Allstar Dodge Challenger Nitro Funny Car Race Report
15th Annual Holley Hot Rod Reunion Challenges and Rewards
ST LOUIS – Hello race fans! Hoping all things are well with you. The theme of this race report is “Challenges and 
Reward” with the reward being a first-place trophy. Yes, a win for the team in the first event of our season! After several weeks of “maybe” and “maybe not” discussions in May and early June with the NHRA on attending the 15th annual Holley National Hot Rod Reunion presented by AAA Insurance at the Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the announcement was final made; the Nostalgia Funny Car Class was going to race and we were invited to attend.
The event featured a wide variety of activities, including NHRA vintage drag racing, featuring some the sport’s most famous and historic cars and drivers racing in such classes at Nostalgia Top Fuel, Funny Car, Fuel Altereds, Supercharged Gassers, Classic Super Stock, Hot Rods and others.
Jake and the team overcame no less than 4 various challenges during the week before and during the race weekend in route to victory lane. The challenges ranged from a “lost” fuel pump, to a truck breakdown in route, to tech inspection issues and finally the worst weather conditions we’ve raced in. It’s easy now to look back at these issues and chuckle but it was definitely not case as they were being dealt with individually. Challenge #1: Fuel pump “lost” during shipping.
As an NHRA sanctioned event, strict enforcement of the NHRA’s rules, safety features and tech inspection processes were required. Jake discovered on Friday, 9 June, that one item that must be correct was the fuel pump. NHRA required that the fuel pump be certified to provide a maximum of 21 gallons per minute of output flow. The certification must be provided by a single NHRA certified and recognized facility located in California, who in the process provides tamper proof certification labeling and badging on the pump’s housing. Our pump was previously certified to meet the IHRA’s 21 gpm output requirement but was not certified by the NHRA source requiring Jake to overnight the pump to California on Monday such that it could be certified on Tuesday and overnighted back to the shop in time for the team to depart on Thursday….nothing could possibly go wrong in that scenario…right? Well… the pump was “lost” during return shipping from California. The pump was tracked down and was promised by the carrier to be at the St Louis depot by 0800 Thursday vice the planned Wednesday afternoon. With fingers crossed Jake with trailer in tow arrived at the depot at 0800 on Thursday to successfully retrieve the pump and begin the trip to Bowling Green, KY. Mission accomplished and Challenge #1 overcome.
Challenge #2: The breakdown of the trusted tow vehicle. With only 10 miles left to Bowling Green, the truck decided to take a break by rupturing a high-pressure diesel fuel line leaving the truck, trailer, Jake and crew on the side of the highway. After no less than 1 and ½ hours of phone calls to wrecker services, arrangements were made to separately transport the truck to a local dealer’s repair shop and the trailer to the race track. Because of a highly cooperative tow vehicle operator assigned to our rescue, we were able to get the trailer and car to the racetrack and in the pits just as if we had done it ourselves….only 4 hours later than planned. As it turned out, Jake’s truck was repaired by the dealership on Friday and Jake avoided an “extended vacation” in Bowling Green. Challenge #2 overcome.
Once at the track, we quickly unpacked the trailer and readied the car for tech inspection which we had scheduled to complete Thursday afternoon. After the inspector’s fine-tooth comb (or wire brush depending on your perspective) we passed inspection with one exception…Jake’s helmet certification date had expired. The inspector confiscated the helmet and although the car was good to go, Jake would not be able to race without a helmet. Challenge #3. Jake set off to work his magic with hopes our fellow racers had a “spare” helmet he could borrow for the weekend. As it turned out, one of the other racers, failed tech inspection for an issue that could not be corrected and was out for the weekend. This generous individual, Troy Ray, lent Jake his brand-new helmet which allowed Jake to race. A testament to the type of character these racer’s possess…preference to always see a racer on the track vice in the trailer. Thanks Troy Ray! Challenge #3 overcome.
Finally, time to talk about our racing that weekend. The weather conditions were such that we’ve only experienced them a very few times; temperatures in the low to mid 90’s, high density altitude levels and very high humidity or grains of water. Higher humidity (high number of water grains) impacts the combustion process when using nitro as it displaces available oxygen needed for the process. We just didn’t have the historical data to advise us on the tune-up for these conditions so “educated guessing” was in order. Our first pass was not only the first for the weekend but also the first for the season. Needless to say with another qualifying round in our future, the tune up was purposefully conservative or “fat” on the nitro so we didn’t risk a lean run which can hurt the motor. A 6.03 s / 232 mph pass. The car ran strong and straight. Room to improve as we wanted to sneak up on the low 5.9’s or high 5.8’s that we’ve successfully run before on this track. With round two of qualifying up next but later in the afternoon, adjustments needed to be made on the fuel mixture but we just didn’t have the data and experience with these high moisture and temp conditions. Jake increased the nitro percentage some with hopes to get into the 5’s. The best time seen so far by our competitors was a mid 5.8 at 242 mph and the top fuel dragsters were posting times in the 5.7’s so we knew the track to handle it. Time to swing the bat again.
At the hit, the car seemed to labor to get going and never cleaned up throughout the run. A disappointingly slower 6.26s at 225 mph. As our last qualifying run, we’d need to rely on our first pass to set us in the field. To our benefit, the other teams struggled as well and our 6.03s Q1 effort landed us in the second spot in the field. We’d be up against Eric Bronge in the Iowa Punisher Corvette in the next day’s first round of eliminations. Challenge #4 was now upon us.
The weather on Saturday was much the same as Friday and even a little worse with higher humidity. After some advice from master tuner Jerry “Nitrohelper” Newman, Jake set the plan for the first round of eliminations…even more nitro and a timing adjustment. At startup and throughout the burnout the car sounded strong and definitely struggled to burn all the fuel the pump was throwing at it with visible clouds of “vapor” emanating from the headers. Time to throw it down the track. At the hit the car launched strong, Jake held it in the groove and tripped the lights first running a 6.16 vs the Iowa Punnisher’s 6.32. On to the final round against Paul Romine in the Man O War mustang who defeated Baz Young in the Down Under Thunder Camaro, 5.87s vs 6.28s. We’ll have our work cut out for us as the Man O War had been running the 5.8’s all weekend repeatedly.
