Tag: pro stock

The Driver Suit Blog-A Day At The Races

Scan0001By David G. Firestone

Every summer, I make a pilgrimage to two places, Jim’s Original and The O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet. This last week, I did both. Jim’s Original is still good, and the Route 66 Nationals are always fun.DSCN0798 DSCN0797 DSCN0787 DSCN0786 DSCN0785This year, I went on Saturday and Sunday. Normally I would only go on Saturday, but this year I decided to double the fun. I went with Argie, a friend from work, and I spent Saturday watching racing and wandering through the pits. NHRA tickets promise that “every ticket is a pit pass” and trust me, they more than live up to that claim. DSCN0781 DSCN0784 DSCN0796You can walk around the pits and watch as the teams setup cars before races and fix cars after races. The wear and tear on nitro cars is such that the entire engine has to be disassembled, repaired, and reassembled between races, sometimes in as little as 45 minutes. Needless to say, speed is paramount.DSCN0783I had been fortunate enough to get a pass to the Don Schumacher Racing hospitality tent. This not only got me the tickets, but also a chance to meet Tony Schumacher, and Ron Capps. I came into the tent a little later than normal, and I got to listen Tony talk to the crowd, and take questions. I got a chance to ask him something that I have always wanted to ask a driver… “What is the weirdest thing you have ever autographed?” Having done autograph signings since I was 5, I’ve seen a lot of odd stuff get autographed over the years, and I was interested in the answer. He responded that he has signed a lot of body parts, arms, legs, etc, and that his wife hates that.

A few minutes later, he mentioned that he wears a 5-layer firesuit, as well as two additional layers of fire protection. That adds up to a total of 7 layers. Most NASCAR suits make up 3 layers, with an additional layer underneath. Nomex is not a lightweight material, and on days like Saturday, when it was 88 degrees outside, that can get very uncomfortable. He is also credited with the aforementioned canopy to Top Fuel dragsters.

One thing I love to do is to buy race-used equipment from dragsters, and I did so this year as well. I bought a couple of valves from Tasca Racing, one large,tascavalve2-1and one small,tascavalve1-1Both show tremendous use, and have chips missing from them. Valves like these are used for one race and then replaced. The wear they go through for one run is very evident.tascavalve2-1 tascavalve2-4 tascavalve2-3 tascavalve2-2 tascavalve1-1 tascavalve1-2 tascavalve1-3 tascavalve1-4

The other race used piece of equipment is a gasket from Morgan-Lucas Racing. It shows a huge amount of wear, and is a very heavy, thick and durable gasket.morganlucasgasket-2 morganlucasgasket-1

It just wouldn’t be a race for me without getting some autographs.  I bought a Ron Capps funny car die cast, and had his sign it in person, and it looks really good.capps22 capps1 capps7 capps9 capps19I had a pair of gloves I wanted to get signed, and I did, by Tommy Johnson Jr.johnsonglove-1 johnsonglove-2 johnsonglove-8 johnsonglove-6 johnsonglove-5My favorite item it this brightly painted  helmet.  7-gordon1 7-gordon2 7-gordon3 7-gordon4 7-gordon5It was signed by Robby Gordon when I bought it7-gordon5a, and I got it signed by Clay Millian,7-gordon1a Terry McMillen, 7-gordon3aTony Schmacher, Tommy Johnson Jr.,7-gordon1bRon Capps,7-gordon1c and the legendary Shirley Muldowney.7-gordon2a

One thing I didn’t do as much this year was take pictures. I did take some, but not as many as last year. I did make a number of videos, as shown below.

That’s all for this week, I’ll return next week with a set of paint scheme reviews, and believe me, there are a lot of them!  Hope you are all having a fun summer!  Happy Belated Canada Day for our friends up North, Happy Fourth of July to my readers in the USA, and to everyone else, See you soon!

The Driver Suit Blog-Showing Some Love for the NHRA!

100_3556By David G. Firestone

While the bulk of The Driver Suit Blog is devoted to NASCAR, which, admittedly is my favorite form of auto racing, I do follow other forms of racing, and collect items from many different forms of racing. I am a fan of NHRA drag racing, and I attend races when I can. I have a decent collection of NHRA memorabilia, so this week, I’m gonna show some love for drag racing.

First, let’s get some factual history out of the way. Founded in 1951 by Wally Parks, the National Hot Rod Association or NHRA was created to act as a governing body for the sport of drag racing. Parks had previously founded Motor Trend and Hot Rod magazines, and was a racing enthusiast . The NHRA has 80,000 members, 95% of which are non-professional drivers. While there are hundreds of drag racing classes, The three most popular and well-known are top fuel, funny cars and pro stocks.

Top fuel dragsters are 25 feet long, have the engine mounted behind the driver to provide weight to the rear tires, which are 36 inches high by 17 inches wide. They run on a 90/10 fuel mix, 90% nitromethane and 10% methanol.100_3531Funny cars are designed with a frame, engine, suspension and cockpit with a fiberglass body that raises up to allow access to the car. The name “funny car” came to be because the early models in the 1960’s had the rear wheel base moved forward, and huge rear tires. They didn’t look “stock” so they were called “funny.”100_3545Pro stocks are an interesting design. Whereas top fuel and funny cars use nitro burning supercharged V8’s, by rule, pro stocks can’t use superchargers, turbochargers, or nitrous oxide. They also run on 118 octane racing fuel. Little consideration is given aerodynamically, and the cars can be hard to handle.alderman1

In regards to race-used equipment, I have this timing belt from Bob Tasca’s Motorcraft Funny car, this one used in his first qualifying session at the Ford Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol Tennessee. This run he had a 4.15 second, 306 MPH run. This thing is HUGE, measuring over 64 inches in circumference and 3 inches across.tasca-belt2 tasca-belt1As well as an ignition coil and a spark plug from Morgan Lucas Racing. Ignition coils are used to turn on cars in general, but this MSD 8142 is designed to fire up these 8000 horsepower engines, which need a lot of electricity to start and operate. I was fortunate enough to have Tony Schumacher and Ron Capps autograph it in person.mlr-coil3 mlr-coil6 mlr-coil5 mlr-coil4 mlr-coil1 mlr-coil7 mlr-plug

One thing I wanted was a race-used piston. I recently got one, but it is in two different pieces. The piston rod itself was used and autographed by top fuel driver Bob Vandergriff, and the piston head was used and autographed by Brandon Bernstein, son of drag racing legend Kenny Bernstein. The piston head is 3 inches in diameter, and the piston rod is almost a foot long!vandergriff1 vandergriff2 bernstein-piston1 bernstein-piston2

One of the more oddball items I have is this 1987 Budweiser/NHRA driver suit. Here is what I can say definitively about this suit: It was made in 1987, shows a lot of use, is not safety certified, and shows the Simpson open-wheel tag. Other than that, I don’t know much about this suit and I’m still working on it.budweiser budweiser-lchest budweiser-rchest budweiserb budweiser-blogoNow we move on to die-casts. In my die cast article, I mentioned that I have a 1:32 Cruz Pedregon 1998 die cast from his days with Joe Gibbs Racing.pedregon-1 pedregon-2 pedregon-3 pedregon-4 pedregon-5 pedregon-6 pedregon-7 pedregon-8 pedregon-9 pedregon-11 pedregon-10

During my recent vacation, I found myself at a baseball card store. I bought a bunch of NASCAR die casts, as well as a Darrell Alderman 1:24 pro stock from 1997, where the doors open, and the hood comes off.alderman1 alderman2 alderman3 alderman4 alderman5 alderman6 alderman7 alderman8 alderman9 alderman10 alderman11 alderman12Also from 1997, this Tony Pedregon 1:24 funny car die cast, with a body that is removabletpedregon-1 tpedregon-2 tpedregon-3 tpedregon-4 tpedregon-5 tpedregon-6 tpedregon-7 tpedregon-8 tpedregon-9 tpedregon-10 tpedregon-11My personal favorite die cast is this Bob Vandergriff 1:24 top fuel die cast.vandergriff-1 vandergriff-2 vandergriff-3

Now we move from NHRA to NASCAR with…

PAINT SCHEME REVIEWS

Jamie McMurray #1 Cessna Chevy SS  Not the worst patriotic scheme I have seen, but it it a bit overdone.  Giving it a C+

Kevin Harvick #4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevy SS  It’s a bit overdesigned, but the green looks good(I hate most shades of green used in NASCAR) and it earns a C

Danica Patrick # 10 GoDaddy Chevy SS  I didn’t think this was possible, but they took one of the ugliest schemes in racing and found a way to make it worse…the hood speaks for itself, and it says “I’m getting an F-!”

Greg Biffle 3M Window Film Ford Fusion What in the blue Hell is going on here?  This is the worst Greg Biffle scheme I have seen this year and considering how bad his schemes have been that is saying a lot.  F-

Travis Kvapil #32 Keen Parts Ford Fusion  Awful color scheme, and the goofy pyscadelic side design just looks awful.  I’m also laughing at corvetteparts.net painted on the side of a FORD!  F-

David Ragan #34 KFC Ford Fusion  Great color choice, smooth look, great all around design, I will give them an A+

Landon Cassill #40 Atlantic Plumbing and Utilities Chevy SS  Good color scheme, and the simple yet attractive design works well.  A

Kurt Busch #41 Haas Made in America Chevy SS  When it comes to patriotic schemes, it is hit or miss, and this is a hit.  The stars and stripes look good, and the overall design is solid enough to earn an A.

Josh Wise #98 DogeCoin Ford Fusion Such colors! Very design! So good! A+

Before I go I need to cover an update to a story I discussed last week.  I had discussed Swan Racing going under due to lack of sponsorship.  I did not get a chance to discuss that Swan Racing has gone under, but the two cars, #26 and #30 have found new homes.  BK Racing is now the new home for the #26, and XXXtreme Motorsports is home for the #30, though it will change to #44, and keep the current owner points.  It is always sad when a team has to close, but at least the equipment did not go to waste.  Sadly, Parker Kligerman is now out of a ride for the foreseeable future.