REDEMPTION AT THE SOUTHERN NATS !!!

From: W. Jack Hilton III (HEMI@charter.net)
Date: Mon May 31 1999 - 14:54:35 EDT


So after that wonderful week I go to the All Mopar SOuthern Nats in
Reynolds , GA at Silver Dollar Raceway .

Please keep in mind that my truck is a 98 R/T Club Cab , and I weighed it
at 3900 Pounds without me in it , with 3/8 tank of gas .

All runs were done with spare removed and most with tailgate down .

I got to the track just before 9PM on Friday for test & Tune .

It was Mel , myself , and my friend Missy .

I slapped on the slicks and tried her out .

This night , my truck was set up as this :

JET Stage II module
Slicks at 15PSI
92 Octane fuel
180 degree stat
Magnecor Wires
Brass cap & rotor

I ran a worste of 15.619 @ 84.80 on my first run with a .710 RT . On this
run , my dumb-ass left the truck in 2nd and thought he could wind it out
thru the traps cuz he knew he was losing a bit when he shifted to 3rd just
before the last set of traps . Well , I started bumping off the rev limiter
at about half track and screwed it all up .

I did another run after that and ran a 15.459 @ 88.82 with a .676 RT ,
followed by a 15.576 @ 88.89 with a .510 RT .

I then decided to take off the JET Stage II module ,ya know , the thing
that cost over $200 , and I ran a 15.322 @ 89.70 and a 15.304 @ 89.89 ,
beating my best of 15.388 from Moroso last September .

SO , the lesson learned here was that the JET Stage II Module is in fact a
POS !!!

Got to the track on Saturday and started doing some grudge runs at 2PM .

What I changed :

Power Steering and AC bypass belt

I immediately ran a 15.248 @ 88.85 with a .605 RT .

Second run I ran a 15.448 @ 87.79 but I didn't think I had gotten a good
bite even with the slicks . I did however cut a .508 RT .

Third run I fell asleep at the light with a 1.039 RT and ran a 15.531 @
87.58 .

That ended the grudge runs , and when the rian moved in , it ended the day
for racing with no time trials or eliminations .

Fun for Saturday was in the form of a lug nut that didn't wanna come off
correctly when taking the slicks off , which resulted in snapping a stud
off on the left side . OUCH!

Oh well , I have five more , I figured !

Sunday ,the day that turned out to make me a very happy person !

First run was without the JET and with the bypass belt and with slicks
hovering around 15-16PSI .

Run 1 was a 15.343 @ 88.85 with a .632 RT .

Run number 2 I bumped the slicks up to 18PSI and really really heated em up
at the line , along with a little dry-hop to see if they were grabbing .
They were .

I ran a 15.054 @ 90.06 , but I yanked a .396 RT , good thing this was time
trials .

Next run was more of the same with a 15.159 @ 89.49 with a .590 RT .

That was the end of time trials and I started thinking about what I would
dial-in at .

I ended up going with my best time of 15.05 as a dial-in .

While waiting , I looked at this bag of ice , what was left of it , and
desided to sit it on the intake and see if that helped .
I was skeptical about getting fast enough for another 15.05 .

So round one of eliminations comes up and I had a dial-in of 15.05 .

I really heated up the slicks and made sure they would bite

I was running another guy in an extended cab "SS/T Limited" , home made ,
no doubt , and as I cut a .656 light , he cut a .747 .

I finally made it to 60' in under 2.2 seconds , making the mark at 2.159
seconds ! (I found out later that the 60' mark was where I would gain my
best times!) .

At the end of the run , he won with a 15.71 @ 82.61 because I BROKE OUT !!!

I ran a 14.856 @ 91.40 MPH !!!!!!!!!

I didn't care that I had lost cuz I had just surpassed , in fact smashed my
earliest goal of getting in the high 14s by early summer !!

So even though I had lost , they let you do one buy-back , which I did .

We then stacked about 3 bags of ice all over the top of the engine and I
changed my dial-in to 14.85 . It was kinda funny as the starter came up to
my window asking if I had the air on because there was all this water
dripping out from under my truck . I said no and he said , "Is that from
ice? " I said yes and he said "You don't have any under the hood do ya?" ,
and I was like NO , of course not ,don't be rediculous ! hehehe .
If there was any left , it was evaporated by the time I finished the race
and raised the hood .

Next round comes up and I was trying to get a good light , and like an
idiot I saw a nice red-eye as I left the line by pulling a .453 RT .

My opponent won by default , even though he ran a 20.360 on a 20.04 dial-in
(he was in like a 78 Maxi-Van full of rust) .

I was not disappointed though since I ran a 14.866 @ 90.64 !!

So here are the basics learned at the races this weekend :

1) JET Modules SUCK DONKEY , so don't waste your money !!

2) Slicks are your friend , especially if you have them at 18PSI and heat
them up good , I mean *really* good !!

3) Three Words : ICE , ICE , ICE !!!

My configuration for my best run was this :

1998 Dakota R/T Club Cab
Spare removed
Tailgate down
M/T Drag ET 28x10.5x15 slicks mounted on 15x8 Daota aluminum wheels
Heated slicks for a long time . To the point of looking like a show-off
during my burnout.
Magnecor wires
Brass cap & rotor from NAPPY
14x3" FABM
OD off
Launch at 1300 RPM
3 bags of ice on top of the engine for about 45 minutes before the run .

Stir all of this together , and you get a 14.856 @ 91.40 !!

Makes me wonder what I would have run with my headers , DOH!

I wish to extend my deepest thanks to Mel , Blaine , and Ben from the DML ,
as well as my friend Missy ho helped by getting ice and also falling asleep
in the bed of Mel's truck . (We closed her in his tonneau and tailgate and
rove around till she woke up , hehe!).

Ben , Blaine , and Mel didn't just sit there and watch , they jumped in and
helped . It was totally unexpected , but greatly appreciated .

It really really came in handy when changing out those tires and packing my
top-end in ice !!

Thanks guys , I owe you a big one !!

I know that Ben had a camcorder , and Mel and Blaine both had digi-cams ,
so there should be plenty of good pics . I can't wait to see em !! I know
Mel had a nice series of shots during a burnout , as well as Blaine .

There was even this guy there that would take pics of all of the cars at
the line with a digi-cam and then if you liked it , he would put it on a
shirt . I got a nice pic of me with the rearend hidden in smoke ! Looks
awesome .

There was also a guy there with a 99 Regular Cab R/T with a Powerdyne SC on
it . He said he got it cuz it was the cheapest . We ran each other on
Sunday during time trials and he got me with a 14.194 @ 95.13 to my 15.159
@ 89.49 . Of course , he didn't have slicks , or the knowledge gained from
the DML either , hehehe .

There was a guy there in a red CC 98 R/T that found a vendor that had an M1
intake with adapters and was already tapped for injectors , for $275 .
Blaine almost has a fit when he saw the guy had one . Of course , we all
wanted it !

Landmark dodge was there as a major sponsor and they had several vehicles
including a yellow CC R/T and a Durango that they had done just a few
things to , including adding R/T wheels with Michelin tires[the ones I will
end up getting] . I think he ran in the low 16s .

Ben already had a new DML sticker , but I made sure that I shared what Jon
had sent me just before I left and we all had one !
Thanks Jon !

The DML name and URL was spread around and I think we will see at least two
more people as a result of it .

Anyway , I am a very happy person now and I am setting my sights on the low
14s !!

Thank you DML and Dakota R/T lists !!!

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W. Jack Hilton III

HEMI@charter.net

http://webpages.charter.net/hemi/jbd1.html

ICQ#: 32611901

AOL Instant Messenger: "DwnSth69"

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