We wait....................

Here are current pictures of the race car. It is together and ready to go for the most part - what is left is the safety items and things that have to be SFI certified in order to pass technical inspection at a race. That includes: the seat belts, blower restraint/bag, engine diaper, fire bottles, bellhousing and clutch. The reason I haven't sent these items off for re-certification is that I am not 100% sure that I will be able to race the car in 2010.That will depend on several things - mostly sponsorship/finances and my work schedule. SOOOOO, we are in a holding pattern to see what time brings.
You will also notice in the pictures that the car has a different nose piece and fewer body panels on it. This is the alternate short body that I have for it. If we do run the car this year we'll most likely use this shorter and lighter body.
That's all I have for now. Thanks for checking my blog!!!

Brad

Chassis fixed and back home.

David and I took the car to Indianapolis over Halloween weekend and got the top tube of the chassis replaced and a few other minor changes. Keith Burgan, otherwise known as "Rooman" because he's from Australia, did a great job and let David and I help where we could. Rooman is a master craftsman and did a GREAT job on the car.
I am putting the car back together now as I have spare time. I'll take some pictures soon and give another update.
Thanks for checking in!
Brad

Update

Here's a couple of pictures of the damage in the upper frame rail and the chassis in the shop after I have Scotchbrited it and rubbed it down with penetrating oil.

Brad

Stripped chassis

Susan and I went to Tulsa today and dropped the chassis off at Blasting Specialties where they blasted the paint off of it with a plastic bead media that removes the paint without damaging the thin wall chromoly tubing. Now that it is back home and in the shop I will take scotch-brite pads and rub down all of the tubing and then rub it down again with penetrating oil to keep it from rusting. Here are some before and after pictures of the chassis from today.

Brad

Some more pictures from MAM and an update

Here's the latest news from Speed Merchants Racing.
After coming home from our match race at Mid America Motorplex and disassembling the race car I have found the chassis severely cracked in the top frame rail where the rear end flange is welded into the chassis. This was caused by the severe tire shake we experienced and is going to require a new top hoop welded into the car - not a small undertaking. I have decided to take the car to Keith Burgan - otherwise known as Rooman because he's an Aussie - in Indianapolis for the repair. He's an excellent chassis builder and a good friend. The plan is to go Halloween weekend and spend 2 days on the repair and then bring back the fixed car.
The never ending hunt for a sponsor continues and our racing agenda for next season depends heavily on acquiring one or more.
I have to take the bare chassis to get the paint stripped off for the repairs and I think I am going to leave the chassis unpainted and possibly run the short body next year to save a little weight and help between round maintenance - we'll see.
These pictures from MAM were taken by crew member Randy Compton. Enjoy and thanks for checking my blog!

Brad

Subscribe to my blog........

I wanted to take a minute and inform those of you who may not know that you can subscribe to my blog and get an email each time I update it. If you look to the right side of the blog and scroll down you will see where it says to "Subscribe in a Reader". Click there and then choose a reader to use to view the blog with in your email. Next click "Get Speed Merchants delivered by email". Next enter your email address and enter the code word into the space provided and click "Complete Subscription request". It's easy and always keeps you informed with up to date Speed Merchants news.
Some of you may have done this in the past here on my blog with a different subscriber that quit working. We have added the new one and you will have to resubscribe with it.
Thanks for checking in!
Brad

Pictures

David took some shots that I wanted to share. Enjoy!

Video

Here's the video Kurt shot at Mid America last weekend.Thanks Kurt!


Speed+Merchants+vs+Nightmare+Nostalgia+AA+Front+en

A big thanks for a fun weekend!

We had a great time at Mid America last weekend! Even though we had trouble getting down the track under power (a little too much power for the track but we'll have a plan for next year) and got beat both runs we had a great time and were treated very well by the personnel at Mid America Motorplex. The turnout of friends and family was AWESOME and overwhelming. Thank you!!! The track manager was happy with the show we put on for the fans and he said he wants us back for next year - maybe twice.
Randy was taking pictures and Kurt shot some video so I'll get those posted as soon as I get them.
I want to extend a special thank you to Dan and Joanie Russell for inviting us, Mid America Motorplex for having a great show and including us, all my friends and family for spending the time with us, my great crew for all their hard work and most of all my wife, partner and best friend Susan for her patience, love and support.
Brad

Event Flier

Beeee There!

The car is loaded in the trailer and we are ready to roll North late Friday afternoon. So far the forecast looks pretty good. Lets hope it stays that way.
The track record at MidAmerica is a 4.16. We've been running around 4.10 at the 1/8th mile all year with a soft tuneup and have run as fast as 4.01 this spring with a little more in it so if everything goes well and the track is sticky maybe Sunday afternoon we can set a new track record. 3.99 at 200 mph. That would be about right!
They have posted a new flier at the website www.midamericamotorplex.com under the "drag strip" link and you can also listen to their radio ad from there.

I hope you all can make it out!

Brad

Mid America in August

I am very happy to announce that the match race at MidAmerica Motorplex is confirmed and we will be going Aug 29 and 30. Please make plans to come see us if you can. We will run once Saturday afternoon and once again Sunday morning. The track website is www.midamericamotorplex.com They are located by Pacific Junction, IA just South of Council Bluffs and Omaha on I29.
We will be racing against Dan Russell's "Nightmare" top fuel dragster from Kellog,IA. Dan and his wife Joanie are good friends and we're looking forward to racing them. We hope all of our Nebraska/Iowa friends and family can make it out on Saturday or Sunday while we thunder the ground- nitromethane style!!!!

Brad

Possible match race development

I wanted to let you all know that I have an opportunity to run the car at a match race at Mid America Motorplex (www.midamericamotorplex.com)August 29 and 30. I am very excited about this because it is located just South Of Council Bluffs, Iowa right on the Nebraska/Iowa border. This would be a great opportunity for many of my friends and family from Nebraska to be able to come see the car run but it will depend on me getting the time off from work. Currently I am scheduled to work the midnite shift those days and the only way I can go is if I can find somebody to swap some work shifts with me. I will try my best this week to get it worked out and I'll update as soon as I know something certain.


Brad

A few more Indy photos

Photos from Indy....

Here are some shots that Jimmy Johnson took when he wasn't busy working on the clutch.
Brad

Indy results............

Wow! Murphy's law was in full effect this last few weeks. Having to find a stand in driver at the last minute, a stripped wheel stud, leaking blower snout and front main seal, crew chief stuck in the Dallas airport for 2 days and I'm sure there is more that I have already forgotten in the whirlwind. My guys did an AWESOME job and we managed to keep it together and overcome the obstacles. We ran a 6.16 Friday with the new driver, Jason Richey, shutting it off early at around 1100 feet. That put us in the #4 qualifying spot. We knew we'd get bumped down Saturday morning and we wanted to stay in the top half of the field so we decided to make a second qualifying run Saturday morning at noon. The valley cover gasket blew and covered Jason with oil and he had to shut it off really early into the run which left us with a 6.46 so we were not able to better our qualifying position and we ended up in the 6th spot with our 6.16 time.
We had to get the car serviced and ready for first round of eliminations by 3:30 PM and we had to put new clutch discs in and pull all the mains and rod caps to check the bearings since we were having some oiling problems. Sadly as the time rolled along we were not able to make the call to the lanes at 3:30. The Goodguys officials offered to bump us into the "B" field (not running until the next day) and put the first alternate in our place and we accepted which gave us all night to get the car ready properly and safely.
First round came Sunday morning for the B top fuel field and we won the round with a 6.14 time again shutting off a bit early to save the engine for the final round. We got everything ready early and waited for the call. A brief rain shower passed through and caused a 1 hour delay. Time came to pull into the lanes at 3:45 and there were 6 cars ready for their final rounds of the event:
two A field TF dragsters, two B field TF dragsters (including us), and two funny cars. We were ready to win this! Our car would have run a 6 teen something and our opponent had not run anything better than a mid seven second run all weekend. But alas the winner's circle once again eluded us as rain drops began to fall on us behind the starting line. The one obstacle the Speed Merchants would not overcome would be the rain as the race was called and the finals in all 3 pro classes were called a draw due to the rain out.
I wanted to scream in frustration but that would not have changed anything so back we went to get the fuel drained and everything loaded for the long trip home. Did I mention by the time we were loading the car in the trailer that the sun was out??? Ha ha......... how cruel!
That's the way racing goes so there is no point in lamenting about what might have been. I want to thank my wonderful wife, all my great crew guys and especially Jason Richey who did a great job driving for us. I also want to thank "Digger" Dan Horan for the Torco oil and Joe Hendricks for giving us his spare front main seal so we could make first round Sunday morning.
Now it's time to get the car ready for our match race in Denton,TX Sept 26th. I'll keep you updated and post some pictures from Indy as soon as they come in. Thanks for checking in!
Brad

A prayer for David Pace

I know he doesn't want the attention but please keep our driver David Pace in your prayers. He apparently pinched his sciatic nerve in his lower back. He is in extreme pain, has numbness in his toes on his left leg, and can't get any sleep. He called me last night and said he couldn't drive the car at Indy. I know it was a hard call for him to make but it is the right thing to do and that's what he does - the right thing.
There will be a big hole on our team without him this weekend. Jason Richey is going to do the driving duties for us. David will be there in spirit and we're going to do our best to make him proud.

Brad

The Big Bang.........

This coming weekend is the big one for the Speed Merchants. Due to our limited schedule this season our first and only big race is the 21st Hot Rod Nationals at Indianapolis June 12 - 14. We fired the car up yesterday and after a minor glitch with the oil filter she is ready to go racing.
We are going to be loaded for bear for what looks to be a great event. There are so many Top Fuel cars coming that they are going to have an A and a B field where the top 8 qualifiers will run in the A field and the second 8 in the B field with the B field paying out half of what the A pays.
Our team is extremely excited and we think we are ready to run with the best of them. Lets pray for good weather and safety for everyone.
Corey, Randy and I will leave out with the rig 6 am Thursday morning while David, Bob and John are flying out. A special guest Jimmy Johnson, who was a great help at Bowling Green last year, will also be helping us at this race. Allen Webb can't make this race and we will miss him but we will do our best to make him proud.
I'll have a full race report next week. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers this weekend!

Brad

Video of the 5.99 pass!

Speed Merchants

Our first five.......................

We had a great day at Texas Motorplex! They postponed the race until Sunday due to Saturday's forecast and Sunday was sunny with a bit of wind. We warmed the car up and took her out for an eighth mile check out pass. Everything went well and David shut it off shortly after the eighth mile marker and we brought it back and checked everything over real close. All looked well so we headed to the line for a full,hard pass. The car launched hard and was on a good run. When David pulled the chutes the scoreboard flashed 5.99 seconds at 232 mph!!! Let me tell you the feeling was incredible. This a huge milestone for my team and we did it with a soft tune up and no damaged engine parts.
Thanks to my wonderful wife,my whole crew, and DRE Racing for all their help and support!
I'll post more pictures as they come.
Brad

First fire up of 2009

Saturday we fired the car up after having everything apart all winter long. It was a tense situation for me. Even though I carefully assembled everything and double checked - triple checked every step - until it was running with good oil pressure and no leaks there was a weight of worry on my shoulders. That's all behind me now. She fired right up and sounded good. Tears running down my cheeks from the fumes and feeling the noise rumble in my guts again was great!
I've got a few days worth of work between now and April 18th to get the trailer and all our support supplies ready. Please come to Texas Motorplex at Ennis Texas on the 18th. We'll be there along with several other front engine dragsters and a funny car doing spring testing. Gates open at 8am Hope you can make it!

Brad

Consumption - feeding the beast

First off I want to apologize for taking so long since my last blog update. My new job has been keeping me really busy but that's a good thing.

I wanted to talk a little about the amount of fuel and oil that the car consumes at a race. Above is a picture of the empty fuel and oil containers after unloading them from the trailer from the last race. As you can see we have to carry a lot of fuel and oil. We made 4 full runs with the car and did four warm ups in the pits. We used 35 gallons of nitromethane, 8 gallons of methanol and about 24 gallons of 70 weight oil. Keep in mind that we often warm the car up on methanol to cut down on our use of nitromethane which is much more expensive. We put 2.5 gallons of oil in the engine for a warm up and then drain it and put 3.5 gallons of fresh oil in for the run. Nitromethane dilutes oil in an engine very rapidly and turns 70 wt oil into yellow soup in a matter of seconds. That is why we have to change the oil so often.
For your consideration, the air to fuel ratio of a gasoline racing engine is about 12:1 meaning 12 parts air to 1 part gasoline. In a methanol/alcohol burning engine the ratio is about 6:1 so there is twice as much alcohol per part air as in a gasoline engine. Nitromethane is an oxygen carrying fuel so much less air is needed per part fuel. The ratio for nitromethane is around 3:1 - twice as much fuel per part air as an alcohol engine and 4 times as much as a gasoline engine. That gives you an explanation as to why the car needs so much fuel.

Another very quick fact for you gearheads is that the pistons in our engine at 9000 rpm go from 0 (TDC/BDC) to a top speed 307 mph (mid stroke) and back down to 0 again (TDC/BDC) twice per crankshaft revolution. Cool huh!

The other two pictures are of the car in its current state and loading it in the trailer to take it to get the chassis inspected and tagged for 2009. This is a safety precaution and is required to be done every year. As you can see in the pictures the short block is in the car. I should be receiving the heads in a couple of weeks. It will take me about 3 days to get the heads clearanced (valve guides and spring installed heights)and finish assembling the engine and clutch. I hope to be able to fire the engine a couple of weeks before our April 18th test session. Since we have changed some things and had everything completely apart over the winter it is a good idea to start the engine and check for leaks or any problems so they can be remedied before we load the car and head to the track.

As always thanks for viewing my blog!

Brad

Spring fling...........

Well it's not quite spring yet but it's getting close! I have had a lot of parts coming in and the block is at the machine shop getting the sleeves honed. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll be able to start putting the engine back together and put it in the car.
We have a test date lined up with the folks of the Dallas Mopar club and the Cowtown Performance Mopars Team. It will be April 18th at the Texas Motorplex. We would like to thank them for their help and especially Marty Robertson of MAALT Transportation for his willingness to help with our travel expenses. We have rounded up a good mix of dragsters and a funny car for this test session so if you can try to come for the "MOPARS at the Motorplex" event on April 18th at Ennis, TX.
So far the rest of our schedule is pretty light for 2009:
Goodguys 21st annual Hot rod Nationals at Indianapolis, IN June 12-14
Match race at Northstar Dragway Denton, TX Sept 26th

Hopefully I can squeeze another match race or two in my work schedule and add to our racing in 2009.

Crew Chief John Dearmore is recovering well from his knee replacement surgery. Let's keep him in our thoughts and prayers as he goes through the painful therapy.

That's all for now. Thanks for looking!

Brad

Looking ahead..........

2009 is rolling and I wanted to give everyone a few updates.
I have started my new job at the Flint Creek power plant and I am really enjoying the work, the people, and learning all about boilers and the systems used to produce electricity from coal. I feel like I am working and going to school at the same time. I like learning new things and the challenges associated with it. We have 2 planned outages of the plant this year for maintenance. When the plant is shut down no employees are allowed to take time off so that is definitely going to affect our racing this year.
I do have a couple of dates to mention though. We plan to test the car April 18th at Texas Motorplex near Ennis, TX and we have a match race scheduled at Northstar Dragway for Sept 26th. I am still working on finalizing who will be the other car we will run against at Denton.
We still plan on racing at the Goodguys race in Indiannapolis, IN on June 12 - 14 but that will most likely be the only open race we run this season because of my work schedule. Hopefully we can make up for that with some more match racing and I'll keep you posted on any more developments in that area.

Thanks for reading my blog!

Brad