Malaby Racing - '97 History

Some history and background on my first year in bracket racing.

Before I get started on racing, I want to thank my wife and kids for all their support. It would not have been possible without them.

As you will see, I love drag racing and working on cars. I have had a lot of cars in my time and had never really raced at a drag strip. All my experience with drag racing had been on the street. Well, I changed all that last year. After being away from hot rods for more than 5 years and always wanting to drag race at a real drag strip, I purchased a bone stock '81 Chevy Malibu for $650 in October of '96.

Some things I did to get the car ready to go;

- Changed the steering box to a manual box out of a S-10 pick-up
- Took the fan off and adding an electric one
- Put on a pair of M/T 15" x 9" x 28" slicks
- Completely stripped out the interior and putting in a bucket set
- Put in a B&M shifter
- Installed a tach and gauges
- Installed a Blue Holley electric fuel pump and fuel cell
- Put in a rebuild 350 and 350 THM with a B&M Trans Pak
- Mounted a drive shaft loop
- Removed the front sway bar (extra weight)

After a lot of work and some new and slightly broken-in parts, I started racing at the start of the '97 racing season with my low budget racecar.

I found out very quickly that drag racing on the street is nothing like bracket racing at a drag strip. Before I even put the car on the trailer, I started doing some research on the Internet and found a web site call The Staging Light. There I found a "Guide to Bracket Racing" and learned a lot. If you too are just starting or even if you've been racing for a while, check it out. Also, before I started, I got a logbook to track everything I did. If you are going to race and you want to win races you will need to track any and all changes you make. I have come to one conclusion about drag racing, "whoever makes the least amount of mistakes will win". Repeatability and dependability is the key to winning races.

Looking back now, there were a couple of things I could have done different, like going to a couple of test and tunes before trying to race. My first racing season goals were to race in the Pro class (1/8 mile 7.50 - 9.49) and win some rounds. The first three times out with the car, I ended up running in the Street class. This is where the logbook came in handy. When I set-up the car, I put in a B&M trans pack with a Vega converter which has a 3000 stall. I was putting the car in drive and letting it shift on it's own (trying to be consistent). It would shift at about 5000 rpm and seemed to be working fine. I couldn't figure it out; I put all the data into the Drag Strip Plus software program and it told me I should be running in the low 9 second range but I was running in the high 9's and low 10's. In my first two time trials the car ran a 9.89 and a 10.10. I tried to change some things and thought it was all worked out. The car ran a 9.17 on my third and last time trial. Alright its' working, I'm going to be running Pro! I took the car back up to run one more time trial with the Pro cars. It ran a 9.72, which would have put me back in the Street class but it started raining. Well, I put the car on the trailer and headed home.

That night I was going through my logbook trying to find out what changes made the car run so different. It was right in front of me, but I didn't see it right away. The pass where the car ran a 9.17 had a note on it. When I was doing my burnout, the car seemed to be running really good and I got excited and forgot to take the car out of first gear. Well, going down the track I was watching the tach and it was at 5200 rpm and it wasn't shifting; I looked down and saw it was in first gear so I shifted into second at 5500 rpm. After the run I made some notes in the logbook. I thought it ran better because of one of the changes that I had made, not because I shifted.

The next day at the track, my first two time trials were 9.72 and 9.73 with the car in drive. I looked at my logbook and saw the note "manual shift" by the 9.17 run. On the next and last time trial I shifted the car and ran a 9.23, so I dialed the car in at 9.25 hoping that I had it down now. My first time running in the PRO class and I breakout running a 9.10. Next lesson, how to tap the breaks.

After getting the car to run in the low 9's my goal was to win some rounds and get the car to run in the high 8's. To win some races you must be consistent, so one of the things I did was to install a hood scoop and made an air pan to give the engine a cool air supply. Another thing I noticed in my logbook was that my first time trial was always slower than the rest. I looked around the pits to see what the other racers were doing when they took their cars off the trailers. I noticed that some of the racers were warming up the rear ends by putting the car up on a jack and letting the rear end turn for about 3-5 minutes. I tried it and you know, it worked.

Well, my first season is over and I won 7 rounds (best - made it to 4^th round and was beat by .006 of a second), entered 11 races, ran a 8.90 my last time out and got 50 passes on the car which gave me much needed seat time. All in all, not to bad for my first year in bracket racing.

Check out my new page for the '98 racing season…