Author Topic: The boys from Kansas are at it again  (Read 52864 times)

Offline ricardo1967

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Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again
« Reply #30 on: March 21, 2015, 10:47:07 AM »
Yes Jon, you got me drooling indeed...

I don't know anything about Hemis, but there are tons of aftermarket heads available, so it makes me wonder, how different are the Neil & Parks heads from other high end heads like AJPE and such?

What's the typical % nitro used?

Offline JrFuel Hayden

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Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again
« Reply #31 on: March 21, 2015, 12:47:26 PM »
NHRA Heritage JrFuel, & A/ND, B/ND Comp rules limit to CAST IRON only heads, you can use alum heads in everything else, except SouthWest Jrfuel Association, iron only.
ALSO NO NITRO in the about classes, alky only.  Bracket dragster classes can run any nitro, alky, or gas, & of course blowers too.
I hope this clears up some of the confusion about JrFuel. You can find more info in the NHRA Comp elim A/ND, B/ND rules, and Heritage JrFuel rules.
There is ALWAYS talk about a real Nitro JrFuel class, and I have suggested, many times, that if anyone wanted to build a nitro JF car, they should and race it in 7.0 Pro, and when they have 10 cars/ teams then I'm sure we can talk Heritage into making nitro JF a class. We just need enough car count to make the Heritage tracks happy.
So, I say it again, BUILD IT, RACE IT , find a combination, and let me know so I can sell the class. Gary Adams, Gene Adam's, brother tried to put together a injected nitro class with the main idea of a cost limiting rule of only Vertex Mag, instead of fuel pump limit like Heritage A/FD. Big fuel pumps with out enough ign will limit the HP and costs. But no takers, Gary even had a race booked, but no cars showed except Kin Bates 6 time Heritage A/FD Champion, with a Vertex mag. 
Included photo is my 1963-68, 301 ci 97% Nitro, all iron, high gear, smoke the tires till half track dragster. We won allot in the Midwest, ran speeds of 191 mph, in 64-68. And raced almost every week if there was no snow on the tracks, had a GREAT Time, back in the day.
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Offline ricardo1967

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Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again
« Reply #32 on: March 21, 2015, 12:57:00 PM »
I did not know that the modern JrFuel cars were nitro-free.

Thanks for the education Jon.

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Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again
« Reply #33 on: March 21, 2015, 01:01:40 PM »
Hey Jon, any dollar figure on that engine yet???????
Didnt Jim Paul had iron Buick heads available before GG's OK'd them for Jr.Fuel ??

Offline JrFuel Hayden

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Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again
« Reply #34 on: March 21, 2015, 01:47:37 PM »
Bruce, GoodGuys got scared off by Jim Paul's lawsuit, so they OK'd the Nascar Iron version Buick heads. But there were no heads to buy.
Jim could only make a few heads before the alum molds broke.
Frank Parts at 1'st said $70k, for a complete motor, with-out mag and injectors. I'm sure he was thinking of what a good Comp engine would cost from a pro race engine builder, but he may be thinking closer to $80k now with all the work that has been done to the block. I didn't ask him yet what just the heads would cost, but they are for sale.
Most everyone doesn't know how much time and money it took to create this motor. It started about 10 years ago when Frank was pissed about the QC on the New Zealand made Pro Action 14° iron heads, so though "can I make my own iron heads".
So he called NHRA, "what can and can't I do?", they gave him guidelines, then Parks gave them drawings, blueprints, then NHRA said OK, now send us a head, so $10k later for tooling, NHRA had a head. NHRA approved the "replacement Hemi " head for A/ND & B/ND for 2009 Comp racing. And since Heritage uses A/ND & B/ND rules for JrFuel, Frank and Scott raced the 1'st time at the 2015 March Meet.
Their own designed head is only half the story, allot of design and work on the block in order to make it all work. Like the OE 331 block doesn't have enough iron in the lifter area to use a 60mm cam and over one inch lift, work, work, work !
I tell ya it's something to see and hear.   
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Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again
« Reply #35 on: March 21, 2015, 02:59:47 PM »
It has become "CHECKB >:( >:( K" racing

Offline 225digger

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Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again
« Reply #36 on: March 21, 2015, 03:00:49 PM »
i seen the car at famoso a few weeks ago . it was awesome so much detail and everything perfect! to bad there was a car in the other lane when it ran would have loved to hear just that car go down the track .


Offline H.G. Wells

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Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again
« Reply #37 on: March 21, 2015, 05:27:14 PM »
It has become "CHECKB >:( >:( K" racing

Bruce, yes like many classes the racer with the best (most expensive) equipment usually wins. However....
What Frank and Scott Parks have done with this new combo is perhaps the best example of winning with ingenuity and back yard engineering that racing has seen in decades.
Name another class where guys screwed together a 60 year old block with parts they carved out in there shop in the back yard and set records? (salt flats stuff not withstanding)
Speaking of the handicapping system, when I was sponsoring and working on a JR fuel car 15 years ago they were always the one to beat. If they showed up we figured the best we were going to get was second. Not cubic dollars, they were just that good.  Everyone in the class learned from them, even if we did not have one of their chassis. And I watched Scott lose a final in Tulsa to a low dollar car that just got lucky. Scott broke an oil pump shaft after the burn out and got beat by an 8.50 car.  Gave me hope that the junk I eventually put together might be able to win.  When I still ran that class I competed against cars who had more $ in cylinder heads than I had in my whole operation. Didn't win, but xxxx I had fun. 

When I think of guys writing checks to buy the win, the Parks ain't it. They built it by hand.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for those boys from Kansas.
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dreracecar

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Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again
« Reply #38 on: March 21, 2015, 06:16:23 PM »
So if Mr checkbook wanted to be just like them and could afford the 85k just to win $750 and the trophy, How would that be great for the  Jr Fuel class as a whole? The tree stagger for the different classes would now have to be adjusted because of those times and to be fair to B & C, but what about the other cars in A that have to suffer the tree hit?

 The whole 410  Jr Fuel deal started as one could pick up a used iron sprint car engine for cheap and have fun for minimum cost--- And there were a whole lot of cars back then too.

 IIWK (If I were King) comercialy available blocks and heads only as delivered with "blueprinting"

Offline H.G. Wells

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Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again
« Reply #39 on: March 21, 2015, 08:31:29 PM »
Can't totally disagree, if they offer that new hemi combo for sale it may change the dynamics. Or start another sub class.

I do love to see the innovation, and would hate for anyone to think those guys are check book racers. Cutting a check would not make anyone as successful as those guys.
 
When the Legends car series started I thought that was just the coolest thing. Spec cars, best driver wins.  For the most part that turned into the guy with the biggest check book, or the biggest cheater that did not get caught won. That seems to be the way of most all spec type classes. Perhaps that is why index racing keeps gaining momentum.

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Offline masracingtd1167

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Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again
« Reply #40 on: March 22, 2015, 06:27:11 AM »
Comp Eliminator has always been a class that is near and dear to me and I agree that there are a lot of guy's with a great amount of money that race in it .There are also a lot of Comp racers who do not have big bank rolls that spend a lot of time working on there combo.s to make them quicker . I agree that it is not a cheap class to run buy what class is ? I have worked on a Comp team for the last ten years and it has been a great experience for me . I have learned from some of the best in the buisness and met a lot of dedicated racers along the way !

Offline rooman

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Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again
« Reply #41 on: March 22, 2015, 07:40:14 AM »
Bruce,
         $75 to $80K small blocks have been around in A/ND etc for a lot of years now so the Parks deal is not out of line money wise. Frank and Scott's package is a case of a couple of really smart guys looking outside the box that a lot of racers put themselves in. If you have the same package as the guy in the other lane and he can get it down the track as well as you then luck becomes a factor in the outcome of the race. Those Kansas guys don't rely much on luck to win races.
   Sure, they would have to charge like the proverbial wounded bull to duplicate their entire car for a customer but a lot of it is simply the fact that they are willing to dedicate the time to be better than the rest. They don't go to the local bar when they get off work and they don't drive high dollar street cars or take vacations in exotic places--they work on their race car.
   Remember the NHRA slogan from the early 60's?    "Innovation in action" is these guys personified.

Roo
 
Yeah, I am from the south--any further south and I would have been a bloody penguin.

Offline wideopen231

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Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again
« Reply #42 on: March 22, 2015, 07:52:49 AM »
Takes two things to go fast.Money and talent. Lots of money nornmally has advantage.Someone has to have the skill to build it.Even with skill it takes a fair amount of money . Don't believe me. Try building  anything from ground up.Materials and tooling cost will amaze you. Parks have amazing skill and that hs gotten them the tooling to make aliving and some badass parts. If I had the tooling and a business that relied on me showing how good my stuff is I would spend a ton  of money and time building the product to drive my business higher. Exactly what the Parks do and judging from internet chatter about the car it works.

 My hats off to those guys.They get to build and drive race cars for aliving.I think they call that the american dream!
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Offline hotrod316

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Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again
« Reply #43 on: March 22, 2015, 02:16:47 PM »
Roo
your right on $70,000 to 80,000. 70,000 was 6 years ago and 5000.00 for a intake that we never got the bugs work out of before  it was outlaw owell  it just paper thank god it was not my paper. 8)
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Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again
« Reply #44 on: March 22, 2015, 04:51:05 PM »
Bob McKray builds his own engines, and does all his own head deveolpment, could prob build 2 (if not 3) engines for that cost.His car runnered up at the MM, His Driver (Don Enriques) drove it out the back whereas the "boys" shut off early and dropped mph to 162 and still maintained a lead. The 3 layer class handicap tree was supposed to bring all the classes of JF closer together in order for the class to survive as a true heads-up class.
  I have nothing against them and what the did or how they did it, and as a NHRA Comp dragster its going to be killer, but will be racing simular minded cars and really trick an inovated engine builds and race budgets. What happens at the MM and CHRR is club racing