Anybody from here attend the Bristol race? Saw quite a few REALLY nice Mavericks and Comets running the brackets. Never did find the time to talk to any of the owners though. Too busy winning Ultra Stang....again. And this time...no V6 Ponycar. Genuine Shelby GT-H from Hertz.
Already did that. Lousiana and Virginia. I don't like it either!!!! You have to keep in mind that we were on that gawd awful mountain in the heat so the density altitude was around 15,000 feet. Also, you can't turn the Traction Control system off and the shift points in these rentals is pulled back to 5500 rpm. Despite all that.....she ran a 14.16 at 98 mph deep staged. In decent air and shallow staged it should be a solid 13.50/102-104 mph car. I really didn't care either. The car was amazing and deadly consistent. First round: Figured an easy light would win: .081 r/t; 14.20 dial; 14.290 @ 88 mph (on brakes). Racing against a V6 car with an "iffy" driver and a 16.60 dial. He was sandbagging big time too. At the 1000' clock I got on the brakes since he was out there almost a car length of daylight. He went 16.28. Second round: Racing the number 2 man in the points, Jim D'Amore from JDM Engineering. Their Saleen is a monster! It was over early: .020 R/T to his .166 R/T. Got on the brakes at the first mph clock and went 14.219 at 90 mph. Points lead just got bigger!!!! Final Round: Running the only driver I'm remotely worried about in the class...Tom Conrad. He was in a V6 car with a 16.32 dial. He also sandbags in a big way. This one was also over early: .016 R/T to his .068 R/T. Ran up on him at the 1000' clock and broke him out. I went 14.24 @ 94 mph. So....never had to run the car out the back door which is kinda nice. Also got to chase people for the first time which is a hell of a lot of fun!!!!! Also, got some interesting news from a friend of mine that does ad layouts for several performance companies and car companies. He was contacted by the marketing manager at Shelby Motorcars in Las Vegas. Seems they heard about me racing one of their GT-H cars and winning a major national event. They are telling him that this is the first national event win for the "new-era" Shelby Mustangs. They want to know the serial number of the car, where I rented it, what times it ran, event details, driver details, blah, blah, blah. I didn't think about it at the time but then it dawned on me. Whenever you see a vintage Shelby car with a verifiable racing history auctioned off it is always higher priced than the street cars. I think I just drove the price up on this particular car once it's life in the rental business is done. I just thought I was having fun with it!!!
That's really cool about the Shelby marketing stuff. Congrats on another win...wish you were winning all those races in a Maverick.
Got a picture finally!!!! This is at the top end after the final round. Don't laugh....I look like hell after too much heat, excitement, adrenaline, and beer!!! Sorry for the sizing.....cut it down and it wrinkled the stripe for some reason. Oh yeah....got another one rented for the Epping, NH race in two weeks. :evilsmile
Congrats! Are you coming to the FFW at Heartland Park, Topeka, KS? I might try to make it over there this year in the Maverick. Doubt I'll be racing, but who knows... by then I should finally have that spool installed.
I'll be there, Matt. I'm trying to find another Shelby available in that area but it's not looking good. Guess I'm stuck with another V6 car for that race. No biggie though. Be sure and say hi if you make it to the race. I'm not too hard to find.
I saw you run the GTH at Bristol Saturday. If I had known it was you I would have came by and said hello. Some good racing and good looking cars in the show. Sure was hot.
dang man i need to run some of these races.Looks like cake! With r-t's like that makes me wonder where those guys you ran are from.
THREAD HIJACK...I'm so bummed out that the CA FFW will have no heads up classes. I've been dying to go to that thing for 3 years and now unfortunately I think they sealed the fate of West Coast FFW. I'll still be there though, supporting FFW as much as possible. It's always intrigued me why the East has so much more drag racing and fast cars. Anyways, hope to meet you there in October, get some of those bracket racing secrets from you, have a few beers, and enjoy CA drag racing while it lasts...
