so lets hear and see what was going on the honda world at the drags. et's, 60ft's, mph. what were they running for motors. let's hear it for honda!! ( no two cylinder pissin matches) LOL

There wasn't a big single cylinder turnout at all. Basically a handful of Packard built singles (three I think), a few Sabers including mine, a nitrous 370 from the Honda Boys, a few Polonda's, a CR500 based bike, and a very impressive nitro fueled 450R 4 stroke. Packard took the single cyl heads up and Treadheavy took the Pro-bracket and went home with a pocket full of paso's! lol Can I borrow some Kevin?

Many of us had issues, and I cant speak for those other guys but I'll step up and say I was grossly under prepared for this race and that type of track...my own fault. I tossed Nitrous on the Saber, tossed some parts on the trailer including my clothes and went to the dyno Wednesday. I told myself if it ran even decent on the bottle on the dyno I was going. As it turned out it made 114 hp, so I called my wife from the road and said 'see you Sunday' lol

We drove the 17 hours to LA, I unloaded my bike for test and tune and made a pass down the track on just motor...no bottle. My bike wouldn't shift into 4th under load but still managed a 4.4 in 3rd. We decided to yank the motor and pull it down, only to find out that I installed new shift forks a week earlier and forgot to cut them. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> Big thanks to Dave Moore for jumping in there and lending some advice. By the time I got the motor back together and in the bike, Test and Tune was over.

Ran the motor in the bracket the next day and started battling some jetting due to the humidity. Got that figured out pretty quick and want to thank Kernal for hooking me up with some jets and nozzles. Scott and his brother Todd are some of the coolest guys I met all weekend...and damn fun to hang out with.

I found that my +12 swing arm was too long for the track and was breaking the tires loose. I should have brought my +10. I want to thank Buddy Devil and John Lorio for coming over and lending some advice on chassis tuning for this type of track. These guys were more then willing to help and are top notch in my book.

Like I said I have never raced dirt before and was under-prepared. Not trying to make up excuses here, and I'll be the first to say, it was my own fault and did not put up a very good showing for the Saber...but there's always next time.

I learned a lot about other chassis set ups and left there with a new outlook and theory on it.

Also big thanks to Todd (TA-Racing) for letting us thrash on my motor in your trailer….sorry we were so messy!

Never the less, despite the stressful thrashing on the bike trying to make it run right, I had a great time. It's a blast just hanging out with a group of racers and builders like this. If you guys ever get a chance, try to make one of these events, even if it's just to be a spectator...you wont regret it.


That's my story and I'm stickin to it!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Neal wasn't the only one wrenching. We took both Polonda's down. Tuesday we tore my motor down to put in an override. After tearing it down for a 3rd time cause it wouldn't shift we put the standard tranny back in. It ran a 4.7 shifting gears. The other Polonda had the same issue that Neal had. Forgot to cut the shift forks. After tearing my motor down 3 times we decided to put it on the trailer. But not till after making a 5.0 pass in 2nd gear. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Calvin and Ziggy arrived with a frame and a motor and with a little help were able to make a couple passes. I'm not sure on times, but once they are able to get the bike running and tested the Sabertooth is gonna run good. Calvin is by far one of the nicest guys I have met.

The Nitro 450R was something to see, very clean bike.

There was a guy there from Oregon I beleive, with a maroon R built by Packard. He ended up winning the Pro 1. I seen him run some low .20's It seemed to be strong !

That was Treadheavy. I dont think he ran down in the .20's but I could be mistaken.

Well, I guess I should have worded that a little different ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
He ran a good bud of mine in the final 5, I asked what he was dialed, and he said a .25. He beat Shawn that pass, so he must have been pretty dang close to that .25. But I actually didnt look at the ticket. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Anybody have numbers from the zillas? I saw someone mention there were some good running ones?

I saw the time slip when Dennis Packards honda went 4.04 and 4.06!

That single cylinder 4 stroke was impressive as all get out as well... I think I heard it run a 4.3 something which is haulin on a 4 stroke

"Calvin and Ziggy arrived with a frame and a motor"................lmao...........the bad thing is, that is EXACTLY what happened!......lol

We found out about two weeks before the race that Kevin, (gpracerx), wasn't going to be able to make the event with his Turbo-Saber on steroids, and as Neal said, he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to go or not.....so when my SSR chassis got here we had to start throwing parts at it to make the show.
On Monday the 11th we started fitting a TRX250R engine into a brand new SSR rigid Banshee chassis, it didn't get buttoned up into the chassis until sometime Tuesday.....(it was all kind of a blur about that time). By the time we got the pipe on it, (not mounted mind you, just ON IT....lol), we started fitting the new carb, (with the extended floatbowl and the extra needle/seat and float), into the tight quarters, and fitting up all of the other pieces we realized we were not going to make our planned leaving time of early Wednesday morning....(since it was already well into Wed. afternoon.....hehehe). We had a person driving to the UPS depot early every morning to pick up parts that we had red labeled in so we could get them bolted on, because there were other pieces that couldn't be bolted on until the pieces from UPS got there!...(and we still didn't get several parts until we got back from the race...lol).
At about midnight Wednesday night I got to thinking about something Dan Hull had said during one of our phone conversations....."just load up all of the stuff you have and get to the track, there will be about 10 people there who will be glad to jump in and help put it together".......SO.... we started loading the trailer with everything that looked like it could be needed to put a drag bike together.
At 7:15AM on Thursday morning we left out for the races.....(did I mention that I had bought a used trailer, and a tow vehicle during the period of time between making the decision to go and actually leaving for the race). While loading the trailer, (and on the drive down), we started to go over the list of things that we DID NOT have.......let's see.......rear tires!, (we had rims, just no tires)...the little piece that attaches the clutch cable to the case.........a kickstarter.....(and BTW......there are no Honda dealers between Tulsa OK and Gilbert LA that have those parts in stock, so don't plan on "picking them up on the way".....lol). We were calling directory assistence for the larger towns that we were going to be going through, and looking for any Honda dealers or cycle salvages that we were going to pass within 30 or so miles of......until we see a sign for an ATV shop that has changed it's location along the road just befor Monroe LA.......it had a phone number listed so Ziggy made the call......with only a 30 mintue return trip and stop, (we had passed by the new location a few miles back...lol), we now had our clutch part and our kickstarter...(for all the good it did us.....explained later in the story....lol).

The "new" trailer we were pulling has been a good trailer to work in....."in it's day"....it had just been sitting for 8 years and we had not had enough time to get everything "updated". The brand new Honda generator we bought for it, would start and run great....until you let go of the start button, then it would die.....(we can fix that at the track while we are sitting around looking for something to do!...lol).....We will just park next to somebody and bum electric until we get it going, (I had a 100' cord that got plugged into 3 different trailers this weekend........(you guys all need to remember to bring more gas for your generators, so I don't have to run around in the pits with an extension cord in my hand trying to find power all the time...LOL)). The trailer had been painted about 14 to 15 years ago, at that time the color scheme of white with horizontal stripes in multiple colors had not been plastered everywhere by the people trying to merchandize the #24 of Jeff Gordon........and we had never heard of "THE RAINBOW COALITION".......when we were informed on Friday morning that a group of guys were gathered around the trailer looking to cause a little trouble, we did not understand why our trailer could have offended anyone, until they explained that they were a group of Anti-gay-rights activists' who were upset because they were afraid the trailer was from the Rainbow Coalition, and that the owner of the rainbow colored trailer were there to disrupt the PS Drags!!!!!!!........(.....NOTE TO SELF.........I've got to remember to paint that trailer before we leave for the next race....lol)

We spent the rest of the evening Thursday, and part of the day Friday, putting the rest of the pieces together.....(thanks to K&T for the use of the tires and rims). Then we spent nearly 8 hours trying to find out why we couldn't get fire. We changed EVERY part of the ignition several times each, (except for the wiring harness), before we found the problem.....(it was the wiring harness)!......Oh well....at least we had it fired up now......(Thanks to Scott and Todd for all of the ignition parts, and the help.....not to mention the electric starter which saved us from the evil Kickback of the stock ignition box).
We then took it out back to see how it ran, (the first time the engine had been fired up)........IT WOULD NOT SHIFT!!!!

Thanks go out to Neal and Jeff for their help, they have both gotten pretty good at splitting the cases on a Honda, this being my first overide tranny, (that we had gotten used), I had no idea the shift forks needed to be cut, I do now.....(special thanks to Dave Moore for his transmission expertice, and the know-how to grind a set of shift forks with a 90 degree grinder....lol).

It was now Saturday evening and we found out we could not test "out back" anymore, so we signed up for the ATV1 cylinder class for Donnie Rawls to ride the thing down the track. We learned the transmission still wasn't at 100% when Donnie launched in 3rd gear for his first and only practice run of the weekend, (looking back now Dave, I think the 10 inch grinder may have been better than the 4 inch grinder that we used......hehehe). After going out back and POUNDING on the shifter, I discovered that about once out of every 4 or 5 trys, the tranny WOULD go into 2nd gear.......SO.....as long as we start it in second gear, (with the electric starter), and Donnie doesn't touch the shifter until after it launches and he is ready to grab 3rd gear, (trusting that I really did have it in second....lol), we might be able to make a run!

1st pass.............4.340!.....New problem!.....Once we got it into 2nd, it didn't want to come out of 2nd!......(I counted 3 attempts to get it to shift from 2nd to 3rd on more than one occasion!)............so 4.340 wasn't that bad on his first full pass.....lol

2nd pass.........(1st round)........4.265, and a win.......(SPECIAL THANKS to a great job by Donnie....in 3 passes he never lost a reaction time!)

3rd pass..........(2nd round)..........4.368 against a 4.072 by Jayce, so we went into the losers bracket.....but the ignition decided to crap out one more time and we couldn't get it to fire again, (after burning up 2 coils we decided to call it a night.....lol), so our night was over.

There are so many people to thank that I can not even begin to know where to start:
Thanks go out to Donnie for riding a "less than perfect bike", SSR, K&T, A&S, Ohton, Dave Moore, Scott, Todd, Jeff, Neal, (at one time Friday night there was 13 people in our pits ready to help in any way they could)!
Special thanks to Ziggy for all of the help before during and after the event...................and to Charlie and Sherry for putting such a GREAT event on!

Now.....let's see.........what do I need to do before Fallon?..... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Calvin,

#1 - Paint the trailer!

LMAO <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

man sounds like an adventure, im still lmao about the rainbow haha.

LOL. That is one of those trips where afterwards you say "Next time if we are not completely ready then we will just go, relax, and watch!" Been there and done that! And at the end of the weekend you are just like, "what the hell were we thinking?" Hey at least you ran some ok times with it!

We were also struck with bad luck are Rod broke on a good pass it was good to meet all who had a R...

not to bad for the first time out on it,,i remember going to the track on one of my ole bikes first time out and looking retarded,,
anyways dave albin said it looked good.

I had trouble keeping a straight face when you came up to me and said.... "Neal, why do I have a feeling you were at the bottom of that whole 'rainbow coalition' joke"...

LMAO....that was one of my favorite parts of the weekend!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Calvin,

That was a fantastic story. Seeing you pull in with that "pur-ty" trailer was a sight Dan and I wouldn't have wanted to miss. We actually thought you may have picked that trailer up down the road in the great little town of Jigger. LOL!!

Great Job, Calvin!! You worked your butt off and we were so happy to see you made it (trailer and all). Hats off to you and everyone who lended a helping hand to get you up and running!!

My zilla did 4.79 at 65.7 mph. Has more potential but did not want to mess with the setup much cause' I didn't get to run test and tune and only got 1 pass for time trials. It was spinng pretty bad out of the hole. It will be better when I can work on gearing tires etc...

damn that's fast jg you got a hemi in that thing? Must be the bad azz paint job that cajun customs put on that frame.

Thats not bad JG. Were there any other zillas there or just you? When you going to post some pics?

No, there were a couple of others. Badass500 was there with his and he had a friend there with one. There was also a guy from mississippi that had his grandson on one. I think it ran 4.90's. Will get some pics up the next day or two. Should have it down in the 4.50's soon. Yea Sneed must be that late night custom paint work we did....lol.

One more thing for your to do list(stinger)LOL

LOL <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

yea i seen you donnie idling back with the stinger hanging on by a thread after one of your passes, then the next pass it didnt have one at all. lol

Just wanted to say sunday morning my ds ran a 4.4. I was very proud without it being set of properly. Beat the little nitro honda 1 out of 3

that orange nitro 450 honda that was there with NFR was bad ass, he kicked the shiat out of numerous 2 strokers, he did although make me go blind in 1 eye and singed(sp) all my nose hairs,,,lmao

yeah no kidding on that jstdrag.... but you should have been standing in the middle of the track with me.....

I still feel like I've been sipping some "purple" kool-aid ....... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

sorry about the nitro guys maybe next year i'll bring gas mask for everyone. the bike ran great best time of 4.31 and i was happy with it for the first time out.

Sandbomber your ds was fast and made for a great race.

I just hope I got video of you pushing it back to the trailer with a blue flame coming out of the pipe. I thought maybe you had an afterburner on it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

any pics of that 450? sounds killer. 4.31 is awesome.

THanks that was fun seeing that big blue bus hauling down the track, made for great racing. First time out for the ds also. Motor done by HPResearch thanks Eric

Plenty more where these came from......... I hope these show up! Be good, EC

Someone give me the color combiantions of the Sabertooth bikes and I'll post a pic of those. I know that there was a stretched out black one that i got quite a few shots of. There were so many bikes, that my brain is scrambled as to what is whos and who rides what?!....lol.

Be good,

EC

The stretched out black one was mine...as a matter of fact...too stretched out for the dirt! Kept blowing the tires loose. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> lol

It's black with the 'Hellraiser' theme on it. I appreciate any pictures you got.

Neal

Thanks bro...very cool photo's!

nice pics--I wish everyone would post pics on one post and not 1 pic per post takes forever to see single pics way to go

now that's what I'm tallking about!!!!!!!!

some of you guys can call me crazy, but I like the fast single poppers!

[color:\\"orange\\"] SWEET [/color]