Shadyside spark

        It was a lonnnnnng Memorial Day weekend at Shadyside, thanks to the weather, but the trip proved to be a useful one even though the Beast didn't make the field, qualifying 13th out of 20 or so cars with a 4.32. The big discovery, Paul said, was that the magneto was faulty, which means all the tuneup adjustments basically "never made any difference" because it wasn't firing correctly.
     Paul said he suspects the problem may have begun while the car still ran a clutch, and when it ran its best times. Since the switch to the automatic, the Beast has come within about a tenth of its best clutch performances, and has been wildly inconsistent. "You could have a good run, but it wouldn't repeat," Paul said.
   So, the magneto was sent back to MSD for a thorough refurb, is recertified and back in the car. Confident now that any tuneup changes will be reflected on the track, Paul said he's going back to the fast tuneups when the car had a clutch for his new baseline.  The first chance to run again could be July 9-10 at Huntsville at a Southern Outlaw Tour event. Paul sees it as a test session, since the SOT is a screw-blower series. If the weather isn't too hot, he said, the Beast likely will be there.
    As for the quirky Shadyside track, Paul said the racing surface was great, an uphill shutdown area a la Holiday Beach, and even the hairpin at the end wasn't a problem.

   He said there was plenty of stopping room, but you had to get on the chutes "real quick. If your chutes failed, you'd be in trouble." The difficulty came at the other end of the track, Paul said, as the car had to be pushed back and forth to get it into the staging /burnout area. He couldn't fire the car and pull right into staging  But he likes the series, so it's likely the Beast will be back at Shadyside, and at other tracks in the Carolinas.
   We'll update closer to the Huntsville race.

Next race?

   Haven't been able to talk with Paul, but last time I did, he indicated this would be the next race. Open Outlaw Racing has a Facebook page that might have some information, and there's a slim chance the message board at promodifieds.us would have some. Hope the weather is good, and that everyone is fast and safe.

Refresher course

        The Cuda Beast will be at home in its shop this weekend, its engine out and apart. Even though it's a PDRA weekend, in Memphis, Paul says it's time for him to go through the 526 hemi and freshen things up, especially since he's going to reset the tuneup baseline and try some new things. "I'm going to need a good engine under me," he said.
      Based on a conversation with former top-team pro-mod tuner who is now working with the identical engine setup as the Beast's and is in the 3.90s, Paul says he has new strategy for programming the timing on the hemi to get it launched and fully powered all the way down the track.
     The Beast's best runs, a couple of 4.07s, came when the car ran a clutch. It has come close to those with the new automatic trans, but consistency and even lower ETs have been elusive. So, Paul is going back to the clutch tuneup that yielded the 4.0s, and starting from there with the automatic.
     The new engine plan involves starting out with less total timing than has been used, taking less of it out at the start and putting it all back in more quickly, after a second into the run. With the old clutch setup, Paul said the timing did not change during the run. From this new baseline, Paul said it will be a matter of adjusting until the car gets up on the tires and gets down the track -- and into the 3.90s.
     The Beast's computer tuning guru, Keith Dockery, has had a difficult recuperation from surgery. Paul said he will likely be in the hospital another week to 10 days, and then into a period of rehab.  Please keep Keith and Louise (Paul's sister) in your thoughts and prayers.
     With Memphis now off the calendar -- bummer, because I was looking forward to seeing the Beast in person as I did last year, but health, physical and mechanical, always comes first -- the next race will be another Open Outlaw Racing event, again at Huntsville on Sept. 12. At the last one, Paul qualified No. 8 with a 4.57 and smoked the tires in a first-round loss to top qualifier and eventual meet winner Rocky Flanagan, who had a 4.0 bracket car all day.
     The next PDRA event likely will be at Bradenton, Florida, the first weekend in October, and maybe the season closer at Richmond a couple of weeks later. If the Huntsville Open Outlaws race gets the tuneup nailed down, Paul said he might try another promodifieds.us Southern Shootout event, likely Sept. 26 at Atmore, Ala. 
    

Racing this weekend: Huntsville Open Outlaw

    Paul and the Cuda Beast return to the track this weekend after almost two months, heading to Huntsville for an Open Outlaw Racing series event Saturday. It is described as a series "for 3.90-4.60 race cars to run heads-up at two great tracks in Tennessee and Alabama." U.S. 43 is the Tennessee track. The series has a Facebook page.
     The purse is small, so the race will be basically a test session for the Beast as Paul looks to get dialed in upcoming PDRA races. At of this writing, more than 16 cars, from promods to dragsters to fuel altereds, have indicated they'll be on hand. Not sure if there will be any online news from the track, though the Cruzin-USA reality TV show will be filming the event for an upcoming show.
     While the team will be focused on racing, they'll also be thinking about team member Keith Dockery, the Beast's computer guru and Paul's brother-in-law, who had surgery this week in Chattanooga and will be in the hospital into next week. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers. Paul said crew member Gregg Cash is past his medical problems and should be at the track this weekend.
     Paul said he has added two new crew members -- Greg Parker and Toby Collins, a Top Sportsman racer from nearby Blairsville, Ga.-- to help on race weekends. Paul said he's hoping to make the remaining PDRA events this year. First up will be Memphis, in my neck of the woods, Aug. 20-22, so I'm looking forward to seeing the car in action again. Then it's Rockingham (Sept. 10-12), Bradenton, Florida (Oct. 1-3) and the world finals in Richmond (Oct. 22-24), where the Beast ran well last year. The Beast's class, Pro Boost, is the most competitive at PDRA events; the last one had some 30 cars vying for 16 spots. At the last event, in Maryland, the field was all sub-4 seconds, separated by less than a tenth of a second.
    I'll have a Huntsville recap next week. Be fast and be safe, everyone.   

Huntsville recap: Unhappy on the starting line

   The Cuda Beast's timing controller had bad timing in more ways than one at Huntsville last weekend. Paul and the Cuda Beast team headed to the Rocket City full of optimism, with the engine at full strength and backfiring problems likely solved. But the first test pass revealed that the timing controller, added when the Beast switched from a clutch setup to an automatic for this year, was not working. Paul said today he had been suspicious of it for a while, but Saturday, the suspicion was confirmed.
   The 4 seconds or so of a run are sliced and diced into intervals of tenths of seconds by the timing controller -- pulling timing out of the engine at the start to get the car off the line, and putting it back in at various levels for the rest of the run (that's my layman's understanding of it; hope it's reasonably accurate). It's hard to imagine that such tiny changes, happening so quickly, could have such big effects, but they do. Paul's controller wouldn't pull timing out at the start, so the Beast blazed the tires at the start, killing any chance of a decent pass.
    With the controller not working, Paul took a guess at the timing to get the car off the line -- timing it would have for the entire pass. No luck. The team passed up the first round of qualifying, readjusted the timing and went out for round two and blew the tires. They dropped the timing again for the third round, but again the Beast killed the tires.
    Saturday's racing wrapped up fairly early, so Paul said he set about trying to find someone who had a spare controller like his, an "8973."  In asking around, Paul said he found out that 8973s had fallen out of favor, and a new and less-expensive device, called a "grid," was now in wide use. A fellow at Huntsville had a rolling chassis for sale that had a grid, and he let Paul borrow it for the Beast. After church Sunday, Paul and the Beast went out for the final qualifying round with the grid, and took a stab at the timing, the lowest Paul said he has ever used at the start. The Beast spun the tires all the way to a 4.39, and the same went on in the second-chance race. Paul bought the grid controller, and is now looking to Montgomery in a couple of weeks.
     Paul said he talked with the mechanic for another team, who said Paul needed to consider one of two factors to get the car launched: blower boost or backing the timing off. Paul said he now has a boost graph to look at that is a picture of the boost for an entire run. He said he's inclined to leave the boost alone, and concentrate on the timing to get the car off the line. "We're not shaking the tires. We're spinning them," he said. "We have a mountain of torque -- we've got to harness it."
    So, Paul plans to hit the track at Montgomery as soon as it's ready, to get at least a couple of test runs before qualifying starts. If the Beast responds and hits its potential, somewhere in the high 3's, that meet will wrap the season. If the right combo is still elusive, Paul says they'll look for other races. "We'll go to Florida if we have to. We'd like to end in the 3.90s, and know where we are going into the next year."
    We'll be back in a couple of weeks to set up the Montgomery race.    
    

Back on track: Huntsville

   Car and driver are back in good health, mechanically and physically, so the Cuda Beast and Paul Gibbs are on the way to Huntsville this weekend for a Quick 8 shootout. Paul got a final check of his back yesterday and says he's feeling good, and he's optimistic that for the first time in a long time, the Beast's problems with backfiring are under control. After brainstorming with fellow racers, Paul believes a change from a less-expensive spark plug and the addition of a crank trigger to better control timing are the essential pieces of the puzzle.  He rues the false savings of the cheaper plugs: "We've lost a lot of money and chances at winning because of backfiring."
    The engine has been rebuilt, including a new No. 8 piston and new head gaskets to provide a bit more relief. It's basically the setup Paul was going to take to Orangeburg, S.C., last month for a race, before his back went out. That race was won with 3.9-4.0 times (screw blowers are banned), easily in the Beast's capability. That Carolina series, the Quick 8 Outlaws, could be where Paul races next season.
    But it's Huntsville this weekend, site of the Beast's last outing, which produced the best run of the year despite the backfiring and its related problems. The schedule on the flier above has been changed: There will be three rounds of qualifying on Saturday, starting at noon, with a fourth round on Sunday morning, and then eliminations at noon -- good, Paul says, as the nights now are getting too cold and too damp for safe racing. He passed on racing there last year at this time for those reasons.
    Not sure if Brian C. of promodifieds.us will be able to attend any of the racing, but check that site anyway, as information does tend to get out through other folks.

Orangeburg off

     Usually, it's a problem with the car that keeps it from racing. In this case, it's the other essential part of the equation: the driver. Paul Gibbs says he has had back problems off and on since his 20s, and on Monday it went out big time. When I talked with him Thursday, he was confident that the worst of it was over, and that he would be pretty much back to normal in a few days. He's getting more treatments for it today and tomorrow. So, no trip to Orangeburg this weekend, which would have been an interesting race from a competition standpoint (no screw blowers) and history (a return to the track where the Beast crashed and came close to burning up a couple of years ago).
    Meanwhile, Paul has been talking a lot with other pro mod folks about how they've dealt with backfiring problems, and will try a new tack: different spark plugs. These are NGK plugs Paul ran years ago; they cost $7 each, and are replaced after each run. Paul switched to a less expensive NGK plug (about $2) that offered the same performance. But the design is different, and another racer said that design can lead to backfiring. Paul remembered that the Beast never backfired on the more expensive plugs, so they are going back in. With this move, Paul said he won't change his valve spring pressure.
    When his back gets better, Paul will be back in the shop to replace a piston in the Beast's hemi (likely connected to the backfiring problem) and install a device called a crank trigger that is designed to keep the engine's timing more consistent during a run.
    So, if all goes well, car and driver will be healthy, and the Beast will be back at Huntsville in a couple of weeks. The last race there produced the best run of the year, but the Beast should be in position to better that, and maybe break into the 3's.

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.        

Goin' back to Huntsville, Huntsville, Huntsville . . .

      Not exactly the same effect of the old Dean Martin lyric, but Paul and the Cuda Beast team are hoping for big hits this weekend at the Bama Nationals. The last outing for the Beast was also Huntsville, where it eked into the field and lost in the first round to top qualifier/track record holder/eventual winner Dwayne Watkins. At that race, the Beast was basically running as a six-cylinder, as Paul found blown head gaskets in a postrace engine check, with two cylinders leaking badly.
     All that has been fixed, and a backfiring problem has also been dealt with by a new, extra large distributor cap. With all of those factors cleared up, the Beast will run with its current torque converter setup to see how it takes the healthy engine. Paul said the team will arrive today and set up, and hopes to make a couple of test passes Saturday afternoon, before the evening qualifying sessions. Paul said he hopes to hit the track soon after it opens for testing and a few cars go down.
    This race is an eight-car field, and has drawn some criticism for its scheduling across two days, qualifying Saturday evening and racing on Sunday afternoon. There have been indications that some racers may pass this one up, so it's hard to say how large and tough the field will be. I'm not sure what the coverage will be online, but check the message board at www.promodifieds,us , and if I hear anything from Paul, I'll try to pass it along. Next weekend will be Montgomery and the Southern Outlaw Tour. Safe, fast racing for all.

Good hunch

    Computers are a huge help to drag racers, giving them a complete picture of the performance of all the systems on a race car during a run down the track. However, seat-of-the-pants intuition remains essential.
    As the Cuda Beast's lagging 60-foot times pointed to the need for a different torque converter configuration, Paul also suspected from the driver's seat that the engine seemed weak. Last weekend, Paul decided to perform a leakdown test on the motor, and found that cylinders 1 and 8 were leaking, 8 especially. Paul said normal leakdown on his motor is no more than 6-7 percent; cylinder 8 was 35 percent, enough that air could be heard and felt. That indicated a blown head gasket -- detected early enough that the Beast dodged damage to the head and/or block that would have ended the season. Paul had new head gaskets on hand, and at the end of a long day in the shop, the Beast's hemi passed a new leakdown test with flying colors.
    Still, the Beast will have new computer info available at the next race, back at Huntsville, with a new device that will give a readout on engine boost for the entire run. Also, the fuel management system will be all in for the race. "We're going to throw everything we've got at it, all the technology we've invested in," he said. If all the pieces fall into place in the next few races and the Beast starts to meet its potential consistently -- 3.90s and even high 3.80s -- Paul said he would be likely to keep his roots blower setup and forgo a switch to a costly screw blower. Nailing the torque converter configuration will yield big gains. The Beast had .098 60-foot times with its old clutch setup; Paul said the converter should drop that to .094 or better.
    The schedule is Huntsville and Montgomery this month and next month, for a total of four races to wind up the season.   

Huntsville recap

       This time last weekend, Paul and the Cuda Beast were at Huntsville, with a drivetrain all at 100 percent, a good feel for the tuneup and high hopes for some 3-second passes.  Alas, it was more time spent on the learning curve, and the realization that the torque converter, though mechanically fit, lacked the right configuration.
     The first qualifying run, a 4.49 at only 135 mph, was because the car wasn't shifting into high gear. The team went through the drivetrain and found the Lenco out of adjustment. Subsequent passes, the computer data revealed weak 60-foot times, Paul said, a best of .101 when the ideal would be down in the .0990s. Plus, the .101s couldn't even be repeated. "We had tried all the starting line procedures we could try -- more aggressive, less aggressive," Paul said, with no improvement, which all pointed to the torque converter. "We were driving right through it."
    Strong 60-foot times usually yield strong runs, so the converter is going back to PTC for a makeover, and the Beast will be back at Huntsville in two weeks for the Bama Nationals (eight-car field), and then the weekend after that at Montgomery.
    Still, the 4.49 got Paul into the race at the 16th spot, apparently when a quicker car had mechanical problems. That put him against No. 1 qualifier and new Huntsville track record-holder Dwayne Watkins, who had a new hemi engine under the hood and ran 3.70s at more than 200 mph. Paul got him at the line and the Beast ran a 4.36, but Watkins took over quickly, shutting off early for a 3.91. He went on to win the event. Paul said Watkins' new motor was a proven 3.60s piece bought from ADRL hitter Bubba Stanton, who sold it with just a 3.80s tuneup, leaving Watkins to figure out the rest of it. Looks like he's on his way.
    Paul said the growing presence of "screw" blowers may force him to evaluate his setup for next year. As currently configured, the Beast easily has sub-4-sec. potential, even high 3.80s, but the expensive screw setups are bringing 3.70s to the southern outlaw arena, so 3.90s likely won't get it done. This equipment escalation may have lots of teams trying to figure out what to do, and whether, lacking sponsorhip, they can afford it.
      We'll be back before the next race in two weeks with info on the torque converter situation.  

Cuda Beast to staging

   That's right -- finally, there will be racing this weekend. Huntsville Dragway is the site -- historically one of the Beast's best tracks -- with 16 cars going for $5,000. The field of competitors will likely be huge, and could include cars that run occasionally, if not regularly, in ADRL. The weather is looking good, though it will be hot, and the track record is in definite jeopardy.
   (FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE: Got a call from Paul, passing through Chattanooga en route to Huntsville. The plan is to try to make a test run this evening -- testing is open from 5-11 p.m.-- which would be useful for the first two rounds of qualifying on Saturday night. Paul said if he looks like he's solidly in the field after rounds one and two, he'll forgo the final qualifying round Sunday morning.)
    Paul has the transmission/torque converter back in proper working order, and is ready for his first 3-second pass. He has just one race on his new Mickey Thompson tires, but says they are by far the best he's ever run.
   After this race, here is the rest of the Beast's 2013 schedule:
   

September

Sat 14 & Sunday 15 - Bama Nationals @ Huntsville  

Fri 20 & Sat 21 - Montgomery SOT  

October

Fri 11, Sat 12 & Sun 13 - Huntsville Rocket City Nationals 

Fri 25 & Sat 26 - Montgomery SOT  
   
    September will be busy with back-to-back weekends, but they are both excellent tracks and promise exciting racing. As for this weekend, you can find the complete flier for the race on the message board at www.promodifieds.us with all of the information you need to know. Also, Brian C. should be there to provide his sterling coverage, so check the message board for updates if you can't make the race.
    Be safe, and be fast.

Next race

    The Cuda Beast is parked this weekend, and will not race until Huntsville, in two weeks. Paul said he's glad to have a bit of a break to recharge and catch up on work. If he still had a shot at the Central Alabama Pro Mod Series points title, he probably would be racing next weekend at Lassiter Mountain and Holiday Beach, but Tim Segars pretty much has that locked up.
    We'll preview Huntsville closer to the race date. Meanwhile, Brian C. of  www.promodifieds.us is at today's U.S. 43 race in middle Tennessee, so can go to that site's message board and follow his peerless coverage and some of the Cuda Beast's competition. 

The craziness continues

     This year’s unpredictable season found new tangents on and off the track in the past couple of weeks. Paul and the Cuda Beast team had to forgo last week’s Central Alabama Pro Mod Series races while the transmission was getting sorted out to try to fix the problem of the car rolling through the starting beams. Paul was in second place, just three points behind Tim Segars, who at the time wasn’t expected to be racing that weekend, either.
    Well, Segars did race and won both events, pretty much locking up the points title. Paul is conceding as much, and doesn’t plan to run the series’ last dates next month. (A possible driving job for Ron Stokes didn’t pan out, either, as Stokes’ regular driver was at the wheel.) Paul said the Beast’s remaining races will take place at Huntsville and Montgomery, where the team was headed this weekend.
    When I talked to Paul on Tuesday, he was checking the bottom end of the motor and awaiting receipt of  his repaired transmission on Wednesday. As suspected, the bands were bad, which meant the line lock wouldn’t work properly, but a pump on the front of the transmission was also found to have failed, possibly due to exposure to excessive heat. With the pump not working, that meant the torque converter was also not working as it should.
    After we hung up, Paul kept rolling the transmission woes around in his mind and thought to look at the torque converter, and saw that it looked like it had suffered some damage. He called PTC in Muscle Shoals, and they said they’d be in the shop at 6 a.m. Wednesday to take care of things, so Paul was immediately en route to Alabama.  I  got all this from Paul Wednesday as he was driving back from PTC, getting ready to put all the new pieces back in the car and head to Montgomery.
      While this was going on, Mother Nature, who has rained out events all summer long, hit the Montgomery area with a severe storm, and a lightning strike at the track fried most of the wiring and timing equipment, postponing the race yet again. Track owner Jim Howard says he hopes to have things fixed by the middle of next week, but no new race date has been set. The next outing for the Beast could be Aug. 24 at Huntsville, though there are other possibilities in between.
      Needless to say, Paul was really looking forward to Montgomery. The car has run more consistently this year, in the 4.20s even with the sick drivetrain, and Paul is confident that he’s dialed in on the engine tuneups. With the trans and torque converter both healthy, and the new Mickey Thompson tires that he says are the best he’s ever run, Paul says he wants to hit the 3-second zone “now.”
     When the race schedule firms up, we’ll be back.

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.

     

Race weekend: Huntsville

    Paul and the Cuda Beast team will be on their way to Huntsville tomorrow for this weekend's Rocket City Nationals, and Paul is excited about the race because it's the first time he has been there since the track surface was redone. He said he's heard nothing but good things about the new surface, so he's looking to break into the 3's. On the old surface a couple of years ago, and with a clutch setup, the Beast ran a 4.07, its best ever, matching the number also put down at Montgomery.
    New for this race will be new tires from sponsor Mickey Thompson. The size (not as tall, and a tick wider) and construction are different, so Paul is hoping for better handling and less shake. He has been fine-tuning the different computer management systems on the car to help with the launch (in picture below, hazing the tires just into a run at Montgomery). He has also installed a new line-lock system to hold the car in the starting beams and put an end to a mini-plague of red lights that has cropped up recently.
    The Beast should be on the track for some testing on Friday, plus round one of qualifying. There will be two more rounds of qualifying on Saturday, with eliminations set for 3 p.m. The weather is looking better than it has in many weekends, and Brian C. of www.promodifieds.us says he should be on hand, so check that site's message board for Brian's peerless coverage.
    The following weekend, the Central Alabama Promod Series that runs back-to-back races at Lassiter Mountain on Friday nights and Holiday Beach on Saturdays, is scheduled to resume. Paul is second in points for the series with 11, three behind Tim Segars and three ahead of a gaggle of cars tied for third.
    Be fast, be safe, everyone.

May 16: There will be racing (just not this weekend)

         Talked with Paul on Wednesday, and he was in the trailer working on the Cuda Beast, with plans to race at Huntsville's Rocket City Nationals this weekend. While his tow dually is under repair after blowing its engine on the way home from the rainout at Holiday Beach, pro mod racer David Elsberry has given the team use of a dually so they can keep racing while Paul's diesel Dodge gets fixed. Elsberry's dually got the car and trailer back home last weekend when Paul was stranded on the side of Interstate 20. Racer Terry Priest helped get the stricken truck off the highway. That's the racing community for you.
    The racing schedule is stuffed this weekend; promods will run at Montgomery as well. Huntsville is having separate 8-car fields for blowers and nitrous. (Friday AM update: No separate fields. One, with 8 cars). There will be testing Friday afternoon and a round of qualifying Friday night. Saturday will have qualifying rounds in the morning and early afternoon, with eliminations scheduled to start at 3 p.m. The team likely would not have raced this weekend had last week's Central Alabama series at Lassiter Mountain and Holiday Beach not been cancelled. They will be shorthanded this weekend, but the car's loaded and ready to go. Once again, the weather looks really iffy.
    Saturday night update: Looking at a short crew, an unfavorable weather forecast, and still being worn out from the previous weekend's events, Paul decided to stay home this weekend. The schedule now looks like Montgomery the first weekend in June, followed next weekend by the resumption of the Central Alabama series at Lassiter Mountain and Holiday Beach.
    

March 10: Cuda Beast ready for 2013 season

Paul Gibbs describes his 2012 pro-mod season as the worst he's ever had. A spate of engine problems and a couple of mishaps over just four races or so, all while trying to dial in a new automatic transmission setup for the Cuda Beast.
     But that was then, this is now. Paul and the rest of the team are ready to race at Montgomery next weekend, and pursue a busy race schedule in a new series based in Alabama. Paul says the Montgomery race, a Southern Outlaw Tour event, will be more like a test and tune session to see if the new gear ratio changes will keep the Mickey Thompsons planted on the asphalt.
     Paul isn't planning to run the SOT this year, opting for a series that will run back-to-back races -- Fridays at the legendary Lassiter Mountain track and Saturdays at Holiday Raceway in Woodstock. That series already has five weekends on the calendar -- April through August -- and Paul also plans to run events at Huntsville, a track where the Beast has turned some of its best times.
    The SOT has acquired some new sponsorship and has boosted purses, enough so that a lot of cars that hang out in ADRL will be tempted to take on the SOT. Paul said he guesses the bump at MMP could be well into the 3.80s for 16 cars, and he's really not expecting to be one of them -- but great, should it happen.  The tracks on the new central Alabama series are smaller, and cannot handle the speeds the high-buck ADRL racers are capable of.  A 3.9 is about the limit, and Paul is happy shooting for that. Still, the competition will be tough.
     It has been a long, tiring winter for Paul to get the car refurbished. He was laying some paint on the Beast today, and hopes to have it in the trailer and ready to roll by midweek. There's a practice period and one round of qualifying on Friday, and two more rounds of qualifying Saturday, with races set to begin at 7 p.m. As in past seasons, when this site was doublehdragstrip(dot)com, we'll have pre-and postrace coverage of the Cuda Beast team. For race day, your best source is the bulletin board at  www.promodifieds.us , with the fantastic Brian C. providing coverage that is the next best thing to being there.