Scenic City Thunder -- Race 1

         The inaugural race of the Scenic City Thunder pro-mod series is in the books,  and the winner was Alabama racer Rick Murray. His 1953 Vette was the top qualifier with a 4.23, and made the quickest pass of the day, a 4.19, to beat Keith Baker in a blower v. nitrous final.
       Paul, who is continuing to make good progress recovering from a compression fracture in his back, said he was pleased with the race -- fans turned out, things went smoothly after a slow start, and they got done before the curfew.
       Every new undertaking comes with a learning curve, and the SCT is on one for the next race, on May 24. The next event will go with just two rounds of qualifying, eliminating the morning round and starting the first round at 3 p.m., second at 5 p.m., and racing at 7. Track prep will get attention, too, particularly in seeing that the starting line area is scraped of old rubber a couple of weeks before the race, allowing a couple of meets to put down new rubber on the track.
      Car count was down from expectations. Paul said at least four racers didn't get their cars finished in time to make it. The Dixie Nitrous gang had a good contingent. If his recuperation continues well, Paul expects to have the Cuda Beast on the starting line next month.
     So, a lot was learned on Saturday to make the next race better, and that's everyone's focus. Here's one more shot of Murray's team (sorry, I don't know who took it). Rick Murray is second from right.

Let's get it going

      Saturday, this new promod series will debut, culminating a lot of hard work by racer Paul Gibbs and the folks at Brainerd Optimist Dragstrip, just outside Chattanooga. As detailed in the previous post, Paul is recuperating from a broken back suffered in a workplace fall and won't be able to race the Cuda Beast, but he is planning to be there with the Beast to welcome fans and racers, and maybe do a burnout (my .02: I'd forgo that).
    A big hurdle for this series has been sponsorship. One sponsor has apparently bailed on the series, and most other possible sponsors have already committed what sponsorship dollars they have to other races. So this series, at least for now, is launching without sponsors, but the track says it will increase the payout if spectator support enables that.  It's a bit of a Catch-22, but if you like good promod racing, this should be a good show. Paul said he had a tough decision on the payout -- whether to make the purse levels as big as possible, or guarantee $500 for qualifying for the 8-car field. The qualifying guarantee won out.
     It has been awhile since these cars have run at Brainerd, so it should be a treat for fans. The track has new management, and has made a series of improvements, as shown in the before/after pics below to the racing surface, guardrails (that old one had seen too much use), and shutoff area (they are real low-res screenshots, but will give you the idea). The weather is looking good, just a slight chance of precip Saturday night, but it looks like, at this writing, the only thunder should be on the track.
     The Fantastic Brian C from promodifieds.us will be in the house, providing his usual peerless race coverage. Here's hoping for a harmonic convergence of fans and racers for a fast, fun, safe event.

'Better than I was'

     That was Paul Gibbs' assessment of his condition Monday after last week's worksite accident that has put his 2014 racing season on hold.
    As you may already know, Paul suffered a broken back last week when a ladder slid out from under him while he was working on a house. As bad as it was, it could have been much, much worse.
    I talked to him yesterday, after he had been released Friday from a Chattanooga hospital, where he had been taken after the accident last Wednesday. Paul said he dropped about 10 feet to the ground, landing on his feet, which resulted in a compression fracture of his spine.
      The pain, of course, was excruciating, but Paul said doctors at the Fannin County hospital were really alarmed by bone fragments they feared could move into and damage his spinal cord. So he was taken to the trauma center of Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga. After a couple of days of observation, doctors there determined that the fragments were moving away from the spine, thus averting the need for surgery.
     Paul is back home in Mineral Bluff with a back brace that he will have to wear for six to eight weeks. In subsequent rechecks, doctors expect to see the fragments become encased in scar tissue -- sort of a natural protective response by the body -- which will neutralize them. Paul was also fortunate that no discs were dislodged; time and rest will let them heal.
    All this occurred less than three weeks from the start of the 2014 racing season and the launch of the  Scenic City Thunder pro-mod series at Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip in Chattanooga, a no-screw-blowers competition Paul has created. That inaugural race is April 25, and Paul said he plans to be there with the Cuda Beast, to welcome fans and racers, do an invocation and maybe a burnout. If all goes well with the doctors, Paul said he hopes to be back on the track for the series' second race, on May 24.
    Details are still being hashed out for the first race. One big sponsor has suddenly gone incommunicado, so the structure of the race payout is not yet finalized.
    "It's a real big disappointment," Paul said of his setback on the cusp of a new racing season, one that carries extra anticipation at being able to race at his home track and pride in a fast, fairer series he has developed. A race preview and coverage of the first event will be here, and I hope fans and racers turn out in big numbers for a real grass-roots, local racer-focused event. 
     

Ready for his close-up

     Here's a bit of fun to get you in the mood for the upcoming race season. This action movie, about a cross-country auto race/chase, made a stop in Blue Ridge, Ga., last year to film at a drive-in movie theater there. The locals were asked to bring their cars out, and Paul obliged, with his pro street Dart. It was filmed, along with Paul giving a fist bump to star Aaron Paul. Now, it just remains to be seen what made it into the final cut. At 2 hours and 10 minutes, the movie would seem to have plenty of time for lots of footage from north Georgia. Anyway, look for this Dart

     Progress continues on the new Scenic City Thunder pro-mod series that Paul has organized this year at the Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip just outside Chattanooga. A flier for the first race, April 25-26, should be ready soon. Though races are starting to turn up on the March calendar, at Montgomery and elsewhere, Paul said the six-race Chattanooga program will fill his season this year. Plenty of racing, without a lot of travel logistics. Chattanooga is less than 90 minutes from his home, and qualifying and racing will be confined to one day. That, and the ban on screw blowers, promise a great event for local pro-mod teams and drag fans alike. Paul said the Optimist strip has already run two regular events this year, and the new surface is providing lots of grip.  
     Paul is getting his blower refurbished, which will let him run less overdrive while boosting power, and the Cuda Beast is all set with a new torque converter configuration. Paul hopes to test at Chattanooga between now and the Scenic City Thunder opener.

New racing series for 2014

 

    The 2014 season for Paul Gibbs and the Cuda Beast is starting to take shape, anchored by six races in a new promod series Paul envisioned and has brought to fruition, called Scenic City Thunder. The "Scenic City of the Southland" is a nickname for Chattanooga, Tenn., and  the racing will take place at the strip run by the Brainerd Optimist Club of Chattanooga. It's Paul's home track, less than two hours from his home in Mineral Bluff, Ga. "It's like a dream come true to race locally," Paul said.
     The track, which is just over the state line in Georgia, has been operated by the club since the late 1960s, first as a quarter mile. It was refurbished last year with a new surface and guardrails. Paul said the improvements led him to start pursuing the track to host a promod series. He said promods have raced there before, but not in a while. The last race there Paul remembers (he was sidelined with back problems and didn't enter) had David Elsberry beating Bil Clanton. He said the promod track record is 4.15, which should fall quickly.
     The structure of the series, Paul said, is as follows:  Quick 8 format, paying $3,000 to win, $1,500 for runnerup, $750 for quarterfinals, and $500 to qualify. If there are at least six cars that don't qualify, they can run in a consolation race for $1,000, winner take all. The races will be held the fourth weekend of the month, starting in April and ending in September. The track will open Friday for parking and testing, with all qualifying and racing on Saturday. Paul said the racing will unfold in two-hour intervals: three rounds of qualifying -- 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., first round at 5 p.m., second round at 7 p.m., and finals around 9 p.m. The three rounds of qualifying should give Saturday arrivers at least a couple of shots at making the field, and shooting for a 9 p.m. final would get everyone loaded up and headed back home at a decent hour.
    The big distinction for this series, and what Paul says will be a big part of its appeal, is a ban on screw blowers. Paul said this will give teams without sponsors or deep pockets a much better shot at winning. Scenic City Thunder is in a good position to fill a void created when a no-screws series in the Carolinas ended its run last year.
     The Beast is ready to go, set up for a late-December race in Florida that didn't work out. Paul said he has one valve in the engine he wants to replace, but that's it. The Beast's first definite appearance will be the Scenic City opener April 25-26, but there is a no-screws race in the Carolinas in March that is a possibility.
     It's shaping up to be an interesting year. The race fliers should be ready soon.    

2013 wrapup, 2014 preview

      The DJ Safety chutes are out on the 2013 season for Paul Gibbs and the Cuda Beast team. This time last week, Paul though he might be squeezing in one last race, way down in Florida at Bradenton. It would have been the longest trip for the team, and schedules/logistics ultimately kept the Beast at home.
     The 2013 season marked the Beast's switch to an automatic transmission, and the learning curve proved to be a steep one. Into the fall, Paul did a deep dive into the computer data and did a lot of brainstorming with other racers, and was confident that he was on track with the setup. But the calendar ran out of races, so the answers will have to wait until early 2014.
     Paul made his first final, at Holiday Beach, and beat Bil Clanton for the first time to get there, but lost on a red light. (Holding the car on the line was another problem that required attention). There was bizarre stuff away from the track, as Paul's Dodge truck blew up on the way home from a race. He bought another one, and was on his way to a weekend of testing when that truck began to act up. A rag had somehow been left inside the turbocharger. Fortunately, the damage was minimal. New tires from Mickey Thompson really helped with tire shake. The real puzzler was getting the 60-foot times where they should be.
     The schedule for 2014 is unclear right now, as it is for all of pro-mod racing across the south. Efforts are underway to get some coordination among the various tracks so the racers can put on a good show, lots of fans will show up to see it, and the promoters will make some money. Paul was set on a series in the Carolinas that did not allow screw blowers, but it ended this year after a decade run. He said he will likely discuss with the folks at Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip, just outside Chattanooga, about a pro-mod series of four races or so, with no screw blowers allowed.  It's Paul's home track, less than two hours away, and it has been resurfaced, making it ideal for the big cars. Some match racing might also be on the agenda.
       So that's it. The Beast is in its trailer, ready to go right now. We'll be back next year when the racing schedule starts to take shape.

No racing this weekend

    A combination of events will keep the Cuda Beast in its garage this weekend, instead of hitting the track at Montgomery Motorsports Park for the season's last Southern Outlaw Tour race. The Beast's torque converter is on its way to PTC for some work, as Paul said the tolerances of some important pieces are off by a few hundredths, meaning they don't fit together properly. Also, chilly weather, at least by racing standards, has settled over the South for the past several days and will run through the weekend. That means a cold track and iffy racing conditions. Finally, Paul has agreed to fill in at his church this Sunday while the pastor is out of town to conduct a revival, so he was possibly looking at getting back home in the early hours of Sunday morning, grabbing a shower and maybe a couple of hours of sleep, and getting up in the pulpit.
      So, the Beast will remain idle throughout November, and then head way south to Bradenton Motorsports Park, near Tampa-St. Petersburg, for a big three-day race the first weekend in December. Paul said it will be a 9-to 10-hour drive, but the temperatures should be fine for racing.
     With 2013 winding down, Paul had been looking east for 2014, to the Carolinas at a no-screw-blowers series, but it just announced that it will cease operations after a 10-year run, and will hold its final race this weekend. Paul said there is another Carolina series that is a possibility, and maybe some races at Lassiter Mountain. Of course, the Cuda Beast team could join the pro mod technology arms race, but that takes gobs of money and thus is not something Paul can do without major sponsorship, as he's largely financing his racing out of his own wallet.
    We'll preview the Bradenton race after Thanksgiving. Have a great one.