against a California car who just happened to be the #2 qualifier. It wasn’t long when we got the call and went up to the line for Round 1 of eliminations. I had not been nervous until know. Something about all the effort to get to this point and this run will either put you on the trailer or advance you for another round is un-nerving. The cars do their burnouts and line up. The green flashes and Blown Inheritance is on a run. I see the scoreboard light up in our lane with a 4.61 and in the opposite lane a 4.63! I am amazed! What I didn’t see was the small light that lights up for the winner. I thought we won until as we were going down to pick up Chris that the win light came on in the other lane. We lost. Chris reaction time was 3 hundredths of a second slower than our competitor. Even though we ran quicker, our opponent got to the finish line first by .0152 seconds thanks to leaving the starting line slightly ahead of Chris. This is what is referred to as a holeshot in drag racing. What a letdown. But, we didn’t embarrass ourselves and proved we could run with the boys from California!

The rest of the weekend was devoted to loading things up, and taking in all the action at the 25th Calif Hot Rod Reunion. It was a blast, with drag racing legends everywhere, along with legendary race cars. It was like an open air museum. For me it was a weekend I will never forget. Sunday evening Marlene and I pulled out of Bakersfield and starter heading back to Texas. We arrived home Tuesday evening about 3PM safe and sound, knowing that the 2016 racing season was officially over for us. Looking forward, it appears we may cut back on our racing program in 2017 running only select events if any. Guess it’s time to take a breather! Below are a few of my favorite pictures from our Bakersfield trip.












FINAL QUALIFYING ORDER - BLOWN INHERITANCE #16!


ME CHATTING WITH DICK LAHAIE, 1987 NHRA TOP FUEL CHAMPION, HE SHARED STORIES LIKE I HAD KNOWN HIM FOR YEARS - DEFINITELY A WEEKEND HIGHLIGHT FOR ME!

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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
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