May 18, 2012 - Super Pro Trophy Runner-up! The car ran perfect all night.

I won two rounds and lost in the final on a break-out, 9.11 on a 9.14, slowing down, pass (.004 RT)!

It was my first time behind the wheel since Father's Day of 2011. Wow! it felt sooooooo good! Kevin was at his son's high school graduation.

Silas, Jr., driving his Nova, won Super-Pro Money tonight! Congratulations Jr.!

I had removed the BG 1090 carb. and installed the Holley 1150 earlier today. Everything else was just as it was for Nitro Jam. The BG had been giving some trouble while decelerating, which had nothing to do with how the car ran during a pass. I will try to find out what that problem is and correct it.

May 17, 2012 - Not much going on. Waiting on parts for the truck. Kevin and I attended the Shiloh M. B. C. Spring Revival last Friday night. A good time was had by all!

Little Barbara (Mrs. Barbara Morris) is expecting any day now and we are all on "Baby Watch". We know it's a boy. They have decided to name him, Marquail Moris, Jr. and they have already decided on a nickname, "Trey". These young people...

I have been real busy with my church obligations on the Trustee Board. Between the Fellowship Hall, the sound system, and the Fire Marshall's list of things we must do, I have been real busy.

I hope to get some time trials in this weekend, either Friday night or Saturday during the SCR bracket race. I have not decided if I will run in eliminations.

Here are some of the Nitro Jam Photos that Barbara and I took during the race.

May 13, 2012 - Happy Mother's Day to all mothers of the world!

Congratulations to Mrs. Barbara S. Holbert. She was selected as the "Mother of the Year" at our church today! They gave her a plaque, flowers, $$$ along with many cards and well wishes. I even got a chance to say how much I love my wife and what a good mother she is! All of which is true. Barbara deserve all the honors that can be bestowed on her. Congratulations Barbara!

It's good to be back. Losing my computer, and access to update the web site has been tough.

I read an article a few months ago that said, "It's not a matter of if, your hard drive will fail, it's a matter of when, you hard drive will fail". I had a lot of things backed up, but many of the applications were downloaded from the internet or I have to re-install from disk. All of this is costly and very time consuming.

I am only about 1/3 of the way through my recovery. This is worse than purchasing a new computer and moving information over the the new computer.

I entertained the notion of moving to a Mac, but when I talked to the people at the Apple store, I found out that many of my present applications would not run on the Mac OS. I have too many high dollar applications to do that, at this point in my life. Maybe if I was 60 again...

I am still running XP and I will probably have some of that same problems when I upgrade to the newest Windows OS. I want the latest and fastest new desktop within the next few months. I want to get a computer with a Intel Core i7 processor and all the latest bells and whistles.

The car is running excellent! We went through the whole weekend at Nitro Jam, May 4-6 at SCR, and did not experience any problems. We lost in the 1st round and again in the buy-back round. That's the way it goes sometimes. Both Outlaw and me, beat ourselves up for days after the loss, but it all passed after a while. We will try to do better for Father's Day.

Our latest project is to install electronics in Outlaw's truck. We are about 50% done with it. You never know what you will run into when you work behind someone else on a vehicle that has been modified for racing. I think I have spent more time trying to figure out where things go, than running new wiring. I just have to remember one thing: It was running when it came in here! The truck should be ready in a week, with any luck.

During the time the computer was down, the eye doctor gave me a clean bill of health and I have my new glasses. Lines (and walls) are straight again! I should be able to drive (in pleasent weather) again.

I have a few photos from Nitro Jam. When I reload all my photo software applications, I will post them.

April 29, 2012 - Nitro Jam parking will be at the track, starting Thursday, May 3, 2012, at Noon. We do not have to go to the staging area in Erwinville as we have in the past.

My computer is going down for a few days for repair. No updates for a while.

See you at Nitro Jam!

April 28, 2012 - I chickened out and did not take a turn behind the wheel. I decided to let "Outlaw" get all the seat time. We made two time trials, 9.163 & 9.164. We went into the first round of $$ eliminations and made an error in staging and lost. Super Pro Money is run over the 1/8 mile. We ran a 5.796 on a 5.80, so we would not have won anyway. We made one more 1/8 mile time trial and ran 5.784 @ 118 MPH.

We have the car tuned in, now all we have to do is get right on the starting line. Much of the problem is setting the delay in the box. We must get that corrected. Outlaw has been consistently late around the same amount, so that falls on me to get the right numbers in the box.

We were challenged by Jason Adams last night to run in the 1st round of eliminations (after I kind of rattled his chain). We had it all set up and then they gave Jason the bye in the first round. I look forward to running that race in the near future. My old motto is: "You can't be the best if you don't beat the best!"

We are going to skip the test and tune on Sunday and just go to Nitro Jam. I'm looking forward to a good weekend of racing! I would love to see a few local racers in the money and taking home an "Ironman"!

April 26, 2012 - This week has been a lazy week for me. Just waiting on Friday night so we can get some more seat time in to get ready for next weekend and Nitro Jam at State Capitol Raceway.

I hope to get a few rounds behind the wheel. My eyes are almost back to normal and they are well over 100% improved.

The car ran so well last Sunday, we did not do anything to it except check a few nuts and bolts, all the fluids, charge the batteries and clean it up.

April 22, 2012 - Barbara and I loaded up and went to No Problem Raceway Park for the 1st time this year, and I can't remember going down there at all last year with the car. We had a very good time. The ladies on the gate were very nice and the crew in the tower was also. The track staff seemed to be very accommodating and they tried to please everyone. Somewhere, I read that that is not possible...

We saw many of our old (and I do mean OLD) friends from New Orleans and around that area. Those New Orleans racers don't play around when it comes to BIG engines and lots of spray!

We had two time trials and lost in the first round with a little too quick, 9.149 on a 9.15 dial-in, on the brakes! We bought back in and lost when I dialed-in too low. We ran a 9.13 on a 9.11 dial-in. All in all, it was a very good day. Everything worked perfectly (new transmission) and the car ran straight as an arrow on all four runs. Kevin drove all day.

The verdict is still out on the new 1.80 gear. We did no better on 60' times than we did with the 1.76 gear. We are still holding our evaluation until we get back to State Capitol Raceway, on a Saturday race, to make a final judgment.

The Ron Hall Race, to my surprise, had a lot of cars. I thought it would be a bust, especially since they moved it from Sat. to Sunday on short notice, but that did not stop the racers. Eliminations was not much of anything, but the time trials and grudge racing was where it was at. Lots of NT (No Time) cars. This was the 3rd Ron Hall Race. Next year will be even bigger.

April 20, 2012 - The wife went out and celebrated at dinner. The food was good, but the company was better!

Looks like the weather will let us get some racing in this weekend after all. Saturday looks like it will clear up early and Sunday will be an even better day. We have to get some seat time for Nitro Jam in early May.

Kevin and I have been looking at all the parts to put electronics in his truck. He has been bitten by the Delay Box Bug! We will duplicate most of the stuff in my car, except the Throttle Stop Controller functions. Since his box will be at least 10 years improved over mine, his box will have some new features that I wish I had. The most significant of which is, back lighted key pad and screen. He is going with the CO2 shifter setup. We should be ready for Father's Day.

Late Sunday - April 15, 2012 - Lacey stopped by to watch the Z-Max 4-Wide NHRA race up in North Carolina. Kevin called just after Lacey arrived to say he was on his way over to install the transmission. By 7:45pm, before the re-broadcast of the race was over, we were ready to put the transmission fluid into the transmission. Everything went in without a problem. We will start the engine in the morning.

April 15, 2012 - I picked up the transmission Friday. All I need now is Kevin to come and reinstall it. Keith Hunter (Powertrain Specialties) did a very good job of getting the parts and overhauling it so quickly. He said the same thing, and so did Mr. Van Johnson, that this planetary had served it's time and was ready to be laid to rest.

Reggie, Justin & Ronnie Jr. went to State Capitol Raceway and took part in the Nostalgia Car Show, Saturday, April 14, 2012. They took the dragster and shot some nice photos. Reggie made three passes, all in the very low 8 second range. Looks like they had some very nice cars out there. All of the Photos were taken by Ronnie Jr.

April 12, 2012 - I am getting a new 1.80:1 straight cut planetary and some other new stuff in my transmission. The old one was a 1.76 helical cut unit. Rest it's soul, it lasted for over 10 years!

That new gear set should improve my 60 ft. times a little.

I should be back in business this weekend and we should be ready for the Big Dawg Shootout at No Problem on April 21st.

April 8, 2012 - I hope everyone had a very nice Easter.

We started out this Friday night at State Capitol Raceway with a very good run off the trailer of 9.12 @ 145 MPH, which was an excellent run for us, especially on a Friday evening.

After that run, we had some problems that we thought was electrical in nature but much later we found out that our transmission was on the way out. The problem was intermittent and when it would fix itself, it seemed as though what we had done while troubleshooting had fixed the problem.

The second pass was even better, 9.06 @ 146 MPH, with a 1.298 sixty ft. time. When it came time for eliminations, the car would not move. We checked several things and provided another electrical source for the delay box to power the trans-brake. That seemed to fix the problem. We put the car in the trailer and thought we were ready for the Saturday race.

State Capitol Raceway is running only 1/8 mile for, Super Pro, Top Doorslammer and Quick-16 classes this year. All other classed run the quarter-mile.

The first time trial, on Saturday afternoon, did not show any problem (5.77 @ 119 MPH) until we got back to the pits.The car would not back up. We have a "pro" brake, so we have to push the T/B button to go into reverse. Again we thought the problem was electrical. After about a half hour of troubleshooting, we were OK again.

At this point, we thought it was a problem with the T/B solenoid.

We went up to make another pass. The car left the line and immediately, the transmission let the engine rev. way up and Kevin pulled off to the side just after the 60 ft. beams. After the car was stopped, we determined we had not put any oil on the track. We were able to start the engine and drive the car back to the pits.

From that point, about 3:00 pm, we loaded the car and took it home. Kevin removed the transmission by 5:30 pm and we transported it back to the track and dropped it off to be repaired, along with the converter. The converter, which seemed to be OK, will need to be flushed or maybe cut open and inspected.

Kevin did all the work to remove the transmission and open it up for inspection. All in less than two and one-half hours! Thanks "Outlaw".

I build and tune engines and freshen up carburetors, but transmissions are not my thing.

April 5, 2012 - Kevin came over and we had a discussion about getting his truck outfitted with electronics. He has the bug! We are getting updated versions of everything I have in my car for his truck. Everything will be Biondo (Digital Delay). He is even getting the quick acting microswitch Trans-brake button.

I finished cleaning and polishing everything on the car today. It is waxed, gassed up, batteries charged and ready to go into the trailer for Friday night. We will get some seat time on Friday night and be ready for competition on Saturday.

The weather is suppose to be real good, with low humidity and temps. in the very low 80's, for this weekend. The cars should fly!

We will be in Super Pro for the Saturday race. I decided to give up on Top Doorslammer. Making ourselves eligible, and accumulating points, for the Summit Super Series might make more sense.

April 2, 2012 - After further review... I found the BG King Demon Carburetor comes with two secondary throttle links. One for "Progressive" and the other for "One-to-one" secondary opening. There are also two holes in the actuator. One for use with the progressive link (upper) and the other (lower) hole is for the one-to-one link.

I can thank Kevin for showing me that bit of information. We can all learn something new every day, from anyone!

April 1, 2012 - Happy Birthday Jeremy!

Kevin and I took the car to State Capitol Raceway Friday night. We make two passes before encountering a flat slick. We picked up a wood screw in the right rear slick.

Before the flat, we had a lot of problems with my throttle cable and could not get the butterflies to go all the way open.  Seems it has been that way for a while. We tried, but could not get it right at the track (in the dark).   

On the first time trial, it ran 9.24 @ 144 MPH.  On the 2nd pass, it ran 9.14 @ 144 MPH.  Both of these passes did not have full throttle due to the cable problem.

One bight spot on Friday night, the new Trans-brake button (microswitch) worked perfect. Kevin cut a .006 (green) on the first time trial. I tried to get him to put in a little more time for the 2nd pass, but he wanted to leave everything the same. It was dark by the time we made the 2nd pass and he cut a -.008 (red)! I would have put .020 in the box and we would have cut a .012 (green). Anyway, the new button works well.  

After getting the flat taken care of early Saturday morning, with the help of Lacey and Barbara, I started working on the throttle cable problem. Kevin had made a new return spring location at the track, which is working well but did not solve the problem.

The cable problem seems to be a combination of cable adjustment and rear butterfly adjustment on the carburetor itself. The BG 1090 has progressive secondaries and it was real time consuming to get everything coordinated to go all the way open and come back down to the correct idle speed. After a couple of hours, a broken connecting bar, and many trial an error fittings, I finally got it right.

My engine is probably happy. That rear butterfly is really sensitive. One time I activated my Hi setting on the MSD, at 8500 RPM, on start-up! So, if the engine expires in the near future, we will all know why...

I looked at the Density Altitude last Friday night, the air was real bad. About 5 times worse than earlier in the month when we ran. We were only off .15 sec. in the 1/4 mile and .10 sec. in the 1/8 mile. With the proper carburetor adjustments, we should run quicker and hopefully a little more MPH.