Ola mi drag racing amigos! Whoa what a minute….last week was when the international spotlight was on dragracetires.com, this week things are a little more home spun, biscuits & gravy style. So after powering down a couple of Hardee’s finest, I got on the road again with my buddy Mike Freeman and headed up to Knoxville, TN for a little 5.70, IHRA “Quick Rod”, style racing. The rule book on this one says that throttle stops are legal, and with no minimum weight limit or tire rule, basically anything goes. If you can start it, you can run it. High dollar dragsters vs. door cars, vs. altereds oh my!

I hope this one’s got gas & brake pedals!

If it aint black…take it back

Ole Mike and I didn’t do too badly in the qualifying order, running a 5.71 on only our second pass. The only problem was that the 3 blind mice in the scoring tower failed to write down the number of our car along with those of several of our competitors. Therefore all of our times got thrown out the window, and who you lined up against in the staging lanes was who you raced. Just to keep it chaotic, there was a 3 hr rain delay thrown in for good measure, insuring that we’d all have a late night. Too bad ours ended early with a first-round loss due to a malfunctioning c02 bottle/throttle stop assembly. Oh well, we still had a blast, and Mike’s 125” roadster/bodied altered is a hoot to drive and the absolute perfect platform for funny car practice. Bleary-eyed, we drove down the road sipping on coffee and eating Krispy Crèmes….Mike is a detective for the Walker County, GA Sheriff s Department so it was only natural to set the mood with the correct cop food as we talked back and forth about classic crime stopper moments.

So Big John Dunn, his wife Melissa, and the IHRA’s Kurt Oberholtzer came through town the other day for a visit, and to talk about the future of nostalgia funny car racing. So when it came to bench racing, it seemed as though Corky (my boss) clearly had the upper hand on Dunn when discussing the level of sophistication required to race a timed rally event verses a drag car…demonstrating that for guys like me & Dunn to try to rally race, would be about like bringing a knife to a gunfight. I’m just glad he’s on my side and that the long pistol found its way back onto his desk…

Don't bring a knife to a gunfight!

Next weekend its crab cakes and drag racing as the IHRA Nitro Jam is going down at Budd’s Creek Maryland, where I’ll get to tag along with Army, Dunn and the gang as they duel it out in the nitro funny car ranks. Also right around the corner is the next ORSCA race where we’re currently sitting #2 in points, and the Camaro is sitting on full kill…locked/loaded and ready for a shot at the title….as the weather cools down the racing will definitely heat up.
Until next time…..

EG

After experiencing PA’s hottest stretch of the summer a couple of weeks back, only to come home to similar conditions in my home state of TN, I thought how much hotter could it get? Well, I found out. My a/c at home decided to go on an untimely strike for a couple of days (it was repaired last minute or I would’ve been staying at home in Memphis’ kiddy pool with him; ed. note – see dog in pool pict.), so we decided to pack up and head further south into the heart of Dixie for a little outlaw racing. Saturday it was 90 degree’s at 8:30 in the morning…and it didn’t get any cooler throughout the day, staying above 100 for most of the afternoon. OK, OK, enough about the weather. It was just something else we’d have to deal with, and it was the same for everybody…but man it was hot!

DOG DAYZ...

Speaking of things to deal with, some serious race rust had accumulated since the last time I’d been in my outlaw car. It’d been over 2 months since we’d competed, and after running Army’s nitro funny car a couple of weeks back…I was pretty much a mess when it came to getting comfortable again in my own ride. The two cars are about as similar as apples and pineapples. Steven pointed out that it would be in my best interest if I got re-acquainted with the differences between brake lever placement in a funny car, and shift lever placement in a door car. Oh well, at least the gas pedal was in the same place…we qualified with the #7 position at the end of Saturday, which was just about smack dab in the middle of the pro-ladder and meant that we weren’t going to have any bye run’s or a smooth route through eliminations.

“Mid-day qualifying, ODRA 5.30…still fine tuning some camera angles”

Throughout the day I kept thinking about a book that I read on my way up to PA about the life of Billy Graham. At first I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about reading it, but since my Mom had given it to me and told me I’d better get after it…..I felt somewhat obligated to do so. Turns out that what I thought was a slight burden, ended up being a major blessing. The book is written from the death bed of Charles Templeton, who as a young man was Billy’s best friend and fellow evangelist. Templeton goes on to talk about how several trials in his life lead him to a crisis of faith in which he publicly renounced his faith and became an outspoken atheist. This would have a devastating impact on Billy and led to a major crossroads involving a decision that could have altered the salvation of many lives if the outcome had been different. Graham ultimately decided to walk by faith and not by site, and as we all know went on to do many great works for the kingdom of God.

I guess what I got out of it, is that often times the difference between a mess and a masterpiece is perspective. Only God could use the damage that Templeton had inflicted upon Graham as a platform for His glory. From what I can tell and by most standards, Billy was a fairly ordinary guy…but he had faith and he had God’s favor, which was all that he needed.

My faith isn’t where I would like for it to be at times…which makes me feel undeserving of the doors that seem to keep opening up for me these days. However, all I can do is keep thanking God for the good times and the bad, while I try my best to walk by faith and not by site. Although I’ve raced something for most of my life now, I don’t consider myself particularly talented and I don’t have much drag racing experience, so it’s very humbling for me when things go our way…..

Oh yeah, there was a drag race going on…and we won it!!

Team 5.30 Montgomery; J-Rod, EG, Steven, Cynthia

Winning one of these deals is never about one person, but losing it can be. Fortunately for me, my good friends Steven, Cynthia and Jerry were all on board all day long giving selflessly for the cause and helping get it done. The only crew member that was missing was my favorite, my girlfriend Amber. She’s overseas serving Uncle Sam for a couple more months and I’m counting the days till she’s headed home and the team will be complete.

Special thanks to all of our amazing sponsors; Corky Coker and David Leach of Coker Tire, Steven and Cynthia Farrow of Farrow Motorsports, Jack McInnis of Dart Machinery, Chris Douglas of Comp Cams & Zex Nitrous Systems, Stanley Poff of TCI Transmissions, Patrick Burris of Royal Purple Oil, Joe and Marlene of Holeshot Wheels, Michael Walton of Impact Racing.

I know it sounds trite, but it really couldn’t be done without anybody on this list. All of these people, companies, and products are top shelf and are a joy to be affiliated with.

The 5.30 class train kept on rolling with a stopover this past weekend in Commerce, GA. Since the Montgomery rain out, we’ve had the benefit of exactly 2 test passes at our local track, which didn’t tell us much of anything other than the fact that it’s dusty there…and that we had a vacuum pump pulley alignment issue. Not exactly the wealth of test data that we were looking for going into Atlanta.

Upon arrival at the ATL, and straight outta the trailer, our times were off significantly. However, persistence pays and we finally cashed ours in with a killer Farrow Motorsports tune-up getting the all steel hot-rod near the top of the field in qualifying. Eliminations on Sunday saw us make it all the way to the Semi-finals where our good fortune finally ran out against Brian Farrar, and his “Shim-a-ditty” ’57 Chevy. Although a tight race, Brian took the stripe by a few thousandths and would go on to easily win his final round match up against Blaine Aldridge.

EG & Waterhead, gettin’ ready to get down

It’s still very early in the season, but initial indications are that if everything keeps going our way, then we’ll be a serious contender for the title come the end of November.

Ever wonder what it’s like to ride shot-gun in a drag car? Click the video below to find out what it’s all about…

Next on the to-do list is a little road trip over to “The Rock” or Rockingham, NC for the IHRA Nitro Jam in a couple of weeks. My good buddy Army Armstrong is rolling out his brand new ’67 Nova Nitro Funny car in the Prostalgia class, and said that if I play my cards right as a crew member…then he’ll toss me the keys on Sunday for my first attempt at a licensed pass in AA/FC.

http://www.ihra.com/article/5968.html

Thanks again to Coker Tire, Dart, COMP Cams, TCI, ZEX, Royal Purple, and Holeshot for all the help this season…we couldn’t do it without you.

God bless,

EG

Here’s a little update on how things are going in outlaw land as of last night. I guess you could look at it as a photo essay of sorts…which is by design since I’m too tired to write much of anything coherent.

Only 16 days to go until qualifying at ORSCA Montgomery, AL…and I’ve been doing some research on rain dancing. However, if there’s one thing that you can’t count on to cooperate in the South, it’s the weather. With that being said, the great news is that we now have 80% of the parts we need and should have everything by next week. So, the thrash is on like donkey-kong.

Look for proper recognition to all those companies and individuals who’re making Project (Panic) 5.30 a reality in the next post…the shout-out list will rival a gangster rap video!

Proverbs Chapter 3 vs. 5-6

God bless,

EG