Ken
Gone but not forgotten
From the Princeton Union Eagle:
Posted: 6/22/05
Nelson setting drag records with his Corvette
By Joel Stottrup
Wayne Nelson, driving his LeMans blue 1969 Corvette, set two new speed records this season in his division of drag racing muscle cars on a quarter-mile strip.
He first broke the 11-second mark during Memorial Day weekend at New Lebanon Valley in upstate New York with a 10.97 second time. He also won in the F.A.S.T. division at those races, F.A.S.T. standing for factory appearing stock tire.
Nelson raced again last Friday, this time in Martin, Mich., and came in second. He admitted being a little down about finishing second when he commented on Monday, “I should’ve won.”
Nelson’s problem in the final race at Martin was that his drive tires lost traction at the start of the race. Nelson said that after spinning at the start line, he tried as hard as he could to catch up with Terry Pennington’s 1969 Camaro. He did manage to nose even with the Camaro’s rear wheels but by then Pennington had gone over the finish line.
Still, Nelson was also upbeat about the results of the weekend, saying the important thing was that he set a new record that weekend. He came up with a time of 10.96, doing it during the first time trial, right after taking his car off the trailer.
Nelson said that in both the Memorial Day weekend races and ones this past Friday he knew that he had a chance of setting a new record.
Nelson had a new engine put in his Corvette last winter by Gene Pearson of Forest Lake who runs the Performance Concepts company. The engine has 650 HP, 120 more than his previous engine.
“I can feel it,” Nelson said of the added power.
The engines in the F.A.S.T. race cars must have factory specifications on the outside parts of the engine block, but the interior can be greatly modified, Nelson noted. The tires have to be stock specifications and the factory width is 6.7 inches, considered narrow for racing traction, he explained.
The narrow tires makes it “very tricky” to keep traction at the start of the race, said Nelson, because there is a lot of horsepower and the driver needs to throttle the car as much as possible to compete. (His top speed in Memorial Day racing was 126.88 mph.)
If the drag strips have been cleaned well and properly sprayed with a certain sticky material for traction, the tracks aren’t so bad as the ones not prepared as well, he noted. There can even be a difference in the amount of traction available in the two lanes used for each race and Nelson on Monday questioned if the lane he was in was as good as the one of his competitor who won.
Nelson’s best earning this spring was from his win in New York when he took home $1,000. Five hundred of that was from the race sponsor, Hemmings Motor News, while $250 was from a Dodge dealer in the area, and another $250 was from an area MOPAR Club.
Nelson received a $150 gift certificate good for purchases from Year One, a reproduction-parts company, for his second-place finish Friday.<P>Nelson talked excitedly Monday about the mid- August competition at the MOPAR Nationals in Columbus, Ohio, in which all F.A.S.T. division racers have been invited to compete.
“I hope they’re friendly to us,” said Nelson, explaining that Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth drivers are rivals with drivers of other brands.
Nelson will also be in a couple of races in Brainerd on July 4 and during the Labor Day weekend that are for fun rather than serious competition, he noted.
Nelson is still working on getting more performance from the Corvette he drives that he purchased in 1999 and has been racing since the summer of 2000. He plans to try a different carburetor and different exhaust system.
“I always want to go faster,” he said of his racing goals.
Nelson and Gene Otto are co-owners and operators of Hy-Tech Auto in Princeton, and Otto, when asked last Friday about Nelson’s racing, joked that if Nelson was to win his division that weekend, Nelson’s “head may be too big to get in the door.”
Nelson smiled Monday when he heard about the remark, understanding that it was good-natured. Asked Monday how he feels his performance has turned out compared to what he anticipated, he said, “It’s probably a little better than I expected.”
Posted: 6/22/05
Nelson setting drag records with his Corvette
By Joel Stottrup
Wayne Nelson, driving his LeMans blue 1969 Corvette, set two new speed records this season in his division of drag racing muscle cars on a quarter-mile strip.
He first broke the 11-second mark during Memorial Day weekend at New Lebanon Valley in upstate New York with a 10.97 second time. He also won in the F.A.S.T. division at those races, F.A.S.T. standing for factory appearing stock tire.
Nelson raced again last Friday, this time in Martin, Mich., and came in second. He admitted being a little down about finishing second when he commented on Monday, “I should’ve won.”
Nelson’s problem in the final race at Martin was that his drive tires lost traction at the start of the race. Nelson said that after spinning at the start line, he tried as hard as he could to catch up with Terry Pennington’s 1969 Camaro. He did manage to nose even with the Camaro’s rear wheels but by then Pennington had gone over the finish line.
Still, Nelson was also upbeat about the results of the weekend, saying the important thing was that he set a new record that weekend. He came up with a time of 10.96, doing it during the first time trial, right after taking his car off the trailer.
Nelson said that in both the Memorial Day weekend races and ones this past Friday he knew that he had a chance of setting a new record.
Nelson had a new engine put in his Corvette last winter by Gene Pearson of Forest Lake who runs the Performance Concepts company. The engine has 650 HP, 120 more than his previous engine.
“I can feel it,” Nelson said of the added power.
The engines in the F.A.S.T. race cars must have factory specifications on the outside parts of the engine block, but the interior can be greatly modified, Nelson noted. The tires have to be stock specifications and the factory width is 6.7 inches, considered narrow for racing traction, he explained.
The narrow tires makes it “very tricky” to keep traction at the start of the race, said Nelson, because there is a lot of horsepower and the driver needs to throttle the car as much as possible to compete. (His top speed in Memorial Day racing was 126.88 mph.)
If the drag strips have been cleaned well and properly sprayed with a certain sticky material for traction, the tracks aren’t so bad as the ones not prepared as well, he noted. There can even be a difference in the amount of traction available in the two lanes used for each race and Nelson on Monday questioned if the lane he was in was as good as the one of his competitor who won.
Nelson’s best earning this spring was from his win in New York when he took home $1,000. Five hundred of that was from the race sponsor, Hemmings Motor News, while $250 was from a Dodge dealer in the area, and another $250 was from an area MOPAR Club.
Nelson received a $150 gift certificate good for purchases from Year One, a reproduction-parts company, for his second-place finish Friday.<P>Nelson talked excitedly Monday about the mid- August competition at the MOPAR Nationals in Columbus, Ohio, in which all F.A.S.T. division racers have been invited to compete.
“I hope they’re friendly to us,” said Nelson, explaining that Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth drivers are rivals with drivers of other brands.
Nelson will also be in a couple of races in Brainerd on July 4 and during the Labor Day weekend that are for fun rather than serious competition, he noted.
Nelson is still working on getting more performance from the Corvette he drives that he purchased in 1999 and has been racing since the summer of 2000. He plans to try a different carburetor and different exhaust system.
“I always want to go faster,” he said of his racing goals.
Nelson and Gene Otto are co-owners and operators of Hy-Tech Auto in Princeton, and Otto, when asked last Friday about Nelson’s racing, joked that if Nelson was to win his division that weekend, Nelson’s “head may be too big to get in the door.”
Nelson smiled Monday when he heard about the remark, understanding that it was good-natured. Asked Monday how he feels his performance has turned out compared to what he anticipated, he said, “It’s probably a little better than I expected.”
