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By Ted - 8 Years Ago
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I entered the ’55 Customline with its 272 in the Big Bend Open Road Race (4/23/2016) and took a first place finish in a class that was all Corvettes except for this one lone Ford. The 272 has 143K+ miles on it since it has been last opened up and is still running well. The car itself has over a quarter of a million miles on it. The BBORR is two legged race of 59 miles each way with the results totaled for 118 miles. I was entered in the 90 MPH class and once the results were tallied up, Linda (my navigator) and I ended up being only 0.140 seconds off of perfect for both legs. The 272 did run up to 109-110 mph in the straights to make up time for curves and hills but was reasonably comfortable running at 95-98 where only slight increases in speed were needed. The only suspension mod to the car was a 1955 Ford station wagon front sway bar and the tires were upgraded to ‘H’ rated tires good for 130 mph.
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By MoonShadow - 8 Years Ago
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Wow Ted you are really leaving your mark there. Congratulations on a win especially beating all scrubs. You have a really good co-pilot there!
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By Vic Correnti - 8 Years Ago
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Congratulations to you and Linda. All Corvettes to boot, but we all know it took a lot of skill to win that race as well as a well broke in Y-Block.
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By charliemccraney - 8 Years Ago
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awesome.
You were racing against those newer Corvettes?
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By miker - 8 Years Ago
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Ted, it doesn't get any better than that. Did they commit Hari Kari, or whatever it's called? Congratulations and Salutations.
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By Dave V - 8 Years Ago
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Very impressive. Congradulations Ted. Dave V
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By glrbird - 8 Years Ago
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Wonder if any of those corvette owners knew they were sitting next to the KILLER CAR in the class. Made me smile. great job!
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By Ted - 8 Years Ago
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charliemccraney (4/25/2016)
awesome. You were racing against those newer Corvettes?
Offhand, the oldest Corvette I saw was a single 1976 model with the vast majority of them being 2001 and newer. I was in the 90 mph class which means the object is to average as close as possible to 90 mph for 118 miles. Taking the hills and curves into consideration, that’s a challenge. Many of the curves are blind and are at the crests of hills so the navigator’s job gets important at this point in communicating what’s coming up. The final tally for the ’55 Ford was 89.998 mph on the southbound leg and 89.997 mph on the northbound leg. The target time for each leg of the race is 39:20:00 and the ’55 was off for both legs by a total of 00:00.140 which is about a tenth of a second.
There are speed classes ranging from 85 to 155 mph and then an unlimited class. Many of the unlimited cars do exceed 200 mph in the straights. The attrition rate in the unlimited class is extremely high and we passed a majority of those cars that ended up being sidelined on the side of the road as we made our way up and down both legs of the race.
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By Rono - 8 Years Ago
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Congrats Ted...That's AWESOME!!
Rono
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By Brodie55 - 8 Years Ago
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What a great accomplishment and cool story. Congratulations to you and Linda.
What are the basic rules/allowable mods?
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By speedpro56 - 8 Years Ago
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Ted and Linda, Awesome job with a
great car!
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By Joe-JDC - 8 Years Ago
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Excellent! Glad you had a successful run! Joe-JDC
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By yalincoln - 8 Years Ago
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great job Ted!!!
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By Ted - 8 Years Ago
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Brodie55 (4/25/2016)
What a great accomplishment and cool story. Congratulations to you and Linda. What are the basic rules/allowable mods?
For the 85-110 mph classes, minimum requirements include a SNELL rated helmet and gloves, fire extinguisher, and seat belts. Also no polyester in the clothing or shoes. For the 85 MPH class, a minimum of ‘S’ speed rated tires (112 mph) and the tech (max) speed is 112 mph. For the 90, 95, 100, 105, and 110 mph classes, a minimum of ‘U’ speed rated tires and a tech speed of 124 mph. I had ‘H’ speed rated tires on the ’55 which are good for 130 mph but my tech speed is still 124 mph due to no roll cage and other specifics. For the 85-110 mph classes, the tires cannot be over four years old. In some of the faster classes, the tire age is limited to 2 years.
For those that feel the need to practice, an eight mile section of HWY 90 west of Sanderson, Texas is closed in intervals on the Wednesday and Thursday prior to the race. Absolutely no passing is allowed during practice but passing is allowed on race day. The race itself takes place on HWY 285 between Fort Stockton and Sanderson, Texas.
A more detailed description of the rules is located at the BBORR website. Here’s the link.
http://www.bborr.com/rules
Here’s a picture of the ‘approved for racing’ sticker for the ‘55 once the car had passed the technical inspection.
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By ian57tbird - 8 Years Ago
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Must of embarrassed a few Vette owners, congratulations.
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By dbird - 8 Years Ago
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Great job Ted. I just want a video or the bench racing session at the local Corvette club meeting.
Don
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By Lord Gaga - 8 Years Ago
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"I entered the ’55 Customline with its 272 in the Big Bend Open Road Race..."
Wasn't this more of a time/distance "rallye" than a race? Couldn't an entrant drive fast as hell and then slow down with the finish line near or in sight and the timer or "navigator" would direct him or her when to cross it? More of a hit or miss than a speed contest?
Congratulations in any case!
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By Hollow Head - 8 Years Ago
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Ted, I wish we had more of these stickers... you and Linda definetely deserve one... Great job once again!
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By Old Ironhead - 8 Years Ago
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Congrats Ted! 272's Rock & Roll!
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By Ted - 8 Years Ago
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Lord Gaga (4/27/2016)
"I entered the ’55 Customline with its 272 in the Big Bend Open Road Race..."
Wasn't this more of a time/distance "rallye" than a race? Couldn't an entrant drive fast as hell and then slow down with the finish line near or in sight and the timer or "navigator" would direct him or her when to cross it? More of a hit or miss than a speed contest?
Congratulations in any case!
Two important key points here. For the 85-100 mph Touring classes, the cars cannot exceed their Tech speeds and likewise are not allowed to run at speeds less than 70 mph. For the 90 thru 110 mph classes, the Tech speed is 124 mph. I did take note of a 105 mph class car getting disqualified going 126 mph. For the faster Touring 105 & 110 classes, the minimum speed is 30 mph under the target speed. In this case, you are looking at 75 & 80 mph minimum speeds. Minimum speed for the ’55 Ford was 70 mph which was 20 mph below the target speed. There were at least two vehicles I saw that were disqualified for running too slow across either finish line. In this race, the first leg finish line is also a player. On the first leg of this race, the ’55 Ford was running well in excess of 100 mph when it went across the finish line to make up time for a lot of curves at the tail end of that leg. On the second leg, it was running in the 85-86 mph range across the finish line.
It is a competition but instead of racing to be ahead of another vehicle, it is a race against time. One key here is picking a class that’s challenging for both the driver and vehicle. The other key is being able to judge if the car is fast or slow at the various points during the race. In my case, Linda as navigator is letting me know how many seconds fast or slow I am at the various landmarks being used to check the time. The ’55 in this case could have also run the 95 mph class but it would have been more of a push in some of the straights to make up for lost time in the curves. Keep in mind that this ’55 has a high mileage engine and was upgraded 26 years ago with an Isky E4 camshaft, ’57 distributor, and a 4 barrel carb on a ECZ-B intake. Due to the mileage on the engine, I didn’t feel the need at this point to push this 272 to the limit. The engine sounded pretty tight at 109 mph but oil pressure stayed constant at 60 psi at speed.
While most rallys have a series of checkpoints, this competition is only concerned with the final finished time. As such, it just takes a different skill set to accomplish this. At what speeds the vehicle is run at in the various legs of the race is up to the drivers/navigators as long as Tech speeds and minimum speeds are not exceeded. While the ’55 was 0.140 seconds off of perfect, the #2 car (2013 Corvette) in my class was 1.913 seconds off of perfect. That’s quite a spread between the 1st and 2nd place cars.
Linda did comment on how smooth the ’55 was at speed versus the 1950 Ford with a Flathead V8 that we ran last year.
Here’s this years’ poster print I just received of the car.
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By charliemccraney - 8 Years Ago
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Sounds kinda like the road racing version of bracket racing, except everyone has to run as close to a pre-determined time, rather than a time each individual chooses.
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By glrbird - 8 Years Ago
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You need to get a video camera set up in the car for next year, You could even sell copy's to help fund the race expense.
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By 57FordPU - 8 Years Ago
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Ted, congratulations to you and Linda for a job well done. What a rare opportunity for both of you to experience the thrill of competing together. When you add to that the amazing victory and the cover of the poster, you both can share in all the glory. For quite some time you just have to smile at each other with no words and you both know what is being thought of.
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By Ted - 8 Years Ago
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Thanks to all for the kudos. This race is indeed one of the few instances where Linda and I can share competing as a couple. Just finishing the race with one of these older vehicles is an accomplishment but then winning the class is icing on the cake. Added to the win were a couple of other awards which actually means as much or more than the win.
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By pintoplumber - 8 Years Ago
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Ted, did you use the original speedometer or did you have something more accurate?
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By Ol Ford Guy - 8 Years Ago
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Ted,
That sounds like a lot of fun. What transmission and axle ratio are you running in the 55? If it is an OD transmission, you probably would run out of OD for engine braking in the curves. Great job with all the competition.
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By Ted - 8 Years Ago
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pintoplumber (4/30/2016)
Ted, did you use the original speedometer or did you have something more accurate?
While the 150 MPH speedometer (salvaged from a ’55 Ford Police car back in the Eighties) was reasonably accurate with the 27.1” tall tires, that accuracy went out the window when I put H speed rated 25½” tall tires on the car for the race. In this instance, a GPS was used for the mph and maintaining any given speed. The reason for the tire change was both for the speed rating and age. The existing 27.1” tires were in excess of 4 years old and were also only speed rated for 112 mph which would have limited the car to the 85 mph class. The key to nailing the finished time though was Linda using a stop watch at various points along the route to confirm the actual mph average.
Ol Ford Guy (4/30/2016)
Ted, That sounds like a lot of fun. What transmission and axle ratio are you running in the 55? If it is an OD transmission, you probably would run out of OD for engine braking in the curves. Great job with all the competition.
This ‘55 was originally an overdrive car with 3.89:1 rear gear; the tranny was upgraded to a T-85 w/overdrive back when the engine was rebuilt. The rear axle housing was upgraded at the same time and is a 9” out of a ’58 Ford and uses a 3.56:1 rear gear. Engine braking with the overdrive engaged at speed was still good in this instance. Because the highway is shut down for the race, all lanes are available which makes it much easier to straighten out the curves and not lose as much speed. I spent quite a bit of time in the oncoming traffic lane without having to worry about oncoming traffic. Never had to use the brakes except at the finish line.
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By Y block Billy - 8 Years Ago
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Enough can't be said about this great accomplishment, kuddo's to you and Linda! P.S. Be careful with your secrets, Corvette folks may be spying on the Y block site!
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By aussiebill - 8 Years Ago
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The turtle and the hare !
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By Canadian Hot Rodder - 8 Years Ago
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VERY impressive, congrats Ted!
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By DryLakesRacer - 8 Years Ago
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It sounds like you and Linda are ready for the Nevada Silver State. I didn't know Texas had one. Congrats......
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By Talkwrench - 8 Years Ago
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First time Ive had a chance to read this.. Well done to you [both] sounds like a lot of fun and as someone said time to install a gopro camera so we can all enjoy ; ) unfortunately in this "Nanny" country we cant do things like that ; (
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By Daniel Jessup - 8 Years Ago
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Ted,
I will add my congratulations as well! That must be something to open road travel at those speeds for extended periods of time with the y block exhaust note in your background.
FYI .... I should be making my Texas trip again in 2017 but this time I will be in Fortworth, not Waco. I am pretty sure the date will be the Saturday after Valentine's Day. We will have to get together!
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