Racing on our Anniversary Weekend

(Angela Macy photo)

This weekend had been reserved for 'no racing', as Jill and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on Sunday, November 8... but traditional anniversary plans were put aside as Jill's father came down to lead the project of installing our new laminate flooring in the living room. The bulk of the job was completed on Friday, so I was able to slip away for one day of racing. Since the Duck Tape Volare is still down for repairs (special thanks going out to Myron Piatek for the ring & pinion, Jim Bailey at FINISHED for the REM & Cryo treatment on them, and in advance to Scott Macy of Macy Motorsports for setting up the rear end and freshening the transmission), I got to wheel my four cylinder, front wheel drive '85 Turismo at the Fall Footbrake Frenzy, hosted by Coastal Plains Dragway in Jacksonville, NC.

They announced that time trials would be run completely open, so I was able to make a bunch of laps in the car to re-familiarize myself with the car, and with a track that I'd never been to before. Eventual event winner Scott Macy put the little car on the trailer in the second round with an overkill .016 package. For the numbers geeks, a full recap of all the runs is below.

I had heard that the rollout was very loose at Coastal Plains, plus the tree had incandescent bulbs, which I hadn't seen in years. I tried deep staging on the first pass, but quickly decided that I was better off going shallow and adjusting from there. All runs 1/8th mile, Alt on, 2nd gear burnout + dryhop, 13psi, staged @ 140 degrees, 2600 rpm launch, unless otherwise noted. Air quality ranged from -278' (58F, 40%, 30.25) to 419' (67F, 34%, 30.16). Short-shifting high gear results in a little crisper shift.

Run R/T 60' ET MPH Lane Notes

Q1 -.035 2.141 9.774 @ 68.40 L Deep staged, 14psi, spun, shift 1-2 @ 6500, finish @ 6700 in 2nd gear

Q2 .047 2.052 9.669 @ 69.65 R Shallow, 13psi, both shifts at 5500 (1-2 shift actually completed @ 6000-6200)

Q3 .036 2.058 9.707 @ 69.04 R hot-lapped (160 degrees)

Q4 -.047 2.082 9.749 @ 67.98 L hot-lapped (180 degrees), 3 bumps after staging

Q5 .023 2.049 9.670 @ 69.56 R back to 140 temp. 2 bumps

Q6 .021 2.050 9.667 @ 67.98 L 2 bumps

E1x .029 2.056 9.712 @ 68.47 R (9.66 dial) 2 bumps, ripped throttle twice, gave it back .010 vs .058, 6.472 (6.46)

E1 .004 2.069 9.735 @ 67.15 R (9.70 dial) 2 bumps, brakes, vs .058, dead-on 9.189

E2 .043 2.053 9.715 @ 66.76 R (9.73 dial) 2 bumps, brakes, vs .011, dead-on 6.425

MPH clocks appear to be 1-1.5 different lane to lane.