first run since Barb passed.

[Husker]

Did my first run last Thurs (first since Barb passed). Molasses (feed grade I had to drop out the proponic), and about 2 lb of cracked corn (12g batch). Took it down, still VERY young stuff, to the outlaw drag race outside of St Joseph. MO (us36raceway.com). Was a pretty 'ghetto' outlaw track, but damn, the people there had a hell of a good time. My brother inlaw's club (Ozark Mnt Super Shifters) were the exhibition. They had about 30 cars there (pretty good showing, when the club is 36 members or so. Ron red lighted and went out on his first comp race. Then got treed on his first consolation. So it was a pretty early night for him.

One of the pit crew for my bro inlaw, brought some apple pie, that was made from some fireball corn whiskey a friend of his brews up. Kinda hard to drink. My str8 off the still 120 proof was the hit of the night. People could not believe how smooth and slick it was. I told them to be pretty careful, because it was MUCH stronger than they expected. I think his 'apple pie' was about 50-60 proof, and was pretty hard to drink. Mine at 60% was much smoother with no bite. Now, part of his 'bite' was the hot cinnamon, but that was not all that was lurking in the shadows. I did get quite a few surprised complements, when about 2am, 4 or 5 people could not get up out of their camp chairs. I simply smiled and told them that I warned them it was strong. They were still in the same chair snoring at 7am.

But all in all, a pretty good batch. I am putting away a 1/2 gallon (proofed down to 100), and leaving it white. Now, I just have to wait until this fall, and do about 30-50 gallon batch of pumpkin. That will be my memorial batch, and I will try to keep the results of that batch, until I pass myself, taking a little out each year. Was always one of Barb's fav of all that I produced.

H.

[Prairiepiss]

If you would have said something. I would have came up and checked out the races. St. Joe is only 45 min north of me. Sounds like you had a decent time. And you had a hit on your hands.

[Husker]

It was pretty ghetto. crushed limestone gravel on the sides of the pits, crowd pulled right up to the track with trucks and lots of coolers. But it was pretty damn fun. First time I had been to that track. Actually, first time I had seen Ron drive. I did not realize he was that serious. He has one of the slow cars in the club. Very old school. He was doing 620's (1/8 mi). Not shabby at all, for a 67 el-camino, and a mouse motor. I was pretty impressed with the club. I will certainly go to many more events now.

This is a yearly thing, for the super shifter's. They put on the exhibition for the track. There was other pretty good cars there also. Not bad for a non-NHRA track. One of the guys from the club brought a brand new front lift narrow body. Was not a rail, was not a funny car. Kinda in between. Had a VERY beautiful set of graphics on it. First time that car had seen the track. Kevin (builder), does this pretty much as a living. builds and sells about 6-8 cars a year. I think 16-18k cash woulda walked with it. I was actually half temped, but hell, I would not know what to do with it. No pit crew, nothin. I guess I could ride on Rons coat tails a while, etc, but no sure i am quite ready. It would be nice to have something pretty much fully ready to go, only needing a trailer and 3500 to pull it. But if i do get back into it, I will probably just start with a decent motor, and put it into some super light weight car, and go from there. Might look at a vega, or possibly put a rat into an opal GT (that has always been something I have wanted to do). I GT would be a hell of a 1/4 car. So aero, and low to the ground, there would be no wind resistance at all.

Ron has his car setup very strange (at least in my mind), but he says that is how it runs better. His is known as the wheelie king, and his wheelie bars are almost 16" above the ground. Like i said, he is VERY old school in his car. The shifter and suspension are very old school, and he actually uses about a 16 to 18" wheelie (all the way into 2nd gear) to load up the tires and get better traction. Hell, from back when I was playing around, one rule I went with was use ALL your tourque/HP to go down the track, not up in the air. I can not believe he can not find some way to keep the front end down, and not waste that 100-200 ft/lb lifting the front end, and put it to turning the wheels over another turn or 2 out of the tree.

But hell, the crowd certainly loves it and Ron loves it, so oh well. I asked him about it, and he says its how the car runs better. go figger.

H.

[Husker]

I found a vid of Ron's car (prolly 1/4 mile here I think, since they are in low 10's)



Dave (Ron's brother) is measuring tire and track temp in this pic. He had my daughter out doing that on the track last night. She was absolutely thrilled to be on the track. It was her first time at a drag strip. I've taken her to a 1/5 mile dirt stock car track just up the road about a half dozen times. Gets 'kinda' loud there, but NOTHING like at the drag strip, when some of those cars light'm up.

H.

[Prairiepiss]

I've been thinking about building a street/drag car. Daily driver (if I wanted) track on the weekend. A friend from high school is building a mustang like he had back then. Something to play at the track with. I'm thinking about building a Camaro like I had back then. Have one I can get cheap. Runs and drives. Just nowhere to park or work on it. They are getting harder to find. Most of them around here ended up on the dirt tracks.

But then I remind myself I don't have the disposable income to do it. And sooner or later that car will be gone.