The Fords were flying at the Seventh Annual Pro Stock Superbowl in Houston!!!
Congratulations to the Purvis Ford sponsored Robert Patrick driven Ford Probe. They cracked the 200 mph barrier with that outdated Ford Probe body and scored a 6.84 E.T. at the Houston Pro Stock Super Bowl. That 6.84 number was a tie with the fastest time recorded by Tom Martino. No carburetor updates here. We made some repairs to last years model…but that’s it. Hats off to Sonny Leonard for finding some more horsepower in the off season.
Speaking of finding horsepower, the Stu Evans race team with Chris Holbrook at the wheel ran an incredible pass of 6.57 at 211.36 mph at the same event. Scoring a 4.25 second half track E.T. This is with last years car. Look for a new Mercury to replace the Ford Probe at the season opener. Chris and I spoke between rounds and we made some tuning calls on race day. Those changes picked up the engine torque, and our new Large bore high shear splits (see previous “In the News” column) won their first round of pseudo-competition. That was a close one though, as the increase in power from the changes pushed the car through the clutch…we really had Butch (Team Crewchief) on his toes this weekend. Unfortunately their test engine finally showed its age and slowed in the second round. Chris said, “She’s just tired..got a lot of laps on her, its amazing Butch did so much with this old girl”. But obviously we’re pleased with the weekends performances.
The Chevys were also flying in Houston!!
IHRA Pro Stock racer Jerry Yeoman, who is also doing some testing for us recorded an amazing shakedown 4.26 second half track pass on a set of our Large Bore High shear splits. This set was a different configuration from the Stu Evans/Ford/Kaase design and was custom built for a GM style Sonny Leonard designed power plant. Once again, “out of the box jetting” was the order of the day as these carbs had never been installed on an engine prior to this test.
Yeoman who is known for tweaking a combination to perfection, did take some advice from Sonny Leonard (Engine Builder) who requested he click it early to get a plug reading. Better safe than sorry. Looks good. Real Good. Yeoman is going to be tough this year.
Tony Christian was also in Houston running our new Nitrous PRO-IV big bore carbs in his new Reher-Morrison powered combination. Tony made some shake down passes in his ’57 Chevy running strongly in the sixes. That’s pretty fast for a big old Chevy. Good job Tony.
Congratulations to Ex-street car extraordinaire and current Pro Mod racer Landon Jordan for his Runner up finish in Houston. Check out the paint job on his awesome Corvette…WOW!!
In 2000 NHRA and IHRA Pro Stock is gonna be a great show. Now what else is going on…Oh yes we have Darlington in a few weeks. Tommy Mauney will have something new to show us and Mike Castellana has an updated version of our new Pro Mod splits to run.
I’ll keep you posted.
Thanks for stopping in!
