How'd You Do This Year?

[Rich33]

With most of the points seasons either over or close to the end, I thought it'd be interesting to see how all the mopar circle track guys did this season. It would also be cool to find out what each of us are planning for next year.

For my part, I finished third in points in a street stock Duster that I built new for this season. I had a variety of handling problems that kept me from doing any better. But, I got them all fixed by the end of the season and will have a very strong package out of the box for next year.

In the bomber division at our track (1/4 mile dirt), three of the top five cars were Mopars...A 383 powered Cordoba, an '81 Fury with a 360, and a Dodge Dart with another 360. A Chevy won it, but that could have gone either way. How about the rest of you?

[Glenn81]

I ran at N.B.I.S in Fredericton New Brunswick Canada. I won two features several heats & dashes along the way to points championship. I run in the prostock division with the only dodge.It feels real good to smile on the bowtie boys. You can check it out at www.nbis.com

[sanborn]

We ran 18 races this year with our car.
4 DNFs (two were engines-ouch!)
1 tenth - Southern All Stars race
1 seventh
1 sixth
2 fourths
2 thirds
7 seconds
Not a stinking win!
We learned our lessons about the engine
failures and hope to not repeat that next
year.

Next year, we plan to run more circuit races with Southern All Stars and Hav A Tampa(we are doing the machine work for the Bristol and Charlotte engine now). For the first time we will have two complete competitive engines (we, of course need three).

[Mad61]

My friend, Mike Fuller, won the 2000 Street Stock Championship at Jackson Motor Speedway at Byram, MS. He runs a '70 Dart Swinger with 340 and auto trans. We were no. 1 points lead all year. We were the only Mopar out there and they tried every thing in the book to try to knock us off the #1 points lead. Mike has a website at
http://community.webtv.net/fastcat29/Mopar29StreetStock

where he has a couple of pictures and details of the last points race, Street Stock Thunder II and the last race which was an Outlaw race where he got his 4th win of the year.

[9dodge]

Well I led the points race most of the season. Should have won the championship but our series allows race points to be added from out side the region.
The second place guy took advantage of this and ran an additional race, 19 races to my 18 races and won the championship. i'm not happy with the way I lost it. I'm hoping they change the rule before next year.

Michael

[sanborn]

Went down to Dixie Speedway (near Atlanta) this past weekend. You can add another DNF to our total from the 11/03 post. Oh well, we wern't that good anyway, 33rd fastest out of 58 cars. Started 6th in our qualifying race, got caught up in a wreck on the first lap. The engine was fine, we just weren't quick enough. Next race is 12/03 then season is over.

[355 racer]

We only got to participate in 13 races this year out of a scheduled 23. I have been bragging all year about our new 48 deg.R-3 DODGE engine we built over the winter. I don't want to bore anybody but heres what happens when you put together a new design engine,a new style chassis, (at least for me ),and a crew who has all the best intentions ,but in reality dosen't really know diddly squat. 1st race,engine not ready,waiting for parts,shoe horned the old chevy in the car, got thru the day,and the feature,finished 13th. Found out later the block was cracked, now we don't even have an engine for next week. Week 2,3, and 4 were rained out, thank God, as the Dodge is still not ready. Week 5, finished the Dodge at like 3am saturday morning.We arrived at the track, this sucker sounded ba-a-a-ad!!!
It didn't take long for a crowd to form from the other pitts. I'll tell you, I was struting like a peacock in mating season. There is nothing like the sound of that 48 deg. engine running. We went out for mud laps, and let me tell you ,you could close your eyes, and pick out anywhere on the track where the Dodge was. It has a distinct bark ,all it's own. ( you have to realize that there are about 75 or more late models and modifieds on the track at the same time).This is where ,from here on,it all goes downhill .We were black flagged in our heat for a major oil leak. Couldn't find the leak,resulted in a DNS. Week 6, Transmisson coupling came apart, ( crew error),still throwing oil,another DNS. Week 7, drive shaft universal not locked in properly,tore out back end,( crew error), another DNS,but we did find the oil leak. Week 8,actually got to run a race, WON our heat by half a track length, and finished 2nd in feature.
Week 9,10 and 11,WON all our heats and finished 6th,7th,and 21st (caught up in accident). Week 12&13, rained out. Week 14,had brake problem,week 15,rained out. Week 16 and 17, 2 more heat wins,7th and 11th in feature.Last three races were 10th,7th,and 4th.Overall we finished 13th in points. The motor has run flawlessly after the first three weeks of oil leaks. Guess you might want to know where the leak was?
I left out a bolt for the timing chain case,which is counter sunk and hidden behind the water pump housing,it would only leak under high RPM pressure. I am hoping all of this is behind us and can make a FEW visits to winners circle next year.
'the old man'
I was glad to see Sanborn's reply as I now feel I am not the only one sweating over our MOPARS, but they are also PROUD beads of sweat.

[cageman]

I never won this year but I had a few third places. I only had a 318 compared to all the 350 and 400 chevies I raced against. I got fourth in points and missed third by one point. My sister did good for her first year and finished every race and her best finish was ninth.
Im building a 69 coronet next year and my sister is driving the 88 fury again.

[AVENGER29]

we lost an engine catastrophically early in the season,sent the entire assembly to the srap.didnt loose a week,rebuild engine in record time,made the changes that we hope will prevent a re-occurence. struggle all season, if shit was happening on the track you can quarantee we found it. wasnt until late in season that we found our handling & manage to stay out of trouble, last 5 races, won heat race 3 times,3rd 2 sat nite ago,and rain out last sat nite,we were ready and needing a win desperately.a bunch of top 10s,but very few top fives,considering we had 2 feature wins and more heat race wins that we could count last year.our year has been lest than fun. oh well there always next year, bottom line, we have a great car and a seasoned crew,need a little luck which im sure we will find for next season...
luke v.