Keep on the Shadyside

  
    Paul and the Cuda Beast team will be at Shadyside Dragway in Shelby, N.C., which has to be in the running for the most primitive/throwback track in the South, if not the nation. It's hard to believe that fans are this close to the track, where such high-powered machines as promods are running.

     It's not quite the 1960s at famous Southern outlaw tracks such as Paradise Drag Strip in Calhoun, Ga.,

but it's comparable. And the promods can run big numbers at Shadyside, before heading up the hill and turning left through the trees.

    Amazing, and there is a lot of video online (the source of  these images) that is riveting to watch.
So, about the race. It's an eight-car all-run field, no screw blowers, 2,500 pound weight limit -- what Paul said are basically PDRA rules for its pro boost class. Testing is Saturday -- Paul, who has never run at Shadyside, said he hopes to get in a couple of passes then -- followed by three qualifying rounds on Sunday, one more qualifier on Monday, and then eliminations. Keith Dockery  will be along for the race to run the computer, and Paul will also have a former promod tuner who has run 3.9s with a setup almost identical to the Beast's on hand.
    Should be great. There will probably be some info on the message board at promodifieds.us, along with info on the slew of other promod races slated for the holiday weekend. Hope it's a fast, safe weekend for everyone.

Rods and custom

    Paul and the Beast team did not travel to the NMCA Bowling Green race this past weekend, as the customary pre-race run-through of the engine revealed that the rods needed replacing. Paul said he was planning to replace them after Bowling Green, but what he found during the hemi's checkup indicated that now was the time. So, instead of racing last Saturday, he was in the shop working on the engine.
    He does have the next race circled on the calendar, and it's as outlaw as it gets, speaking specifically of the track -- Shadyside in Shelby, N.C., and the Carolina Xtreme Promods.  I enjoy seeing pictures of and watching video from small tracks in the South, and outside of George Ray's, which couldn't handle promods anyway (track record last I knew was 4.84 by a dragster), Shadyside is the most primitive I've seen. There is plenty of youtube video from events at the track, really professionally done, that gives some of the flavor of the racing there. It's hard to believe they go that fast there. Simply riveting to watch.
    The race is Memorial Day weekend. I'll be sure to preview it.

Yeow! NMCA Atlanta recap

        The racing the weekend of April 7-10 was terrible on many levels -- equipment blown up or crashed and the worst that can happen  -- the loss of life. The death of Top Sportsman racer Ronnie Davis at the PDRA race cast a pall over events across the South and beyond. The winds were blowing all across racetracks, to ill effect.
     Paul and the Cuda Beast, racing at the NMCA event at Covington, Ga., was almost part of the destruction, dodging a crashing Gene Musto in what one commentator described as the best driving he's ever seen to avoid a wreck. Yes, it was that close, and Paul even managed to miss the 330 cone.
     The Beast ran what Paul described as an "easy" 4.40 in a test, and then came the qualifying round against Musto, who spent more time in Paul's lane than he did in his own, crossing into it twice before hitting the wall. For once, it was a good thing that the Beast blew the tires on the starting line. Otherwise, the Beast gets smashed, and likely in the driver's door. Paul was pedaling to try to stay in the run, and said it was sheer reaction -- no braking -- to avoid Musto. There's video of it (of course) out there. The Beast wound up the 16th qualifier, drew No. 1 Tim Savell, blew the tires again, and the weekend was done.

         On a good note, computer guru Keith Dockery was back at the track for the first time in a year. He's the big guy in the red and black towering over the car at the back right center.

     Up next for the Beast may be a test session this Saturday at U.S. 43 in Etheridge, Tenn., to get ready for another NMCA event, May 12-15, at Bowling Green, Ky.  Paul said the tuneup focus is on the fuel mix -- "We've got to get it fat enough at the hit. It needs a lot of fuel." One other thing from the weekend concerns windy conditions. Paul said he won't race in the kind of strong winds that blew at Atlanta and many other places that weekend. 
    We'll try to set up the Bowling Green race and offer any info from the test session.