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.