WEIGHT = MONEY
IN IHRA
Agent N2O talked with Pro Mod driver Pat Moore's owner about getting his
'57 Chevy coupe down to minimum weight since that sanctioning body gave
the nitrous Pro Mods 50 more pounds.
"The most we can take off of the car safely," he told the Agent, "is
about 22 lbs. We are waiting on a new set of lightweight rims and we
can build some suspension components out of titanium. We can't get it
down 50 lbs, besides it is going to cost us about $3000 just to lose
the 22 lbs that we can."
TOO LIGHT, NOT SAFE
The Agent was told that car builder Tommy Mauney went to IHRA prez Bill
Bader after the Norwalk race and informed him that the struts on the
Pro Mods he had built recently were only rated for cars up to 2600-lbs,
and that if one failed there might be legal hell to pay. Interestingly
enough, not too long later the minimum weight for blown cars dropped
to 2625 lbs. Very interesting!
BADER RULES SLAM ECW
Supercharged Pro Mod racer Carl Spiering had a nice sponsorship package
going with the New York-based ECW. A rumor circulating around the pits
at Norwalk had the popular Canadian team losing their sponsor if they
didn't qualify - which they didn't. According to sources, Bader supposedly
gave the ECW brass his word that they wouldn't make any rule changes
that would make the blown car un-competitive. The deal was that ECW
just wanted their car to qualify. Too bad for the hard working Spiering
and crew if this rumor is true.
NITROUS RACERS SHOULD STILL RULE DESPITE WEIGHT
ADJUSTMENT
According to the blower racers the Agent talked to at Norwalk the 75
lbs that IHRA took off the minimum weight for them will help but not
enough. Most figured it would be worth a couple of hundreths but not
enough to catch up with the nitrous cars without a gear change to go
with it. Based on the fact that despite losing 50 lbs off of their minimum
the nitrous cars still haven't gone as quick as they did in 1999, the
blower guys might be right.
ETHANOL NOT METHANOL
The rumor circulating the pits at Norwalk has the Stott brothers and
Tommy Grey using at least some ethanol instead of methanol in their
Pro Mod cars. Its legal by IHRA rules. Wonder how many more will follow.
HERE'S THE SCOOP
EFI maven Harold Martin told Agent N2O that a hood scoop takes about
70 horsepower to push through the air. Makes all of the scoop work done
by Mitch Stott sound more necessary and make the Agent wonder when a
flat hooded EFI Nitrous Coupe may appear.
3 IN, 8 OUT
A record eleven blower cars showed up at Norwalk despite the small (31)
number of entries in Pro Modified. When all was said and done only three
qualified, none in the top half of the field, and all were gone after
the first round. The Agent wonders how many of these guys will travel
to Epping even with the new IHRA weight break.
FIRST REAL HEMI PRO MOD
Chip King's ultra Sano Avenger showed up at Norwalk with an Indy Cylinder
head Hemi under the bonnet. The Hemi had the necessary cast heads but
didn't make the steam needed to qualify. The Agent hears that the hemi
was flogged at Jim Oddy's shop in New York and showed some promise,
but evidently not enough as it ran some high sixes but DNQ.
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