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.   

Steele-ing away today

   Just found out online that Paul and the Beast are at Steele, Ala., today for the Shoot Out at Steele, part of the promodifieds.us Southern Shootout series. It's not an series Paul was planning to run, as it allows screw blower cars. The focus this year is the PDRA pro boost class, which ran last weekend at St. Louis. Paul had that date on the calendar, but did not go.
  Health issues have left the Beast team short of crew members, but Paul has added some equipment -- a starter device and a backup camera -- to enable him to be more or less self-sufficient on the starting line.
Since I just found this news by accident, I don't know who is with him or have any updates on crew members Keith Dockery and Gregg Cash.
   There will be racing updates, however, on the message board at promodifieds.us, so check there. Brian C. is at the track, and will be providing his peerless analysis and photography to the finish. Qualifying is supposed to start at 1 p.m., probably two rounds, and then racing. It's an eight-car field, and lots of heavy hitters are there. Let's hope the Beast is among them. Fast and safe racing, everyone.  

No Ohio Valley this weekend

    Paul and the Cuda Beast will be at home this weekend, as team personnel are still trying to get on the mend from health issues. Paul says the news from that front is encouraging for Gregg Cash and engine computer guru Keith Dockery, who is feeliing better, and will start cancer treatments soon.
   After forgoing the PDRA race in Louisiana, Paul had penciled in a race at Ohio Valley, near Louisville, Ky., this weekend, but various factors, including the availability of crew members, nixed it. Ohio Valley would have been a new track for Paul, and an interesting race. Though open to screw blower cars, the field might have been a tad more accessible with a big event at Huntsville this weekend expected to draw a lot of the South's heavy hitters.  Hard to say what the purse difference might make -- $5k vs. $3k at Huntsville to win. Huntsville is a Southern Shootout event for points, so participants in that series will likely take the longer view of things.
     Activity at the shop has been busy, despite the lack of racing. To try to make the starting line routine more efficient and more self-sufficient, Paul is installing a rear-view camera in the Beast, which should let him back up correctly after a burnout without needing someone to guide him back. It's a slick, hi-def setup that comes in at 10 pounds, Paul said. It points at the wheelie bar and can see 35 feet back. It would be great if it has any recording capability.
   Also new will be a self-primer for the motor, so the car can be started without needing anyone to squirt stuff into the injector. With these additions, the only thing that an extra person will have to do is remove the throttle stop after the burnout. For safety and performance, the Beast is also getting a carbon-fiber driveshaft..
    The other parts of the Beast convoy have also been getting attention. The fan clutch on the Dodge dually needed replacing, as did the six sets of brakes on the 50-foot trailer that hauls the Beast. You definitely want to keep that under control.
   The next race on the schedule is the PDRA in St. Louis at the end of the month. See you back here then.

No racing this weekend

   Paul and the Cuda Beast will be idle this weekend as key crew members face health issues. The PDRA race in Louisiana had been penciled in for this weekend, but not enough hands are available to do all the work that is required during a race weekend.
   Team member Gregg Cash had stents put in his legs this week, and computer guru Keith Dockery continues to deal with a cancer diagnosis. Paul said Gregg hopes to be back at work at his body shop in a week or so, while Keith's doctors have advised him to put this racing season on hold.
    If Gregg recovers on schedule, Paul said the next race will likely be May 15-16 at Ohio Valley Raceway near Louisville, Ky. It's a true outlaw race, open to screw cars, but it's also the same weekend as the Southern outlaw series race at Huntsville, which will draw the bulk of the South's heavy screw hitters. Ohio Valley will be a new track for the team, but Paul said he has heard good things about it, and that Brandon Snider ran 3.66 there last year for the track record.
   In the previous post, Paul said he's looking for people interested in volunteering to help on race weekends. There is no pay -- food at the track is it. It's a long, hard couple of days, but a good opportunity to get some up-close, hand's on experience if you are interested in getting into promod racing. Don't expect to be hanging out at the fence watching races. The only cars you'll see racing will be the Beast and whoever is in the other lane. Call Paul at 706-258-8241 if you are interested.
    We'll be back as the Ohio Valley race gets closer. Keep Keith and Gregg in your thoughts.

Rockingham, other updates

   Paul and the Cuda Beast team had a fairly frustrating time at Rockingham last weekend. Paul had originally planned to leave on Wednesday, test Thursday, and go racing Friday and on the weekend. Instead, he didn't get away until Friday, and a flat tire and wrong turn made for a long, late travel day. Two qualifying attempts didn't get out of the fives, as launches remained a problem. Here's a photo, taken immediately after the one above, in Paul's last qualifying bid.

   The left rear slick appears to be off the surface; it is not wrinkled, as it is in the top photo. Paul said that particular qualifying session was troublesome for the vast majority of cars as the track really heated up when the sun came out. In his first qualifier, Paul said he had too much power in the car. The right balance of tuneup and the timing management of that power remains elusive.
   Paul also had information about crew member Keith Dockery, his brother-in-law and engine computer guy, who is facing a serious health issue. The bad news is that a malignancy was found, as doctors likely suspected, but further tests did not find that the cancer had spread. That bit of good news means that his chemotherapy will be directed right at the site, avoiding an overall chemo regimen and the side effects that causes. Any return to races this season is uncertain, and unlikely; Paul said Keith asked his doctors about that possibility, and they told him to forget it.
   Also, team member Gregg Cash is also having some health issues, and his status could be up in the air as well.
   So, Paul said he is seeking volunteers to help the team at races this season. There is no pay; Paul said all he can guarantee is that people will be fed at the track, and that there will be plenty of hard work to be done (I'll vouch for that; I was around the team a few hours at a race last year, and I got tired just photographing them). It will also be an opportunity for people who are interested in pro mod racing to learn firsthand what is involved.
   Paul said he had good help at Rockingham from father and son Blaine and Charles Silver, and has put out a request for other volunteers on Facebook. He has received some responses; running at the next PDRA event, in Shreveport, La., in about three weeks, is contingent on having sufficient help. If you are interested in assisting Paul and the Beast team, call Paul at 706-258-8241.
   We'll be back with a Shreveport update. Keep the Beast team in your thoughts as they work through these difficult times.