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Luebke Racing Race Update
Luebke
Racing : Race Update : NSCA Union
Grove ,WI
July 4,2001
What a difference a few weeks make.
The weather for the NSCA Race at Union Grove was awesome. Due to scheduling
conflicts, I was the Lone Ranger this weekend. No pit crew, no video, no
nothing, not that I really need a pit crew, but at least a little company would
have been nice. Despite that, the weekend for me was great. I had not been able
to get the car to the track due to Little League games & work schedules, so
basically I had a new car with only 5 passes under my belt. I had been able to
fix some of the problems I discovered the from the previous time I was up there,
steering linkage problem & new clutch pack in the rear end. I was not able
to get to the track till late on Friday so I had to tech the car in on Saturday.
I was advised by the NSCA Tech Dept that I need to have a seat brace from the
roll cage to the seat. If you have after market seats in the car plus a roll
cage a seat brace is needed. I have to get this done before Cordova or they
won't allow me to race. I have no problem with this, but I looked at several
other cars with similar setups & they don't have seat braces either, not
much consistency with the Tech guys. I was hoping that the new clutch pack in the rear end would
let the car 60ft better, but after the 1st & 2nd
test passes the car was still in the 2.002 range. I tried different launch rpm's
& tire pressure, still same result. So far I still can't seem to be able to
heat the tires without the car pushing thru the line-loc, also missing 3rd
gear is starting to become a habit, I have to go back to Driving 101. The way it
was looking I was going to be dead meat, the NSCA regulars for the Street
Eliminator Class are on top of their game. Larry Felts & Mark Walters cut
good lights just about every run, and the cars run the same numbers. With my
three qualifying passes I lit the red light 2 times, then had a .795 light, .500
is a perfect light. The car was running consistent, the incremental times were
real close so at least I had a clue as far as a dial in. I had run a 14.26 2
times in a row so that was going to be my dial in for 1st round on
Sunday. The way it worked out, 3rd round qualifying was rained out on
Saturday. I had a chance to make 1 pass on Sunday Morning, good thing 3rd
gear escaped me once again. The weather had changed due to the thunderstorms, It
was about 10-15 degrees cooler on Sunday. My 1st round draw was a
black s-10 pickup I can't remember the drivers name, sorry I'm really bad with
names. His dial in was a 17.07 to my 14.26, his lights came down and he left 1st
with his dial in, my lights came down, at least I did'nt red light this time. I
managed to get the car thru 4 gears , I did'nt catch the pickup, he got to the
finish line 1st. I figured my day was over, but I guess the racing
gods were with me, he broke out with a 16.96 , I ran a 14.34 on a 14.26 dial in.
I could'nt believe it when I got my timeslip & it showed a win with my car
number. That was one of my goals this year, I had (2) 1st one to go
to a NSCA race with my car, (did that), 2nd was to win a round. Even
thou technically I won that round, it was in no part on my driving skill. But as
they say in baseball it looks like a line drive in the books. So I guess I was
going to the 2nd round, not much for between round maintenance for
this car. Open the hood , check for any leaks or anything that looks strange.
Second round was called about 2 hours later after all the classes were run. I
pulled into the staging lanes & Ralph the NSCA Staging director tells me to
pull up to the front, I had a bye for this round. I said you gotta be kidding
me, there was no way I had a better reaction time than the other guys, I thought
the byes went by the previous round reaction times like qualifying. Its not ,
they have a ladder set up just like all the other classes, which is pretty cool.
So I went up and did a pathetic burnout, I staged the car, brought it up to 3500
rpm, the lights came down, I did'nt red light again, it was .694 light, not very
good but it was below .700 , I'm improving. Made it thru 4 gears again, I was
surprised once again, the car ran 14.17, it had a better 60ft. The best one so far with the
Ancient M&H Racemasters I'm using. I was going to the Semi Finals, there
were only 9 cars in the class , so there 3 left for round 3. My 3rd
draw was white mustang that was running in the 11's. I had trouble with the
burnout once again, the car popped out of gear , which caused a whole bunch of
grinding, (Liberty Gears) is going to wonder what I did to the thing when they
get it back this fall. This time the I lit the red bulb , it was a .440 light,
which is as close I came to being in the .500's all weekend. So to wrap it up,
it was pretty good weekend , I received semi finalist money, which is very cool.
Met a lot of people, thanx for stopping by and saying Hi, I have to get that
seat fixed in the mean time --
See ya in Cordova
June 2,2001
Here's whats up. Last weekend was the NSCA Race at Union Grove WI, this race had the potential to be the biggest Street Car Race in the Midwest this year. It appeared that Just about all of the classes were going to have pretty close to full fields. Billy Glidden was on the property with his World Ford Challenge winning Mustang, all the Big Names in street car racing were making their appearance at the "Grove", Pat Musi, Marc Dantoni, Tony Christian, Gary Rohe, Nick Scavo, Bob Hood, Dan Bills, Bruce Poulos, Chuck Samuels and many more. The only winner of the weekend appeared to be mother nature, the race ended up being rained out & rescheduled for the weekend of June 30. This was the 1st NSCA race that I was able to bring my car to, Union Grove is basically my home track, I 've made more passes at that track than any where else. I felt a little out of place showing up with my little pull along trailer & all the shit piled up in my pickup, that I would need for the weekend. You should see some of the rigs the other racers have. Not that i'm complaining, I feel lucky I have what I have. The NSCA staff was great, they directed me to where I should park, BTW Street ET cars end up in the back forty, that was ok since there was a big field out there that my kids could play in & not get in anyone's way. I made my way to the tech trailer ,got my car tech'd in. No problems there, I was able to weigh the car, it weighed in at 3175lbs with me in it, I had a full tank of gas 15 gallons & full NOS Bottle 25lbs. The Minimum weight for the BFG TA Class is 3050 for a small block car. I was 125lbs heavy, but since this was the 1st time out with the car, I came pretty close to my goal as far as weight is concerned. Due to time constraints, clutch problems & $ , I could not get the correct tires to run in the BFG TA class this time out. By looking at the cars that showed up to run in TA , it appears that class is going to be a BBC class. Theres no way a small block Windsor headed Ford can run with those cars. I hoping the rule makers will take a look & let the Ford guys use some sort of after market head, even if you have a set of stock heads completely worked they won't flow as good as set of after market heads right of the box. Hey Patrick Budd , if you read this how about a 100 pound weight penalty or something like that , so I can go get a set of good heads.... Enough about that thou, can't complain if I'm not running the class, I decided since this was going to be the 1st time out with the car , Street Eliminator will be the class is was going to run in, the is basically a Street Tire Bracket Class . How did my car run ? Here's the low down, the 1st pass down the track was just to see if the car was going to go straight, I aligned the thing Thursday nite in the driveway. The 60ft on the 1st pass was 2.222 nothing spectacular , when I shifted into 3rd the car shutoff, then came back on, possible bad gas in the secondaries on the carb. I t ran a weak 16.049, but at least it went straight & was' nt leaking anything. The second pass was appearing to be a better pass until I missed 3rd gear, oops the rev limiter works. It was 15.231. It was real cool out , so I was able to drive around & get back in line for another run. The 3rd run was better, I was getting a lot of tire spin off the line, another 2.113 60ft , I was able to get it thru all 4 gears this time, the trans is a Pro-Shifter Tremec, but I granny shifted it thru the gears , it ran a 14.261. Not a bad place to start, this is on 92 pump gas with only 8 degrees of timing in the motor. Saturday came around and I was feeling a little more confident that the cars was sound, so for 1st round of qualifying I decided to bring it up against the chip at 3000 rpm to launch. The car just blew the tires away, I guess the 10 year old M&H Racemasters need to be replaced, the 60ft time was a 2.693, the car ended up running a 15.056. Then the rains came, so that was it for the weekend. Actually in may case , the rain out works in my favor, I'm hoping to get back to the track before June 30 for more testing , I think the car is sound , the driver is a little rusty. Also some new tires are in order. I think car has alot of potential, I think it run mid 13's on the motor & who knows what when we spray it.
See Ya June 30 ....
Larry