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.
No comments:
Post a Comment