Greg (5.8fastcat) and his son Adam, ran the guntlet of Drag Week (September 8th-13th) and took 3rd in Modified Power Adder with an average of ~9.20!!! Fastest trap speed was 156 MPH. If I recall correctly, he ran a 9.20 at BG, 9.20 at Indy, 9.24 at St.Louis, 9.19 in Mephis and a 9.17 back at BG. He was also the fastest Ford powered car, but didn't get credit for it.
For those unfamiliar; Drag Week began with Sunday's registration at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green Ky & racing on Monday morning, then to Indy, St. Louis, Memphis and back to Bowling Green. Travel time between tracks was 7-9 hours, depending on traffic and repairs. The route for each day is given out when you turned in your time slip. You could not deviate from it. To prove you didn't, photos at two designated landmarks were required.
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The trip was the during the hottest week of the year. There were days of up to 104, plus 90% humidity! Total round trip was 1,200 miles. The heat was incredibly brutal on the cars and people. Imagine what temps inside a car with no A/C is like when it's 104 outside!
My friend Ryan and I drove 500 miles down from Michigan to partite (Greg & Adam live in Ownsburo KY). Ryan, Greg and I were all on the wait list. There were 250 registered and 230 showed up. Only 11 folks on the wait list showed up, so we all got in!
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Ryan has the Red 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, he averaged 12.22. I drove the Gray Mustang hatch back (between Ryan's Jeep and the Red Pro Mod Camaro).
I brought a knife to a gun fight: 12.45 average. My little "back up" 306 was tired! Used 8 quarts of oil in 2,200 miles.
Ryan and I were in Daily Driver. In years past, anything quicker than 13 flat in Daily Driver was in the "Quick 32". Not this year! The cut off was 11.94.
It was an endurance run. None of us were without problems, but all were repairable. The most exciting and memorable breakdown was the fire in Greg's trunk!
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The most amazing part was having it put out, repaired and back on the road in less than 25 minutes (that included all of our "pit stops" - don't know if Greg needed to change his shorts).
It was a great trip, and am finally feeling like I am recovered (4 nights of less than 5 hours sleep takes a little catching up...). Glad to have been able to do it with Greg & Adam! A bonus for was us, was hooking up with Gumby at Indy on Monday morning (he got up early and was waiting for us there prior to 8 AM).
Reading about Drag Week cannot do the experience justice. It is the most hardcore car event I've completed.
That sounded like a lot of fun. Must have been an awesome experience (except for the trunk fire) :hick:.
Sounds like a blast
awsome!
i just had to go dig up the old pinks all out vid of all cougars,, what an great machine and i admire all the effort to keep it streetable
That does sound like a blast.
104ยบ without air is definitely brutal......Ask me how I know!
Ron
Was good to see everyone again, and thanks again for being my parts connection too!
For the record, IRP was Tuesday morning; although it still felt like Monday with only 3hrs of sleep after wrenching on Greg's shifter cable in my garage all night! Playing hookie from work in the middle of the week to go to the track was a blast but I paid for it as well. Got stuck at my second job till just past 10pm Tuesday night!
Did you and Ryan go back to BG, or head straight home after Day 4?
Awesome times, that is one fast cat. What caught fire, looks like amp or battery cable??
That's great to see a fox Cougar taking some trophies on the racetrack. Congratulations 5.8fastcat and keep up the good work!
I belive you have more photos, post them up!
Drag Week is really cool! I saw 5.8fastcat's car on the live feeds and on pics but I haven't heard anything on here that he was going to partite in it. Well done mate!
Just making it through drag week is really good, getting 3rd place is great! :D
Monday, Tuesday, the days have blured together a bit... You guys really had a thrash to get the Cat back on the road (Greg's stock shifter cable broke as he left BG and limped to Indy without access to park or reverse. Stock shifter cables are no longer available anywhere, so Gumby & Greg morphed a cable from a B&M shift kit)!
Ryan and I completed the full week. We knew we hadn't made the Quick 32 in Memphis, but pulling out early wasn't an option!
There was a 200 amp fuse holder that the cable from the alternator ran to. There was significant resistance across this connection which generated enough heat to melt the holder and ground the cable to the floor of the trunk! It actually burned a hole through the floor. Once this was repaired, the charging issues Greg was having disappeared too.
I have a similar connector with my charging cable, anything I need to check or look out for??
There were few photos taken, most are of us at the landmarks, but here are a few of the others:
This is a shot of Greg & Adam on the car fire stop.
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These are the parts pulled for the parking lot repair on my car on Saturday night after we arrived in BG;
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This is shot of the Mustang & Jeep the first morning at BG, as well as glimpse of the stuff we carried.
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An item I will never be without at a drag strip is an EZ-UP! The 12x12 unit was a life saver! It was the only shade we had out there.
Check the resistance with an ohm meter.
We were all a bit puzzled as to why it was an issue for Greg.
Thanks for sharing. I always enjoy reading about Drag Week in Hot Rod and watching the videos and stuff online. Pretty cool that you all partited!