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Justin Grant will debut his new Don Schumacher’s “Stardust Cuda” in a match race against Troy Martin in the “Chi-Town Hustler,” and Larry Dixon Sr. will drive his blown altered.
Troy Coker, NPCA president, has declared 2007 as the “break out” year for nostalgia drag racing east of the Rockies.
We’re glad to see the nostalgia wave spreading. For more information on the series see www.nostalgiaprocomp.com. [04/13/07]
JOOSTEN SETS MSA PRO MOD RECORD
Robert Joosten set the MSA Pro Mod ET record in the UK at 6.354 (backed up by a faster 6.281!). The terminal speed on the quicker run (229.55 mph) was a shade over a tenth of a mile per hour faster than Andy Robinson's 229.43 mph FIA Pro Mod record, but lacked a back-up. Joosten is now driving Jim Oddy’s old C5 Corvette. Joosten had Billy Leverentz, Oddy’s former car chief who took over Oddy’s Elma, NY, engine building business when Oddy retired, build a new supercharged engine before shipping the car to Europe.
The Easter outing at Santa Pod that got Joosten the MSA record – and just a tenth off the European Pro Mod record of 6.174 held by Urban Johansson – was the first for the new engine. And here’s the kicker: Leverentz was tuning the car over the phone between rounds. Now let’s see, if it’s daytime in England, it’s what time in New York? (photo by Ivan Sansom) [04/13/07]
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AN ENGINEERING ANSWER
In his latest Blast, DRO editor Jeff Burk wondered how many chassis builders had engineers on staff besides Jerry Bickel. We haven’t heard from any others yet, but Murf McKinney let us know that his shop has several.
McKinney says, “We have on staff here at McKinney Corp. Nick Pfeifer who has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, Pawel Zajac who has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology from Purdue, led by Todd Morris who has completed 3 years at Purdue in Mechanical Engineering Technology and has been with us for 18 years. We also retain Daniel Metz, Ph.D., P.E., who is retired from the University of Illinois, as a consultant. Not to mention using the services of Roger Goode P.E of SFI, and the many departments available to us here at Purdue University to aid in special projects.”[04/13/07]
A REAL MODEL CAR
The Agent got a call last night confirming that Mattel’s popular Hot Wheels brand will be returning to drag racing with a series of nostalgia nitro funny cars and support deals.
The lead car in the new line of mini-cars will be George Doty’s “Crazy Horse” Mustang funny car, winner of the 2005 Goodguys VRA Championship. Ultimately Mattel will expand to ten replicas of the current crop of vintage nitro floppers, with plans down the road to expand the line into 1/24th scale collectables. [04/13/07]