At BangShift Billy, we’re always thrilled to see our products in action, especially when they help racers achieve new personal bests. This blog post is a firsthand account from one of our customers, sharing their experience at the 2024 Redwood Rally with their 1962 Pontiac Tempest. From preparation and testing to race-day adjustments, they detail how the Digital Clutch Controller played a crucial role in their performance. Dive into their journey and see how precision and reliability can make all the difference on the track!
Introduction
Now that I have had a couple months to reflect on Redwood Rally 2024, let’s dive deep into my preparation, plans heading into each day, and the following results. This was my second time competing in a drag and drive event with my 1962 Pontiac Tempest, and it performed perfectly as expected. I opted to compete in the American Graffiti Naturally Aspirated (AGNA) class instead of 3 Pedal (stick shift) knowing there were going to be some heavy hitters at the event. Either way my goal for the week was to number one finish the event, and number two use the clutch controller every pass while making minor adjustments to keep improving the launch and dropping the E.T.!
Preparation
Leading up to the rally I rebuilt the 376 C.I. Gen V LT1 in the car after discovering some valvetrain distress due to a camshaft with some out-of-control lobe profiles, heavy stainless valves, and heavy pushrods. This required rebuilding the cylinder heads with new seats, guides, re-blending the bowls and chambers, and of course cut 0.040” off the heads to bump the compression up from stock 11.5:1 compression ratio to 13.5:1, big jump! Although we worked with BTR on a new camshaft and valvetrain setup, we did not really upgrade the engine per say, rather rebuilt with high RPM and street reliability in mind. Gaining two points of compression by cutting the heads and switching over to a custom Diamond piston would end up being the biggest power gain come to find out.
With the engine ready to go, I did have an issue come up with my Wilwood clutch master cylinder. Much like Bill’s discovery in his Fairlane, it turned out that the aluminum piston was being side loaded and wearing into the aluminum bore of the cylinder which made for a sticky pedal that was no longer smooth. Remembering Bill’s video, I knew it was time to upgrade to a Tilton master that uses a longer steel piston inside of a hard anodized aluminum bore. End result netted a smooth, consistent pedal!
Having messed with the clutch, pedal assembly, clutch switches, and master cylinder I decided to dial in my clutch controller once again in the out skirts of town 😉. In the matter of eight to ten launches, I was able to determine the absolute minimum delay time needed to get the car off the line. Being able to do this at home saves a huge amount of time come race day not knowing what potential slow downs could occur, limiting passes down the track. I determined this number to be 0.045 seconds, or 45 ms.
Day 0
Testing day at the first and final track of the event, Medford Dragstrip in Oregon! Going into testing I wanted to find the ‘sweet spot’ with the clutch making the fewest amount of passes as possible. Fortunately, my street testing paid off because on pass number three I ran a new personal best for the car, a 10.42 at an unknown MPH. Most likely 131 or 132. Either way it was the perfect launch with a decent amount of wheel speed off the hit while slipping the clutch about 30 or 40 feet out. The prep was ideal since there were street tire cars making continuous passes down the track all day, and that created the perfect condition for my slick configured car. Keeping notes of my clutch controller settings, this pass had a delay time of 55 ms, launch slip time of a quarter of a second, and a ramp down time that took place over three quarters of a second. Below is a YouTube video link of the pass!
Day 1
Since I ended testing on a good note with some positive results, I wanted to keep the momentum moving by adding 1 ms of delay time for a little more wheel speed off the line. Since AGNA was scheduled first in the lanes to get the day going, the track had the tightest prep anyone was going to see throughout the day. Because of this, my one and what ended up being my last pass of the day kept the tire planted off the line and forced the car to ride the clutch out making for an awesome sounding launch, but surprisingly slowed down the 60ft by half a tenth of a second, 1.54 instead of a 1.49 from testing the previous day. It was still a decent pass, a 6.72 at 104 MPH to the 1/8 mile, which was only a little bit slower than my 10.42 pass. At this point I decided it was time to get the car switched around into street mode which consists of changing all four tires (involves dropping the rear shocks and leaf springs to pull the race tires off), pulling off the engine oil belly pan, swapping out air filters, and loading all the racing gear back into the car and trailer. Then it was time to make the 200-mile drive back into California for Eureka, which was uneventful other than what seemed like a lifetime of driving through huge redwood trees for a couple long stretches.
Day 2
Back on the California coast at Samoa Dragstrip, which is located on a small peninsula previously used as a WWII runway and landing zone for blimp convoys and now an active Coast Guard station, we had to wait till around 12:00 pm for the dense fog to burn off before it was safe to start sending cars down the track. Because of this, my family and I had pre-determined on doing another one and done pass so we could get back on the road as soon as possible. Based on how the car launched previously at Medford, I added another milli second of delay time, increasing the total number to 56 ms. But similar to day one, the car repeated itself by dead hooking the tire and riding the clutch out to a 6.75 at 104 MPH once again. Next was the long drive-up Highway 1 along the Pacific Ocean for roughly 215 miles. Another beautiful drive with the sun setting into the Pacific Ocean!
Day 3
Probably the most anticipated track for the Redwood Rally participants was the grassroots, outlaw style track known as Coos Bay Speedway back up in Oregon. Going in I knew this would be the slowest day for the car, but probably the most exciting being 1/8-mile, narrow lanes, and a sharp incline of a shut down. I wanted to keep sneaking back up to the point where I could get some wheel speed back from the launch, but the car repeated itself once again now delayed up to 57ms. This was probably the best-case scenario because I was one of the few cars that managed to make it down without spinning, off the line, but I did have a small hiccup of knocking the tires off on the 1-2 shift. With a quick recovery, I crossed the beams with a 6.81 at 102 MPH. Losing some speed just from the tire spin on the shift. Since the rest of the competition struggled to make it off the line, I decided to once again and call it a one and done day. Following was another stretch of ocean driving and finishing off towards the Portland area of Woodburn Dragstrip, yet again another 200-mile route.
Day 4
This would be my first time racing at Woodburn Dragstrip, and it was exactly what I expected from what I’ve researched ahead of time. This was one of the flattest and smoothest tracks I’ve seen. And even better it was prepped to NHRA standards by a proper track crew, where the previous tracks were prepped by small friends and families with lesser equipment. Because of the cool morning, perfect track, I wanted to make a couple attempts that day and run it all the way out to the ¼ mile. Woodburn’s prep was comparable to my home track of Famoso Dragstrip back in Bakersfield, CA, so I knew that would be wise to turn the delay up further to 59 ms, the longest delay of the week. The changes turned into a couple of more personal bests! Pass number one converted into a 10.35 at 131, and later in the day I went up for a second pass turning in a 6.58 at nearly 106 MPH to the 1/8-mile and recording a 10.29 at 132 to the ¼ mile! On the previous day I discovered one of the torsion axles falling apart on my trailer due to some faulty overseas welds that shouldn’t have been trusted, so before getting on the road for the final destination of the event I did a quick TIG repair on sight. Shoutout to Jeffery Woods for voluntarily supporting the racers with free access to a mobile lift and basic metal fabrication equipment!
Day 5
Reality begins to set back in when you make it back to the comfort of your truck and trailer! Unless you are Bill Armstrong or Richard Guido 😉. Pressure is off, and ultimately wiped out from a successful week of racing. At this point I was locked in for 5th place in the AGNA category and all I needed to do was make another A to B pass leaving the delay time alone from Woodburn. The prep might have been a little worse back at Medford because the car had more wheel speed off the line than I wanted on my last pass of the week. This locked me in 5th place position with a 6.72 at 104 MPH, about a tenth off from 2nd place, and nearly three tenths off the winning the car.
Concluding Thoughts
Overall, Redwood Rally 2024 was a success! The car ran a couple of new personal best times with increased compression and dialed in clutch controller. Upcoming for the car, I am going to be working further with BTR testing out their new mid length runner intake manifold in hopes of more average HP and torque. The stick shift life proves challenging on the small naturally aspirated engine having to sweep from a recovery RPM of 5600 RPM and making the flat-footed power shifts at 7800 RPM through a stock T56 Magnum transmission.
Upgrades For the Upcoming Season
I haven’t driven the car much since the event, but in the last couple of weeks I noticed that I’m having a difficult time getting the car into 2nd gear just driving around town. I decided to pull the transmission out for some inspection and came to find out I bent both the 1-2 and 3-4 shift forks from two previous 2-3-2 money shifts, and power shifting the car aggressively. As a result, this wiped out the 2nd gear synchro, slider, and blocker rings. Now I am in a position to either replace the hurt parts or hold out for a couple of months to purchase a face plated G-Force gear set and call it a day! Doing so will let me shift the car at higher RPM’s, shift it without the clutch, and also save more time on the track. Time will tell!