Drag Racing at Pacific Raceways (Kent, WA)

[Five Oh Brian]

It was Pacific Racway's opening day yesterday, so I bolted on the drag radials, pulled non-essentials out of my '07 GT (spare, jack, rear seat, etc.) and braved a bit of light rain with hopes of a personal best run.

Took my handheld tuner so I could play with timing. My supercharger is not intercooled, so my custom dyno tune has just 14 degrees of timing in it. On the dyno, going with 16 resulted in the PCM pulling timing at WOT, so we went with 14 to be safe. However, at the track, I wanted to try a few different settings. I got three runs in...

16 degrees of timing. Computer pulled timing on me and the car just didn't feel right. Ran 12.425 @ 111.61 in the 1/4 mile on a 1.919 sixty foot.

14 degrees of timing. This is my normal street setting. Car hooked good and ran a 12.250 @ 112.18 on a 1.876 sixty foot.

15 degrees of timing. I knew it was my best run before I even got to the traps! Finished with a 12.110 @ 112.51 on a 1.819 sixty foot. This was the sweet spot!

The track was well prepped. Lots of VHT traction compound. I just installed a line lock recently so the drag radials were working their magic at 20 psi and hooking perfectly all day.

I was really hoping to see an 11.999 or better, but I'm about 20-30 rwhp short of doing so. Gives me something to work for this season!

Here's the slip from my best pass yesterday (I'm car #951 in the left lane)...

 

[Steel Steeds]

Your experience shows Brian! Nicely done. I wish I could be that consistent, but I don't get enough practice to hone my skills like you have. Be another month or two before I can even think about the track, waiting for my broken left leg to finish healing...

 

[Five Oh Brian]

Your experience shows Brian! Nicely done. I wish I could be that consistent, but I don't get enough practice to hone my skills like you have. Be another month or two before I can even think about the track, waiting for my broken left leg to finish healing...

Hi, Lance, long time no see! How's the II coming along? I had seen some pics you posted at the TS website of the work you're doing. I still miss my II (75 Mach 1).

I wish I could take all the credit for the good passes my GT has been running, but I just have to heat up the tires correctly. Then I just put it in Drive and the computer does all the work shifting it on the way down the 1/4 mile. Not as much skill needed with an automatic. My other 5 Mustangs were all manual transmissions and those took skill to race well.

Probably not driving the GT500 much with the broken leg, I suspect? Having withdrawls? Get better soon!

 

[Steel Steeds]

I am having withdrawls like you wouldn't believe! I broke my leg on a ski trip to Utah in January, and have not been able to drive ANY of my own vehicles since. Can't operate a clutch, and can't climb into my Bronco! I would be able to drive my '77, but that's the only non-operational one of the bunch...
Been driving a borrowed Pathfinder, which is fine, but...
I'm hoping to finally be off the crutches by the end of next week. That will be over 13 weeks since the accident.

Progress on the King Cobra has been slow, to say the least, but I'm determined to at least get the exterior done by the end of May. I have been able to do a little bit each week, carefully. The interior will hopefully be done by the Roundup in Bellevue mid-July. Are you coming to the Shelby gathering at Rob's this year?

 

[Five Oh Brian]

I am having withdrawls like you wouldn't believe! I broke my leg on a ski trip to Utah in January, and have not been able to drive ANY of my own vehicles since. Can't operate a clutch, and can't climb into my Bronco! I would be able to drive my '77, but that's the only non-operational one of the bunch...
Been driving a borrowed Pathfinder, which is fine, but...
I'm hoping to finally be off the crutches by the end of next week. That will be over 13 weeks since the accident.

Progress on the King Cobra has been slow, to say the least, but I'm determined to at least get the exterior done by the end of May. I have been able to do a little bit each week, carefully. The interior will hopefully be done by the Roundup in Bellevue mid-July. Are you coming to the Shelby gathering at Rob's this year?

I have been really struggling with whether to go to Rob & Tana's this year, as it looks like it is 99.9% Shelbys this year. The first two years were cool since there were other Mustangs in the mix (I missed last year when my car was inop), but now it's looking like a Shelby exclusive meet and I would feel out of place with my GT. There are some really cool people that show up, though, so that would be my biggest reason to decide to go. I haven't been on the TS forums much lately, so I feel like I've drifted away from the gang. I haven't told Rob yes or no yet, but I'm thinking I will likely pass.

 

[Steel Steeds]

You're right, I just looked through his list and the only non-Shelby on there is his son's car. I would go anyway, since it's local, but if I had to drive a few hours to get there... I haven't been on TS much myself. I have, for obvious reasons, been spending the vast majority of my forum time on mustangii.net for the last year. But, I try to check in to all of the relevant forums from time to time.
If I don't see you in May, we should make a point to catch up in Bellevue. I know you'll be there, and I'd love to show you my King Cobra.

 

[Five Oh Brian]

You're right, I just looked through his list and the only non-Shelby on there is his son's car. I would go anyway, since it's local, but if I had to drive a few hours to get there... I haven't been on TS much myself. I have, for obvious reasons, been spending the vast majority of my forum time on mustangii.net for the last year. But, I try to check in to all of the relevant forums from time to time.
If I don't see you in May, we should make a point to catch up in Bellevue. I know you'll be there, and I'd love to show you my King Cobra.

Ya, I'll definitely be at the Bellevue show. Can't wait to see your King Cobra! I have so many fond memories of my '75 II Mach 1, and nearly traded it on a couple of occasions for a King Cobra or standard Cobra II way back in the day.

I'm heading to Bremerton Raceways in about an hour to go drag racing with my '07 GT. As much as I want an 11-second timeslip (even an 11.999 would make my day!), I think tonight is gonna be a bunch of 12.2's and 12.3's in the 1/4 mile - maybe a tad slower as I'll be going full-weight (full tank of gas, jack/spare, etc.). I might pull the seats out (takes just 5 minutes, and saves 80 lbs), but I'm feeling lazy today and just want to race a bunch. Not too worried about chasing down every possible hundredth of a second today.

 

[Five Oh Brian]

Well, so much for racing today. After driving an hour to get to the track, we got rained out before we could even get one run. Met up with a bunch of familiar faces, though, as there was a good turn out of late model Mustangs (i.e. SN member, Marc S). Good people, good conversation, cool Stangs, but no racing today. Oh well, that's racing in the Seattle area!

 

[Five Oh Brian]

Gonna be a beautiful sunny day today. Pacific Raceways is hosting high school drags today, but Bremerton Raceway is running test n tunes tonight so I'm gonna go there tonight. Playing with my tune a bit, so the hope is an 11.99 run, but I'll settle for 12.0's and 12.1's.

A friend of mine shot a couple of my runs from a few weeks ago at Pacific Raceways (see my first post in this thread). Didn't get my 12.11 run on video, but here's my 12.25 @ 112 run (CLICK HERE).

 

[Five Oh Brian]

Just an update from my racing at Bremeton Raceway. I went May 7th as noted in my last post. Ran my personal best of 12.07 @ 112.5. Lots of 12.2's otherwise.

I went back to Bremerton Raceway last Friday, May 14th. After driving an hour in bad traffic, I immediately lined up and ran the car hot. A bunch of low/mid 12's hot lapping. Then I realized how hot the car was and decided to let the car sit and cool down (like I should have upfront anyway). After an hour the blower and intake manifold were cool to the touch, so I fired it up, pulled right up to the line and was rewarded with my first ever 11-second pass: 11.85 @ 113.50. Sixty foot was great at 1.74 and 1/8 mile was a 7.56 @ 91.50.

 

[Steel Steeds]

After an hour the blower and intake manifold were cool to the touch, so I fired it up, pulled right up to the line and was rewarded with my first ever 11-second pass: 11.85 @ 113.50. Sixty foot was great at 1.74 and 1/8 mile was a 7.56 @ 91.50.

NICE! Congratulations! I wouldn't have guessed it would make that much difference. On my n/a '98 Cobra, I got my best times when it was hot. But, I think that was more a matter of practice for the driver, not cooler air for the car...

 

[Five Oh Brian]

NICE! Congratulations! I wouldn't have guessed it would make that much difference. On my n/a '98 Cobra, I got my best times when it was hot. But, I think that was more a matter of practice for the driver, not cooler air for the car...

The heat really slows down my car as it isn't intercooled. Of course, driving an hour in stop n go traffic then immediately lining up to race was probably stupid on my part anyway. I now have a huge incentive to add water/methanol injection to my GT so I can keep temps down (plus bump effective octane).

Like your '98 Cobra, my '00 GT and '03 Mach 1 both liked to be warmed up to run their best. I bet your GT500 would be more affected by running hot, though. Come on up sometime and let's go racing! Hopefully you're healed up and ready to start driving it again.

 

[Steel Steeds]

Come on up sometime and let's go racing! Hopefully you're healed up and ready to start driving it again.

Yup, I'm off the crutches now, and driving my own vehicles again! Feels pretty good. I haven't had my Shelby to the drag strip yet, surprisingly enough. I used to take my '98 to PIR every 2-3 weeks, but having a baby around has altered my free time somewhat.

 

[Five Oh Brian]

Yup, I'm off the crutches now, and driving my own vehicles again! Feels pretty good. I haven't had my Shelby to the drag strip yet, surprisingly enough. I used to take my '98 to PIR every 2-3 weeks, but having a baby around has altered my free time somewhat.

I'm sure you'll find time to visit PIR again soon. I've driven by PIR twice in as many weeks (made two seperate trips to Woodburn, OR recently). One of these days I've gotta try PIR. Some of the racers I've spoken to at Bremerton Raceway also race at PIR and really like it.

 

[Five Oh Brian]

I just noticed I hadn't posted my first 11-second timeslip yet. I'm car # 2046 in the right lane....