I made it tonight. Didn't do as well as I hoped but I did get a personal best, 15.609 @ 91.06mph
There's still more in it. I left the traction bars in the safe position, still street tires, no burn out, no posi. I tried a launch at only 1500rpm and it just spun so I reverted to the get it rolling and floor it technique.
I also think I will need a much shorter gear for racing. By the end of the night I wasn't bothering with shifting to 4th and was going through the traps at around 6100rpm in 3rd.
Reaction times were much better than they were at Columbus last year.
I tried to make a couple runs shifting like I did at Columbus to get an idea if the traction bars and lowered rear are helping at all but I couldn't come close to the 15.95 I did in Columbus. On the way home, I remembered that I had jets with me. It was probably 15 degrees cooler than it was in Columbus so a change there may have done something. The elevation is only a 100 foot difference.
After the last run, the valve train seems to have gotten a little louder but it didn't get any worse during the 50 mile trip back home. I'll take a look at that this weekend.
Tony was there in his duster. I think his best was 14.6. Oh, and I put the truck on the scale, 3675lbs with me in it.
I had a real good race against a '91 S10 with a 283. I was just planning to do some testing during that race but when I saw how close we were I thought "I think I can beat him" but it was too late. My "testing" slowed me down too much. that race he ran 16.187 @ 89.16 and I ran 16.223 @ 86.91. His best for the night was 15.5. Our reaction times were .003s apart. Me, .179. Him, .182. It was a good race. We talked for a while in the pits. I thought it was cool that it wasn't a 350 and it was period correct where the engines were concerned.
The announcer guy liked the truck apparently. I couldn't hear him but people were telling me that. I think it had more to do with being a unibody than anything else.
Lawrenceville, GA