2017 season: Let's test

       Paul and the Cuda Beast team had this weekend circled on their calendar as the start of their 2017 season with the PDRA series opener at South Georgia Motorsports Park. However, a lot of wet weather has put Paul's home construction work behind schedule, so he stayed home to try to get caught up. (The PDRA race is nuts -- 3.68 to 3.88 for the 16 Pro Boost qualifiers).
      When I called Paul Thursday, he was on a roof, but did say a test session is in the offing, in north Georgia at what he considers his home track -- Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip, now known as Brainerd Motorsports Park. It's the track where Paul tried to establish a promod series in 2014. The effort got off to a late start, which led to problems getting enough sponsors to ensure good payouts, and the track management situation was less than ideal. The circumstances were tough, and series ran one time while Paul was healing from a broken back after a fall from a ladder.
    Since then, apparently, things have changed at the track, just over the state line from Chattanooga, Tenn., and for the better, if online comments are any indication. It looks like racers are running the place now and are making improvements.
    The main improvement, Paul told me in our 45-second conversation, is the switch to concrete walls (top photo) after nearly 50 years of relying on guardrails (and not even that in the track's earliest days). Racers hate guardrails, which can impale a car or send it flying during a crash. The walls are a huge (and expensive) safety upgrade.
    The test session could come as early as next weekend. The Beast's new motor got one full run on it last yea at a PDRA race in Virginia, a multiple-pedal job that hinted at good things to come. Paul had traction problems early on, but stayed on the throttle all the way to get some engine data. The ET was 4.28 at nearly 170 miles per hour. With all of the pedaling, Paul said the speed with the old engine would have been a good 10 mph less.
    We'll report any testing news. This year's racing will be strange without the coverage by the late, lamented promodifieds.us site. Paul said he hopes to run a lot of PDRA events, which is good because they are usually streamed live and covered in detail at dragracecentral.com.
    Here are more pictures of Brainerd -- the guardrails coming down, a panorama from a big race last year (what a crowd!), and a shot I took around 1970.