Let's crank this season up

   It's a big weekend for promod racing, with a PDRA event at Rockingham and the Southern Shootout opener at the Super Chevy Show in Memphis, but rather than travel hundreds of miles, Paul and the Beast team are staying closer to home for this NMCA event that is basically just down the road -- at Atlanta Dragway at Commerce, Ga.
   Paul has run well at Atlanta, and also experienced a crazy mishap a couple of years ago when his competition ran into him in the shutdown area. The race is an easy decision -- proximity, good payout and a level field. It's an all-run race -- but there are rules to make it even for blowers (no screws), nitrous, and I guess turbos.
   The team will get set up today for two rounds of qualifying on Friday and Saturday, one round of racing on Saturday, and the conclusion on Sunday.
   The Beast made just one of two test sessions that were on the calendar last month -- at Montgomery Motorsports Park. The track was hosting an Edmund Hall event, but Paul said track prep wasn't minimal, so the team didn't learn much from a couple of test passes. He said they took about 500 horsepower out of the motor, but the Beast still lost traction about 60 feet out. "If the track had been prepped, it might have held the car," Paul said. The team did not go to a test session at U.S. 43 the following week.
   As noted, it's a busy week for racing. I'm sure promodifieds.us will be covering Memphis, and there will be plenty of links to the PDRA event, but I'll keep an eye out for any Atlanta news.
   All racers: Be fast and be safe.

It's 2016, and almost time for racing

          It has been a long time away from the track, but Paul and the Cuda Beast team are getting fired up for their return after a 2015 season that was a tough one away from the racing. Crew member Keith Dockery, who spent most of last year in various hospitals, is getting better, "more like himself every day," Paul said.  This weekend, the team had a party at the shop to get things kicked off.
         The season will start next weekend with a test session at Montgomery Motorsports Park. Last year,  Paul had a conversation with a top pro-mod tuner who had run sub-4s with the same engine and setup that's in the Beast. The tuneup was radically different from what the team had been using, so Paul decided to tear down the motor and get the transmission refurbished so the car would be at peak readiness for the new tuneup. He didn't get to try it before the season ended, but will finally at MMP next weekend.
        It's a much more aggressive tuneup, which sounds counterintuitive for a car that's had problems getting launched. More power when you're blowing off the tires?  That's it. Paul said if they blow off the tires, they'll back down on the tuneup until the car launches. He said if the tuneup works out, he's expecting even better results than his tuner source got because the Beast is a couple of hundred pounds lighter.
       The MMP session will be followed the next weekend with more testing at U.S. 43 Dragway in Etheridge, Tenn.  The first weekend in April is the first big racing weekend, with the PDRA at Rockingham and a Southern Shootout event at the Memphis Super Chevy Show. Also that weekend, just 90 minutes or so down the road, will be a pro-mod event at the NMRA NMCA All-Star Nationals, and that's where Paul said he's planning to take the Beast.
      As far as the rest of the season is shaping up, PDRA events are definite possibilities. I'll post any test session results I learn. Round up your earplugs. The big noise is ready to return.

No racing

    Paul and the Cuda Beast team had hoped to return to the track these past two weekends, but were unable for a couple of reasons, the most serious being health problems for Paul's mother that have required her to be hospitalized. That occurred last week, between the Southern Shootout race at Montgomery and this past weekend's PDRA event in Richmond.
    Before the Montgomery race, Paul said the car was all set to go with a refurbished motor, and the only remaining task was to get the overhauled transmission back into his Dodge dually. The transmission has proved tough to get fixed, and Paul said he tried to borrow another truck to make the Montgomery race, to no avail. Then came his mother's hospitalization.
   Between  that and the long health struggle for Keith Dockery, the team's computer guru and Paul's brother-in-law, this year has been emotionally draining for everyone in the Gibbs family. They can certainly use all the prayers and good wishes you can send their way.
   Paul did mention the possibility of a race in Bradenton, Florida, but that's way off in December.  

It's race day!

     Paul and the Beast will be at Montgomery this weekend for the promodifieds.us Southern Shootout finale. That point series has already been decided, but it should be a terrific race nonetheless, as Montgomery and the Southern Outlaw Tour always put on a great show. It's a screw-blower series, but Paul is eager to try out the Beast's new tuneup at a track where he has run well before.
     Thursday, the Beast was all ready to be loaded up. Paul was in the process of putting the refurbed transmission back into his truck. That will mean he'll miss tonight's qualifying, but will have two shots and a test run or two Saturday. Since he was really busy, I didn't get into plans about next weekend's PDRA race. One at a time.
     Crew member/computer guru Keith Dockery is still having a tough go with medical issues, so keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
     As this is a promodifieds.us - affiliated race, the fantastic Brian C will be trackside to provide his peerless reporting and photography all day Saturday. Check the message board at promodifieds.us frequently. It's almost as good as being there.
    OK, everybody -- be fast and be safe. 

Into the homestretch

       As you might have guessed by now, Paul and the Beast did not make it to last month's Open Outlaw race at Huntsville. The engine was still out of the car then, but should be back in and ready to go for a possible visit to Montgomery this coming weekend.  It's the final race of the promodifieds.us Southern Shootout series, which has already been decided by Dwayne Watkins' dominating performances this year. But it should be a strong field, and Paul is eager to try the Beast's new tuneup against the screw-blower cars.
     In this downtime from racing, Paul has also worked on his hauler and the transmission in his truck. Paul said he's also interested in the season closer for the PDRA, which would be in Virginia. Paul ran pretty well there last year in the tough pro boost class. The PDRA would mean back-to-back racing weekends for the team, so we'll see.
     Paul said crew member and computer guru Keith Dockery should be going back home this month, finally after months of medical issues.
    We'll have an update on the end-of-season races as Montgomery approches.  

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.