2013 wrapup, 2014 preview

      The DJ Safety chutes are out on the 2013 season for Paul Gibbs and the Cuda Beast team. This time last week, Paul though he might be squeezing in one last race, way down in Florida at Bradenton. It would have been the longest trip for the team, and schedules/logistics ultimately kept the Beast at home.
     The 2013 season marked the Beast's switch to an automatic transmission, and the learning curve proved to be a steep one. Into the fall, Paul did a deep dive into the computer data and did a lot of brainstorming with other racers, and was confident that he was on track with the setup. But the calendar ran out of races, so the answers will have to wait until early 2014.
     Paul made his first final, at Holiday Beach, and beat Bil Clanton for the first time to get there, but lost on a red light. (Holding the car on the line was another problem that required attention). There was bizarre stuff away from the track, as Paul's Dodge truck blew up on the way home from a race. He bought another one, and was on his way to a weekend of testing when that truck began to act up. A rag had somehow been left inside the turbocharger. Fortunately, the damage was minimal. New tires from Mickey Thompson really helped with tire shake. The real puzzler was getting the 60-foot times where they should be.
     The schedule for 2014 is unclear right now, as it is for all of pro-mod racing across the south. Efforts are underway to get some coordination among the various tracks so the racers can put on a good show, lots of fans will show up to see it, and the promoters will make some money. Paul was set on a series in the Carolinas that did not allow screw blowers, but it ended this year after a decade run. He said he will likely discuss with the folks at Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip, just outside Chattanooga, about a pro-mod series of four races or so, with no screw blowers allowed.  It's Paul's home track, less than two hours away, and it has been resurfaced, making it ideal for the big cars. Some match racing might also be on the agenda.
       So that's it. The Beast is in its trailer, ready to go right now. We'll be back next year when the racing schedule starts to take shape.

No racing this weekend

    A combination of events will keep the Cuda Beast in its garage this weekend, instead of hitting the track at Montgomery Motorsports Park for the season's last Southern Outlaw Tour race. The Beast's torque converter is on its way to PTC for some work, as Paul said the tolerances of some important pieces are off by a few hundredths, meaning they don't fit together properly. Also, chilly weather, at least by racing standards, has settled over the South for the past several days and will run through the weekend. That means a cold track and iffy racing conditions. Finally, Paul has agreed to fill in at his church this Sunday while the pastor is out of town to conduct a revival, so he was possibly looking at getting back home in the early hours of Sunday morning, grabbing a shower and maybe a couple of hours of sleep, and getting up in the pulpit.
      So, the Beast will remain idle throughout November, and then head way south to Bradenton Motorsports Park, near Tampa-St. Petersburg, for a big three-day race the first weekend in December. Paul said it will be a 9-to 10-hour drive, but the temperatures should be fine for racing.
     With 2013 winding down, Paul had been looking east for 2014, to the Carolinas at a no-screw-blowers series, but it just announced that it will cease operations after a 10-year run, and will hold its final race this weekend. Paul said there is another Carolina series that is a possibility, and maybe some races at Lassiter Mountain. Of course, the Cuda Beast team could join the pro mod technology arms race, but that takes gobs of money and thus is not something Paul can do without major sponsorship, as he's largely financing his racing out of his own wallet.
    We'll preview the Bradenton race after Thanksgiving. Have a great one.

Huntsville recap: Unhappy on the starting line

   The Cuda Beast's timing controller had bad timing in more ways than one at Huntsville last weekend. Paul and the Cuda Beast team headed to the Rocket City full of optimism, with the engine at full strength and backfiring problems likely solved. But the first test pass revealed that the timing controller, added when the Beast switched from a clutch setup to an automatic for this year, was not working. Paul said today he had been suspicious of it for a while, but Saturday, the suspicion was confirmed.
   The 4 seconds or so of a run are sliced and diced into intervals of tenths of seconds by the timing controller -- pulling timing out of the engine at the start to get the car off the line, and putting it back in at various levels for the rest of the run (that's my layman's understanding of it; hope it's reasonably accurate). It's hard to imagine that such tiny changes, happening so quickly, could have such big effects, but they do. Paul's controller wouldn't pull timing out at the start, so the Beast blazed the tires at the start, killing any chance of a decent pass.
    With the controller not working, Paul took a guess at the timing to get the car off the line -- timing it would have for the entire pass. No luck. The team passed up the first round of qualifying, readjusted the timing and went out for round two and blew the tires. They dropped the timing again for the third round, but again the Beast killed the tires.
    Saturday's racing wrapped up fairly early, so Paul said he set about trying to find someone who had a spare controller like his, an "8973."  In asking around, Paul said he found out that 8973s had fallen out of favor, and a new and less-expensive device, called a "grid," was now in wide use. A fellow at Huntsville had a rolling chassis for sale that had a grid, and he let Paul borrow it for the Beast. After church Sunday, Paul and the Beast went out for the final qualifying round with the grid, and took a stab at the timing, the lowest Paul said he has ever used at the start. The Beast spun the tires all the way to a 4.39, and the same went on in the second-chance race. Paul bought the grid controller, and is now looking to Montgomery in a couple of weeks.
     Paul said he talked with the mechanic for another team, who said Paul needed to consider one of two factors to get the car launched: blower boost or backing the timing off. Paul said he now has a boost graph to look at that is a picture of the boost for an entire run. He said he's inclined to leave the boost alone, and concentrate on the timing to get the car off the line. "We're not shaking the tires. We're spinning them," he said. "We have a mountain of torque -- we've got to harness it."
    So, Paul plans to hit the track at Montgomery as soon as it's ready, to get at least a couple of test runs before qualifying starts. If the Beast responds and hits its potential, somewhere in the high 3's, that meet will wrap the season. If the right combo is still elusive, Paul says they'll look for other races. "We'll go to Florida if we have to. We'd like to end in the 3.90s, and know where we are going into the next year."
    We'll be back in a couple of weeks to set up the Montgomery race.    
    

Back on track: Huntsville

   Car and driver are back in good health, mechanically and physically, so the Cuda Beast and Paul Gibbs are on the way to Huntsville this weekend for a Quick 8 shootout. Paul got a final check of his back yesterday and says he's feeling good, and he's optimistic that for the first time in a long time, the Beast's problems with backfiring are under control. After brainstorming with fellow racers, Paul believes a change from a less-expensive spark plug and the addition of a crank trigger to better control timing are the essential pieces of the puzzle.  He rues the false savings of the cheaper plugs: "We've lost a lot of money and chances at winning because of backfiring."
    The engine has been rebuilt, including a new No. 8 piston and new head gaskets to provide a bit more relief. It's basically the setup Paul was going to take to Orangeburg, S.C., last month for a race, before his back went out. That race was won with 3.9-4.0 times (screw blowers are banned), easily in the Beast's capability. That Carolina series, the Quick 8 Outlaws, could be where Paul races next season.
    But it's Huntsville this weekend, site of the Beast's last outing, which produced the best run of the year despite the backfiring and its related problems. The schedule on the flier above has been changed: There will be three rounds of qualifying on Saturday, starting at noon, with a fourth round on Sunday morning, and then eliminations at noon -- good, Paul says, as the nights now are getting too cold and too damp for safe racing. He passed on racing there last year at this time for those reasons.
    Not sure if Brian C. of promodifieds.us will be able to attend any of the racing, but check that site anyway, as information does tend to get out through other folks.

Orangeburg off

     Usually, it's a problem with the car that keeps it from racing. In this case, it's the other essential part of the equation: the driver. Paul Gibbs says he has had back problems off and on since his 20s, and on Monday it went out big time. When I talked with him Thursday, he was confident that the worst of it was over, and that he would be pretty much back to normal in a few days. He's getting more treatments for it today and tomorrow. So, no trip to Orangeburg this weekend, which would have been an interesting race from a competition standpoint (no screw blowers) and history (a return to the track where the Beast crashed and came close to burning up a couple of years ago).
    Meanwhile, Paul has been talking a lot with other pro mod folks about how they've dealt with backfiring problems, and will try a new tack: different spark plugs. These are NGK plugs Paul ran years ago; they cost $7 each, and are replaced after each run. Paul switched to a less expensive NGK plug (about $2) that offered the same performance. But the design is different, and another racer said that design can lead to backfiring. Paul remembered that the Beast never backfired on the more expensive plugs, so they are going back in. With this move, Paul said he won't change his valve spring pressure.
    When his back gets better, Paul will be back in the shop to replace a piston in the Beast's hemi (likely connected to the backfiring problem) and install a device called a crank trigger that is designed to keep the engine's timing more consistent during a run.
    So, if all goes well, car and driver will be healthy, and the Beast will be back at Huntsville in a couple of weeks. The last race there produced the best run of the year, but the Beast should be in position to better that, and maybe break into the 3's.

Huntsville recap, and a weekend off

   

    Last weekend's race at Huntsville was a pretty good one for the Cuda Beast in terms of performance and knowledge gained. Paul ran a 4.17, a season's best, to take seventh in a tough 8-car field that had the fastest cars running 3.70. He went out in the first round against the No. 2 qualifier and blew a burst panel at the finish line.
    Some of the times for the weekend were definitely suspicious, but the track assured Paul that his 4.17 was good, and Paul said he could really feel the G-forces in the driver's seat. Most interesting was a 60-foot .095, which is essential to sub-4 times. But 100-150 feet out, the tires smoked just a bit, and the Beast then hazed the tires the rest of the run, leaving two black strips down the track. So, a 4.17 with the tires not fully hooked up for most of the run was definitely encouraging.
    The blown burst panel brought back the backfiring problem that Paul had hoped he had solved with a new distributor cap. This latest episode got him to thinking about what happens deep inside the engine. He said he's never run a lot of valve spring pressure to keep from breaking parts, but the backfiring indicates that valves aren't fully closed when they should be. Plus, blower boost acts to reduce the actual valve spring pressure. After discussing the situation with his valve spring supplier, Paul said he's going to bump up the valve spring pressure for the next race.
    About the next race, Paul had this weekend's SOT event at Montgomery on the calendar, but he's passing (and weather may cancel it, anyway) it up to work on the engine and get ready for a race next weekend at Orangeburg, S.C. The engine passed a leak-down test after the latest backfire, but Paul says oil from the No. 8 cylinder indicates a ring problem, so No. 8 is getting a new piston and rings this weekend.
    Returning to Orangeburg after a couple of years brings up memories of a crash and fire, but Paul says that's all just history. The appeal of the race is that no screw blowers are allowed, which levels the racing field. More and more ADRL-spec cars are turning up at the races the Beast attends now, which means its 3.90s capability would still not be competitive. Though the payout at Orangeburg isn't as much, the chance to win it is much better without screw cars in the field.
    In fact, racing in the Carolinas next year is a definite possibility because of the ban on screws. Paul says he would be ready to go to a screw setup, but that would require sponsorship, which he doesn't have. We'll preview Orangeburg next week.        

Goin' back to Huntsville, Huntsville, Huntsville . . .

      Not exactly the same effect of the old Dean Martin lyric, but Paul and the Cuda Beast team are hoping for big hits this weekend at the Bama Nationals. The last outing for the Beast was also Huntsville, where it eked into the field and lost in the first round to top qualifier/track record holder/eventual winner Dwayne Watkins. At that race, the Beast was basically running as a six-cylinder, as Paul found blown head gaskets in a postrace engine check, with two cylinders leaking badly.
     All that has been fixed, and a backfiring problem has also been dealt with by a new, extra large distributor cap. With all of those factors cleared up, the Beast will run with its current torque converter setup to see how it takes the healthy engine. Paul said the team will arrive today and set up, and hopes to make a couple of test passes Saturday afternoon, before the evening qualifying sessions. Paul said he hopes to hit the track soon after it opens for testing and a few cars go down.
    This race is an eight-car field, and has drawn some criticism for its scheduling across two days, qualifying Saturday evening and racing on Sunday afternoon. There have been indications that some racers may pass this one up, so it's hard to say how large and tough the field will be. I'm not sure what the coverage will be online, but check the message board at www.promodifieds,us , and if I hear anything from Paul, I'll try to pass it along. Next weekend will be Montgomery and the Southern Outlaw Tour. Safe, fast racing for all.

Good hunch

    Computers are a huge help to drag racers, giving them a complete picture of the performance of all the systems on a race car during a run down the track. However, seat-of-the-pants intuition remains essential.
    As the Cuda Beast's lagging 60-foot times pointed to the need for a different torque converter configuration, Paul also suspected from the driver's seat that the engine seemed weak. Last weekend, Paul decided to perform a leakdown test on the motor, and found that cylinders 1 and 8 were leaking, 8 especially. Paul said normal leakdown on his motor is no more than 6-7 percent; cylinder 8 was 35 percent, enough that air could be heard and felt. That indicated a blown head gasket -- detected early enough that the Beast dodged damage to the head and/or block that would have ended the season. Paul had new head gaskets on hand, and at the end of a long day in the shop, the Beast's hemi passed a new leakdown test with flying colors.
    Still, the Beast will have new computer info available at the next race, back at Huntsville, with a new device that will give a readout on engine boost for the entire run. Also, the fuel management system will be all in for the race. "We're going to throw everything we've got at it, all the technology we've invested in," he said. If all the pieces fall into place in the next few races and the Beast starts to meet its potential consistently -- 3.90s and even high 3.80s -- Paul said he would be likely to keep his roots blower setup and forgo a switch to a costly screw blower. Nailing the torque converter configuration will yield big gains. The Beast had .098 60-foot times with its old clutch setup; Paul said the converter should drop that to .094 or better.
    The schedule is Huntsville and Montgomery this month and next month, for a total of four races to wind up the season.   

Huntsville recap

       This time last weekend, Paul and the Cuda Beast were at Huntsville, with a drivetrain all at 100 percent, a good feel for the tuneup and high hopes for some 3-second passes.  Alas, it was more time spent on the learning curve, and the realization that the torque converter, though mechanically fit, lacked the right configuration.
     The first qualifying run, a 4.49 at only 135 mph, was because the car wasn't shifting into high gear. The team went through the drivetrain and found the Lenco out of adjustment. Subsequent passes, the computer data revealed weak 60-foot times, Paul said, a best of .101 when the ideal would be down in the .0990s. Plus, the .101s couldn't even be repeated. "We had tried all the starting line procedures we could try -- more aggressive, less aggressive," Paul said, with no improvement, which all pointed to the torque converter. "We were driving right through it."
    Strong 60-foot times usually yield strong runs, so the converter is going back to PTC for a makeover, and the Beast will be back at Huntsville in two weeks for the Bama Nationals (eight-car field), and then the weekend after that at Montgomery.
    Still, the 4.49 got Paul into the race at the 16th spot, apparently when a quicker car had mechanical problems. That put him against No. 1 qualifier and new Huntsville track record-holder Dwayne Watkins, who had a new hemi engine under the hood and ran 3.70s at more than 200 mph. Paul got him at the line and the Beast ran a 4.36, but Watkins took over quickly, shutting off early for a 3.91. He went on to win the event. Paul said Watkins' new motor was a proven 3.60s piece bought from ADRL hitter Bubba Stanton, who sold it with just a 3.80s tuneup, leaving Watkins to figure out the rest of it. Looks like he's on his way.
    Paul said the growing presence of "screw" blowers may force him to evaluate his setup for next year. As currently configured, the Beast easily has sub-4-sec. potential, even high 3.80s, but the expensive screw setups are bringing 3.70s to the southern outlaw arena, so 3.90s likely won't get it done. This equipment escalation may have lots of teams trying to figure out what to do, and whether, lacking sponsorhip, they can afford it.
      We'll be back before the next race in two weeks with info on the torque converter situation.  

Cuda Beast to staging

   That's right -- finally, there will be racing this weekend. Huntsville Dragway is the site -- historically one of the Beast's best tracks -- with 16 cars going for $5,000. The field of competitors will likely be huge, and could include cars that run occasionally, if not regularly, in ADRL. The weather is looking good, though it will be hot, and the track record is in definite jeopardy.
   (FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE: Got a call from Paul, passing through Chattanooga en route to Huntsville. The plan is to try to make a test run this evening -- testing is open from 5-11 p.m.-- which would be useful for the first two rounds of qualifying on Saturday night. Paul said if he looks like he's solidly in the field after rounds one and two, he'll forgo the final qualifying round Sunday morning.)
    Paul has the transmission/torque converter back in proper working order, and is ready for his first 3-second pass. He has just one race on his new Mickey Thompson tires, but says they are by far the best he's ever run.
   After this race, here is the rest of the Beast's 2013 schedule:
   

September

Sat 14 & Sunday 15 - Bama Nationals @ Huntsville  

Fri 20 & Sat 21 - Montgomery SOT  

October

Fri 11, Sat 12 & Sun 13 - Huntsville Rocket City Nationals 

Fri 25 & Sat 26 - Montgomery SOT  
   
    September will be busy with back-to-back weekends, but they are both excellent tracks and promise exciting racing. As for this weekend, you can find the complete flier for the race on the message board at www.promodifieds.us with all of the information you need to know. Also, Brian C. should be there to provide his sterling coverage, so check the message board for updates if you can't make the race.
    Be safe, and be fast.

Next race

    The Cuda Beast is parked this weekend, and will not race until Huntsville, in two weeks. Paul said he's glad to have a bit of a break to recharge and catch up on work. If he still had a shot at the Central Alabama Pro Mod Series points title, he probably would be racing next weekend at Lassiter Mountain and Holiday Beach, but Tim Segars pretty much has that locked up.
    We'll preview Huntsville closer to the race date. Meanwhile, Brian C. of  www.promodifieds.us is at today's U.S. 43 race in middle Tennessee, so can go to that site's message board and follow his peerless coverage and some of the Cuda Beast's competition. 

The craziness continues

     This year’s unpredictable season found new tangents on and off the track in the past couple of weeks. Paul and the Cuda Beast team had to forgo last week’s Central Alabama Pro Mod Series races while the transmission was getting sorted out to try to fix the problem of the car rolling through the starting beams. Paul was in second place, just three points behind Tim Segars, who at the time wasn’t expected to be racing that weekend, either.
    Well, Segars did race and won both events, pretty much locking up the points title. Paul is conceding as much, and doesn’t plan to run the series’ last dates next month. (A possible driving job for Ron Stokes didn’t pan out, either, as Stokes’ regular driver was at the wheel.) Paul said the Beast’s remaining races will take place at Huntsville and Montgomery, where the team was headed this weekend.
    When I talked to Paul on Tuesday, he was checking the bottom end of the motor and awaiting receipt of  his repaired transmission on Wednesday. As suspected, the bands were bad, which meant the line lock wouldn’t work properly, but a pump on the front of the transmission was also found to have failed, possibly due to exposure to excessive heat. With the pump not working, that meant the torque converter was also not working as it should.
    After we hung up, Paul kept rolling the transmission woes around in his mind and thought to look at the torque converter, and saw that it looked like it had suffered some damage. He called PTC in Muscle Shoals, and they said they’d be in the shop at 6 a.m. Wednesday to take care of things, so Paul was immediately en route to Alabama.  I  got all this from Paul Wednesday as he was driving back from PTC, getting ready to put all the new pieces back in the car and head to Montgomery.
      While this was going on, Mother Nature, who has rained out events all summer long, hit the Montgomery area with a severe storm, and a lightning strike at the track fried most of the wiring and timing equipment, postponing the race yet again. Track owner Jim Howard says he hopes to have things fixed by the middle of next week, but no new race date has been set. The next outing for the Beast could be Aug. 24 at Huntsville, though there are other possibilities in between.
      Needless to say, Paul was really looking forward to Montgomery. The car has run more consistently this year, in the 4.20s even with the sick drivetrain, and Paul is confident that he’s dialed in on the engine tuneups. With the trans and torque converter both healthy, and the new Mickey Thompson tires that he says are the best he’s ever run, Paul says he wants to hit the 3-second zone “now.”
     When the race schedule firms up, we’ll be back.

Huntsville recap: "A lot of fun"

      That's how Paul Gibbs summed up the weekend for the Cuda Beast team at Huntsville's Rocket City Nationals. The car delivered a big run, loves its new Mickey Thompson tires, but got bit again by the line lock problem. But Paul and the team learned a lot, and will be ready for the next race, which will likely be at Montgomery Motorsports Park in two weeks.
      Paul went 4.26 at 165 in round one qualifying and didn't beat that, which left him about ninth fastest. The race was split into blower and nitrous classes, with an "all run" format. The eliminations were on a 16-car bracket for the dozen or so cars, and the four fastest got byes. That created a tight bunch racing for the next round, and Paul was right in the middle, running Jim Kyle, who qualified just a few hundredths faster. Paul says he doesn't try to max out his tuneup for every race, but rather goes for what he thinks he'll need to win. Kyle surprised him by running his best of the meet, but the Beast also improved. Though slower than Kyle, Paul's big holeshot (above), got the win.
     With the fastest qualifiers back in the mix for the next round, Paul drew a tough match in top qualifier Dwayne Watkins, who has been on a tear lately.  The Beast had been blowing burst panels all weekend, and the culprit turned out to be a clogged fuel filter. Paul said he put in a "3.97-4.02 tuneup" in the car for Watkins and hoped to beat him off the line, but the Beast rolled through the beams, and Watkins went 3.89.
     Still, it was a good weekend. "I love the new tires. They're unbelievable," Paul said of his first outing on the new Mickey Thompsons. "The stability on them is better than any tire I've ever run." Paul said he's really confident on the tuneups now, so the next thing to figure out is the linelock problem. The car was rock steady on the line until the Watkins race, and Paul suspects something's amiss inside the transmission.
     Digging into the transmission and making the usual postrace engine inspections will sideline the Beast this coming weekend, even though it's a Central Alabama Pro Mod series points weekend. Paul is second with 11, three behind Tim Segars and three ahead of several other drivers. Segars won't be racing this weekend, either, while he fixes his car, so Paul figures not to give up too much ground. However, Paul may be driving in the series this weekend for Ron Stokes. We'll be offline this weekend, so check the message board at promodifieds.us for any race info this Friday and Saturday.

     

Race weekend: Huntsville

    Paul and the Cuda Beast team will be on their way to Huntsville tomorrow for this weekend's Rocket City Nationals, and Paul is excited about the race because it's the first time he has been there since the track surface was redone. He said he's heard nothing but good things about the new surface, so he's looking to break into the 3's. On the old surface a couple of years ago, and with a clutch setup, the Beast ran a 4.07, its best ever, matching the number also put down at Montgomery.
    New for this race will be new tires from sponsor Mickey Thompson. The size (not as tall, and a tick wider) and construction are different, so Paul is hoping for better handling and less shake. He has been fine-tuning the different computer management systems on the car to help with the launch (in picture below, hazing the tires just into a run at Montgomery). He has also installed a new line-lock system to hold the car in the starting beams and put an end to a mini-plague of red lights that has cropped up recently.
    The Beast should be on the track for some testing on Friday, plus round one of qualifying. There will be two more rounds of qualifying on Saturday, with eliminations set for 3 p.m. The weather is looking better than it has in many weekends, and Brian C. of www.promodifieds.us says he should be on hand, so check that site's message board for Brian's peerless coverage.
    The following weekend, the Central Alabama Promod Series that runs back-to-back races at Lassiter Mountain on Friday nights and Holiday Beach on Saturdays, is scheduled to resume. Paul is second in points for the series with 11, three behind Tim Segars and three ahead of a gaggle of cars tied for third.
    Be fast, be safe, everyone.

Montgomery . . . ? (Yes) (No)

     5:30 p.m. Saturday UPDATE: Mother Nature strikes again during this racing season. Rain interrupted first round of qualifying. Stopped long enough to resume, then more rain, and the race was cancelled. Too bad. It's been a nice day here, 300 miles to the west.
     It's the second no-go for this SOT event. I don't know whether Paul tested Friday night or Saturday, but his first qualifying pass was an off-the-pace 6.25. Photo looked like he might have smoked the tires after launching. Looks like it will be Lassiter Mountain on July 3rd for another make-up race, for the Central Alabama Pro Mod Series. Sorry to say, but the weather looks iffy again.    

7:00 p.m. UPDATE: Just got Paul on the phone at Montgomery. Weather has cancelled a round of qualifying for tonight, but racers can test, and Paul is getting ready to make a pass. The team is shorthanded this week as Keith Dockery is out with injured ribs, but they will give it their best. The race is on for tomorrow -- 2 qualifying rounds and then eliminations. Will be a 16-car field if the car count is high enough.
    Last time I talked with Paul, he said the Cuda Beast team was planning to make this weekend's SOT race at Montgomery. However, I haven't been able to contact him the past couple of days, so I don't know if that's still the plan. There will be race info on the message board at www.promodifieds.us , so you can check there, as I'll be doing. The weather looks a bit iffy, but this is a makeup of an earlier race, so I'm betting that anything short of a monsoon, the race is on. The racers and promoters are eager to get things going, that's for sure.
    If I hear anything, I'll post it. Paul and the team also have a July 3 makeup event for the Central Alabama Pro Mod series. Haven't seen a points standing lately, but I'm guessing Paul is probably second. Hope there's lots of safe, fast racing this weekend.

Weekend update: Red-light blues

    Paul and the Cuda Beast team had a couple of one-and-dones this past weekend in the Central Alabama Pro Mod Series, red-lighting both times against Jimmy Sandefur, who went on to the finals in both races. Tim Segars won at Lassiter Mountain on Friday, and John Sullivan on Saturday at Holiday Beach. Haven't seen a points list, but Paul and Segars were tied for first going in; Segars should be on top alone after his win, even though he had mechanical problems the next night. No one was within two-tenths of him during eliminations.
    The team barely made the first round of qualifying at Lassiter after a fuel line came loose on a test run, causing the engine to lean out and blow a burst panel. Paul got an ovation from the crowd for a great save on his first qualifying run when the Beast got sideways at 450 feet. That run was 4.515, for fourth place. Round two improved to 4.477, and the first round red-light was a 4.41 that had Sandefur's 4.64 covered easily. An observed noted that the Beast seemed to have trouble staying in the starting beams. Paul said the trans brake was having difficulty holding the car, and that he most likely staged too deep, which led to the red-light. Next outing, the car will have line locks front and rear.
    Paul said Holiday Beach was pretty slick on the top end, but he still powered to a weekend best  of 4.33 in round two of qualifying, down from a 4.38. He said the Beast started hazing the tires about two-thirds of the way down, but he stayed in it all the way, to the crowd's delight. "It wasn't that big of a pass, but I got tired of lifting," he said. Though the red-light determined the first-round outcome, the Beast also lit the tires immediately into the run.
     The next race will be at Montgomery, a Southern Outlaw Tour event on June 29, followed on July 3 with a midweek makeup of a rained-out points race at Lassiter Mountain. Some new tires are on the way from Mickey Thompson, and the team continues to work with the fuel management system to help the car get through a tire-shake zone when it shifts into high gear, about 2.7 seconds into a run.
    Paul is also getting his Dart street car ready for its closeup at the drive-in in Blue Ridge, where filming is going on for "Need For Speed," a movie about a cross-country race based on a video game franchise.

The race is on (and so is the new website)

   After about a month of rainouts and other events, racing will resume this weekend with back-to-back shows at Lassiter Mountain on Friday night and Holiday Beach on Saturday (that's Paul staging the Cuda Beast in the lower left photo on the flier). Paul and the team are champing at the bit to leave the weekend in command of the series points battle, in which Paul and  three others are tied for first. Rain chances are about nil, but it will be hot.
   Last week's test of the new engine setup planned for Steele, Ala., didn't come off for a crazy bit of bad luck involving the new truck (a cleaning rag inside the turbo, if you can believe it). Damage was slight, and a $275 part has things as good as new.
   Best chance for race coverage will be www.promodifieds.us , even though Brian can't make the races. They will get info out some way. You can also check  www.promodracing.net for news. I'll pass along any news from Paul.
   Here's a shot of the steep shutdown area at Holiday Beach, where the Beast scraped its nose at the last race. It will ride a half-inch higher this time.

June 7: Testing

    Lots of stuff has happened/is happening since the last post, so let's get caught up:
    When we last checked in, the Cuda Beast team had loan of a dually from fellow racer David Elsberry, after Paul's red Dodge lost all its oil and blew up on I-20 last month. Since then, Paul decided to look for another truck, found one in St. Louis, and picked it up this week. It's a 2007 Dodge, with a bigger engine and stouter drivetrain. It's white, and makes for a visually longer rig when coupled to the white trailer. When Paul gets the engine fixed for the red truck, it will be for sale (contact us if you are interested).
    After last month's weather-related cancellations, the plan was to race this weekend at the Southern Outlaw Tour at Montgomery, but that race has been rescheduled. With the Central Alabama ProMod series resuming next weekend at Lassiter Mountain and Holiday Beach, and with a new untested engine setup in the car, Paul, the team and the new truck are headed to Alabama International Raceway in Steele, Ala., tomorrow for a test session. There's a big bracket meet going on, but testing will be allowed from noon to 6 p.m.
    Paul says Steele has tons of traction and the track will be well-prepped even though the event is not a full-out promod race. He hopes to get dialed in there, and then see if Lassiter Mountain will hold that setup; if not, they'll back it off until it does. Paul and the Cuda Beast team are tied for first in the Central Alabama series points after one race.
   

May 16: There will be racing (just not this weekend)

         Talked with Paul on Wednesday, and he was in the trailer working on the Cuda Beast, with plans to race at Huntsville's Rocket City Nationals this weekend. While his tow dually is under repair after blowing its engine on the way home from the rainout at Holiday Beach, pro mod racer David Elsberry has given the team use of a dually so they can keep racing while Paul's diesel Dodge gets fixed. Elsberry's dually got the car and trailer back home last weekend when Paul was stranded on the side of Interstate 20. Racer Terry Priest helped get the stricken truck off the highway. That's the racing community for you.
    The racing schedule is stuffed this weekend; promods will run at Montgomery as well. Huntsville is having separate 8-car fields for blowers and nitrous. (Friday AM update: No separate fields. One, with 8 cars). There will be testing Friday afternoon and a round of qualifying Friday night. Saturday will have qualifying rounds in the morning and early afternoon, with eliminations scheduled to start at 3 p.m. The team likely would not have raced this weekend had last week's Central Alabama series at Lassiter Mountain and Holiday Beach not been cancelled. They will be shorthanded this weekend, but the car's loaded and ready to go. Once again, the weather looks really iffy.
    Saturday night update: Looking at a short crew, an unfavorable weather forecast, and still being worn out from the previous weekend's events, Paul decided to stay home this weekend. The schedule now looks like Montgomery the first weekend in June, followed next weekend by the resumption of the Central Alabama series at Lassiter Mountain and Holiday Beach.
    

May 15: Unbelievable . . .

    If last weekend's race rainouts weren't bad enough for Paul Gibbs and the Cuda Beast team, there was this post afterward from team member Keith Dockery:

     "Well, seems like some times when it rains, it pours. Holiday turned out not good at all for the Cuda team. Thought all would be well when we only lost a battery charger that was left outside in the first of the rain showers. But on the way home, Paul ended up with some major issues, lost all the oil in the dually engine and was stuck on the side of I-20. Finally got a trailer and tow vehicle recovered to a mall parking lot around 4 a.m. this (Sunday) morning.
     "When  things go south, the race community seems to always pull together to assist wherever we can. We cannot thank everyone enough for all the support, especially to Terry Priest, who came with a rollback and recovered the broken Dodge dually for repairs, and will assist in those also. More thanks to the team to David Elsberry for the loan of another dually to get the trailer and car home to Blue Ridge so Paul can start the cleanup of all the oil all over the trailer. Hope that the white trailer just makes all that oil look worse than it is.
    "Once again, many, many thanks to Terry and David for the assistance from the entire Cuda Beast team. Good folks always pull together in the bad times as well as the good."

     Yes, thanks to Terry Priest and David Elsberry and everyone else who offered help. Such generosity of time and effort occurs at pretty much every race, at and away from the track.
     I haven't been able to talk to Paul, but I'm sure he has a lot more important stuff to take care of. It was bad enough to get psyched up for a weekend of racing, only to have them cancelled, but this jolt of misfortune is simply unbelievable.

May 11: Weekend update -- Cancellation No. 2

    Tough call on Friday's race at Lassiter Mountain. It was on Thursday night, then cancelled Friday around noon. Later Friday night, blue skies were overhead. I'm a couple hundred miles west of Birmingham, and I would have bet on rain for sure, based on what we got. Anyway, it has been rescheduled for July 3.
   Don't know if Paul got the word in time to delay his trip, but he and the Cuda Beast team are at Holiday Beach now, getting ready to roll. A treat for this race: Brian C. of www.promodifieds.us is on hand, and will be providing his usual top-notch race coverage, so check the message board at the site, and look for Holiday Beach results. Photos, times and observations will all be there. Another site to check out is www.promodracing.net Let's hope Mother Nature smiles on the Beach, and that everyone is fast and safe today.
   LATER SATURDAY: Mother Nature sent wave after wave of showers across Holiday Beach, including one final downpour just after the track's personnel had dried everything out for maybe the second time that day. So the race was cancelled, and I don't think Paul and the Beast got to run. They have reset for June 15. Don't know what the next race might be, but Huntsville's Rocket City Nationals is next weekend.

May 7: Tied for first

It's race 2 of the Central Alabama Pro-Mod Series this weekend, and Paul Gibbs and the Cuda Beast team hope to build on their strong showing in the first races that has them tied for the series points lead. The race format is Friday night at Lassiter Mountain, near Birmingham, and Saturday night at Holiday Beach at Woodstock, Ala.
   Over the past four weeks, Paul has been through the engine and transmission -- in fact, as this is written, they are likely in the process of reinstalling the motor -- "a long night," Paul said this morning -- with hopes of firing it up on Wednesday (Update 5/8: Engine fired, all looks good, Paul advises). The engine has new rods that are slightly longer, boosting compression to about 12.3, for more power.  This is the second year Paul has run a torque converter by PTC of Muscle Shoals, Ala. With more data from more solid, full-out passes, PTC will help to fine-tune the converter for consistent runs. One other new toy to play with is a Lahey fuel management system.
    Mickey Thompson is again supplying the tires this year. Paul's current specs are 17x34.5, but M/T wants him to try a new tire that is 15x35, one that some other teams are having success with.
    The body is getting some attention, too, as Paul scraped the front end entering the inclined shutoff area at Holiday Beach. Gregg Cash, of C&C Collision and Rod Shop in Cumming, Ga., has everything looking good as new, and is also a new team/member and sponsor. He'll be with the team at the tracks this weekend. The Beast will ride a half-inch higher up front at both tracks this weekend to try to avoid further scrapes.
     Last month, Paul missed going to Victory Lane by just a few hundredths on a red light at Holiday Beach, that after a long couple of days of racing and thrashing the car. The Beast will be primed and ready to go all the way this weekend. The weather forecast looks iffy right now because of the likelihood of rain, but here's hoping Mother Nature cooperates.  

April 7: First final

  Upon being congratulated for making his first promod final, Paul Gibbs replied: "I gave it away. I must have rolled deep into the lights." A red light did cost Paul and the Cuda Beast team their first event victory, Saturday night at Holiday Beach, but the race seems to have marked a turning point after for them.
    The weekend was a testament to the hard work of the Beast team -- Paul, Karen, Keith, and Louise, and two new guys, Wesley Walker and Michael Black from just down the road in Blue Ridge who have been welcome hands around the shop -- and not giving up.
    The two races -- Friday at Lassiter Mountain and Saturday at the Beach, to open the Central Alabama Promod Series -- were polar opposites. At Lassiter, the Beast never got down the track, in large part because of a malfunctioning timing computer. They lost in the semis after a first-round bye, and thrashed the car until 4 a.m. to fix the computer problem.
    Arriving at Holiday Beach, they pulled the transmission to try to find out why the Beast wouldn't stay in reverse (for each race, Paul had to hold it in gear with the shift lever). With timing computer fixed, Paul laid down a 4.26 to qualify fourth. He said  that was his only straight-as-a-string run; for all the others, the car was all over the place on a slick track, and he was constantly in and out of the throttle.
     Tim Segars, the winner at Lassiter, was again top qualifier and looked to sweep the races, but his 4.39, the quickest in the first round, lost to Bil Clanton's 4.40. Paul won with a 4.48 to set up the race pictured above. Paul beat Bil Clanton for the first time, 4.54 to 5.42, a pedal-fest for both drivers. Paul was particularly proud of that race, citing Clanton as one of the toughest racers to beat (and also good folks, as Bil and Ralph Clanton were among the people who helped the team sort out the transmission Saturday).
    That set up the final between Paul and Kenny Scott, who had qualified with a 4.47. Based on ETs to that point, Paul had Scott covered, but the red light negated the Beast's 4.35, while Scott ran a 5.27.
      Both tracks were new to the team. Holiday Beach has an incline at the end, and the Beast was scraping the front spoiler as it crossed the finish line and entered the shutoff area. Paul said he'll probably raise the ride height a half-inch or so next time. At Lassiter, Paul said he'd like to have more light.
     The next outing for the Beast will be May 10-11, back to Lassiter and the Beach for the second event of the Central Alabama series. There's a points program, and Paul should be at or near the top. The tracks should be well raced-in by then, and the weather warmer. Paul is passing up a race at Huntsville to put some new rods in the engine, and also a reverse gear.

April 6: Lassiter Mountain update

   Talked with Paul a bit ago. The team was unloading at Holiday Beach, on about 3 1/2 hours of sleep after a long, frustrating day at Lassiter Mountain. Problems with the timing computer kept them from making a full pass all night -- the Beast blew the tires on every run -- and the car kept wanting to jump out of reverse.
   Paul hopes the computer problem is just a wiring glitch, and the team was preparing to pull the transmission to try to get at the bottom of the reverse gremlin. The winner at Lassiter Mountain, Tim Segars, uses a clutch, and so was able to slip it to help get down a cold track. He beat Paul in the semis.

April 4: New tracks, new series

  Racing for real kicks off this weekend as the Central Alabama Promod Series opens its schedule -- consecutive days starting at Lassiter Mountain on Fridays, and Holiday Beach on Saturdays. Both tracks are new to Paul and the Cuda Beast team, but they are excited by the points program that will yield a season-end payout to the winner.
    Paul has been fighting a cold/flu bug for several days, but figures to be ready to go Friday night. The engine has been thoroughly gone over since Montgomery's SOT event last month, where the Beast ran a 4.36 as the team continued to dial in the automatic transmission setup.
    The weather looks to be a bit challenging for Lassiter Mountain, but a beautiful day is predicted for Saturday, when the racing moves to Holiday Beach. By the end of last season, 3.90s were getting it done at both tracks, so the racing should be fast and competitive. Here are looks at both tracks from last year, by the fantastic Brian C of promodifieds.us.

March 23: SOT weekend report

    Going into last weekend's Southern Outlaw Tour event at Montgomery Motorsports Park, Paul Gibbs said he was viewing the event primarily as test session to get ready for the Central Alabama pro-mod series he will run this year -- but if he made the SOT field, great.
      The Beast was on the bubble after two rounds of qualifying with a 4.36, and couldn't improve on that and was bumped from the field. The team is still chasing the setup with the new automatic transmission, but was happy to see that the transmission leaks that were common last year have now been stopped. Also, the car's "lazy" 60-foot times indicated the engine was too lean, Paul said.
     The Central Alabama series involves racing at two tracks -- Lassiter Mountain and Woodstock -- on consecutive days, and starts April 5.

March 10: Cuda Beast ready for 2013 season

Paul Gibbs describes his 2012 pro-mod season as the worst he's ever had. A spate of engine problems and a couple of mishaps over just four races or so, all while trying to dial in a new automatic transmission setup for the Cuda Beast.
     But that was then, this is now. Paul and the rest of the team are ready to race at Montgomery next weekend, and pursue a busy race schedule in a new series based in Alabama. Paul says the Montgomery race, a Southern Outlaw Tour event, will be more like a test and tune session to see if the new gear ratio changes will keep the Mickey Thompsons planted on the asphalt.
     Paul isn't planning to run the SOT this year, opting for a series that will run back-to-back races -- Fridays at the legendary Lassiter Mountain track and Saturdays at Holiday Raceway in Woodstock. That series already has five weekends on the calendar -- April through August -- and Paul also plans to run events at Huntsville, a track where the Beast has turned some of its best times.
    The SOT has acquired some new sponsorship and has boosted purses, enough so that a lot of cars that hang out in ADRL will be tempted to take on the SOT. Paul said he guesses the bump at MMP could be well into the 3.80s for 16 cars, and he's really not expecting to be one of them -- but great, should it happen.  The tracks on the new central Alabama series are smaller, and cannot handle the speeds the high-buck ADRL racers are capable of.  A 3.9 is about the limit, and Paul is happy shooting for that. Still, the competition will be tough.
     It has been a long, tiring winter for Paul to get the car refurbished. He was laying some paint on the Beast today, and hopes to have it in the trailer and ready to roll by midweek. There's a practice period and one round of qualifying on Friday, and two more rounds of qualifying Saturday, with races set to begin at 7 p.m. As in past seasons, when this site was doublehdragstrip(dot)com, we'll have pre-and postrace coverage of the Cuda Beast team. For race day, your best source is the bulletin board at  www.promodifieds.us , with the fantastic Brian C. providing coverage that is the next best thing to being there.