INDY

Sportsman Highlights From Past Years

Like the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500 or the Masters in golf, for drag racing fans, Labor Day weekend for the past 55 years has meant the U.S. Nationals, or simply Indy. There is no substitute for the event.

There are countless highlights from the professional side of the fence, but of equal importance are the numerous sportsman highlights which are as much a part of the week-long happening that is officially the MAC Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals.

Some will forever stick in our heads like John Lingenfelter’s hiring of a helicopter to bring in a new engine for his Corvette Super Stocker in 1976; the Modified Eliminator protest in 1981; Billy Williams as the first back-to-back Indy winner in the old Pro Comp class; Stan Strzala as the first Indy Super Gas winner in 1982; and Cotton Perry as the last Modified winner in 1981. Possibly thousands more highlights might come to mind. Unfortunately, some photos of those are virtually impossible to locate. Instead, please enjoy this small spattering of more recent Indy sportsman scenes.

PROJECT HORSEPOWER

Building Horsepower Still Requires Care

Building horsepower these days is somewhat easy compared to older times. Most aftermarket companies are well aware of the uses of their product and build them accordingly. In most cases, they’re built to match up to components from other companies as well.

However, care must still be taken when combining components to assure that the end result is a successful one.

Dart Machinery has been supplying cylinder blocks and heads to the public for almost 30 years. Dart’s Richard Maskin might be best known for supplying the horsepower to several Pro Stock teams which have resulted in championships and national event wins. He says, "Our engine program and our daily interaction with leading engine builders and winning racers keeps us on the leading edge of technology. We apply everything we learn to produce more powerful and more reliable parts for our customers."

Tracy Dennis and his Sunset Racecraft horsepower haven is one such customer. Together with Dennis and a host of other manufacturers, we’ve set out to build a project 598-cubic inch engine to test the theories of numerous products.

GOOD FRIENDS    

The Aragonas Have Made Many Through Their Years In The Sport

The scene had to be hilarious.

When Frank Aragona Sr. got his official New York State driver’s license, he purchased an Anglia, but this was no ordinary drag racing style Anglia.

“I saw this car for sale in Brooklyn and I just had to have it,” he said. “It was a real English Anglia with the steering wheel on the right side of the car. I used to drive that car to school and we had a blast with it.”

The “we” was Frank and his brother Joe. Together, the pair most likely terrorized their Queens hometown before Frank purchased his first official race car, an old Lindblad-built altered.

Prior to that though, and after completing high school, both Frank and Joe followed in their father’s footsteps and became union electricians. “I really liked cars but I got into the electrician union because the money was good,” says Frank. “Joe eventually quit the electrician business and opened an automotive machine shop.”

Each weekend meant a trip out of the city to West Hampton Speedway and New York National Speedway on the eastern tip of Long Island. “My brother and I were always into getting the most out of an engine that we could,” Frank said. “That’s why we always gravitated toward the Comp and old Modified classes. We just wanted to go as fast as we could with what we had.”

PUTTING WHOA BEFORE GO

New Brake Rotor Technology

Most everyone wants to go fast. And with today’s mail order horsepower, it’s extremely easy to accomplish that fact.

However, as has been coming to light the last couple of years, race tracks aren’t getting any longer yet the cars are getting faster. A case in point might be the old Moroso 5-Day Bracket Championships. At the 2005 version of that classic event, the average dial-in was an 8.01. Five years later, that number is well into the mid-seven second zone, with no reason as to why it shouldn’t get quicker. Still, as we mentioned earlier, tracks aren’t getting any longer and drivers are starting to put more emphasis on stopping.

One of the most damaging things to a brake system is heat. Carbon fiber brake systems actually work better with more heat, but high cost can be a deterrent. This leaves most racers with the old tried and true steel disc brake rotors and metallic or organic brake pads. The hotter these get, the worse they become, with potential long term problems a possibility.

The most common disc brake rotors, in the case of rear brakes, utilize either a one or two piece design, with the two pieces being the steel rotor and aluminum hat, which is attached to the wheel studs. In the case of two piece rotors, the two components are connected by way of screws which attach them together. The problems with those become the characteristics of dissimilar metals. When heated, steel and aluminum act entirely different causing them to expand and contract at diverse rates. This oftentimes puts an extreme amount of stress on the screws holding them together, resulting in the screws loosing up. The use of a locking compound or safety wiring the screws is mandatory.

BENEATH, BETWEEN AND BEHIND THE WHEELS

The Jeff Arend Story

“Every morning I get an e-mail and I smile a little bit before I hit the Delete button,” says Jeff Arend, driver of the Kalitta Motorsports DHL-sponsored Funny Car.

“When I was out of a ride the last time,” he added, “I signed up for one of those online job searching sites. When Kalitta Motorsports hired me to drive the DHL Funny Car, I was going to go and cut off the service so I didn’t get the e-mails any longer. But then I decided not to so I have a reminder every morning of how lucky I am to be doing what I’m doing.”

The 47-year old native of Toronto, Canada, began his tenure as the wheelman of the DHL flopper in 2008 at Indianapolis, only a few, short months after the tragic death of Kalitta Motorsports cornerstone Scott Kalitta. Although Kalitta and Arend were more acquaintances than friends, their similar upbringings are eerily comparable to a storyline from “The Twilight Zone”.

“It’s kind of freaky when you think about how the things we had in common were extraordinary and not just as common as something like both of us being fans of the band RUSH or anything like that,” Arend noted.

FROM THE RACK TO THE TRACK

The Building Of A Championship Ride

A lot has changed over the years. (Now there’s a big surprise.) It used to be that drag racers would build their own cars in backyard garages that oftentimes would have to be shared with bicycles, lawn furniture and other assorted collections of life. The only prerequisite was a flat floor which sometimes meant “almost flat.”

“Almost” just doesn’t cut it anymore. Having a chassis which is square and true is the only way to assure a race car which will return consistent elapsed times.

For the better part of 20+ years, Rick Jones has been building winning race cars at his Illinois facility. Specializing in the Pro Stock and Pro Mod classes, Jones’ creations have won numerous races and championships. With the proliferation of the Top Sportsman class, Jones’ RJ Race Cars is kept quite busy each and every week of the year.

“It’s amazing how things have changed in the door car classes,” he says. “There’s quite a lot of work that goes into building today’s Pro Stock, Pro Mod or Top Sportsman car. It’s not as easy as just welding in a couple of bars and calling it a race car.”

As Jones alludes to, it all starts with the proper foundation, a structure of chromoly tubing which sets the tone for the rest of the car. Starting with a pile of tubing on the rack, roughly 1,000 man hours later, a Top Sportsman car can be rolled out of the shop into a customer’s trailer.

Pro Stock cars require much more work and tubing than a TS car, which cause them to take another 200-400 hours of fabrication and assembly. Jones said, “We need a lot more adjustability in the suspension and other areas, so those cars are more sophisticated.”

We recently followed along during the construction of a Top Sportsman 2010 Ford Mustang and it is indeed quite a project. In this first installment, the chassis was completed, while next issue we’ll follow along as the body is mounted.

...and much more!