For our first TeamGM MidWest Event, we will go to Cordova, IL for the final day of Drag Week. Click for details, GO Eric!!!! (http://www.camaros.net/techref/electrical/dragweek/index.htm)

Thanks for the post and support Jim. :)

I look forward to meeting any and all who can come out. It was great last year meeting Garret (40 Coupe) and Travis -- I hope to meet some more of you guys again this year.

This year there are 200 cars registered for drag week with some of the unlimited cars rumored to be in the high 7's :eek: Should be a wild ride . . .

I'll go... Probably leave in the AM and get breakfast along the way.

Michael

Update:

A little while ago I went out to the truck to get my cel and call Eric, and there was a message from him, called him back and got the lowdown.

Monday at Covrdova was rained out. No one made a single pass.
At noon they headed out to Indianapolis. I don't know what roads they took, but on the interstate, that's a 6 hour drive. He said it was pouring buckets the whole way and the cars were dropping like flies.
Today at Indy, they were rained out again.
With an 80% chance of rain in Columbus, HotRod made a schedule change, sent them back to Cordova, IL. Other than some minor surfing on a flooded road, Eric made it back there fine. Many more cars dropping by the wayside tho.

Tommorow, they'll run at Codova, forecast is cloudy, dry, 65.
Thursday to Midland MI, then back to Cordova for the finale.

Eric sounded good on the phone, enjoying his great adventure in spite of the moisture content, and looking forward to actually making some passes down the strip, as well as meeting any of us who come out there Friday.

Its 745pm Wed. I just got a call from JimM who is on the road in central Wisc. on a service call in the middle of nowhere. He asked me to pass along this update:
He got a call for Eric and Eric said he ran a 10.85 and is now in 3rd place for SB cars. He might be changing classes tomorrow as well. Great job Eric :thumbsup:

Finally found me a hotel, with wireless thank goodness!

JimM checking in from Turtle Lake, WI.

Click, thanks for getting that update in for me.

Here's the rest of it:

Eric's best run was 10.85, which was a couple of tecnths off the fastest cars in NA Small Block, giving him a solid third.

Not exactly happy with that, he switched classes to 11.00 street car. They give you a 2 tenth cushion, so he's right there and hopes to win that class.

He was around Mishawaka indiana when I talked to him, clocking 60 at 3300 and heading for home. Tomorrow is Midland, his home track, so he gets to sleep in his own bed tonight.

Word is from 200 cars registered, around 160 showed up, and only 105 remained for the first real day of racing today. The rains took it's toll.

Friday, Of course, back to Cordova. Bullit68 and Tom have said they're coming, anyone else, see ya there, or shoot me a pm if you want to caravan.

JimM out!

I was not aware anyone was racing until Friday, my second job got canceled so I had a rare afternoon off. Wish I would of been watching some racing :( . Oh well, Jim, I was noticed the Hot Rod cars parked outside my local hotel this morning on my way to work. A blue 68 convert. caught my eye, so I strolled down that way from Shell, seen a nice impala I believe it was, a new vette, and some other Hot Rod stickered up cars. What a shock to wake up and see, completely unexpected! I made a post about it somewhere else asking what was going on, maybe if I would of checked that I would of found out there was racing going on. Oh well, they are racing Friday for sure? I am taking a half day, so hopefully I'll make it to the show before 2. How late are you guys running?

Friday is the last day. They'll be in town Thursday night, Eric stayed in the comfort inn in moline last night. They'll be running friday if it ain't raining, and it ain't s'posed to!

Jim don't you mean Martin Michigan? Midland would be quite a drive. Nothing happens in Midland, that's why people live here! I wish they were coming to Midland, one of the rare days that I'd be home to see it.

Dave

that was quite a storm system that blew through the midwest wasn't it?
sorry everyone didn't make it to columbus!
hope Eric can pull off a great finish on his home turf this year too! best of luck on the final two days Eric!
maybe the weather will be more forgiving next year.

Eric B

weather conditions for columbus ohio, thursday sept 14, 5:48 am; clear as it gets, dry as a bone.
wtf? i hate this town!
Eric B

Eric, sounds like you ran pretty well! Wish the weather would've been better and I'd have thus made the drive down there to meet you. Unfortunately I can't escape work to make it back there when you guys roll back to Cordova. If you're real adventurous I only live 2.5 hours to the northwest of there, lol! The door is always open here for any TC members who are around the area to stop by and chat/etc. Again, have a safe and successful finish to your week!

yes, I meant Martin MI, oooops

just an update, on my way home from wisconsin finally.
I'll be leaving yorkville at 6 am to head to cordova. Anyone wants to tak along, send me a pm or email.
My cell phone seems completely dead, if I gave you that number, pm me cause it ain't gonna get answered.

Jim

knock 'em dead today Eric!

Eric B

Home again. What a great day. Tom was on my doorstep before 6AM, the drive in the vert was 2 1/2 hours, mostly Pee soup fog, top up.

Hooked up with Eric right away, great guy, glad to finally meet him!

Also met Stainless Dog, who brought out his 68 vert. Real nice car, could hardly tell his from mine! Man has good taste no doubt.

This was without a doubt the coolest racing event I've ever been too. Since these were "street cars" not race cars, there was a lot of oddity, a flavor of the unusual, some really unique stuff that you don't see everyday, such as:

The Silver mustang. All steel, stock sheetmetal, not tubbed, not back halved. All homebuilt. Clean as a whistle, wonderful engineering and detailing. Looked as good as it ran. And run it did. With a turbo'd 2.3 liter FOUR CYLINDER!!! this thing clicked off wheelstanding 9.40's at 145 plus all day long!

Elvis. This guy was plain weird. Bright Purple Pro Street Duster, Bright purple and white driving suit, with flames. And sideburns, really big sideburns.

"Just married" on the back window of a mid nineties white Mercury Grand Marquis, with some sorta Ford engine in it with a centrifugal blower and slicks. Darned thing ran 12's. Finished in the top 4 in the 12.0 street car class. Bride and groom took turns driving.

The Mazda. Black and wicked looking, and sporting a twin turbo, nitroused LS2. Quiet as a church, mean as a snake. Solid 9.2's at over 150, and a joy to watch. She'd spool up on the line, leave with both front wheels 2 feet in the air, carry them 200 feet thru a gearshift, and set em down so gentle the suspension didn't even compress.

The beater. There were lots of these. Call em sleepers if you're in a good mood. Ugly cars with rotten paint or primer, ratty engines, clicking off solid 10's, 11's or 12's, after driving 1500 miles in the rain. One Dodge pickup looked like it had been resurrected from the boneyard that day, but ran consistent very low 12's. A nova wearing original paint and looking very much it's age, sported a nitroused LS2 and ran mid 10's.

The Diesel. This one was wild. The guy that runs diesel power magazine brought this beast. I talked to him a bit. He claims 800 HP and 1650 FT-Lbs torque AT THE REAR WHEELS!!! Thing ran 10's. Sounded like a 747 spooling up for takeoff.

And of course Eric. The Maroon 68 was very much at her best. Clicked off run after run, 10.95 uncorked, 11.05 thru the mufflers. Eirc was masterful on the tree, of course in this timed event that didn't matter. Still, 1 redlight in a dozen runs with reaction times varying from .016 to .024 is NOTHING to sneeze at. He needed a 10.991 timeslip to average 11.000 for the week. He got a 10.995, and came in second by a whole .0016 seconds.

The only thing I didn't like was the sandbagging. Since it was a timed event, not a real race, guys were just running over and over to get the perfect slip. In the 12 second class, they found a winner at the fourth decimal place! That Lincoln even clicked off an 11.48 once just for fun. How about a 10 second run with an 80 mph trap speed? A lot of stuff like that.

Hot Rod, next year make it a real race, not a timed event with everyone getting 20 chances to slow down enough to run the "right" number. Real eliminations, each day, first one to the finish is the winner, maybe even bracket style with a handicapped start.

Thanks for the Team Camaro support! I just got home this morning and had to post an update. Lots of fun on the trip and as Jim said some pretty wild wet weather driving. It was great meeting Jim, Tom and "stainless dog" --- I can't wait to see some pictures of the action (since I spent most of my time racing :D )

To fill you guys in on what I did . . . (and Jim did an excellent job in spite of my cell messages with a 3500 RPM small block droning in the background)

DAY 1: Rained out at Cordova, but we still had to pass IHRA tech and Hot Rod tech at Cordova (both very strict). Hot Rod tech was to make sure we met all our class rules. After tech and waiting in the rain for hours we made the drive to Indy via some interstate and lots of time on "cornfield two lane highways" (about 320 miles total) with some light rain.

DAY 2: Rained like cats and dogs at Indy. They let us take pictures at the starting line, but no passes at all. The forecast for Columbus was very bad so instead of risking a rain out on day 3 they diverted us back to Cordova. The drive back to Cordova was BRUTAL with flooded roads and very heavy rain. I drove the Camaro through 6" deep water more than once and thank God it didn't stall or even miss a beat.

DAY 3: Finally some racing. 1600' DA and a lot of humidity. Car ran 10.9's at about 121. Man that track hooks. I could not spin the tires no matter how hard I tried many low 1.47 sixty foot times (can't wait to see a few wheelie pics). Two cars in NA small block ripped off low 10.7 passes so I jumped from NA Small block to the "daily driver" 11.00 class. One was a 428" Pontiac GTO with Kaufman heads the other was a 73 Cuda with W-9 headed 420-something small block. I made three passes and turned in a 10.985 slip. Drove all the way home (30 miles north of Martin) 390 miles in the rain. What a tough drive.

DAY 4: Racing at Martin delayed due to light rain in the AM. Made 3 passes and turned in a 11.024 ET for an 11.004 average. Back to Cordova via two lane roads and south Chicago. Had some fun playing with some imports on US 30 in Chicago Heights. (no tickets :) )

DAY 5: Beautiful weather at Cordova. I made 12 or so passes trying to hit the magic number. I needed a 10.991 or a 10.992 and best I could muster was a 10.995. The car wanted to run low 10.9's short shifting at 6k so I capped the exhaust and made a mess of high 10 low 11 sec passes coasting through the traps at 112-115 MPH. My 10.995 was good enough for second place with an 11.0016 average. The winner "hit the lotto" with a pass that put him at 11.0004 (Jim Nuenfeld with the blue twin turbo Chevy pick-em-up truck that won power adder small block last year).

The trip was a blast. I broke NOTHING whatsoever during the trip. The BTE converter worked great and I actually got a best of 14.6 MPG on the freeway running 3300-3500 RPM at 60-65 MPH. The converter foot braked to 4200 and flashed to 5400 (a hair higher then expected) but locked up nicely through the traps and ran nice on the freeway. It did not get too hot when hot lapping for pass after pass so overall I am pretty happy.

It truly was a great day and there were many very cool rides there! I would have very little additional to offer on Jim's commentary of the day other than it was an awsome event. It was great to meet Eric in person and to see his beautiful '68! I have several pics and videos to post as soon as I get some time to do so, I will let all know when there are available. I am looking forward to Dragweek '07 and hope to see and meet more Team Camaro members there.

Tom

Been working on this most of te afternoon so lets see if I can get this to work............here is a video of one of Eric68's early passes!

http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l110/bowtie1z28_/Cordova%20Dragweek%202006/?action=view&current=Cordova-Video2006_0915002.flv

More to come later............3

Tom

very nice oh motivated one!
M pics are still on the camera in the trunk of the vert.

Eric got some pretty good air that time. That car leaves like a bullet out of a gun!

Sweet video Tom. :)

Thanks Jim, I was real pleased with how the chassis worked on the trip. I actually tried to spin the tires on the line at Cordova by flashing the converter off a dead idle. They must have used some serious VHT . . . The new 8" BTE converter seemed to work well also, maybe that played a role in how the car hooked.

Got a few more pictures from the Cordova Dragweek event, have more to post maybe tomorrow! Enjoy :)
Tom

http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l110/bowtie1z28_/Cordova%20Dragweek%202006/?start=0

Should have mentioned that the white over blue ragtop belongs to JimM. I rode with Jim to Cordova and it was a blast cruzin home Friday afternoon with the top down. Thx Jim!

Tom