I agree with Tom. No payout, just bragging rights. Keep it simple and fun. As soon as you add prize money, there is high risk for opening a can of worms. Trophy should include some old engine parts. Like a piston with a bent rod that went through the side of a block.
This is exciting!! I will have the ppl. to help. I will contact the race orginizers and work on the details. Should there be a new trophy each year or a traveling trophy???
:TU: This is a great idea, Jim, and I hope it gains traction (a little play on words there). What it would produce is this kind of excitement from Larry Davis' wonderful 2001 book, Super Stock: Drag Racing the Family Sedan: That photograph is undoubtedly 1964. Ted didn't paint The Chicken Hawk (1951 Studebaker Commander Starlight Coupe) dark blue until 1964, and he was runner-up in his class in 1965, so he would not have been in the 1965 Stock Eliminations. By 1966, it had different rear wheels and whitewall tires both front and rear...at least for awhile. The car was running NHRA Class M/S at the time, probably the lowest stock class in NHRA. It had its stock 120 HP 232 CID Studebaker V8 with standard three-speed transmission, using a floor shift with a unique, clumsy-looking but effective shifter from a Jeep application! There in 1964, Ted had just won his class at "The Nationals" for the second time in three years, to qualify for being in the above Stock Eliminator runoffs. His 1964 win placed him on his way to a record that would end in 1972, when he had won his class 8 times in 11 years, the last being 1972...and in two of the three "losing" years, he was runner-up! In 1973, they had eliminated so many lower classes that the car was no longer competitive as a stocker. (But his 1972 win was the best because they had eliminated his class, so he voluntarily ran "up" one class from where he would have been, against cars with a more favorable LB/HP ratio.) So I'm all for your eliminator idea, Jim, and hope it comes to fruition. The crowd would love it, as you can see above....and if we have it this year at The Pure Stock Musclecar Drags and a Studebaker makes it to the eliminations with Ted Harbit driving, Ted will be 4 months past his 80th birthday as he throttles yet another Studebaker down the track! Thanks for coming up with this great idea. :TU::TU: BP
The thing I like about it is, Your qualifying the day before is your dial-in Number.. There is no 3 tenths breakout.. :3gears:
Not Many, so the folks that leave a little extra for there shootout are leveled out or even put at a disadvantage.. :TU: Balls out or nothing- just the way it's supposed to be:beer
Some more fun NHRA stuff from "The Nationals" for 1964. This came from Drag Racing magazine that had eight pages of coverage and results. o No: :laugh:
Yeah, that was a real hoot, Brian...and still gets Ted red hot today. The Chicken Hawk was NHRA "teched" a few weeks earlier at Muncie Dragway before the 1964 Nationals. An NHRA tech inspector measured the bore at Muncie and declared it within NHRA overbore specs. Ted put it back together without touching anything and went to the Nationals; same block, pistons, everything. No honing; 'hadn't even taken the short block apart. There, the tear-down tech declared a minuscule overbore and would not honor the NHRA measurement certified at Muncie! Ted got a lengthy letter published in Hot Rod where he really unleashed on NHRA for their own inconsistency, to no avail. BP
I believe there was a follow-up article in one of the magazines in early '65 ...... " '51 Chicken Hawk goes OverboreD at The Nationals" Article was written by a little-known, automotive journalist phenom, using the pen-name: Stu D. Baker
Its official. "The Pure Stock Challenge" (as it will be known as from this point forth) will be a part of the 2015 Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race (PSMCDR). Details to follow. This year, due to possible time constraints, the Challenge will be open only to the winners of the individual shootouts. That could change, or not, depending on input. Confussed as to what this is, please re-read this thread. Official details to follow. Jim ( Everything would remain the same UNTILL the 2 or 3 round shootouts are done. Then the winners of those shootouts continue on to race the winners of the other shootouts. These race pairings would have handycap starts based on your qualifying E.T. In the case of a double E.T. breakout, the worst breakout goes home. Sandbagging rule stays in effect. Could be fun and that would be a drivers race.)
