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Team Blown Inheritance Nostalgia Drag Racing Blog 2019

 
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David Graves
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 10:53 am    Post subject: Team Blown Inheritance Nostalgia Drag Racing Blog 2019 Reply with quote

Blown Inheritance Nostalgia Drag Racing Blog 2019

Race # 1 - Denton Spring Race

I have put a blog out the past several years of the exploits of Blown Inheritance, the Nostalgia Eliminator 1 front engine dragster that I own and compete with along with my son who does the driving. Last year we were down most of the year and made only one appearance on the Southwest Heritage Racing Association circuit, that being the final event of 2018 where we did runner up to my daughter in law Tera. This year we hope to be a contender in the points battle and make each race. The first event was this past March 16 in Denton and here's how it went.

Last year we had to rebuild the Powerglide tranny and replaced the convertor and while at it choose to rebuild the rear end. That effort delayed our racing program last year, but this year I think we are ready. A new pair of Hoosier slicks were purchased over the winter and a new look paint job was completed. A new year and season, our expectations were high coming into the first event.

We showed up at the race at North Star Dragway in Denton along with a full house of other nostalgia drag racers. Our class, Alkydigger NE1 had 10 cars in competition and with the temperatures in the upper 50's and dry air, this was going to be a tough event to tune to. At each event we now do a Chip Draw where each of the Nostalgia Eliminator classes pick a chip with their Index on it. Our normal index is 4.65 in the eighth mile, but we could pull a chip for the class to run quicker at 4.60 or slower at 4.70. With the great air and ample available horsepower, hopes were to see the 4.60 chip drawn. But no, the 4.70 chip was drawn and there was a collective groan from the participants in the class. It sometimes can be harder to slow down a car than to make it quicker and with the great air we were hoping to not have to slow our cars down.

With that, we prepared for our first of two qualifying shots. I don't have a lot of data for air conditions like we had at this event as we normally run in warm to hot air with humidity. This was going to be a challenge. I made my decisions on the tune up and we went up when our class was called. Chris accidently deep staged when he was pulling our dragster into the beams, which can hurt the Elapsed Time on the run. 4.70 is what we were looking for and on the run we got a 4.67, just 3 hundredths to quick! The run still counts, but by running to quick it puts us at the bottom of the qualifying order. For the second and last qualifying run, I decided to take fuel away and lean it out some. My expectations were to slow the car down to a high 4.70. On that run, Chris staged normally, and the run went flawless. But we ran QUICKER! A 4.52 at 159 MPH is what appeared on the time slip and boy did I miss that tune! I think this is the quickest and fastest we have ever pushed Blown Inheritance so it was kinda neat to make such great run but for what we were doing it was the wrong direction!
We qualified with our 4.67 which put us #7 in the 10 car field. Obviously, others were having a hard time slowing their cars down! Eliminations began with us lining up against Chris' wife Tera, who beat us at the last race of 2018 in the final and she won the series championship last year in Nostalgia Eliminator 1. We got lucky and ruined her day when we took her out with a 4.76 to her 4.99! In the second round we lined up against the 2017 NE1 Champ Tommy Drozd and again we came out a winner when Tommy ran to quick and broke out with a 4.68 (remember we are running a 4.70 index) to our 4.73! Wow, I couldn't believe the luck! Next up was the injected front engine digger of Ricky Marshall who won the championship in another series in 2012 called Jr Fuel. He qualified #1 at this event so we were in for another battle! But we got yet another win to advance to the final round when our 5.44 beat Ricky's up in smoke 7.33! Our opponent in the final round would be #2 in points last year and the 2013 NE1 Champ Steve Matthews in a new front engine dragster making it's first event. The 'Red River Raider' lined up against 'Blown Inheritance' in an all front engine dragster final in true nostalgia drag racing fashion! Matthews had trouble and our car marched down the track in a early shut off 4.85 to take the event win!

Needless to say, team Blown Inheritance was pretty happy after this first of six events. We are tied for first place with Steve Matthews who earned a few extra points in qualifying over us so we have our work cut out to see if we can hang on at the top of the points as we move forward. Below is our winners photo from the event along with the qualifying and elimination ladder. Our next event is in Wichita Falls on May 18th and we plan to be READY!





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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


Last edited by David Graves on Sat Sep 05, 2020 8:36 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Marv Cowden
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 2:45 pm    Post subject: Lucky Reply with quote

Lucky beats Good any day.
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David Graves
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PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2019 7:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Race #2 in Wichita Falls last weekend - wouldn't you know it - rained out!

So we move on to race #3 which is the first event for SHRA at the new Xtreme Raceway Park in Ferris on Saturday, June 8th. This will also be the DACC June club event where we will have a special $20 per car load pit side entry for '55-'57 Chevys only for a Tri Five Show in the pits along with the nostalgia drag racing! Hoping to see a good turnout of Tri Fives for this! DACC members will be in competition in the various classes, including our NE1 dragster, multi time series champ Jim Baughan with his '37 Chevy Coupe, Rico Padilla with his '57 Chevy, Ken Burton with his '56 Chevy and others!

We will be ready to race and with no rain this should be a big event as racers have been chomping at the bit to spin the tires! Come by the Blown Inheritance pits if you need ear plugs as we will have plenty for everyone!


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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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PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 2:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Finally no rain! Xtreme Raceway Park in Ferris saw the SHRA for the first time ever this past June 8th and a fantastic Tri Five Chevy Show to boot! We came into the event leading the points, and the plan was to leave with that points lead.

The car has set idle since March 16th when we won the season opener in Denton and rain got the scheduled May event in Wichita Falls. A smaller field of cars showed up in our class for this event, but none the less they all are just as competitive. Our index for this event was the quick 4.60 second ET and with track temps in the mid 130 degrees and high humidity, making power and making it stick could be a challenge. The crew at the track sprayed water on the track surface to cool it before racing got underway and that likely helped. Our first of two qualifying runs produced an off the trailer 4.64, right in the ballpark!

So for the second qualifying session the plan was for me to 'tune it up a tad' and try to run just under the 4.60 index set for this event. What we got was a off pace 5.77 when Chris simply made a mistake and had his hand on the parachute levers and not the transmission shifter, so when he went to shift he pushed the lever to open the chutes (luckily he caught himself before popping both chutes before mid track!) but the error made the run worthless for data at that point and he lifted and coasted to the finish line. But we had good data up to the 60 ft time (there are timing blocks that read the times at different spots along the race track). Our 60 ft time on the first run that produced the 4.64 was 1.14 seconds, the 60 ft time on the second aborted run was 1.11 seconds, so we were on our way to a sub 4.60 run, exactly what we wanted!

After qualifying, we sat in the middle of the pack of 7 cars in competition in the #4 spot with that 4.64 run in Q1. Our first round opponent would be a injected front engine dragster of David Crow who was running a 10th of a second slower than us in qualifying, so the plan was to put the Q1 tuneup back in it as we felt this would easily defeat Crow. In that race, Crow got a small advantage at the green light but our big block blown Chevy hunted the small block injected dragster down and we took the win with a 4.66 over his 4.74 second pass.

Round 2 (the Semi Finals) found us up against Ricky Marshall who runs a absolutely beautiful injected front engine dragster (and it runs well too!). He was the #1 qualifier with a 4.63 second pass so we knew this would be a battle. I went back to the tune up we had in Q2, which likely would go quicker than our index if Chris kept his foot in it all the way. But index drag racing is a game and alot of it takes place at the finish line. What we planned on was to run it to the finish line and lift about 50 feet before the end, hoping to push Marshall into running quicker and breaking out and therefore losing. We expected both cars to run right at 4.60. That didn't happen as both dragsters fell off just a little (ours because Chris lifted about 50 ft from the finish line hoping to force Marshall into going too quick and losing). Marshall's slower 4.67 beat our 4.66 as Marshall had a very slight advantage at the green. The margin of victory was 18 thousandths of a second! Had Chris kept the peddle down that last 50 ft we would have run likely a 4.62ish number and got the win. Oh well, he had to make a judgement call and under the circumstances made the right call, it just was the wrong one!

Marshall went on to runner up in the event and we fell from 1st Place to 2nd with Marshall in 1st by only 5 points! That 18 thousandths of a second cost us the points lead and a few hundred dollars in winnings! That's drag racing! And a big thanks also to all the Tri Five folks who came out and displayed the '55-'57 Chevys!

Next up is Denton within just two weeks, at North Star Dragway on June 22nd. Our dragster likely will not be in competition unfortunately. On the last pass in Ferris, Chris said the oil pressure was 40 lbs (normally it's 80 lbs). He said he tried to get my attention as we were staging and getting ready to make that run but I failed to see him - I likely would have shut him off and not made the run to prevent damage to the engine. So with that, there is some work to do in a short period of time, which I seem to have very little of at times. I suspect we have some bearing damage, but to verify I will need to do the normal oil draining but this time carefully inspect it for fine specs of bearing material and cut open the oil filter to see what surprises might be there too. If there are bearings to replace, I can't see it getting done in time for Denton, which will hurt us in the points battle.

Below is the eliminations chart for the event and a nice shot of 'Blown Inheritance' taken at Ferris by photog Ronnie Barnes.






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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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PostPosted: Sat Jun 29, 2019 1:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good news and bad news..

The oil pressure issue experienced during the last run at the previous race, was nothing but a broken off oil pickup extension. After dropping the pan, there sitting in the sump of the oil pan I found the small screened pickup tube extension that had broken off. The weld and the strap that held it in place finally gave up and only the tube was sticking in the bottom of the oil pan and not all the way down. I carefully inspected the oil, cut the oil filter open and did a inspection and found no obvious bearing material. I removed the oil pump and got the end welded back on, installed the oil pump and buttoned up everything and fired it up and 80 lbs of oil pressure! So off to Denton for the next race!

We arrived at the track, but threatening skies and a quickly changing forecast indicated we would not get the race in. So the call was made to call the race before we got started. Without even unloading the car, we headed back home and got it all unloaded and will wait for the next race, which right now is scheduled to be September 21st in Wichita Falls.

Below is a photo of the bottom of the oil pan, where I found the oil pickup screen laying in the oil when I dropped the pan. Much better than having bearing damage!!!


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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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PostPosted: Wed Sep 18, 2019 7:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Finally, we got back to racing last weekend (Sept 14th) for a makeup rainout at the Denton track. This is the first of 3 races in 4 weeks so the pace has picked up and will require some effort to keep up with car maintenance between events.

At this event, we arrived 5 points out of first place in the Alkydigger Nostalgia Eliminator 1 class. It's a tough group of racers in this class and we are fortunate to be near the top. The task to remain near the top or even at the top can be even more difficult. But that is the goal!

It was an extremely hot day at the race track with temps in the high 90's. 'Blown Inheritance' has been running well since last fall when we first got back to racing after some down time. New tires, a fresh tranny, new convertor all contribute to that I think. In our first qualifying pass at North Star Dragway, we ran a 4.59 against our index of 4.65. So, by running quicker we are penalized by being placed at the bottom of the qualified field, a place I don't want to be. The good thing is the car ran quick in the heat, so the goal in the second qualifying run was to slow it down some. I put a larger blower pulley on which forces less air (which means less horsepower) into the motor. I told Chris to lift just before the finish line so that we are assured a good 'legal' run above the index of 4.65, but the 60 and 330 foot times would tell me what kind of pass it would have been. We ran a 4.75, above our index which is good, but slower than I wanted. If Chris would have run it all the way it likely would have been in the high 4.60's. So our 4.75 run is what counted for qualifying and that put us #6 in a 8 car field. Not exactly what I wanted. Ricky Marshall is the guy at the top of points that we are chasing and he also had issues slowing his car down and qualified at the bottom in the #8 spot. So we gained a couple of points there.

First round pitted us against Chris' wife Tera and she had made two nice passes in qualifying, the best being a 4.69. She normally has really good reaction times as she leaves off of a trans brake which can improve reaction times. Our car does not, it is foot brake only. You must have some additional electronics on your car to utilize a trans brake, and our car is pure old school. A points magneto vs a electronic magneto and no computer to provide tuning data after the run. Our setup is just how it was done back in the day and I like it that way! We discussed strategy for this 1st round matchup and I could put the 4.59 pulley back on and have Chris lift at the end to prevent from breaking out and hope that Tera does, or I could try to speed up the set up as it was on the car by leaning the fuel out a tad. Leaning the fuel out was the selection and we hoped to run between 4.65 and 4.70.

So the call was made to bring them to the staging lanes and after the cars did their burnouts, Chris pre staged and made Tera wait, she likes to stage last. She didn't take the bait and went ahead and staged and then Chris followed by deep staging to try to get her off her game and get us a few inches closer to the finish line. When the green light came on Chris reacted .0530 seconds to quick and got a red light giving Tera the win. Tera would go on to win the entire race. Our points leader would lose in Round 1 also so when the smoke cleared we are now 3 points behind 1st place, and Tera moved up to 5th place with her win. We now have our next race in Wichita Falls one week later and right now we are holding on to 2nd place by our chinny chin chin! Crossing our fingers for a good showing at Wichita Falls.

Here is a shot from Denton.


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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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PostPosted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 2:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Drag racing is a sport that is all about numbers. And those numbers can be small. That is the experience ‘Blown Inheritance’ had at the recently completed event in Wichita Falls for the Southwest Heritage Racing Association.

We arrived at Wichita Raceway Park 2nd place in points in the Alkydigger Nostalgia Eliminator 1 class. 3 small points and we would be in the lead. With Wichita Falls and Ferris left on the schedule, for Blown Inheritance to take a first time ever championship, we must perform well at these two events. At least better than the competition. Do that and we may win a championship. We have finished in 2nd place for 3 or 4 years in the past, I forget the number. It’s frustrating to get so close several times and not finish the job.

Qualifying at Wichita Falls started off less than perfect. Our index (it can vary at each event via a ‘chip draw’ before the race, 5 hundredths plus or minus from 4.65. At Wichita, our index was the quicker of the options - 4.60. It was hot and the track was less than ideal, so hitting 4.60 was going to be a challenge it appeared. In the first qualifying run of two, thinking the track was not going to hold much I opted to put our normal size blower pulley on which we run most of the time. Well the car went down the track but it was a dog and ran a 4.77. I expected better. The same tuneup produced mid 4.60’s with similar weather in Ferris back in June. Perhaps the tires were spinning all the way down the track was my deduction. What really happened was my son Chris who drives this beast didn’t know where the finish line was and lifted early coasting for 100 feet or so before crossing the line. The good thing was nobody else ran well in that first session, by lighting up the tires immediately or further down track or just a slow run like ours. Regardless we needed more power for Q2 as the 60 foot and 330 foot times were off indicating is was down on power on that first pass. Q2 produced a much better ET after a blower pulley change (to smaller for more air) and that effort netted a 4.636 at 150 mph putting us at the top of the field going into eliminations and earned us the most points for qualifying! The car was running very good now, and I think the track came around after some rubber was laid down. For first round we had the slowest qualified car to race against thanks to our #1 effort, and we didn’t want to take any chances. The plan was to race to about 200 feet short of the finish line and coast thru if we were ahead so not to run quicker than the 4.60 index and lose. Chris did just that but even that didn’t matter because the other driver left to soon and red lit his chance to win the race away at the green light. Based on the car count, the elimination ladder got us a bye run in the next round which meant automatically we would advance to the final round. That #1 qualifying effort got us this advantage on the elimination ladder! And that #1 qualifying run was just 1 thousandth of a second quicker than the #2 qualifier, Chris’ wife Tera! In that semi final bye run, Chris ran the car hard to about 500 feet (we race 1/8 mile or 660 feet) and that early shut off effort netted a 4.63 blast at 139 mph. We had a car that was capable of winning the event! In the final round, we faced off with the ‘Twisted Horsepower’ altered driven by the 2017 NE1 Champ Tommy Drozd. Tommy had ripped off a couple of 4.65’s on his way to the final, so this wasn’t going to be easy! In the final round, both cars left within 4 hundredths of a second of each other at the green light, and at the finish line Chris kept his foot in it all the way to the finish line and on our 4.60 index he ran a 4.5956 at almost 155 mph and ‘broke out’ or ran to quick for the index which automatically gave the win to Drozd who ran another 4.65. We lost by going to quick by less than 5 thousandth of a second! Regardless, we had an absolutely fantastic day of nostalgia drag racing and that runner up finish put Blown Inheritance in a 8 point lead over Tommy Drozd who moved into 2nd Place with his win. It’s basically a tie with that margin. There are four race cars with a legitimate chance of winning the 2019 Championship that we currently lead, and on Saturday, October 5th at Xtreme Raceway Park in Ferris all of this will be decided and our fingers and toes are crossed that we will perform well enough to finally bring home a championship!

Here's the qualifying results/eliminations ladder and a shot of Blown Inheritance in the final round at Wichita Falls.







_________________
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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PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2019 8:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Championship Finals. In total, for our class this event could pay in championship, special bonuses and event winnings nearly $3000, the biggest payout of the year. We arrive 1st place in our class. To steal a line from Ray Wylie Hubbard, we wanted to keep our gratitude higher than our expectation and with that we will have a very good day. I was thrilled that we were in a position to possibly win a championship in the SHRA. But remember how I started off the recap from the previous event, drag racing is about numbers and those numbers can be small!

8 points is what we had over 2nd place Tommy Drozd. And 2 others behind him were threats. This was going to be a tough deal. The weather was HOT but we have been running well in the heat so I didn’t really put much concern into that, other than it being uncomfortable and it’s October for gosh sakes!

We qualified for a special ‘race within a race’ that takes place at the Finals. The Dooley & Sons Hot Rod Shop puts up over $3000 for the top 8 cars in each class based on points earned in final qualifying standings at the previous events during the season. We were in position 4 of 8 cars in our class for this ‘Shootout’ that pits the top 8 cars against each other in the first qualifying pass at the Finals. The top 2 winners are then paired in the second qualifying session for the Finals and the winner takes a $1000 cash bonus home for their efforts – before the Finals have started eliminations! Our opponent in that 1st session was Keith Zimmerer from Gainesville who is very competitive with a blown altered. We ran Xtreme Raceway Park in June under conditions almost identical to what we had now in October and in those runs with a apparently great tuneup we ran 4.66 twice, but that was in June. I stuck that turnup in the car for this first qualifier (and first round of the Shootout) and figured we had something for the index of 4.65 that we had for this event. The car ran WAY under the index – a 4.58! Wow, so not only were we out of the Shootout running, but we were at the bottom of the qualifying order (you get penalized for running quicker than the index). We needed to do better for qualifying in the second session because we needed to NOT give up points. I slowed the car down big for the final session to insure we did not run to quick. I expected the car to run a low 4.70 which would be a safe spot and not give up to many points in qualifying. It ran a 4.81, about a tenth slower than I had hoped for. With qualifying over we found ourselves in the 6th qualifying position behind the 3 others chasing us in the championship.

Round 1 pitted us against the same car we ran in the Shootout earlier, Keith Zimmerer. I put a smaller blower pulley on because that 4.81 wasn’t going to win a race and we needed more power. As we pulled to the staging lanes, ahead of us was Tommy Drozd who had gained 4 points on us in qualifying and now our lead was down to 4 points. We watched as Drozd lost unexpectedly when he ran to quick for the 4.65 index which opened the door for us to secure a championship! So we were up next and the race was close, but we lost by running to quick also. We ran 4.649, one thousandth of a second slower and we would have run a perfect 4.65 and would have won that race. You can’t get any closer and lose than that! (Recall we lost the final round at the last race by 4 ten thousandths of a second!) With #1 and #2 out, we still had a chance to win the championship, but it wasn’t to be. My daughter in law Tera advanced to the final round and won the event title over Ricky Marshall, both were in contention for the championship, and with his final round appearance Ricky took the 2019 Championship title. We ended up in the 3rd spot behind Tera. Oh well, we were competitive on half the budget the others run with and we almost took all the marbles so I am very happy to have had yet another successful and fun year racing a nostalgia front engine dragster! Till next year ….. here’s a shot from Ferris and the final qualifying and eliminations for our class at the SHRA Finals!





_________________
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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