This Saturday, I will be attending Charleston's 1/8th mile dragway with my friend Tom. Tom is a very big turbo Buick enthusiast and just recently, he lost a very close friend. His friend, Andy, was another turbo Buick enthusiast. He was driving a Regal T-Type to Peoria from Leroy, IL that he had just bought to get the A/C charged. He took his 12 year old cousin along with him for the ride. Somewhere along the way, the re-treaded tires that had been put on the car by the previous owner seperated. Andy lost control of the vehicle and flipped six times into the ditch. Andy was thrown from the vehicle while the 12 year old was safely buckled in. The 12 year old girl called her uncle from a cell phone to let him know what had happened and to call the paramedics. Andy was pronounced dead on the scene. Andy's funeral is tomorrow, Friday July 22nd and in celebration of his life and his love for GM's turbocharged six cylinder, Tom and I are going to Charleston on Saturday. We will be leaving from Leroy somewhere between 8:00 and 9 AM. Gates open for free runs at 10AM and racing starts at Noon. Racing lasts till 4 and the finals start at 5. It would be an honor to have even a few guys go with or meet us there. PM me if you want directions to Leroy for the drive down there. I don't know specifics on where it's at in Charleston but Tom knows how to get there.

I believe it's $25 to run your car in the street class and $6-8 just to be a spectator

Thanks
Brett

BTW, if you want a look at your competition, take a look in my garage. A picture of Tom's car is in my garage momentarily. Basically, if you're running anything less than an LS1 with nitrous you're in for a good fight.

That is a harsh story Brett. My condolances...
Wish I had a car to run in honor of Andy. I will be at the NOPI event with the Hudsons this weekend though.

Thank God the 12 year old girl was ok!

Thank you for your kind words Marcus. Have fun at the Nopi meet though.

I knew Andy, he was a good guy. I wish i had heard about his death and funeral arrangements sooner. He'll definately be missed by all of us.

Well, I just crawled in from the dragstrip and man did we have a good time. Of note, there were absolutely NO imports in the street class (or any other classes for that matter). Why, I'm not sure but domestics dominate the scene there. We met some friends of Tom's when we got down there. An old Dodge Dart in the Super Pro class that runs mid 5's and a Duster in the Pro class that was running consistent 7.70's. We went out for the three time trials and put down a best of 9.25. From then on the times got slower but we were able to guestimate close enough with our dial-in ET that we made it pretty deep in the finals. Surprinsingly, about half the cars in the street class were bone stock. One 02 Neon, a 95 Monte Carlo, and a 92 Lumina were among the bone stock runners. In bracket racing it's all about being consistent, not about beating the other guy. The first run was against a brand new Ford F250 Super Duty diesel truck. The truck red-lighted and we ran a high 9 number. The next race we were up against the 92 Lumina. Evidently the guy driving it is known for having supernatural reaction times and being very consistent. I think he was having a bad day though because we caught him sleeping at the light with a .700 reaction. The next car we ran was about an 81 Malibu Wagon with a built 350 in it and slicks. The guy that was driving is up on their website for several weekly wins. I have to say it was the best race of the night though. Tom was the "slower" car so he was given the initial start light while the other guy was only about a half second slower. He caught up to Tom about half track and then....then he got to see what a T-Type Regal is all about. The gigantic turbo took over and the Regal slammed the door shut on the Malibu for a run of 9.46 with an ET of 9.45. After a couple high fives it was back to the line up for the top 8 finalists. We got paired with a car that was running both Pro Stock and Street class. Tom had a terrible reaction time and we were done for from the beginning. We ran a 9.50 with an ET of 9.45 on that one.

All in all we did very well. Our trap speeds were higher than everyone we ran against, including the Pro Stock car. I believe we had a high trap speed of 92 and consistently in the high 80's all night. It's the 60ft times and reaction times that are killing the car. Thankfully, we were able to drive the car 92 miles one-way to the track and back along with powerbraking the crap out of it on runs and still not break anything.

Overall, we took 7th of 41 cars and got a pass back for the pay-out. It was really a lot of fun and I intend on going back sometime soon. Considering the really really hot weather, I'd say our times were pretty good. Drag slicks were definitely the thing to have today but running on the stock motor and stock transmission of 101 thousand miles, drag slicks probably aren't the best idea.

Thanks for reading,
Brett

BTW, you guys would have a field day with some of these cars. LS1 with nitrous, stock LT1 Camaros, stock Mustangs, all begging to be flogged.