- Joined
- May 26, 2001
Hello everyone.
Patrick Rubio here. Been a long time since I've been online and able to post. Sorry if this gets a little long winded, I'll try to keep it brief.
So this story begins the Sunday after the GS Nationals were I placed 3rd in TSE and ran a best of 10.09 @ 134+. I successfully completed my one and only goal this year and that was to be able to drive the car onto the trailer not broke and into my garage after BG. Dave and I are un-loading my car RU to keep in his garage until I can come back and pick her up to take back to Indiana. He says in his best Jedi mind trickery, Hey Pat, why don't we take her around the block and see how bad she spins on radials, you know have a little fun." And I'm like, sure let's go. Ok, the car was still tuned on full kill with race gas and 30psi, but with my old radials. (and when I say old, I mean '97 vintage 295/50/15 Radial T/A's, not drag radials) The trunk has both slicks and a tool box full of tools plus my Wolf car cover. We figured total weight with both of us in it was pushing close to 3800+#s easy. I'm a little worried about getting on it in this state of tune but we press on. I ease into it in second and she tries to hook then starts to spin. We both look at each other with big grins on our faces. I merge onto the highway and hammer down 2nd and the tires spin pretty good but not out of control, slamming 3rd it still spins but it's a controlled spin. We get to Dave's buddies house (Mustang racer) who's not at home and I let Dave drive her back to his place. The man is merciless with the car. As soon as we pull out onto the highway, he's in it. Spinning all of 1st, into 2nd and into 3rd. Up to about 120 or so. Man that felt good. It's one thing to launch hard at the track on slicks, but it's a whole other ball game driving a 10 flat car on regular radials on the street. We get back un-scathed thankfully, both of us thinking man this car would be fun to race with some drag radials.
Fast forward 4 weeks later to last Saturday. My co-worker Duane Waldrop and his racing buddies are putting on a big event at our local track in Morocco at US-41. He's telling me that they have an EFI class with the only rules being you have to run Drag Radials and be a modern EFI car. All week I'm thinking about it and on Wednesday I make the decision to take RU. I make arrangements to borrow a trailer, and go pick her up from Dave's Friday night. On Saturday morning, the day of the race, we discover a huge exhaust leak originating from a loose header bolt. After thrashing for two hours we got her fixed. I load the same race program into the FAST and leave the boost at 28psi. Trunk full of stuff I head to the track. I get there and there's tons of cars. I was behind two 03 Cobras coming into the gate so I'm thinking hey this could be interesting. Unfortunately, the Cobra's didn't want to play. They called us to the lanes 30 minutes after I get there for 1st round of qualifying.
The EFI class rules state drag radials, 3300# for normally aspirated and 3500# for power adders, run on a .400 Pro tree. Now, I had no idea what the car would run on these worn out old radials, Dave made a guess that it felt like it would run some 10.90's. So I poured in 5 gallons of C-16 and didn't take a thing out of the trunk. The car probably weighed about 3700#s with me in it at this point. My first round qualifying pass pitted me against a white 90's GT who was also on regular radials and had nitrous. Now, it's been since 97 since I tried to race RU with radials so I didn't know what to expect. I brought her up to about 2800 and let go of the brake, slowly getting into the gas at about the 100ft mark I'm at WOT and the tires spin violently. I shift to 2nd and ease into the gas again. They start to spin again so I shift into 3rd, by which time I'm semi hooked and really bookin. 1st pass... 12.23 @ 125 with a 2.21 60ft.
Ehhh, not too bad, I just gotta get used to these radials again.
For my second round of qualifying I did something stupid. I turned up the boost. BIG mistake. This time I was running against a Sweet looking Red 99 Ram Air T/A. He kills me off the line. I ease into the gas, but it was too no avail. everytime I got to about 3/4 throttle the tires lit up like a Top Fuel Funny Car. I've never had to drive this car so hard or so violently in my life, it was out of control. She tried to hook up just pass the 1/8th but the boost hit 30psi and she started to spin at the 1000 ft mark and started to drift sideways. I lifted and coasted to a 13.91 @ 117. I got out shaking after that one. Big mistake turning the boost up I thought. I immediately turned it down to the lowest it would go.
Bear with me guys.
So the competition looked like this, #1 qualifier with a 12.02 @ 114 was a SN95 body maroon Mustang, sounded pretty healthy, probably a 331 or 347 stroker N/A car, pure 17" BFG Drag Radials. I was #2 with my 12.23 pass. #3 was a 383 SBC 85-86 Vette with DFI and drag radials who ran a 12.30ish @ 115. 4th was another Mustang in the mid 12's, 5th was the nice Red Ram Air T/A, and 6th was the White GT who ran a spinning mid 13 @ 115. 1st round pitted me against the Red Ram Air T/A. I eased up the rpms, lites flashed and we had almost identical reaction times. He gated me pretty hard putting about 2 lengths on me from the start as I was just letting the car pull itself off the line. Easing into the boost the car hooked in first, I shifted to 2nd and it started to spin a little, I feathered it and it hooked. I flew by him at the 1/8th and shifted 3rd without spinning. I won first round with an 11.96 @ 127. Boost hit 27psi at the top of the run.
2nd round had me racing the Corvette. I was starting to get the feel for the car and what it would take to get it down the track without spinning. I knew the Vette was stout so I'd better be on my game. Once again I repeated my same launch technique, bring the rpms up to 2800 and let the car pull itself off the line. I had a better reaction time, but he pulled two lengths off the line. The same thing happened, just when I shifted into 2nd the tires spun, only this time I had a better feel for when they started to break away and was able to qwill the tire spin earlier. This time the car ran a 11.86 @ 128, winning my 2nd round.
Here comes the final.
Buick vs Mustang. The announcer was really playing it up good, even though he pronounced my last name wrong.
Just as I thought, the #1 qualifier Mustang guy was sand bagging. All I could think about was concentrating on the start and not getting into the gas too soon. This was a true street race guys. Now, I've seen some pretty quick street Mustangs in my day, but I've never seen a Mustang 60ft as hard as he did on his 17" drag radials. We both staged up, I repeated my 2800rpm routine, the lites flashed and he was gone! He jumped out almost 3 car lengths from the get go. All I could think about was don't worry just concentrate on applying the power and let the car do the rest. By half track he was still 1.5 lengths ahead, but ole RU was on a pass. At the 1000ft mark I blew by him like he was standing still and put about 5 more lengths on him before the finish line. I crossed the finish line screamin my head off.
Winner RUQWKNF!
Now, I gotta give the guy some credit, he had a serious street car, as I've never seen a 17" BFG Drag Radial equipped Mustang pull a 60ft like this cat did. How's a 1.60 sound? Impressed the heck out of me. Anywho, the timeslip read, his 11.79 @ 118 to my...... 11.31 @ 130!
This was the first pass where the car didn't spin at all. Although the datalog showed the car never went WOT until about 6 seconds into the run. The Mustang guy came over and congratulated me after the race but was kinda tight lipped when I asked him what he had done to it. He claimed it was a stock 302, but in all my street racing days, I've never seen a stock SN95 302 run 118mph and knock down a 1.60 on a 17" drag radial. His buddy said, "We'll get you next time."
Hopefully next time I'll have a true drag radial on the car, namely a 325/50/15 so RU can bust off some mid 10's or so and be able to leave on some boost. Needless to say, RU got a really good bath before going back to the garage on Sunday, even drove her around the block waking up the neighbors for the first time in Hebron.
Anywho, sorry so long, just figured you guys and gals would like to hear what me and RU have been up to lately. It's been very busy as of late at PTE. I don't have hardly any free time for the computer, especially at work. I would like to thank my buddy Dave Fiscus for all of his help with my car. Without him, I would not have made the Nationals this year, or this EFI race.
Thanks Dave, you are the man!
Hope yall enjoyed this one.
Patrick Rubio
P.S. Did I mention my best 60ft of the race was a measily 2.12?
Later
Patrick Rubio here. Been a long time since I've been online and able to post. Sorry if this gets a little long winded, I'll try to keep it brief.
So this story begins the Sunday after the GS Nationals were I placed 3rd in TSE and ran a best of 10.09 @ 134+. I successfully completed my one and only goal this year and that was to be able to drive the car onto the trailer not broke and into my garage after BG. Dave and I are un-loading my car RU to keep in his garage until I can come back and pick her up to take back to Indiana. He says in his best Jedi mind trickery, Hey Pat, why don't we take her around the block and see how bad she spins on radials, you know have a little fun." And I'm like, sure let's go. Ok, the car was still tuned on full kill with race gas and 30psi, but with my old radials. (and when I say old, I mean '97 vintage 295/50/15 Radial T/A's, not drag radials) The trunk has both slicks and a tool box full of tools plus my Wolf car cover. We figured total weight with both of us in it was pushing close to 3800+#s easy. I'm a little worried about getting on it in this state of tune but we press on. I ease into it in second and she tries to hook then starts to spin. We both look at each other with big grins on our faces. I merge onto the highway and hammer down 2nd and the tires spin pretty good but not out of control, slamming 3rd it still spins but it's a controlled spin. We get to Dave's buddies house (Mustang racer) who's not at home and I let Dave drive her back to his place. The man is merciless with the car. As soon as we pull out onto the highway, he's in it. Spinning all of 1st, into 2nd and into 3rd. Up to about 120 or so. Man that felt good. It's one thing to launch hard at the track on slicks, but it's a whole other ball game driving a 10 flat car on regular radials on the street. We get back un-scathed thankfully, both of us thinking man this car would be fun to race with some drag radials.
Fast forward 4 weeks later to last Saturday. My co-worker Duane Waldrop and his racing buddies are putting on a big event at our local track in Morocco at US-41. He's telling me that they have an EFI class with the only rules being you have to run Drag Radials and be a modern EFI car. All week I'm thinking about it and on Wednesday I make the decision to take RU. I make arrangements to borrow a trailer, and go pick her up from Dave's Friday night. On Saturday morning, the day of the race, we discover a huge exhaust leak originating from a loose header bolt. After thrashing for two hours we got her fixed. I load the same race program into the FAST and leave the boost at 28psi. Trunk full of stuff I head to the track. I get there and there's tons of cars. I was behind two 03 Cobras coming into the gate so I'm thinking hey this could be interesting. Unfortunately, the Cobra's didn't want to play. They called us to the lanes 30 minutes after I get there for 1st round of qualifying.
The EFI class rules state drag radials, 3300# for normally aspirated and 3500# for power adders, run on a .400 Pro tree. Now, I had no idea what the car would run on these worn out old radials, Dave made a guess that it felt like it would run some 10.90's. So I poured in 5 gallons of C-16 and didn't take a thing out of the trunk. The car probably weighed about 3700#s with me in it at this point. My first round qualifying pass pitted me against a white 90's GT who was also on regular radials and had nitrous. Now, it's been since 97 since I tried to race RU with radials so I didn't know what to expect. I brought her up to about 2800 and let go of the brake, slowly getting into the gas at about the 100ft mark I'm at WOT and the tires spin violently. I shift to 2nd and ease into the gas again. They start to spin again so I shift into 3rd, by which time I'm semi hooked and really bookin. 1st pass... 12.23 @ 125 with a 2.21 60ft.
Ehhh, not too bad, I just gotta get used to these radials again.
For my second round of qualifying I did something stupid. I turned up the boost. BIG mistake. This time I was running against a Sweet looking Red 99 Ram Air T/A. He kills me off the line. I ease into the gas, but it was too no avail. everytime I got to about 3/4 throttle the tires lit up like a Top Fuel Funny Car. I've never had to drive this car so hard or so violently in my life, it was out of control. She tried to hook up just pass the 1/8th but the boost hit 30psi and she started to spin at the 1000 ft mark and started to drift sideways. I lifted and coasted to a 13.91 @ 117. I got out shaking after that one. Big mistake turning the boost up I thought. I immediately turned it down to the lowest it would go.
Bear with me guys.
So the competition looked like this, #1 qualifier with a 12.02 @ 114 was a SN95 body maroon Mustang, sounded pretty healthy, probably a 331 or 347 stroker N/A car, pure 17" BFG Drag Radials. I was #2 with my 12.23 pass. #3 was a 383 SBC 85-86 Vette with DFI and drag radials who ran a 12.30ish @ 115. 4th was another Mustang in the mid 12's, 5th was the nice Red Ram Air T/A, and 6th was the White GT who ran a spinning mid 13 @ 115. 1st round pitted me against the Red Ram Air T/A. I eased up the rpms, lites flashed and we had almost identical reaction times. He gated me pretty hard putting about 2 lengths on me from the start as I was just letting the car pull itself off the line. Easing into the boost the car hooked in first, I shifted to 2nd and it started to spin a little, I feathered it and it hooked. I flew by him at the 1/8th and shifted 3rd without spinning. I won first round with an 11.96 @ 127. Boost hit 27psi at the top of the run.
2nd round had me racing the Corvette. I was starting to get the feel for the car and what it would take to get it down the track without spinning. I knew the Vette was stout so I'd better be on my game. Once again I repeated my same launch technique, bring the rpms up to 2800 and let the car pull itself off the line. I had a better reaction time, but he pulled two lengths off the line. The same thing happened, just when I shifted into 2nd the tires spun, only this time I had a better feel for when they started to break away and was able to qwill the tire spin earlier. This time the car ran a 11.86 @ 128, winning my 2nd round.
Here comes the final.
Buick vs Mustang. The announcer was really playing it up good, even though he pronounced my last name wrong.
Just as I thought, the #1 qualifier Mustang guy was sand bagging. All I could think about was concentrating on the start and not getting into the gas too soon. This was a true street race guys. Now, I've seen some pretty quick street Mustangs in my day, but I've never seen a Mustang 60ft as hard as he did on his 17" drag radials. We both staged up, I repeated my 2800rpm routine, the lites flashed and he was gone! He jumped out almost 3 car lengths from the get go. All I could think about was don't worry just concentrate on applying the power and let the car do the rest. By half track he was still 1.5 lengths ahead, but ole RU was on a pass. At the 1000ft mark I blew by him like he was standing still and put about 5 more lengths on him before the finish line. I crossed the finish line screamin my head off.
Winner RUQWKNF!
Now, I gotta give the guy some credit, he had a serious street car, as I've never seen a 17" BFG Drag Radial equipped Mustang pull a 60ft like this cat did. How's a 1.60 sound? Impressed the heck out of me. Anywho, the timeslip read, his 11.79 @ 118 to my...... 11.31 @ 130!
This was the first pass where the car didn't spin at all. Although the datalog showed the car never went WOT until about 6 seconds into the run. The Mustang guy came over and congratulated me after the race but was kinda tight lipped when I asked him what he had done to it. He claimed it was a stock 302, but in all my street racing days, I've never seen a stock SN95 302 run 118mph and knock down a 1.60 on a 17" drag radial. His buddy said, "We'll get you next time."
Hopefully next time I'll have a true drag radial on the car, namely a 325/50/15 so RU can bust off some mid 10's or so and be able to leave on some boost. Needless to say, RU got a really good bath before going back to the garage on Sunday, even drove her around the block waking up the neighbors for the first time in Hebron.
Anywho, sorry so long, just figured you guys and gals would like to hear what me and RU have been up to lately. It's been very busy as of late at PTE. I don't have hardly any free time for the computer, especially at work. I would like to thank my buddy Dave Fiscus for all of his help with my car. Without him, I would not have made the Nationals this year, or this EFI race.
Thanks Dave, you are the man!
Hope yall enjoyed this one.
Patrick Rubio
P.S. Did I mention my best 60ft of the race was a measily 2.12?
Later
