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.