Don't mess with Mother Nature

 

   Paul and the Cuda Beast team had hoped to be racing this weekend in the second event of  the Carolina Xtreme Pro Mods series, but officials looked at the weather forecast for the area around the Union, S.C., track and decided  to postpone the race until May 11. The decision was based on the likelihood of rain Friday night and a high temp of only 60 on Saturday. Safe conditions for the racers and track conditions conducive to good racing for the fans were the bottom line.
   I don't know if Paul will now seek out another race between now and May 11, but you can bet he's champing at  the bit to get back on the track after the Beast's first 3-second pass. I'll try to catch him at the shop for an update on his plans.

MoParty time

    As this is being written, Paul and the Cuda Beast team are on their way to Brainerd Motorsports Park outside Chattanooga, Tenn., to participate in the Southeast MoParty Picnic event today. Paul and the Beast will be on hand to make exhibition runs as part of the show. It's a win-win deal -- picking up a few bucks while getting to test. Looks like a great time for MoPar fans.
   This will be the third test session at BMP this year for the Beast, and the second testing weekend in a row, and the track time is starting to pay off.

Paul said the team has discovered that the rear shocks were bad, a problem that was likely cropping up before last year. The car is sporting new Penske nitrogen filled shocks, and Paul said the Beast's tire-shake gremlins appear to be gone.
    The team made two runs last Friday, getting all the way down more or less on one of them. On test one, Paul said the car basically overpowered the track prep about halfway down after a good launch. For the second run, Paul said he let his right foot be the traction controller instead of the electronic box, and slapped the throttle when the Beast started to spin the tires after another strong start. The front wheels lifted when the power came back in, the car got loose and the front lifted again after more throttle manipulating. In what was basically a shutdown run, the Beast carded a 4.60 at about 100 mph.
    Paul said he has his eye on the track's 3.92 promod record. If you can't make the MoParty event in person, BMP has a pretty good Facebook page that can offer information.

Idle this weekend

   Paul Gibbs and the Cuda Beast team had hoped to be racing this weekend just down the road at the NMCA meet at Atlanta Dragway, but Paul decided to stay home in the face of a rainy forecast. When I spoke with him Friday, he said he was expecting the race to be cancelled, but the race is trying to move ahead today despite some rain delays.
   Paul did say that he tested again last weekend at Brainerd Motorsports Park, and one test pass was encouraging -- a 4.29 after a 0.95 60-foot time and shutting off at midtrack when the car shook. Paul said that indicated the car was overpowering the track setup.
   Paul said he is looking at renting the Chattanooga track for a testing day, which would give the team total freedom to run without affecting other racing. We'll let you know if that happens.

Test hit

 
     (UPDATE, MARCH 24: RACE CANCELLED BECAUSE OF RAIN. I think Paul will try the last week of March to test, before  the Atlanta race the first weekend in April.)
    After what must have seemed like an eternity, Paul Gibbs finally got the updated Cuda Beast onto a racetrack, testing last Saturday at Brainerd Motorsports Park outside Chattanooga. In two test attempts, the pumped-up Beast succeeded in destroying its Lenco transmission. Paul said he suspects an air pocket in the transmission cooler led to the loss of a couple of quarts of trans fluid, and on to the eventual end of the Lenco.
     But when I got Paul on the phone this week, he was on his way home from Holbrook's in Chattanooga with a fresh Lenco in the truck bed. He said he expects to test again at BMP this weekend, with an eye on resetting the track's 3.92 pro mod record.
     I recommend checking the track's Facebook page, which does a fine job of covering the racing. Here's video of Paul's first test attempt last Saturday. The sound of  the new drivetrain is incredible.

Cuda Beast test

No racing this weekend

    Paul and the Cuda Beast team will delay the start of their 2018 season for another month as Paul is moving into a new house this weekend. He had hoped  to race this weekend at the NMCA meet in Bradenton, Fla. The new opener for the team will be the NMCA race in Commerce, Ga., in early April. In the meantime, Paul said he hopes to get in a test session or two at the Brainerd Motorsports Park in Chattanooga (I think that's the facility's new name).

Weather delay

    Paul Gibbs and the Cuda Beast team hoped  to be starting their 2018 season this weekend in Bradenton, Fla., but bad weather and a few loose ends related to the racing effort will keep the new-look Cuda in the garage -- but not for too much longer.

    Paul, who is a homebuilder, said the recent spate of bad weather has put his work way behind schedule, so he couldn't spare the time to race this weekend. Also, he is getting some work done on his two duallies that will move car and team to the races this year -- one to pull the trailer and the other to pull a camper that will provide sleeping quarters for the team.

   Still, the Bradenton track remains the target for the season's first race, as Paul has been invited to run the NMCA (National Muscle Car Association) promod series this year.

    The first NMCA race is scheduled for March 8-11 in Florida. That is followed with a race just down the road from Paul's shop, at Atlanta Dragway April 5-8. A likely third race would come May 17-20 at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, Ky.  Depending on how he stands in points after the early races, Paul said he might run the entire six-race NMCA series.
    There is a lot of anticipation for this season, as the Beast is packing several new upgrades that should put it in the upper tier of pro boost cars. The visual differences include Hoosier tires (actually, Paul switched for last year's abbreviated season), and a sleek new Bohr/Hammer blower hat.

  
      The new hat creates a vastly lower profile for the Beast, apparent in the top photo. As Paul put it, "The car looks two feet longer." The hat sits atop a new Fowler supercharger,

the company's  latest offering, which in turn sits atop the BAE hemi that has seen just minimal track time since it was installed.  All of those upgrades are being handled by the latest torque converter from PTC.
     The mechanical state of the Beast has never been higher. The test now will be transferring all of that potential onto the track. That should come in a few weeks.

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.

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.