ACE Racing's Racing Season
02-18-2012, 12:21 AM
#1
FormerVendor
Thread Starter
ACE Racing's Racing Season Hey gang, I thought it would be fun to post a thread that depicts a year in the life of a hand full of race cars... good or bad. I will update the thread as my time allows throughout the 2012 racing season. Let me predicate this with the fact that most of the cars I am associated with are not LS based race cars. But, if you'll bear with me I think it will be a very interesting and informative thread as the year goes on. I won't water it down with all the cars I'm associated with, maybe just the three that I'm most interested in... how's that?
Some of you know me, most of you do not... so let me start with what I've been up to the last few years. In 2009 I was hired to manage the transmission program in Tom Malouf's Outlaw 10.5 Mustang. Our best lap came in testing, we went 4.38 @ 178 mph. We Runnered Up in the Championship race. It was a very successful program that I was fortunate enough to take much from. From there I became the Race Director for the Outlaw Top Sportsman 4.70 Index series in the North Texas Region. I successfully Tuned Mike McGraws 4th Gen Camaro to one win over the course of 2 very competitive seasons. Our best lap with that car was a 4.58 @ 153mph. Those are but three highlights of a wild and sordid career at the race track as a Crew Chief, Crew Member and Race Series Director. I stepped away from the Director gig as I simply do not have the time to manage it along with my shop and track operations.
For the sake of this thread I'll focus on 3 cars that I am deeply involved with, or will be. Bruce Eppes' 2008 hard tail rear engined Dragster powered by a Reher Morrison 565cid mill (n/a) with an ACE Racing Transmissions powerglide. Clint Satterfields 2010 model Pro Mod which is a 1968 Camaro built by Tim McCamis. And a very high profile LS car which I will not name here and now as we are still working on the details of the brand new Sponsorship relationship that was cut earlier this week.
g
Some of you know me, most of you do not... so let me start with what I've been up to the last few years. In 2009 I was hired to manage the transmission program in Tom Malouf's Outlaw 10.5 Mustang. Our best lap came in testing, we went 4.38 @ 178 mph. We Runnered Up in the Championship race. It was a very successful program that I was fortunate enough to take much from. From there I became the Race Director for the Outlaw Top Sportsman 4.70 Index series in the North Texas Region. I successfully Tuned Mike McGraws 4th Gen Camaro to one win over the course of 2 very competitive seasons. Our best lap with that car was a 4.58 @ 153mph. Those are but three highlights of a wild and sordid career at the race track as a Crew Chief, Crew Member and Race Series Director. I stepped away from the Director gig as I simply do not have the time to manage it along with my shop and track operations.
For the sake of this thread I'll focus on 3 cars that I am deeply involved with, or will be. Bruce Eppes' 2008 hard tail rear engined Dragster powered by a Reher Morrison 565cid mill (n/a) with an ACE Racing Transmissions powerglide. Clint Satterfields 2010 model Pro Mod which is a 1968 Camaro built by Tim McCamis. And a very high profile LS car which I will not name here and now as we are still working on the details of the brand new Sponsorship relationship that was cut earlier this week.
g
Last edited by Gilbert@Ace Racing; 02-18-2012 at 01:29 AM.
02-18-2012, 12:32 AM
#2
FormerVendor
Thread Starter
Let me start with Bruce's car... Bruce has been a serious contender in the Super comp and Top Dragster classes at Pine Valley Raceway in Lufkin, Tx for the last 3 years. The last 2 years he has runnered up in points. He typically runs 4.57 @ 158 mph. The car is ridiculously consistent. There have been some minor mods along the way this year that may afford us about 20 more H/P. So don't look for spectacular changes from this car from years past. The key to mentioning him is he is deadly consistent. Which might help some of the Bracket Racing guys here.
02-18-2012, 12:55 AM
#3
FormerVendor
Thread Starter
Next up is Clints' car. This car is near and dear to my heart. Next to Tom's 10.5 car, this one is the most powerful Race Car I have been associated with... and we're going to be much, much faster this year.
Clint hired me to help him sort out issues with his previous vehicle, John Lingenfelters old NHRA Pro Stock Truck, several years ago. Back the he was sporting a 665 inch motor on 3 Speedtech nitrous systems. After running our personal bests... him as a Driver and me as a Tuner / Crew Chief (4.38 @ 168) at the Throwdown at T-Town race in Tulsa last summer we wounded the 665 inch motor and he made the switch to a 768 inch bullet on 4 systems. However, that was a very short lived program as this year we are making the change to twins baby!
At this point, all I can say is that the engine he is installing currently has been 3.83 @ 203 and 5.79 @ 254. We will be competing in the ADRL, the Texas Outlaw Pro Mod Association and the Texas Automatic Outlaws. As it stands today I am awaiting the BigStuff tune-ups and RacePak data from last year so I can review them and get my mind around this entirely new program. All the while Clint and his crew at his shop in Albuquerque will be doing the install and getting it ready for the first test hits here in Texas come late March. I will be very, very instrumental in Tuning this car same as I have been the last few seasons when Clint comes to Texas to race.
In the lanes at Dallas Raceway, Fall 2010.
And the new car!
Stay tuned... Our first hit with the new combination will be during a private test session March 22nd and 23rd at a local track here in the D/FW area. If everything goes according to plan we're gonna hurt a lot of feelings with this one!
g
Clint hired me to help him sort out issues with his previous vehicle, John Lingenfelters old NHRA Pro Stock Truck, several years ago. Back the he was sporting a 665 inch motor on 3 Speedtech nitrous systems. After running our personal bests... him as a Driver and me as a Tuner / Crew Chief (4.38 @ 168) at the Throwdown at T-Town race in Tulsa last summer we wounded the 665 inch motor and he made the switch to a 768 inch bullet on 4 systems. However, that was a very short lived program as this year we are making the change to twins baby!
At this point, all I can say is that the engine he is installing currently has been 3.83 @ 203 and 5.79 @ 254. We will be competing in the ADRL, the Texas Outlaw Pro Mod Association and the Texas Automatic Outlaws. As it stands today I am awaiting the BigStuff tune-ups and RacePak data from last year so I can review them and get my mind around this entirely new program. All the while Clint and his crew at his shop in Albuquerque will be doing the install and getting it ready for the first test hits here in Texas come late March. I will be very, very instrumental in Tuning this car same as I have been the last few seasons when Clint comes to Texas to race.
In the lanes at Dallas Raceway, Fall 2010.
And the new car!
Stay tuned... Our first hit with the new combination will be during a private test session March 22nd and 23rd at a local track here in the D/FW area. If everything goes according to plan we're gonna hurt a lot of feelings with this one!
g
Last edited by Gilbert@Ace Racing; 02-18-2012 at 01:08 AM.
03-03-2012, 04:14 PM
#4
FormerVendor
Thread Starter
Update: The Dragster couldn't make the 1st "shakedown" race as he was not ready. We had scheduled him to come up to Dallas Raceway for the first Bracket Race of the season. However, Bruce drug his *** getting the car ready. Because the car has ran so good over the last few seasons he took it for granted that it would this season too.
He waited until the night before the race to bust it off, put some heat in it and run the valves and check all the systems. However, the racing gods were not having any of that! Apparently there were enough questions with the carburetor that he waived it off. The secondaries were sticking, had trouble cleaning one of the air bleeds and something else I don't remember. He would have had to rush to get it in race trim. And we don't do that.
Point is, when you race a car at any level take your time and do it right the first time. Don't be in such a hurry that you compromise the engine or the car itself. It's one thing to make an informed decision about something that's questionable when you're heading into the finals. But, it's entirely different when it's a non points race at an "away" track and you have the entire season ahead of you. Don't abuse your hardware and it will pay off in dividends in the long run!
As far as the Pro Mod... the new engine combination is in the car as of last wednesday. Still have a ways to go with plumbing and wiring. We're going from a 768" bullet on 4 systems to a Brad 8 526" hemi on twin pro mod Precision 94mm turbos. Won't be long until it's on boys!
Stay tuned!
If you are in Dallas on March 23rd make your way down to Texas Raceway in Kennedale for the Texas Automatic Outlaws. Look for the Blue Camaro with twins and say hi! It'll be one helluva race!
g
He waited until the night before the race to bust it off, put some heat in it and run the valves and check all the systems. However, the racing gods were not having any of that! Apparently there were enough questions with the carburetor that he waived it off. The secondaries were sticking, had trouble cleaning one of the air bleeds and something else I don't remember. He would have had to rush to get it in race trim. And we don't do that.
Point is, when you race a car at any level take your time and do it right the first time. Don't be in such a hurry that you compromise the engine or the car itself. It's one thing to make an informed decision about something that's questionable when you're heading into the finals. But, it's entirely different when it's a non points race at an "away" track and you have the entire season ahead of you. Don't abuse your hardware and it will pay off in dividends in the long run!
As far as the Pro Mod... the new engine combination is in the car as of last wednesday. Still have a ways to go with plumbing and wiring. We're going from a 768" bullet on 4 systems to a Brad 8 526" hemi on twin pro mod Precision 94mm turbos. Won't be long until it's on boys!
Stay tuned!
If you are in Dallas on March 23rd make your way down to Texas Raceway in Kennedale for the Texas Automatic Outlaws. Look for the Blue Camaro with twins and say hi! It'll be one helluva race!
g
Last edited by Gilbert@Ace Racing; 03-03-2012 at 04:20 PM.
