Street Legal TV

The 10th annual F.A.S.T. and Factory Stock Summer Nationals did not disappoint. Despite the high gas prices, dour economy, 50 degree weather and rain being forecasted for Friday, the F.A.S.T. races ran two races simultaneously to help attract more cars to the class.

Dave Dudek`s '69 HEMI Road Runner just keeps stacking up the wins. Midway through it`s 5th year in a row, she`s only been beat once single race. Fighting a starting line bog all weekend the 'bird hung out in the 10.40 range, still enough to pull off another win.

US 131 Dragway in Martin, Michigan was host to the main event, the 10th annual NPD Summer Nationals, while on the East Coast at Maple Grove Dragway, a contingent of 11 F.A.S.T. Mopars raced for Mopar supremacy.

When the gates opened Friday morning, the muscle cars started rolling into US 131 Motorsports park, filling the pits up in little time. In all, 76 cars showed up to do battle at the Martin, MI venue.

With the rain finally parting and the concrete starting to dry from the early morning sprinkles, you could almost smell the rivalries starting to brew between the makes.

At about 11am, the OK was given to start running the cars in both the F.A.S.T. and F/S classes.

Friday was merely for qualifying, basically leaving the staging lanes wide open for each racer to get to make as many passes as he or she sees fit. At the end of the day, your fastest pass of the entire day is now your qualifying ET.

Yvonne McNicol`s gorgeous '71 Buick GS is new to the F.A.S.T. class and was fighting new engine blues. This may be a Buick to watch in the future.

Don Giannone`s 66 Chevelle ran a string of 10-second passes and was favored to end up against Dudek in the final round, Don`s Chevelle lost in an upset against Dales killer looking '69 ZL1 Camaro in the semi final.

It doesn’t take long for the pecking order to work itself out. Towards the end of the day, these boys were letting it all hang out to improve their qualifying positions. With seemingly nothing at stake for these racers, everything was at stake.

Brand loyalty means more to some of these guys than any amount of money or trophy you can give them. Plenty of guys come out to have a good time and just enjoy the racing and camaraderie, some of the guys show up to flat out lay it down.

For the more serious guys, the Quick 8 is where they want to be. In the Factory Stock class the fastest eight qualifying cars pair off in a Sportsman’s-type ladder, in F.A.S.T. they pair off using a Pro ladder, everybody left over runs in a mini 2-of-3 shootout with a car that best matches their qualifying ET, this helps keep the racing close and exciting.

Tony Dicicco`s beautiful 1970 Super Bee is powered by a mild Dudek-built F.A.S.T. HEMI. Heavy and streetable, Tony managed to pull off 11.20 @ 126 and there`s still plenty left in her.

Dale Waligora`s '69 ZL1 Camaro ended up in the final round against Dudek after upsetting Giannone. Running 11.0 @ 127, this combo still has much more left to show.

This class is growing and growing, and with that comes growing pains. Most of the cars you see at the top have gone through pretty intensive tech already. Bob Karakashian, Julie Pennington, Rick Mahoney, Jimmy Johnson, and COPO Pete to name a few have been P&G’ed for cubic inches, searched with bore O-scopes, compression checked with a K-tech whistler, valve spring pressure checked, converters checked, etc. For the most part, the faster cars are almost always found to be legal.

The rules are pretty strict when it comes to the Factory Stock Class leave little “wiggle room.” Crankshafts must retain stock stroke, stock size bearings (i.e. no Honda rod journals or tricks like that), no knife-edging or lightweight aftermarket cranks. Most of the top cars in the class are running indexed cranks and all that good stuff. The factories just pounded these cars together, here with the crank and every other part of the entire engine, top racers are blueprinting each part to a maxed out factory spec.

This weekend, Julies Pennington's number-one qualifying L88 Corvette was checked again for valve spring pressure, converter size and stall speed, that the transmission shifted on its own through all the gears, electric fuel pump, programmable ignition, rockers, aftermarket shocks, the works. Her car passed everything checked with no problems and clicked off an amazing 11.29.

Jim Key's is the original owner of this 3000-mile '67 HEMI Coronet R/T. Saturday, Jim mustered a string of 11.70 passes. With a best of 11.72 @ 119. This maxed out Dudek-built HEMI is rumored to have pushed out over 560HP on the dyno at Modern Cylinder Head, in Clinton Twp, MI.

Each make had a plus or minus on deck height, CC’s, rod length, etc. The NHRA Stock Class has these numbers in print for each make and model. The factory Stock class has a simple compression rule. You can run 1.5 points over advertised compression or the final NHRA compression number, whichever is greater. Heads too, must be correct for the year, make and model claimed, and no porting of any kind allowed. Must be stock.

The camshaft lift (at valve) must be within 2-percent of factory specifications, while the engine must pull 16-inches of vacuum at idle. Valve spring pressure cannot exceed 130lbs seat pressure. Intake and exhaust manifolds must be unmodified, unported in any way. They must also be correct for the year, make, and model claimed.

Jeff Patterson`s 71 Duster 340 clicked off several mid 11-second passes, as Bob Karakashian's HEMI 'Cuda has been a front runner in Pure Stock racing for years. Bob's 'Cuda was a tad off this weekend and still managed to rip off a string of 11.90s. Larry Kirkum's '69 427 'Vette always a front runner ended up in the final round against Pennington's L88. Larry Weymouth's '74 small block GTO ran mid 11's first time at a F.A.S.T. event, talking about weird killer combo. Look for this car to be in the hunt for the fastest small block.

Rick Mahoney's '68 400 Firebird has upset the food chain in the F/S division, Set up by Scott Teiman, this Ram Air II Firebird was built from the ground up to compete in this class, maxed out in every aspect this little bird has passed every tech thrown her way. You starting to get an idea of what's possible in this class.

Carburetor must be stock, including choke assembly. Stock rocker arms must be use. Transmissions must shift on its own (no manual valve bodies). The torque converter must be within 1-inch from stock diameter and stall speed cannot exceed 2,200rpm. No spools, no aluminum driveshafts, no electric fuel pumps or regulators, no programmable ignitions, no gutting or acid dipping to remove weight from the car…you get the picture. These bad boys have to be pretty close to stock.

Heck, even the tires must maintain a minimum of 1/16 thread at all times.