Construction started in March, 89.
First passes on the car was Feb. 91.

Alston Pro Gas Chassis
All fiberglass body from Creative Glass
Lexan from Harwood
9" Ford r/e
Summers Bros. 35 spline axles and spool
Richmond 4.56 gears
Unequal length 4 link setup, wishbone mounted on top of rearend
Chassis Engineering double adjustable shocks
Powerglide with Hughes trans brake and 5500 convertor
B&M pro shifter
Advanced engineering throttle stop and air shifter
Dedenbear delay box
MSD 7AL, crank trigger
Weld pro stars: 15x14 and 15x4
Hoosier all the way around
Stahl Headers 2 1/8"
Art Morrison chrome Pinto A-arm suspension with new QA-1 coil overs

Current Engine: Well just broke this one the other day.
    396, 10.5 to 1, oval port heads, GM crank/rods, Comp Cams roller, Ron's Flying Toilet.
    Nothing special in this one.

Spare Engine:
    Borrowed from a friend years ago.
    427+.030, 12.5 to 1, TRW, Steel crank, GM rods, Comp cams roller, GM aluminum heads,
    Same induction system as above

Our good motor under repair:  FIXED and running again finally.
    454+.060, 14 to 1, JE pistons, Scat H-beam steel rods, Callies pro gas crank, Dart 360
    heads, Dart intake, Babe Erson roller,  Ron's "Terminator" on alky.

Best performance was at Firebird several years ago, before we broke a rod in the 468, on
carb/gas.  Good air that day.
    9.09/ 149

After repairing the motor, (several years on our budget), at Southwestern International Raceway
in Tucson, Az.  On the initial break-in run, using 1.6 rockers and an corrected altitude of 6500',
on alky.     9.13/148  

Unfortunately, before we had time to really thrash it, #4 main bearing spun.  We caught it
before too much damage was done.  We've never had main bearing trouble.  We weren't too
sure if the block was good, so we're getting a different block setup.  Hopefully the crank is
repairable.

Well, we got the 468 back together and in the car on July 5th.  Sounds really good.  We'll find out
this Friday at test n tune how its gonna run.  We put the .757 lift roller in with 1.75 rockers
which gives us about .779 lift.  Stay tuned for more updates.

After fixing the 468 this year (2003) its been running good.  We found out the Pete Jackson gear
drive was causing harmonics in the motor and wiping out the main bearing and breaking the
pin off the camshaft.  Decided to go to a good double roller and retire the gear drive.  We also
put a set of Scat H-beam steel rods in it.  So far its gone 9.11/149 leaving with a 4600 chip and
the throttle shut down part way for 3.5 seconds.  Only problem now is oil pressure is dropping
to 30psi during the run.  Gonna pull the pan this weekend and take a look.  This is the first
Melling oil pump we've used and i've read there are some problems with the spring in them.

Decided to put the racing updates on this page.

Jan. 15th.
First bracket race of 2000.  We were so close to the 8's.  Went 9.004/149.95 with a corrected altitude of 4335 ft.  Car ran good and managed to go 3 rounds before a late lite did me in.  At least a better start than last year.

Jan. 29th.
Our first pro gas race of the year, non points.  I haven't been running the stop with this new motor, so didn't have a clue where to start.  Anyway, put some numbers in and first pass was a 9.25, oops.  Kinda fast for a 10.16 index.  Really tough trying to find a spot where the injection will lay down enough.  Took some total throttle out of it and shut the throttle down more and increased the time on the stop.  Next pass was 10.21.  Not bad for a stab in the dark.  Sure would have been nice for 3 time runs, but only 2.  Adjusted the timer and managed to get by first round with a better lite and closer to the 10.16.  Next round, I fell asleep again.  A .643 lite on a .4 tree don't get it.  I'm not sure where that came from, because I've never had a lite that bad in progas.  Oh well, just another way to lose.

Jan. 30th.
ProGas points race.  We were pretty close to the 10.16, but went out in the 1st round.  I had the rpm and little to high when I rolled in and when I hit the transbrake button, the car rocked and I glance up at the stage lites to make sure I didn't go in deep and that was just enough to break my concentration.  My .491 to his .478 didn't cut it.  Where the hell was that .418 or .423 I had earlier!!
Think its time to regroup and try to figure out why I'm snoozing at the lites.  Three races and three late lites.  At least the car is performing good.  Just need to beat the drivers head against the wall.

Feb. 14th.
B&M Series Race
The first B&M Series race in the west drew quite a few cars and the weather was really nice.  We decided to run using the throttle stop at this race so we could get more info on this combo for the progas association races this year.  For some reason (unknown at the time) the car didn't seem to be running quite as good and on the 3rd pass, it didn't come up against the trans brake clean.  It stumbled pretty bad, so that run was a waste.  It was getting late in the day, so we decided to wait until moring to take a look at it.  Got to the track early and decided to change the nozzles, pill and staging lean out pill.  Fired it up and drove to the top end to warm it up and check it against the t/b.  Brought it up against the t/b with no problem (thought, great! fixed it).  Got out of the throttle and it died,????  It was hard starting, but when it did, big time vibration.  Shut it down and radioed my partner to come get me.  Pulled the plugs and found #1 beat up pretty good.  Drained the oil and water from the pan.  Pulled the head and found the exhaust valve broken and a big hole in the block.  Pulled the other head while at the track and noticed all the exhaust valves hitting.  We had around .100 clearance without a head when the motor was assembled.  So much for the B&M Race.  When we pulle the motor apart, we found the dowel pin had come out of the camshaft and that let the cam retard which banged the valves.  Still haven't figured that one out yet.  I've never seen a dowel pin come out.  Oh well, such is racing.  A new piston/rod is on order and getting ready to take the block in and have another sleeve put in.  Its a filled block, so no biggy.  The biggest expense will be welding up the combustion chamber, new guide, and new exhaust valves.  So in the meantime, we dropped a little 396 in to keep racing.  We'll get to see how it does next weekend, April 1st.  It sure seems like, we have better luck with non aftermarket GM stuff.  Try buying all the best pieces for the motor and can't keep the thing together.  More to come.

May 9, 2000

Well, dropped in the 396 and went back out April 1st. for a bracket race.  After making a pass and the car seemed to skate around a little bit, got back to the pits and found water dripping out of the left header.  We pulled the plugs and spun it over and water was squirting out of #1 cyclinder.  We started to just drain the water and run it dry since we're on alky, but not knowing what the problem was, we decided to pack it in.  We pulled the head the next day and found a crack in the head under the exhaust valve.  These heads hadn't been run in awhile and they were on our 427 that broke a rod bolt awhile back.  Since we now knew what's wrong, we threw it back together and decided to run it dry block.  Pulled the radiator and capped the lines and went back out on the 14th. and 15th. for the Chunk Wilson Memorial Buick, Olds, Pontiac race.  We never changed the pill in 2 days of racing and the times were from a 9.96 to 10.06(best and worse).  Most of the runs were 10.00 to 10.03 at 134mph with a corrected altitude of 4900-5400.  Not too bad for a oval port, 11-1 396.

The next race was May 6 & 7, team SIR bracket race.  Again, never touched the pill or anything else, just gas and go.  ET's and mph just like before except for the morning of the 7th.  A 9.93 on the first pass, but the 60ft was almost .03's better than on any other run.  As the day got hotter, the track got a little slippery.  I managed to get the 2nd round on Sat. but went out 1st round on Sunday.  For some reason this year, my reaction times are all over the place.  I've been anywhere from a .450 to .585, so I really need to figure out what is going on.  The car is consistent, not the driver, YUK!  Oh well, I'll keep at it and maybe it'll all come together someday.  Later.

Went out again on June 3rd for another SIR Team race.  As usual, the car was consistent.  Three time runs were 10.092, 10.117, 10.101 with reaction times of .495, .497 and .547.  So I figured I had the lites figured out, then first round came along.  I'm not sure where my brain went, vacation I guess, but had a .728 plus brokeout chasing him down.  Oh well, so much for consistency.  At least this little 396 is working like a champ.   The 468 is still being repaired.  Finally found a rod and piston close to our weights.  Now the Dart head is in for welding/repair.  We've been toying with the idea of a blower setup and just go out and play.  A few friends have everything we need to set it up with blower, so we may just take the plunge.

Went to a ProGas Association race on July 15th.  We qualified 6th with a 10.211.  The index here is 10.16.  This was the first race using the stop with the 396, so we didn't have any numbers for it.  I set it so it wouldn't drop the throttle too hard, put 1.40 for the stop to come in and on for 1.2 seconds and went 10.114.  Next pass 1.3 and 2.2 and went 10.211.  Changed the numbers to 1.37 and 1.80 and went 10.135 on the brakes for 1st round.  I was running a high mph car and new he was bound to come storming by in the lites.  He never did because he got crossed up and crossed the centerline giving the win back to me, whew!  Dodged that bullet.  Changed the numbers to 1.3 and 2.00 for the next round.  Got another one of those high mph cars.  I had a .421 to Loreen's .418.  Went 10.173, Loreen went 10.173.  Lost by .003!  At least my lites were decent at this race.  Must be something about that .500 full tree.  Oh well, that's racing.

Haven't had much better luck the rest of the year.  Couple a red lights, late lights etc. took its toll.  Finished the season up on Nov. 17-19th at the Ron's Big Bucks Bracket Race.  We chased a bug in the car all weekend.  Checked fuel filter, electrical, compression, valves and couldn't find anything wrong.  During the first round on Sunday, I noticed the accelerator pedal didn't come all the way back up.  Found out the linkage was slipping just enough for the car to be erratic.  Oh well, kinda like the rest of the year.

Well, here it is a new year.  No problems so far this year.  Went 3 rounds at the first team race, then broke out.  Ran Ron's Big Bucks Race, started out pretty good and progressively did worse.  Went 4 rounds on Friday, 3 rounds Saturday and 1st round runner-up on Sunday.  Went to the Division 7 race at SIR and managed another 1st round runner-up.  Had the better reaction time, but missed the throttle stop setting and went just a shade to quick.  Oh well, first Division race I've run in several years and now I know why.  Lots of hurry up and wait.  I put a set of the Dynomax bullets on before the Big Bucks race so I could run the Division race.  Didn't really notice must difference in et.  It quietened it done some, but not a lot.  Price was right though, plus on a low door car its hard to get mufflers on.  We still haven't gotten the big motor back together.  We're at the last step.  Finding a good block.  We could probably use the other one, but it needs 2 sleeves.  Since we run a dry block, it really doesn't matter, but would just like to find a nicer block.  Well, thats it for now.  Later.

Not really much to report on this year.  We didn't make a lot of races this year because of numerous reasons.  The races we did make really much to talk about.  Seems like I could never get it together this year.  Then on our last race this year, Super Chevy Show, we broke a valve guide.  Oh well, such is racing.