Where? Wherever Nitro is allowed! Bakersfield, Boise, Sacramento?
Why? Because it is Nitro!
How? That is the question I will answer one week at a time
in this blog
So I was this happy little camper running the 7.0 Pro class
and it was allot of fun. Then I get to the finals at Bakersfield March Meet and
get runner-up. I get my check and I won a whopping $450.00, whew! My crew spent
more than that getting in! Then to add insult to injury I find out that NE-1
which is a slower class gets twice as much for runner-up!
Now…., not that I run
for the money, but really now, when I don’t even get back my entry fees for
getting 2nd place then I guess I am just stupid. So I thought about
going back to the 7.60 class but it is that old adage, you can never go
backwards.
So I talked it over
with Lisa, Les and Cliff and here we are! A weekly blog of how
I am going to switch to the Nitro AA/FA class. It might be a long process as I don’t
really know which way this thing is going to go, but I have a general idea.
First things first, sell the car I have now. Well at least
the parts that I won’t run in AA/FA so I can buy a 426 Hemi. Yes I toyed a bit dreaming
about making a Ford engine run nitro but I just don’t have the funds to do it.
There are plenty of used 426 parts out there as the throw away Top Fuel stuff can
still be run in the lower classes.
I will sell the car but I am not going to give it away. I
don’t want to chop it up to make it shorter for the Nostalgia AA/FA class but I
will if I have to. The car is such a nice car for NE-1 or 7.0 Pro I hate to do
that so we shall see. Stay tuned, I am in no hurry.
Every week I will put up a short blog about my thoughts and
what I want to run.
The car, engine and trans are up for sale on different sites
right now.
It all started about
a week before the Governor’s Cup. I pulled the car out of the trailer as I had
to replace the exhaust valves from the previous race. Some of them had
stretched almost .025 during the converter blow up at the beginning of the
year.
I know, I know, why did he wait so long?
Well I have many engine jobs
going right now and it is tough to fit in the race car.
When I pulled it apart
I also found one spark plug with the ground strap burned off even though the
jetting is still on the rich side.
Well, I found out I had put two steps hotter
spark plugs (NGK -8) in by mistake. Don’t know how that happened! The hotter
plugs raised the temp on the spark plug and burned the ground strap. I put the
correct NGK -10 in this time.
I started taking it
apart about 5 days before the race and got everything ready to go by Friday
which is the day before the race.
I started putting it back together at noon on
Friday and I didn’t really expect to get it done in time for the Governor’s Cup
and resigned to the fact that I was getting it ready for the Hot Rod Reunion in
October.
Somehow everything went together smoothly and Lisa and I started it around
9pm that night.
I worked getting
ready until about midnight and then got up at 6am to finish up and get to the
track.
We barely made it in time and showed up about 15 minutes before first
round of qualifying.
Don Dicero said hey, “qualifying starts in 15 minutes” and
I said “plenty of time!”
Bryan, Cliff and Paul
got me up and running quickly and the car was ready for the first pass of
qualifying. I ran 7.08 on the 7.00 index so that was a big relief.
The second
round of qualifying the car started bouncing real bad and I shut it off early
and still ran a 7.41 @135. The idle rpm was real high after the run and come to
find out it blew a burst panel on that run.
Probably all the bouncing cause a
spike in the boost.
We got it ready for
first round of eliminations and I had to run my good friend Don Dicero.
We had
a fantastic race as we both ran 7.11 and I edged him out by just a small
margin.
We are now 1-1!
Next round I raced
Billy McDevitt and I had a great .005 light and won with a 7.12 to his quicker
7.05 run.
That made me feel good as I did my job. Not bad for an old guy!
After I went through the lights on that run everything was
fine and while coasting to a stop it sounded like I had a rock machine under my
car and I thought my night was over.
The engine would not even turn over so it
looked pretty bad. Come to find out I had sheared all of my torque converter
bolts so there was hope.
It was a thrash as me
and Lisa, Cliff, Greg Underwood, Kenny Fansler and Paul Andrews all worked
feverishly to get it done as I was in the finals and time was running out.
The finals were
uneventful as I red lighted and spun the tires.
I was way too high rpm on the
torque converter and that is why it spun.
The sad part is my opponent Richard
Phillips had trouble down track and was only able to run 8.30 so a mild run
would have sealed the deal but I was going for it because he is a real hitter!
I really am very happy with the results and will take the
runner-up spot.
It was fun with lots of friends at the track and Shantel was
there with the boys.
Bryan was there doing his match race, Tramp vs The Patriot
and they both put on a good show.
It was really cool to hear that Josiah got everyone together
to pray for his Poppy!
What a good boy!
Brooklyn came up to me after the race
and said “Poppy we prayed for you to win!”
That makes my heart soar.
If only
Jade could have been there I would have had all 5 grandkids there but I know she
was rooting me on by Facebook!
Thank-you to my crew, Cliff, Bryan & Paul and to family & friends that both helped and offered their help! (Shantel Aflleje, Kenny Fansler, Gregg Underwood, Jim Novotny, Kevin Aube, Ryan Doyel & Travis Varner.)
And of course, thank-you to those who came out to watch and cheer us on... (LeRoy Hall, Luis Torres & Ariyah, Connie Novotny, Kelly Underwood, Ulrick Lee, Dick Mayer, Stephanie Baker & boys, Jay Linn & girls) you keep us motivated.
What an awesome Racing Family we are blessed with!
Thanks to my great back up girls, (BUGS), Stacey and Kelley. You ladies are the best!
Many thanks to my
wife Lisa for helping me get the car ready.
Thanks to Les Stripe my race
partner as I would not be at this point if not for him.
And to my other race
partner Ron Whitman, thanks buddy!
I hope I am making you proud as you are
looking down on us from the best vantage point of all!
Ron Whitman RIP 2012
Next race, Bakersfield Hot Rod Reunion, October 21-23!
Bryan raced his car at this race and Kelley,
Don and Mark were the crew. Winslow couldn’t make it but as always he helps buy
gas to get to and from the track and I can tell you that is so very much
appreciated. If it wasn’t for our family and with friends like Winslow, Les
Stripe and Ron Whitman I don’t know if we would be running right now. Mark was unable to race because Cliff was
racing his car in Sacramento and is the main crew member for the red altered and Lisa is holding down the Fort with the social media and is working on our website. Look for a Hall Bros Speed Shop site soon!
The race was in Bakersfield at Famoso Raceway.
This is the track that holds the big March Meet and the Hot Rod Reunion. ANRA
(American Nostalgia Racing Association) is an association that has been around
for some time with several owners. It is now run by Butch Headrick and he is
doing a great job. They hold a 4 races series for sportsman racers only. Our
class NE-1 and AGas are the fastest classes at the 7.60 index. The last time
the Hall Bros raced with ANRA was back in 1996 with the old Blue altered.
We drove down Hwy 5 to get to the race track and
crossed over to 99 by going through Wasco and I am so glad we did for two
reasons that I will get to in a minute. The first reason is that hwy 99 is all
jacked up and will ruin a car with all that bouncing. The second reason you
will have to wait a bit. Let’s just call it Jolly treat #1.
We got to the track around 8 pm on Friday
night and the ANRA guys are still there and didn’t close the gate until 9:30!
Now that beats the heck out of the other guys that put on races. You can’t get
in much after 6 pm like everyone can take off multiple days to get to a race! ANRA also tech’d cars in until 9:30…… are you
kidding me! NHRA Heritage needs to take note! No wonder ANRA gets 300 sportsman
cars!
So we get all set up and get our cots ready.
Yes we are sleeping on cots and it was so hot that some of us decided to sleep
outside.
Saturday morning the sun comes up and it is 6
am and it is hot! Not looking forward to this. By the way, on Friday the A/C
decides to give us trouble and we roast on the way to the track.
Saturday morning we get all tech'd in and we
are ready for first round of two qualifying runs. The air is bad but we needed
to see where we were so we ran it with no changes from previous race where it
ran 7.61. The first pass it goes 7.79 which is nowhere close to the 7.60 index.
For the second run we decided to bump the timing from 24 degrees to 30 degrees
and hopefully put it in to the 7.60s somewhere. On the second run it goes 7.79
again! Darn it! The timing did not help the Hemi at all. On Marks BBC timing
makes huge gains but the hemi combustion chamber does not like timing. So there
we sit kind of lost for what to do for first round of eliminations on Sunday.
Side note #1
Kelley heard from Jim that Brooklyn was watching on Live Stream and she was nervous when her mom (Kelley) was out on the track. The announcers normally talk about the "BUGS" (Back up girls) and this announcer said that Kelley was a "BUB" which I have never heard before. "BUB" = (Back up babe!) A trend has begun.
Side note #2
Between round one and round two of qualifying
Mark had to run into town to get a tire pressure gauge as ours was in Bryan's
other race car. We also got some new spark plugs to see where the jetting was.
Our ice chests had already melted the ice so that was on the order also. So
while Mark was in town he gets himself Yummy treat #2. After qualifying on Saturday
night we all decide a ride in the truck with the A/C on would be a good way to
kill time until it cooled down outside. Guess where we went? Yummy treat #3. More
on that later! Yes it is hot! Check out how cool Bryan looks! (aka: "Stone Cold Bryan Hall")
For Sundays eliminations we decide to put a
tune up in that Bryan had run 7.50 with at a previous Bakersfield race when the
air was much better. We also decided to leave it a bit richer and figured that
the bad air and the richer main jet should slow it down to the 7.60s somewhere.
The 7.79 put
us at #15 out of 24 cars and put us against the #3 qualifier who was last races
winner and is leading the points. Just can’t catch a break! Bryan is up for the
challenge and cuts an awesome .009 light to the opponents .020 light so Bryan had
the advantage. The car ran a 7.55 to his 7.56 so we got the loss. Bryan crossed
the finish line first 4’4” ahead of the other guy as the margin was .014
seconds. But since Bryan ran the faster time under the 7.60 index that gave the
win to the opponent.
All in all the car is running great. The
pushrod problem is fixed and this car is poised to doing some winning. We did switch
to Lucas Special 50 oil which has a bunch more ZDDP which is anti-wear additive
Zinc and Prosperous. Most racing oils have 1200 ppm but Lucas has 3200 ppm. Much
better and the oil is the same price as others. We have always been Valvoline
guys but we are now Lucas guys. No wonder they are everywhere!
So where do we go on the way home? Yes we go
for yummy treat #4 and where is this marvelous place and what the heck are they
selling? If any of you have ever cranked an ice cream maker you know what the delicious
taste is. Yes, home-made ice cream! Well we found a little joint called Jolly Cone
and their cones have what tasted exactly like homemade! So if we are going to name
this tour it would be the Jolly Kone tour! If you are ever traveling on Hwy 46 which connects Hwy 5 to 99 and you are in the town of Wasco I suggest you stop in at the Jolly Kone!
Look for the Hall Bros at the Fox Hunt at Sacramento Raceway on Aug 1-2nd.
Bryan will be running AGas and Mark will be running 7.0 Pro.
Yes we did name this race as
something always happens that causes us to laugh and then we name the tour. Let
us just say it was “spectacular”, more on that later. This report is about the March
Meet 2014 in Bakersfield
that the Hall Bros just competed in. Mark and Bryan both took their cars to
compete in Nostalgia Eliminator which runs on a 7.60 index.
This is Mark writing the report. For those
that don’t know, I am the old man with the red 23T blown BBC altered and Bryan
is my son and he has the black 32 Bantam with the blown 392 Hemi.
The March meet all started
last year when we sent in our pre-registration to secure our reserved spaces. I
had faxed them and then called many times and sent e-mails to confirm that they
actually received our forms before the deadline. No responses. Then we get an
e-mail confirmation that says we sent them after the deadline to get reserved
spots. Wrong! So when I called the lady to tell her that we did send them in
time she says“oh yeah, you guys are number 282 and 283 and the asphalt spaces
end at 281”. Right…..good answer. Oh well, we can win from the dirt.
This was a four day race Thus,
Fri, Sat and Sunday. We got there on Wednesday and it took what seemed like two
hours for the guy to find us a spot. I wanted to ask the spotter what happened
to our spaces 282 and 283 but he was a nice guy. We ended up almost at the
ticket booth which actually worked out OK.
Thursday morning we got
teched in and we were ready for the first qualifying round. It was me, Cliff
Hall and Jim Novotny with the red car and it was just Bryan and Don Caldwell
with the Bantam. Jim would need to do double duty with two cars since Bryan was short a crew
member. Jeff Worms was working and could not make it. Bryan recruited Brian Reinaldo but he could
not make it down until Fri morning.
So we headed to the lanes for
the only qualifying run for Thursday. Bryan
ran first and since I was so far back in line I was actually able to be on the
line to see his run. Bryan’s
car ran great and he posted a 7.619 on the 7.60 index which was # 1 at the
time! I was toward the end of the 37 cars and since I was so far back in the
lanes Bryan and
Don were able to get back to the line to watch. I ran a 7.609 on the 7.60 index!
This however was not good enough for #1 and I ended up #3 qualifier. Bryan ended up #6 for the
day. This made for a very high spirited night as we went back to our dirt pit.
We were really roughing it as we slept on the floor of our race trailer. That
is the only way we can afford to make these events. If you take a motorhome
they charge an extra 125.00 to camp besides the great fuel mileage with the MH.
We also had to rough it when it came to our dinner as Cliff cooked Tri-tip and
bake potatoes. The racers life is not easy!
On Friday it would be the last qualifying
pass. I went out first and my car drove toward the guardrail and I let off. Bryan’s car did not sound
good and only went 7.80 something. When we got back to the pits after pulling
the valve covers on Bryans
car he had destroyed a couple of pushrods. So apart it came. We even pulled the
heads to make sure one of the valves didn’t hit the piston. Bryan had left his spare pushrods at home so
we needed a plan to get them here. We talked about Lisa and Kelly coming down
but I found out through Kevin Aldridge that Chuck Adams was coming down to
watch his son. They would be there Saturday morning. We also found a bunch of
bad adjusters but found some new rocker arms at the swap that had adjusters.
Problem solved, or so we thought. Brian Reinaldo and Don Caldwell got everything
sorted out so it could go back together. The red car ran over something and was
leaking fuel but nothing that JB weld couldn’t fix. Friday night we had a NE-1
pit party and special thanks go out to the Valencia’s for being a gracious
host. It was a good feast and Cliff Hall made home made ice cream with the hand
crank. It was a hit! Greg and Austin Means liked my apron that I was wearing. I
can’t tell you what kind of apron it is but Austin wanted to take it to school and if he
did CNN “to catch a predator” would have showed up.
Saturday morning we got the pushrods kind of
late and luckily Bryan’s friend Buddy had come down on his Harley and sped out to
meet Chuck at the gas station so we could get the pushrods in time for the
first round of eliminations. Now if you have been reading the previous race
reports you will know that Bryan
has not yet made one round of competition since he has owned the car. This
thing is really making him earn it. The car is deadly consistent but it has
just been mostly small stuff that has kept him out of eliminations.
We get the call and to the
line we go with both cars ready. Bryan runs
first and everyone is nervous and Bryan
wants to get that monkey off his back. Bryan
gets the green and runs 7.619 for the win and his first round win with the car.
This is the start of something good. I am up next and I cut a .001 light but
the car decides to speed up to a 7.55 on the 7.60 index so I wasted the almost
perfect light. Now it is Bryans
turn to carry the Hall Bros banner.
Back in the pits we pull the valve covers and
find a couple of pushrods that have slight damage so Bryan fixes them and we
adjust the valves a little tighter and Bryan says he will keep the burnout RPM
down. Hopefully this will help from beating up the cups.
Saturday evening we get the
call for the second round of eliminations and the bantam is ready. Bryan cuts a good light
(.038) and gets a huge holeshot. He runs a 7.64 and his opponent runs a 7.44
and Bryan beats
him to the finish line! He gets past the second round! This is the first time
that I got to ride down in the tow truck in front of the huge crowd. We were
honking the horn and the crowd was yelling back. They really like the Bantam as
it is the way a nostalgia car should look. It’s like being in the 60s again! This
will make for a real good Saturday night as we rough it with barbecue spare
ribs and Lisa’s macaroni salad!
Sunday we are ready to go.
The pushrods were checked and they look good. Bryan is now in the third round and there are
only 10 cars left. Bryan
runs a 7.62 and he thinks that he reached the finish line first but it was real
close and the other guy gets the win. Bryan
wanted this one back as the reaction time was unlike any light of previous
rounds.
So all in all it was another
spectacular event. Oh yeah, so we named this race the spectacular tour. And
here is the back story. All four days we kept hearing the announcers talking
and when they said anything they would call out the other announcers name like “how
about that Donnie Couch? or what do you think about that Mike English?” So we
started doing that in our pit. How about that Bryan Hall? what do you think
about that Cliff Hall? That was real spectacular Jim Novotny! Real good run Don
Caldwell! So while we were sitting there listening to the announcer’s one of
them put every adjective he could into his description and he said the word
spectacular several times. So Jim said “man that guy got every word in
including spectacular” and we all laughed. That is when we decided to name it
the spectacular tour. Funny how we amuse ourselves!
These are some of the best of
times for me racing. I had many good times growing up racing with my dad and
going to races with my family and this ranks right up there. I couldn’t have
made it to this point without the help of friends and family. Thanks to our
wives, Lisa, Kelley, Jennifer, Connie and Diane for understanding our need for
speed. Thanks to my brother Cliff for always being there. Thanks Jim Novotny, Don
Caldwell and Brian Reinaldo. It is fun racing with you all. Bryan wants to send out a special thanks to
Winslow Headrick for helping him with the gas bill. Believe me it helps! I want to thank Les Stripe for
helping me the past 40 years when it comes to many things including racing. I
finally got his name on the side of my car. I have been wanting to do that
forever but just never got around to it. Racers are that way. Finally there is
a Les Stripe, #LES on the side of the car that could be seen on the bangshift
live feed. The #Les has a special insider meaning between Les and Lisa.
Next race is the Fremont
Nostalgia Reunion which is actually in Sacramento.
The race is on April 5 & 6. Come on out and watch the Hall Bros altereds if
you get a chance!
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