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Craig's 1999 Review
The 1999 racing season came with great anticipation for me. I had run 12.318@110.57 in the fall of '98 with a 3000 stall converter, rather poor 60' times and a badly slipping tranny. Over the winter I went with a high quality 4000 stall converter, rebuilt the tranny and cured the shifting problems. So I was expecting to be in the 11s very early in the spring of '99.
My first trip to the track resulted in only a 12.29. I was still having traction problems and top end driveability problems as well. The car was wanting to wonder around on the top end, forcing me to abort a few runs.
Before my next trip to the track, I decided to lower the car one inch in the rear and 2 inches in the front. So I cut on coil off a set of I6/307 Nova spring and dropped the front end 1.5". I added 1" lowering blocks to the rear. The results were a great looking stance but no front end lift at the track (I expected this somewhat, but I wanted to try it anyway). So that trip was a big waste of time and money, as traction was just terrible. Not only was traction terrible, I couldn't get the car into the alignment shop before going to the track and the car was very very loose all night long. This was in April.
So out came the cut front coils and Moroso drag springs went in. The front end doesn't sit as low, but its 3/4" lower than stock, which is acceptable to me. It still has a nice stance, so I'm please. The best part is that my traction was greatly improved and I finally got the 60' times into the 1.70s. So in mid-May, I ran 12.14. This was the last really clean 1/4 mile pass I would make in 1999.
Most of the summer was spent racing at a new local 1/8th mile dragstrip (Lake Cumberland Dragway in Jamestown, KY). Being a new track, it had virtually no rubber on it and rumor has it, it is slightly up hill. So my 1/8th mile times were off of my best 7.706 at Beech Bend. After quite a few test-n-tune nights, I finally laid down a 7.701 at Lake Cumberland Dragway. I was pleased with that run.
I'm usually the fastest street tired car at Lake Cumberland. So that makes it lots of fun. And I'm always faster than a lot of the race-only slick tired cars too. I got matched up at a test-n-tune night with a '67 Camaro with a 454 and slicks. I figured my unbeaten streak at Lake Cumberland was in jeapardy. He tree'd me, had me well covered in the 60', but the 383 just had too much hp for his somewhat mild big block and I drove around him on the top end for the win. The guy came by my car in the pits and was shocked to see a rather sedate looking small block under my hood! He was a very nice guy and we have chatted a few times since. Its always nice to race against friends. I greatly prefer that to racing against "hostile" opponents.
In mid-summer, my wife and I made the trek to St. Louis, MO for the first annual Nova Listerv Gathering (see all the details on Bruce's G99 page). I was fully expecting to run in the 11s after its recent performance and addition of 1 3/4" headers. But a problem showed up on my first time-trial pass at Mid-America Raceway outside of St. Louis. The 383 was missing in the top of each gear and on the top end. I was experimenting with a Barry Grant vacuum secondary Holley carb and I figured that could have been the problem. So I pulled it off and went back to the old trusty Holley 800 double pumper. That seemed to help a little, but miss was stil there. During time-trials, I mangaged to cut my times down from a terrible 13.1 into the 12.5s. I had no idea what to dial it in at, so I guessed at a 12.45. As Bruce says on his G99 page, we got paired up in the first round after a very very long wait. The temps had dropped a lot and my tire pressure had really gone down a ton. I didn't realize this until I was in the staging lanes and it was too late. The car launch hard (as it was all day) but it crossed up on my at about the 1/8th mile mark. I pedaled it, staightened it out and hammered on the gas again. But Bruce was long gone. I coasted through at a 12.8 at about 83 mph, so you can see how far I was off the gas at the end of the track. But I couldn't have lost to a better guy or friend. So once again, those elusive 11s were out of my reach. But what a great weekend anyway.
After G99, I continued to race the 1/8th mile as much as my budget allowed. I didn't lose a single race (only did test-n-tune in '99 except for the Gathering) at Lake Cumberland Dragway, so that was pleasing.
In October, I started to make one more charge at the 11s at Beech Bend in Bowling Green, KY. But once again, a miss reared its ugly head (why do these things not show up while I'm driving the car to work, or cruising town, or out testing on some country road?!!!). This time it turned out to be a cracked set of plugs, but I couldn't see the cracks in the night light at the track. They looked fine under a flash light, but the next day in the sunlight, the cracks showed up. So that trip resulted in only a 12.3.
I had one more trick to try in 1999. The season was winding down and I had one more shot at getting into the 11s. So I pulled off the Performer RPM intake and swapped on a Victor Jr. I also borrowed a 1" carb spacer to try. It was the last day of the season and it had rained on and off all day. The car was ready to go and the clouds seemed to be parting. So off to Bowling Green I went. The closer I got to Bowling Green, the worse the sky looked. The conditions were pretty poor. 100% humidity and very little rubber on the track. My first pass resulted in a 12.08@111.64. Lots of tire spin, but the Victor Jr was really working well. For the next pass, I swapped on the 1" carb spacer. Traction was even worse this time as it really blew the tires away. It ran 12.25, but at 111.94. So it liked the spacer. As I was waiting to make my third pass, I noticed that I had lost my oil cap and puked out a half quart of oil. So off to AutoZone I go with my brother in his Jeep. As we were leaving Beech Bend's property, it began to drizzle. By the time we got back (about 10 mintues later), everyone was packing up and heading home. The night was cancelled and I had just missed the 11s. But I was very pleased with how it ran in relation to the traction situation and the humidity. With good traction, it would have easily obtained my goal for the year.
Overall, it was a fun year. More passes than I'd ever made in a season, quite a few street miles on the Nova including a couple road trips in it, undefeated at Lake Cumberland Dragway, the Gathering, and a few new personal bests. Hard to complain about any of that!
The 99/00 winter off season has seen the installation of Calvert Racing's CalTrac bars and I'm about to put the finishing touches on the 6 point (it may turn into a 8 pt.) roll bar.
I WILL run in the 11s this spring!!!!
Thanks for reading my ramblings ;-)
Craig Watson
3/19/00
Copyright © 2008 Bruce Johnson and Craig Watson
