Can some one give us a little info on the Vegas meet? attendence, winners, weather? anyone? anyone? Buehler? Buehler? Bruce
ok ill try and remember it as best as i can-12 v8 cars total? showed up i believe. basket ball sam davis, chris lee, len bently, myself, skip from rons restorations brought china mikes 72 and a 68 that ran very well, all from southern california. dave monson, rich burgi,john (sorry john-cant remember your last name) all came down from utah, (jason bible couldnt get his car finished but was there for moral support) gary fanning and his friend ben from elko, nevada, buick mike with scrap iron screamer 2 from phoenix. i cant recall every ones rounds, as i cant remember the order from ist round but i was very lucky to win again this year. I would like to point out dave monson from utah was VERY STRONG in defeating both basketball sam and chris lee, 2 guys who are ALWAYS hard to get past, on his way to our final. chris lee and i each benefitted from a bye run in different rounds, china mikes car ran well in time trials but had some mechanical gremlin preventing full throttle in elims. the last minute 68 skip threw together and brought ran a 13.12 (on a 13.15 dial) in break out, on its first full throttle pass down the track!! gary fanning had the most improved et, last year 13.40s (i think) this year 12.61!!!! rich burgi had his beautiful black supercharged gs there with 17 inch wheels, pro charger blow through supercharger and alchohol injection. unfortunately, on the second pass fri nite, it broke #7 piston, running 12.70 the first time without rich having had any time to sort out anything, then it broke on the second pass. garys friend ben (sorry ben-forgot your last name as well) had a beautiful car there as well, a 69 GS400 painted bright red with chrome cragar ss wheels, black hood and black vinyl top. what a sharp car! nice to see these new guys there. len bently brought his barely completed 72 car which has a set of real, original iron stage 2 heads on it. he only made one pass fri nite, discovering a handful of new car/combination bugs to be worked out -but what a start! with an easy launch and running out of fuel by the 1/8 mark it still went in the 12.70s coasting through high gear. ken duttweiler was there with his bb/aa olds and ran 6.85/199 and 7.01/202 on the 2 passes i saw-what a car!! has a 288 ci twin turbo small block chevy i believe in an olds pro stock chassis with a liberty 5 speed. the gallindo record holding grand national was there making wheelstanding passes along with a lot full of very fast and beautiful turbo cars. for all you guys who were there, feel free to correct any mistakes or oversights i have made-for all you guys who WEREN'T THERE- WHY NOT????? this is a stellar event for us-i dont gamble and drink very little but still enjoy the camraderie with all the buick guys at the hotel and what a great place to see a lot of buicks. the promoters are to be thanked and congratulated for another great event. I will also add that once again, for my win i received more cash than the winner of the bowling green event wins as well as a very nice wooden engraved throphy plaque. ill be there next year-will you?????
ps-i forgot buick mike with the scrap iron screamer 2 wasnt allowed in the run offs due to delay box and electronics-i am sure there will be controversy over it as it wasnt stated in any of the advertising you couldnt use these, but the other side was-all the other cars were foot brake racers, at least half of which have very little track experience. we were polled and the promoters decided it wouldnt be fair to run his car with the electronics against the rest. (I drove my car there and back home again this year-800 miles total round trip with track time) I am sure this will be addressed in next years entry info and i also know mike was mad as he wasnt told no electroincs b4 coming. this was only the 2nd year we were invited to participate in this event and we had 10 cars last year, 12 this year. a good solution would be another 10 FAST cars all running these devices and showing us some REAL ets and mph (10s-9s-etc) would be welcome and could compete against each other in another bracket. chris lees 11.70s were the fastest times shown by the foot brake racers, mikes car ran some 10.60s in time trials i beleive. i am personally sorry mike traveled from phoenix and was then disallowed, but will also go on record as not wanting to run against a car with a delay box and electronics. let the flames begin!!
Rich, :ball: WTF!? Any idea what happened? Sorry to hear this, I know you've worked long and hard...:gt:
Small corrections Gary turned a 12.87 last year and 12.61 this year on a 12.62 dial in.:ball: Mikes car pulled a 1.808 sixty foot and then fell on it's faceou: , caught again and still turned a 13.24 against a stiff head wind at 99 mph. Everyone was down on mph Friday night witht the wind. Dan Peper ran the company car to a 13.12 against a 13.20 dial in. We had no idea what it would turn with secondaries opening now. Hats off to Scott, still undefeated:beer
2ND ROUND Round 2 of eliminations when (I think) the carb got ahead of the fuel pump. Car launched well against Scott in the near lane. He had about a half a second head start. Right after this picture the '72 nosed over. By the time it caught again....et was in the 16.s somewhere. The car also quit after the burn out. I gave it a a good long burn and when I let off it just quit:af: Any ideas what this could beo No:
My opinion, pull the delay box and trans brake wires and drive the car yourself. As far as I am concerned these items have no place in a little friendly race as the Buick events. If somebody wants to use them against me I should get a bonus in payout when I beat them without the crutches. Some local tracks double the payout for a no box car winning a box race, it happens quite often. If you are running super pro or box class at a normal event go for it. Anyone that brings these devices to a race to run against cars that don't have them should be ashamed of themselves. Boxes originally designed by people to cheat and win were such a problem that they finally got a class of their own to race in which now offers no advantage because they all use them. A good racer can race with or without the box, a mediocre racer may win with the box but tell them they can't use it and they will go to the trailer instead of running without it.
Hey Jeff, It was just one of those things...... The car was still on the rich side. When I made the 2nd pass, I had to turn the alky off in Second gear because it was bogging, Once teh alkywas off :eek2: ......... It was close to tune, but still fat! The car hit the limiter in 3rd (6000rpm) at about the 1100 to 1150ft mark and coasted through the traps at 11.80 @ 115mph. There's a detailed post of the deal over on the build up post. Yep #7's gone (not sure to what extent yet, but I'll know in a few days once I can bring myself to work on it again . The meet was ABOSLUTLY GREAT! Meet lots of great people and will deffenatly do it again NEXT YEAR. BTW........ I'll be looking for 10.9's on PUMP GAS! :grin:
Good new's on the motor guys! check out the post over in the Street Strip section (ATI part 11) http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?threadid=26143&goto=newpost
I'm glad about the way things turned out. After watching me and my son race my car, my 5 yr old grandson started drawing pictures of cars with small front tires and BIG back tires on the Keno tickets at the restaurant tables. Before he only thought monster trucks and airplanes were cool. Now drag racing cars are cool. Thanks for everyones help that was there with raising my grandson. My son got two passes in before the header gasket blew out and I got paranoid about further breakage. First time he got to beat the hell out of daddy's Buick, and he should have been a tenth and a mph faster than the old man. My story in eliminations was as soon as Basketball Sam got in the lanes next to me, I knew I was screwed. Car had been running 13.8's in test 'n tune, so I dialed 13.82. Ran usual R/T and 60' times, but some how ended up with 13.668 and an extra mph at the big end. And what a great time I had listening to a blown out header gasket going home, about 490 miles? Put a total of 1036 miles on it going to and from, with 9 passes. I'll be back next year for sure.
Didn't get a chance to race this year. Cracked Flex plate found friday morning 20 min. before we were supposed to leave for vegas. I was really looking froward to seeing how the new "improvements" would work out. I ran a best of 15.51 last year and looking to be in the low 14's this year but it just wasn't in the cards. I still had a great time giving moral support to those that were racing. I'll deffinitly be there again next year.
Jack Bilger put a great slideshow up on the West Coast Natls website of this year's pictures. Plenty of pics, you'll definitely want a high speed line for that. Computers and cars - must go faster!
I was there... Loved it!!! So much fun meeting all the great people that showed up... I came with Skip to drive the shop's 68 GS that Jason (Shop's mechanic) and myself spent many hours burning the midnight oil on. It was WELL worth it, I wish Jason could have had his turn behind the wheel but he couldn't make the event... I drove out to Vegas in my 72 Skylark and had it at the track, there were still some issues with the 68 (in fact, when I left for Vegas it was at the shop with no front brakes, leaky trans, and other issues). When the 68 made it to Vegas on a trailer it was quickly discovered the trans was still leaking pretty bad so we didn't bother taking it on friday night. On Saturday we brought it and I drove my 72 there as well, thinking if I can't get the 68 through tech I'll put the 72 on the track... Well, through some miracle, the trans on the 68 stopped leaking after we pulled it off the trailer.. Then I had to change the fuel pump and part of the pump to carb line (also to fix a BAD leak). Lost my driver's wristband while changing the pump (gas dissolved the glue) and I had to pay a second $25 for another one (and NO, they wouldn't even give me another tech card!)... Somehow the 68 passed tech. Took it out, I believe I was the last actual T&T pass for the day. Ran a 14.4 with a 2.05 60' time, the ride started slow but shortly after I shifted into 2nd the secondaries decided to open and what a ride it was from there... Scott M. helped me figure out why the secondaries didn't open (elec choke not hooked up, but choke plate blocked open..) The next pass was for the first round of eliminations on the bracket racing... Great, an untested car going into a bracket race... Didn't know what to put down for a dial but decided to go with the same dial Skip used Mike M.'s 72 (13.20). Get out on the track, do my burnout, then rip the B&M floor shifter out of the floor on the way to the staging lights!! I kinda stick it back in, ratchet down to first, wait for the lights and take off... Skip tree'd me somehow but the car HOOKED and I yelled YAAA HOOOO halfway down the track! Skip never caught me, I ended up running a 13.12 @ 100 mph, running out of fuel on the top end (stock non stage1 fuel pump). I broke out so Skip won with his 13.9 on a 13.2 dial.... Drove the car back to the pits... parked it. Big fat smile on my face for a couple hours... and the tranny started leaking again... The hotel was pretty good, lots of fun hanging out at the bar with Gary Fanning, Len Bentley, Scott M, Skip, Gordon Hanson, Chris Lee, Doug Frasure, John Kirkland, and even the actual organizers of the event... Where were the GN guys???? Dan
This was my first year at the west coast nationals and I had a great time. Awesome facility, we are lucky to get to use it. Thanks to the organizers for their work, good job. Loved seeing the V8 cars. Here in AZ guys that race their buicks are far and few between. Congratulations to Scott on the win. I think Scott's write up on Buick Mike's scrap iron screemer not being allowed to race was well put and a fair statement. I enjoy foot brake racing, but I have raced two years in a NHRA super gas car, full electronics, so I am familiar with them. Mr. Halladay's opinion on the matter I differ with. Mike is one of the best buick racers we have, his record proves that with or with out a box. Your statement "He should be ashamed for bringing a box to this race" is ridiculous. The only shame is for you making that statement. Blame the organizers but not Mike. He was invited to come like all of us, and was not told of any restrictions. I was there as we were being paired for first round when they told him. That was the first time he was told, ten minutes before we raced. He had no time to take it out, and even if he had he would have had no time trials with out the trans brake to say what it would have run. So your ending statement "Tell a mediocre racer they can't use the box and they will go to the trailer instead of running with out it" that's not Mike. The only thing mediocre here is your opinion, but your entitled to it as I am mine. I am sure the organizers will fix this problem next year, and I thank them again for their efforts for putting on a buick event out west.
I liked talking to Mike, too. It is a shame that things turned out that way. I would have enjoyed talking more about his car and racing in the Phoenix area instead of the problems. He did give us a bit of a show though! Thanks, Mike
Mike is one of the nicest guys around - a serious racer always with a smile..... .....If it wasn't for him my car wouldn't still be running after being buttoned up 5 years ago Sorry to hear he was disappointed, unintentionally as it may be.
