Hot Rod Drag Week 2016

Great day out there. Lutz went 6.10 @ 243+ on his only pass today, fastest pass ever at HRDW. He got in the lanes just before they closed and wowed the crowd. He had a front wheel bearing destroy the spindle/brakes on the drive to Martin. Struggle was real!

It is interesting seeing how everyone travels. Trailers are 4X8 max size. Roof racks, carry decks.. A guy carries ramps on top of his wheelie bars! Lots of uhaul rentals.
 
People have been talking about running 5's for at least 3 years now. I didn't realize the 6.10 is all it would take to set the record. Be interesting to see if he can turn it up at National Trail the last day to break into the 5's.

I've been looking at the standings each day. Lutz has zero competition in unlimited. 2nd overall is that AMC in Ultimate Iron and third over all is 56 Chevy in Pro Street PA. Pro Street PA is a kick ass class. 4 cars about .3 apart, all in the 7s, and all in the top 10 overall I believe.

Bummer that Larson seems to have stopped running Drag Week. Those unlimited guys getting to the track, pulling the radiator and fuel cell and all the crazy shit they do to make a run and then put the car back together to leave. Plus all the mishaps and broken shit along the way. I can understand why a guy that could win doesn't bother. Lot of effort for no pay off.

Someone still needs to enter an Alcohol funny car though.
 
Saw this earlier today:

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Made it out to Martin yesterday. Great time. Started out with just a little light rain then turned into just a gorgeous day. Must have been a bunch of people skipping work as the crowd was pretty good for a Wednesday. In fact the line for the snack bar was half way to the staging lanes so I think they were a little surprised by the spectator turnout.

The cars and the thrashes going in the pits were pretty wild. Some of these guys/girls just drive the car in off the road and make their runs while others change tires, remove exhausts systems, changing oil, remove seats and so on. Then put everything back together and back on the road.

Announcers did a good job of keeping everyone informed and 131 is a premium facility. What I thought was amazing was the sheer number of 8.5-10.0 cars there. Cars that can run that fast and do the road trip are pretty cool. I will post up a couple pics up in the photo forum.
 
moneypit said:
buddys car this is the second or third time doing drag week, its a daily driver
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Cool dude! He was doing great, really happy with his car..said he pulled the parachute on accident and still ran a stout number!


Drillpump looks fun. The 7 second white/patina car patched his wheelie-cracked oilpan with JB Weld. The orange chevy 2 removes his giant vortec blower after each race and puts it in a box in the trunk.. No need to run that loud blower on the street so pack it up!! Seen a monte carlo with a detroyed 9" ring gear. He was running out of town for a fix. A grey thirdgen camaro slipped off a jack after competition and taco'd the Flaming river steering rack!! Doh!
 
Pro Street PA now has the 4 7 second cars barely more than .2 seconds apart for the class lead going into the last day where everyone can go for broke. Going to be fun to see how that plays out and to see if Lutz can finally run the first Drag Week 5 second pass everyone has been talking about for 3 years now. Lutz and the AMC are also shooting to be the 3 and 4th guys ever to run in the 6's at all 5 stops. Although does Lutz count as a week of 6 second passes if he can pull out a run in the 5's? :)
 
So did that Supra find another fuel pump? I can't imagine running for 5 minutes at a time on a full battery charge was a very effective way of getting from stop to stop. LOL
 
AMC just made it's first pass and officially became the third car ever to make a full week of 6 second passes. Doesn't sound like Lutz has run yet, I'm sure he's in the middle of tearing his car apart since a bunch of guys are still making their first passes.
 
and Lutz becomes the 4th to make a week of 6 second passes and has the fastest average ever after his 6.25. Be interesting to see if he has enough left to set it on kill and make another pass to try for a 5. Didn't really look like it hooked on the 6.25 so the track might not be there to run a 5. No one is getting traction right now.
 
Just annonced on the live feed that Lutz is coming back for another run. Should be interesting. Also coming up are eliminations in the street machine class.
 
No 5 for Lutz. Still the fastest drag week average ever. Still the fastest single pass on drag week ever. And according to Frieberger still the first purpose built Pro Mod to ever complete drag week.

Someone needs to enter an alcohol funny car now.
 
You guys understand that you cant drive a blown alky hemi that many miles.. the valvetrain wouldnt last. Converting to run pumpgas on the transits might be a problem also.

Crazy crap is Lutz said he lost 2 rods/pistons on a pass and just "threw some new ones in there" and made more passes.. How the hell can you be that lucky to hurt rotating parts but not hurt the block/cam, heads, etc.. .
 
The engines on a lot of those cars don't survive the week. You could do a funny car, it might need dialed back a bit but you could do it. NHRA Alcohol funny car record is 5.3. You could dial it back to a 5.8 level and still be a total bad ass.

The Hemi Dart that ran in the early days I'm pretty sure worked on the valvetrain on the side of the road every day.

Jay Brown with the SOHC had to swap both cams one day this year. I think other valvetrain maintenance on that car was necessary during the trip and wiping out a lobe on each cam was just a matter of him not quite catching it soon enough once.

Lutz had the mentioned issues in the engine, plus the wheel bearing failure that resulted in him needing a whole front suspension corner.

Bailey was taken out by rotating assembly issues that took out a cylinder liner.

It might take a couple years to sort out the funny car to make it the whole week and it will take some luck to get it through but it took a few years to get a pro mod through the week too and it obviously still wasn't easy.

The biggest obstacle on the funny car is that you would somehow need to modify it to accommodate a passenger. Whoever is helping you at the track has to be riding with you and there is no way you can do crazy cars like that with only one person. I think by the time you really made the funny car work the chassis would end up being a purpose built thing for drag week that fits under a funny car body. It'd be rad. Someone should do it. I've put a lot of thought into this. I just don't have the kind of money required to buy a funny car.
 
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