Huntsville recap, and a weekend off

   

    Last weekend's race at Huntsville was a pretty good one for the Cuda Beast in terms of performance and knowledge gained. Paul ran a 4.17, a season's best, to take seventh in a tough 8-car field that had the fastest cars running 3.70. He went out in the first round against the No. 2 qualifier and blew a burst panel at the finish line.
    Some of the times for the weekend were definitely suspicious, but the track assured Paul that his 4.17 was good, and Paul said he could really feel the G-forces in the driver's seat. Most interesting was a 60-foot .095, which is essential to sub-4 times. But 100-150 feet out, the tires smoked just a bit, and the Beast then hazed the tires the rest of the run, leaving two black strips down the track. So, a 4.17 with the tires not fully hooked up for most of the run was definitely encouraging.
    The blown burst panel brought back the backfiring problem that Paul had hoped he had solved with a new distributor cap. This latest episode got him to thinking about what happens deep inside the engine. He said he's never run a lot of valve spring pressure to keep from breaking parts, but the backfiring indicates that valves aren't fully closed when they should be. Plus, blower boost acts to reduce the actual valve spring pressure. After discussing the situation with his valve spring supplier, Paul said he's going to bump up the valve spring pressure for the next race.
    About the next race, Paul had this weekend's SOT event at Montgomery on the calendar, but he's passing (and weather may cancel it, anyway) it up to work on the engine and get ready for a race next weekend at Orangeburg, S.C. The engine passed a leak-down test after the latest backfire, but Paul says oil from the No. 8 cylinder indicates a ring problem, so No. 8 is getting a new piston and rings this weekend.
    Returning to Orangeburg after a couple of years brings up memories of a crash and fire, but Paul says that's all just history. The appeal of the race is that no screw blowers are allowed, which levels the racing field. More and more ADRL-spec cars are turning up at the races the Beast attends now, which means its 3.90s capability would still not be competitive. Though the payout at Orangeburg isn't as much, the chance to win it is much better without screw cars in the field.
    In fact, racing in the Carolinas next year is a definite possibility because of the ban on screws. Paul says he would be ready to go to a screw setup, but that would require sponsorship, which he doesn't have. We'll preview Orangeburg next week.