NATS and Akron Don's Race Recap

Took my '65 Belvedere to the NATS and ran it in MAX Wedge in the 12.00 index. Here's a recap of the weekend:

Thursday and Friday Summary After two days of racing at the NATs and 7 runs, I'm 0-1.Lost in class eliminations. Tomorrow everyone starts fresh with Nostalgia SS Eliminator. The car is right there being within .013 of the 12.00 index over the last three runs. The driver needs a lot more seat time. Cut some sub .040 lights but did a 0.125 red in class eliminations. These guys are good and none of that will win. Still, having fun, making friends and car and I are getting better.

Sunday Summary

Only time trial today was a 0.03 under 11.970. But not a red light this time with a 0.087 light. Not good but at least I'm on the right side. Next is Nostalgia SS eliminations. Did add some weight to the car to slow it down plus the warmer weather will do that, also.

Eliminations over for me. One and done. Car fell off on the 60 foot by 0.13 and that and a slightly better light by my opponent ended my weekend. Everything else about the run was like the previous so I'm a bit befuddled - maybe it spun the tires for once.

Wrap-up Most of what I did was played around with the launch RPM. It really does not like 1500 or 2500 RPM Launches. Seems like the sweet spot is near 2100 RPM with this 4200 stall converter. Messing with the weight by adding gas, a spare tire and other stuff we won't mention didn't seem to make any difference likely due to weather and wind changes. Oh, well, on to the next event. Really need to put in a steeper gear and shorter tire for next year if I want to get the car to launch quicker and go faster. Slicks need replaced anyway. And, just for safety sake since I run cars running up to 145 MPH, I’m putting in a roll bar.

Akron Don Gallimore