2023 Kuhnle Motorsports Park Wednesday nights

[TireSmoker]

The Wednesday Night season opener is this Wednesday. Forecast looks good! Ill be there with the Chevelle. Who else is in?

-Dave

[Fred32v]

I'm there!

[Basement Paul]

I'll be there with the Mustang.

-BP

[TireSmoker]

Well, it was a successful first night at KMS for 2023. Paul brought his GT500, Fred with his Canyon, and Tony with his '69. I don't know what the DA was, but the air was good. I was seeing 101kpa on my MAP sensor with the engine off. It's usually in the high 90s.

I struggled a little bit with my launch. I found a problem with my tune, but by my laptop ran out of juice before I could make a change. Slow-rolling the throttle, I could basically work around the problem area and it worked. I'm still having a 1-2 shift issue, which is disappointing. However, my MPH was up 1-1.5 -- even hitting 109MPH, which I've only done once before. Best ET in time runs was 12.45, and best MPH was 109. If I could launch it properly, I would've been in the 12.20s for sure.

After almost not making the first round with a key-start issue again (omg, grrrr!!), I got it running and managed to win a couple rounds. The first guy red-lighted on me and I was able to run it out with my crummy launch, and went 12.52 on a 12.50 dial. Even had an .07 light, so would've been a solid run no matter what. That was promising. In round 2, against a 14-sec mustang, I caught him at 2/3 track, lifted, then throttled through for the win. I think I went 12.70 @ 102 on 12.50 dial

My third round was against Claude in his white Mustang. The thing is plastered with Class Win stickers. I kept my 12.50 dialin v 12.12 --I had a shitty light, .19 vs. 11, but I really got it off the line well. I had him by over 1/2 car at the end, I hit the brakes, but it wasn't enough -- 12.41 @ 101 for the breakout loss.

Team Cossick both went red in the first round and will have to endure the shame of Mrs. Cossick.

Tony's car was solidly in the 11s by the end of the night with Paul behind the wheel, and the GT500 just barely missed the 12s.

-Dave

[Basement Paul]

It was a beautiful night weather-wise. No wind to speak of and good air for May. I was able to get two 13.02 passes. One was at 106mph and the other 111mph. If I knew on the first pass what I knew on the 111mph pass, it would have been in the 12's... The first 13.02 I was short shifting a little, mostly because I was just learning the car, and that put a 3-4 shift in the traps. On the 111mph run, and all other runs, I ran 3rd gear out through the traps with no upshift. With a 3.31 gear and a reasonably tall first gear, this car goes over 60mph in 1st gear, which is cool for road racing, but is hurtful when trying to launch at a dragstrip. The SuperSnake version of this car has a 3.73 gear and a one piece driveshaft, and I think if I did that, it would be at least .3-4 quicker. My other passes were all over the place because with the top down in a quiet car, it becomes super hard to launch this thing consistently.
All those excuses aside, I'm still happy with the 13.02. Every article I read about these in convertible form when they were new said 13.1 quarter mile times. So I'm one good launch from the 12's. Maybe in the fall I'll try again, but I won't be racing this one much. I'm surprised Grant didn't tell me to put the top up because of the speed. It is more fun to run with the top down.

Getting to make some fast passes for Tony is just an added bonus. It's a fun car to drive, and now that I've made a bunch of passes in it, I'm really pretty familiar with how it feels. If I ever built a small block, I would go to his guy. It's a pretty amazing motor combination.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

And some live action provided by videographer Dave:

https://files.tiresmoke.org/f/0cc9186bc1f948258d8f/

https://files.tiresmoke.org/f/41118aa9af14448db36b/

I swore I took video of dad racing in the first round but it's nowhere to be found.


-BP

[TireSmoker]

FYI, You should prob click Download Now on those links instead of trying to stream it.

-Dave

[Blue_69_malibu]

Oh what a night.....late December back in '63. Oh wait....make that May of 2023!

Turns out that I never made it to the track formerly known as TRP.....formerly known as TDR...last year. I only made one trip to Dragway 42 in November with Dave and Paul....where we got all of two passes in 7+ hours.

So, when I got to KMP last night, I literally didn't know where to park/pit.......for things had changed there since I first started going in 1990. But the changes all appear for the better.

As is always the case, it was great spending the evening with Dave and Team Cossick.

Paul's new ride is just a great looking car. If you had to drive a car across the Country, that's probably what you'd pick....if there is enough trunk space. It's fast, comfortable, and just oozes style.

When I'm pushing into my eighth decade, I hope I'm half as sharp, active, and engaging as Fred. A true gentleman from the Old School.

As you can see in one of the pics Dave posted, his Chevelle is really sharp looking after all of the paint and body work. It's a '70 Chevelle with great paint and striping, runs 12s (for now), and gets raced regularly. It's a sweet ride.

And yes - my Driver Paul knocked down two great time slips last night - an 11.94 followed by an 11.90. To say I'm thrilled with those results is an understatement. I woke up in an incredibly good mood today.

I bought this Chevelle in 2009 and had the 383 built in 2017. During this time, I've had constant help and support from both Paul and Dave. I'm beyond thrilled with how this car has turned out.....but I could not have done so without all of their help. So, I'd be remiss if I didn't give both of them a big THANK YOU for all of their help and hard work over the years. I could never have done this without them!!

[Basement Paul]

It's like I'm working on one of my own cars at this point. I just don't have to pay the insurance or storage on it. And compared to everything I own, it's very simple to access everything. And using it as a reason to hang out is the best part.

-BP

[Blue_69_malibu]

Totally! I sense some steaks on a blue Weber Grill in our future........

[Fred32v]

Well Wednesday night was a beautiful night for baseball, which actually meant it was also a very good night for KMP.
I've been putting 92 octane in the Canyon for sometime trying to take advantage of Trever's tune.
Being there with Paul and my other two sons, Dave and Tony, it just made things that much better!
On my 1st pass I wasn't sure where to start on the tree, that lead to a disappointing .2967 reaction,
the GMC ran 14.84 @ 93.12. Ok, let's try leaving on the third bulb, .0240 reaction 14.87 @ 93.44.
Got it, now I'm ready for eliminations, with weather cooling down I dialed 14.77.
Well I left on the third bulb again, the GMC gave me it's best 60ft. on the way to a 14.70 @ 94.02.
Sadly my reaction was a -.0179 red, so I just ran it out, feeling a little disappointed.

But, as always, drag racing @ KMP is great fun!

[TireSmoker]

Too late to write it up, but here's a few thousands words worth of pics!

And if you want to download some video: https://files.tiresmoke.org/d/3f9dc8505f2f4c2aa23e/

[Blue_69_malibu]

I'll summarize, then:

It was cold.
Paul's S-10 is FAST. Hella-FAST.
Dave made it to the Finals and may need another trophy shelf.
Fred's Canyon is considerably faster than my stock Colorado.
Paul is a miracle worker and got another best ET and MPH in my Chevelle - see the sign.
The Homemade Lemonade was not as good this week as it was last week.

The End.....Until Next Time.

Super cool to hang with Dave, Paul, and Fred....as it always is.

[Basement Paul]

Except for the first round redlight, last night was fun. I wasn't really there for the eliminations part of the program, just trying to go fast, so I wasn't paying too much attention to reaction times all night. The S10 was only .01 better than it's previous best, but better nonetheless so I'll take it. Getting only one shot at making Tony's car go faster was a little stressful, but the track was good and the air was even better, so I was able to knock .06 off our best from last week, and add a MPH kicker.
Hopefully we can get the Vette going soon as I'd like to get good at racing that one out there.

-BP

[Fred32v]

Another fun night at KMP. "TireSmoke" Dave himself was there. Temperature a windy low 50's.
I had 2 time runs. 14.7981 @ 93.06 and 14.82 @ 93.06.
Round 1 - dialed 14.77 ran 14.7694 @ 90.14 on the brakes breakout loss.


But, as always, drag racing @ KMP is great fun!