April 7th 2012 – Post-race Report

Posted on Sunday, April 8, 2012 by Roger

This was an absolutely beautiful day here in the Northwest with Mt. Rainier fully visible in all her magnificent glory.  The air conditions were excellent and the track was equally good for the first round of eliminations.

Paul drove his Dodge Dakota to the semi-final round in Sportsman starting out the 2012 season in fine fashion, and Torri won her very first round in competition in her ’66 Tempest and set new records for the Pontiac recording a best of 12.362 @ 107.97 mph. She later went even faster at 108.80 mph but her E.T. fell off slightly. 

Update: Paul is currently in 3rd place in Sportsman with 60 points after the first race of the 2012 season.

Chris recorded his quickest run to date at Pacific Raceways in the first round of eliminations of Super Pro when he ran a 10.331 @ 127.50 MPH on a 10.40 dial-in. It would have been virtually impossible to win this round as Jess Dale put together a .002 package  cutting a .002 light and running a 8.700 on a 8.70 dial !

The Chevelle grew legs in the first round after recording a 10.394 and 10.404 respectfully during time runs. The 10.33 was an unexpected surprise, but we’re very happy with how the car is working.

httpvh://youtu.be/JQ-pJ4xzWu4

April 6th 2012:

Pacific Raceways now has their 2012 Points System & Payouts posted.  Read the details here.

Posted in Edwards & Young Updates, Post-race Report | 4 Comments

Pro Stock legend Bill ‘Grumpy’ Jenkins dies – March 29th 2012

Posted on Thursday, March 29, 2012 by Roger

Pro Stock legend Bill ‘Grumpy’ Jenkins dies – NHRA – March 29, 2012

Courtesy of DragRacingOnline

 

NHRA Bill Jenkins Memorial Video:

Farewell to the grumpy one by Phil Burgess – NHRA – March 30, 2012

“…I’m going to go out on a limb and risk offending some of the many drag racing legends whom I call friends, but I’m going to say that I feel that, strictly on a historic perspective, the loss of Jenkins is the biggest one the sport has ever suffered…”

Bill Jenkins, 81, Drag Racing Driver and Innovator, Dies – New York Times – April 3, 2012

Video submitted by Butch on June 21, 2012:

httpvh://youtu.be/Ai3cnc-77ZE

Posted in Discussions, NHRA National News, Pro Stock News | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Test & Tune, March 25th 2012, Pacific Raceways

Posted on Monday, March 26, 2012 by Roger

First day of Test & Tune at Pacific Raceways, Kent WA. March 25th 2012. First runs with new Scribner 9-inch Ford housing in our ’71 Chevelle.

Video by Pam Young:

Goal: To adjust the rear suspension to launch straight.

Edwards & Young Racing. 406 c.i. small-block Chev. TH-400 trans with trans brake, ladder bar coil-over rear, Strange center section, Moser 35-spline axles.

Here’s a video Pam took of Jeff Wanke’s Nova at the TNT. They are having some problems and hope this will help?

March 30, 2012:

There is an old expression, “a picture is worth a thousand words” and in this case a photo taken by the track photographer gives us vital information not captured in any of our videos. It is clear from his photo that we need to increase the pressure in the slicks, as the tires are waffling too much on the starting line.

See:

http://seeitimagery.smugmug.com/PacificRaceway/Test/Pacific-2012-Test1-27mar2012/22135501_gJTJDw#!i=1767353420&k=5R4wp3g&lb=1&s=X2

Posted in Edwards & Young Updates | 5 Comments

Kudos to Pacific Raceways!

Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2012 by Roger

On Monday, March 12th, Pacific Raceways posted the following on their Facebook page:

“Let’s get ready for drag racing! The track was scraped last week and washed down with Tide on Sunday. The first drag test & tune for the season is Sunday [March 18th]. Hope to see everyone out.”

 

Track prep at Pacific Raceways - March 2012

 

As anyone living here can tell you, the weather here has been miserable with temperatures 10-degrees below normal, plenty of rain with hail and snow flurries. 

We want to thank the crew at PR for attempting to prep the track under miserable conditions, and for the track keeping us all informed.  Communications from Pacific Raceways are improving and we appreciate it!

Roger, Chris & Paul Young – Edwards & Young Racing

March 18th Test & Tune Cancelled:

In from John Ramsey at Pacific Raceways on March 16th –

“Okay everyone, we need a couple more days to get the drag strip prepped before we can safely run cars down the track…and the weather isn’t cooperating. The track was scraped a week ago and it was washed with Tide earlier in the week, but we need an additional two days without rain or snow to go back through and finish the process, and it’s not going to happen with the latest forecast. The fore…cast for this weekend is more like a December weekend, than March. The weekend high is 42 degrees and the overnight low is 29 with snow and rain predicted. This week was spent getting the electronics, computer system, sensors, and scoreboards up and running. We have a crew ready to roll at the first sign of good weather and we will keep you updated on our progress. There will be no test and tune this Sunday, and we will point to next Sunday March 25 for the first test and tune of the season. – John Ramsey”

Posted in News From Div 6 and/or Local Tracks | Tagged | 3 Comments

Remembering Buddy Ingersoll…

Posted on Sunday, March 11, 2012 by Roger

Buddy Ingersoll Passes – CompetitionPlus – March 11, 2012

Video – Ingersoll’s innovative twin-turbo Buick Regal in IHRA 1986: 

Buddy Ingersoll – The Day Modern Technology Scared Pro Stock – CompetitionPlus

Turbo pioneer, world champ Ingersoll dies – NHRA – March 13, 2012

The Buddy Turbo Story – 10-second Pinto – January 1979

Posted in Pro Stock News | Tagged | 4 Comments

How Will Rising Gas Prices Impact Your Racing?

Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2012 by Roger

February 23, 2012:

You’d have to be living in a cave not to be aware of the skyrocketing gas prices these days. Every time there is unrest in the Mideast – the latest being with Iran – the oil speculators immediately drive up the price of crude oil.

Our President only made matters worse when he shot down the proposed Keystone pipeline project from Canada to Texas.

With gas prices already $5.00 per gallon in some areas and still climbing, how is this going to impact your racing in 2012?  How will it impact our sluggish economic recovery? – Roger Young

ABC News Report –  Gas Prices: Wall Street at Fault?

Western senators ask Justice Department to probe soaring gas prices this year – FoxNews – 27 Nov 12

Posted in Discussions | 16 Comments

Helping Homeless Vets

Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2012 by Roger

McMillen Team Rolls Up Sleeves, Looks For Veterans To Help – CompetitionPlus– 21 Feb 12

Related article: Power Of Caring: McMillen’s 2nd Dragster To Help Veterans – CompetitionPlus – 21 Feb 12

Posted in Discussions, Links To Feature Stories | 1 Comment

Yet Another Example of Liberals and Racing

Posted on Monday, February 20, 2012 by Roger

We all know the ongoing struggles here in the Northwest in getting an expansion plan for Pacific Raceways approved. The hurdles keep getting higher. But it’s not just drag racing they have learned to despise, it’s racing in general.

Here’s a recent article regarding NASCAR, and how they love the fact the General Lee won’t be a pace-car and why they are celebrating. Enjoy some of the comments:

 NASCAR wise to keep ‘General Lee’ in park by David Whitley

 

Posted in Discussions | 5 Comments

A Teachable Moment

Posted on Tuesday, February 14, 2012 by Roger

In the off season it is a good time to reflect back on a specific event that took place this last summer.

At the last race at Pacific Raceways on July 30, 2011, Paul made a pass at 12.54 @ 106.12 MPH at a density altitude of 1673 feet in Torri’s Tempest. Prior to him going to Boise, Idaho for the E.T. finals, we calculated and adjusted the main jets in the carburetor and the ignition timing to minimize the loss of power running at higher altitude.

In one pass at Boise he ran a 12.758 @ 105.770 MPH at a density altitude of 3812 feet. And the highest density altitude he ran at Boise was 5029 feet, and even at that high density altitude went 104.68 MPH. [Only 1.44 MPH off the above mentioned run at Pacific Raceways]

Yet we know of many Pro and Super Pro cars that came to Boise from Pacific Raceways and saw their performance drop off markedly by .6 seconds and 6 mph in higher horsepower vehicles. Why? Because they failed to calculate or make any adjustments to their air/fuel ratio prior to going to Boise! They were simply running far too rich at Boise and their performance markedly suffered.

I recommend that our fellow racers spend some time on our Tech Tip page where we address the need for changing main jets when going from a low altitude track to a high altitude track or conversely, going from a high altitude track to sea level. 

The specific article dealing with this is: Air Density & Fuel Mixtures which I wrote in February 2004.

I have a lot of information on that page that may help your program and it’s all for free. You just might learn something!

Roger Young – Edwards & Young Racing, bear317@aol.com

Posted in Discussions, Technical Discussions | 2 Comments

Video: 2012 NHRA Winternationals Mike Austin Crash

Posted on Sunday, February 12, 2012 by Roger

Medford, Oregon’s Mike Austin goes for a wild ride during Top Alcohol Dragster Round 1 at the 2012 Winternationals. Mike amazingly walked away from this incident.

 

Posted in NHRA National News, Videos | 3 Comments

In Remembrance

Posted on Wednesday, February 8, 2012 by Roger

Found this excellent video on YouTube:

Posted in Videos | 2 Comments

Mission Raceway 2012 Promo

Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2012 by Roger

Paul found this on YouTube. Enjoy!

watch?v=pNpFh-q1ieo

Mission has always been one of my favorite tracks. Here’s a video by Larry Pfister of Horsepower Heaven in 2005 at the Langley Loafer’s Race. Our ’57 is the 4th car in the video:

Posted in News From Div 6 and/or Local Tracks, Videos | 2 Comments