Bob Cook, NMRA EFI Renegade #7, Columbus Ohio Race, 8-29-08 through 8-31-08. Dale, Scott, and I scheduled the departure from my house at midnight. The Sutton crew left earlier in the day so, they could get to the hotel and get a good nights rest. When Scott and Dale arrived I was sitting in my lawn chair aiming my latest flea market find and dry firing it. It’s a bolt action Russian made rifle that shoots a 7.62mm x 54mm round. It’s complete with a bayonet so, I wanted to see how it felt with the bayonet extended and retracted. Of course they got a kick out of that. Hopefully none of the neighbors looked out of the window to see that. There was some alcohol involved in the wait for them to show up so, they decided it would be better for them to drive and let me sleep it off.

Friday

We arrived at the track about 9am. It took some time to get both cars ready to run down the track. Jerry, Brain, and Pat worked on the red car and Dale, Scott, and I worked on the blue car. We didn’t get a pass in until later in the test session so we each only got one in. The red car ran a low 8.70 and the blue car ran a 9.0. We were ready for the first round of qualifying. The Renegade racers that were left in the field after the first round from the Atco race decided to put up a hundred dollars each and pair up to finish the race ourselves. All of the racers were at Columbus except Larry Hourcle. He wasn’t able to get his motor together for this event. Randy from Sutton HP added an additional $300 and the SGS crew added another $100 to bring the purse to an even $1000.

It was decide by the guys to give $700 to the winner and $300 to the runner up. We paired up in the first round on qualifying. I had Jason Geroulo in the match-up. We lined up and when I let the transbrake button go the trans went south. We didn’t make it to the end of the track so we were not qualified after the first round. Brian Mitchell had Dan Rawls and Dan came out on top. Alton had a bye due to Larry not attending the event. Dave Guy had a bye also. We spent the evening changing the trans so we would be ready for round two of qualifying.

Saturday

The second round was also the semi for the Atco race. Alton and Dave paired off. Alton cut a .001 light and got the win. Dan posted a redlight to give Jason the win. Jason and Alton would meet in the third round of qualifying to seal the deal on the Atco race. We got a full pass in and ran an 8.60. The car worked well and we were happy with the performance. For those that don’t know; there were rumors floating around about Jason running a cylinder head that was not on the approved list in the rulebook. We heard about this in Georgia but, really didn’t do or say anything about it at the time. We contacted Thom Bates after the Atco race and he stated that this particular cylinder head was not allowed. We decided that we would pool the money together with Dave Guy and protest the heads on Jason’s car. When Jason arrived in tech at Ohio Thom sealed his motor. Due to this protest Alton and Jason decided to split the purse for the Atco race so, Jason could get a head off of his car and have Thom check it out. This would give Jason time to get it back together for Sunday. For the record Alton Clements is the unofficial winner of the Atco in Ohio event. Jason was DQed after Thom’s inspection.

The official report stated that the part number Jason claimed did not match the head. It was an unfortunate incident and we regret that we did not directly contact Jason and tell him what we had investigated and what are intentions were. If we had to do this all over again we would go directly to the racer involved and not rely on others to pass the message on. Here are some of the results from the final round of qualifying. It ended up being the mighty Dan Rawls qualifying 1st, the always hard charging Brian Tuten was second and we were back in third. Mr. Bart (I need a new rabbit’s foot) Tobener followed in fourth. That would put two pushrod nitrous combos in front followed by our 4.6L mod-motored Vortech supercharged combo and Bart’s 5.4L mod-motored Vortech supercharged combo. Seems like the pushrod blower combos are at a bit of a disadvantage. They seem to drop off a bit more when the air density gets above 2,500 feet or so. Maybe they could get a weight break based on the air density. Not really sure how that can be fixed. Brian Mitchell seems to have the best handle on going fast when the air gets bad with the pushrod combo, he was in fifth. Joel was trying hard to keep up with us but he was dealing with some hurt holes and ended up sixth. Did I forget to mention under the radar Dave Guy? He is the closest to us in points and qualified 7th. Alton rounded out the top eight. Scott Lovell ended up in the eleventh position with my blue car. Slowly but surely Dale George is getting it dialed in. I could tell Dale and Scott were bummed about not getting it to go faster but, with the ECU change it will take a bit to get it dialed in. We hung out in the pits for a while and called it a night around midnight.

Sunday

We were in a good qualifying position but, Brian Mitchell and Dave Guy were on the same side of the ladder. We knew it was going to be a brawl. We had John Keller in the first round. We let it rip and ran and 8.59 for low et of the round and got the win. We don’t take anyone lightly because the whole class is inching up on us. Brian Mitchell went out in the first round on a wheelie so Chris Beary made it to the second round. Scott Lovell almost took out a spinning Bart Tobener. Bart dodged a bullet on that one for sure. Scott only lost by .011. We had Dave in the second round. This was a crucial round for us. We needed to win to pad our points lead. We both had good lights but, Dave lost a hole at mid track and we went on to win with an 8.61.

Dan Rawls took out Chris Beary in the second round. This put us up against Dan in the semi and we had lane choice. I fully staged first and Dan deep staged. It threw me off and I ended up cutting a crappy .151 light. Good thing for me he got loose about half track. I could see the blue lightning bolts out of the corner of my eye coming at me. We ran an 8.63 on that pass. On the other side of the ladder Alton was taking care of business. He got by Bart and a red lighting Brian Tuten so it would be Alton and us in the final. Again we had lane choice. The left lane seemed to be at a bit of a disadvantage so we went for the right as in all of our previous rounds on Sunday. I knew I’d better be on my game on the tree in the final. I told Alton after the run that, he brings out the best in me on the tree. I can’t let him get too far out on me because I won’t be able to reel him in. His car is running strong with Dale George tweaking the tune. He did get an advantage with a .015 to my .022.

I never really saw him on the run as he spun bad on the launch. We ran an 8.64 to win the event. Our car was running like a bracket car and performed awesome. Alton is a very talented driver and I’m sure he will make it to the winners circle soon. Well we survived the battle and we have almost won the war. Dave Guy has a slim chance to catch us for the championship at the final NMRA event in Bowling Green, Kentucky. We are not planning any major changes to the red car for the last event. Our Zapp Race Engines motor is fresh and running great. The changes we are making will be to reduce the front end weight on our car. We would like to be able to transfer the weight better to the rear tires on launch. The S197 body is 6” or so longer than the fox body. Our 4.6L motor doesn’t have the torque that the pushrod or 5.4L motors do so it’s tough to get the 60’ where we would like it. Dale made some headway on my blue car. The last two passes netted 159 mph. We need to work on the 60’ also. We will be installing a driveshaft speed sensor on it and installing a fresh set of head gaskets for BG. There is never an end to the quest for speed and the need for competition. I’d like to thank my Wife and kids for putting up with my obsession for Drag Racing.

Thanks to the Sutton HP Crew for building and tuning the fastest 2008 mod motor powered Bullitt in the NMRA! I’m glad to be behind the wheel.
Randy Morhbach (Sutton HP Manager), Jerry VanDerLinde (Crew Chief), Bryan Stepanic (Crew), Larry David, (Crew), Pat Shepard (Crew), and Norm Swanson (Team Machinist)

Sponsors:
Sutton High Performance, Ford Racing, Vortech Superchargers, Dynamic Racing Transmissions and TCT Converters, Big Stuff 3, Fast Forward Racecars, NGK Spark Plugs, Permatex, Goldie’s Auto Body, Valvoline, WorldWide Bearings, Zapp Race Engines, and Motive Gear.