The highlight for the 2001 season was our first event wins, and the Pro-Nitro series championship! We didn’t have much parts breakage, and we ran very consistently. But, we still weren’t running as fast as some other teams, and we knew that the car could go faster.

For the start of the 2002 season we changed our engine combination, and instantly went much faster. We knew that we would be able to run with the fastest cars very soon. The highlight of this season was earning top qualifier and runner up at the ANRA race. But overall it was a costly season. With the additional power we were now making we broke quite a few more parts, and had a lot of down time while waiting for replacement parts to arrive. By August I had decided to sell this car and switch to a contemporary fueler instead. The payouts for nostalgia racing had remained the same, but the cost to compete had escalated tremendously. The VRA kept allowing changes to the cars, this drove the price of competition ever higher. To win an event that paid out $2,500 to win was costing many competitors upwards of $20,000!

These economics just didn’t make sense to me, and so the decision was made. We ran one last race, The California Hot Rod Reunion, and then sold the car to Rick Rogers.

THE BIG CAR ERA BEGINS

To be honest I never thought in my wildest imagination that I would ever be able to compete at the top level of this sport. The costs were too high, and it just seemed like Mount Everest in front of me when I looked at the picture. But, after running the Nostalgia car successfully I felt we had learned enough to do this. I was only sort of right.

I made some calls inquiring about cars for sale, and found that Darrell Gwynn racing had a nice car for sale, and they would sell it for a price that was only slightly more than I had.

We picked the basic car up from them during the world finals of 2002, and they shipped remaining parts to me a few weeks later. This was by far the most complicated “model car kit”, without the instructions, that I had ever tried to assemble. The task was further complicated because not all the parts were there. I had to learn what was missing before I could start assembling it. Bob Brooks at AFT was a huge help in getting me started as well as Mike Cavalieri. By April the car was assembled, and ready to be tested.

Never having dealt with a fuel system nearly as complex as this before, and without ever having used clutch management, fuel system management, or ignition system timers, there were a lot of variables we weren’t sure of. As it turned out the biggest problem was not any of these, but a piece of aluminum that  cost less than 50 cents. I had no throttle stop (the piece of aluminum) and as soon as I touched the throttle to do our first  burn-out the engine zinged to 10,000 RPM, and exploded the supercharger. I learned instantly that I had a lot to learn! I also knew that I was going to need some first rate help.

Bob Brooks put me in touch with legendary crew chief Bill Schultz, who agreed to come on board to help us learn to run this car and tune it for us. Hiring Bill was the best decision I had made since attempting to run this car. He brought so much experience, enthusiasm, and expertise with him, that the amount I paid him was really not enough. I still consider myself very lucky to have him with us.

During the rest of 2003 we took the car out a few of times, and kept having problems with it. The parts are ungodly expensive, and on a teachers salary, I couldn’t take it out too much. We kept getting it to go a little further down the track, but never got it down to the end. By the pro warm-ups of 2004 we felt sure that we could get it all the way to the other end, and compete by the Winternationals.

That didn’t happen. We were plagued by small problems. But there are no “small” problems with a car like this. Virtually any mistake ends up with broken parts and major damage. Our best pass was a 5.44 at 190mph with the chutes out 200 feet before the finish line. The car is going fast, and the incremental time are very encouraging, but we still can’t get it to the other end in one piece.

EXTRA PROBLEMS
Although I had it figured out that I could barely afford to run this car, and knowing that I would need to obtain some form of sponsorship to race it, I had an unforeseen circumstance enter the picture. My wife and I seperated, and this has had a big financial impact on me. For the moment it's impossible for me to run the car any further without additional funding from some source. We have a great car, a tune-up which is almost perfected, and a great team of individuals to put it all together. As soon as funding is secured, we will have the car back on the track, and be ready to compete with the worlds finest racing teams.