Funny picture

The picture to the right was taken Urven Broos when I was getting ready to make our third pass at the Drag Fest earlier this year. In pro categories drag racing is clearly a team sport.

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Where are gonna be testing soon. Please check back for your personal invite.

Thanks for visiting and see you at the races.

Curacao Drag Fest - Day 3

Day three started earlier than usual and meant that we would have one pass in daylight, albeit the afternoon. Knowing that we had a good clutch set up, even though a bit on the soft side for my crew which required some arm twisting on my part to leave untouched, we set off to the staging lane confident in our combination.

And boy, was it a nice run. As I am still in the orientation phase with Pete, I wanted to take things slow and didn't mind running a 1.04+ 60 ft, as long as I got down the track in a comfortable run.

The video below shows the run, which had a 6.807 e.t. at 201.97 mph and a 60 ft of 1.03.

Later that night we ran a 6.79 at 204.03 mp with a 60 ft of 1.02. I ran into some trouble with water temperature rising somewhat and I had to re-stage the car. Eric realized that I was either a bit out of the groove or not pointing straight, so he took the right decision to have me re-stage the car. I guess the public must have wondered what was going on with us, but when I dropped the hammer, and Pete took off down a 6.79 pass, even the commentators pointed out that we had delivered on our promise... consistently six second runs.

All in all, not bad for Pete's debut. A "masha danki" to Jeff Dobbins for a job well done setting up the Cobalt.

Since many of our friends were unaware we would be testing at these races, and so missed watching our runs in person, I have posted the videos we made. Also, I will be posting more in the near future, so check back from time to time if you're interested.

Our next test day will most likely be Sunday, June 2.

Video courtesy of Gerardo "Gege" de Kort.

Curacao Drag Fest - Day 2

working on the clutch 

As the festivities around the celebration of the Queen's day (which is a national holiday) came to a close, some of these folk found their way to the drag strip, as this was the second day of racing. It's funny. The stands are full of fans in orange, some of whom spend the entire day in Punda or Otrobanda celebrating amongst friends and with beer in hand. Many came by our pits and hung out.

The second day of racing seemed to go bit slower than we're accustomed to. But the guys doing the drifting put on a hell of a show, while the track's crew tended to the many oil downs, including ours.

Our first and only pass of the night didn't turn out like we wanted. When I went on the throttle-stop the engine suffered a small oil leak, which in turn was blown all over the engine and eventually onto the track. The car didn't seem to want to make up its mind where it wanted to go (hey, I am just the passenger at this point) so after pushing Pete into third gear and still having excessive wheel spin, I clicked it early.

Below the video of our run on day 2, still had a decent 60ft of 1.02 seconds.



Personally I dislike very much oil downs, so I spent the rest of the night underneath the car wiping off any oil that remained. Unfortunately, some other cars ran into the same problem and there were some long delays. The track guys worked feverishly to clean these up, so they deserve two thumbs up!

For those of you who haven't been to the track lately, mostly, the races are held at night under the lights.

Curacao Drag Fest - Day 1

Henry Ford said it best, "Before everything else, getting ready is the secret to success".  And so it was.

Looking back on the first day at the track, I must say it went pretty well. Of course, there were the small mistakes which were in essence avoidable, such as the driver (me) not taping up the shift light and then, as he went down the track, being startled each time the shift light came on. You should have been there to understand.

At first I was just trying to get the feel back, after all, I hadn't driven a mountain motor pro stock in almost two years. The first attempt at a pass ended prematurely when I had to lift due to the car getting out of the grove and moving hard to the center. Still, we had 60 ft of 1.02 seconds, which confirmed that we were running the correct clutch set up for the track conditions. Running a skeleton crew of three (driver included) meant that our turn around time was longer than usual, however, still quite effective.

The second attempt at a pass ended early as well, as the car moved to the center again. Even though my intention was to just go through third gear, I felt the car move a lot and not wanting to tempt fate I backed off earlier than expected. To my amazement, we still covered the 1/4 mile in 6.94 seconds.

The video below shows this run, which starts at the one minute mark.



Only two passes were allocated to us on this day and I must admit that I was very happy to dive into the six second zone so quickly.

Pictures courtesy of Roy Rojer, Priscilla Lotman.

Name, Number & Flames

As the end to the wait comes into view, activities in the garage have started to pick up.

Like us, many racers are holding fundraising activities. One of them, the Black Max Racing Team have invited us to attend their car show this weekend. If we finish the car in time, we might be in a position to help them draw a larger crowd and in doing so raise more funds. The event is scheduled for Saturday, April 7, at the Stadium Ergilio Hato (formerly known as SDK), from 19:00 to 23:00 hours.

A shout out goes out to our friend Andre van Hoop, from Visuals Graphic Studio, who in spite of it being a national holiday, came out to help us with the vinyl lettering on the car.
It should be noted that the graphics on the car as well as the decals were designed by him and cut by Tramm Imaging, our sole supplier of racing decals and vinyls.

See you at the races.

2005 Mountain Motor Pro Stock Chevy Cobalt stats:

Curacao drag racing

Chassis: Constructed of 4130 chrome-moly with Funny Car cage, proffesionally built by RJ Race Cars, Galesburg, Illinois. Additional chassis components include Penske Pro Stock shocks and springs with bleed off system, Strange struts and carbon brakes. Carbon Fiber body and interior, including all oil containment devices.

Engine: 762-cubic inch with hemi heads, by Sonny's Racing Engines, Lynchburg, Virginia

Carburation: Custom HP split dominators by Bob Book, Bonfield, Illinois

Horsepower: 1525

Transmission: CS3 Lenco transmission activated by a Liberty shifter

Tires:  front: GoodYear Eagles, rear: Hoosier

Weight: 2.350-pounds, including driver

Performance: 6.7 seconds (quarter-mile elapsed time), 200+ mph top speed