[Shotimes] Lapeer Dragway on Saturday 5/3 (a little long!)

[Ron Porter]

Beautiful day yesterday. High was supposed to be 62 degrees (felt like it),
sunny, light breeze (and no headwind). Perfect conditions. We had 13-14
cars. Some SHOs and a group of Tauri from TCCA, as well as John Semchena in
his ('02 Convention Non-SHO Top Eliminator) '02 Maxima 6-speed (sill doesn't
have his '94ATX sorted out yet!). Dave Garber ('99) and Ryan Staley ('91)
headed in from Pittsburgh, Clare Allenby ('96) from London ON, as well as a
couple of the TCCA guys from out-of-state. Ryan (Dudek) and Tara then had
the group back over to their place for food/beer, as well as some picture
sessions.

Another good day at Lapeer, with the number of runs only limited by how much
gas you brought and how full your bladder is!! As a comparison to those who
ran with us last Fall when we had the headwind. My best on that day was
15.396 @ 90.82. Yesterday, with warmer temps, no headwind and sun (better
launching), the best was a 15.263 @ 92.23. Firmer confirms that my '95 is a
solid average running MTX SHO! I ran Garber's '99 a bunch of times, and we
would be neck-and-neck (his best was a 15.19 @ 93.5, IIRC), the winner being
determined by who got the redlight.......we both had redlight-itis
yesterday!

Anyway, there were two cars worthy of note for their outstanding runs.

Ryan Staley's '91.
If some recall, he broke the mounting boss on the tranny a few weeks ago,
which he got welded. He & Garber put in one of my old subframe bushings in
my driveway yesterday morning, as that one was GONE. The other three are
very bad, and need to be redone. Car has about 150K, has rust, a decent
interior, gutter strap and wire holding down the battery, and mismatched
tires.....in other words, a typical daily-use-for 12-years  '91 SHO. 
Yesterday, Ryan's first-ever trip down the strip with an MTX SHO was around
a 15.04, and he never had worse than a 15.08. He blew away my guess that his
first run would be a 16.5!! Anyway, what was impressive is that Dave "Mr.
MTX" Garber took it for a few runs, and got it into the 14.8Xs, with a pair
of 14.81s at 96-97. Ryan then got the best run with a 14.80x at 97.7 (or
97.8). This is one haulin' car! We suspect that this is probably the best
stock MTX trap speed we've seen (even a few fractions better than Garber's
former '95)

John Semchena's '02 Maxima 6-speed.
This is also an absolute factory-stock car, and John's daily driver. John
doesn't drag race much, so he is still getting he launch part down. "Mr.
MTX" Garber then took the car out. Dave started with about a 14.70, then
into the 14.60s, then the 14.50s, then two runs in the 14.40s. Get this, the
14.46 was a 100 (yes, no typo!!) trap speed, and the 14.47 was around 98.
All of Dave's runs in the car had trap speeds over 97. Dave felt with more
runs he could have been in the 14.3Xs. This was an incredible performance
for a stock car. We have commented about how the Maxima has an air inlet so
small that you can't even get two fingers in it........obviously the Nissan
engineers know something that we don't!! These cars haul!!

Ron Porter