Lets toast to our Pantera brothern running the Silver State! Go Team Pantera! teampantera@yahoo.com No slackers...hold it down!
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
I admire those guys. I hope the win again.
I would love to do that at least once!
This is straight from the Dog himself! ALL!
Thanks again JB for being there (again)...Seeing you, Chuck and Larry made me
feel pretty confident. Espially when my ignition fell out (bwahahaha) on Saturday
right after we got everything else done to the car....still you were able to fix
it!!!
There's no "I" in team and even though there were only "2"
Panteras out of 130 entry's Team Pantera Racing still got picked as the "BEST
TURNED OUT TEAM"....There were 7 other official teams from Corvette to Viper
and I say official because we only had 2 Pantera's in Ely!!!!! But its a "People's
Choice" award thing...and the people of Ely have spoken!! ;-] Seriously, it
was a trip because a good 95% of the field were new or late model show room stock
Z06's, Vipers and GT40's. Several Ferrari's....many high end exotics
including a McClaren that had raced at Bonneville still no one made 200 MPH Sunday.
Okay, down to race day....26F Sunday morning at 6am, frost on the cars....but
it warmed to 56F by 8AM. I was the 4th car off the grid...In front of me was a
Viper, followed by two Corvette Z06's and behind me were another Z06 and a race
prepared Mustang Cobra....also in my same class were 3 "GT-40's",
a Ferrari F-40 driven by veteran driver Rick Doria, an Ultima GTR, another 6 or
so Corvettes and a couple more Vipers....a total of 26 entries in the Grand Sport
Division (150 class). Some heavy-HEAVY metal. Kinna just felt right if you know
what I mean. Quiet unassuming Pantera and owner surrouned by high dollar machines!
JUST WAY TOO COOL...
So when the flag dropped I got a good tire smoking start fish tailing away from
the start line....at the quarter mile mark I was clocked at 122mph and by the time
I got to the first sweeper turn a few hundred feet away I was nearing 150. While
the weather conditions were perfect for a high speed run there was a serious 10-15
MPH "pucker-factor cross winds to contend with....I ran the Pantera as JB said
up to 170-175 for a while but settled back down to 155-160 through the first 45
or so MILES because wind was pretty wicked at high speed. There is a section of
bad road with dips and moguls that gets worse every year from mile 48 to just before
the Canyon road...I bottomed out once on one dip and a few miles later did it again....tires
screeching against the car wasn't a warm fuzzy...JB pointed it out to me after
the run so I was lucky I didn't blow a tire on the dips.....so best I could
do on Sunday was a 148 MPH average.
The start was delayed due to a late closure of a side road gate and by 8:45 when
they finally started cars down the course at one minute intervals temps raised to
65 then 70F so weather was perfect after 3 days of snow, ice and rain...By the time
I got to the finish line it was 75-80F...To the credit of Dick Drenske's NASCAR
rad and other mods I finished my run with a 180F oil temp and a 175 water temp
on the NASCAR rad which is the lowest operating temps I have seen in 10 years.
The engine was AWSOME....and ran flawlessly....thank you Russ Fulps and thank you
Dick Drenske for setting up the Pantera. I also want to thank the Brazilian Girls
for the 55 gal drum of 110 Octane race gas! Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!!!!
Later JB and Chuck came in with their Pantera to the finish line to lots of applause
and cheers....I think some of the Viper, Ferrari and Z06 guys once again got a lesson
in how "OLD SCHOOL RULES".....JB and Chuck in spite of a fouled plug
still averaged 133 MPH and I know the cross winds didn't help his run either
but it sure felt good to finish and then see JB's yellow Pantera coming into
the finish line.....
RJ Gottlieb ran "Big Red" in Unlimited but the best he could do on Sunday
was only 168 although he has run a best of 192 average one other time. The fastest
car Sunday was driven by Mike Borders which was a x-winston cup race car and it
averaged like 187 mph which is amazing considering cross winds on course...still
a long way from the record of 207 average over the 90 miles courseset back in '2000....just
not a good day to break records but a damn good day to finish.
There was no more then half a dozen cars out of those 130 as old as our Pantera's
out of the field of 130 cars and that didn't go unnoticed at the Banquet and
Awards Dinner Sunday night......... neither did the fact that THREE late model Corvettes
including one new ZO6 DNF'd along the way. Corvette guys got nailed pretty hard
at the awards banquet Sunday night...to add insult to injury one new ZO6's car
alarm went off at Ash Springs while he was refueling after the race and he couldn't
shut it down for a full 5 minutes...I finally walked over pulled out his key and
clicked the alarm OFF...dUMB ASS!
I got to see some positive results to the aero and cooling mods on the Pantera.
In some photos I looked at the rubber bolt on side skirts that Dick had added to
the Pantera and they seemed to definately help high speed stability....so did lowering
the Pantera except for the dips/moguls but that is another challenge for next year...
John Schneider (Dukes of Hazard) brought the General Lee (69 Hemi Charger) and
finished at something like 125 mph (hehe) and John, RJ, Larry and I all shared a
table together laughing and BS'ing at the awards banquet which was cool. RJ
said he was impressed with our cars and our enthusiasm and Friday night we got to
see an advance film clip of John Schneiders new movie (McCormick & Company)
a movie about a guy who races what "looks-like" an old beat up 69 Charger
which really has a 511ci Hemi for rich guys pink slips... so he has a garage of
like 50 high end exotics he has won in illegal street racing! But in the movie
he stole MY FIRE idea because one of the movie's tricks shows he has a gas butane
burner near his window grills that shoots flames up in the air to fool his competitors
into thinking his Dodge Charger is ON FIRE....soooooo who do you think he got THAT
idea from?!!!!!!!! ;-] Anyway, JB liked the movie....think I fell asleep and everyone
had a good time.
Too much more to write about but for sure I will be back next spring...gonna have
to work on suspension travel to deal with those road dips otherwise I couldn't
be happier with the way the Pantera handled and ran....THANKS TO JB, CHUCK, LARRY,
AND ALL OF YOU FOR PUTTING UP WITH MY BAD BOY ANTICS AND THANK YOU AGAIN FOR ALL
YOUR SUPPORT.
GOOD TIMES!
md
"John Bentley (jab)" wrote:
The good news is we both finished. I'm sure Dennis will be chiming in
here with a full report. I think he made 170+ a couple times and came
in under his target speed. I came in under also at 133 average instead
of 135, but had a blast (as always). The new tires didn't feel good and
I had fouled plug (I think). I need to pull them out and find out why I
have a miss.
The weather was great and we even had a nice snow shower on Friday
night. Another great event. Team Pantera even got an award at the
show.
I'll get some pictures posted sometime this week.
JB
-----Original Message-----
Thanks again JB for being there (again)...Seeing you, Chuck and Larry made me
feel pretty confident. Espially when my ignition fell out (bwahahaha) on Saturday
right after we got everything else done to the car....still you were able to fix
it!!!
There's no "I" in team and even though there were only "2"
Panteras out of 130 entry's Team Pantera Racing still got picked as the "BEST
TURNED OUT TEAM"....There were 7 other official teams from Corvette to Viper
and I say official because we only had 2 Pantera's in Ely!!!!! But its a "People's
Choice" award thing...and the people of Ely have spoken!! ;-] Seriously, it
was a trip because a good 95% of the field were new or late model show room stock
Z06's, Vipers and GT40's. Several Ferrari's....many high end exotics
including a McClaren that had raced at Bonneville still no one made 200 MPH Sunday.
Okay, down to race day....26F Sunday morning at 6am, frost on the cars....but
it warmed to 56F by 8AM. I was the 4th car off the grid...In front of me was a
Viper, followed by two Corvette Z06's and behind me were another Z06 and a race
prepared Mustang Cobra....also in my same class were 3 "GT-40's",
a Ferrari F-40 driven by veteran driver Rick Doria, an Ultima GTR, another 6 or
so Corvettes and a couple more Vipers....a total of 26 entries in the Grand Sport
Division (150 class). Some heavy-HEAVY metal. Kinna just felt right if you know
what I mean. Quiet unassuming Pantera and owner surrouned by high dollar machines!
JUST WAY TOO COOL...
So when the flag dropped I got a good tire smoking start fish tailing away from
the start line....at the quarter mile mark I was clocked at 122mph and by the time
I got to the first sweeper turn a few hundred feet away I was nearing 150. While
the weather conditions were perfect for a high speed run there was a serious 10-15
MPH "pucker-factor cross winds to contend with....I ran the Pantera as JB said
up to 170-175 for a while but settled back down to 155-160 through the first 45
or so MILES because wind was pretty wicked at high speed. There is a section of
bad road with dips and moguls that gets worse every year from mile 48 to just before
the Canyon road...I bottomed out once on one dip and a few miles later did it again....tires
screeching against the car wasn't a warm fuzzy...JB pointed it out to me after
the run so I was lucky I didn't blow a tire on the dips.....so best I could
do on Sunday was a 148 MPH average.
The start was delayed due to a late closure of a side road gate and by 8:45 when
they finally started cars down the course at one minute intervals temps raised to
65 then 70F so weather was perfect after 3 days of snow, ice and rain...By the time
I got to the finish line it was 75-80F...To the credit of Dick Drenske's NASCAR
rad and other mods I finished my run with a 180F oil temp and a 175 water temp
on the NASCAR rad which is the lowest operating temps I have seen in 10 years.
The engine was AWSOME....and ran flawlessly....thank you Russ Fulps and thank you
Dick Drenske for setting up the Pantera. I also want to thank the Brazilian Girls
for the 55 gal drum of 110 Octane race gas! Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!!!!
Later JB and Chuck came in with their Pantera to the finish line to lots of applause
and cheers....I think some of the Viper, Ferrari and Z06 guys once again got a lesson
in how "OLD SCHOOL RULES".....JB and Chuck in spite of a fouled plug
still averaged 133 MPH and I know the cross winds didn't help his run either
but it sure felt good to finish and then see JB's yellow Pantera coming into
the finish line.....
RJ Gottlieb ran "Big Red" in Unlimited but the best he could do on Sunday
was only 168 although he has run a best of 192 average one other time. The fastest
car Sunday was driven by Mike Borders which was a x-winston cup race car and it
averaged like 187 mph which is amazing considering cross winds on course...still
a long way from the record of 207 average over the 90 miles courseset back in '2000....just
not a good day to break records but a damn good day to finish.
There was no more then half a dozen cars out of those 130 as old as our Pantera's
out of the field of 130 cars and that didn't go unnoticed at the Banquet and
Awards Dinner Sunday night......... neither did the fact that THREE late model Corvettes
including one new ZO6 DNF'd along the way. Corvette guys got nailed pretty hard
at the awards banquet Sunday night...to add insult to injury one new ZO6's car
alarm went off at Ash Springs while he was refueling after the race and he couldn't
shut it down for a full 5 minutes...I finally walked over pulled out his key and
clicked the alarm OFF...dUMB ASS!
I got to see some positive results to the aero and cooling mods on the Pantera.
In some photos I looked at the rubber bolt on side skirts that Dick had added to
the Pantera and they seemed to definately help high speed stability....so did lowering
the Pantera except for the dips/moguls but that is another challenge for next year...
John Schneider (Dukes of Hazard) brought the General Lee (69 Hemi Charger) and
finished at something like 125 mph (hehe) and John, RJ, Larry and I all shared a
table together laughing and BS'ing at the awards banquet which was cool. RJ
said he was impressed with our cars and our enthusiasm and Friday night we got to
see an advance film clip of John Schneiders new movie (McCormick & Company)
a movie about a guy who races what "looks-like" an old beat up 69 Charger
which really has a 511ci Hemi for rich guys pink slips... so he has a garage of
like 50 high end exotics he has won in illegal street racing! But in the movie
he stole MY FIRE idea because one of the movie's tricks shows he has a gas butane
burner near his window grills that shoots flames up in the air to fool his competitors
into thinking his Dodge Charger is ON FIRE....soooooo who do you think he got THAT
idea from?!!!!!!!! ;-] Anyway, JB liked the movie....think I fell asleep and everyone
had a good time.
Too much more to write about but for sure I will be back next spring...gonna have
to work on suspension travel to deal with those road dips otherwise I couldn't
be happier with the way the Pantera handled and ran....THANKS TO JB, CHUCK, LARRY,
AND ALL OF YOU FOR PUTTING UP WITH MY BAD BOY ANTICS AND THANK YOU AGAIN FOR ALL
YOUR SUPPORT.
GOOD TIMES!
md
"John Bentley (jab)"
The good news is we both finished. I'm sure Dennis will be chiming in
here with a full report. I think he made 170+ a couple times and came
in under his target speed. I came in under also at 133 average instead
of 135, but had a blast (as always). The new tires didn't feel good and
I had fouled plug (I think). I need to pull them out and find out why I
have a miss.
The weather was great and we even had a nice snow shower on Friday
night. Another great event. Team Pantera even got an award at the
show.
I'll get some pictures posted sometime this week.
JB
-----Original Message-----
CONGRATS TO YOUALL!!!!! SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT TIME. HOPE TO BE THERE SOME DAY!!!!!!