Last Update 07-04-07
WE MAKE SERIOUS PONTIAC
HORSEPOWER
AND WE KNOW MORE ABOUT BUILDING STOCK PONTIAC ENGINES THAN
ANYONE.
Remember when these cars raced HEADS-UP?
Whenever possible we like to race heads-up. Everyone loves heads-up racing. That's what real
Drag Racing is about. Why don't you see more of it in the Pontiac world? Too many chickens.
That's our guess. Bruce has lobbied for years, and as many of you know, he
introduced a heads-up series at his national events - but because of broken promises of
magazine coverage (Tom Demauro) - major league sponsors went away. Both Pontiac magazines have zero interest in
any type of fair heads-up racing. One simply has no interest or ability - (lazy) - the other is wholly self serving -
wanting only their friends to look good - and they do it with incredible dumbing-down B.S. hype.
Bruce is the only one that really cares to establish a fair head-up series.
But without the proper funding he can't do it alone.
So that leaves us with? Nothing. Bracket "racing." Ho hum.
Bruce worked on Arnie Beswick to initiate a
heads-up set of classes at Arnies RT 66 race, but Arnie's idea of a fair heads-up race
turned out to be a 400" engine races a 600" engine -a 3500 lb car races a 2000 lb car. ( Arnie's NOT a good promoter)
Only five or six people have decent big cubic inch fast cars.
That leaves all of the standard engine size Pontiacs (the majority of racers,) without an opportunity to have
heads-up fun. If anyone wants help establishing FAIR heads-up classes Bruce has good ideas
and will offer all of the help he can. For fun we've
even raced people we knew were a half a second quicker than us
just so they'd have some fun telling their friends, "I beat those RRE guys! "
You always get to come back next week. It's just a drag race folks.
Fact is, grudge racing for fun is supposed remain just that. Fun. Bruce
keeps it all in perspective. If you're a racer and you're fibbing about using nitrous, or have
some unfair advantage, what have you proved? That you're a good B.S.'r? Good for you.
You do not achieve real respect that way. We race to prove mechanical superiority.
That's what makes the National Hot Rod
Association a great place to race - It has the most level playing field in existence.
2002 was a fun year for Bruce and crew. They towed Bruces Ventura all of the
way from southern California to West Virginia for the Pontiac-Oakland
Clubs (POCI) National convention to show off and have fun.
And to race at the Jim Wangers/Pontiac Enthusiast sponsored drag races.
The Ventura had the 350 in it. Pictured is Brian Cook and his sweet '62 Catalina. It's a
stock weight (3600 lbs.) car with a 455. It runs 10.40's. Brian raced us. Killed us!
Mike Ford in his little yellow 455 Pontiac ran us during eliminations.
Mike had missed the call to the lanes for eliminations - so he went to the tower to
beg for a run. The class had already run. But when Bruce heard that Mike had
missed the call, even tho Bruce had earned a third place finish, he decided to run Mike anyway.
When are you going to see sportsmanship like that? Mike had driven a long way too, and as Bruce
says, If you aren't having fun go home. Here's the ET slip from the race. It turned out to
be Mikes best pass all day. The Ventura had four 6.70 passes in a row. It was an eighth mile race track.
Mike was a little, shall we say, sleepy? Hey Mike! You were great. We're car #7421
Another 6.70. The Ventura was super consistent. (Driver wasn't!)
Third place in Super Pro with a Street car was pretty impressive.
Lots of spectators came over to see the 350, and many asked if we were going to run the the Pontiac Enthusiast GeeTO Tiger replica. We said we'd love to, and sent the spectators over to ask them. Wouldn't you race our 350 with a big stroker (4.250) @ 467 cubic inches like theirs? We waited and waited for a reply.
While we were waiting, magically, Brian Cook won their silly promotioanl "Bracket race the Gee-too-Slow Tiger"
drawing. Can you guess what happened next? Brian uses Bruce's ported Edelbrocks and
Bruces custom Comp roller cam. He had a bad torque converter, (broke completely on the next pass,)
But gee, when you're competition is THAT slow for a BIG bad stroker, it's easy! (jab, jab..)
These guys deserve a good jab as their sorry style of excuse making is laughable.
Brian beat the neo-scienced GTO handily.
So many people were asking the Gee Slow Tiger crew when they were going to race us that
Dave Anderson was ordered to announce over the P.A. "We're not here to race anyone heads-up,"
We're just here to show off our engine products under the hood."
Everyone got a great laugh outa that. Bunch of Chickens.
Imagine this: You're at an A&W on Woodward Ave. It's 1966. You have the GeeWhiz GTO
sitting there with the hood up saying: "Oh, I'm not here to race,
I'm just showing off my chrome tri-power lids." (Think you'd get laughed outa town? You bet.)
We're proud of what's under our hood too - so let's see if your pride can whip ours. Isn't that the good ol' way
off getting a grudge race with someone? Not with these chickens.
Even Hot Rod magazine lost patience with their promotion of the GeeSlow replica. Why?
The excuses were all too typical when it couldn't run the day Hot Rod was there to shoot pictures.
Click HERE to see an excerpt from that story.
Their ET? - Brian Cooks # is 1962
You should have heard the spectators cheer.
The Wang crew having treated us with utmost disrespect,
the cheers were very gratifying.
Wow, an unintentioned grudge race turned out to be the highlight of the day. Do you think
someone could learn a lesson here? About having FUN, drag racing? What a concept.
Sponsors like Pontiac Enthusiast in West Virginia - when in control of an event, is embarrasing to the Club.
They refused to race the 350 - with an engine that had a full 1/2" more stroke
So Bruce decided to shoe polish a message to the chickens.
Spectators loved the message too. Guess what these chickens can't promote? - real drag racing fun.
(This picture looks weird as it was taken when Bruce was turning left out of the staging lanes)