Edwards & Young Racing – Seattle & Kent, WA.

With our racing season over, I’ll be taking a break from this blog for awhile. We have much to do this off season, putting the 350 together and getting it in the ’57 over the winter and going through the Chevelle focusing on the transmission (again) and it would be a good time to look at the engine after 199 passes. Running three cars there is always things to do!

So, when we have some updates on our progress we’ll be posting them. Until then to your good health and safe travels! – Roger

Update 9/22/2014: I now have four of the piston-rod assemblies in the block and making progress. File fitting the rings takes the longest to accomplish but is where the power is. – Roger

Update 9/24/2015: All the rods & pistons are in the block. For more pictures and future updates please see Our 350 SBC Project. – Roger

350 piston-rod combination. 5.990″ Manley aluminum rods

2014 NHRA Division 6 Summit ET Finals Information – Courtesy of Woodburn Dragstrip. Includes event schedule, rules, and map of team parking.

We’ll post reports on Paul’s progress as we receive them throughout the weekend. Paul will be on the team for Pacific Raceways and has qualified for the Race of Champions in Sportsman. Our thanks to Ron West for towing Torri’s Pontiac down to the event! Dennis Boley and Sharon Campbell are Pacific’s Team Captains – Go Pirates!  – Roger

Thursday, August 28th:

Ron and Paul are on their way towards Woodburn this morning. Chris will go down Friday night to join them. Safe travels guys and have FUN!

Update: Ron & Paul have arrived safely at the track. Today is tech inspection and test & tune.

Near Olympia, heading south to the big race!

In the staging lanes for Thursday Test & Tune

Thursday Test & Tune Runs:

1st hit: 12.38 @ 108.25 w/1.77 60 ft as it spun real bad at the hit.

2^nd hit: 12.317 @ 107.61 w/1.685 60 ft. Track is coming around.

3^rd hit: 12.285 @ 108.17 w/1.681 60 ft. Running hard! – Last hit of the day.

Martin Lambert on TNT hit, go Pirates!

Nick Douglas’ exceptionally clean ’68 Dart GTS in the staging lanes.
Nick is the newly crowned 2014 Sportsman Champion of Pacific Raceways!

Pacific Pirates team meeting Thursday evening. I think they are planning a raiding party to plunder!

Tough competitor, Bill Cadle, driving for Renegade this year in Sportsman.
His ’64 Dodge Polara is one of my favorite cars!

Pacific Raceways “Pirates” hoisting their yardarm in the stands!

Friday Sportsman Gambler Race:

1st Round: Paul wins his 1st round running a 12.241 on a 12.21 dial at 107.91 pushing his competition to breakout to get the win light! On to the 2nd round.

2nd Round: Paul lost running a 12.301 on 12.29 to his competition was on and off the throttle 3-4 times running 12.956 on 12.95 dial.  Jason Biscay still in along with Gordon Rust, Larry D, Nick Douglas

Gambler Race Results courtesy of Woodburn Dragstrip

Paul gettin’ after it at Woodburn during the test & tune, courtesy of Woodburn Dragstrip!
Paul placed 6th in Pacific Raceways Sportsman points race for 2014

Pacific’s Dustin Ward on the starting line with his hard-charging ’67 Dart in Pro bracket on Friday. Dustin placed 5th in the Pacific Raceways Pro bracket for 2014

Saturday Sportsman Race of Champions:

The Race of Champions is the BIG race at the E.T. Finals. Only the top six in each bracket from each track in Division 6 are eligible to enter. It is the big shootout of the best of the best from every track within the division!

10:30 am: Paul and Chris report it is raining and windy this morning at the track.

1st Round: Paul gets the win as his competition redlights. Paul ran a 12.318 on a 12.34 dial at 106.18 MPH.

3:00 pm, rain showers have ended. Forecast for Sunday looks much improved. 

2nd Round: Paul cuts a perfect light, runs a 12.328 on a 12.31 dial at only 102.45 MPH to take the win!! On to the third round!

3rd Round: Paul earned a bye run and ran a 12.24. On to the 4th round!

4th Round: Paul lost this round with a -.007 light ending his evening after doing an excellent  job today. Paul ran a 12.215 on a 12.24 dial at 108.43 MPH. We’re all proud of you son!  

We’ll have the list of winners when they become available from Woodburn. Tomorrow there is a team race to close the 2014 Division 6 ET Finals.

The Pirates did very well in the Race of Champions with Norm Braedt in his Vega winning Super Pro for PR, and Gordon Rust in his Chevelle took the Sportsman Wally also representing the Pirates! OUTSTANDING! It is also important to note that Norm won the 2014 Super Pro Track Championship at Pacific Raceways! Great year Norm!

Norm Braedt wins Super Pro Race of Champions!

Congratulations Norm! Your Super Pro Race of Champions Winner and 2014 Pacific Raceways Super Pro Champion!

Gordon Rust wins Sportsman Race of Champions!

Track Manager’s Challenge – Woodburn Dragstrip

Super Pro ROC Results – Woodburn Dragstrip

Pro ROC Results – Woodburn Dragstrip

Sportsman ROC Results – Woodburn Dragstrip

Bike/Sled ROC Results – Woodburn Dragstrip

High School Results – Woodburn Dragstrip

Junior Lightning ROC Results – Woodburn Dragstrip

Junior Thunder ROC Results – Woodburn Dragstrip

It is also being reported that Pacific Raceways won the Track Manager’s Challenge!! A total TEAM effort!

Sunday’s Sportsman Team Race:

1st Round: Paul’s day ended here when he broke-out running a 12.210 on a 12.22 at 107.84 MPH. 

More to come: We’ll be posting more of the racing results as they become available from Woodburn Dragstrip documenting the winners at this three-day event.

Pacific Raceways placed 2nd today behind Woodburn in team points. Great job by the Pirates!

Team Championship Points – Woodburn Dragstrip

To all the competitors, safe travels home and on to the 2015 season! – Roger

Video/slideshow: Memories of the Woodburn Division 6 2014 ET Finals

httpvh://youtu.be/1hXqKCrUN5o

Related links:

Gambler Race Results courtesy of Woodburn Dragstrip

Pomona bound for Braedt, Shepherd, Rust, Havens; Division Champs for Loos, Lint, Miller – Woodburn Dragstrip

Pacific Pirates Send Two to Pomona – Pacific Raceways

2013 ET Finals

2012 ET Finals

2011 ET Finals

Chris was out at the Lucas Oil Divisional at Pacific Raceways from August 15 – 17 racing the Chevelle in Pro Bracket. During this weekend the water vapor was unusually high here in the Pacific Northwest with water grains in the 80’s so it was expected that the car would be running off the pace as water molecules displace oxygen molecules in the air. Less oxygen equals less power.

The Chevelle ran consistent numbers on Friday and Saturday and all was looking well for the opening round on Sunday. However as has become the norm of late, the car unexpectedly slowed in the first round and wouldn’t run the number, only running a 10.653 on a 10.58 which it easily SHOULD have ran from the data on Friday and Saturday. The car left well but Chris stated when it shifted into 2nd it was like towing an anchor until high.  

The past couple of years for whatever reason, this has become the norm rather than the exception. Both Chris and I are VERY frustrated and we have been unable to find any problems in the engine short of tearing it down, so we are at the point where we must look at the transmission being the problem once again.

We once had a car that was extremely predictable that now only leaves us scratching our heads. Cylinder leakdown is good, there isn’t an ignition or fuel delivery problem and we’ve just changed the valve springs which were showing a loss in pressure but clearly we’re missing something. – Roger

Both Chris and Paul were back at the track this Saturday. Chris made it to the 2nd round in Pro Bracket in his Chevelle before being eliminated, and Paul made it to the 3rd round in Sportsman driving Torri’s ’66 Tempest before calling it a day. 

The good news is that Paul locked up 6th place in the Pacific Raceways Sportsman ranks to qualify once again for the Race of Champions at the upcoming Division 6 ET Finals on August 28th – 31st at Woodburn, Oregon! Here is a link to the ET rules:

2014 NHRA Summit Racing Series Finals Northwest Division rules

NHRA Summit Racing Series – NHRA

Chris launching hard on 7-26-2014, Mike Gardner photo

July 19th 2014:

It was a great day for Edwards & Young Racing as I made it to the semi’s for the 2nd race in a row in Sportsman, so got some more valuable points that should’ve moved me into 6th place.  It was a very humid & windy day at Pacific Raceways, actually one of the more windier days I have seen out there in a while.  We got to race under the lights for the first time this year which was kind of a cool deal.  I was having fun hanging with my fellow Sportsman racers Gordon Rust, Jason Bravo, Craig Smith & Larry DeCamp as we all made it past the 1st rd so that was pretty nice also.  It made it a little easier as we all were able to compare notes after each pass especially after the first few qualifying runs since we were all pretty much a tenth off of our norm ET pace due to the wind and humidity/water grains.

I ran 12.40 & 12.38 on my 2 qualifying passes and felt pretty good going into eliminations.

Rd 1 – Dialed 12.36 and ran 12.867 as I cut a .023 rt and caught my opponent at the 600 ft mark so I just fendered them the rest of the way.

Rd 2 – Dialed 12.34 and ran 12.344 as I cut a .010 rt as my opponent redlighted.

Rd 3 – Dialed 12.32 and ran 12.295 as I cut a .036 rt as my opponent redlighted.  This race was against Andy Collins whom had been on a big win streak over the last month or so in his black Nova so I was expecting it to be a really tight race.

Rd 4 – Dialed 12.28 and ran 12.305 as I cut my worst rt of the day and lost an extremely close race by .0108 to Joey Fielder from Bremerton as we were side by side all of the way down the track.  I dialed down .01 based upon the factors of the wind starting to die down a bit the air improving just a tick along with the fact that we only had 17 min in between rounds.

It was fun keeping my family updated via texts after each run but I truly missed you guys and will see you at the next race as there is nothing like going rounds and spending time with your loving family.  I couldn’t possible do any of this without all of your love & support!

See you at the stripe,

Paul Young
Edwards & Young Racing