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I just finished reading Rob Wolf's excellent editorial in the most current issue of Mopar Collector's Guide — called "Generation Next", an obvious play on Generation X.

In the editorial, Wolf points out that those of us who experienced the Muscle car Revolution first-hand — were the baby-boomers, and are now between 55-70. The Next'rs are in their mid-to-late thirties and their forties. They saw these cars in the childhood when they were still street driven and at shows. The editorial further points out that there is a crop of these Generation Next people working at dealerships, restoration shops, and racing — but they might be the end of the line, and the last to be able to even work on these cars.

That's very true in large part — but there are exceptions. My son Dallas is 24, has been racing Mopars since he was 16 (when he also obtained his NHRA Class IV License), is the crew Chief for all of the cars we race on a National Circuit — and yesterday won NMCA's 2011 "Crew Member of the Year" award at the Award's Dinner at PRI. The newest car he's ever raced is a 78 Aspen — and the oldest a 63 Plymouth. Steven, the Shop Rat at my shop is 19 and works part-time (25-hours a week) at my shop. He too is a Mopar man, and is capable of doing a engine/transmission swap on a mid-60s Mopar pretty quickly. He works for minimum wage because he is able to work on the old Mopars as much as swinging the mop. He has another part-time job where he pulls engines and transmissions on imports for twice what I pay him — but he rather work on old Mopars with us rather than working full time for his other employer. My youngest daughter is 13, and has been going to races with me since birth. She can tell you the year of any B-body and we're setting up my 10-second Vitamin C (63 Plymouth NSS car) for when she hits 16.

These kids are rare — but they do exist. They can exist in greater numbers if "Generation Next" will take the time to pass the heritage along. It takes a little psychology — and it takes getting to them when they're still young. In the case of Dallas, I took him to every car show and race I ever attended since he could be pushed in a stroller. He learned old Mopars before he could be corrupted but any kids with Imports. Same with motorcycles. I'm a Harley man, and much to his mother's chagrin, I bought him a large touring bike at 15 and took him riding with me until turning him on his own at 18. He learned from me, instead of on a crotch rocket by some punk with his hat on backwards and 300 body piercings. Steven's father is a die-hard Mopar man, and like Dallas, Steven never saw an import parked on the property. My youngest daughter was given her first go-cart at 5, and helped to assemble her 6-speed dune buggy at 8. She started driving on the property at 10.

My generation did a lot to create the Generation Next people, and now it is their duty to pass this along to their kids — and the earlier the better. Take them to car shows and tell them about why these cars are so special. Include them with the washing and working on your cars. Build a project together. I bought Dallas his first car at 15 — a 78 Magnum with a warmed over 360, as he had a special license to drive to and from school. He still has that car. We built his (now — but started as a 12-second) 10-second 72 Demon together when he was 15 — which we still have.

It doesn't have to end with the "Generation Next", if the Generation next will take the time to drag their kids away from the X-Box, and get them into the garage working on cars with them. A father is his son's biggest influence — and he only has a limited time to use that influence. My generation needs to do the same with our grandchildren.

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If your NSS car has not yet won the Car of the Month, it needs to have been entered into the staging lanes to be considered in the monthly poll for next month’s Car of the Month. The first 20 cars added to the staging lanes to have not won are included in the monthly poll. The Poll for January 2012 is up — please take a moment to vote for one of the 20 cars to be next months Car of the Month.

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I won A/NSS Class

The following is a report on my racing at the NSS racing at the Dave Duell Classic last weekend. A couple of product sponsors ask for a report after every major event, and so I'll also include it on this forum.

I'd had major surgery less than two weeks prior, and this wasn't exactly sanctioned by my surgeon, but the Dave Duell Classic is the very best of all Nostalgia Super Stock events – so I couldn't miss it. This was complicated further with my son (and Crew Chief) Dallas not being able to attend the event because he was in the wedding party of a high school bud. He generally shares the driving of the rig, and maintaining both of our cars. I had blown the motor in the Vitamin C in the last race, and the block was too far gone to be rebuilt as a race motor. So I decided to drive the black 65 Coronet that Dallas normally runs in C/FX. It had been over five years since I'd driven this car, and never with this motor, or a since being converted to a NSS car.

I left home on Tuesday at about 11AM with my wife Deb, youngest daughter Hope, and both dogs (Buster and Dixie) for the 940 mile trip. I drove about 700 miles before pulling into a Wal-Mart for the night. In the morning, I woke up to find Memphis car poolers blocked me front, back, and street side.

After negotiating out of the parking lot and getting back onto the road, I arrived at the track in Bowling Green, KY at 3PM Wednesday to meet Doug Duell at the gate. I tried to help Doug with marking the pit spots, but at 109 degrees that soon after surgery — I was overcome by the heat.

This was in the shade – under a row of trees.

It was hot the entire event — and most likely what had so many of the 74 cars that pre-registered not show. Last year 84 cars came to the Dave Duell Classic — but the change of venue from St. Louis to Bowling Green, heat, and a competing race the same weekend trimmed the field to about 60 NSS cars. Just the same — the event lived up to its reputation as the best NSS race that there is.

I was originally going to run the car in a sub-10-second FX class, but the heat was getting to me so much, and I was having such a problem getting in and out of the car — I decided to run the 10.0 class so I could wear a lighter and cooler driver's suit. On the first time trial, I found that the tach wasn't working — so the event was spent launching by feel and shifting by ear. I only took two time trial passes Friday as I was not feeling well from the heat.

In the first round of Qualifying I went too fast with a 9.916.

I threw some more weight in the car for the second Qualifying, and was still too fast with a 9.949

For the 3rd Qualifying, I threw some more weight at the car and got into the show with a 10.03.

Saturday was Class Eliminations Day, with the first round of Eliminations also being the last round of Qualifying. A/NSS was the second largest class, and to win you had to win four rounds. I was Qualified at #32 with a 10.03 on a 10.00 Index — but I felt like I needed to win Class more than worry about improving my Qualifying position. I had Bud Cochran in the first round. He red lit, which was good for me as I shifted from 1st right to 3rd — missing the 2nd gear detent on my shifter.

My next round was against Mike Moss — one of the toughest there is. We pretty much left together and stayed with each other all of the way down the track — both lifting at the line and crossing it in a photo finish. My better light had him break out by just a hair more.

Of the three remaining for the third round, I'd had the best reaction time in the second round — and received the Bye. I managed to not blow up the car.

The final round had me matched up against Al Corda — about as tough as it gets. It was starting to cool down, so I took a little weight out of the car. Al had a better light, but I had started to pass him at the 1/8. I had a couple of feet on him at the 1000' and dragged the brake a little to just put a fender on him. I didn't see my win light — and started to wonder if I'd screwed up since his Dart has its front tires closer to the front of the car than on my Coronet — but I did win Class for A/NSS. Both races between Mile and Al were very close and exciting (at least to me) — and I slept well knowing I went up against to of the best and came out on top (for that day).

The Driver's Dinner had started by the time I parked the car and we made the golf cart ride to the tent where it was being held. It was another excellent Driver's Dinner with some cool swag being handed out. We were told that we had to be at the line by 8:15 Sunday morning for the Big Show. It was about midnight before the car was safely put away, and I hit the rack. I was up at 5:30 AM, but all for naught as the weather wasn't looking good. I put a charger on the car — but left it in the trailer. The rain finally hit at about 8AM, and it was noon before the first round. My poor qualifying position drew me the #3 Qualifier of Donnie Wilson — another tough NSS racer. Donnie got to leave a second earlier, and I left with my worst light of the week. I caught Donnie and thought I was going to breakout — and gave Donnie the stripe. Bad move on my part.

We were packed up, showered, and driving out the gate at 2:30PM. I drove as far as Hope, AR at midnight — and pulled over for a nap as I was dead tired. Up at 6:00 and on the road at 6:30 — I was back at the shop in Houston at 3PM, and by 5PM the car was unloaded, rig cleaned and parked, and I was plopped down in front of my computer to answer a week's worth of email.

There is a thread with the posting from quite a few NSS drivers at the Dave Duel Classic — along with 100+ photos.

That's my story — and I'm sticking to it.

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Dallas and I left Tuesday morning for Joliet, IL to get in line for a hard pit space, as they’re gone quick in this NMCA/NMRA combined race. We arrived at the track’s staging area at 3:30PM Wednesday — about 12 rigs back in line. The track started letting the drivers onto the track at about noon Thursday. We had our pit set up, credentials established, the cars teched in, and back on the trailer by 4PM.

My biggest complaint with Chicago is the tight pitting, and the lack of enforcement of diesel generator exhaust routed into the pits of others. For the third year in a row — a different NMRA toter and trailer
combo has been pitted to my right and their two diesel generators have pumped exhaust into my pit 24/7. For four days we couldn’t sit in
our pits, work in our pits, turn off our generator and open the windows of the coach, or cook on the grill because of the carbon monoxide. All of the NSS racers I see at the track show the proper consideration to get and install the exhaust extensions sold at Camping World. The NHRA has a policy for the safety of people in the pits — but the NMCA/NMRA do not enforce one. I’ve made my Complaint, however my last one was completely ignored. But I digress!

Not a good weekend for me personally. Back in Mechanicsville, my Vitamin C qualified well, but was more than 1/10 off Sunday morning in the first round of eliminations — handing Kurt Neighbor an easy win. In the first Time Trail at Joliet I was almost 2/10 slow. I took all of the weight out of the car — and was still 1/10 off in the second Time Trial. For the last Time Trial I bumped the timing from 32 to 35 and ran my number. In the first round of qualifying the motor didn’t sound right as I crossed the line, and so I shut down and had towed back to the pit. I thought it was a rocker or push rod — but all looked well when we pulled off the valve covers. Then we noticed a drop of water from the #3 spark plug.
Pulling the plug had about an ounce of water come out. We hoped for a blown head gasket — but after pulling the head and dropping the #3 piston in the hole — we saw water dripping from the cylinder wall on top of the piston. So I was done for the event. After being pushed back in the Semis in Bradenton for 6 drops of clean water, going -.002 red in the first round of Atlanta, and the car not running the number in the first round in Mechanicsville — I don’t have a prayer for the Points Championship this year. Not a good year at all for me.

The Blow by Blow reporting from the track and the final qualifying ranking, ladder and the round results can be found at the Joliet Live thread at the NSS Forum. Fast Forward to the Finals — it was the battle of the Dougs — Doug Duell and Doug Poskevitch, with Duell turning on the “Stupid Light” and giving Poskevitch the win.

Dallas’ car was also having a problem running the number — even with the seat removed. On the way home we dropped it off in Evansville, In to have the hood (Dallas forgot to put the hood pins in at Mechanicsville and the body guy down sucked at fixing it) properly mounted, and look at why the Vacuum Pump is blowing oil everywhere. Dallas will go up to run the car in Chandler in a couple of weeks, and bring it back to have the hood prepped and painted. I’ll most likely run it at the Dave Duell Classic — as the money for FX is big.

We arrived home at Monday night at 10PM, and by Wednesday 10AM the engine from the Vitamin C had been pulled and disassembled. By noon, the block and crank were at the machinist to be Sonic’d and Magnafluxed. We’re hoping that we can resleeve the block and reusing the crank, pistons, cam, and crank. I was planning to run the Texas Whale next year, and was planning to freshenup the Vitamin C this year — and have it as a backup to the cars Dallas and run next year. It looks like that we’ll be doing the Freshen up now. I ran the Vitamin C this year because it is dead nuts on consistent, and I felt my best chance for a ring — as opposed to T&Ting a new car. Now that my chance for the ring is hopeless (unless I was to ACE the next three races and three people fell on their faces – Fat Chance) I’ll use Milan and Indy to work out any wrinkles in the Whale.

The below are a few NSS photos from Joliet — you will find 80 photos by clicking here.

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Dave Schultz

June 20, 2011

I’m giving this report, not because I was there, but because there was a thread on the NSS forum keeping people updated. All of the races are updated as they happen on the NSS forum.

Some of the first news received was that 00 Joe (who has been recovering from surgery and rehabilitation after a fall off the top of his motor home) was going to make his  comeback at this race. The the next bit of news was that Barry Camp had a wreck on a scooter (not sure who’s – as I’ve never seen him on one before) — and had to go to the hospital. When he returned, he looked rough and wasn’t planning on finishing the event.

Barry after his return from the hospital

39 Drivers showed, and qualified through the breaks of constant rain. The below is the Final Qualifying and the Eliminations Ladder.

a larger more readable version is on the forum link above

Because of the rains, 18 people headed back home thinking that there would not be an Eliminations rounds. They were wrong — making Eliminations “First Round Ugly” from all of the Byes. Fast forward to the finals, Barry Camp (who was convinced to stay and compete) and Clay Kossuth lined up, and both broke-out by the smallest amount — but Barry by a slightly lesser amount.

I guess it pays to stay. Congratulations Barry Camp.

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Yesterday, I made the first three hard passes on the Whale — each a little harder than the one before. I was shooting for the 10.0 Index for this first event (while I get use to the car, ensure nothing falls off a completely new car that has never been raced, and to break-in the motor), and felt like short-shifting it at 6500 would get me there.

The first pass was a Time Trial. The above photo is of that pass. I launched off the footbrake at 2500 and shifted at 6500. I have a lot of gear in the car — and the car started breaking up at the 1000′ when I hit 7000 RPM. I lifted enough to stay just under 7000 — which gave me a 10.6 at 120MPH. Despite a hard burnout to break in new slicks — I had a crappy 60′ at 1.47.

In the pits I find that the top end chip was a 7000 chip and so I changed that out to a 7500.

For my only qualifying run (I missed the first of two NSS was given), I lowered my launch to 2300 — and the wheels came up much higher with my 60′ improved slightly to 1.43. This time I shifted at 7000 (so I wouldn’t be crossing the line as such a high RPM), and did a 10.10 @ 133mph.

That made me #6 qualifier out of 14 racers in the event — and matched me against my son Dallas who was #9 on the ladder.

I lowered the launch still again to 2100 and the front end came up much higher (although it didn’t really carry them very far as it was out of the power band of the motor) and I again shifted at 7000. Dallas was the faster car and I was in the right lane — making it harder to see him coming up on me. I’ve had a terrible crick in my neck for the last couple of weeks, and can’t turn my head at all. I could hear Dallas coming up on me — but couldn’t look over my left shoulder to see him. He thought I was going to breakout (by more than I did, most likely because the difference in our lights — his not being the worse) and so he lifted.

I screwed up. I was a little distracted by a big cross wind gust that moved my car just past my clearing the stands, and I just couldn’t see where Dallas was. I honestly didn’t think I could break out, and so I didn’t drag my brakes. I gave him the round by breaking out by 2/100 second.

That’s my story — and I’m sticking to it.

All in all — I don’t think the car or I did too bad in our first three passes, especially considering I went a full second faster than I have in the last 18 months. To me — the difference between 11.0 in the Vitamin C, and 10.0 in a cross-wind with a wagon, is a big one.

The car feels good. I’m using Doug Duell’s old Dynamic convertor — but he sets his car up to launch at 1900 and shift at 6500 to achieve his 9.75 Index. Damon has the horsepower band in my engine in a higher RPM Range (it feels like it starts pulling hard at 5500 and is still pulling very hard when I’m shifting at 7000 — making me think that for the car to go as fast as its potential — it wants to shift at closer to 7500) — so I think I need to get a new convertor that flashes higher as my power is made higher.

I also need to experiment with shock settings, launch RPMs, and 4-link adjustments.

That said — I think I can right now consistently make the car dependably run 10.0s for the NMCA Points (not wearing stuff out as fast — plus the comfort of no neck brace, no net, no 3-ply suit, and an open helmet), but be able to turn up the wick for 9.5s-9.75s for non-points races that pay more for the FX classes.

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The following is recap of my personal perspective of NMCA's NSS event in Atlanta, GA this last week. Before every event, we create a thread for the event on the Nostalgia Drag Racer's forum — so people can post their version of the play-by-play of the event. I invite all attending the race to please post your perspective of it there. As I write this, the play-by-play of how the Atlanta Event went can be found by CLICKING HERE.

The motorhome and trailer were cleaned and made ready Monday; and Tuesday we loaded up the cars and supplies for the trip. I bought the Vitamin C (which I'll run the NMCA races in) and Dallas had the black Coronet. Dallas and I pulled out of the shop at 9:30 Wednesday morning, and the 925 mile trip to Commerce, GA was uneventful. — which is always good. We paid an average of $4.08 gallon for diesel — and the total for the round trip and generator ran about $1900 in diesel. We arrived at the track at 2:30 in the morning — and the 12th in  line in the staging area.

Thursday morning had Barry banging on the door at 6:30Am to get Dallas' dog barking — and me out of bed. Coffee, breakfast, shower — and I was outside by 8AM — shooting the bull with the other drivers. At about noon there were about 70 rigs staged — and they started to let us in. Lynnwood "Cowboy" Dupree took good care of us — and selected for us a good pit where our rig was facing in one direction, and Doug Duell's rig (we pit together) facing the other way — giving us a large shared pit between us. We set up pits, established credentials, and had the cars teched in by 3PM. There was no racing Thursday — so we put the cars away for the night.

Friday NMCA's plan was to have TT from 9AM-to noon and then get two qualifying rounds in. I was one of the first ones to go down the track. The track was horrible — with most all of the cars spinning badly. I was almost 2/10 second off — all in the first 1/8. Doug had to abort his TT run from getting loose. I asked Dallas to wait a little before going down. Charlie Harmon (the event promoter) rode by to visit, and we told him the track was bad — and he radioed for them to fix it. Dallas was one of the last to go down the track in TT. Because this was a combined NMCA, NMRA, LSX, TS, and Brackets race — we only got one Time Trial, and that's why they wanted to have two Qualifying on Friday.

My first Qualifying was at 1:39PM. I'd taken some weight out, but my 60's were way off and I was still almost a 1/10 slow.

In the previous 20 NMCA races I've run, they ask your Index while in Tech, and then when you have your first qualifying they come through the staging lanes and verify with you before your first pass. That didn't happen this time — which caused two phases of drama later. Despite my car having a big C/NSS on all four windows — I and many others were just arbitrarily lumped into A/NSS. Phase one was most of us storming up to the tower to get it fixed after the first Qualifying pass — but the phase two of the drama were the drivers who ignored that until they'd made all three passes. NMCA gave those people a Mulligan — and changed their Index after they'd finished all of their qualifying rounds. 16 NSS cars had come to the event and made the first qualifying round. Remarkably — all 16 also made it through the event — with no breakage or oil downs in NSS. I hope NMCA took note that not a one of us were the cause of track delays.

Round two of qualifying occurred at 6PM because of the high number of wrecks and oil downs — and the lack of hustle in the track staff to get them off the track and cleaned up. There must be a Union dispute — as they mostly looked like a group of orange vested road crew looking at one guy in a hole with a shovel. The schedule was about 3 hours behind when I ran Dallas in the second quallifying. As you can see from the below — despite taking more weight out — I was still not keeping up with the weather change, and I was still spinning. All weekend long — the left lane was having most of the problems. I really wish we would have had more than on TT to get the cars right.

There was a pretty bad storm over night — but the rain stopped at about 2 am. At 9AM, I rode down to look at the track, and while dry — they were scrapping the starting line (which needed it) at a very slow pace, which sucked as there was still three hours of last night's qualifying still needing to be finished. I have to say here and now that NMCA looked to be busting ass — but the Atlanta track staff didn't have their heart into it at all. The first cars started going down the track in the afternoon — and our third qualifying happened at 3:30PM in a pretty strong headwind. Just past the bleachers a strong cross wind (which had been causing problems with the Pro Thug car's chutes tangling all day) caused me to move my right hand to the wheel for the first time in many years. This same wind had Warren Johnson flip his Pro Stock car a couple of days earlier at this track. The below is my ticket — still too slow.

That .031 put me the number 9 qualifier — and naturally that means I again take on the number 1 qualifier Brian Merrick. I hate Sportsman ladders. I think 1 should take 16, 2 should take 15, and so on. It makes no since that 9 takes on 1 and 15 takes on 7.

The plan called for Eliminations to start Saturday — but that never happened. Shortly after we ran — a fuel line popped off a car at the starting line and flopped around with no one getting to the battery cut off — and the resulting fire killed the rest of the day. The 3rd qualifying was the only pass NSS made the entire day.

By Sunday morning, the event was maybe 5 hours behind — and Sunday is Bracket Day. We initially thought we'd be running our first pass at 10AM — but we soon were told it would be closer to 2PM. That looked like it could be pushed closer to 5PM with all of the track problems. The crew were acting like babies slamming mops around and then it appeared many of them flat disappeared. I observed Trey (who works for the NMCA) swinging a mop at the line. Doug called up to Charlie Harmon that NSS was getting impatient — and they changed the schedule to where our first eliminations occurred at 3PM.

I went -.003 red against Merrick, Dallas beat Vise, Duell beat a 67 Ford GTA, Camp beat Bates, Ray beat Hopkins, Neighbor beat Poskevitch, Young beat Davis, and Wilson beat Sanders.

The next round went quick with Duell, Wilson, Neighbor and Merrick going to the Semis. At 8:30 they called NSS to the line for the Semis. By then the track had gone to hell, and the left lane was having a lot of drama. Wrecks, oil downs and few cars were making it down the track with a decent run. They decided to run all of the heads up classes first before the track got too crazy — and Dallas and I decided it was too late to wait any longer — and pulled out of the track at 9:30. It was 10:30 when Doug returned my calls on who had won. It turns out that after watching no one getting down the left lane — that the four remaining drivers in NSS didn't want to risk wrecking their cars — and agreed to just split the remaining prize money 4 ways ($425 each). Word is that NMCA wasn't real happy with this plan — and their official news item of what happened is: "Indy Cylinder Heads Nostalgia Super Stock had Brian Merrick at the top of the qualifying ladder. On elimination day, due to a late evening, the final four racers (Brian Merrick, Doug Duell, Kurt Neighbor, and Steve Wilson) decided to split the points and the prize money for the weekend.", making it sound more like it was past the bed time of old men rather than the track was shit.

Dallas and I drove all night — and were back home at 1PM yesterday. Cars, trailer and motorhome was unloaded by 3PM.

In a nutshell, while many feel that NMCA might have bitten of more than they can chew with so many classes racing — I've seen this pulled of at tracks with a good staff. I feel it could have been pulled off at many tracks we run at — but it is the competency of the track personnel that make it or break it. Atlanta was not up to the challenge. Quite a few have blamed NMCA for this — but I watched them all hustle while the track people leaning on their mops. Why not replace Atlanta with a Texas track?

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I'm sure most of you have heard (was reported on both NSS sites and the NSS forum) about 00 Joe falling off his motorhome and breaking the ankle of one foot and the heel of the other. The first surgery was about two weeks ago.

Double O Joe will be having surgery on the other foot this coming Monday. Therapy will be a very long process. He will be in a wheel chair for some time, before he can even get to the stage of using a walker.

I'm sure Joe has the best wishes of all Nostalgia Super Stock Racers.

While NSS Racers and Nostalgia Drag Racers has all of this news, and has announced events like the Dave Duel Classic — it appears so few NSS racers check the site to keep up to date with what's going on. Quite a few members are asking questions long ago answered on these sites. I guess you can inform NSS Racers about where to find information regarding news and events specific to them — but you can't force them to read it. It would help if those of you informed about .00 Joe, the Dave Duell Classic, the 40+ NSS races listed in the events column of Nostalgia Drag Racers, the new NMCA points structure, rule changes, and other NSS News to contact those who are in the dark — and let them know what's going on. It is amazing how many haven't heard any of the recent news — and are calling to ask questions long ago answered. Need to get the grapevine working for those who are not Internet savvy.

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Super Stock great, former NSS racer, and friend to all of us — Arlen Vanke had a minor stroke yesterday and was airlifted to a hospital in La Cruces, New Mexico. He was released and went home to recuperate late yesterday.

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These calendars make excellent Christmas gift. Shipping is cheap (no rip-offs on the S&H).

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His first pass was a personal best for the 4-speed car — at 10.07.

The next pass had him get into his coolant and hit the right wall at over 120. It buckled the right front wheel (bending the K-Frame) and came back and pancaked against the wall again. The below photos really don’t show how bad the damage is. He hit so hard — that he ripped part of the seat anchors up and hurt his shoulders.

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One rumor is that Maple Grove is out. Nice track — but terrible draw and the PA State Police have been targeting trailers 28′ and longer, or with lettering — and giving tickets for no CDL.

Bradenton Sux — and all of the racers hate  the track, the drive, and the sand in their carbs. Recent rumor was that Commerce, GA was going to replace it.

Then Zmax happened. Talk around the pits is that even combining NMCA and NMRA — the economics doesn’t work for Zmax. The event had the track and track personnel 100 times better this year than last year — but it still was a ghost town. Not enough racers for the far East tracks. So the rumor is that Commerce is going to take the place of Zmax. That might mean that replacing Bradenton gets put on the back burner (how about HRP or Gainesville for the first race!).

Gateway appears to be dead meat. Smart money is saying that they’ll announce their closure after the NMCA race at the end of September.

Word is that the bad luck on rain in Bowling Green in March/April might get that race moved to later in the year.

So by my count you have three races (Maple Grove, Zmax, and Gateway) going away, with Bradenton having racers wish it would go away — and only Commerce being talked about coming on board. I think NMCA has learned its lesson on East Coast races not drawing racers — so we’re safe from having that shit hole ATCO rearing its ugly head.

NMRA tested Houston last November, and they and NMCA are testing it this November. It isn’t a really fair test since they do it when most northern racers have their cars in moth balls and it is a non-points event — but maybe they’ll take that into consideration. You need a Southern track to start the year and end the year — and Houston Raceway Park is an excellent track — especially in March or October.

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Rumors abound on the drag strip — but the position was that it cost $300,000 to host the NASCAR event — and was a money loser. Since they dumped that expense — they’d be OK.

Since Dover closed Memphis (rumored to be waiting for the bulldozers) the day after the 2009 NMCA event — not many people were buying the position of drag strip not being in danger of closing.

Recently NHRA released their 2011 schedule. You can look up and down the schedule and not find Gateway listed. That’s is Gateway’s “Bread & Butter”. An oversight — or does the NHRA know something?

Being the betting man that I am — I’ll take bets that Dover will announce Gateway’s closure shortly after the NMCA event next month.

So where does this leave the Monster Mopar Weekend, and the Dave Duell Classic, my two favorite things?

I guess four things can happen:

1. I’m wrong on Gateway closing and there are another 100 Monsters to come
2. Gateway closes and Scott moves it
3. Gateway closes and Scott says he had a great run and retires it
4. Gateway closes and Scott sells the event to another promoter (my wild guess)

I asked Doug Duell about the future of that Dave Duell Classic — and he assured me that it will continue regardless of how everything else plays out.

developing….

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The track opened at about 10AM on Friday. Time trials started at 3PM — and NSS cars were allowed up to three TT passes before 6PM.

26 NSS cars attended — but one had a wreck. Jack Nelson had “Cracklin Jack” make its fastest ever (since he built the car ten years ago) pass at 10.07 for the first Time Trial. However in the second Time Trial the car got into its own coolant (the cap was found mid track) at the top of the track and turned into the wall tearing up the front right corner including the right side of the steering. Jack tried to take it off the wall but the steering brought it back into the wall — pancaking the entire right side. He rode the wall until the car came to the stop. He hit with such force that the seat was cocked to the center and his shoulder were very sore when the car finally stopped. Sadly Jack was looking to sell the car, truck, trailer, and golf cart (to me) — but wanted to make one last Hurrah in it. The car is pretty well damaged (I’ll post photos on he forum later) and the package might be the right deal for someone. Contact Jack if you’re interested.

The first Qualifying pass for NSS started at about 7:15PM.

Saturday was blue skies and between 75-85. Actually that was the weather for the whole weekend — with it dipping to the 50s at night.

The second qualifying occurred at about 10:30am. Final qualifying was to have been at 3:30, but attendance was light — so the NMCA announced that there would be a bonus 4th Qualifying added at 2:30 — so we all got 4. First time I’ve seen it happen since I started running NMCA in 2007.

Well almost all of us got four qualifying passes. Scotty Jiles did another of his monster wheel stands and pancaked the  oil pan, pickup and round bearings. He was running to Mancinni to get parts for the 3rd and 4th Qualifying.

The below is the 3rd round qualifying — we never saw the 4th.

The tree (below) was established and the first round began at 9AM sharp on Sunday.

Fast Forward — Brian Merrick won the event and it looks like Doug Duell is so far in 1st that he’s got a lock on the 2010 Championship before the St. Louis race is even run.

Speaking of St. Louis, don’t forget to check out the story of the Future of Gateway.

Again — there is more detail and opinions on the forum. Don’t forget to add yours.

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I recently read an article where states in financial trouble are writing double the tickets in the first half of 2010 than they had in 2009, as a way to generate revenue. The biggest tickets obviously go to bigger vehicle — and so you have noted a many Sate Police in pickup trucks — carrying portable scales.

Last year at the NMCA race at Maple Grove in Reading, PA — quite a few racers with pickups pulling trailers larger than 28' feet (overall — not just the box) were ticketed for not having a Commercial License. North Carolina were turning back rigs greater than 65' — but recently amended their statute to allow going to and from races. Florida requires a permit, as does New Mexico. There have been complaints from New Jersey ticketing small race car trailers for weight violations and Kentucky for by passing weigh stations.

I've seen stings set up at race events and even rodeos and cattle shows — ticketing pickups and small trailers not having CDLs, with the premise being that if they can earn a prize — they're commercial.

The latest big sting appears to be the Michigan State Police and Indiana State Police targeting motorhomes pulling trailers to the tracks. Click here to see an 8+ page discussion on the topic. Troy Coughlin's Motorhome with a trailer was stopped in Michigan yesterday on the way to a IHRA race, the driver given three tickets for not having a CDL, over length, and another — and the trailer is currently sitting in an impound yard.

Racer's need to heavily lean on promoters and tracks to in turn lean on the police to stop targeting recreational drag racers. Bruton Smith did this in North Carolina when racers going to Zmax were targeted — and was able to have the regulations amended to allow for travel to and from a racing event. If something isn't done soon — promoters and tracks will see a dramatic reduction in car counts.

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15 NSS Cars showed up to the NMCA event at Zmax last week:

• Doug Duel

• DW Hopkins

• Barry Camp

• Dallas Schultz

• Jeff Meece

• Doug Poskavitch

• Skip Koester

• Kurt Neighbor

• Dave Schultz

• Steve Wilson

• Brian Merrick

• Morris

• Wright

• Gerry Bates

• Duugil

It was hot, the track was prepared amazingly well (as compared to last year), and the track personnel must have also got the word — as they were actually a little more easy to deal with this year. We had rain Thursday and Friday night, which didn't affect racing as it was later — and a brief shower on Saturday that delay things for about 90 minutes.

Thursay was set up pits and tech in. Friday we had the opportunity for three time trials — and then first round of qualifying in the early evening. Saturday morning had the 2nd and 3rd round of Qualifying. Dallas was Number 1 with 10.002, Meese was 2nd and Doug Duel 3rd.

Elimiations started at 3PM:

• Duell over Hopkins

• Skip over Me

• Poskevitch over Duugil

• Neighbor over Morris

• Wilson over Merrick

• Meese over Wright

• Camp had a Broke (Bates) Bye

• Dallas a Competition Bye

Next Round had:

• Wilson over Skip

• Duell over Camp

• Dallas over Neighbor

• Meese over Poskevitch

Semis had:

• Wilson over Dallas

• Duell gets a Broke (Meese) Bye

Finals had Doug Duell win and Wilson Runner Up.

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The web server for this web site will be down for about an hour this coming Saturday morning (July 31, 2010) for preventative maintenance.

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This is what he found:

$606 later I have two new slicks and tubes and all appears to be well for Round Two this morning. Elsewhere in this forum is a link to the Joliet report – that I keep updated. I guess two back to back burnouts was all those old tubes could take.

I’m Ok Scott — lol

Bad Feeling At

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By: Dave Schultz ~ June 8, 2010

The Schultz family left on Wednesday, June 2nd at 9:30 AM and arrived at the track at 7PM Thursday. We spent the night in the staging area outside the track. We bought the Vitamin C (63 Savoy) in a single trailer — as the black 65 Coronet that Dallas was going to campaign still won't run — and we'd run out of time.

The gates opened at about 10AM, and we quickly got set up, established driver credentials, and tech'd the car in. At 3PM they opened the track to Time Trials. On my first and only TT pass — the car did  a 11.170 with the same 160 pounds that was bolted in from Bowling Green. The car was running the number at Bowling Green — but the air was horrible (about 4500') at Maple Grove. Both Doug Duell and Barry Camp moved up to C/FX as their cars couldn't do a B/FX number. Many of the cars bumped to one slower number. Worse yet for me was that the car was leaking water badly as I returned to the pits.

The water was coming from the left side of the block — which put a lump in my throat. Closer inspection found it was coming from the left center steel freeze plug of the 413's block. We drained the coolant and filled the plug with blue Permatex –as that's all we could find. We were hosed for any more TT and the first round of qualifying was to start at 7PM. We did unbolt 80 pounds from the left side (I'm a "Full-Figured" guy so we were heavy on the left side as it was).

When they called NMC (NSS Generally follows next) to the lanes, we filled the radiator with water — and it leaked just as bad. I made the quick decision that I needed to be counted as being there (after 3200 miles travel to/from the race) and that I should be counted Friday night — as there was a 40% chance of rain Saturday and Sunday. I drained the water, started the car cold and coasted to the top of the lanes. I waited towards the end of NSS to let the car be as cold as possible and then coasted downhill to the burnout box and started the car up there. I did a quick and light burnout, made an easy 11.09 pass, and it shut down at the top. Dallas towed me back to the pits in Barry Camp's (who is dogging me for $100 to use it) ATC. The car is an iron head car and I felt sure I didn't hurt anything as the car was stone cold when I did the burnout, and the temp gauge (albeit there was no water to measure) didn't exceed 200 degrees. The .09 had me 9 of 17 cars.

Kurt Neighbor had some emery paper, and "Mr. 4-Speed" Marty had some JB Weld. Dallas sanded the inside of the freeze plug and found a pinhole right at the edge of the sides and bottom, and pushed in some JB into it, then a thick smear in that area of the plug — before putting the car away for the night. Andy Warren and his father tried to find a rubber adjustable plug on the way to the motel — but all auto parts stores were closed.

In the morning we pushed the car out of the trailer and filled with water while crossing fingers. No Leak. Dallas took the car for its morning warm up and got the water to 170 before returning — no leaks. I borrowed a 6 pound cap from Fred Rager. Two hours later (all of which I spent in a lawn chair staring at the ground under the engine) we were called to the line for Q2 — still no leaks. I did a 11.05 — which had me in 8th of 17. No leaks when I returned to the pits from Q2. The 3rd Qualifying occurred at about 7PM Saturday — and I managed a 11.02, putting me 8th of 17.

On the above Qualifying, Kurt and Barry swapped — with Barry being the actual top qualifier on the sheet revised in the AM. Barry had his .003 first, but the computer initially put Kurt in the Top position for a faster MPH. MPH doesn't count in NSS — the first with the same low number does. In the First Round of Eliminations.

• I was paired with Scott Griffith for the first round, and he couldn't make the call — so I got the BYE. Still no leak!

• Doug Duell won over "Mr. 4-Speed" Marty

• Rager over the "Princess of Speed"

• Bates over DiMino Sr.

• Scotty Jiles over DiMino Jr.

• Kurt over his bud Skippy

• Poskovitch over Louis Popp (don't know him) in a red black Coronet

• Gary Beemer over Hoblick

• Barry Camp with the bye

In the second round:

• Schultz over Jiles

• Poskovitch over Duell

• Bates over Camp

• Rager over Beemer

• Neighbors had the Bye

In the third round, the winner of Bates and I would get a Bye to the final. I choked! For the entire event I had very good RTs (.070 the worse) — but I red lit (first time in this car, and first time in almost a year) after staging too deep. I had been staging deep because this car reacts slower than my 4-speed car — and I want to leave at the same time on the lights as I normally do. The "All Ford" Semis had Neighbor over Posovitch and Bates with the Bye.

Neighbors' Mercury took the win over Bate's 67 Failaine.

This race had a very light turnout for all classes. Despite 422 again scheduling an event the same time NMCA is in the area (many say this isn't an accident – but I'm so far away from the NE that it doesn't affect me) NSS and OC were the only two classes to come up with more than ten cars. Speculation in the pits reasoned that the track is too long of a haul for most; the forecasted weather (although we were only down for a couple of hours — a recent NMCA record) had many stay home; the combination of Bradenton going to Monday, Bowling Green cancelled (along with the forecast) have many throwing in the towel for 2010; or that the first four races mean nothing for the points chase — or a combination or two/more.

For NSS, Chicago is scheduled the same time as the Chrysler Classics — so you can expect even fewer Mopars. Then one of Schneider's races (Cordova?) is scheduled the same time as Milan — and last year that siphoned off quite a few Mopars. NSS is getting to be a Ford thing with NMCA lately. We (Mopar guys) were outnumbered again this race.

This race report is obviously through my eyes. I am more than willing to post any of the reports of others on a Nostalgia Drag Racing class. The best thing to do it to document the chain of events to the race on the appropriate forum by creating a new thread like I did in the NSS Forum: http://nostalgiadragracers.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=nss&action=display&thread=188 that anyone can post to — and then post a summary after event has ended. I'll then cut and paste it to the Nostalgia Drag Racers site.

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I’m trying to make that site the one place for all NSS (and other Nostalgia Racers) to go to find a chronological list of events they might want to attend.

If you know of a Nostalgia Drag Racing Event not listed — you can request that I add it at:

http://www.nostalgiadragracers.com/add-nostalgia-race-event/

Thanx

The Old Hippie

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NMCA’s call to pull the plug — the right call

NMCA’s race in Bowling Green, Kentucky was suppose to have been kicked off with TT and 1st Round of Qualifying on Friday April 30th, Finish up Qualifying Saturday, and Eliminations on Sunday. In recent years, the event has had rain being a big player in running the event — with last year’s race cancelled and not rescheduled, and the year before seeing racers have no Time Trials and I believe we had just two Qualifying passes.

The event for my team started weeks prior. We’ve been having problems sorting out the black 65 Coronet that Dallas will be running in NSS, and I was unfamiliar with the "Vitamin C" car, having made only 7 passes — all in Bradenton. We couldn’t get track time (since returning from Bradenton) to work out these problems. We took the untested black Coronet to Dallas two weeks ago hoping we had it fixed. We didn’t. More late night’s thrashing on it and then a chassis dyno Thursday night. We only made two passes on Dyno before blowing a tube in a slick — but felt like we had the problem worked out.

Replacement parts over-nighted, and we finally had the cars ready, loaded, and the coach prepared late Tuesday night. There was a lot of chatter on the boards about people not planning to attend because of the 40% chance of rain Saturday and Sunday — but we are running the whole series and aren’t afforded the ability to be "Fair Weather Racers" We left Texas on Wednesday morning, as we need to get to the track on Thursday — as it gets harder to find a spot (and negotiate around a crowded) for an 84′ rig on Friday. We pulled into a West Nashville WalMart parking lot at 1AM Thursday and got a full night’s sleep. At 10 AM we were just crossing the border to Kentucky when Scott Sparrow called to ask if we’d left Texas yet. "Left Texas — Hell, were 50 miles from the Track"!

Scott said that the chance of rain had increased to 80% with flooding — and that Charlie might have to pull the plug, so he was posting for people to not leave for the race until a decision was made at 4PM. The message was too late for us — as we were almost to the track — so we continued on. There was a long line waiting to get in when we arrived at the track — and everyone had gotten the word with everything being on hold. The gates opened at noon to get us off the road, and NMCA staged us — without taking our fee, which wasn’t encouraging. While waiting, I was walking by the Power Mall at about 2:30 when I overheard Charlie Harmon give the word to not set up the store any further. At 4PM we got word that the plug for the event was pulled.

Rumor was that the Rousch team wanted to rent the track for a T&T on Friday — and so a group of NSS racers decided we’d like to do the same. Heck — we wanted to have the 6-7 of us there to race for the event’s points as long as we were already there. Arrangements were made to rent the track Friday for $150 per car — with a $1500 minimum. They wound up having 20 of us take advantage of the opportunity, and I was the first car down the track at about 9AM Friday morning. My Vitamin C car is sorted out (11.04, 10.99, 10.97, and 11.03) with me figuring out what RPM it likes to launch and shift at — but we still have problems with the black Coronet Dallas is running. We now believe it to be electric — and will try to work it out before Maple Grove. At about 5:30PM, with the storm quickly approaching from the west (obviously the direction we’re going), we were one of the last to leave the track. We wanted to get as far away and South as we could from Bowling Green. At about 1AM the driving was near impossible, and we had a bracket holding the coach’s mud flaps break and start to drag in the road — so we pulled into a WalMart (that looked to be on high ground) parking lot in West Little Rock, to rode out the first wave of the storm. We left at 10:30AM and finally pulled into the shop at 7PM.

While we were at the track for testing, the rumor was the race would be rescheduled for July. The NMCA site says that they should have an announcement on Tuesday.

Finally, some of us had a run of bad luck beyond driving cross country for a cancelled race. Damon Kuhn (Fugly – 61 Plymouth NSS) and his crew Chief (Slim), had a trailer flat going through Franklin, KY — and stopped in Nashville to get a replacement spare for the rest of the trip home to Texas. That put them behind the eight ball with beating out the storm — and so they pulled into a motel in Jackson, TN at about 10PM.  During the night the motel’s parking lot flooded and a large sink hole formed under Slim’s new truck. The truck had water over the dashboard (see photos of water in the glove box), and Fugly has an inch of water on the floor. The truck is a total loss, the trailer questionable, and Fugly will need some checking out. They’re currently stuck in Jackson, TN as I-40 in both directions is closed, as is I-65. They need to wait until at least Monday for the Insurance adjuster and a tow vehicle to come home. Click Here for a thread with details and photos.

The bottom line is that the hard decision to pull the plug on the race as early as it was pulled, was by far the right decision. While it didn’t help about 20 of us that have to leave early — it did help the majority of racers. Had we sat through the weekend at the track in the hope of getting some of the race run — there most likely would have been a lot of damage to many cars. I don’t envy NMCA as their decisions are usually going to be a "Damned if you do – damned if you don’t" calls.

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