With the 20th California Hot Rod Reunion fast approaching, teams all across the nation are thrashing like mad to be ready for racing action. Last week we announced that more than 300 teams are already registered for the race, and more are signing up daily. When we were included on an email from Mark Vaught announcing their latest adventures in getting to the CHRR, we were honored just to be on the list. Seriously, there are big names on this email list. As usual, we’ll be there with our FREE LIVE BROADCAST, so stay tuned to BangShift.com for more details.
Anyway, we could go on and write something poetic about Mark’s email, but the truth is we don’t need to. The only thing we want to point out is this…If you ain’t thrashin you ain’t racin. The best guys we’ve ever met know how to get down and dirty when it’s time to thrash, and teams like Mark’s are those kind of guys. We’re excited to see them in a couple weeks.
If you want more information on the 20th California Hot Rod Reunion, click here.
Here’s what Mark had to say.
Sunday 10/16/2011 three Cluster Busters , one retired sprint car driver , and one Rooman , will load up the F350 dually and head west to race at the 20th California Hot Rod Reunion. Once there we will be joined by the jet set , Big Al and Larry Dixon Jr’s dad. We are looking forward to it like young children look forward to Christmas. We will compete in the 7.0 Pro class and I would expect 25 – 30 entries to compete for 16 qualifying spots. To qualify we must be on our game , to advance a round or two we’ll have to do better, so we’ve been practicing. Participating at the reunion is a real honor. Our first was by invitation in 1998. Our friend and California Nostalgia racer Brendan Murry invited us to join other racers in a 7.50 class. We were novices but we jumped at the chance. We’ve visited at least once a year since then. Along the way we’ve raced such notables as current Nostalgia Funny Car racer Will Martin, current NHRA big show funny car driver Jack Beckman, Childhood hero Larry Dixon. To say we’ve enjoyed these adventures would be stating the obvious. We’ve made many new west coast friends, and continue to share info (Lies mostly ) with them.
Terry Hicks has volunteered to keep everyone posted on the Cluster Busters Facebook Page , and I believe if you are interested you can watch live streaming video via Bangshift .com. We will do our best to favorably represent the NDRL and CBHRC.
Did I say practicing….As most of you know our racing this season has been limited. We have made some changes , and we were runner up at the inaugural NDRL race in Indy, and winner at the NDRL race in Bowling Green, so we might have been just a bit overconfident. The third NDRL race we couldn’t find our fanny with both hands. Nothing we did seemed to improve our poor performance. We had to wait a bit to test but late in Sept we made a Wednesday night test and tune, and after a first pass that produced nothing of interest we did improve the second pass with a 7.09 @ 194.02. Thinking we needed a few more hundredths before venturing west we decided to use the Oct. 2nd NPCA race as a test session. Saturday dawned bright and cold. When the track opened at 10 the temp was still in the 40’s. We heated the oil, and warmed the car and it was obvious from the start that our Rodeck SBC didn’t like the cold air. On our first pass of the day the car backfired at the hit of the throttle and destroyed the manifold burst panel. First time that’s ever happened. Fortunately the burst panel did its job and we didn’t suffer any engine damage. Howard Haight came to the rescue with some new burst panels and after what seemed like an eternity we tried a 2nd. Pass. I won’t elaborate but it wasn’t very good. We had driver error and for the first time since we put on taller tires the tire shake gremlin reappeared. It was violent and it was out about 30′ or so . So much for an entire Saturday. I was disheartened and beginning to worry about our ability to qualify at the reunion. After some discussion we decided to pack up and return on Wednesday night for the final test and tune. We had been at the track form 8 AM till 8 PM and we were worn out.
Just about the time you’re really wondering if all this work is really worth it, the car throws you a bone …….just to get our attention and let you know who’s really in control!! Such was the case Wednesday. We were ready early and as we headed to the staging lanes it was warm ( 77) great weather for a test. At the hit of the throttle we spun the tires hard and never recovered. I knew we were in trouble because the new track manger at Lucas Oil Raceway ( Kurt Johnson ) prides himself in a well prepped track. We’re blessed to have someone that cares about the track like Kurt does. The car count is 10 fold what it used to be at a test night. In fact there are usually spectatators in the stands. Haven’t seen that in years …Great Job Kurt!! Back at our pit Roo suggests that the wheelie bar is too low and we are hitting it so hard that it’s unloading the car. HMMMM…great observation I’m looking for anything because something is obviously amiss with our set up . Roo raised the bar and we headed to the line just as the sun was setting. I remember thinking I wanted to go before the sun set because of track temp and the possibility of dew. Not to worry the track was great …as I staged the car I was hoping it wouldn’t shake so hard. My back is beginning to complain about such things. At the launch the front end came up quick , and we were carrying the front wheels well past 60′ and it must have spun the tire as well as the 60′ time was horrible…..then there it was that dreaded tire shake..I pedaled and shifted into second and the car recovered quickly. I was ready to abort when I realized it was really setting me back in the chair….what the heck let’s ride it out and see if we can get some good data at the deep end. We have changed the rear gear when we changed the tire size and I really wanted to know the RPM through the traps. Boy oh boy it just kept accelerating. At 1000′ feet I was still planted in the chair and I almost giggled , when much to my surprise the car just gave it up . Right at the finish line or maybe a few feet beyond .It really took me by surprise, it actually threw me against the belts. Not hard but enough to let me know something was wrong. As I reached for the chute I got a face full of smoke and as I rounded the first turn off I thought we had probably burned a piston. I thought our trip was in jeopardy. As I shut the car off and flipped my visor up the lady that hands ET slips approached with the time slip and a smile, she’s always pleasant. As I glanced at it I couldn’t believe what I saw. ….
60′ – 1.159 ( horrible)
330′ – 3.058 (not much better)
660′ – 4.569 @ 163.24 ( hmmm that’s interesting)
1000′ – 5.872 ( better )
¼ mi. – 6.990 @ 199.14 (wow ….that’s a great recovery)
Well there’s the bone ….it ran the # even with all the problems in the first 60-80′ . Things like this keep me up at night. Upon review of the data it appears we lost the transmission right at the finish line…..just decided it had seen enough for the year . Trans temp was 240 for most of the run. Don’t worry it’s fixable .,its headed to the tranny shop tomorrow.
Wish us luck …follow us on facebook ….share our experience and we’ll give you the details when we return….
“Da Shoe”
Mark Vaught
