Hoping to take advantage of cool fall air I went out to Sacramento Raceway for the Wednesday Night Fun Drags and had a great time. I not only ran a new personal best with STU COOL at 13.51 @ 103.35, I also made it to the final round of eliminations which really surprised me. I did not get many pictures but I have scanned some of my time slips. Traction is still a challenge for me but I am getting better at rolling into the throttle and finding a balance between slight tire spin and going up in smoke. Even though they do not prep the track at all for the Fun Drags I managed a couple 60 foot times of 2.19, but more were in mid to high 2.20s. Sure wish I could drop that by a 10th or two. The first image is a couple of my best time trials, the next is the first two rounds of eliminations. I was up a against a 15 second Mustang in the first round and easily caught him at about 3/4 track and just stayed ahead across the finish, from the way I launched that time I am pretty sure I would have broken out if I had stayed in it so I lowered my dial from 13.52 to 13.5. The second round I was against a quick Corvette that was dialed in at 11.49, I managed to absolutely tattoo the tree with a .0100 reaction time (maybe a bad job of red lighting?) and held him off at the top end for a holeshot win. Semi final was against another Corvette dialed in at 12.25. I had a decent reaction time and ran a 13.51 on a 13.50 dial in to beat his 12.26 on a 12.25 dial. Final round had me against a Camaro dialed in at 14.07. Maybe final round jitters got me as I had a lousy reaction time and compounded it by spinning tires more than I had been. He made a great pass with a .03 reaction time and then ran just .03 over his dial in so he would have been tough to beat. He was a super nice guy and came and gave me the 'Winners Mug" he got for winning while saying his wife has told him not to bring any more of them home, lol. In any case it sure was fun. Talked to a lot of folks about Studebakers and even met one guy who had recently purchased a '54 coupe barn find. Hopefully I have recruited him for the club. Another Chapter member brought his custom 46 pick-up out to run and managed several low 15 second times. He has a 5.3 Chevy motor with a 4L60E trans. He does not have positraction and was having trouble getting hooked up, but he also had a great time. I am attaching the only picture I took of us in the staging lanes with Steve checking tire pressure.
If your local track has fun drags like this I encourage you to get your Stude out for some fun. It is a safe legal way to see how it performs.
If your local track has fun drags like this I encourage you to get your Stude out for some fun. It is a safe legal way to see how it performs.
Attached Files
I know they exist. But, as time is passing the associated cost for the tires, wheels, mounting and balancing seems a lot for an occasional use. If I ever do Drag Week I surely will invest in a set. And, if I find some to borrow I might do that.
Comment