Thanks to all our partners that helped our team throughout this year, and thanks to all who helped us make it out to the E-Town Shootout, we had an awesome time.

This was by far the best race we have ever attended and definitely the most fun. Amazing track, cars, and people everywhere. We will most definitely be attending again next year, and are already making plans to turn it into a longer trip/vacation! If you care about the scene at all, this is a can't miss event.

I know everyone had their share of difficulties over the weekend, especially Cunha losing a motor in 1st rd qualifying, and then Tony redlighting. Better luck to you guys next year! I loved reading the stories that people posted about how the weekend went for them last year, so here's mine.

Play-by-play from my eyes:

The track facilities, surface and prep was phenomenal, way beyond any other track we have ever run at. I had what would normally be an overly aggressive tune up on the car for 1st rd Qualifying on Sat and the track took it with ease. Car was on a mid-low 8.7xx pass when Kevin missed 4th (driver error). Oh well, got some good data and turned it up a bit.



2nd rd Qualifying, car was on a 8.6xx pass when it dropped a valve on cylinder #2 at ~5.60 into the run (the valvetrain was one of the questionable things we had used to get this motor thrown together for the race, and sure enough it bit us in the butt). Still went 5.82 @ 137.25mph at the 1/8th. It usually back halfs in the high 2.8xx range in worse air.

Unfortunately, that was the end of the motor being healthy and we never got to run the times we had hoped to or put on a better show for the fans. I was pretty down about losing out on such a nice slip and new PB for us, but that's racing. Time to get this thing fixed! I was really hoping to get another run in for 3rd rd Qualifying when the air got really good, but the damage was too severe to fix in time.

We actually got pretty lucky with how the valve dropped. It just beat up the top of the piston a bit, busted the guide, and put a big dent into the valve seat. We scrambled around asking everyone in the pits for spare valves/valvetrain, and luckily Tony had some used stuff they had just taken out of Chuck's hotrod car!

So that was great, but then we had the issue of the head itself being damaged. Yosolo came through for us and had Dennis take us over to Tommyguns house where he cut the valve seats down until the valve would seal up. That was awesome and pretty much what allowed us to get the motor back together, we finished it at 1:00am on Sat night. Several of the valves in the head weren't sealing up at all, but it'd run good enough.

Sunday morning we had TD in 1st round elims, do or die! I threw a little too much at it off the line and that resulted in the worst 60' of the weekend for us, then it went rich at the top of 4th. Only 131mph @ the 1/8th, and 8.89 @ 172mph, not too bad but not that good either. And the motor started smoking at the top end on that run, not good. But we got the win, and that was good enough.


http://www.grs-motorsports.com/notic...all2010/70.wmv
SF-VS-TD Round 1 Eliminations

We get back to the pits and check things over, things seem fine until we notice that plugs 3 & 4 have some oil on them and the tops of the pistons are also covered in oil. She still runs on all 4 though for the most part, but is smoking pretty bad. I was really worried about it, and didn't really think she'd last through another pass. We didn't have time to swap the engine, so off to face Cunha we go with fingers crossed. If we win this round we get a bye run into the finals, there is alot riding on this round!

Kevin does the burnout and she's blowing all kinds of smoke. They stage, and off they go! The car nearly bogs off the line, I'm standing behind the car and all I see is smoke the entire pass, waiting for it to blow at any second. Amazingly she holds together the entire pass and turns on the win light with an 8.98 @ 174mph, then dies at the top end. We are in the final with a roasted motor, yeah!


http://www.grs-motorsports.com/notic...all2010/42.wmv
SF-VS-CLM Round 2 Eliminations

Well, this is it. Somehow we've managed to make it into the finals to face Miller like we had hoped for, but this isn't how I'd envisioned it, not with a half dead motor. Oh well, we tried our best and are ready to give it one last go. She's running like a Subaru now, plugs 3 & 4 are covered in oil and she's smoking like crazy. Being down 1-2 cylinders isn't a good feeling. We are praying for a miracle, and then find that Miller has an issue with his clutch. The NRG crew is scrambling to get it fixed. Not much time left before the final round, but they bust tail and get it done. We both come to the lanes and wait. Chris has been running with a cracked head that leaks water all day, and I'm sure they are hoping it holds up just as much as we are hoping it doesn't! haha

Game time. They stage, Chris takes off and our car falls on it's face off the line. Pulls through 1st, Kevin hits 2nd and she lights off on all 4!!! Bangs 3rd, and she's pulling hard! 129mph at the 1/8th, he grabs 4th and the car shuts off. He hits the brakes and goes 9.96 @ 122mph, Chris hits the brakes and goes 8.58 @ 153mph! Best man wins, it's all over. We had a great ride, and Miller deserved the win.


http://www.grs-motorsports.com/notic...all2010/20.wmv
SF-VS-NRG Final Round

Afterwards, the NRG crew graciously took our entire team out for food and drinks (massive bill), and we all had a great time. Thanks for everything guys, and we'll be back to crack that a** next year!

 

I sure had a lot of fun, maybe SF will have even more cars out there next year. ;-)

 

Sounds like a crazy weekend for you guys and its cool to hear exactly how things happened. Glad you guys came through and hope all the east coasters showed you great hospitality!

 

Congrats to a great group of hard working people.

SpeedFactory!

 

looks like your car is trying to have a roman candle fight with the crowd in the last video.

 

In the Finals vid at 0:25 seconds, it looks like the SF car shot a firework into the crowd, LOL!

Like I said in the other thread, if Fall Nats had a "Hard Working Crew" award like Mike Dunn gives out to the NHRA Full Throttle teams on race day, the SF guys would have surely gotten it this weekend!

You guys rock. Looking forward to seeing you next year.

EDIT: Tasco beat me to it, lol!

 

good game making it to finals with a hurt motor! you guys definitely got heart! congrats to all that got to participate in the outlaw shootout!

 

crazy!

props to you guys and of course NRG!

 

Much props to the SF crew !!! Seeing the shop grow over the years and be where you guys are today ....... cant wait to see whats in the future !!!

 

Great run down James. I know I only briefly said hi but it was nice to finally meet you. Hoping to see a fast single cam out here next year.

 

Good stuff guys!
We expect you and the mob back next year .

Cool group of *****.

 

Big thumbs up to SF for overcoming all the problems you had and still putting on a good show in outlaw and all motor!!!!


Marc P

 

 

Great job as always guys! Sounds like an awesome time, it sucks that I had to work that day.

 

Hell of an effort and put on a great show...

Sucks about the troubles you had with the motor but definately seems like you all @ SF are some dedicated sportsmen thats for sure.

 

You guys are a great group of people. Extremely nice !

Thank you guys for making the trip out here and i cant wait to see what you have in store for us next year !

 

Thanks for that. You got those cars running pretty good man

 

I expect a great re match Miller vs SF

 

great job guys! hope matt gets home ok! next year will will be a blast!

 

I'm def a fan of this Crew and Car from here on out!! Best of luck in the future!!

Phil

 

I like the way you think Narf

 

cars a beast..

 

nice breakdown and nice meeting some of you guys.

 

First off congrats and I cannot wait to see you guys back out next year! If you dont mind me asking, why was the valvetrain questionable in the car? What valvetrain was in it and what valvetrain are you guys going to go with now?

 

Awesome work guys, I heard Kevin say that alls he wanted to do was line up with Miller and that he did!! Thanks for coming out East, now get those guys to host an event out there and maybe the East will go West!!