What is MoparStyle Racing?
MoparStyle Racing, Ltd. is a Texas Limited Partnership owned by semi-retired businessman and entrepreneur, Dave 'Old Hippie' Schultz. After decades of the 6AM to 11PM grind as a corporate executive (and later an owner of quite a few businesses), Dave sold his businesses and decided to spend his time and energy with his family, and doing the things that most interested him.
Cars, Motorcycles, Drag Racing, and the Internet are Dave's main interests.
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Dave as a Corporate 'Mover & Shaker'
During his days of the corporate grind
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Dave as Drag Racer & Web Designer
Into Semi-retirement, Dave lives his life with a different set of rules.
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MoparStyle Racing is a Web Designer: MoparStyle Racing is a web designer that likes to specialize in web sites dealing with collectible cars and auto racing. Dave has certainly done sites for other types of businesses, but cars and racing are the most fun. Click the Web Sites link for more details.
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MoparStyle Racing is Sunoco Race Gas Dealer: We are an authorized Sunoco Race Gas Dealer located on the West Side of Houston — in the Katy/Richmond/Rosenberg area. Click the Race Fuel link to learn more.
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MoparStyle Racing is a Drag Racing Team: We own and race cars in the Nostalgia Super Stock and Nostalgia Muscle car classes of the NMCA. Click the Racing link for more details — or follow our team blog below.
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MoparStyle Racing is operates the Mopar Internet Community MoparStyle: The Best Damn Internet Community on the Internet. Clicking the MoparStyle link will fill you in on that.
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MoparStyle Racing is the owner of the Registrar and Web Hosting Company Southern Star Hosting: Register a new or transfer your existing Domain names, secure inexpensive and dependable web hosting, fax by eMail, Web Site Tonight, Virtual Servers, Dedicated Servers, photo albums, and a lot more. Click the Hosting/Domains link to learn more.
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MoparStyle Racing is an Internet Registrar/Hosting broker: For less than $200 a year, you can own a business selling Domain Registration, web hosting, fax by email, Virtual Servers, Dedicated Servers, SSL Certificates, eCommerce stores, photo albums and a variety of other Internet Products and services. Not this is not too good to be true — just a rare open window of Opportunity. Are you interested in coming through it? Click the Make$$ for more information.
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MoparStyle Racing is a T-Shirt and unique gift designer: Check it out or Gift Shop by Clicking Here.
That's a quick summary of what we're about. click on the links for more specific details. Take your time as browsing is welcomed here.
Announcing B5 Blue Challenger Skin
Today a created a new MoparStyle Viewing Skin, and some merchandise to go along with it, with the new (and soon to be Super Rare) B5 Blue Challenger. Below is a screen print of what it looks like on my screen. It is currently the new default viewing skin — but feel free to go into your User CP, or use the skin changer at the bottom of each page, to change to any of the others available.
Creating these new skins is not an exact science because the Portal, Forum, and Classified ads applications were all written by different people — and with different conventions. If you should find something wrong, like Invisible text (text and background being the same color) — please post the problem here with enough detail for me to figure out where the problem is - and I'll quickly fix it.
I also spent a lot of time creating a high resolution image large enough to look great on T-Shirts, mouse pads, drink coasters, coffee mugs, travel mugs, posters, baby clothes, sweat shirts, garage clocks, and travel pillows for the car/truck. These items are sold through the MoparStyle Gift Shop at Cafe Press. Shirts come as large as 4XLfor us full figure people.The gift shop serves two purposes. The first is to promote the community — as the more the merrier. A coffee mug at work (even as a pencil cup), clock/wall calendar in the garage or trailer, or a T-shirt at car shows is some of the best promotion the site gets. The other reason is for me to try to recoup some of the money I spend and lose maintaining this site. I mark up these item a mere $3 each — and average less than $3 a month (yup — less than one item a month sold currently) to help pay the server, bandwidth, software license, and a monitoring service who keeps the server 1 step ahead of the hackers — and watches my back when I'm off racing.I'm not asking anyone to buy junk — but to take a look at what I have in there — and IF you like — consider making a purchase. T-Shirts start as low as $11.99 — and ship to anywhere in the world. I quietly pay the bills (with the help of the few who make a donation and receive Premium benefit) of this site, and will always quietly do so — but selling a couple of nice T-Shirts (Hell you have to wear a shirt anyway — and you generally spend more than $11) for the $3 would sure take a little sting out.Below are just a few examples:
A Lot Happening At MoparStyle in May
New B5 Blue Challenger Look and Feel. I think it is the best of the view styles yet — but you still have 15 others to choose from.
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vBulletin (Forum Software) was upgraded from 3.7.4 to 3.8.2. MoparStyle started using vBulletin in January 2002 — when it was the new version 1.0.1. About every couple of weeks they have to release a new update to keep ahead of the hackers. I've been catching up about once a quarter, as it is a royal PITA to also test and upgrade all of the non-vBulletin features I've written into the application. vBulletin is real big into Social Groups now. If you play around with MySpace or Facebook — those are Social Groups. vBulletin allows people to have private Social Groups and invite their friends to participate. These Social Groups (Secret Societies) operate in the background and out of the public view. If you think you'd like to create a social group at MoparStyle.com — but need more information — click here for vBulletin's explanation and instructions.
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Free Classified Ad Web Sitewas also upgraded. I do this about once a year because the people that write it don't document it well. I've had more problems upgrading that application than any of the others. While the Classified Ad application and the forum application have been written by two different companies — I have them both modified to use the vBulletin membership database — so that you can move between the forum and the free classified ad web site on the same log in. They also share the same look and feel — regardless of the view style you use. The new application allows for six photos, instead of four, to be uploaded with the ad. There is also a little change in the ad display, which most won't notice. A nice feature of the ad is that you can sell multiple of the same items and have it automatically take Paypal on the Buy it Now, and stop when you've sold out the quantity you had set. For instance — I came across a box of 50 MoparStyle key rings that I had made up in 2002. I placed them in an ad for $5 each, free shipping, set the quantity to 50, and allowed for them to be purchased through PayPal. Each morning I printout my PayPal shipping slips and send off the key rings. This is perfect for merchants selling Mopar stuff — and they are encouraged to sell their promotional stuff as well as individual members sell stuff collecting in their garage. There were 89 new ads placed in the last 7 days. The Free Classified ad site is a great place to buy and sell Mopar stuff.
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Portal was upgraded. I also do this about once a year. Few of the members appear to check out the Portal on a regular basis, and that's a shame — but most of the visitors enter the site through the Portal. I intend to spend more time posting Mopar News on the Portal — and dressing it up a little.
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MoparWiki. The most important news is the integration of the MoparWiki into the MoparStyle web site. The MoparWiki uses the exact same application used by the famous Wikipedia, but after 6 months of trying — I finally figured out how to get it to use the MoparStyle user database — so that members can add wiki pages on Mopar topics. The goal is to have a wiki page for every model of Mopar, every important Mopar person, Mopar Reference Data, Mopar Technical papers, Mopar Dream Cars, Famous Mopar Race Cars — in a nutshell — a few years down the road I'd like to see the MoparWiki to have developed into the Internet's largest Informationbase on all things Mopar, in an organized group of categories, sharing a consistent format.
For those of you who don't know what a wiki is:A wiki is a website that uses wiki software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked (often databased) Web pages, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis. Wikis are used in business to provide intranet and knowledge management systems.
"Wiki" (English pronunciation: /wiːkiː/) is a Hawaiian word for "fast". "Wiki" can be expanded as "What I Know Is," but this is a backronym.
The MoparWiki is a Mopar encyclopedia written collaboratively by many of its readers. It is a special type of website, called a wiki, that makes collaboration easy. Many people are constantly improving MoparWiki, making thousands of changes, all of which are recorded in article histories and recent changes. How can I help? Don't be afraid to edit — anyone can edit almost any page, and we encourage you to be bold! Find something that can be improved and make it better - for example, spelling, grammar, rewriting for readability and removing unconstructive edits. If you wish to add new facts, please provide references, so they may be verified, or suggest them on the article's discussion page first.
Remember - you can't break MoparWiki, all edits can be reversed, fixed or improved later. So go ahead, edit an article and help make MoparWiki the best information source regarding Mopar topics on the Internet! So basically a wiki page gets started on a Mopar topic by having another wiki page feel that it is important enough to have a page created on it. From there (any and all) members add bit's and pieces to to complete the puzzle — ensuring that they are using facts — not old memory guesses — after all the information needs to be accurate to be trusted. Others come in and help fix spelling and grammar (although it sure would be nice if contributors would run their paragraphs through Word's spell/Grammar check first), fix format violations, and correct errors. Each topic has a discussion tab association to it — where disputes on various conflicting "facts" are discussed and hammered out. The Wiki has a group of volunteers called Sysops, who are most familiar with the operation and goals of the MoparWiki — and they rule on disputes, or roll back bad information to the previous state. It is somewhat of a long process, which first requires the more bold leaders to immediately participate — before the less helpful followers feel it is worthy of their participation.
There are two major benefits to having a MoparWiki. The first is to create a historical encyclopedia of information. People can learn about famous people like Big Daddy Don Garlits, Walter P. Chrysler, Ronnie Sox, Richard Petty, Virgil Exner, or Mr. Norm Krause. They can learn about Dream Cars like the Daroo or the Thunderbolt; or facts on production cars like the Airflows, or the Desoto Adventurer. Tech papers on using F/J/M front disc brakes to swap onto an A-body; introduction to drag racing — first time at the track; or swap in a 8.875" rear-end. Learn what Vendors like Indy, Keisler, and Laytons specialize at. Reference charts on things like engine head castings, or the various 50s Hemis. The information that can be contained in a seasoned MoparWiki is endless.
In addition to the help, facts, and interesting reading — the benefit to MoparStyle is the shear number of Mopar people who had never heard of MoparStyle drawn to it from their Internet searches getting great hits in our MoparWiki. The more people who visit — the more people who register. The more people who register — the more people who participate. The more people who participate — the more technical and racing threads we'll have. The MoparWiki can be the biggest boon for MoparStyle ever — if just a few of the leaders will roll up their sleeves and be the ones to show the followers that this is a good deal. From the best of this group of leaders — I'll need to select about a half dozen sysops to spend a couple of hours a week reviewing the additions made — and helping to keep the information accurate (through the discussion page on the topic) and format followed.
To make it easy to have a format that creates and index, and for things like bulleted lists, the wiki application has its own Markup language — similar to BB-Code in the forums. This is not a complicated computer programmer language — but a very simple way to learn to format wiki pages to look professional. Having a couple of Cheat Sheets open at first — will soon have you memorizing these simple format items. The Help in the wiki if very robust. A few examples of a MoparWiki topic, which have been started — but are never really completed, are below:
If you are a registered member of MoparStyle — you have to do nothing else to get started — you are already registered to edit wiki topics. BUT FIRST — for a little practice on the formatting, why not use your member page to get a handle on editing. Each member has a page at the MoparWiki. Click your handle at the extreme left of the navbar at the top of any wiki page — and you will be taken to it. Open a tab or two with the formatting cheat sheets from wiki's Help link — and create a page telling the world about yourself. It makes for good practice. I whipped up a quick and dirty member page on myself in about 30 minutes — not knowing anything about this software, but to get a feel on how to do things. If a dumbass like I can do it — anyone can.
Please Participate. The world is full of know it alls that do nothing to help out — but only criticize the work of others. Real leaders ignore people like them and do something to help themselves and others. If everyone spent just one hour a week in the MoparWiki, editing the areas that interest them — we'd be the biggest Mopar Informationbase in a year — or even less. Be a doer — and not an apathetic naysayer. Participate in something worthwhile — like this MoparWiki. www.moparstyle.com/wiki
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NavBar - I made changes to the NavBar to make it easier to navigate this and a few other sites. In the top NavBar — all of the links are categories with drop-down menus. In the MoparStyle category, the links will take you to the Portal, Forums, Free Classified Ads, Wiki, and the gift Shop.
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Near Future – I've got a lot planned for the near future. The return of the Photo Album Application, getting the look and feel of the wiki to match the rest of the site, an automatic reward system that honors the members who participate the most — using criteria like threads started which become hot, threads replied to, thanks, and other participation factors. I plan to clean up the Portal, find some old history and tech papers — and get them in the wiki, and try to find sysops (high level moderators) from those participating at a high level in the MoparWiki.
MoparStyle Racing is an Authorized Sunoco Race Fuel Dealer
South and West of Houston, Texas
Katy, Sealy, Columbus, Richmond, Rosenberg, West Houston, Sugarland, Stafford, Hempstead, Waller, Brookshire, Simonton, Fulshear, Damon, Pleak…
Call for your Sunoco Race Gas Needs - Price List
Leaded & Unleaded Race Fuels
NMCA in Bowling Green
We loaded up the stacker and the motor coach last week and left Wednesday for the 1000 mile trip to Bowling Green. We arrived there Thursday noon and set up the pits.
Thursday night and Friday morning it rained, and we took the cars to tech in while it was only sprinkling. We were the second and third cars to tech in. We immediately put the cars back in the trailer and wiped down. At about 3PM, they had the first part of the track dry — so the opened it up for 1/8 mile Time Trials — hoping the exhaust and hot tires would dry the top end enough to start qualifying at 5PM. The top of the track was seeping — and so they kept with the 1/8 mile until about 6PM — when everyone was warned that a major storm was coming in — and the track was closing at 6PM to batten down the hatches. We personally passed on making any of these 1/8 mile passes.
It rained like Hell all Friday night and was sprinkling Saturday morning. The weather forecast was for rain through Sunday — and I was expecting the NMCA to hold the race over to Monday. I rode the scooter up to the line at 10AM — and there wasn't a NMCA official to be found. No doubt they would have been pummeled with questions they didn't yet have answers for, so they hung out in Race Control. There was a rumor by someone who is a pretty good friend of the track owner — that Charlie was waiting until noon to see if the forecast would change — and would announce if they'd run, cancel, or reschedule. At 11:30, it was announced over the speakers that the race would be rescheduled. A couple of us NSS guys snickered that it wouldn't be rescheduled — but if they announce it was cancelled, there'd be a run on people getting refunds, which the NMCA didn't want to deal with at the moment.
We pulled out of the track and noon — and drove the 1000 miles arriving home at 3:30AM
We were notified by NMCA that the race will not be rescheduled.
Mopars At Motorplex Report
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There's a Mopar club from the Fort Worth area called Cowtown Mopars, which has an event at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, TX, called "Mopars at Motorplex". The event this year was to be held on April 18th — but that was rained out and the rainout date was April 19th.
The week prior I ran the Big Red Ram in Florida, and the week after I would need to run it in Bowling Green, KY. The morning after this race, my wife and I were getting on a plane for a week in the Bahamas to celebrate our 30th anniversary. I didn't want to chance breaking Big Red Ram on a non-points race and not having the time to repair — so this was a time to try out my recently completed backup car, Texas Black Magic.
Texas Black Magic was my car while Big Red Ram was being built — but I windowed the motor in it about three years ago. The motor that I use to run in Big Red Ram was pulled and rebuilt as a 580CI, and put into this black car. Other differences are that this car is an automatic vs. 4-speed, a 4-link vs. ladder bar, and runs 33" slicks vs. 31" on the red car.
The car had no test time — and the race was the actual first time out in three years. In Tech — it was leaking water. Back in the pits we found it to be a gasket between the water pump, block, and elephant ears. I missed the first T&T fixing that — with the help of Damon, Cruise, Slim, and Dallas.
In the second (which was the last) T&T, the car launched great — but broke up at about 6800. To make things worse — it had been three years since I had raced an automatic — and I yanked the shifter hard like a 4-speed and skipped 2nd gear. Worse yet, it is an automatic reaction of a 4-speed racer to kick the shifter up into neutral when he crosses the line. That same reaction will get you second gear in an automatic — for a brief second, which thankfully didn't appear to hurt the car. I passed the shack to get my time slip — and was told that I was leaking oil at the line. I did a 10.1 @ 139mph missing 2nd gear.
Back in the pits I'm cleaning up all of the oil under the car and tightening bolts and fittings — and had to miss my first of two qualifying passes. I decided with the car breaking up — to put an A/NSS on the window — for a 10.0. I make the second qualifying pass — and did a 10.1 with steam coming through the hood. It turns out that all of the hands helping me with the water pump gasket, the one in charge of the top hose never tightened the clamp. The hose blew off and the water blew out. Back in the pits I'm looking for clean water and slowing adding it back into my hot engine. I'm also finding that my 4-year old batteries are weak and not holding a charge well. I'm putting a charger on between rounds — but the car is still cranking slow.
Getting the worst qualifying number in my only pass gets me running the Top Qualifier in the first round of Eliminations. I beat him on the tree for the win — but when I get the car back to the pits — I'm leaking oil again. I get that all cleaned up and we find it is between the oil pump and the block — no way to fix it at the track. Since I was running the Top Qualifier in the first round and won — I drew a Bye in the second round because of an odd number. Because of the car being so sick — I didn't do a burn out or run the car hard — but just drove it down the track.
In the Semis I was going against a much slower car, and he cut a near perfect light while I waited for mine. The car was just too sick to run him down — and so I got third place.
NMCA Bradenton 2009 Report
My wife, youngest daughter, crew chief/shop rat, and I left at 6AM on Wednesday for the 1100+ mile trek to Bradenton, Fl. I managed to sneak my 84' rig through the Florida Port Authority without an oversize license and had many a stressful pass of a Florida DOT cop sitting in the median looking for truck violations. My son (Dallas) no longer races with me — and so I had to do all of the driving. I stopped at a Flying J in Tallahassee and spent the night.
On Thursday morning I took on 200 gals of diesel, dumped the waste tanks, and on to Bradenton. We got there at around 1PM parked the rig next to Skip Koester and Kurt Neighbor — and set up in the sand pits.
Friday we teched in the cars and made our first T&T pass. My car had a lot of changes done to it over the winter — and we'd not had one opportunity to T&T it. On the first T&T pass the car turned hard left and started to break up between 5000-5500 RPM. Back in the pits we checked under the valve covers and all looked well. I put it on a hard surface (all pits are sand) and rev'd the motor and it broke up at 5400 — which happened to be where my launch chip (I'm a 4-speed) was set. I turned the chip up to 6800 and the motor broke up there. OK — obvious the MSD box was stuck in the launch stage. Further diagnosis showed the the line-lock button was wired wrong when the transmission/shifter was swapped. That was fixed and we focused on the Aspen Preston was running in NMC.
Prston goes out and makes his pass and never returns to the pits. I get on the scooter and he's at the top of the track. He says that the oil pressure was fluxuating and now the car won't start. I get Skip to help tow him back and we start looking at what was wrong. The no start is because the neutral safety wire wasn't put on tight enough when Preston swapped in the new motor. The lack of oil pressure is explained as being "great" pressure and then the gauge drops to 0 fast then back up to "great" — all in less than a second. Damon and I feel like it must be a sender on the electronic gauge — because nothing bounces to 70+PSI to 0 and back in less than a second if a true oil pressure problem. Preston goes back out a again and make another pass. He comes back and says the same — and that is when we asked to define "great" oil pressure. He says it never got higher than 30 PSI. Far from "Great"! So I have him put the car on jack stands, pull the oil filter, and cut it open. Sure enough — gold flecks from the new crank bearings. The car goes in the trailer and he's done. Dallas pulled the motor apart yesterday — and it is trashed on the three passes with the great 30PSI oil pressure.
Back o my car, I make a second T&T pass and do a 10.5 slip sliding all over the track. I make a third pass and the car hooks — and I get a 9.56 pass — lifting a little. I'd declared B/FX — which is 9.5. My new Crew chief counts the number of clicks for my brand new Double Action QA1 shocks — and tells me there is something wrong when he's exceeded 50 clicks. Yes, it is true, he went fifty clicks on my left shock before mentioning that something was wrong. Great — the adjustor of the shock is now busted in the high position and the shock doesn't have a stop at either end. We put the car away for the night.
Saturdy is Qualifying Day. There is a terrible wind that shifts from head to cross wind — and to make it worse there is a farmer at the end of the track plowing the field so that there's a sand storm — complete with mini-dunes starting to form at the very top. It is obvious that the track and the farmer must be at war for this to coincidentally being plow day.
My first pass has me spinning the wheels badly for a 10.2 pass in a 14MPH head wind. Everyone appeared to be slow in the first pass as the weather stations said the air was 3000'. My next pass is a 9.68 into a 28MPH head wind. For the third pass, sand from the plowing is collecting at the top of the track, there's a bad headwind, and while we're in line they decide that this is the perfect time to run the jet car. After the Jet car fogs the lanes with unburnt JP4 and blows the sand everywhere — there are immediately two wrecks in the class running just before us. Many NSS drivers pull out of line and decide not to make their Third Qualifying pass. Kurt Neighbor, Skip Koester, Barry Camp, and two other cars pull out before me. Of those remaining — a couple (Doug Duell & Double O Joe) say they were going to make an 1/8 mile pass because they were still working out issues — and use the first pull off. I don't know who pulled out after me. We put the car away for the night.
Sunday orning is raining bad. It stops at around noon and they start to dry off the track. The first car goes down the green track at 3:30PM. I believe it was about 5PM when the 18 NSS cars started to run — and I drew Kurt Neighbor — both B/FX cars. I had a .062 light and saw the red bulb in Kurt's lane as I went by. We both aired the cars out to where I did a 9.4 and Kurt and 9.2. First round to me.
The secod round I went against the Black Horse Thunderbolt (A/FX). I left first with a .032 light and the Dark horse car caught me at the top and paced me. I decided I needed to put a fender on him and did. I got a 9.52 and he broke out with a 9.22. Second Round to me.
I got a be in the Next round. I wanted the left lane — but just before the five NMC cars that ran before us — it was time to fog the track with the Jet Car. We sat in the staging lanes while our cars filled up with jet fumes in the prerace burn. Thanx NMCA! I was going to take the right lane (I'd been put into it the first two rounds by the better qualify cars) but the jet car ran there — so I switched to the left. My low 1.3 60's turned into a 1.64 60' (a record worse for my car) and I ran a slip-sliding 10.5 on my 9.5.
The hot laped Semi's had me against the Princess, and Skip against Doug Duell. The track was still greasy and my car wouldn't hook — I went from close to the wall to close to the center all of the way down — hoping to get Stephie to break out (she'd had two 9.99s and a 9.96 on the brakes for the previous three rounds) — but she too was having problems. Even with her .320 light and 10.5 on a 10.0 pass — she had a better package than my 10.5 on a 9.5. I'm going to take some of the blame as I didn't have enough RPM when I launched — but the track was like an ice skating rink for a ladder bar 4-speed.
Skip's Wife Washed His Helmet In Hot Water The Night Before
So at 9:30P my night was over. I collected my $200, packed up and left. There was another bad accident after my pass, and Skip won the event over the Princess. I was whipped and only made it 135 miles the first night and 1000 miles the next day. Got home 9:30PM Monday night.
2009 Nostalgia Super Stock Wall Calendar
The small proceeds from this calendar sale goes towards the expenses of operating the NSS web site www.NSS-Monster.com — which is a site promoting NSS Drag Racing. This calendar is put together with Hi-Res photographs printed on calendar weight gloss paper.
Product Information
Keeping track of important dates on your calendar is easy when you can view 12 months of inspiring images that reflect your personal interests. Our high-quality calendar is printed on thick 100lb cover weight paper and adds impact to any room.
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Each page measures 11" x 8.5"
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Measures 11" x 17" when hung on wall
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Full bleed dynamic color
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100 lb cover weight high gloss paper, wire-o bound
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January 2009 - December 2009, 2010 preview, US holidays marked
100% Money Back Guarantee
Shop from home with the comfort of knowing that your order is backed by a 100% Money Back Guarantee. This 30-Day Guarantee gives you plenty of time to check items for color, and high-quality for yourself, family and friends. If for any reason you need to return or exchange an item, just contact our Customer Service department and you are done!
Click here to view the "What you see is what you get" calendar pages, and click here for ordering information.
The below are the lo-res thumbnails of the photos used.
Also available are previous years calendars, which have been updated for the 2009 calendar year. Click the below thumbnails for detailed images and ordering information.
Mopar Fans also have a couple of calendars to select from. Click the below images for images and ordering information. Volume Two being water color versions of the same photos in Volume 1.
Finally, there is one more calendar due out by the end of the year featuring cars of MoarStyle members — dependant on a few more Members getting Old Hippie a couple more high Quality/Hi-Res photos.
The Memphis Report
NMCA 2008 Finals - Nostalgia Super Stock
October 13, 2008
Dave 'The Old Hippie" Schultz
Deb, Dallas, Hope and I left Houston Wednesday at 2Pm and pulled into a WalMart parking lot (they let motorhomes spend the night in their parking lots) about 50 miles SW of West Memphis. Got up leisurely late Thursday, showered, stopped to drain the waste tanks, top of with diesel, and arrived at the track at about 10AM. Sat in the Staging Area (about 40 rigs back) until they opened the gates at noon.
We got the pit set up and teched the car in — but passed on making any T&T runs Thursday night. Friday from noon to 3 PM they had TT and we made one pass (9.524@144MPH) to get the cob-webs shook out of the driver (the car usually doesn't need that). Car was fine — but we had to thrash on the rig when the fresh water pump died and 4 people needed showers! One was located across town and Dan Bell gave Dallas a ride to fetch it. At 3PM, NSS made their first qualifying pass — and I broke out with a 9.434. The track was hooking good and it was cooler than I'd thought. We put the car away and the Jack Daniels flowed as we celebrated Dallas' 21st Birthday.
Saturday morning at 10:15, NSS was called up for its second Qualifying pass. We had 24 cars in line. I ripped off a 9.526 @ 145.96mph — which that MPH held up as the fastest (although there was at least one car running A/FX) MPH for NSS. At 5PM (or so) they called up NSS for the last qualifying — and I decided to try to better the 9.52. A 25th car, Terry Lamphier, made it for that round (his first attempt) — assuring the Top Qualifier was going to get a first Round Bye. It was right after the damn Jet car had run — and while they re-prep the first 400' after it — it sure doesn't help us 4-speeds on skinny slicks skating on unburned JP4 jet fuel that gets fogged on the track. My car broke loose on the 2-3 shift and got out of the groove. I was just getting back into the groove for my 3-4 shift — and the rear came around on me again. Despite staying in it the whole time — (and using all of the lane with tires spinning) I did a 9.762 @139MPH on my B/FX index. Later that night, while we were enjoying the gastromac delights of Dan Bell's Paint Stripper Chili (which our families also got to enjoy the aroma of (as will our launderer) for the next 24 or so hours) — the Qualifying order was announced as:
http://www.nmcadigital.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10447
Top Speed 145.96 7601 Dave Schultz
(car #, class, car description, engine displacement, Driver, Home, ET, R/T, over/under)
7270 A/NSS '64 Plym Savoy Jeff Millward Columbia Station OH 10.002 0 0.002
7572 C/NSS '65 Malibu SS Chev 572 Jimmy Ray Atoka Tn 11.003 0 0.003
7596 A/NSS '65 Belvedere Hemi 426 Bob Willsher Monroe LA 10.008 0 0.008
2 B/FX '64 T-Bolt Ford 530 D.W. Hopkins Tupelo MS 9.509 0 0.009
7770 C/FX '62 Bel Aire Chev 409 Barry Camp Monroe GA 9.765 0 0.015
7251 A/FX '65 Chevelle Chev 440 Bill White Demotte In 9.271 0 0.021
7544 A/NSS '63 Galaxie Ford 427 Mark Artis Frisco TX 10.021 0 0.021
7601 B/FX '65 Coronet Mopr 580 Dave Schultz Richmond TX 9.523 0 0.023
7700 C/NSS '65 Coronet Mopr 440 Donnie Wilson Cave City KY 11.024 0 0.024
7600 B/NSS '68 AMX AMC 390 TD Holland Huntington TN 10.525 0 0.025
7777 A/NSS '64 Fury Plym 540 Doug Duell Newburgh IN 10.038 0 0.038
7022 B/NSS '64 Thunderbolt Ford 427 Skip Koester Columbia Station OH 10.546 0 0.046
7036 C/NSS '66 Plymouth Chry 440 Dennis Gorrell Lavergne TN 11.048 0 0.048
7066 B/NSS '66 Biscayne Chev 427 Mike Moss Paducah KY 10.549 0 0.049
7037 B/NSS '64 Plym. Fury Mopar 500 Terry Lamphier Troy TN 10.549 0 0.049
7396 C/NSS '65 Chevelle Chev 396 Richard Morris Collierville TN 11.049 0 0.049
7421 B/NSS '66 GTO Pont 421 Mike Davis Monroe GA 10.565 0 0.065
7018 C/NSS '65 GTO Pont 421 Calvin Hill Lakemoor Il 11.07 0 0.07
7595 F/NSS '63 Ford Galaxie Ford 428 Jack Presgrove Munford TN 12.573 0 0.073
7464 C/FX '64 Chrysler Mop 572 Joe Midize Jr Medino Oh 9.837 0 0.087
7092 C/NSS '65 Chevelle Chev 396 Steve Wilson Collierville Tn 11.135 0 0.135
7015 E/NSS '64 Plym Fury 440 David Colemin Union City TN 12.14 0 0.14
7167 B/NSS '66 GTO Pont 461 Ava Thompson Wendell NC 10.646 0 0.146
7669 A/NSS 64 Fairlane Ford 427 Craig Powell Pflugerulle Tx 10.888 0 0.888
7017 B/NSS '63 Polara Mop 426 Joe Ewing Evansville IN 10.486 0 -0.014 (make a note at who was the 25th Qualifier!)
According to the NMCA Points chart, DW Hopkins was in 3rd, I was 55 ponts behind in 4th, and Skip Koester was 5 points behind me in 5th. I needed to go one round more than DW and not let Skip go one round ahead of me, for me to get 3rd.
Sunday ROUND 1 had me line up against Joe Midize in his 64 C/FX Dodge. I'd had first round red lights at Atlanta and Milan (-.0001 - yes 3 zeros and missed by 1/10,000 second) and was gun shy — so I took a late light, ran down Joe, paced him, and put a fender on him at the finish. Mark Artis turned on the Beer Light against another 63 Ford. Donnie and Steve Wilson had a double breakout — but Donnie by a lesser amount. Mike Davis broke out against Barry Camp’s C/FX 409. Bill White had a 9.249 break out against Cal's 65 GTO. Moss got a Break Bye over Ray. Craig Powell's white Thunderbolt broke out against Skip's white Thunderbolt (damn (lol)). Willshire red lit against Lamphier. DW sprayed parts out of his oil pan at the line against Morris. Double breakout between Duell and Ava — but Ava by a lesser amount. Double-O Joe beat Gorell on the tree with a .007 RT. TD Holland had a Broke Bye and Millward had the Top Qualifier Bye.
ROUND 1
7595 F/NSS 19 Jack Presgrove Munford TN '63 Ford Galaxie Ford 42 0.034 12.5 12.357 109.11
7544 A/NSS 7 Mark Artis Frisco TX '63 Galaxie Ford 427 -0.011 10 9.842 138.8
7700 C/NSS 9 Donnie Wilson Cave City KY '65 Coronet Mopr 440 0.041 11 10.977 122.1
7092 C/NSS 21 Steve Wilson Collierville Tn '65 Chevelle Chev 396 0.043 11 10.967 119.42
7770 C/FX 5 Barry Camp Monroe GA '62 Bel Aire Chev 409 0.036 9.75 9.793 128.1
7421 B/NSS 17 Mike Davis Monroe GA '66 GTO Pont 421 0.127 10.5 10.483 129.82
7018 C/NSS 18 Calvin Hill Lakemoor Il '65 GTO Pont 421 0.251 11 16.327 64.77
7251 A/FX 6 Bill White Demotte In '65 Chevelle Chev 440 0.077 9.25 9.249 144.13
7601 B/FX 8 Dave Schultz Richmond TX '65 Coronet Mopr 580 0.072 9.5 9.54 132.14
7464 C/FX 20 Joe Midize Jr Medino Oh '64 Chrysler Mop 572 0.041 9.75 9.865 135.41
7066 B/NSS 14 Mike Moss Paducah KY '66 Biscayne Chev 427 0.005 10.5 10.48 127.99
7572 C/NSS 2 Jimmy Ray Atoka Tn '65 Malibu SS Chev 572 11
7022 B/NSS 12 Skip Koester Columbia Station OH '64 Thunderbolt Ford 427 0.016 10.5 10.708 112.65
7669 A/NSS 24 Craig Powell Pflugerulle Tx 64 Fairlane Ford 427 -0.099 10 10.877 123.41
7037 B/NSS 15 Terry Lamphier Troy TN '64 Plym. Fury Mopar 500 0.076 10.5 10.43 126.78
7596 A/NSS 3 Bob Willsher Monroe LA '65 Belvedere Hemi 426 -0.12 10 9.892 135.5
7396 C/NSS 16 Richard Morris Collierville TN '65 Chevelle Chev 396 0.095 11 10.982 121.86
2 B/FX 4 D.W. Hopkins Tupelo MS '64 T-Bolt Ford 530 9.5
7167 B/NSS 23 Ava Thompson Wendell NC '66 GTO Pont 461 0.048 10.5 10.492 125.47
7777 A/NSS 11 Doug Duell Newburgh IN '64 Fury Plym 540 0.064 10 9.987 130.75
7017 B/NSS 25 Joe Ewing Evansville IN '63 Polara Mop 426 0.07 10.5 10.672 106.11
7036 C/NSS 13 Dennis Gorrell Lavergne TN '66 Plymouth Chry 440 0.184 11 11.092 122.12
7600 B/NSS 10 TD Holland Huntington TN '68 AMX AMC 390 -0.016 10.5 10.467 128.31
7015 E/NSS 22 David Colemin Union City TN '64 Plym Fury 440 12
7270 A/NSS 1 Jeff Millward Columbia Station OH '64 Plym Savoy 0.054 10 9.971 134.62
SINGLE 0
In ROUND 2 Ava treed Barry and put the yellow Belair on the trailer. Jeff went -.016 Red on me — so I aired my car out for my best ever time slip of 9.38@144. TD Holland put Morris on the trailer. Jack Presgrove came 1/1000 of sending Double 00 home when he broke his 63 Ford out with a 12.499 — allowing Joe to live on to the next round. Wilson red lit against Lamphier. Skip got a Broke Bye when Cal's GTO couldn't make it to the line after having a piston kiss a spark plug and water in the oil (damn again lol). Moss got a Bye.
ROUND 2
7167 B/NSS 23 Ava Thompson Wendell NC '66 GTO Pont 461 0.027 10.5 10.538 124.09
7770 C/FX 5 Barry Camp Monroe GA '62 Bel Aire Chev 409 0.121 9.75 .76 138.13
7601 B/FX 8 Dave Schultz Richmond TX '65 Coronet Mopr 580 0.078 9.5 9.382 144.72
7270 A/NSS 1 Jeff Millward Columbia Station OH '64 Plym Savoy -0.016 10 9.945 134.56
7600 B/NSS 10 TD Holland Huntington TN '68 AMX AMC 390 0.05 10.5 10.516 125.44
7396 C/NSS 16 Richard Morris Collierville TN '65 Chevelle Chev 396 0.074 11 11.017 121.15
7017 B/NSS 25 Joe Ewing Evansville IN '63 Polara Mop 426 0.134 10.5 10.516 119.52
7595 F/NSS 19 Jack Presgrove Munford TN '63 Ford Galaxie Ford 428 0.138 12.5 12.499 104.7
7037 B/NSS 15 Terry Lamphier Troy TN '64 Plym. Fury Mopar 500 0.135 10.5 10.499 126.77
7700 C/NSS 9 Donnie Wilson Cave City KY '65 Coronet Mopr 440 -0.037 11 11.012 120.09
7022 B/NSS 12 Skip Koester Columbia Station OH '64 Thunderbolt Ford 427 0.024 10.5 10.473 129.4
7018 C/NSS 18 Calvin Hill Lakemoor Il '65 GTO Pont 421 11
7066 B/NSS 14 Mike Moss Paducah KY '66 Biscayne Chev 427 0.145 10.5 10.32 127.96
SINGLE 0
In ROUND 3, I red lit against Ava and aired the car out for my best time slip to date. Moss and skip had a Double break out — but Skip by a lesser amount (damn the third time). I believe that gives Skip Koester third Place in the Points, me 4th, and DW Hopkins 5th. Double-O Joe Ewing put TD Holland on the trailer — but Ole TD still comes away with the 2009 Points Championship — Congrats! Lamphier got a Bye.
ROUND 3
7167 B/NSS 23 Ava Thompson Wendell NC '66 GTO Pont 461 0.138 10.5 10.558 118.83
7601 B/FX 8 Dave Schultz Richmond TX '65 Coronet Mopr 580 -0.089 9.5 9.375 145.08
7022 B/NSS 12 Skp Koester Columbia Station OH '64 Thunderbolt Ford 427 0.078 10.5 10.447 128.6
7066 B/NSS 14 Mike Moss Paducah KY '66 Biscayne Chev 427 0.034 10.5 10.325 121.75
7017 B/NSS 25 Joe Ewing Evansville IN '63 Polara Mop 426 0.143 10.5 10.515 124.41
7600 B/NSS 10 TD Holland Huntington TN '68 AMX AMC 390 0.129 10.5 10.553 127.44
7037 B/NSS 15 Terry Lamphier Troy TN '64 Plym. Fury Mopar 500 0.062 10.5 10.509 126.15
SINGLE 0
In ROUND 4 Ava got a Broke Bye when Terry Lamphier couldn't get his car started (Damn my red light!), and Joe put Skip away one round too late for me (again lol).
ROUND 4
7167 B/NSS 23 Ava Thompson Wendell NC '66 GTO Pont 461 0.051 10.5 10.545 124.84
7037 B/NSS 15 Terry Lamphier Troy TN '64 Plym. Fury Mopar 500 10.5
7017 B/NSS 25 Joe Ewing EvansvilleIN '63 Poara Mop 426 0.097 10.5 10.518 123.27
7022 B/NSS 12 Skip Koester Columbia Station OH '64 Thunderbolt Ford 427 0.159 10.5 10.528 123.47
In the FINALS, Double-O's .007 tree gave him the win.
FINALS
7017 B/NSS 25 Joe Ewing Evansville IN '63 Polara Mop 426 0.007 10.5 10.546 122.59
7167 B/NSS 23 Ava Thompson Wendell NC '66 GTO Pont 461 0.01 10.5 10.533 124.9
Congratulations to all. We left the track at about 9PM and got to Houston 14 hours later. This was my first time ever running a series of any type — and I had a blast. I intend to do it again next year — and to do better that 4th place. In the couple years since I started racing — I've moved Big Red Ram from 10.5 to 10.0 2006, to 9.75 in 2007, to 9.50 in 2008 — and now I intend to move up to A/FX in 2009. The car is going to Texas Thunder Wednesday to have Mark Artis perform some upgrading and fine tuning to it — while I go to the hospital to have some fine tuning carving done on my right kidney. I'm hoping a month later we'll both running a little healthier.
As a side note — a little birdie told me that there will be a couple of end of the year NSS rules changes made — one including transmissions. Please check www.nss-monster.com as that's where the rules will be posted hen they get to me for posting. Also remember to check out the NSS Wall Calendars, T-shirts (Sizes to XXXXL for us full-figure guys), and other kool NSS items in the Gift Shop. http://www.cafepress.com/texasbigbird/6039006 & http://www.cafepress.com/texasbigbird/5677660
