Steve Jackson Racing

ULTIMATE OULAWS / SUMMER RECAP

2011-09-22T18:38:00.000-07:00

What a year so far. It has been since March since I have written. While there is no excuse for this, I will say that I have been extremely busy. Not only have i been keeping the orange car on the track constantly, But we had our baby girl in July. She is a healthy beautiful little girl named Sophie. There is so much to write, I will try to just cover the highlights. After signing our 2011 title sponsor, MAC FAB BEADLOCK CONVERSIONS, Things started clicking within our team. The car was performing flawlessly. Phil bought and helped me install a race pak in the car in march. Boy did this ever open some possibilities. It was like moving me into the 21st century.
Our next race following the shakedown in palm beach, was at Brainerd Dragway in Brainerd, Ga. This was rumored to be a very tricky track. That was an understatement. It was slick, narrow, and bumpy. I loved it. It was the kind of track that I grew up racing on . It was a mix of Eatonton back in the day, Dorchester late at night, and racing in the street. We unloaded with slicks on, and absolutely couldnt get down the track. On our third attempt friday night, The car spun hard, hit the rev limiter, I pedaled it, kicked the head gaskets out, and proceeded to torch a hole in one of the cylinder heads. When I pulled the head off and saw that It was torched, We started packing up. I was tired and the car wouldnt work, and I was ready to quit. We had everything but the car loaded in the trailer when I sat down with a couple of my buddies and fellow racers. I poured a stiff crown and coke and was feeling pretty lousy. They kept on me and wouldnt let up about fixing the motor. They said they knew of a machine shop 3 hours away and could pull some strings on fixing the head. They even offered to let me borrow their car. Finally the redneck in me was fired up and off we went. Me and brian drove to Crossville, Tn to Mondello's Speed Shop. This place was a state of the art machine shop. Brett stayed up all night welding , and machining the head. We finished it at 4 am and buzzed back to Georgia half asleep and banged the ole girl back together. We qualified like crap in the middle of the field with a 5.20. the track was really loose. We got past first round with a pedal fest running a 5.0. got by second round on a holeshot with a 4.97. In the semi's I was paired up with my arch nemesis from the north(and the man who crushed me in West Palm) Scotty G. He had been bracket racing in the 4.70's and was heavily favored to win. I knew a 5.0 wouldnt cut it, So i loaded the kitchen sink in the ole girl. I was going to go down spinning, but i wasnt getting outrun. I burned in hard, and when the tree came down, the old orange car leaped out of the lights like u shot her out of a cannon. We were glued together at half track. I was having flashbacks of West Palm as we approached the finish line. But this time my ponies galloped to the end, we beat him by the slimmest of margins. Payback was mine and we were headed to the finals. I respect Scotty as a racer, and now as a friend, And he will be back to get me. We blazed through the finals. It was the biggest payout I have ever won in a class race. 18k. And to think i almost pussed out and threw in the towel. Thank goodness for friends and Crown Royal. I will kinda buzz through the rest of the season.
Civil Wars- Rockingham, NC Went to the second round and got crushed
NHRA Unleased- Valdosta, Ga Went to the final and broke a charge pipe (got crushed by Fiscus)
Macon, Ga- Win
Carolina Dragway- Jackson, SC - Win
Union County Dragway Union, Sc -Win
Ultimate Outlaws- Julian, Nc -Win
Dorchester, Sc --- Win
Ultimate Outlaws- Milan, Michigan - Went to the Final and got crushed by Fiscus(Picture of Fiscus is now on my refrigerator)
Steele, Alabama Got crushed in the second round due to tire smokage
YellowBullet Nationals- Cecil County Maryland- Went to finals and got crushed By Alex Vrettos, beat Fiscus on a holeshot in the Semis ( Fiscus taken off of Refigerator, Alex Vrettos put up on Refigerator)
Ultimate Outlaws- Budds Creek Maryland- Win
We rolled into Budds Creek , Md with a chip on our shoulders. I was determined to find the limit of our car. The fastest we had been to date was a 4.40. The air was right and the track was perfect. our first pass on Radials we smoked the clocks with a 3.34. one hundreth off of the Drag Radial World Record. I smelled blood, and on the very next run I reset it with a 4.32 at 175 MPH. Boy you have no idea the celebrating that went on after that run. It felt good to keep the record in the south where it belongs. We marched through the field running in the mid 30's all weekend. We qualified number 1, Set the World Record, Set the radial track record, Won the championship, and won the race. What a weekend it was. I took the car apart monday when i got home. It's time for a freshen up, and i want to be perfect when we head to Englishtown , NJ in two weeks. Hats off to my sponsors, Mac Fab, Procharger, Mickey Thompson, Abby's Auto Parts, 2 Keys Customs, Aiken Augusta Paving. Not to mention my crew, Chris Johnson, Mike Merritt, Phil Shuler, and Brian Glendonious. We have pulled together this year and and are closer than we have ever been. Most of the time we know what each other is thinking. It makes racing a blast.
P.S ------- The engine in the Orange Car is for sale turn key. It can be purchased and delivered immediately following the the NO MERCY Race in Valdosta in October. The engine will be completely fresh with all new parts when we get to Valdosta. Its also comes with a brand new ready to race spare cylinder head, spare rockers, two racks of pistons and rods with rings filed and bearings set up. spare cam, pushrods, timing belts, etc. Serious inquiries only email - Steve@SteveJacksonRacing.com

Shakedown at Palm Beach Recap.

2011-03-12T07:20:00.000-08:00

When the celebration was finally over after the victory at SGMP. Me and Chris and Mike headed south early Monday morning . Stopping off in Orlando for three days for a company expo, We arrived in Palm beach Wednesday afternoon. Thursday was a full day test session, Phil flew in about noon, and we drug the ole hot rod to staging. I left the same tune up that we ran four days earlier at SGMP, Well that didn't work. The car moved 3 inches before annihilating the tires. The racing surface at PBIR is very smooth and flat, but the track was prepped for pro mods, Which seem to prefer a looser surface. So we backed car down, and went 70 feet, backed it down again, went 150 feet. then on our final run we went 330 feet. I figured out that the track could be fast but the power application had to be a little different. By the time Qualifying was done on Friday we were sitting 4th with a 4.71. But we had a smoked transmission. Phil rounded up some parts from the pits and we took the unit apart Friday night and overhauled it. That was a fiasco in itself. We banged it back in the car about 3 am, Not quite sure if the backwoods overhaul we had just performed would even shift. We had one more session of qualifying Saturday morning before eliminations. Me and the boys decided to turn the wick up a little. But so did everybody else. We went 4.49 at 177mph, which put us third, number one being a 4.46. We felt pretty good. Then the rains came, Buckets and buckets and buckets of rain. To our dismay, eliminations were put off until Sunday. We had been away from home for 12 days and were ready to head back to Georgia, But we all talked about it, and decided that we had come this far, and were going to see this through. we went through the first three rounds without a hitch, The car was consistent, and doing what i told it to. With one exception, I was unable to cut a light. At this point I had made 27 passes in two weeks, and the best reaction time thus far was a .093 with most averaging in the .105 to .110 range. This is very very slow for me. There is a problem in the car causing this, whether it be a valve body issue, or a wiring issue, I don't know, but I will find it. So the final round was upon. I knew we couldn't cut a light so We decided to stand on the tune up. I burned in hard and pulled to the tree. Easy does it, inching into the lights. I was racing Scotty G in his camaro from New York and i know he's sharp on the tree. We bumped in and a flash of amber later we were on our way. He drilled my ass on the tree, his .066 to my .121. I was a half car back, but making ground, we buzzed half track and I was a fender back, then the Mph cone and It was dead even. We were glued together going through the traps. I thought I was out front, He nudged me out by .003 seconds. That's about 3 inches at 170 mph. I went 4.48 to his 4.53. The Hole shot killed me, and the extra foot of front overhang his camaro has. I hate pecker extenders on mustangs, But I now understand why people have them. Congrats to Scotty G and his crew for being the better racers that day. They were class acts before, and after kicking my ass. Their car was on a rail all weekend and they deserved the win. This is my first ever loss on a hole shot and no matter what I have to do, It will not happen again. I don't care if I have to take the transmission out and chunk it in the river and start over. In our first two races of the year we won and runner up'd. Me and the boys are focused like a laser beam. I cant wait to see what the rest of the year brings. I want to take a second and thank some folks that normally don't get alot of praise. Of course we always thank our sponsors and without them we cannot race, But there are a couple people who I can always count on when the dirty part of racing is being done. The countless hours working in the shop, the many many sleepless nights, the blood sweat and tears that go on behind the scenes that make us successful at the track. The thousands and thousands of miles driven back and forth up and down the highway, and the encouragement and faith they gave and had in me last year when we were getting mopped up race after race. My friend and partner Chris Johnson. Big Johnson never complains even when my ideas are stupid and unrealistic. He works on everything I have, runs parts back and forth, welds all my blown up stuff together all the time, drives the motor home everywhere we go, and sacrifices time away from his family so that I can pursue my dreams. Friends like that cannot be replaced. Mike Merriet has worked 60 hours a week for the last month helping me finish the car. He can do anything on the car from front to back and is truly an asset to our team. He also sacrificed the last two weeks straight of his life to go on the road with us. Brian doesn't do much work on the car because he is most of the time watching sports, but he is irreplaceable at the race track. He is always there when i need him and believes in me no matter what. Phil Shuler is the voice of reason when I wanna do something stupid and flies all over the world to race with us. His creativity has led to many behind the scenes innovations on the car that all lead to performance gains. It is an honor to drive his car and before we are through, alot of people, at alot of levels are going to have hurt feelings. I know you guys are tired of reading the mushy mushy stuff, but Its important to me, for folks to realize how much has to go on to get this thing to the track when you are a low budget team like I am. Our next race is April 1st in Brainerd, Ga. followed by April 7-9 at Rockingham, Nc. I can't wait. We may have a little surprise for everybody when we get to rockingham. Stay tuned :)

LETTING THE COUGAR LOOSE.........

2011-03-02T12:17:00.000-08:00

WOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO . Back in the saddle... We got to South Georgia Motorsports Park late wednesday night. In usual Stevie fashion , the car had only been running for 5 days. Me and the boys have spent the last 4 months working our behinds off updating the car from front to back. We were anxious to see if the hard word would pay off and a little nervous. We rolled out the box early thursday morning and went to the line with a pretty gangster tune up in . I just wanted to see if it would hold. Well it didnt. Smoke immediately. So much for cowboy style. I backed her down and strolled on down the track like we were on a sunday drive. 4.59. Good solid starting point. I never have been one to leave well enough alone, So i kept letting the reins loose and by the time qualifying was to start friday, I thought we were ready. I tried several different things testing and by this time I had figured out exactly how hard I could push the hot rod without making her come loose. We decided to run two classes at the last minute. We ran Radial Vs The World, and Outlaw Radial. Basically Radial vs the world is an open class, tube chassis cars, backhalf cars, wheelie bars, etc etc are allowed. Outlaw Radial is a stock suspension class for drag radial cars. We turned loose of the button first round of Radial vs the world and smoked the clocks with a 4.48 @178 mph. Thats a new supercharged drag radial world record. That also made us the first procharged drag radial car in the 4.60's, the 4.50's, and now the 4.40's. We were estatic and whats worse is, the car just eases down the track like its on cruise control. Which is good for us........ but bad for everybody else. By the time qualifying was over , We were qualified first in Outlaw Radial, and 3rd in Radial Vs The World. The Killintime Machine was doing exactly as I told her to. Which is awesome. We lucked up and got a broke opponent first round bye in both classes. I dont know how that happens, but I guess the man was looking out for us. I went red on the tree in the quarter finals of radial vs the world. This is only the third time in my life I have ever went red and it was a kick in the head. There were some extenuating circumstances surrounding this redlight. But Ill keep it to myself. We went all the way to the finals, Each round we went faster than the round before. I was in the zone and we all knew it. The final round was an all Procharger affair. Big Johnson reached behind me and un clipped the leash that the boys normally keep on me during eliminations. I tend to get a little excited at times and the sometimes have to remind me that you dont always have to go for it. Well this time we were going for it. We had been down the track the last 8 passes in a row and I felt good. I put the tooombawooommba jackhawk 9000 tune up in it and to the line we went. We burned in and staged. I could feel the sweat from the hot georgia night running down my face. I went to the break, the tree fell and controlled chaos was in motion. The ole orange pumpkin snapped out of the lights like a jailbreak. 1.15 sixty foot. He was still there. I could hear him. 200 feet out i stretched the ole girls legs and made my move. 2.6 g's pinned me in the seat . We buzzed the 330 clocks with a 2.98. When the W came on, I almost couldnt believe it. 4.400 @179 mph. The crowd went wild. I was so happy I almost forgot to stop. It was a wonderful feeling to be headed to victory lane again. Our first trip in over a year. All is once again right with the world. I owe so many people thanks that I dont know where to start. Thanks to the lord first. My beautiful Wife, for putting up with my 20 hour a day work schedule and loving me enough to allow me to chase my dream. My family and Crew, You guys work your butts off. Tommy Kirk at Mac Fab beadlock conversions, Without you we wouldnt have even cranked the motor up before the race. Dave W at Procharger, Your support has never waivered, We are not done with these turbo's yet. Robert at Abby's Performance Engines in Clearwater, Sc. We have a bad ass bullet, Robert is always there when I need him, Its nice to do business with people that really care. Many a night Robert has been up late working to keep me on the track. Tommy and Carl at Mickey Thompson, You guys have stuck with me through thick and thin. Cameron at Torque Converter Services, Yes that 179.76 mph is legit. Chris Tuten, The Grand Poobah of boost. Always there to help when I am lost or need encouragement in a hurry. Van and Neil at 2 Keys Customs, always keeping me shiny and sometimes its a full time job. My buddy Dean, something broke our front windshield sat night on our last run. We couldnt find a glass shop that would help, So Dean had someone from back home cut a windshield out of another car at midnight and drive all the way from home and put it in at 4:30 AM. My partner and friend Phil Shuler, Always ready to help no matter how crazy or complicated my ideas are. And to all the haters, Its going to be a long year. See everybody in Palm Beach Thursday.

Winter Updates

2011-01-03T17:55:00.000-08:00

I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I actually relaxed a little more than usual and spent some time with my family. After two weeks of that, I am ready to get back in the shop. The last time I wrote I was on the way home from the ORTC race in Valdosta. Not alot has happened since then. I am very pleased with the performance of the new engine. We went within one hundreth of our fastest pass ever on radials with only two weeks of test time. I got the car back to the shop and decided to completely disassemble it. The chassis has been inconsistent all year and I am determined to find out why. The engine is apart for routine maintenence. It gets rings, bearings, rods, and valve springs every 50 passes. I sent the crank to Abby's to be checked out and got terrible news. The shaft is twisted. This is not good for the old trusty wallet. There are a few other things i want to change in the engine so now I have the time. The new billet crank wont be done until feb 14. So it looks like we will be burning the midnight oil(as usual) to get ready for the ORTC race . I am going to add a few bars to the car to better harness this monster that I have created. Thats pretty much it for now. I am very pleased to announce that Procharger, Mickey Thompson, Grp, Abby's Performance Engines, 2 Keys Customs, Cameron's Torque Converter Services, MacFab Wheels, UPR Products and Aiken Augusta Paving have come back onboard as sponsors for the 2011 season. We are a low budget team and could not race without these guys. Support the companies that support our sport. I will update you guys as things progress through the winter.

WEEKEND RECAP

2010-10-25T14:44:00.000-07:00

There is so much to say about the last 5 days that its hard to put it all down. We woke up thursday morning and got the hot rod out of the box. We were very anxious to make some test hits because up to this point we still havent been fast. We hustled around to staging and was the third car in line to head down a green track. I burned in and rolled to the beams. I was completely shell shocked when I let go of the button and the car actually headed forward. I was on a lick and I knew it. At the 400 ft mark the left front tire was still dangling. I smoked the clocks with a 4.57 straight off the trailer. The new motor started showing some signs of life.... We tested all day thursday and most of the day friday not able to best the off the trailer pass. First round of qualifying was friday night and It was time to get to work. I decided to detune the car significantly to get her down the track, which is where she went. We ran a 4.66.. Which put us ninth out of a 61 car field. We still had two rounds of qualifying left and This was the fastest field of small tire cars I had ever seen. Saturday when our turn came up I decided to squeeze on the new motor a little. At the sixty foot I knew we were moving and the time slip showed it. 4.59 at 169.94 mph. That moved us to fifth with one round left before the field was set.....The redneck in me wouldnt let me not step on the car a little more So I squeezed a little more on the tune up. The ole orange heap was back in rare form screaming down the track netting a 4.54 at 172 mph. That put us third out of 61 cars. We were pretty happy with this And I still felt as though we had more left. Sunday morning the sun was out. A gorgeous day for drag racing. First round of eliminations I eased the reins back a little, wanting to go down the track. She did exactly what I told her and took the round win with a 4.59 at 169.99. It seems at this point that I had found my stride and the car was responding to what I was telling her. Second round The density altitude was about 400 feet worse than the first so I decided to leave the first round tune up alone and let the air detune the motor for me. After sitting in staging for two hours the air had gotten better. I should have gotten the computer and detuned the car but the track looked good so I made the call to leave the car alone and let it eat. WRONG. When I turned her loose, all she ate was the back tires slap off. It smoked at the hit of the throttle and I couldnt get it to recover. The weekend was over. I was pretty bummed out at first but then I realized that things could have been far worse. At this point the new engine had been running for two weeks and we had made some decent licks. I feel that we have a solid powerplant. I just need some time to figure out how to make it work. I put 52 passes on the motor in two weeks, So she is coming apart now for new rings, bearings, and rods. Then its back to the track to test. See yall soon.

Headed South

2010-10-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

After a week and a half of testing, we are headed to valdosta. The ORTC race is this weekend and we cant wait. I wish we were more prepared, but we did make the most out of our last week and a half. I have learned alot about the new setup, and although we havent been fast yet, I feel that it's just around the corner. The car seems to be making good solid power. I am however still learning what to do with it all. Sorry for the short post but its late and I have been up wrenching on the hotrod for 24 hours. We should pull into South Georgia Motorsports Park around 3 am, Testing all day tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed......

Testing Updates

2010-10-11T09:35:00.000-07:00

We hauled the ole heap down to valdosta this past saturday to do some testing . It was a beautiful day out and we got there early. Basically to make a long story short, we found a bunch of things that we need to fix and found somethings that we did fix. It was a pretty good test day. No fast numbers but it takes a little time to sort out a new combo. We didnt break anything so I already feel like im winning. I have to change a couple things on the car this week and then its off to Carolina dragway thursday to burn in. With some luck we should start seeing some E.T improvements this week.

FIRE IN THE HOLE...............

2010-10-06T08:33:00.000-07:00

Well boys and girls, I have finally busted off the new engine. It has been a long summer and I am really fired up to finally have this thing done. When I tell you that this thing has been a struggle, believe me. Everything from wrong parts to stuff that doesnt fit to shipping damage has plauged us all summer. We have been working on this engine since last october when we broke our good motor. Last night I hit the starter button and the ole girl fired up just like street car. With a little luck I should be ready to test the car by the weekend. I havent burned the orange car in, since May so I am pretty anxious to get behind the wheel. We will test it Saturday night at Carolina dragway, and next weekend at Orangeburg Dragstrip. That only gives me two test sessions to get the car sorted out before we head south for the ORTC race. The weather down south is perfect right now for racing. I updated a photo of the new engine on my website, I will get some more pics soon. I will update you guys as soon as I test it. One more thing, Thanks to all of you who have been patient with our abscence from the track these last 5 months. Your emails and calls have been an inspiration. I hated to sit the summer out, But there comes at time when you have to back up and stop patching stuff. Since last october when we broke our good motor we have been racing with these bullshit childrens motors that I have put together from parts laying around the shop. Before long, you are patching the patches. It was time to back up and get our ducks in a row. And to those of you that have been talking shit, ( You know who you are) I am coming for your ass. BET THAT.

Out With The New, And in With The Old

2010-05-24T17:59:00.000-07:00

Some people get homesick, I am Car Sick. Basically I miss my old hotrod. The new 10.5 car is fun, and we have been some fast e.t's, But its time to get back to the type of car that I love. Stock suspension drag radial. No yall know that my dream is to drive funny cars for a living, or maybe blown pro mods, but until that happens, stock suspension is where its at. Now there are lots of people that think that we have been away too long to catch up, but if I have anything to say about it, we will be loading people on the trailer before you know it. There are also a couple folks popping off at the mouth wanting to do some grudge racing, so we will find out where their heart is. I have the engine that is currently in the orange car for sale, And am working on the new heart as we speak. It will take most of the summer to complete, So you guys wont hear much noise from me, but i will keep you updated on the progress. I am very excited to get back in the saddle. If anyone is interested in a completely fresh, dirt cheap, bad ass blower/turbo engine, email me at Steve@SteveJacksonRacing.com

Blown Up and Busted

2010-03-30T17:42:00.000-07:00

The title pretty much says it all. We got the hot rod back in the shop this week and took the engine out an tore it the rest of the way down. Boy is it ever STANKY. What we thought was the coneecting rod that caused the issue, turned out was the wrist pin on number 2 cylinder. We sheared the thing. How do you break a wrist pin in half? Who knows, but then the rod turned the piston loose, and the carnage began. The largest piece of piston I found from number 2 cylinder was about the size of a quarter. Half the wristpin is gone. It must have went out the exhaust. The block is cracked, cam bent, head damaged, there is a piece of rod sticking up through the intake. It bent all the pushrods, broke two rockers, bent all 16 valves and took out the oil pan. The good news is that all the fuel injectors and the valve covers are in good shape. No reason to dwell on the past. The ole kawasaki motor was a good one while she lasted. May she rest in piece. Onward and upward to better things. Im still not sure what we are gonna do yet but Ill figure something out.

Bumpy Starts and Second Chances

2010-03-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

What an amazing weekend. And a crappy weekend. And a blessed weekend. All in one. We arrived in Montgomery Alabama for the start of the ORSCA season. This was our debut race in outlaw 10.5 and boy were we excited. I have always wanted to race 10.5 every since there was a 10.5. We pulled into the track friday afternoon, unloaded quickly, and were in staging in a hour. We were so eager to make a hit on 10.5's that I couldnt stand it. We had a little tune up help from my friend Chris Tuten on the way and boy did it work. The car launched hard snapping me in the seat and didnt let up till the chutes were out. I would tell you what it ran, but there are a couple guys that need a good ole fashion ass whooping in the grudge world first, so you guys will have to wait till Atlanta to find out. We changed torque convertors after the first pass trying to pick up the mph a bit. I figured it was time to rock the box so i put a VERY aggressive tune up in it. When I turned that thing loose, it was like a class 5 acme rocket was strapped to my ass. Man it was moving. That lasted about 2 seconds, and then that class 5 rocket turned into a class 5 nuclear bomb under the hood. Parts were flying everywhere. Pistons and valves shooting out the exhaust. Smoke everywhere. Not good at all. I pulled the heads off and boy howdy was it ugly. One peek in the engine and we put the front end back on it and put it in the trailer. It broke a rod, which bushwhacked the block. one piston is completely missing. I have no clue where it is. It broke a head, broke the timing belt which bent 16 valves, 16 pushrods, one rocker arm and a spark plug. I think the intake is still good, so it wasnt a total loss. This was not the start to the season that I had in mind. Well it turns out that the good lord was also looking out for me. Sunday the skys opened and it rained the whole race out. I hate that for the organization and all the other racers, but it sure did help us out. So now I have one month till the next race to scrape up enough cheese to build a new engine. I may have to sell a kidney on the black market or pimp brian out at night. So if any of you are interested in a bald guy that only watches sports. give me a call. Brian may be for you. :) Ill let u guys know what we decide to do about a powerplant as soon as i know.

Offseason Updates and The Beginning of a New Year

2010-02-28T12:19:00.002-08:00

The offseason was a whirlwind this winter. Almost immediately after parking the rig last november, I got to work. What began as a simple build turned into a 3 month neverending project. The new Outlaw 10.5 car is an awesome piece. Well, it will be if it ever goes fast. It's a 93 Ford Mustang Gt. The powertrain for this car has also ran into speedbumps along the way. We we supposed to have it done by the end of January, But as all things in life, It always takes longer, and costs more. So for now we have pulled the engine and tranny out of the orange car. So its a 522 inch Big Chevy powered by Procharger. As usual, we were scrambling to finish the car in time for the first race, Which was this weekend. With the orange car stripped of her heart, We elected to bring the grey car to the Radial vs the World race in Valdosta this weekend. We showed up to the track with not so much as one full pass one the car. We love a challenge . Second round of qualifying we finally made a clean hit, managing a 4.67 at 166mph. I was happy. After a ton off struggling, It was a huge relief to get on the honker pedal and not step off till the traps. We qualifyied 16 out of a 32 field. This tells you how fast the field was. First round Ileft her safe. We have almost no data to go off of, So I decided that going down broadway is better than stepping up and smoking the tires. We staged up and blasted down the track side by side.He nipped me at the finish going a 4.63 to my 4.67. So we were on the trailer after first round. Which sucks, but for me and the boys, it was a big accomplishment just to finish the car and qualify. Our Outlaw 10.5 season starts in 3 weeks and we have yet to ever even bolt on a set of 10.5 s. So we have some testing to do. We have a good car and a sound powerplant. Now it's just up to me to figure out the rest. The orange car will be back up and running as soon as the real motor is done for the new car. I can wait to feel this thing eat. I wanna thank my loyal sponsors that are sticking with us this year despite a new car and a new class. Procharger, Abby's Performance engines, Mickey Thompson Tires, GRP Rods, Mac Fab Wheels, and 2KEYS Customs, Aiken Augusta Paving. You guys never let me down and meet so much to our team. Also a special thanks to my partner and friend, Phil Shuler. We are gonna do great things together. I will update with testing news in the coming weeks. Steve

IT"S A WRAP

2009-11-22T09:35:00.000-08:00

What an incredible racing season. It's hard to put into words the struggles, joy, pain, love, passion, blood, sweat and tears that made this season up. We as a team learned more in one year about this amazing sport we love than I could have ever imagined.
We went to the finals in Montgomery, Alabama two weeks ago only to lose to a mid track wheelstand. We were heartbroken for the loss, but nonetheless happy to go to the final. We clinched second in the points standings, And were preparing for a darkhorse run for the championship at the world finals in Steele, Alabama. We got there with our heads on straight and only one thing on our mind. Winning. We put the old hotrod in the number 3 qualifying spot of the absolute fastest limited street field ever. Normally a 4.62 would put you number one. It put us 3rd. There were 2 cars in the high 50's and 8 cars in the 60's. Still we felt awesome. We were only 5 hundredths off of the number one guy. I think by looking at the computer that we had a 57 or 58 in the ole girl. Couple that with my head chopping off ability in the lights and we think we had a good shot. Mother Nature had other plans. Again. It rained all night saturday night and at 9 am this morning they called the race. This is the fourth or fifth rainout this year. Even the rescheduled rainouts got rained out. What should have been a ten race season turned out to be 5. All in all it was a good year. Finishing second against the caliber of competition that we faced all year is a landmark achievement. I myself consider this a learning year. I learned for the most part that "Less is Usually More" That's a direct quote from my buddy Tim Barton. I also learned that a simple 59 cent part can humble the greatest of ego's. I had a blast this season. Made possible by God, my family, my friends and crew, and my sponsors. All of you must see something in me that I sometimes forget. My passion for this sport is overwhelming, And my dream of racing professionally will not seem to go away. For every 500 people that tell me to grow up, and that it's stupid, and that it will never happen, There are those of you out there that call and email and say that I was born to do nothing less. My crew never waivered this entire season. Not in the darkest hour did they once quit or complain. You guys are my brothers. We have travelled this country together, and the stuff we have been through and conquered are what dreams are made of. As we ride down the raod from the final race of the year, one would think that we would be ready for a break, and that a couple months off would do us good. But we can't stop talking about next year. Big Johnson is driving, me riding shotgun with a computer in my lap, and Brian is almost certainly watching sports. We have a very busy offseason ahead of us. We are making the move from limited street to Outlaw 10.5. Robert Abernathy at Abby's Performance Engines has partnered with us to make this possible. We are still seeking a title sponsor for the 2010 season and will let you know as soon as we get the details worked out. We will still run the orange car in a ton of match races and Outlaw Radial Events next year as well. I consider this as another step for me in the direction that I need to go. I will update you guys with photos of the new chassis soon. As well as details of the new engine combination and power adder. I wish you guys a very Happy Thanksgiving.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

2009-10-29T09:53:00.000-07:00

What a week. We pulled into Bradenton Motorsports Park last thursday morning at 5 am. Me and the boys got us about 4 hours of shut eye and then unloaded the ole hotrod for a little more testing on the kawasaki motor. We made three tire shaking hits thursday not really doing anything impressive. The entire powerband on this engine is so much different than the other motor. It makes tremendous power in the bottom, lazy in the middle, and decent out the back. I decided to speed the blower up Friday morning, trying to give the kawasaki motor a little breath on the big end. I felt like we could run in the mid 4.70's in the heat but I knew that wasnt fast enough. The knew blower gears gave us one more pound of boost, which hurt and helped. It made my starting line tuneup more aggressive which could lead to massive amounts of tire spin, but it did sruce up the big end. We went a 4.72 at 164 during testing friday. We were missing something, I just couldnt find it. Then it hit me.Maybe since this motor makes power like a dirt bike, I should treat it like a dirt bike. Maybe we just needed more RPMS. So for the first round of qualifying friday night, I decided to ring the guts out of the ole girl. We left the line at 4000 rpms. I rolled into the bottom bulb and snapped the transbrake button down. The kawasaki sounded like an airplane when I turned loose. She pushed me into the seat and off we went. Now most people might think it's a bad idea to shift a big block at 8500 rpms. But shit the kawasaki loved it. We banged high gear and kept on getting up. We went through the traps in a 4.62 at 165 mph. Goodness goodness, We have a racecar. The ole Kawasaki has now been upgraded from a KX600 to and KX 1200. She just needed a little RPMS. That put us qualified number one with two rounds qualifying on saturday. Me and the boys celebrated friday night like we were rock stars. By the end of qualifying saturday, we were sitting second. Being out qualifyed by one hundreth. That also netted us a much appreciated first round bye run. First round sunday I put in a safe tune up. Bang, 4.64 at 163mph. Just like i told her. I was now feeling like we may have a car to win this race with. WRONG. Secong round during the burnout, the intercooler pump feed tube clogged with ice, allowing air inlet temperatures to reach 160 degrees. This made the kawasaki go from a kx1200 to a kx 250. We only ran a 5.00 and were promptly crushed and loaded on the trailer. What a letdown. This mistake will never happen again. We are in the process of building a water tank that should be on Star Trek, it's so advanced. Im sorry for all my sponsors, fans, and friends that made the trip down. But thank you guys so much for your support. Two companies in particular really stepped up to make the rest of our season possible. UPR Products, And MAC FAB custom wheels both really helped us out coming down the stretch. We couldnt race the remainder of our season without you guys making it possible. I will do everything in my power to make you guys proud. We have Orsca next weekend and from the looks of things, those guys will have their hands full. We need a win to keep the hopes of a Championship alive.

Cocked, Locked,And Ready To Rock

2009-10-21T21:58:00.000-07:00

You will never guess what happened when we got to Virginia last weekend... RAIN. Thats like the tenth race this year we have been rained out. We did get the new motor fired though. It sounds like a cross between a weedeater and a kawasaki dirtbike. Its only 522 cubic inches and you can tell it. But it'sallthe parts we havelaying around so we will have to use it. I will screwevery ounce of power out of this thing that she can muster. We are on our way to the Outlaw Radial Tire Championship Race in Bradenton,Fla. Big Johnson has the blue goose (our motorhome) in the wind. He has one eye open and the hammer down. Brian is sleeping and doing nothing like usual. Thats only because there are no sports on tv at this time. And i have spent the last 4 hours going over every single tune up I have looking for a way to squeeze this motor like a lemon. We made a couple test hits today before we left South Carolina. The ole girl is slow. The best the kawasaki could deliver was a 4.78 @159.00mph. Which is decent but not cowboy style. The crankshaft howevert is still bolted in so I will find a way to ring out some more. This race this weekend is a really big deal to us. We are all focused like a laser beam and if it can be done, I assure you that we find a way. GPS says we should pull in at 4 45 am. We will test tomorrow evening.

Back in the Saddle (Almost)

2009-10-16T09:24:00.001-07:00

Two wekes ago when we blew everything apart under the sun, sucked. The last two weeks have been like midevil times. We thrashed all week following rockingham, overnighting just about every internal part in the engine, Got it done in the middle of the night friday night, and then they called the ORSCA race due to race. We were really bummed out at first but in the end it would prove to be a blessing. We decided that since we had a fresh motor that we would go test for the Shakedown at Etown race this weekend. Which is a 1/4 mile race, So we went down to Valdosta, Ga last sunday to do some testing at SGMP. In the back of my head I still couldnt justify as to why the motor tore up the #6 piston last week. I mean it broke the piston in half. We had to sleeve the block and everything. But we chalked it up to a broken lifter and could find nothing else wrong. So we unloaded Sunday at SGMP and made a nice smooth lazy pass. I just wanted to get some data on the motor. Pulled it back to the pits and pulled the plugs and damn if #6cylinder wasnt torn up again. One pass and smoked the same cylinder. All tune up data looked good. The rest of the plugs were perfect. Me and the boys were really pissed. We drove home 5 hours at like 90 mph. Snatched the motor back out and apart. It was worse than I thought. Number 6 detonated so bad that it egged the cylinder and split the block. What the hell? So now were up the creek again. We are supposed to leave thursday for englishtown, nj and we have no motor. Not to be detered, we scrounged around the shop looking for used motor parts. What do ya know, there in the corner was last years ez street motor. Old faithful. She needed a little freshening, and she is way smaller than our good motor, but we figured we could piece her together. Robert at Abby's Performance Engines really helped us this week. He dropped eveything like he always does when I need him, and jumped right on it. We bored the block, got a new crank rods and pistons. Basically a new shortblock. It has been a long exhausting week, but at 3 am last night, we finished up. Well almost. Guess what. Shakedown rained out also. Im so tired of rain. All this work and favors for nothing. Once again, always the optimists, we decided to find somewhere dry to race. The pushrods just came in and we are on our way to Virginia Motorsports Park. I cant belive we are taking a brand new engine 7 hours to a race and it's never been fired, but we are. I think I found what keeps breaking the engine. We will see. I replaced almost every piece of electronics on this thing. Yall keep your fingers crossed. Sorry for the short post but I have only slept about ten hours this week am due for a little road nap.

The Sky Is Falling

2009-10-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had a weekend that you wish you could just step back to friday around noon and stop, and do something completely different? Almost everything that could break this weekend, did. Me and the boys headed to Rockingham, Nc for the Holcomb Civil Wars race. We decided to use this race as a tune up race for next weekends ORSCA race. It turns out that we need way more than a tune up. We need an overhaul. I'll start you off from the beginning. Friday night we unload and pull around for first round qualifying. I smoked the tires and pedalled the car early and ran it to the 1000ft mark. It ran decent but something was wrong. Turns out we broke the torque converter. So just for good measure, we put in the spare trans and converter. First round qualifying saturday morning, all was well until we shifted into high gear and there went the new transmission. Smoked another one. We thrashed and changed transmissions again between rounds of qualifying and got her ready. On our next shot I blew the supercharger up in the water box during the burnout. So we missed that session. Next we changed blowers and pulled around for the last round qualifying for saturday. The car launched straight and hard but right past the shift it laid over like a wet noodle. It was skipping pretty bad so i shut it off. Turns out we broke a lifter and two rocker arms, and bent some pushrods. Now I am thinking that this blows and I should have just went fishing. On top of all this suckyness, My Georgia bulldogs got beat by LSU. Well we couldnt get the lifter out of the block so after about 6 hours of wamming and framming we welded a piece of all thread to it and jacked it out. So another all nighter later we had the motor put back together, and ready for action sunday morning. Now at this point i am fairly certain that all the bad luck is behind us, and that we are ready to do some racing. WRONG. Next pass out we kicked the rods out of the side of the motor. I was actually relieved that the weekend was over. I feel like we fought hard all weekend, and Chris, Brian, and Fatboy never gave up. We do have a problem though, We have an ORSCA points race this weekend coming. So who knows what we will do. I will take the motor out and apart tonight to see what left and whats usable. Hopefully we can piece something together by saturday. I have a theory on bad weekends like this one. We will call this a Steveilosophy. I believe that anytime a man has too much "FUN" or more fun than he is supposed to, that he must pay it back. I think that fun is like a line of credit at the bank. Everytime you have alot of fun, It's like taking taking out a loan against your fun account. This overexertion of fun must then be paid back through various ways. The thing I hate most in this world is losing. So therefore my pennance for paying back the Fun is a weekend like this past one. Over the past two years, Me and the boys have had a massive amount of fun. Therefore the fun must repaid, So hopefully after this week is done I will once again be square with the fun, And we will be ready to move on to more fun. So think about that next time you are preparing for some fun. Sometimes payback is hell. All in all we are in good spirits. Its refreshing to be under the gun again. Motor updates coming soon.

The Race To The Chase

2009-09-28T16:29:00.000-07:00

Well for all of yall that live in the south, you completely sympathise with me when I say RAIN RAIN GO AWAY. I dont know of hardly a day when it hasn't rained in the last month. Between all the torrential downpours and flooding, little racing has been done. The Orange car hasnt even been started in 3 weeks. Me and all the boys are going stir crazy. Me and Chris have been busy working on a new business project, While Brian has been constantly glued to the tv, and has earned the new world record for the most sports watched ever. I mean it's sometimes ten hours a day of sports. I wake up and there he is in the chair. It's sportscenter, followed by gameday, and then more sportscenter, followed by ten thousand games, and then game highlites of the ten thousand games he's watched, followed by the game recaps of the highlites. And then..............Sportscenter. I have been working on the new transmission for the hotrod, which is almost done. If the rain ever stops long enough for me to unload the car from the trailer I will put it in. I am pretty fired up about it. Its built a from scratch unit utilizing the new 1.125 nasa 2 input shaft. So hopefully we can curb the parts breakage a tad. Me and Johnson are on our way to Nashville Tn as I write this to film a Tv show with the Orange car. And by goodness if you pull up weather.com , you will find hardly no rain in the southeast this weekend. Which means only one thing.. WE ARE GOING RACING. We cant wait. Brian is even gonna leave the living room long enough to climb in the motorhome and turn on the tv. Next weekend is ORSCA and we are using this weekend as a test session to get our minds back right. We are only two rounds out of the lead in the championship standings and are really hungry for a win. We have three races left so all the cards are on the table. Its time to put up or shut up and we have never been more ready to put some folks on the trailer. Look for more frequent updates as racing escalates this fall. This is my time of the year. October has always been my month. The air is crisp and so is our attitudes. Its down the home stretch we go, And with 6 straight weeks of racing coming up, Its going to be exciting. See yall soon.

Cooking The Bacon

2009-08-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

We headed to Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga this past weekend for Orsca. Me and the boys were really in high spirits, even though we havent been fast in two months. We have really been fighting mechanical gremlins and this weekend would prove to be no different. We unloaded and puttered down the track first pass to a nice smooth lazy 4.89. Normally if I get down the track early in the weekend, look out. Second pass i pepped the tune up a little and the sixty foot dropped almost 5 hundredths, but the car drifted right about a hundred feet and i had to abort the run. But the look in Brian and Johnsons eye was unmistakeable. They knew we were right where we needed to be. We adjusted the rear of the car just a touch to make her track straight, tied the front end down, stacked all the weight we had in the nose of the car and decided to see if we could rock the house on our last test pass. Now i dont need much talking into stuff like this. So i put a tune up together that if it didnt flip the car over, should run in the 4.60's . I burned in hard and backed through the smoke. Brian and Johnson put me dead in the groove and gave me a thumbs up as they shut the doors. Little did I know that we were about to blast into the record books. I let loose and the orange car jumped out the hole like cheetah chasing a gazelle, I passed the 330 mark with the tires still dangling, I knew I was freaking flying. I blazed past the 1/8th and rocked the scoreboards with a 4.53 at 170 mph. A new Drag Radial World record. I was so excited that I drove the car back to the trailer. I had already blown my voice out by the time the boys got there. We partied like rock stars most of the night before heading to bed feeling invincible, ahhh but as they say, all good things must end. Saturday I eased back on the reins just a little for safety, First round qualifying we went a 4.67 at 171.99 mph. Which was awesome considering the air was bad and the track was slick. We decided to sit out the second session, feeling good about our number one spot and wanting to limit parts breakage. Last session we again went for the moon. The car left harder than it ever has, and was on another shot, until I shifted to high and the car stood sraight up on the bumper. I pedalled her and eased her down. We were still sitting number 1, and feeling like we were in good shape. That was the last of those feelings. First round Sunday we had a bye run. I had an awesome sixty foot and was straight as an arrow, all was going to plan until the orange monster shifted into high gear and rung the input shaft in the transmission off. We really dodged the bullet here. I yelled at the boys on the radio to get the spare trans out the trailer. We thrashed and changed transmissions in record time. I still wasnt worried, having confidence that my tuneup was dead on. We burned in second round and I was in the zone. I tiptoed the car into the lights and flash, I was off again, Like a bullet i shot down the track,and then the worst happened again. The spare trans gave up the ghost and I lost the round. We were headed home early. As disappointed as I was, I kept telling myself that it just wasnt meant to be. The competition in Limited Street is red hot right now and we love it. We are counting the minutes till the next race. It's easy to praise your sponsors in the good times, but in times like this weekend when we went down and they all called monday morning to tell me they were still proud of us and are with us, we realize once again how fortunate we are to have the support of some great companies and individuals. We are a low budget team, and without you guys we could not race. Thanks again to Procharger, Mickey Thompson, The Supercharger Store, Upr, Grp rods, 2Keys Customs, Aiken Augusta Paving, Abby's Performance Engines, Torque Converter Services, and Stainless Works.

From Hero to Zero, and Back Again

2009-08-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's taken me so long to update my blog. I have been on vacation in mexico without the internet, or telephones, and let me tell you it was amazing. Just what i needed to get me back in the game. Anyways, back to last weekends ORSCA race. Can you imagine the absolute delight of me and my crew when ORSCA announced last month that one of it's cancelled races was rescheduled at my home track in Jackson, SC. We couldn't we believe we would be so lucky as to have all the limited guys come to us so we could lay the smack down on their ass. Well thats how I imagined it anyways. Fast forward to thursday before the race. The car had been sitting in the paint shop for almost a month, So we were testing just to kinda shake the cobb webs out of the ole girl. I was trying a new blower and a few new things with the tune up and having no luck getting down the track. The car was shaking the tires so hard it hurt my back. So saturday came and we decided the smart thing to do was put the old blower back on, and go with some safe proven tuneups for 1st round qualifying. I mean this was my home track and i have enough testing data on this surface to just about tell you what the car will run to the thousandth for every race condition you could think of. So first round I put a soft tuneup in it, It left good then pulled hard right around 30 ft, causing me to pedal three times and only running a 5.17. What the hell was up? I went over the car from front to back checking shocks and struts and found nothing. So I'm thinking, maybe the track? Maybe a drop of oil under the tires? Maybe a fluke? Second round qualifying, it left hard, went a hundred feet and smoked the tires. Now we are panicking. Both of those tuneups that i had just tried would go down a mud road. So now im thinking, maybe the tires are shot. They had very few runs on them but maybe sitting for a month had an affect? So we changed tires for last round qualifying. Desperate to get down the track for some hope at a good qualifying shot. Now had this been just a last round qualifying round I would have loaded a mid 4.90 bull crap tune in, Something to just put us in the middle of the pack. But, This wasnt just an ordinary round of qualifying. This was also the final round of eliminations for the Montgomery race. I was racing Jeff Paulk in the car killer, So I couldnt just take it easy. My balls wouldnt let me. I put a mid 4.60 tune in and we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. The tree came down and i didnt move 2 inches before i smoked the tires. He took the win and what made it really bad is that the track was really good. I mean exceptionally good. I knew something was wrong with the car but i couldnt figure it out. We were up shit creek without a paddle. Qualified dead last. At our home track, in front of my sponsors and my friends and family. I was blindsided. It was like the civil war when all the yankees came down to watch the Battle of Bull Run, expecting an easy victory, and the south came out swinging and kick stomped that booty. Anyways i didnt sleep saturday night. I was determined to find out what was wrong with the car. I started taking things apart and found two bent control arm bolts in the rear suspension. I guess all the tire shake thursday bent them. We were however on the wrong side of the ladder. Having to run the all the heavy hitters if we were to go any rounds at all. I put a low 4.80 tune up in for 1st round eliminations and prayed alot. I had an extra long pep talk with the hot rod, explaining to her that i was sorry for bending her and that she deserved better and that it was ok to crucify me in qualifying, but this was showtime. I burned in hard figuring that if we went out first round, at least we put on a good show. We staged and off we gallopped into the sunset, straight as an arrow, and pretty quick, We won the round with a 4.80 on a 140 degree race track. It was like we won the final round already. That was the first full throttle pass we had in the car in over a month. But next round we were up against Jeff Paulk, the car killer. Again. The Orange car was looking jazzy and Big Johnson and Brian were still sore from the last nights ass crushing and looking for some get back. I pepped her up just a tad, Not wanting to overpower the super hot racetrack. We both lit the bulbs and I tore out the gate like a banshee. Winning the round with a 4.77. Now we were on track but like all good things, there is always a catch. There was all kinds of electronic noise in my run data. Meaning that something was going on in my ignition box, or Efi box. The computer was spiking all of the sensors and inputs during the run. This is bad for many reasons, First the computer was adding and taking away fuel and timing all over the place. The rpm were showing erratic which put the car into different cells on the timing map, Also it was turning on rev limiters sporatically from the MSD box. All in all we now have an inconsistent car. So i went through everything trying to find it. Nothing. I took off all the rev limiters, and tried to program a timing map that would not be so sensitive. In the third round we squeeked by only running a 4.88. But we were off to the semis, bad news was that we were running the number one qualifier. I had no idea what to do about the box malfunctions. So i went old school and turned off the fuel correction, programmed the same timing in the whole map, which is bad. Basically threw the kitchen sink at the thing. We staged and launched and I took off like a bullet. But at 100 feet it shook the tires and i had to pedal. Only running a 4.87 to his 4.77. BUT WAIT. My win light was on. He had redlit, giving me the round win. I hate to win like that, but at this point i'll take em however i can get. We were headed to the final. Who would have thought it? We were facing the master of disaster, Eric Dillard. He had just trashed my Limited Street record in the last round and was on top of his game. We burned in hard and long. I was really feeling good. The track was awesome and i had the car set on kill. We staged and i drilled the tree. Cutting a .015 light and putting up the best 60ft time we had ever had. I was an entire car length out front at the 80 foot mark, But then all things turned to poop. I smoked the tires like a funny car and he blasted by winning with a 4.67 to my 5.00. All in all it was still an amazing day. We were happy to just be racing past the first round. I wanna thank my boys for not giving up and trusting me. Brian, Big Johnson, Wingnut, and Dad worked their tales off this weekend. So you may be asking yourself, or have noticed, how we seemed to make it to alot of finals this year, but have no win yet? It's true, We have been to nine finals so far this year, and not a single win to show. I can't tell you why this is, or how. but I promise i will figure it out. We head to Atlanta, August 23-25. Its time to get the monkey off my back, and in Atlanta, The monkey gets it.

It's Hammer Time

2009-07-22T18:41:00.000-07:00

Holy smokes this off time has killed me. I thought i was ready for a break but four weeks of off time is slightly excessive. The Hot Rod is out of the paint shop and she looks top notch. Van and Neil at 2Keys Customs slap laid it down. Orsca comes to Carolina Dragway this weekend and I think we are ready. Updates to follow

The Heat Is On

2009-06-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

Down here in the south, we are in the midst of a massive heat wave that we call summer. It is routinely 95 plus degrees during the day. Thoughts this time of year often turn to beaches and tropical vacations, but not on my team. We went to the finals at the PTRA race last weekend in Mooresville.We got beat by 7 hundredths of a second in a dawg fight of a race by my buddy Flyin Brian Mcgee. But we picked up 30 points on the points leader and are still tweaking the hot rod. I am having a problem making the ponies gallop in this hot stanky air. But I think i am headed in the right direction. The orange car is in the paint shop as we speak getting a new look. We have a month off before the next Orsca race, and will be giving the orange car a break for a couple weeks. We almost have the new 68 camaro done and may test it this week. It is called the Cowmaro and you will see why when we bring it out. It will be a monster and i can't wait to lay down on the honker pedal.

BREAKING RECORDS AND PARTS

2009-06-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

Remember in my last post i told you guys that the orange car was gonna be a handful, Well it was. We got to Montgomery Motorsports Park at around 7 friday night ready to shake the ole girl down one time. I knew i had it flying thursday night at carolina, but was unsure if my tuneup would work at another track. Well shortly after we got there a tsunami of biblical proportions busted loose. It rained like 5 inches. So no testy testy friday night. Saturday morning Tsunami number two hit. It rained from ten am to 3 oclock. Finally around 6 we were ready for our first qualifying shot. No testing, just straight down to business. I figured if we were gonna show these boys we were serious, now was as good a time as any. I rolled through the water box and Big Johnson gave me the signal to drop the hammer, I stepped down on the honker pedal and burned in hard, rolling to the 330 in a cloud of smoke. I gave the camera guys sitting on the wall a thumbs up and backed up ready to rock the house. Brian got me dead centered in the groove, I eased into the beams. It's crazy how a sport so violent and wild as drag racing requires you to be so delicate and gentle. I mean when we stage the car it looks like i am treating that thing like a delicate flower whose petals could be easily knocked off if i am too harsh. And then half a second later, i am trying to sling the crankshaft slap out the motor for 4 seconds. Anyways, I launched hard and straight and we lit the clocks on fire with a 4.679. Thats a new Orsca Limited Street World Record. If we backed it up. Second round qualifying i became my own worst enemy and tried to run 4.20's and knocked the tires off about 200 feet out. Third round i picked up my balls and stuffed them back in my pants and screwed my head on straight and ran a 4.682. Which backed up the record and gave me a boost of confidence going into eliminations on Sunday. We had the first round bye and again i let my balls overwhelm my good judgement and smoked the tires. Once again Brian and Big Johnson calmed me back down. Second round we won with a 4.68, Third round we won with a 4.74. She was on a serious pass but about 300 feet out it broke another intake valve and backfired the blower.I wasnt sure if the motor was hurt or not. We only had about 15 mins to get ready for the semis. We thrashed and changed blowers, and just ran the rocker arm down on the broken valve tip hoping she would hang on. Evidently the backfire hurt something else because it was running like doodoo. We absolutely got lucky in the semi's when our opponent went red. The orange car would have made the pass but probably not fast enough to outrun him. I couldnt believe we were going to the finals. I found that the crank trigger gap was 150 thousandths off the wheel. I didnt know if that was causing it to run bad but we adjusted it and fired the motor in the pits and damn she sounded good again. So we towed around, ready to get down to business. I loaded in the baddest tuneup i had. If we got beat, it wasn't gonna be because we got outrun. I was strapped in the car ready with my fingers crossed when one of the two cars in front of us oiled down the whole track. Now it was midnight on Sunday and the track said it would be a hour or so before they could get it cleaned up. So me and Jeff Paulk decided to split the money and run for the points and the trophy at the next event. Kind of a bummer but we were slap worn out. We drove all through the night, getting home at 6:30 am monday morning. I stepped out of the motorhome and got in my tooltruck and worked 12 hours Monday. Which for the record absolutely blows. Anyways, its thursday and we have PTRA this weekend in Mooresville, Nc. I talked to my buddy Phil Shuler who is a Top fuel crew chief for Schumaker. We think we have the valve problem identified, we are going to put a complete top fuel valve setup in after this race and see if it hold up better. We really need to win the race this weekend to stay in points contention so you may see some crazy stuff going on.

Alabama Bound and Down

2009-06-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

Well we are loaded up and headed west. As i type this, Big Johnson is behind the wheel with the pedal to the metal, Brian is in the back sleeping like he always is at least 12 hours a day, And i am staring at the laptop looking over tuneups and fuel maps. We tested the car at Jackson last night and boy let me tell you, She ran like a wildabeast. We only made one hit and i told the boys that that was all she needed to do this weekend. So we are all in high spirits. I cant wait to get there and rock the box tonight.If the track is good the orange car should be a handful.

The clouds have parted

2009-06-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

It's crazy how my mood and overall demeanor is directly affected by how my hot rod is running. My mom says i have motor oil flowing in my veins. Anyways, I tore the engine apart and i think i may have found the slowness. The valve springs were junk, along with one bent exhaust valve, (because the valve springs are junk) and the cylinder head was warped pretty good. Possibly to due the overextension of my right foot on the gas pedal. Abby's Performance got my heads fixed up yesterday with a new set of springs, a valve and a fresh surface. We slapped the motor back together last night and i will bust the ole girl off when i get home from work this afternoon. Then if all is well, I have the sneaky suspicion that we will probably head to Jackson, Sc tonight to make a couple test hits before we leave for montgomery in the morning. I cant wait.

Getting ready for ORSCA

2009-06-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

A quick recap on last weekend. We were racing in our hometown, at our hometrack. We unloaded friday night and made two hits. Decent et and Mph for the air and temps we were running in. But i didn't feel that it would be fast enough to win. So i took the Supercharger Store Gear drive apart and changed the gear ratio inside, speeding up the blower in attempt to combat the bad air. Saturday morning, first qualifying pass we went a 4.92 @ 156. Second round i whittled on the ole girl a little and sped up slightly to a 4.91. Which put us qualified number one. But it was however a very tight field. I really leaned on the car pretty hard during each round of eliminations. In doing so i popped a head gasket in the semi's slowing to a 4.96. That still was enough to muster the round win but we were headed to the finals against Jeff Tyson. He has won the last two PTRA races and is deadly consistent. At this time i didnt know that the head gaskets were toast, i just knew we were down on power. I tried to compensation power with a big balls tune up in the finals. We both staged and i took the slight advantage off the tree, but that was the only time i was out front. I smoked the tires about ten feet out and Tyson cruised down for the win running a 4.93. Congrats to those guys, They know how to win.So we have Orsca Limited Street this weekend in Montgomery, AL. The engine is apart (again). and ill be up all night all week (again). I need a vacation.

Summertime Stretch

2009-06-04T17:35:00.000-07:00

Well as most of you know, thrashing is something me and the boys are pretty accustomed to. It's practically a way of life. We completely overhauled the engine the week before thae Atlanta Orsca race, only to have it rain out. So here i sit with a fresh engine and nowhere to abuse it. Sure the last three weeks have been filled with piddling here and there, We got the new nose and hood put on and did a few odds and ends, but no real excitement. I am bored out of my skull. It is a fairly widespead fact that i have the slowest golf cart in the free world. I mean we will be riding at max speed and some kid on a tricycle with training wheels will blow past us, I have even been beat by girls. So i decided on monday that enough is enough, With no thrashing to do on the car, I have turned my attention to the golf cart. The ole Ez 25 is getting a transplant. I pulled the engine apart, ported the cylinder head, decked it .065 thousandths, tuned the clutch, reworked the carb, and tweaked the exhaust. I should have it back together tomorrow and ready to test in the neighborhood. If the damn thing doesnt run when i get it back together, Its getting a Procharger. Anyways, we have Ptra this weekend at our home track in Jackson, Sc, followed by Orsca in Montgomery, AL next weekend. Then Ptra the following weekend in Union, Sc. So finally downtime is almost over and we get to do some head bashing.Also for all of you that emailed about t shirts, i should have them in two weeks or so. I ordered another 200 so we should be good. The car should go in the paint shop to get her new dress sunday if i dont blow it up saturday.

LETTING IT ALL HANG OUT

2009-05-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

Boy what a weekend of highs and lows. We pulled into South Georgia Motorsports park just after midnight on Wednesday. We probably would have gotten there sooner if the stupid GPS hadnt sent to timbucktoo down a wrong road. First thing Thursday morning we warmed up the hot rod and towed her to staging. Let her rip with a 4.82 striaght off the trailer. We were pretty fired up to run that number after thrashing all week. I was just happy that no parts fell off. I tweaked and screwed on the ole girl a little, and the next pass she lifted up her skirt just a little more and laid down a 4.78. Two back to back passes with nothing falling off. Holy crap. Then luck turned south. After two slow 5 second passes I was bum fuzzeled. The car was all of a sudden super fat out of the hole, and I couldnt figure out why. I went over all the maps and past tune ups and was pretty lost, So i called up the Grand Pumba of boost Chris Tuten, and we put our heads together and found something in my tune up that was causing the problem. Its was so stupid of a thing that i won't even tell you, But most things generally are simple. It goes to show that no matter how smart we think we are, we never can know it all. Anyways, Next pass back in the game with a 4.82, followed by a 4.78. So we finished where we started and were fairly consistent. We were in high spirits thursday night, which in turn led me to wake up with a mild headache friday morning. We had all day to test friday, but i was pretty confident. I told Brian, and Chris that if the hot rod ran good on the first hit that we were done testing and would wait for first round qualifying. 4.78 right off the trailer. We were ready. They called us to staging at around 7 pm for first round qualifying. I was ready to go cowboy style with the tune up. I figured we had a decent base, why not go ahead and lay the wood. To my surprise the boys agreed with me. Now this is dangerous territory. Me wanting to throw caution to the wind and light the candles, and Brian and Big Johnson not fighting me. I put my Mad Scientist tune up in the ole girl and drug her to staging. Burned her in like John Force just for good measure, and staged her up. Lights came down and off i went.She was cooking when she went into high gear and never stopped. 4.65 @164 Mph. Boom that put us number one. I blew my voice out hollering at the boys over the radio. We were on cloud nine. Saturday we huddled together and talked about how we wanted to proceed. We decided to play safe and back her up a little. Second round Qualifying we went a 4.69, followed by a tire smoking in the third round. We were still number one heading into eliminations but i was pretty nervous cause of the recent tire smoke. I backed her down a little more just for good measure. We had a first round bye. I knew the instant I turned loose of the brake that I was on one hell of a pass. The orange car snapped me in the seat and never let me back out. When she shifted to high she never stopped dangling the left front tire. I buzzed the clocks with a 4.609 at 165.39 MpH, a new stock suspension world record. I am always talking shit about have the baddest stock suspension car in the world, well now we have it on paper. Talk about being on cloud nine. I walked halfway back to the trailer up the return road before Brian, and Chris scooped me up on the golf cart. Although our excitement was overwhelming, we had to get down to business. We won the second round, but only went a 5.35 due to multiple wheelstands. The next round was one of the most heartbreaking moments ever in my life. I was racing my old buddy Terry Elam. He is one of the most honest, nicest guys in drag racing and has the absolute most beautifully built stock suspension car i have ever seen. We staged and launched and off we went, side by side. We both had awesome 60 foot times. We were side by side still at halftrack. The Orange car started making it's move about 4oo feet pulling half a car, then I smoked the tires like a funny car at the traps and had to pedal. Terry took the win with a 4.71 to my losing 4.73. I was still way out of shape from smoking the tires and had to drive the shit out of it to keep it off the wall. I got it straightened out and looked up and the was Terry's car on fire. I locked the brakes up beside him and snatched open his door as he was getting out. The track put out his fire and and my heart sank when we looked at his car. Although not a total loss, its burnt pretty bad up front. He told me it will be fixed, and i am certain by his drive and determination that it will be just as beautiful as it ever was. Then in remarkable show of sportsmanship, Terry bypassed the scales, forfieting the round and allowing me to be reinstated to the next round. I didnt know whether to be happy to be in the race or devastated because my friends car was torn up. I have been in his shoes and there arent too many things in the world more sickening than tearing up your baby. I would have much rather stood behind his car and cheered him on the next round than for his car to be burnt. Anyways, My motor was hurt. When the car smoked the tires in hit the rev limiter hard must have hydrauliced a cylinder. It was had 75 percent leakdown on one cylinder and 50 percent on several others and was smoking pretty bad. We towed to wounded girl to staging for the semis, We squeeked by that round only mustering a 4.95, but we were off to the finals. I decided to get really aggressive on the good cylinders and really get after the tune up. I basically stopped caring about the motor and put her in destruction blow up mode. We were racing John Kolivas, the number two qualifier and all around nice guy. We both staged and left together and the orange car blazed down like she didnt give a damn or even need 8 cylinders, taking the win with a 4.63. But now she was hurt worse. We won the Boosted race, and as a bonus, we were to take the top two boosted cars, and the top two nitrous cars and run a four car shootout for even more cash. I had to run a nitrous car first. I left the same tune up in the hot rod, taking the win, but slowing to a 4.73. She was eating herself from the inside out, and now we had to run Kolivas again for the second time of the day. I left themotor cooking tune up in, hoping that she had just one more pass in her. It took me about 20 seconds to get her started in staging and boy did she sound raggedy. I decided to take a shot at the tree knowing I would need all the help I could get. The tree came down and i hammered it, going red by .012. But it wouldnt have mattered anyway, Kolivas went a 4.67 to my 4.95. he deserved the win and ran one hell of a pass. We got paid pretty good for winning the Boosted race and for finishing second in the shootout, Hopefully enough cheese to fix the car. Thanks to my crew and my sponsors for sticking by me through the tough times, and to Donald and Amanda Long for putting on such a bad assed race. I took the motor out and apart last night and we need some pistons, and rods. I have ordered what we need and with any luck the rods and pistons will be in on thursday. We have to leave friday for the Orsca race in Atlanta, so look forward to me burning the midnight oil. I guess I wouldnt have it any other way.

It's ALIVE

2009-05-06T20:06:00.000-07:00

Well i got the new cylinder head in last night. Pulled and all nighter and a half. Got the motor put back together and back in and busted her off at 5 pm this afternoon. Boy she sounds good on 8 cylinders. I ready to kick the tires and light the fires. We are about to pull into South Georgia Motorsports Park for the Outlaw Radial race. We are a tired group but excited nonetheless. It is gonna be one hell of a race this week and i cant wait to get knee deep in the middle of it. We are testing all day tomorrow. Ill update yall tomorrow night.

Licking my Wounds

2009-05-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

Well so much for trophys, and records, and the competition going home early. All we did this weekend was break parts and us go home early. I mean this was one of those weekends that would have been much better spent fishing, or at the beach, or even digging ditches. Friday we loaded up and headed for mooresville, nc. I was feeling like a champion and everyone was in good spirits. We pulled into the track and as soon as we got parked a bandwagon of Hooters girls invaded our motorhome. It turns out that Big Johnson's wife had set the whole deal up for his birthday. Me and Brian and Fatboy were just glad to be there. After some of the best wings and cake on the planet , and some cool photo's, they were off. I'll have a few of the pics up this week. There ain't much to compare with an army of Hooter girls in KILLINTIME Racing tshirts. Anyways, that just about where the fun ended and hell began. First pass off the trailer friday night the old girl was on a pretty decent pass when poof. the engine shut off and i coasted the rest of the way down the track. Turns out we broke a shaft in the gear drive. With no spare I was certain that we were screwed. Now this next part can be confusing, but here goes. i called a buddy of mine (that chooses to remain anonymous for reasons u will find out later). Turns out that he had the part we needed on his race car. The problem was that his car was 5 hours away from me. And he was two hours from his car in a gentlemens establishment of questionable stature. Well i conned him into going to his shop at about 5 am saturday morning and taking his car apart. Then i enlisted the help of just about everyone i know to relay the part to North Carolina . Which got there about 30 minutes before the first round of qualifying. Well we wam bam thank you mammed the car back together in record time and pulled her to staging. Brian said he was feeling good about it, Johnson said he was'nt sure, and me and Fatboy were ready to roll some heads. I burned in and launched it. It was smooth and clean and slow as molasses in january. It only ran a 5.02. What the hell? So we dragged her back to the trailer, and I got to digging. Turns out we had two fuel injectors stopped up. After borrowing more parts from a fellow competitor, I was dancing around like i circus monkey. I just knew we had all the crap behind us. Second round qualifying, i made it about 200 feet down the track and then i heard something in the motor that sounded like a pinball machine. i shut it off and once again with a heavy heart dragged it back. We broke the tip off of an intake valve. Not to be discouraged we borrowed yet another part from another competitor, And proceded to snatch the head off for some super speedy cylinder head surgery. We got it almost apart and found a crack from the valve guide all the way to the spring seat. Well that was it. the towel was tossed in and the grill was fired up. Shit if we cant race worth a shit, then i figured we would do something that we do know how to do EAT. So now I'm back at the shop and about to pull the engine and take it all the way apart. We have to leave on Wednesday for the Outlaw Radial Championship race in Valdosta. All in all it's not looking good. Me and Brian will be burning the midnight oil all week. If any off yall see me walking around and happen to get a glimpse of the ugly monkey thats riding around on my back, then please swat him off. Cause we need some good luck this week. Updates to follow. Talk at u soon.

Preparing To Lay The Wood

2009-04-28T17:21:00.000-07:00

We are off to to Mooresville, Nc this weekend for a little PTRA racing. It's the second stop on the tour and im ready to turn on some W's. Friday is Big Johnson's birthday. He said he wants a trophy for his birthday, So i put a just a tad extra in the old girl for the weekend. Look out for the competition to go home early and records to be broken.

STARTING OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT!!!

2009-04-22T10:28:00.001-07:00

As most of you know, Our official points season started last weekend at ZMAX dragway. It was the first stop on the PTRA tour, and we did pretty decent. Ill skip all the details due to time constraints, but track was absolutely the worst racing surface i have ever raced on. I'm not going to go into detail here because it is a new facility and I am sure with time they will get it figured out. Anyways we qualified number one with a 4.88 @163. Made it all the way to the finals and lost. The car smoked the tires downtrack in high gear. But we did manage to set both the E.T and MPH records. All in all it was a good weekend. I learned alot about the car and some of my competitors. I am really fired up about this weekends race in Orangeburg, Sc. It is the first race of the Orsca season and the whole team is stoked. I cant wait to see where we stack up in limited street. I get to take the reducer out of the blower and let the big dog eat. The competition will be fierce this weekend and i think we are gonna need all the help we can get.

LIGHTING THE CANDLES

2009-04-13T17:03:00.000-07:00

Boy what a weekend. After 54 long and exspensive passes with the new motor i finally got a base tune up this weekend. We were in Jackson, Sc for their Grudgefest and 28 inch tire race. First pass off the trailer I told ole girl to go from a to b with no screwing around. I bumped in and turned loose and off we went. Just like she got tired of all the tire smoke and wheelstands and busted transmissions and oil pans and said to hell with all that. Me and Johnson have come to the conclusion that she only like to be raced on race day, and not tested. I wanna tell yall what she ran so bad but you will have to wait till next week . More on that later. Anyways we made a few adjustments throughout the day only to get quicker. We won the race by default when my opponent suffered a broken transmission in the finals. Well that should have been the end of the day, But wait. yall know we are rednecks and cant leave shit alone. This was grudgefest, and i was in a ass cutting mood. So I went looking for the biggest baddest non wheelie barred car at the track and boy did i find it. I thought them boys were gonna faint when i told them i would run them with the teeny weeny tired orange car. Well after much hackling and and haggling and pissing and moaning, we ending up running for enough to just about pay off the national deficit. We pulled into staging and i was feeling really cocky and they were too. Johnson told me to rip their head off on the tree. He said we would need it. Boy was he ever right. We burned in and i waited about twenty minutes for them to clean out all 25 stages of nos they had on the 700 inch king sized gorrilla tarantula motor. They finally purged 3 bottles off and pulled into the beams. I pulled right in on top of them. Cocked the hammer on ole Lucille, and went to mat. That magical flash of three amber bulbs lit the night sky as we both turned loose. Now anybody that has every ran a grudge race for big cheddar knows that feeling you get when you turn loose. No matter what is going on in the world. Nothing matters and nothing can break your desperate concentration to get to the other end first. Off we went. Our lights were almost identical but them having all that motor and NOS pulled a sixty foot like a pro mod. There is no more sickening feeling in the world than watching someone drive off from you when you have your foot in the floor and there's nothing you can do. Then pulled me a car and some change by the 330ft mark. I was feeling like all was lost and that a second mortgage on my house was inevitable. And then the pulling stopped. Lucille reared here ugly nasty head and it was like being shot out of a cannon when the old girl went to high gear. I think i felt the earth spin the other way for just a split second. I was charging hard but was running out of track fast. It was gonna be a photo finish , I dumped the chute at the mph cone and as the chute blossomed, that Big Bright Glowing W came on loud and clear in my lane. It was the second drive by murder of the year. All the NOS in the world cant keep you out front when The ole Procharger gets wound up. Two weeks in Orangeburg yall will find out what it's all about. So with full pockets and a smile on our faces we headed home. The track gave me one of those huge checks thats like 5 feet long which is the coolest thing ever. We have one more match race this thursday and then it's time to hunker down this weekend at the PTRA Season opener in ZMAX. Those boys better bring their A game cause im feeling froggy. Wish us luck.

One for The Money

2009-03-31T18:53:00.000-07:00

Well as most of you guys know, The first ORSCA race of the year was cancelled due to weather. And while i am not one to tell mother nature her business, I sure was read to get the hanky panky on. On the race track that is. We tested at rockingham two weeks ago at the Holcomb Civil Wars race and did decent. Although i still dont have the new combo completely figured out, i did see some bad ass mile per hour and some super fast back half numbers. this all adds up to the fact that the power is there. It's just up to me to make the best of it. So now we have a couple weeks off before the PTRA season opener at ZMAX, followed by the ORSCA Re opener at Orangeburg. So what do we do with all this idle time, We are gonna roll some heads. We have a locked match race this weekend, in Macon, Ga. which should be a damn good race for some pretty decent cash. And then next weekend is Carolina Dragways Grudgefest. Which we fully intend on finding some poor lost soul to tango with. While i love class racing, I also have to respect my roots, which is hardcore nasty bad assed stanky grudge racing. The fans love it, I love it, and most of the time the guy in the other lane hates it. LOL It will be a fun light hearted couple of weekends before we get back down to business. With any luck we should have the car in the paint shop in the next couple weeks. I cant wait to see what Neil and Van are cooking up for the 09 paint scheme. See you guys at the races.

The Calm Before The Storm.

2009-03-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

First, Let me start off by thanking those of you that were instrumental in getting the car back going after i bent her up. Big Johnson as always was first on the scene when the work started and the last one home after it was done. Chris bell, Brian, Fatboy, Brian Canada, Mike Kandefer, Dennis, Jeff Miles, and Cheri. Im sure there are others that im forgetting, You guys inspire me. Another huge thanks goes out to Jeremy at UPR racing products. (UPRproducts.com) He supplied the complete new mustang suspension after the crash and let me tell you, it works. I was amazed how the car handles and drives. The 1.18 sixty foots on 28 inch tires and stock suspension are unbelievable. Not to mention that at 160 miles per hour the ole girl drives straight as an arrow. Bottom line is this. Anytime you can spend your money with a company who creates a superior product(made in the usa) and that has the customer support to stand behind that product, it's a win win.
The opening week of the racing season is at last upon us. Finally. We got the car back going last week and went to Darlington to run their stock suspension race. We did pretty well making it to the semis. I got a few more bugs worked out of the car. The engine is really making big power.. and im not talking about like it feels peppy or it i think it'll run. Im talking about neck snapping nuts out power. I wish i could tell you guys some E.T's but i have a few heads to thump off in the grudge world first. Yall will all get a taste of what we're working with this weekend in Rockingham. We head there for their civil wars outlaw race on friday. While this is not a points race for us. I am using this as a "tune up" race. The following weekend is our season points opener for Orsca.So this weekend will show us where we stack up against the rest of the field. I am counting the minutes till we all pile in the blue goose and head east. Nothing makes me tick like heading out of town for a race. We are going to test thursday night in carolina. Ill let ou guys know how she runs. I hope to see alot of you this weekend. it's supposed to be sunny and 75.

Heading to Wall Mart

2009-03-02T16:34:00.000-08:00

In the back of every racer's head whether he admit's it or not, is always the fear, or at least the thought of crashing. That moment where a controlled chaos becomes an uncontrolled nightmare, Where you go from driving, to simply being a passenger. Yesterday i got a glimpse of that. All you that know me know that i am not scared of anything. I define the word fearless in and out of the race car. And at times, it bites me in the ass. I'll start from the beginning. The new engine has been together almost two weeks now and has proven to be quite the challenge to tame. In redneck words. This thing is a beast. As of last friday, I had yet to make a full throttle pass. There seemed to be no amount of power or adjustment that i could take out or put in that seemed to work. The car was extremely violent and bad mannered altogether. So we changed torque converters. Now let me tell you, this thing is tight. And it seemed to really load the engine. Which is what i was looking for. So friday night i decided that since it was raining in most of the entire southeast and most of the country, that i would just simply drive where the sun was. Well it happened to be sunny and 85 degrees in orlando, fla on saturday. So at 6 am saturday morning, I woke up and decided that i was gonna race if i had to drive 500 miles to do it. My buddy Wes said he would go so i tore out at a high rate of speed and headed south. I picked him up in Jacksonville fla and we made it to the track just in time to miss first round of qualifying for the Battle of The Brands Outlaw Radial class. We unloaded and I put the laziest tune up i had in and second round qualifying we finally made a full throttle pass. It was slow but i was happy. Last round i pepped it up a little and picked up 4 tenths. That put us 3rd. And all was well. Sunday morning the weather absolutely went to shit. It rained for two hours, then got cold as balls. The track cut all the classes back from quarter mile to 8th mile. For safety, The wind was blowing 30 miles per hour. Well first round I burned in and staged the old girl for the first round of competition of the year. After Lopping the other guys head clean off on the tree we both proceeded to smoke the tires and pedal. I was sideways going thru the traps taking the win by two hundredths of a second on a holeshot. Boy i was fired up. I knew the track was marginal but man it got loose quick. So the next round i took out all the power i could. i used the same super lazy tune up from second round quailfying. I knew that if i just went a to b then i had a good shot at winning the race. I staged and once again in steve jackson fashion cut the tree down with a chainsaw. The car launched hard and straight. The old girl was on a rail. then the shit hit the fan. About 400 feet out the car shook the tires. The guy i was running also had problems earlier on. I pedalled the car, straightened her out and the wacked the throttle. Up Up Up and away we went. It stood straight up at roughly 140 mph. I lifted and when the car came down it was pointed straight at the center line and straight at the other guy. In the blink of an eye i made an instinct decision.I snatched the wheel straight toward the wall and smacked the throttle to spin the tires and stuck it straight nose first into the wall. It was either lose one car or both. I decided in that split second to keep my car out of his lane no matter the cost. The car rebounded off the wall and again went toward the center and again i snatched it straight into the wall. It spun around about three times hitting the wall each time. I really took a shot. Talk about sore today. I can hardly move. The car appeared to be totalled out. But i never crossed the center line and didnt hit the wall till after the 8th, and won the round. What a shitty way to turn the W on. I was disqualified because i couldnt cross the scales because the car wouldnt roll. I loaded up my junk and my pride and headed north. Driving all night and getting home at 5 am this morning. I was certain that the car totalled and my season was over. The first ORSCA race is three weeks away. Then like they always do, my boys came to the rescue. My crews endless devotion to my dream amazes me constantly. you can always tell who your friends are when the shit hits the fan. We win and lose together in everything we do. And not just in racing but in life as well. I woke up at 8 am to the sound of a beating and banging in the shop. I walked out and there was Big Johnson and Chris Bell disassembling the whole car. I didnt even ask them to. The just showed up. I hobbled off to work. By 10 am the car was completely stripped. Neil and Van at the paint shop said the would do whatever it took to get us going. Brian (stickman) Canada donated a parts car at no charge . The car is now on the frame rack. I will know by the morning if it can be fixed or not. We have three weeks to get this thing or something running before the first race. So its time to do what we do and get busy. Updates will follow. In other awesome news, We picked up a new sponsor this weekend. I will make the announcement later in the week.

Getting it in Gear

2009-02-04T18:41:00.001-08:00

I am very excited and pleased to announce that The Supercharger Store has come onboard as a sponsor for the 2009 race season. I have heavily relied and depended on their gear drive time and time again on my road to the 2008 championship. Going fast and having durabilty don't always go hand in hand. We drag racers generally abuse our performance parts to the brink of failure. I am no exception. The SuperCharger Store gear drive has withstood the punishment and abuse of drag racing time and time again. We raced the orange car in excess of 300 passes last year. You heard that right. 300 runs. Not many parts could or will ever stand that kind of abuse. Our gear drive performed perfectly will little to no maintenence. As a matter of fact, I am about to change the oil in it and bolt it back on the engine for another full season. Not only does the unit provide durabilty and absolutely look bad ass, but the most important thing is performance. We all know that losing friction is gaining power. There is not a more efficient and consistent way to drive your Procharger than with a Supercharger Store Gear drive. Not only do we have the best product on the market, but we have the best service too. Terry and Bob are always just a phone call away. How nice is it to pick up the phone and actually talk to the people that designed and built your product. Couple flawless performance, durabilty, and the best service around, and you aren't making a purchase, you are making an investment. Terry and Bob, thank you guys so much for putting your faith in me to represent your product. Together we are gonna be a handful........

Action Heating Up

2009-01-30T05:14:00.000-08:00

Boy the time is almost at hand.... The days here down south are sometimes warm enough to make me think race season is close. Our first race is only 3 weeks away. I cant wait. Im like a bull in a china shop. I am ready to smell some tire smoke. Last night i bolted the new cylinder heads on the new engine. Even if this beast does run worth a toot, it still looks bad ass. Me and the whole race team got a huge shot in the arm this week, as the announcement of two new sponsors came in. We would like to thank and welcome Procharger/ATI onboard as an official sponsor for the 2009 race season. Thanks to all the people that helped me put this deal together. Procharger powered us to the world championship in 2008 and I cant think of a better way to usher in the new year than with a big honking new blower strapped up front. Also We would like to welcome, and are thrilled to represent Mickey Thompson racing tires for 2009. I have never even ran another tire besides Mickey Thompson. Mickey Thompson supports its racers in almost every level of competition, and i look forward to putting their tire back in the winners circle this year. Well I have alot done to the car, and alot still to do in the next 3 weeks. The car itself is pretty much ready. The engine is not. I still have to get the intake done. I am adding another set of fuel injectors to try a satisfy the fuel demands of the new combo. She is gonna be awfully thirsty around 8000 rpm. I have a new control unit for the efi coming, along with a new fuel system. I'm headed north as we speak to do a little snow skiing with the boys this weekend. This will be last time for the next ten months that racing wont be center of my focus. And while i am looking forward to the R and R, my thoughts keep wandering back to season at hand. We are once again underdogs in a new class. But i wouldnt have it any other way. When you start at the bottom, all you can do is look up. I have a few tricks up my sleeve for these boys this year. With a little luck, I should be putting the engine in the car this coming week. I'll keep yall updated as progress occurs.

The Season Before Us.

2009-01-25T18:18:00.000-08:00

The long hours in the shop day after day are starting to pay off. I have updated almost every component on the orange car. Including a new rear end, anti roll bar, new seats. all new wiring, carpet, dash, new brakes, and most exciting of all is this new hog leg top secret powerplant ive been working on all winter. I wanna tell you about it soooo bad but ill keep my trap shut until it actually runs. I finished the shortblock today. The heads should be in and done by the weekend. On my racing partner Johnson's new 68 camaro ( its not new but with the thrashing it has seen in the last 3 months it might as well be new) we have totally rebuilt the car from top to bottom. This is the car to watch in 2009. Ill spare you the details but i will say this. Its Big. Its Bad. And it is going to slap haul ass. I cant wait to mat the throttle on that gigantanormous motor. We will be fielding a two car Limited Street team for 09. along with several grudge races. All thats left on his car is wiring, fuel system and a couple odds and ends. Look for it to be running in about 3 weeks also. On a good note. I would like to welcome MICKEY THOMPSON onboard as a sponsor for the 2009 season. We have always used and relied on Mickey Thompson tires to get the job done. These tires piloted us to a championship in 2008 and im tickled to death to have them believe in me and stand beside us in 2009. No one will work harder to achieve another championship than i will this year. I live and breath this stuff. So here is whats on my plate right now. the car is leaving for the paint shop in the morning. Neil and Van at 2 Keys Customs are going to do a little touch up as well as make some custom new door panels. I will be working on the new bohemoth engine all this week. I have roughly two weeks to get the whole car put together for testing. We are scheduled to race at the Fat Tuesday Race in Hattiesurg, Ms on feb 21-24. So ill be updating you as progress continues.

TICK TOCK...TICK TOCK

2009-01-11T19:33:00.000-08:00

Not only am i stuck in the doldrums of the winter off season. But to makes things worse it has been unusaully warm down south. We have routinely had days in the 70's. which makes me wanna race even more. Any of you that know me know that i dont function well without a car to drive. Like a fish out of water so to speak. I am knee deep in the Orange car overhaul. What started out as a few winter improvements has lead to some major changes. Right now the car is a bare unibody and a roll cage. Everything is getting updated from the front to the rear. New engine, blower, wiring, interior, carpet, rear end. etc. etc. I have full intentions of giving whoever is in the other lane this year a fit. We are Making the move from ORSCA EZ Street to Limited Street. Some say this is a foolish move. And i agree that we are stepping off into the deep end. Where chassis's routinely cost in excess of what i have invested in my whole car. but i guess i'll just have to try to make up for that with a little good tuning and alot of good driving. On a brighter note, I will have the new release of this years sponsors up in about a week. We were planning on making the US Street nationals in Bradenton Fl on Jan 24 but my new pistons came in wrong and I am still waiting on exhaust valves. So we are shooting to be testing by the second week in february.I cant wait to feel the new motor pull in high gear. Updates and new motor pics coming soon.

The Dawg Days of Winter

2008-12-22T19:45:00.000-08:00

Projects Projects Projects. Well the PRI show was a huge success. I believe we have brought 3 - 5 sponsors on board for the 09 race season. I should have their final approvals by the middle of january and will be making a press release as the details are finalized. Plus it was really awesome to meet the people that make the parts that we rely on so heavily to race. I always try to do business with folks that make their stuff here in the U.S.A and it was refreshing to talk to manufacturers that feel the same way i do.Not to mention we saw some bad ass new stuff. So here we are the week of christmas and everyone around me is focused on shopping, and baking, and family........ and all i can think about is turning on the bottom bulb the first race of the year and busting some ass. There is so much to do, that I must admit I am somewhat overwhelmed. We are progressing nicely on our new shop mule, Or maybe i should say cow. (Johnson's Camaro is actually painted like a cow. It looks like it should be in a Chic Fil A commercial. But we have the new beast of a motor fitted, motor plates, midplate, crossmember made. I have the rear end done. The cage is almost done. Im hoping by the first week in january we can actually start bolting things together. This thing is going to be a monster. 706 cubic inches of big chief big nuts chevy power on alcohol with a monster procharger hanging up front. And me behind the laptop. Does it get any sweeter? I cant wait to burn this beast in. The orange car is pretty much sitting where it was two weeks ago. Im trying to get the cow mobile well on its way to completion before i start working on the pumpkin. But I have alot to do to it as well. A complete new engine ( boy i wish i could tell you the specs on this thing, Records will fall) New headers, new anti roll bar. New wheels. and tons of little odds and ends. I am still planning on making the move to Limited Street if the sponsors come through. Yall all need to do a voodoo sponsor dance to help me out.... We will debut the new powerplant at the U.S street nationals in bradenton, Fla on January 24th. From me and everyone on the team, Yall all have a Merry Christmas and a Smokin New Year. Ill be in the shop... See yall soon.

What Off Season?

2008-12-02T17:04:00.000-08:00

I am not well suited for boredom. This time of the year blows. I hate the off season. I am used to going nonstop 7 days a week, and with no racing in sight, i find myself with more time than i know what to do with. So the projects begin. New motor, Spare transmission, Overhauling everything. We have some big plans in the works for 2009 and it's gonna be awesome. We tore up the 8.8 rear end for the last time last sunday. I am putting in fabricated 9 inch this week with 40 spline axles and a pro mod ultra case. I am tired or breaking drivetrain parts, and those of yall that know me know that when i do something i do it right. Im gonna try to make the Darlington stock suspension race this saturday if all the parts come in, but that will be the last hoooraaa for the year. Me and Johnson have a ton of work to do to his car to get it ready for Limited street next year. Next week i'll be in Florida trying to drum up some sponsors at the annual PRI show. Hopefully with some luck ill bring home the bacon. I hope all you guys had a Happy Thanksgiving. Ill post car updates as they happen. And if any of you have any Top Fuel or Pro MODS that need to be tested in the offseason, I have motorhome, will travel.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL (KINDA)

2008-11-18T09:34:00.000-08:00

Thanks to some special favors and massive amounts of begging, We got the head welded up. Parts in, and the motor put back together. I spun her over at 5 pm friday afternoon and she purred like a kitten.Off we went to the ORSCA Wolrld Finals at Carolina Dragway. Friday night testing was rained out due to gale force winds and torrential downpours of biblical nature. Saturday we came out the box with a safe tune up. or so i thought. The track was slick, cold, and choppy. It had rained like 5 inches in three days. The track prep crew were really working to get a handle on the racing surface. It was working really well for slick tired cars. But was giving us radial tire guys a fit. I smoked the tires all three rounds qualifying. Ended up qualified 5th with a 5.52. That normally wouldnt even make the field but everyone else was spinning too. I was really frustrated. Down right pissed off even. I am used to adversity but its scary going into eliminations and u havent even made it off the starting line yet. Saturday was still fun though. It was like being a celebrity for a day. Horsepower Tv had cameras on me all day and we did tons of interviews. They mounted a camera in my car and a mic in my helmet. Im sure alot of that stuff will need to be censored after the tire smokeapalooza festival. I signed autographs and sold out of tshirts in like two hours. I really like it when the kids come up and ask questions. Its really cool to see the fire in their eyes that i had when i was little. Anyway all the hoopla was over for the day, and i was sleepless like always before eliminations. I worked on the laptop most of the night. Cooking up a new tune up. By sunrise i was fired up and raring to go. The sun came out and i realized that no matter what happened today i was still having fun. what better way to spend a weekend than racing. I love this stuff. I rallied the boys for a little pep talk before first round. I told them not to worry . I had frankenstiened a tune up that was gaurenteed to move the hot rod off the line. Man everyone in the world was their cheering us on.I launched her first round and there she went. It was like she was teasing me all day saturday. We took the win with a 5.13. Boy i was feeling jiggy then. My chest was all bowed out. We were back in the saddle. Second round I dodged the bullet. I pepped the old girl up a little. But not enough. I went a 5.04 to his 5.03. But guess what, he red lighted. now i was really pumped. dancing around like a circus monkey. Off we went to the semi's. But the sun was down and the track was cold and The guy i had to run in the Semi's (Terry Elam) had just went a 4.85. Holy freakin smokes thats fast. So not rain nor wind nor snow was going to stop me from loading in the badonkeydonk tune up in it. We staged and launched like two scud missiles out of a cannon. He had me by a car at the sixty when he shook the tires. then i shook the tires. It was a pedal fest. Boy i love me a good pedal fest. I wacked the throttle two quick times to clean the motor and then eased into it and damn if it didnt stick. i won with a 5.11. I was on top of the world now. We were off to our sixth straight final in a row. Boom yow. I was matched up against my buddy Dustin Bradford of the G Body Posse. We burned in and i was feeling good. Staged and launched and then boom. A hiroshima sized mushroom cloud went off again in my motor. He cruised by me taking the win. Congrats to those boys. They deserve it. We dropped another exhaust valve. This time it broke everything. But i always do go out with a bang. We clinched the ORSCA EZ STREET WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. Boy it feels good to say that. Thats right. Introducing Steve Jackson And KillinTime racing. Your 2008 Orsca World Champs. I might get some shirts made. Alright ill quit bragging. Boy it has been a hell of a year. Sunday when we left the track we decided to take the rest of the winter off and get ready for next year. That lasted till about 8 am monday morning when johnson informed me that he had the motor out and was putting the spare motor in. Dayum we love this stuff. So last night, 23 hours after the catastropy we busted his motor off. We are gonna try to test sometime this week and see if it will run what my motor did. Wish us luck and we'll see everyone in Jackson this Saturday for Grudgefest.

THE SKINNY

2008-11-11T07:36:00.000-08:00

Alright we are deep in the stinky stuff. I took the motor apart last night and its worse than what i thought. The bootleg overpriced REV (RACING ENGINE VALVE) titanium valves caused the problem. The exhaust valve broke in half under the locks. (this is the second time this has happened. ) which caused the supercharger to compressor surge whick broke the front drive off of the blower. Then things got fun as the lifter broke because the pushrod bent. The intake lifter stuck. Then the valve hit the piston and broke the entire rocker stand boss completely out of the head. Wheww that was a mouth full. So it's tuesday. I took the head this morning to the machine shop to see if it can be fixed. And fixed in a hurry. I should know by this afternoon. If it cant im not sure exactly what to do but i will figure something out.

World Finals Coming

2008-11-10T09:52:00.000-08:00

Well Crap. Thats about all i can say after yesterday. First test pass out the box i ran it to the 330. broke a lifter which tore up the block, bent pushrods, valves, broke the rocker arm stand completely out of the head etc. etc. etc. And our ORSCA world finals are this weekend. This is very stinky to say the least. I mean the orange car has really been running as of late. I am leading the points in EZ street but its not sewn up. So as usual we are going to have to throw something together. I dont know what yet. or how. But ill be in the shop tonight taking the motor apart so ill let you no when i get it all apart.

Bradenton Recap

2008-10-26T13:24:00.000-07:00

Well boys and girls, this is gonna be short and sweet...... We arrived at Bradenton motorsports park at 3 am thursday morning. The rain was really coming down. Finally around 6 pm we unloaded and got a test pass. I wont tell ya what it ran but i will say it was the fastest pass ever for the orange car. We were stoked. I was ready to bust the top off of an industrial sized can of whoop ass. We were supposed to qualify friday at 5pm and test all day. It was nice and clear all day friday. They wouldnt let us test because they said it "might rain" well it didnt . not till about 5pm when the first qualifying session was supposed to happen. so they cancelled that. Man we were all dying to make a pass. Everybody was. We were all like a bunch of pirate gunships sitting docked with our cannons pointing at each other waiting for the order to fire. Well come saturday it was time for some action. after 3 rounds we were sitting 12th out of 87 cars with a 4.99. I wasnt able to make a full run during either 3 rounds due to some mystery fuel problem i still cant explain. One second the air fuel is super fat and the next its super lean. i think my efi box or my O2 sensor is taking a dump. Anyways, first round today we burned in and boy i was feeling good. The other guy bumped in. I bumped in, pushed the transbrake button and went to the floor nothing. the car nearly shut off. The tree came down and he was gone. I sat there like a knot on a log stomping the gas to no avail. finally after about 3 seconds it took off like a raped rhino but crap we were done. I rarely beat myself and this slap square kicked me in the the balls. I couldnt even get out of the car at the end of the track i was so mad. But nothing to do but suck it up and load the hot rod up and head north. GPS says we should pull into the shop at 2 am. Then its back to the grindstone tomorrow. We did have a blast this weekend. And saw the baddest group of radial tire cars ive ever seen. So it wasnt a total bust. At least my Georgia Bulldawgs blew out LSU like they were a high school team. Im not sure where we will be racing next weekend or if we might actually take a weekend off. But ill let yall know.

GETTING READY FOR THE BIG ONE

2008-10-20T08:59:00.001-07:00

WELL BOYS AND GIRLS, BRADENTON IS THIS WEEKEND. WE TESTED THURSDAY NIGHT IN CAROLINA , RAN SOME GOOD NUMBERS BUT NO MPH, WE TESTED YESTERDAY IN CAROLINA AND ROCKED THE BOX. WE ARENT QUITE WHERE WE NEED TO BE BUT BOY I THINK WE'RE CLOSE. EVERYBODY THATS GONNA BE AT THIS RACE IS FLYING. I'LL BE HAPPY IF WE ARE ABLE TO QUALIFY. MAYBE WE'LL AT LEAST BE ABLE TO "MUDDY THE WATER" A LITTLE. i HAVE TO TAKE THE CAR TO WARNER ROBINS,
GA TODAY TO GET THE CHASSIS CERTIFIED TO 25.5 SPECS. WE ARE LEAVING WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON FOR BRADENTON. I THINK ITS 12 HOURS FROM MY SHOP. SO WE'LL MAKE IT SOMETIME EARLY THURSDAY MORNING. I CANT WAIT TO GET THAT THING TO THE STARTING LINE AND LET IT ALL HANG OUT. I OVER NIGHTED SOME NEW GEARS FOR THE BLOWER TO SPRUCE HER UP A LITTLE BIT . SO THE FLYING PUMPKIN OUGHT TO SOUND LIKE A 747 JET SHOOTING DOWN THROUGH THERE. YALL BRING YOUR EAR PLUGS AND ILL HANDLE THE REST. ILL TRY TO POST AFTER WE TEST THURSDAY AND KEEP YALL UPDATED.........

Keep Your Eye On The Ball

2008-10-12T19:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry its been two weeks since ive written. The past two weeks like almost every week in my life have been in turmoil. So ill take a few minutes to bring you guys up to date. We have re re re converted the hot rod back to the procharger. Man it was a bunch of work. But boy do i love to hear the old girl whine and whistle again. She sounds like a herd of ticked tweety birds. this past monday Me and Johnson were updating the chassis to 25.5 specs and i was tacking a plate to the bottom of the floorpan. When all the sudden somebody hollered and there was smoke and flames pouring out of the car. I climbed the lift like a chimpanzee and put the blaze out with a fire extinguisher. Talk about me being a dumb butt. A spark had caught the carpet on fire and smoked most of the interior of the car. It burnt the whole wiring harness, carpet, and a door panel. Well after thrashing all week to rewire the car and finish the cage we were pretty exhausted. We tested thursday night in Jackson, Sc. 5.20 @1.40. The fuel map was way off and i was drowning the motor in fuel. But have no fear i was on a mission to get the motor extra crispy by the weekend. So here we go. Yall sit down and buckle your seatbelts and put your tray tables in the upright position. This is gonna be a bumpy ride. I worked as long as i could possibly stand it friday. Yall know me and when its race day weekend i get all twitchy and excited like a kid on christmas morning. At 1pm i couldnt take it anymore. I pulled onto my and street and evidently Johnson was suffering from the same disease. Sitting there was the motorhome hooked to the trailer and him and fatboy sitting on my front porch. Boy i tell you one thing, I am EXTREMELY fortunate to have friends who share my love for racing. We have evolved from a bunch of illiterate rednecks to a well oiled machine. I dont even have to tell anyone what to do at the track. They know the car and what it needs. Which absolutely rocks. So we head west like nobodys business in search of greatness and some tire smoke. We got to Montgomery Motorsports park in Montgomery, Alabama at around 6pm. We set up shop and hauled the orange monster to staging for her fisrt shakedown run of the weekend. Staged and off we went. I knew she was toting the mail and boy it felt good. The about 400ft she laid over. 5.13 @141. What the heck? I spun the car over at the other end and she wouldnt fire. Turns out the ignition box was shot slap out. Whoever heard of a box going bad during a run?????? I guess if it can break ill find a way. After carousing around the pits begging and borrowing, Terry Elam ( a fellow EZ Street competitor, and the guy on my heels in the points) sold me his spare box. Now thats sportsmanship. Thats how we like to race. Friends before and after the race. All the Orsca guys are stand up guys. So hoping the worst was behind us, we hauled the heap around and went gangsta style with the tune up. BAAAAMMMMM 4.95 @148 . Im thinking we are rocking the boat......... Boy was I to be proven wrong. Saturday 1st round qualifying we went a 4.97 which normally i would be estatic about. But guess what????? Dustin Mewborn went a 4.91. Holy crap. talk about changing your outlook on things. It's crazy how competition breeds improvement. So i threw some power in the old girl. to no avail. 2nd round Qualifying we went another 4.97. Well im thinking at least we are consistent. I can race consistent. So last round i threw the kitchen sink and all the appliances in the tune up. I took off like a raped rinocerous. but smoked the tires in high gear. So we were qualified 4th with a 4.97. The top 5 cars were in the fours . Man this was the tightest EZ field ever. We were almost a tenth off the pace but we all got together and decided that in the case of the rabbitt and the turtle, the turtle won because he never gave up. So that being said we were gonna be the turtle in this race. I promised the boys that i would do my job on the tree. man would we need it. 1st round i knew was gonna be tight. I nailed the tree with a .008 light and barely nipped Pouncey at the traps going a 4.97 to his 5.01. Woooooohoooo . Thats 3 4.97's in a row. Bracket mania is here. But guess what, I knew that wasnt gonna outrun Mewborn. he was number one qualifyer with a 4.91 and had his car on a string. We cooled the car down and i had my usual sit down talk with her. i told her that i didnt want to hurt her feelings and i didnt wanna make her feel like she wasnt good enough but i needed a little more from her. She didnt take it well and shot out the water pump sittin in the pits. It just slap quit working. Like she was mad at me and said screw u. I told her like Harry Hog did in Days of Thunder when Cole Trickles engine was torn up before Daytona. I said "Thats not the answer i was lookin for outa you" But we had no spare pump and no time so we decided to hope for the best and run without it. I waited for Mewborn to burn in and almost get ready. I fired up and did a short burnout and immediately staged trying to keep the motor from heating up. He clicked in and I karate kid crane chopped the tree down and drug it with me. I had a .003 reaction time. Mewborn has the fastest radial 60 ft in the world. he went a 1.14 sixty to my 1.26. He had me by a car at half track, Thats when i heard the theme song from Bonanza. You know dun dun dun dun dun da da dun dun. I was gaining ground but would i have enough time to catch him. Barely. I nipped him at the traps with a 4.96 to his 4.98. What a race. I mean it was inches on the other end. i was estatic for about two seconds till i started slowing down and heard this god awful crazy whine coming from the rear end. What the heck again. We rushed back to the pits and snatched the rear end cover off. Two cracked teeth on the pinion. CRAP CRAP CRAP... I had spare gears but no pinion bearing on the new pinion and very little time. Well we ripped the rear end apart while Big Johnson ( AKA Mcgyver) heated up the pinion with a blow torch. He somehow got the bearing off with like a pocket knife and some duct tape of something. I used a nitrous bottle to freeze the new pinion and the bearing slipped rite on. Threw her back together as they were calling last call to the lanes. That was a 21 minute gear change. Boy we are good. or maybe just lucky. Who cares. We rushed to staging. i was still loading the tune up in the car while i was strapping in. I radioed to brian to calm down and lets go to work. Being in the hot grease is where i thrive. I love pressure. We burned in and staged. I chopped what was left of the tree from the round before down and drug with me. .014 reaction time. I carried the front tires 3 feet off the ground for 400 feet. sat them down and never looked back, buzzing the clocks with a 4.94. BOOOM DIGGITY thats five in a row. HolyCrap. I mean this is some story book stuff. I really wanna thanks the racers that helped me this weekend. As well as my die hard unwavering crew. Cheri, Chris Johnson, Brian, and Jason (aka Fatboy). We are living on cloud nine. Tomorrow we begin testing for the Outlaw race in Bradenton in two weeks. Im hoping we can give all those rich boys a dose of southern orange poison. Stay tuned for testing results. im finally getting to strap some power on the motor and cant wait to see if i can tame it.

I FEEL THE NEED......THE NEED......FOR SPEED

2008-09-22T00:55:00.000-07:00

The kid is on fire. We bailed out of town like a jailbreak gone bad on friday afternoon about 1pm. And let me go ahead a say for the record. huntsville is a haul from the shop. At one point i looked over at Johnson and told him i didnt think we could get there from here. Well we finally did and unloaded the big Orange for a little testy testy. We had planned on swapping the car back over from nitrous to the supercharger this week but the by the time all the parts came in, it was too late. The orange car had sat in the trailer for the last two weeks, and i was curious to see if we could pick up where we left off. Wrong. After several wheelstands and tire smokes and just plain farting down the track the best the ole girl could muster was a 5.21. I dont get how this thing went from running on a rail to refusing to go down a racetrack. Then i realized that the Orange car is a woman. And like any woman, She didnt like being left alone in a cold dark race car trailer for two weeks. So i did what any normal man would do in a situation like this, I bought her flowers. Well not exactly bought, and not exactly flowers. We were parked next to a cotton field so we went for a little cruise through it and brought her back some cotton. Then I had a good sit down talk with the hot rod and explained to her that that sort of behavior was unacceptable, and we agreed that she would get her act together on saturday. Now i never sleep good when the car isnt running good and friday night was no exception. After sleeping only about 3 hours we awoke to the announcer hollering something about tech and qualifying starting. So i busted the ole girl off and by goodness she sounded a little chirpier than usual. Maybe she had her mind right. They werent allowing testing before qualifying saturday morning, So i loaded a semi soft tune up in and we crossed our fingers as we towed to the lanes for 1st round qualifying. I asked Johnson if he felt good about it and he said yes, so at least one of us did. I burned in and Brian pointed me straight. I prestaged and asked the orange car one more time to please act right and dont be screwing around and showing her ass in front of all my friends. Went to the transbrake with one eye open and the other one closed fearing the worst. Turned loose and bam diggity off we went like a scud missile. Kinda like the mazda commercial where it says ZOOM ZOOM. But with about a thousand horsepower of nitrous. We went 5.07 at 146.9 MPH. I got out and hugged the hot rod and thanked her for minding her manners. Could it be that she forgave me? Or maybe its that she hates testing and only likes to be raced on the weekends, or maybe she just likes kicking ass. Brian was so happy that he backed over me with the golf cart and bout slap broke my gas pedal leg. We followed up our 1st session with a 5.00 @147.1 second round qualifying. Which put us second. Which all yall that know me know that i hate second. So we decided to take a shot at it in the last session and put the screws to it. Horsepower tv came over and did about a 30 minute interview with me. They either think im hilarious or slap off my rocker. But i had them rolling the whole time. They even wired me with a mic and let me walk around being my crazy self for a little bit. I told them to keep that camera on the scoreboards because i was gonna light them up. I think it will air on Nov 1st. Well back to the task at hand. I launched the hot rod and i knew she was rockin. I didnt sit the front tires down for 300 feet. Buzzed the boards with a 4.97 @ 147.9. BOOM YOW. But wait. My old buddy Chad Henderson put up a 4.96 which still left us second. Boy it was gonna be a dog fight on Sunday. Speaking of dog fights, or should i say DAWG fights. We watched my Georgia Bulldogs monkey stomp Arizona State into a coma on the tv. The PAC ten is over rated if we end up playing usc for the national championship we are gonna lay the wood. I went to bed and actually slept good. Sunday we woke and the sun was shining and it was cool and clear. Perfect drag racing weather. We went to church and listened to Larry Garner preach on adversity. Which i seem to know a little about. Still i was nervous about first round. We were paired up with Glenn Jones. Who by the way is one of the nicest guys ive ever met. His wife even came up to me and hugged me in staging and told me to let it all hang out. So we burned in, staged, I hit the honker pedal and blasted down the track taking the win with a 5.09. We won second round with a 5.04. Off to the semis. I tweaked the tune up just a little. Which evidently was a bad idea. The orange car got an attitude when i left and started a long slow wheelstand. I blipped the throttle and eased her down and squeeked by for the win only running a 5.20. Holy smokes we were off to our fourth straight final. Against guess who???????? My buddy Chad Henderson. We have faced each other in the finals the last two races and we were at it again. He went a 5.04 in the semis, and had lane choice. And i had no clue what to do to the car. Me and Chad are kinda cut from the same cloth so to speak. In that I knew he wasnt gotta settle with that 5.04. He played it safe last race and i knew he wasnt going to do it again. So i wasnt either. I stacked 60 more pounds up front. Put in the baddest tune up i had in my playbook and towed her around. Chad came up to me before the race and shook my hand and told me this was round three. DING DING DING. I felt like Rocky Balboa fighting Apollo Creed. Chad's car is my favorite Ez street car. I love that buick. Well we burned in hard and long. Brian told me one the radio while i was backing up that i needed to be on my game on the tree. He said no screwing around. Cut the tree down. We staged and BAAMMMM I was off. The second stage was too much for the track and it started shaking the tires at 200 feet. I was sideways all over the track but i refused to lift. i went through the traps sideways with the left front tire off the ground taking the win with a 5.09. Chad smoked the tires and handed it to me. If there was ever a time when i wanted the other guy to win it was this time. Chad and his crew work their asses off like we do and deserve a win. I know he has many ahead of him and ill be the first one to shake his hand when he parks that buick in the winners circle. I got out of the car and was hugging everyone. Even people that might not have wanted a hug got bear hugged. I was so excited i couldnt hardly talk in the tv interview.
Some people call it luck, Some people call it cheating, and some say there is a ten foot horseshoe wedged in my booty. But the truth is we are just little kids having fun chasing a dream that just wont go away. I am very fortunate to live in a country that allows me to pursue my passion. Hats off to my crew. Brian, Johnson, Dean, Fatboy, and Chris. You guys make racing fun. Its now 5.20 am and im headed out to the shop to disassemble the entire car and start building the supercharger engine. We will be at the civil wars race in rockingham next weekend if all goes well.

Royal Rumble in South Georgia.......

2008-09-07T18:10:00.000-07:00

Are you ready to ruuuuuuummmmmbllllleee............ Boy this is gonna get worse before it gets better. Well as you can guess, the new engine block for the procharger didnt come in. We are screwed, blued, and tattooed. We stuck with the old worn out hog leg nitrous motor. How are we gonna get this thing down the track on radials? And whats worse is that orsca only lets us run two stages. Well we rolled into carolina dragway thursday night looking like some chickens with our heads cut off. After 4 test passes, all we got for our efforts was a 5.40. Im thinking we are toast. I mean nothing was even close to being fast. We left at lunchtime friday for Cecil, Ga. The place was slap packed out when we rolled in at 7 pm. All the big dogs of everything were there. And Man this place was a nice. We unloaded and dragged the old girl to staging. First pass i hit the throttle, smoked the tires, pedalled, then wheel stand. in that order. I was as lost as a florida gator fan. Next three passes equalled a bunch of slow times and bent up header tubes. I couldnt keep the front end down. Now i have balls of steel, but 300 ft wheelstands dont win races. i went to bed at 5 am. Unable sleep at the thought of getting obliterated all weekend. Saturday morning we did a couple wheelstands, to get ready for first round qualifying. All the boys seemed pretty confident in my ability to tear shit up. Then all of the sudden the clouds parted. The stars aligned and first round qualifying we went a 5.11 @146. Holy Smokes. The orange car had its mojo back. Or so we thought. Second rnd we went a 5.22. Everyone was getting faster and we were slowing down like the South Carolina Gamecocks hope for a winning season. Well last round of qualifying i decided that we were going or blowing. We loaded the hot rod for bear, and up up and away she went. We actually drug orange paint off the bumper. It really smashed down hard. My header tubes were flat as a pancake. We had to heat them up with a torch and beat a jack handle through them just to get them half ass opened up. We were qualified 7th. The number one qualifier ran a 4.96. So that put us a tenth and a half off the pace. I hate being slow. I barely slept all night. Talk about being screwed. we had the 2nd and 3rd qualifiers on our side of the ladder. if we were gonna win this race, we were gonna earn it. After much thought and argueing with Brian and Johnson about what to do first round ( i wanted to get gangsta nasty and put 46's in both foggers) We decided to play it safe and slowly chip away at the mountain of fast cars ahead of us. First round we blasted off another 5.11. which got us the win. But still slow. Second round was to be a showdown for the ages. We had Nick Yarber, the number two qualifier and the guy trailing me by 5 points in the chase to the championship. He just went a 5.05 in the first round and i knew he would step it up. I turned the wick up on the hotrod as well. We bumped in and off we went. he had me by .005 at halftrack and then i tossed my nitrous lasso out there and reeled him in, getting the win by .020 and running a 5.05. by golly we finally had a race car to work with. But there was a super fast yellow turbocharged speed bump in the way in the semis. Mr Elam went a 4.96 first round and had that thing on a mission. I knew i had to wind the old rubber band a little tighter, but how much before it snapped? We both staged. I knew i had to go. As soon as i saw amber i let the ponies gallop and damn they were moving It was so close at the stripe i couldnt tell who won. My light came on and i wa so excited i almost forgot to stop. I was even more excited when i saw the times. We went a 5.02 to his 4.95. Thats right, I won on a holeshot. My first ever holeshot win. I was feeling like the invincible man. We had my old buddy Chad Henderson in the finals. Who by the way qualified 1st with a 4.96. Well no amount of reason would convince me to not put the screws to the hot rod now. We were under dogs and were going to the finals. I was going for it all. We burned in with long smokey burnouts.Brian had the nitrous pressure high so i had to purge off like ten thousands lbs of nos. We clicked the bulbs on and Bam i was off and running like Forrest Gump. It was a side by side slug fest to the stripe. I nipped him on the big end running a 4.97 to his 5.02. Man the party was started now. I was hugging everybody and jumping around like a maniac. When the heat was on we turned up the oven. I was interviewed by horsepower tv and they must have never seen Steve Jackson unplugged after a race win. I had those guys laughing like crazy. What an incredible weekend. As i sit in the passenger seat in Johnson's motorhome, heading north on I 75. i realize how lucky i am to have friends who share my crazy backwoods passion for this way of life we call drag racing. Thanks to Brian, Chris, Jason and Cheri for all you guys help this weekend. More goods things are to come.

Par For The Course

2008-09-01T20:06:00.000-07:00

If you guys have been following the last couple posts, then you are familiar with the demise of the procharger motor. The nitrous motor has been doing very well in testing but this weekend coming (sept 5-7) is the next stop on the ORSCA trail. We are racing in Valdosta, Ga. So i ordered the new engine block last week. Planned my whole labor day weekend around getting the supercharger motor together, getting the car stripped back down, and starting to put the thing back together. Well as usual, things never go that way. The block didnt get here and wont be here until tomorrow. which is sept 2nd. Im not holding my breath. So if by some majical reason it does show up and i can get the machine shop to get humping on it then ill start working on it tomorrow night. I dont know what i would do if i ever got to have a nice relaxing week before a race. But if it werent for the last minute, nothing would ever get done i guess. So prepare for a couple all nighters and maybe getting the old girl busted off before we leave town. Ill let you guys know how its coming. Im really looking forward to hearing it run again.

Rain Drops Are Falling on My Head

2008-08-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

Well boys and girls. The title of this weeks blog just about sums up this weeks racing. The PTRA finally came to my home track this weekend at Carolina dragway. We were pretty amped up about getting to lay the wood to the scoreboards. I definitely had the pick em up, burn em down tune up in the old girl. Rain all night friday, rain off and on saturday. Cancelled the race at 5pm. We loaded up and hauled booty to orangeburg dragstrip. I was determined to make a pass. Got there, got in staging. Strapped in, engine running, RAIN. RAIN RAIN. Not to let the weekend be a bust without a fight. We loaded back up, headed back to carolina dragway. Fired up the blender, Johnson put on a mean low country boil in the cooker. So we had fun but no racing. Im gonna try to make a few hits this week if the weather lets me. This coming weekend is the start of that glorious national pastime we call college football. The Georgia Bulldogs will be kick stomping georgia southern. I'll be in Athens on Saturday, and then Im flying to Indy saturday afternoon to "talk with a man about a horse" so to speak.

Back To The Drawing Board

2008-08-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

Holy Smokes What a Week. If racing wasnt my life then i would be lost. What would i do with all the free time and money? Wednesday night at carolina dragway we unloaded the car with high hopes and tired eyes. We thrashed monday and tuesday changing stuff on the car. I was bound and determined to get ole bruhilda off the starting line. Well we did but boy it was a turd. 5.31@ 142.01. Now most of yall that know me know that im a go big, or go home type of guy. Call it my ego or my stupid redneck cowboy attitude, but if im not at the top of the field, im not happy. So with that in mind i put the oooompaloompa tune up in. Poor Chris Johnson. He had know idea what was about to happen to his motor. I launched, i smiled, i shifted, i then mushroom clouded the motor. I blew the heads off it. Now yall dont get the wrong idea here. im not talking about lifting a head, or pushing the gasket out. Im talkin bout i blew the tanks off the radiator. We i tear shit up, its tore up. I hadnt even got the car stopped when i realized we were up shit creek. I had blown up my motor, my friends motor, and all my friends parts. We are SCREWED. We got home and pushed the car in the shop. I have never in life been as depressed as when i turned the lights off. and went inside. I had given up. There was no way to get another supercharger motor together by friday. My championship dream was over and six months of hard work was in the toilet. I went to bed and had nightmares all night about being a failure. I woke up at 6 am thursday morning, and went to work in the midst of a clinical depression. My old buddy Joe called and we were talking about the situation at hand. He is always good about cheering me up when im shot out. He told me to get my stupid cowboy attitude back and figure it out. At that moment the strangest thought crossed my mind. Its wierd the things u remember that u think you never will. When I was in tenth grade in high school, i had an english teacher that had a poster on her wall. It was a picture of a seagull eating a frog. the frog was all the way down the seagulls throat except for his two back legs. which were sticking out of the seagulls mouth and wrapped around the seagulls neck choking him to death. The caption on the poster said, "Never EVER GIVE UP" Boy did that get me. Its kinda retarded but that poster has got me through more hard spots in my life than i can count. Something clicked inside me and i decided i would make this race this weekend no matter what. Sometimes the hardest thing to do in life is to decide that you arent going to quit. Me and Johnson got our heads together and decided the only option we had was to put my old nitrous motor in. Thats right, i said nitrous. But it was in his 68 mustang. So at 5 pm on thursday night i parked the tool truck. Walked in the shop, and went buck nasty. By 10 pm the car was stripped. Motor and trans out, water tanks, plumbing, wiring, fuel system,, everything. Johnson got there with the motor and trans at 10:30. By 4 am we had the engine and trans in. by 7 am we had the fuel system done. at 9.14 am i hit the starter button and it didnt spin over twice and busted off and sat there chirping its ass off. I forgot how that thing sounded. All big and nasty. I love the sound of crickets chirping in the morning. I went to work with no sleep and worked till 1pm. we loaded up the orange car and headed north. Completely unsure of what was gonna happen, but we were on our way. I felt like i had already won the fight. It took three hits friday night to get down the track. 5.18 @145. The converter was way loose and i had no data aquisition on the car so i was tuning by the seat of my pants. Saturday morning we warmed up the hot rod and towed her to tech. You shoulda seen the looks on peoples faces when the hood came off. Where two days ago sat a nice neat mild mannered superchargered motor, now sat a giant balls nasty wicked nitrous motor. There are systems all over this thing. Its was time to finish the piedmont race from two weeks ago. We raced Brian Mcgee in the semis and boy was it a pedalfest. i got there first and we were off to the finals. Where we were quickly crushed. But i was happy just to be there. We qualified 5th for the mooresville race with a 5.13. Gettin better. Made it through first round. In the second round we were matched up against the current points leader Jason Richards. I knew we had to go so i screwed it to it. This was one of the best races of my career. I got him by 2 hundredths on the tree. We had identical sixty foots. He had me by half a car at half track. then my Take Me To Jesus stage came on and i drove by him barely nipping him at the traps. What a race. 5.09 at 146.9 Close races like that are what i live for. We got beat in the semis. But you couldnt tell us anything. We had went from giving up to going to a final and semi final in one day. Sometimes the real victories in life come without a trophy or winners purse. We are now 35 points out of the lead in PTRA points, And are leading Orsca points. The next race is in Jackson, Sc in two weeks so i expect to see all you home town guys there. And remember that no matter how dark the tunnel you are staring down, there is always light somewhere. You might just have to walk a little while in the dark to find it. I cant wait to get the new stator in the torque converter. I think we have some killer numbers in this thing. We will test thursday night.

TOUGH ROW TO HOE!

2008-08-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

Im sorry it's been awhile since i've written. Things have been so hectic around the shop that i've hardly had time to sleep. Let's step back to the Ptra Race in Piedmont two weeks ago. We got there friday night for some testing. Came off the trailer, had a good run going till around 500 feet into the run. The motor hiccupped so i lifted. Pulled the valve covers and damn if it wasnt the wierdest thing ive seen lately. One of the exhaust valves pulled apart at the stem. These were not an inexpensive set of valves so im still kind of curious as to what happened. I snatched the head off. Alot of the fellow racers in the ptra helped with time and parts and found us a local machine shop. They took the head and by a miracle the guy had a titanium valve on the shelf that fit. They got back with the head around 2 am. We buttoned the motor up and finished around 4:30. Wheeeww. Talk about tired on Saturday. We qualified 5th with a 5.11. Made it all the way to the semi's and then they called the race due to curphew. So we finish piedmonts race this weekend during Mooresvilles Qualifying. Last wednesday we were testing in Jackson , Sc and blew the cylinder walls out of the block. I mean its crazy looking. you can slide your fingers from one cylinder to the next. Im thinking we are screwed. Then my buddy Chris Johnson comes through for me. He loaned me his procharger motor. Which is similar to mine but there are some differences. We juked the new motor in the hot rod, busted her off, and eased on down to the track saturday. First pass out we ring the keyway in half on the crank. Once again i think were screwed. The Johnson brings a drill over and drills the front snout of the crank, drives the drill bit in there and boom we now have a double keyway crank. sunday in dorchester we smoked smoked smoked the tires. This engine is 120 lbs heavier than mine and im really having a time getting it off the starting line. So we will be testing wed, thurs, and friday this wee. With two points races on Saturday in Mooresville. So yall some on down and hang out with us.

Racing School Recap

2008-07-09T19:46:00.000-07:00

Tuesday I started off with a 1000 ft blast down the track. After spending hours in the hotel practicing clutch moves, feet swapping, shifts, chute dumps and brake control. I was feeling pretty confident. I have a problem if i think too much about what i'm doing while im doing it. Especially in these cars. I'm not sure if my mind works too slow (keep laughing) or because the car is moving faster than my mind can tell my body to react. But if I think about it too much i screw up. So tuesday i decided to stop thinking about it. Get my ass in the car and have fun. I was joking around and having a good time when it was my turn. Let me touch a little on safety here. If you think some of the tracks are a little strict making you wear a triple layer jacket and pants, then you need to drive in one of these space suits. You start with pants and a jacket that could withstand a hiroshima bomb. Then fire shoes. Then knee high fire boots that cover the fire shoes. Then a Hans or R3 helmet restraint device, Followed by a head sock, helmet with helmet skirt, arm restraints and a chin strap. Let just say that when your in the car. You Are IN The Car. Im used to it now and i like it. Anyways they towed me around and busted of the engine. I have gotten used to the clutch now and really like it. I dont know what ill do with my left foot anymore in the mustang. I burned in, backed up. Staged and left. Straight as an arrow to the 1000ft mark. This car is really getting fun to drive. Frank said it was a very good clean run and gave me the nod to take old girl all the way to the stripe. I way hopping around the pits like a mexican jumping bean. We towed around and the crew gave me the thumbs up. I burned in like a champion, staged and off we went. One shift, two shifts, Man this thing is hauling ass. Here comes the stripe, boom the chutes are out. Until you feel two full size chutes blossom at 230mph, you havent lived. Forget about having to push the clutch in at the end of the run, the chutes throw your foot on the clutch for you. Another clean run down. Only one more full run left and i would be done. Today we got to the track around 8:30. We had 3 inches of rain last night and water was coming up through the track. It was 1pm before i got to run. Talk about icing the kicker. Man the pressure was on. But i just told myself that i was just a kid out here having a good time driving a hot rod. I made a near perfect run buzzing the clocks at 230 mph again. I earned my NHRA Top Alcohol License. Talk about happy. I think i shook the whole crews hands twice. Frank invited me back in a couple months to drive the alcohol funny car. Three runs in that beast and i can cross over my license. So im gonna try. Now im back home and real life has set in. The orange car is still in the trailer and we have an event next weekend. It needs an engine, transmission, brakes and some overall TLC. So thrashapalooza is here again. I guess if it wasnt for the last minute nothing would ever get done. I have to go play in a charity golf tournament Saturday. It'll be fun. But time isnt on my side. So im off to the shop. I hope Kmart has a special on midnight oil.

Getting Down in Gator Town

2008-07-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

I am down here in gator ville, I mean Gainesville Fla. By gosh this whole town is orange and blue. All these poor misguided souls are convinced that the ole raggedy Florida Gators are goin all the way this year. I stick out in my Georgia Bulldog red and black like a sore thumb. but then again, fitting in has never really been my thing. I got up this morning at 6 am fired up ready to burn in the Top Alcohol car. After a problem was found early, it was 3 pm before i got in the car. Its hard to anticipate how this thing feels when you burn it in. It's fun. I staged and dumped the clutch. the car made a move to the wall and i gently coaxed her back in the groove, Made the one-two shift at 9700 rpms, then the two-three shift at 9600 rpms. ran to about 800 feet and hit the chutes. oh crap no chutes. I hit them again and nothing. Moved my hand to the brake and pulled the car to a stop. good thing it was only an 800 foot shakedown. Im not sure why the laundry didnt come out but the crew said they were fixed now so hell yes. Tomorrow I get to take it a 1000 feet and if all is done perfectly, ( and boy thats a big if) I'll get to make a couple full passes. These cars are a handful to drive to say the least. There is so much to do in such a short time. You manipulate almost every action the car makes. And they are the only car or bike in professional drag racing that you have to control the launch rpm with the gas and clutch. (no 2 steps here) This thing makes the orange car seem like a caddilac on a sunday drive. Ill update on tomorrows progress tomorrow night.

On a Roll

2008-06-29T18:52:00.000-07:00

I could definitely get used to this. We tested the Orange car at Carolina Dragway thursday night. It's first time out on slicks in awhile. After two unsuccesful hits at it, i was getting discouraged. The engine is beyond its due rebuild time (120 passes) and it will be monday before i can get it out and give the old girl a much deserved overhaul. It's amazing how different a radial tire tune up, and a slick tune up is. I changed everything on the car from fuel and timing maps, to weight, to shock settings. Finally it payed off. Shaking loose a modest 5.081 @143.1 MPH Which was good, except for the mile per hour. Where was it and why? I decided to make one more pass and load the car for bear. Wheelstandapalooza. The car came down pretty hard and punched a hole in the oil filter. Not happy with the results from thursday, Friday night me and Brian headed to the new track in Bowman, Sc. After two passes we got the hot rod to run a 5.12. But the MPH was only 141. I was looking over the engine and there was our problem. A crack in the supercharger charge pipe. I was happy as a pig in slop. We welded up the pipe and left for Darlington, Sc saturday morning. First round qualifying, 5.18. Problem. Broken rocker arm. Again. We thrashed and fixed the motor. Thanks to everyone that helped us. I don't even know who all brought me tools and parts but thanks again. Second round qualifying we blew off a 5.06. That was good enough to give us the number two Qualifying spot. Which was good because it earned us the first round bye. We used that as a test pass and loaded the super swamper tune up in. Of course it stood up and i had to pedal, still bumping the clocks with a 5.09. Man i wish the front end wouldve stayed down. That thing was on a pass. Second round my opponent broke. It was getting late by this time. Like 1:30 am late. Me being a night owl was loving it. In the Semi's we squeeked by with a 5.19 getting the win. I absolutely couldnt believe it. Were we really going to our third final round in a row? Bad news was, our opponent was the current PTRA record holder Jason Richards. And on his last pass he went a 5.02. Holy smokes how was i gonna get around that. I went big nasty with the tune up and did a monster burnout. Brian put me dead in the groove and radio'd to me to get his ass on the tree. We staged and bam we were off. I was actually winning for about 30 feet. Then the tires shook. But thank goodness his did too. It was a pedal fest. He was still there. I burped the thottle once and it shook again. He was still there. I blipped again and nailed it. The old girl bit. We won the race with a 5.19. Not the most impressive e.t but we will take the win. I cant thank everyone that helped us enough. For example, Just to show you how good the people we race with are, The thread repair kit that fixed my engine in qualifying, came from Jason. The guy that i ran in the finals. The Orange car will be down for a few weeks for some much needed TLC. That will give me time to concentrate on my NHRA deal. Time is ticking away to find a sponsor for 2009. We leave for Gainesville, Fla this coming weekend. I'll be attempting to finish getting my NHRA top alcohol licsense. Boy am i excited about matting the throttle on the blown alky dragster again. Hopefully we'll get some video this time. I'll keep you guys and gals updated on how its going.

Here Comes The Boom!!!!

2008-06-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

Yall forgive me if i seem a little excited but by goodness i am. We left off with us about to make the first round qualifying sat. morning. We were slap tired after the all nighter friday night. I was napping in my hammock when they called us around. Brian looked like a walking zombie. The poor old boy just isnt used to good old hard work i guess. LOL He is gonna kick my butt for saying that. Anyways we were first in line and elected to go with the right lane. I was semi skeptical if my bandaid patch job on the engine was gonna hold up. I figured if it was going to grenade, then i might as well go ahead and help it along so i rolled through the water and dropped the hammer for the usual Steve Jackson style long burn out. I always burn in with the windows down and there is nothing better than stopping about the 330 and when the motor comes back down to idle hearing the people in the stands screaming. Im addicted to this stuff. I backed up and brian keyed up the radio and asked if the rods were still in the motor. I brought the hot rod up on two step and turned loose. 5.10 @146. Hell yes thats what we wanted. After about 3 seconds of talking about what to do next round, we decided to turn the wick up a little. Me and the orange car have this understanding that if she will do what i tell her to, then i wont wheel stand her and beat her up and blow her tires off and stuff. She blew off a 5.06, second round qualifying. Thats a new EZ Street World Record. But we still had to back it up. I was having nightmares about the Carolina race, Remember went i went John Wayne on the tune up in the finals going for the record and almost gave the race away? I decided if we were going for the record this time, that we were gonna do it right now. No more pussy footing the tune up. I loaded in king kong. The track was cool and the air was good, and as my old buddy Dean always says, I Let That Bitch Eat!!!! We went a 5.01. The new record was set. And we were tired. We planned on going out to celebrate, but after about 30 minutes into dinner at the Outback, me and brian elected to get some sleep. Well Sunday morning we got to the track with high hopes. We were Qualified 2nd and drew a first round bye. It was hot so I loaded the bracket tune up in and she did what i told her. 5.11. Good enough for me. But there is a problem. Brian checked the oil overflow and ouch it looked like a vanilla milkshake. Crap the head gaskets are torched and leaking coolant into the crankcase. I guess the 110 passes the poor motor has on it has taken its toll.oh well we came to race so we kept the oil changed and our fingers crossed, Second round we won with a 5.11. . Earning us lane choice in the semis against none other than Charles "smack talking" Hull with his new buddy David Reese doing the tuning. Well lets just say this ass whipping has been a long time coming. We staged and i never looked back. Another 5.11 secured the win. Thats 3 5.11's in a row. WOW. Well we headed to the finals against super nice guy Chad Hendersen. Chad went a 5.16 in the semis. It was gonna be a good race. Unfortunately he broke something in the water box. I hope it wasnt anything major. I know they thrashed all night friday night too. The starter flagged me to stage. I went a solo 5.06 @147 plus. Which may be a new MPH record. Orsca is checking on it. Lady Luck was definitely on my side this weeknd. Hopefully i didnt tear up the motor too bad. A special thanks to my crew chief Brian. He is always there through thick and thin. We win together and get our butts kicked together. We will be in Carolina thursday testing for the PTRA points race in Darlington, Sc this weekend. I'll keep you guys posted on how she runs.

Sleepless in Montgomery

2008-06-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

Well boys and girls, We got to Montgomery Motorsports park Around 6pm friday. The line to get in was out to the road. This place is absolutely packed. We unloaded the orange car and loaded a safe tune up in the old girl. We were just trying to make a clean pass to start the weekend. The car launched hard and straight. We were on a hell of a pass when. dun ta daaaaa. Disaster strikes. The car lays over and start making the boat motor sound. You know that sound race engines make when they are really eating parts. That low loud mercuiser inboard sound. I shut it off and coasted around. Spun the motor over and it sounded like a pinball machine rattiling around. got back to the trailer and pulled the valve covers. Lets just say it looked Stanky. Two broken rocker arms, a shot out pushrod. one broken lifter, and the rocker stand pulled the threads out of the head. Yummy. We snatched the intake off and lo and behold, the lifter is stuck in the block. Will not come out. After four hours of prying, beating, banging, heating and framming. NOTHING. I put on my mad Scientist hat and welded a piece of all thread to the lifter, took a weight bar out the car and welded a washer on the other end. in other words a makeshift slide hammer. Me and brian put the oompaloompa on it and by goodness the lifter came out. We rethreaded the holes, and put the motor back together. Got in bed at 5. We just busted the old girl off this morning and she sounds like a champion. Bout to run first round qualifying. Yall keep your fingers and toes and whatever else you can cross crossed.

BUSY WEEK

2008-06-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

THE TOOL BUSINESS IS A FUNNY ONE. SOME DAYS YOU ARE RELAXED AND KIND OF COASTING THROUGH THE AFTERNOON. THEN THERE ARE DAYS LIKE THIS WHOLE WEEK, WHERE YOU WORK LIKE A MANIAC AND CANT PLEASE ANYONE. AT ANY RATE IM READY TO GET TO SOME WEEKEND DRAG RACING. WE HEAD TO MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA THIS WEEKEND FOR THE NEXT STOP ON THE ORSCA SCHEDULE. I AM PUMPED AFTER THE CAROLINA WIN. I KNOW THE COMPETITION WILL GET STIFFER, BUT HOPEFULLY I HAVE A TUNE UP FOR THEM. WE MAY TEST IN CAROLINA TONIGHT. I FEEL THE CAR IS ABSOLUTELY READY AND I HATE TO RISK HURTING ANYTHING, BUT MAYBE THERE'S A TOUCH MORE LEFT TO BE FOUND IN THE OLD GIRL. WISH US LUCK. I'LL UPDATE AS THE WEEKEND GOES ON.

Hard Work Pays Off

2008-06-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

What a week at the races. The Outlaw Racing Street Car Association (Orsca) came to Jackson, Sc this week. We headed to Carolina Dragway thursday afternoon for some testing. This was the first time we had radials on the car in two months and only the second time ever. The first four hits were pretty much the same. Tire Smokeapaloooooza. I was getting a little frustrated. With time for only one more pass that night, me and Chris Johnson loaded a ridiculous crazy should not ever work or go down any racetrack tune up in the old girl. I burned in and staged with no expectations other than immediate tire smoke. I brought the engine up on the two step and turned her loose and bam she sat me in the seat and off we went. I couldnt believe that aggressive tune up actually worked. We buzzed the clock with a 5.14 @ 146.mph. I got out the car and was jumping up down like a kid. We left the car at the track and I tried to work friday. By lunchtime the phone was ringing off the hook. Everyone was fired up about going racing. I knocked off at 1 and me and Brian headed to the track. Boy it was hot. 99 degrees at 5 pm. Which was perfect test weather for what we would be qualifying in Saturday. Second pass, The old girl started showing a little attitude and busted off a 5.09 @146.8. I was estatic. Had i really found a tune up that would work in the heat? We would find out on Saturday. Around 10 pm the track cooled off and the air got good. Now if you arent familiar with Carolina Dragway, Let me just say that when Jason is working the track, and the sun goes down, you better have your drivetrain up to par. Cause there is no track anywhere that works like it. I got ballsy and loaded a pour the coals to it, no holds barred, let it it all hang out, lift up your skirt and show me what your workin with, Steve Jackson tune up in. Keep in mind now that we are on street tires here. I staged and turned loose. WWWWHHHHOOOOAAAA. The orange car carried the left front tire six inches off the ground for 3oo hundred feet. I didnt know how fast we were going but i knew we were slap hauling ass. 4.98 @147.97 mph. I was so excited i could hardly get out of the car. i bear hugged some poor guy on the top end that i didnt even know. After 93 passes in 3 months on the procharger motor. WE ARE FAST. Saturday it was 100 degrees. First Qualifying pass we shook and went a 5.40. Second we rocked the box with 5.10. Which put us number one. Third round i loaded old girl up and went a 5.03. A new Ez Street world record, if i could back it up on sunday. We drew the first round bye and i put the slick track tune up in it. It was 102 degrees and the track temp was 138. We busted off a 5.10 @146.9. good enough to earn lane choice for the next round. We burned in and my competitor lit the top bulb. I lit mine and then we sat. I guess he was trying to rattle me. They must have not got the memo that i have been grudge racing my whole life. I don't get rattled. I was talking to Brian on the radio for what seemed like forever while we sat there prestaged. We talked about the weather. And about whether or not The Georgia Bulldogs were going to win a National Championship this year. (I definitely think so) Poor brian is a lost Florida Gator fan. Anyways, Im rambling. So he stages and i click in and off we go. We won with a 5.11 @146.9. Next round we won with a 5.12 @146.7. So we are off to the finals. Now most people would take a car that is running that consistent and leave it alone. Which is always the smart thing to do. But then again im not too smart. we had to go a 5.083 to back up the record and i knew the car wouldnt do it on the 148 degree track like it was. So like Tin Cup on steroids i let my balls overload my brain and i put the go fast tune up in it. We Staged and for a split second i thought the track would hold it. The tires shook and i had to pedal it. We still got lucky and won only running a 5.40. The good lord helped us out on that one. So maybe next time I'll listen to good judgement in a situation like that. but probably not. we missed the record but got the win. So it was a weekend for the books. One of my best ever. Thanks so much to everyone that believed in me when all the rest said i was lost. It's gonna be an interesting rest of the year.

2008-05-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

The orange car is finally getting sorted out. We raced in Nc on Saturday, And in Sc on Sunday. The Supercharger is definitely making the power to get the job done, Now it's just up to me to get it down the racetrack. The Ptra gave supercharged cars a 200 lb weight break.I believe the car will be faster, I again just have to get down the track. We are in negotiations with several companies regarding my Nhra Top Fuel deal for 2009. Any and all help you guys can give as far as leads is greatly appreciated. We will be testing in Jackson, Sc Thursday night. We are getting ready for the ORSCA Race next weekend.

Crazy Week

2008-05-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

Saturday we headed to Julian, Nc to Piedmont dragway for the 3rd stop on the PTRA tour. We qualified 5th with a 5.17 @146.3 mph. In the Second round I drew the ptra world reord holder and lets just say he put it on me. I treed him with a .020 light to his .059. But he ran me down going a 5.09 to my 5.19. We are expecting the PTRA to even the rules up but havent heard anything yet. Today I left at 6am to fly to Brownsburg, Indiana to meet with one of the sports prominent owners. We are trying to get a deal together for 2009 and have 2/3 of the finiancing secured. I just need to secure the other 3rd by August 1st. Please email me if you know any corporate people that may be willing to advertise nationally. Thanks guys

Wednesday May 7th

2008-05-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

We loaded up Saturday May 3rd and headed to Orangeburg Sc for some in the heat testing. This was our first test on a 125 degree racing surface with the procharger. We made 7 passes, with each getting faster than the one before ( always good). The car is definitely close to being where we want but We still need a little more. Mph is way off PTRA and ORSCA pace. The new Torque converter picked us up to 143.9 mph. We have our third points race in Piedmont , Nc this weekend. We are changing rear gears in the car now. Im gonna try to get the car through the sixty foot a little smoother. It's really wanting to rattle the tires about 50 feet out. We'll be At Carolina Dragway testing thursday night.

Tuesday April 25

2008-04-29T09:07:00.000-07:00

What a weekend we had. Let's begin with last thursday night. I made 3 passes. The orange car is sixty footing decent, but will not run on the big end. So after about 2 hours of looking at the data logs and talking with Mo and Chris Tuten, I decided the camshaft profile wasn't aggressive enough. We headed home around 2 am. I got up early Friday morning and began searching for an in stock cam grind that would work. Bci in atlanta had one so Brian was on his was to pick it up. I tore down the engine and got ready for install. He got back to augusta around 4pm. We needed a part that was in columbia Sc and they closed at 5. So we pushed the car in the trailer and brian drove while i put the cam in going down the highway. We got to Rockingham too late to make first round qualifying. So i finished the engine. Saturday on second and third round qualifying the supercharger blew the coupler off. which resulted in only running a 5.52. Sunday morning in the last round of qualifying we changed the coupler and the old girl went a 5.27 @ 139.54 mph. Still off but it put us in the field 9th. First round we won with a 5.28 @ 139.43mph. So we have a consistent car. We just need more power. Second round we were defeated by the class mph record holder. Our setup is the only one with a limit on power. I know it sounds dumb, but Nitrous and Turbo combo's are unlimited. Yet we have to run a small procharger. None the less i will make it competitive. The new camshaft loosened up the converter two percent. So that means we are making more power. Tonight we will tighten up the converter and test Thursday night at Carolina Dragway. Saturday Night we will race in a ss race in Sylvania, GA.