Testing/Racing Again!!!

We went to Dunn-Benson Dragstrip last weekend to do some testing/Top Dawg racing. It was a long day for me. I live three hours from Sandy, so my day started at 6 am and ended at 3 am Sunday morning. I was on the road at a quarter till 7 and sitting in his drive way at a quarter till 10. Let’s head to the track. Well, it got real cold the night before and apparently the batteries in the big truck only last a year. So off to AutoZone we go for fresh batteries. An hour later we are on the road to Benson where our clutch advisor, the one and only Jeff Dobbins is waiting.

Sandy had already removed the clutch prior to arriving to the track. When we unloaded the car, Jeff took the clutch to his pit area to surface the clutch. We then assembled the car to get ready for our shakedown run. On the first run, Sandy was real smooth doing the burnout. He staged and brought the rpm’s up and dropped the clutch. It bogged again, but came to a stop with no problem. He backed it up and staged again. Same thing but it rattled the tires real hard. He shut it off and coasted off the track.

Back in the pits, we went over everything and made a few adjustments to the clutch and went back up for the 1st round of qualifying. Again, Sandy did a great burnout. I backed him up and check the wheelie bars and he is ready to stage. He drops the clutch, with a .034 light I might add, and the cars leaves better, but again goes into severe tire shake. He clicks the engine and coasts off the track. Once back in the pits, the service begins again.

Now Dobbins and Sandy both have a theory of what is happening with the car and the clutch. They know what needs to be done, but we can’t make those adjustments at the track. So, Jeff thinks we need to surface the clutch again so it want be so aggressive. We took the transmission out again to service it while Sandy made some engine adjustments. Just as we buttoned everything up for the 3rd run, Jeff noticed that the steering rack bar was broke at the weld. This is not good. So racing/testing was over for the day.

Even though we did not get to make another run, I do think it was a blessing in disguise. Sandy could have wadded his car up if he had gone down the track. He now has the steering rack fixed and has the clutch ideas he and Jeff discussed implemented, so testing may be in order this coming Saturday. Hopefully this will be the weekend he gets to pull the chutes.

Here is a recap of some of the pictures. 1. The first pic is of the new and improved hood scoop that had to be replaced after the first test session at Piedmont Dragway. We will get it painted after we go down the track successfully three of four times. 2. The second pic is where the steering rack broke. This is never a good look on a race car. 3. This pic is the world’s largest business card. This sign was along the wall in the staging lanes. Sandy didn’t even know that the sign had been put up and was a pleasant surprise. 4. Here are the two master minds, Jeff Dobbins and Sandy Wilkins, talking it over in the staging lanes. 5. This last pic is the winner of the Top Dawg that night, Brian Williams in his good looking Wilkins Racing Engines powered Pontiac. Congrats.

That’s a wrap. I will update you guys next week on how the testing went this weekend.

Have a blessed Easter.

Testing at Piedmont Dragway

Let’s talk about some testing. The Fleabag loaded up last Sunday and headed to Piedmont Dragway in Greensboro, NC to test his new toy. What is his new toy you ask? No, not a new car. No, not a new big block engine. Sandy is still running the small block. It is the new transmission. How about a Liberty 5-speed. Sandy figured he wasn’t working enough on his car, so why not put a clutch in it. This thing is hot. If you are a gear head like me, just seeing the 5-speed in the car makes it look fast.

So, how did testing go? Once at the track, we went over everything with the clutch and we talked about what our jobs were. It was myself, Brian King and Phillip Belvin helping the Flea. The one thing that we emphasized was, if anything happens; make sure to turn the power off to the car. So, we towed to the line for our first run. Since I did not get to go racing last year, there were a few things I had to get caught up on. One was the R3 neck support. I had to hook the restraints to his helmet for the first time. Two, was the practice of standing away to the rear of the car during the burnout. This is the law in ADRL apparently. And then the third thing was to calm my nerves since I haven’t been on the starting line in a while. You would think Sandy would be more nervous than me since he was doing something different, but he didn’t show it.

His first burnout with the clutch went really good but the car died when he came to a stop. Sandy said that when he pushed in the clutch, the car felt like it picked up speed. He doesn’t have the drag of the convertor to slow the car down now. He has backed up now and Brian has set the wheelie bars. Sandy turns on the pre-stage bulb and Phillip turns the computer and shocks on. Sandy rolls in and puts it on the rpm chip and drops the clutch. The engine bogged a little and he went to 3rd gear and shut it down. A 4.82 come up on the board. Ok, so now he has the butterflies out and we will turn it up the next pass.

Without the help our clutch advisor, we went over everything the best we could while taking way to long. Now don’t think we are ignorant, we are just out of our comfort zone. But we got in touch with our guy and made the changes that we needed and headed to staging.

The burnout went even better than the first pass. Sandy backed up as I talked him into the groove. The guys did their thing and Sandy turned on the top bulb. He brought the rpm’s up and turned on the bottom bulb and put it on the chip. Sandy dropped the clutch again and the car bogged worse than the first pass. At the lowest point of the bog, KA….BOOOM. Off came the hood scoop in a lot of pieces. The engine had a major back fire that took out the scoop and cracked the front end as well as cracked an intake runner. The thing that caught my attention is Brian running up to the car and turning the power off. Smart move just in case there is a major issue.

Of course Sandy’s feelings were hurt, but I suppose it is part of the learning curve. He is already working on the car to see if anything else is in need of repair. As far as his return or debut, that has been postponed a couple of weeks. If you have an extra carbon fiber hood scoop lying around, we are taking donations. Other than that, work goes on at Wilkins Racing Engines while the racing program is hold until repairs are made. As far as racing, we will probably be a spectator at the Charlotte race next weekend. Hope to see you there.

Don

Not Ready Yet

Sometimes when people get use to something, they can’t live without it. For me, it is my family and some drag racing. Apparently for Angel Miles, it is the Wilkins Motorsports Blog. After motivation from her, the blog continues.

As the headline says and the picture shows, Wilkins Motorsports did not make the Division 9 opener at Farmington Dragway. Why, use ask? Well, it seems that Sandy has been quite busy this winter working on new engines and refreshing the old ones. He has been blessed with a steady work load in this not so good economy. He has the engine down for a little refresher and the transmission out for a large upgrade. Other than that, when the time will allow, he will get it back together in time for the spring races.

Let me tell you about our NHRA Winter Nationals experience. Well, that’s it! Me, Sandy and Chuck Chapman were scheduled to leave out Friday morning February 12. When we got to the Charlotte airport, the sweet lady told us that all flights into and out of Dallas/Fort Worth was cancelled. Apparently there was a foot of snow in Texas. I was trying to save us a little money by having a connecting flight and it bit my in the butt. I am still trying to collect money from the nice hotel in California. What did I learn from this? Book a direct flight next time.

As you can see in the picture of Sandy’s truck, everyone has gotten some snow this winter. I hate snow. Because of it, I got screwed out of seeing the Circus and having my boy’s birthday party. I’m not bitter, just tired of losing money. Back to the truck and trailer pic. Look at how nice the trailer looks with the new Chapman Auto Body colors. I can’t wait to see the truck and trailer at the track with the awning out and the sun bearing down on it. You want hear me complain about the heat this summer. Damn you Global Warming.

Now if you need a complete small block top end kit, Sandy has some components for sale. It has Brodix canted valve heads and a sheet metal intake. If anything in the picture interest you, give him call. Sandy has deals going all the time.

I want to congratulate Steve Corker on his win this past weekend at Farmington Dragway in Top Sportsman. His uses Wilkins power in his cars. Sandy and I hated to miss the race, but at least Wilkins Motorsports was represented. It was a beautiful weekend for racing. The Flea will be there soon.

I want to say thanks to Angel Miles for helping move the blog along. That’s why she is in a leadership role. Because when Angel speaks, people listen.

Don

Is It Time to Go Racing Yet?

Yes sir!! That is the question. Is it time to go racing yet? A racer starts to get itchy when the weather gets up around 65 degrees. After a couple of weeks with the weather in the teens, anything above 40 is a heat wave. With the start of the IHRA season next week, a lot of racers get to enjoy sunny south Florida. Good luck to all.

Well, as Sandy posted last week, you know he has been skiing and spending some time with family and friends in the mountains. He has also gotten his truck trailer painted. I have posted a few pics showing the paint guru Chuck Chapman performing his magic. Chuck did an awesome job in a short amount of time. Who says paint and body guys are slow.

Sandy, Chuck and I have decided to start the racing year off in new way. We are heading to Pomona, California for the 50th running of the NHRA Winter Nationals. I am kind of a history buff when it comes to drag racing and what better race to attend than the 50th Winter Nationals. We fly into Ontario on Friday around lunch. I think we are going to hit a couple of sites, such as the NHRA museum, maybe John Force Racing and we may take Sandy to Hollywood to get his star on the walk of fame. On Saturday we will head to the track for the day and that night we may go to a legends event at a nearby hotel. This will be drivers from the past 50 Winter Nationals doing a question and answer session as well as telling stories. Interesting to me, maybe not to the Flea and Chuck. Who knows what we will do. Fun no matter what.

Sunday we will be at the track all day seeing some great racing action. Hopefully that weekend will be rain free. Last year they had a ton of rain. They got one qualifying session, and eliminations were finished the following Wednesday. We fly out Monday morning, so racing better finish up on Sunday. Either way, we are getting our racing started earlier than usual and that’s a great sign for me. Every day is a great day for me.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Take care of you.

Don

2010

Well here we are in 2010. It's a new year and i hope things are looking up for everyone!

My first day of 2010 was spent at JJ and Suzie White's house eating collard greens, fat back, and some black eyed peas. OK so this is the first time i engaged in the tradition of eating these items, but as bad as 2009 was i figured it couldn't hurt. As you can see from the picture JJ added some dimes to the collards. Supposedly if you get a dime in your collards you will have a prosperous year, therefore he made sure there were PLENTY of dimes!!!

This past weekend was spent taking care of some business and a little pleasure. I dropped off my tow rig at Chuck Chapman's body shop for a little touch up on a couple of items that needed attention. Chuck and his guys jumped right on the project and i expect to pick it up next weekend. This picture shows Chuck doing his thing.

I left Hickory and headed North to Boone. The North Carolina mountains had been receiving allot of snow and cold weather over the past couple of weeks so some friends and I decided to hit the slopes! We went to Sugar Mountain on Saturday and skied from 12:30 to 8:00pm on Saturday night. And yes....it was cold, exactly ZERO degrees when we finished Saturday night. The picture is from the top of Sugar Mountain while it was snowing.

Its a new year, new things to come, so keep your eyes out for upcoming announcements.

Sandy

All Is Well Here!!

Hola my long lost friends. I hope all is well with everyone. It has been a while since we have talked. I think the last time I blogged was when I posted those delicious pics of my leg. Since then, the leg has improved a bunch. I can put full weight on it with out any boot or crutches. The only problem I do have is my ankle fills like a bad sprain and my knee hurts a little. There is also this old man limp I am trying to get rid off. But through it all, I have been blessed beyond measure and will tell you at random what my Lord has done for me.

Now what has the Flea been up to? From his last post he summarized the season for you. Everything is in one piece, so that is great. He is making some updates to the car for the upcoming season that should get your attention. As far as which association he will be running, I hope to post something in the near future. We are not happy with the direction the Nitro Circus is heading, but like a lot of people, it is hard not to run the races that are so close. We may run some division races and a Nitro Circus or two, but we are not going out of the way for that deal. Realistically, we will probably stay close to home and hit the Renegade series pretty hard next year.

This past weekend I met up with Sandy in the mountains to talk over the 2010 plans and to also take in a game. We ended up going to the first round of the play offs at Appalachian State University. It was a cold but exciting game with the Mountaineers pulling away with the win, 20 to 13. After the game, we met up with his family and I enjoyed some good fellowship with Lucien, Freda, Joel, Elise, Banks and the lovely Miss Lowman. It was great to see you guys again.

I forgot to mention that hopefully this weekend, Sandy will be bringing his truck and trailer up to Chuck Chapman’s Auto Body for a little freshen up of the stripes. Sandy says he is tired of the green stripe on his trailer. The car is yellow, orange and blue, not green. The rig will be in my area, so I hope to post some pics during the process. You guys take care and I will blog you soon.

Don

So.....what's new?

Well everyone it's the end of the racing season at Wilkins Motorsports and time to prepare for next year. So what's new for next year, hopefully a little more racing success and possibly a full year with Don heading up the crew chief position in full health!


But lets recap 2009. As far as IHRA racing i made it to one final round........ the rest of the year i was standing at the head of the suck line! Racing just wasn't the same without Don keeping me on track and in line! And with the chaos of the "so called" tournament of champions being a total disaster, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder could have seen this coming, my IHRA season ended with the proverbial raspberry!

The good news is I tried out a new class at Piedmont dragway called the Piedmont Renegades. I went to Four races and qualified number 1 once, and won 2 races. This class is great for the top sportsman racer. The renegade cars have weight rules based on engine size and transmission type, but all cars can run only one nitrous system. This makes the competition fierce and many different combinations can be competitive.

Other good news is that I made my professional debut with ADRL in July at Dinwiddie VA. I qualified in my first attempt and even made it to the second round. In September I unveiled my new engine combination at the Rockingham ADRL race and ran a respectable 4.33 in the first round of competition.

All things considered, especially the economy, it was a great year for Wilkins Motorsports and Wilkins Racing Engines. The engine business has grown about 20% which is right on track with my business plan. And the race car and engines are in one piece at the end of the season. It would be hard to ask for more! Keep your eyes open for new things from us in the next couple of months including a NEW Wilkins Racing Engines website!

Enjoy the upcoming holiday weekend, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Sandy