Rocky's F/C

[Solid Rock]

Free diet Coke at Marion it is!!!
Thanks for the link, Bandit!

[draglist]

Man, that Mustang is looking good! bp

[draglist]

[Solid Rock]

On July 1st the Solid Rock team departed for Lancaster, New York to participate in the GLNFCC event at Dunn Tire Raceway.
After experiencing our best outing yet at the Pinks All Out event at RT 66 Raceway the week before we had no idea how eventful this outing would become!
We stopped twice, once in Indiana and once in Ohio, because the trailer brakes weren't operating properly. After consulting with Mark and Brad Horvath, of Damn Yankee fame, the problem was solved and we continued on our journey, stopping to spend the night in Erie, PA. with some of the other teams of the GLNFCC and our leader Denny Salzwimmer.
We left there in the morning and went to the Quaker Steak and Lube restaurant in Lancaster for an afternoon display of four of the cars. The Detroit Thunder T Bird of the Hallett family, the Horvath Family Damn Yankee Vega, Steve Timosyk's Doran Chevrolet Camaro, plus our Mach I Mustang. After enjoying a tasty lunch buffet we headed to the track.
We were scheduled for an 8 PM show so about 6:30 we started our warm up procedure. I noticed some fuel spurting out from the intake gasket by number 8 cylinder. With some help from some of our fellow GLNFCC members, most notably Bill and Keith Hallett and Jerry Streb, we were able to get things apart and back together in time for the show.
Our ET weren't all that great, running in the fives, but the little Mustang was dancing and hopping on both runs. The folks in attendance didn't seem to mind though as we got a lot of positive feedback from many of them.
In my second run the chute didn't blossom for some reason and I took a pretty wild ride in getting her stopped in time. I did quite a bit of bouncing but finally tamed the Evil Mach I and made the turn off.
A big thanks goes out to several of the folks who helped us out on Friday, as mentioned the Halletts, and Jerry Streb and the Horvath's plus a few others who's names escape me at the moment.
More on the rest of the trip later........

[Solid Rock]

The Solid Rock 1971 Mustang Mach I nostalgia funny car will be on display at the Joliet Race Fan Rally in downtown Joliet, IL. on July 8 and again on July 10 at White's Pit Stop in Schererville, IN. for the US 30 reunion show.
If you're at either of these shows be sure to stop by and say HI!

[draglist]

Congrats, Rocky! You guys are all living the dream! bp

[Solid Rock]

We headed to Quaker City Raceway on July 3rd, arriving in the early afternoon. We were met there by my sister Peggy and her husband Pete Stump. They were my original crew back in the early 70's and came in from Kansas City. It was great seeing them again and having them in our pits.
After arriving I went over and met Slick Vic and his son, Riley. As has been mentioned elsewhere, Riley is one cool young man. I didn't get to spend any time with Vic but Riley came over a couple of times to our pits.
As we were getting ready to do our normal maintenance, Scuba Steve found the the right rear upper motor plate bracket was cracked. I'm sure this was the result of the hard bouncing I did the night before.
Fortunately for us, John and Jeff DeCort, who run the Old and Fuelish Corvette with the GFLNFCC, have a chassis shop, JD2 Chassis, right on the track premises and were able to weld the bracket up so we could run that evening. JD2 is also a sponsor of the Classic Funny Car board.
Thanks you Jeff and John!!!
We also ran into quite a few friends from this and other boards, Zappy and Lady Linda, Wheelzman and Sharon, Jason, aka wvareb1980 and his children, Ohio Dave Oakes who took some great photos and Darrell and Heidi Arnold who were there with their fireworks spewing, wheel standing golf cart.
For first round we drew the Damn Yankee Car of the Horvath family.
Mark was out for some payback for the Pinks event but I was able to tree him slightly, but he got around me and thundered on down the track for the win. My car shook quite hard and I backpedaled at the second gear change and then it made some moves down track and I backpedaled again. It went a 7.97, but Mark was long gone with a low 7 second ET.
Our second run we were lined up with the fabled Sharkey's Machine of Lance Good. After doing what I thought was a pretty good burnout past the 330', I looked over and Lance was still boiling them to half track!!
We then lined up and when the last prestaged bulb lit, Lance took off, before the tree was set. I left and the car went toward the wall, I backpedaled twice and it went to the wall both times then started shaking once again blurring my vision so I lifted. We did give the car a visual inspection at the track earlier, but will be doing a more thorough one before the Marion race.
The fans at both tracks were really responsive and all the feedback I received from them, and there was a lot of it, was very positive.
We got through these the two events with a lot of help from several people and I hope I don't leave anyone out, but a big thank you goes to Bill and Keith Hallett, Jerry Streb, the DeCort brothers, John and Jeff, and the whole Horvath family. Of course, none of this would be possible without the efforts of Denny Salzwimmer. Thanks Denny.

[Solid Rock]

The final installment to this adventure happened much closer to home and it still makes me shudder.
Through a good part of Ohio and all on Indiana we played tag with a truck driver and, when we got into Illinois he pulled alongside us and began making hand gestures. We pulled over and were checking out the trailer and he stopped and told us that there was a problem with out trailer hitch flexing. When we looked under the truck we noticed that four of the six brackets holding the hitch to the truck were completely broken off. Thankfully, we were less than twenty miles from home and we limped along a few more miles when it was decided that we better drop the trailer off and come home and get a different tow vehicle, which we did. WHEW!!!! Somebody upstairs was looking out for us.
There is a new hitch now on the truck!!
Thanks once again to all the fine folks who helped us out and thanks to my crew, Scuba Steve Casey, Jim Follkie, and Kevin Keating.