by Eddie Rosa, SpeedFactory General Manager
First off I would like to thank everyone that had any part in making the LX and Beyond Nationals happen, especially Anthony Carter. SpeedFactory had a great time at the Nats, accompanied by great car show and racers alike. The weekend was sunshine and mid-80 degree temps each day. There was a great spectator turnout all weekend, and a lot of great looking and fast LX cars.
As for our racing efforts this past weekend, the first of the test and tune passes were held on Saturday morning. The track wasn’t in the best of shape but we were looking to let her have it anyway. Leaving off of idle in second gear would net us no traction the entire pass and just a 11.903 second pass at 128.95 mph.
Knowing that we couldn’t be as aggressive as we thought we went back to the line and this time netted an 11.055 at 129 mph. We knew we were way off pace. Several hours would pass for hour third pass of the day, we decided to pull some timing to help with the traction issues. This pass was a 10.533 at 130.82 mph, now we were moving in the right direction. At this time the track had gotten pretty hot and we couldn’t hook up, so we packed it in for the night.
Sunday would bring an hour of test and tune and some better track prep. By this time we have pulled almost 12 degrees of timing just to get back in the 10′s, so we knew power isn’t the issue.
The first pass of test and tune would be a 10.798 at 131.97 mph. We are really close to the number with this setup, especially for a hot day. First round of eliminations had us bracketed with an 11 sec Chrysler 300. It was really anyone’s race, since traction had been plaguing us all weekend. Luckily we got through the first round with a 10.581 at 134.74 mph, the car was finally settling in.
The second round of elmins would bracket us with Rick Ellison’s super quick ProCharged Chally. We knew this was going to be a race, he was running 10.4XX all weekend long. I fell victim to traction yet again with Rick getting the hole shot and the victory at the end of the track. We did beat him in ET, our 10.461 at 138.47 to Rick’s 10.497 at 127.49 mph. Dan Vanhorn would go on to win the event with his 426 nitrous setup in his SRT8 Charger being very consistent.
Great event and lots of fast MOPAR’s!
