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Bristol, TN–
After a weekend full of problems, Erica Ortiz had a tough qualifying session in the Horsepower & Heels Thunderbird, finishing #5 and at the bottom of the ladder. Though an early exit in the first round against Chuck Samuels, Erica posts a new career best running a 6.85 @ 207mph.
[imagebrowser id=8]Photo Credits: James Pickett-Modified Mustangs; Eric Hamilton
Today, I went to Mr. Moody’s shop to help him work on the motor. This was probably moreso for my benefit than his aid, but I wanted to learn and wanted to be able to contribute, so Mr. Moody humored me. What I learned, is that people vastly underestimate the potential of factory ford parts… as evidence of my recent performances.
We have had no problems with the motor after approximately 70+passes, save for the small lifter incident on the first test outing in February of this year. That’s 70+ passes on a stock block, cast crank, and under 24 psi of hairdryer pressure. I don’t know what I was expecting to find as I dropped the oil pan (literally, all over the floor… sorry, Mr. Moody!), but I was pleasantly surprised to find…. NOTHING. Nope, nada, zilch. The rod bearings were good as new, the cylinders all showed way rich conditions, and everything was intact and looked as though it had just been put together. (Save for the outside, which was covered in gunk from that pesky leaking valve cover)
So, Mr. Moody will be replacing the cast crank with a better unit, and buttoning it back up for the Bristol FFW race coming August 4th-6th. Mr. Moody assures me I can now up the power, and expects that we will be able to hit in the 50’s with the stock block before the end of the season. He’s not often wrong… after all, he guessed the cast crank performance to a T. In Bristol, we will attempt to combat the thinner mountain air by turning up the boost a little in our typical sneak-up-to-it style.
Maybe I’ll be fortunate enough to hang onto my #2 rank in the points… (John Gullett has plenty to say about that I’m sure… don’t worry Johnny, I”ll save you a parking spot next to me!) But for now, I’ll just focus on getting down the track consistently and working hard with what we have!
All of this was done with a stock filled 460 block and a cast crank. Mr. Moody is swapping the crank so we don’t have to be as scared to run with it. I’m still working on gathering the rotating assembly for the aluminum block motor we are working on for next year. Maybe someone will step up to help out soon, if not… its nose to the grindstone!
Norwalk, OH– Erica Ortiz & crew had one big goal for their journey to the 16th Annual Buckeye State Fun Ford Weekend Nationals in Norwalk, OH this past weekend: to get the Horsepower & Heels Thunderbird into the 6 second zone. With Norwalk marking the 3rd event in her rookie PRO 5.0 season, Erica was feeling comfortable behind the wheel and ready to step up. …
Norwalk, OH–
A weekend of firsts for Horsepower & Heels driver Erica Ortiz, as she becomes the first woman in Fun Ford Weekend history in the 6’s, the first female over 200 mph, and the first female to runner-up in Pro 5.0 when she blasts a 6.88 @ 205 against David Schorr in the final of this race.
[imagebrowser id=7]Photo Credit: Greg Andrea, Mike D.
Petersburg, VA– After making the long, rainy trek to the Richmond, VA area for the 8th Annual Fun Ford Weekend Old Dominion Nationals, the forecast wasn’t looking good. Rain had canceled Friday’s qualifying session, and computers showed 60% chance of rain for the weekend. A tired Horsepower & Heels crew fought the conditions all the way up, arriving in the wee hours on Saturday morning. They headed to the track at daylight to unload and prepare. …
FFW Richmond would mark my 2nd event in Pro 5.0 this season. We arrived in Richmond in the wee hours of Saturday morning after driving through pouring rain across 3 states. The forecast didn’t look good, with rain predicted at 50-60% chance for the rest of the weekend. Still, we showed up to the track when the gates opened to unload and get ready to rumble.
Because I wasn’t arriving until Saturday morning, I had only two qualifying shots remaining. My first qualifying pass resulted in a 7.56 @ 183 mph. The car made a slight move at the 1/8th mile, but I was able to salvage the run and drive it through the finish. Many of the other PRO cars were having difficulties with that piece of the track.
2nd round, the car experienced problems cranking in the burnout box. The negative g’s of the parachute deploying from the round before had sloshed the fuel to the front of the cell, and caused the mechanical fuel pump to loose prime. Since we towed the car to the lanes, we were not aware of this until I tried starting the car in the burnout box. Dan & Josh Kuhn raced to get the hood off and manually added fuel to the throttle body to force the pump to regain prime. They buttoned me back up, but since I was now running out of order, the run would not count towards qualifying. Still, I staged and ran a 7.33 @ 185 mph.
That paired me going into eliminations with David Schorr. David is a regular of FFW Pro 5.0, and although he wasn’t able to make a clean hit in qualifying, we knew the car was capable of mid 6’s on race day. That point was further evident with the Schorr’s Sunday test pass, where he ran deep into the 6’s prior to the start of 1st round.I knew that I didn’t have enough muscle (horsepower… my engine has a stock 460 4 bolt block and cast steel crank), so my shot was to stay consistent and cut a good light to stay ahead. That would backfire, as I ended up pushing through the beams Sunday to a redlight 7.30 @ 186 performance.
Now that we are home, we’re hard at work preparing for the FFW Norwalk event July 7th-9th. The converter needed desperately to be sent back to Neal Chance Racing Converters to be tightened up, as it was only dropping 300 RPM on the gear shifts. Marty Chance predicts that the car will be squarely in the 6’s with just the changes made to the converter. Wish me luck as I shoot to be the first female in the 6’s in FFW Pro 5.0!
Phenix City, AL–Erica’s local track, Phenix Motorsports Park, has a pretty strong Sunday program in place during the summer, which regularly includes Pro Mods & other variation Quick 8 programs. Feeling more confident after recent test sessions, the Horsepower & Heels team decided to enter the Sunday Quick 8. …
I know, do I even race anymore?
So, now that we are somewhat settled into the new abode in Alabama, we all headed to the racetrack yesterday for some testing. Dan & Josh made some repairs to my car Saturday from the Atlanta outing, discovering why the darn thing wouldn’t go down the track– the wheelie bars were bending. Dan reenforced the bars adding thicker metal over the exsisting bars to strengthen them and eliminate the flexing problem. First pass, Dan asked me to take it to the 330′ so he can watch it. The launch was smooth, Dan made some minor adjustments to the wheelie bars, but noticed that the tranny was still leaking significantly. So, we remove the trans tunnel sheet metal, and find that the wraps placed around the tranny in Atlanta to stop the leaking were soaked and oil was still coming out. Apparently, the old-school Lencos are notorious about leaking from the seals since day 1. So, we clean and place fresh rags to catch the oil, and head back out. Dan added power, and the launch was clean and straight– the 60′ improving from 1.20’s to a 1.13. A few more adjustments, and we decide to run it through the 1/8th mile. Even with a slight opps on my part (he said to run it through, dummy!), the car ran a 4.8 in the 1/8th. Definitely glad to have solved the handling problem from Atlanta.
A very long weekend for me. I didn’t expect to have this many new car bugs holding me back this far into the learning progress, but I knew going into this that I was making do with the ultimate “budget-built” project, and that setbacks were to be expected. When Dan arrived on Thursday night, we found that the tranny was the problem. It was low on fluid, and wouldn’t lock up properly. Filled it back up, and found that the drain plug had been loose. I got down and tightened it, and cleaned the undercarriage thinking the problem was fixed.
So, Friday arrives. First pass, I was lined up a bit crooked I think, and it went hard left. Came back, got ready for 1st round of qualifying. Didn’t do so bad, but the car is still very, very lazy. Run a 7.85 @ 189. That would be my only pass of the whole weekend. Each time I’d go up to the starting line, the car was leaking trans fluid. We’d bring it back, jack it up, and check again, but it seemed each time it would drop fluid. And of course, each time it would hit the tires and cause the car to lose traction. Aborted pass after aborted pass.
The lone 7.85 put me at #15 qualifier, matched against Chuck Samuels first round. We blanketed the transmission to avoid any leakage and headed for the starting line. Added some power to try and wake it up, but of course as soon as the power came on, it affected the pre-load and drove the car out of the groove.
On the positive side, I feel more comfortable in the car, and I’m ready to start turning it up to avoid the constant load changes on the chassis. The car wants to leave under power, and doesn’t like it being thrown down track after such a soft launch. So, more testing to come… Thanks so much to everyone who lent a helping hand this weekend, as I showed up with zero crew for the weekend: (Dan was driving, Josh & Biscuit were in Bradenton crewing for the 10.5 car) Brad, Debbie, Alan, Al, Brian, PJ, Dennis and everyone else who helped out–THANKS!
It was also great seeing Heather & Mike back out at the races, and Sarah & her dad who came out to offer some support. I had a great time! We have such a great group of people who race with us, its always such a blast with everyone! CONGRATS to John & the whole Gullett empire on such a kickass weekend! At least we kept it in the pit!
Next up: going to the paint shop, the powder coater, and all the other little details.