 This was one of our best years racing at this event in years.
I would like to thank my friends and my family again for all of their help over the course of the weekend. It takes a lot of effort from many people on our team to have a successful and enjoyable weekend. I would also like to say a special thanks to my crew - Mike Williams, Craig Dienes, and Adam King. Our team won the best appearing crew award again this year. It was the second year in a row that we won. It was definately rewarding to be noticed in front of the huge Norwalk crowds. Thanks to Delbert Rogers for accepting the award for us as we were busy preparing the dragster for the KRE Quick 16. As noted in the last newsletter, we did not bring any parts to sell this year. The only thing we did sell this year were t-shirts. We unveild a new version of our popular team shirts as well as some new colors for our standard Ts - and safety green was the hot color this year. We wore them as a team on Saturday and they were a huge hit. If you are interested in getting one or our new T shirts, you can check them out here. This was the first year we gave out FREE ice cream coupons and they were a huge hit! We passed out close to 400 coupons. Hopefully you got to enjoy some of the great Norwalk ice cream on us! Wally Becker's 1970 Judge  | |
Wally's Judge
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This year we invited Wally Becker and his sons from North Carolina to pit with us. Wally brought his 1970 GTO Judge that is equipped with a Tin Indian Performance built all aluminum MR-1A 510 cid engine. Wally and his boys seemed to have a really good time taking his car down the track in the Tin Indian Performance Street Class. Wally was running 13's at 116 mph! Not to shabby for a car with street tires on it and a 4 speed! We hope to feature Wally's car in a future newsletter detailing more about the car, engine and driveline. Wally is talking about adding some slicks to the mix so we will have to wait for that so we can get the new track numbers in the article. Thanks for coming out to Ohio Wally and we look forward to seeing you again soon.  | |
Jay purging the NOS
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Jay Johnson's 1967 GTO We also invited Jay Johnson who came all the way from Covington, Louisiana! Jay's car also has an all aluminum Tin Indian Performance built MR-1A pump gas 510. Jay was running 9.30's on the motor all weekend and he ended up spraying it a bit to get into the KRE Quick 16. Jay qualified #8 on the door car side running a 8.72 @ 152 mph! This was pretty impressive as this was Jay's first trip to Norwalk and it turned out to be one of the quickest KRE Quick 16 fields of all time! Had there been a full open body side Jay would have been the bump at 8.72! Unfortunately Jay got taken out in the first round by Jeff Kauffman but he had a great weekend and the car performed great. After the event, we pulled Jay's engine out as he wants to make some "upgrades" for the coming 2012 season. Look for Jay to qualify even higher in the Quick 16 next year. Tin Indian Performance Dragster  | |
TIP Digger going at it with the KRE Digger
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This year the TIP Digger ran very well - it was the driver that was pretty rusty! It is hard to be a good racer when you only race once or twice a year but time only permits for so many things. That being said, our first pass was a 7.63 and we were qualified #3 and we made that pass with the chute out at about the 60 foot mark! Unfortunately a little tire shake killed a good run as it shook the chute out very early in the run. We finally got it together for the third and final qualifying session and ran a 6.97 @ 190 and qualified #2 right under Jeff Kauffman's blown digger which ran a 6.81 @ 200 mph.  | | This is two of the three cars that made 6 second passes made over the course of the weekend pictured here. The TIP Digger ran the 6.97 and Jeff Kauffman's KRE Digger ran the 6.81 Bill Mellott was the only other car to run in the 6 second range during the event. Bill ran a 6.66 in his '65 Pro Mod GTO |
We were very happy with that time as the DA was over 4000 feet and the track was getting pretty greasy. We made it to the semi finals before we had an electrical problem that ended our day of racing. It certainly was nice to go a few rounds this year and get into the money rounds! Mike Williams' 1966 GTO  | | Mike Williams' '66 GTO with the wheels way up! |
This was the first time in 4 years that Mike had his 1966 GTO at Norwalk. You would think Mike would be a little rusty behind the wheel but he started off the weekend right by beating Hammer Time Racing's Scott Fischer. Mike had Scott covered by the 1/8 mile marker in the HTR Grudge Race and turned on his win light with ease. The Tin Indian Performance team went 1 and 1 in the Hammer Time Racing Friday Night Grudge Race and we look forward to being able to participate in it again.  | |
Mike Williams warming the tires up
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Sunday Mike was ready and entered the Super Pro field on a mission. Racing both the dragster and Mike's '66 presented us with some challenges and it was nice to have some new crew members really step up into new positions. Mike battled His way through the entire field making it to the finals late in the day Sunday. Unfortunately, Mike's transmission decided to give up the ghost and end his great day for him. Knowing how many hard core racers attend this event, this was quite an accomplishment. Congratulations Mike! | 
