Frank Hawley To Be Inducted Into The International Drag Racing Hall of Fame

Frank Hawley owner and operator of the Frank Hawley’s Drag racing school has been notified that he will be inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame.  The banquet is Thursday, March 13, 2014 during the Gatornationals. The 2014 Inductees are John Abbot, Al Berger, Tom Hoover, Warren Johnson, Forrest Lucas and Hawley

Frank Hawley is a two-time World champion drag racing driver. He won seven National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Funny Car and two Top Fuel Dragster national events during his 10-year Top fuel racing career that included the 1982 and 1983 National Hot Rod Association Funny Car World Championship, when he drove the Chi-Town Hustler for Austin Coil. He was voted Car Craft magazine’s “Driver of the year”.

Frank Hawley also served as a television sports commentator for ABC, TNN, and ESPN and authored two books on the sport of drag racing. Inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 1995, on the National Hot Rod Association Top 50 Drivers, 1951–2000, Hawley was ranked No.43.

In 1985 he founded the world’s first school for drag race driver’s training - Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School. With Hawley as the lead instructor, the school offers classes all across the United States where drivers can earn their NHRA Competition License. Some of the classes offered include Super Comp, Super Gas, Top Dragster, Top Sportsman, Top Alcohol Dragster, Top Alcohol Funny Car, Pro Stock Bike as well as courses for those to license and train with Hawley in their own car.

Draw Annual Dallas Live Auction

Draw Annual Dallas Live Auction
Saturday September 21st 2013
at 7:00pm

 

Here is a list of the auction items

1 - Kenny Youngblood “Force Power” lithograph signed by Youngblood and John Force

2 - Kenny Youngblood “Taken by Force” lithograph signed by Youngblood and John Force

3 - Kenny Youngblood lithograph of Wally Parks with three Wally Parks cards including one signed by Wally Parks

4 - Kenny Youngblood “Beyond 300” signed by Kenny Bernstein and Dale Armstrong

5 - Kenny Youngblood original cartoon of Chris Karamesines signed by Kenny Youngblood and Chris Karamesines

6 - Jef Caudle “Texas Style” lithograph signed by Eddie and Ercie Hill

7 - David Carl Peters “The Big Shue” lithograph of Don Schumacher, signed by Don Schumacher and David Carl Peters

8 - Shirley Muldowney “Last Pass” lithograph signed by Shirley Muldowney

9 - Beautiful Tony Pedregon poster, signed in gold by Tony Pedregon

10 - Beautiful Tony Pedregon poster, signed in gold by Tony Pedregon

11 - John Force racing team collage consisting of Eric Medlen personally signed handout and cards signed by John Force, Robert Hight, Ashley Force, Courtney Force, Brittany Force, John Medlen, Bernie Fedderly, Austin Coil and Jim Prock

12 - John Force Frankenstein die cast Funny Car signed by John Force

13 - John Force 1999 Superman Funny Car signed by John Force

14 - Courtney Force 2011 “Ice” Funny Car signed by Courtney Force

15 - 2003 Harley #485 (first year diecast) signed by Andrew Hines, Eddie Krawiec, Matt Hines, Terry Vance and GT Tonglet

16 - 2003 silver Harley #504 (first year diecast) signed by Andrew Hines, Matt Hines and Eddie Krawiec

17 - Full size helmet signed by 31. Helmet is black with beautiful gold signatures. Includes a fabulous Big Daddy Don Garlits autograph, John Force, Tony Schumacher, Larry Dixon. Complete list is with helmet

18 - NHRA Top Ten and Legends collage: cards signed by the NHRA Top Ten plus legends Wally Parks, Buster Couch, Steve Evans and Bob Frey

19 - 2001 U.S. Nationals dragster hauler beautifully signed by Don The Snake Prudhomme and Tom the Mongoose McEwen

20 - Dave Schultz 2000 Gatornationals bike (Dave won the 2000 race) with hero card signed by Dave Schultz

21 - Frank Pedregon Von Dutch tribute car to Don Garlits, signed by Don Garlits

22 - Beautiful 2001 U.S. Nationals dragster signed by Big Daddy Don Garlits

23 - 1998 Elvis tribute 7 car train set featuring John Force and Rusty Wallace. The Castrol car is signed by John Force

24 - Scott Kalitta West Coast Choppers collage: 8 x 10 signed by Scott AND JESSE JAMES and cards signed by Connie Kalitta, David Grubnic, Doug Kalitta and Glenn Mikres. This is a very
rare item since it includes the autograph of Jesse James

25 - Set of three John Force racing mini helmets signed by: John Force/Bernie Fedderly, Ashley Force and Tony Pedregon

26 - John Force Elvis 1/3 scale helmet signed by John Force and Austin Coil

27 - Shirley Muldowney 2003 Grease “Pink Ladies” dragster, signed by Shirley

28 - Larry Morgan Mopar crew shirt. This is the “old style” shirt where everything is embroidered as compared to current shirts where everything is screened on

29 - Courtney Force signed, framed and matted ESPN Magazine

30 - Snake and Mongoose signed 8 x 10 movie poster

31 - Linda Vaughn Signed 8 x 10 Movie Poster

32 - Eliminator 2000 Super – Portatree Timing System

33 - Special Edition Leather Bound Book & Roaster

34 - Complete 1993 NHA Series Notebook

35 - Book “Drag Racing Yesterday and Today” by Wally Parks – Signed

36 - Holley Neon Clock

37 - Winnebago Team Shirts

38 - Summit Computer Bag – Autographed by Greg Anderson & Jason Line

39 - Carlyle Tool Set – Metric Socket Set

40 - Greg Anderson & Jason Line Team Shirts

41 - Checker, Schucks & Cragan Assorted Team Shirts

42 - Die Cast & Autographed Tee Shirt - Ron Capps

43 - Die Cast – Jack Beckman

44 - Die Cast – Johnny Gray – Schumacher Wonderwagon

45 - Die Cast – Ron Capps 2012 Funny Car

46 - Model Kits – Lee Shepherd 1984, Rickey Smith 1984 and Dick Landy 1999

47 - Team Shirt, Golf Shirt, Hat – Signed by Shawn Langdon

48 - 2012 Championship Quilt - Louise has been making quilts since DRAW’s first auction. This is her final quilt

49 – 4 RXAM – 8T – 3 – ½ x ¾ 4130 Rod Ends & 4 RXAB-8T – 3 – ½ x ¾ 4130 Rod Ends

50 – 4 RAM – 12T – ¾ x ¾ 4130 Rod Ends & 4 RAB – 12T – ¾ x ¾ 4130 Rod Ends

51 – 4 TXAM – 10T – 5/8 x ¾ 4130 Rod Ends & 4 RXAB – 10T – 5/8 x ¾ 4130 Rod Ends

 
Dallas Auction Premiere Item!

Anyone that can not attend the auction in person and want to be a phone bidder for the pit car (must be preapproved with a credit card and the winning bidder must arrange shipping) please contact Yokie at (586) 949-0143 or Chris at (309)-825-3843 if nobody answers please leave your name and number and we will call you right back. Please call at least 48 hours before the auction.

Steve Kent and Rodger Brogdon have done it again, offering up a great donation to DRAW! This 1957 Chevy “pitcar” will be a featured item at DRAW’s annual auction at the Texas Motorplex during the AAA Texas Fall Nationals on Saturday night September 21st. The pitcar is a custom made fiberglass shelled replica 1957 Chevy Bel Air, hand crafted frame and suspension. The valve covers, headers, hi-rise intake manifold and dual carbs are attached to a plastic mockup small block Chevy motor. It is powered by a 2 cylinder Briggs & Stratton motor. The rear tires are worn down Jr Dragster slicks, a Ford 9″ rear axle housing was cut down and modified to cover the chain driven drive sprocket. This car will hold a full sized adult and word has it this amazing little machine will run almost 50mph! This car will be one of many highlights at the Dallas auction. DRAW again thanks Steve and Rodger for all they do for our charity

Drag Racing Hero and Legend Bobby Lagana Sr. Passes

Posted by Brian Lohnes

Courtesy Bangshift.com

With a heavy heart it is our duty to report that Bobby Lagana Sr. the patriarch of the Lagana family and one of the great grassroots fuel racers of his generation has passed away. Lagana was stricken with heart issues recently and we had heard he was in recovery mode, but this evening we learned of his passing. Outside of his drag racing accomplishments and his pure love for the sport, Lagana will be most proudly remembered as a devoted dad. It was but a few years ago that his sons Dom and Bobby declared that their season of top fuel racing would be known as the, “Our dad’s the best tour” to honor their pop. Up until very recently with his health issues, the boys and their dad were very rarely, if ever, seen apart on or off the track. If there is one mark a good dad can make in our opinion, it is to encourage his sons to follow their personal passions. Bobby’s love of the sport of drag racing was so strong and pure his kids literally caught the fever as deeply as their dad had caught it. We think that says all that you need to know about the bond the Lagana family shared with their head honcho and it carries though to today. Dom and Bobby continue to run a modern top fuel car as hard as anyone in the nation with a budget that the biggest teams in the sport couldn’t feed their employees lunch on.

It has not been all wine and roses for the family through the years. Making your way on the road match racing and scraping by with whatever you earn with your race car is not for the faint of heart or weak of spirit. There were no deluxe accommodations, no hospitality trailer, lots of bologna sandwiches, and plenty of taking orders from the guy who had been there and done that 100 times. Situations like this have one of two effects. They can drive a family apart and there are dozens of cases of this happening in drag racing. The other thing that can happen is that a family binds so close together that they become determined, driven, and motivated to succeed as a unit and stories like that of the Lagana family are born.

We were lucky enough to bear witness to one of the proudest moments in Bobby Sr’s life when his sons ran the first side by side 300mph lap by brothers in drag racing history a few years back in Epping, NH. To say that the man was walking on air that night would be a gross understatement. That’s how we’re going to remember Bobby. We’re going to remember the man who drag raced his heart out but we’re going to remember him more as a loving dad whose sons absorbed the knowledge he passed to them and have used it to become one of the most well loved and hard running privateer nitro teams in the world.

Bobby Lagana Sr joins a host of legends at the big strip in the sky and we’re sure they all welcomed him with open arms. Chances are he’s whipping their asses as you read this.

Our thoughts are with the Lagana family during this trying time.

Gulf Oil / GPO win Gold at NitrolympX

Litlington, Cambridgeshire, UK, 26th August 2013

After last year’s track surface problems the 2013 NitrOlympX sported a partially resurfaced track. However, it was (understandably) a little green at its first (and only) major event on the calendar. However, the Santa Pod track crew who were directing the track preparation made the best of the situation and all races were finished safely and on time.

A second event win for the year placed Ian King in a strong position to secure a seventh championship at Santa Pod in two weeks time. However, it wasn’t totally plain sailing as two qualifying shots were lost due to tyre smoke and another went awry when King hooked right from the start line and suffered (as many others did) a disappointing change in track camber caused by the resurfacing.

However, the one that did count was a fine 6.175 second pass, good enough for low qualifier and event low ET and handing him a bye before a semi-final match-up against Otto Knebl. The Czech Republic rider ran a new PB and first ever six second pass on his ex Brian Johnson Puma Yamaha, but it was not good enough to overcome King’s early shutoff 6.49 secs.

The final was a familiar matchup against Swede Rikard Gustafsson on the world class Funnybike who was duly dispatched by a close but again early shutoff 6.421 secs. @ 219mph after King elected to use the more tricky but aptly titled Grand Prix Originals lane to take the event win.

Two wins in a row in a four round series has put King two elimination rounds ahead of the Swede in the points, but it will be all to play for at the European Finals in two weeks time.

Pictures courtesy of Ivan Sansom, Rose Hughes and Henrik Vormdohre.

Our thanks to Marcus Moller for his YouTube video of the Final runs - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqtmFxlsHuo

The King versus Gustafsson Final can be viewed at around 1 minute and 10 seconds.

The team will be defending their FIM European Dragracing Championship crown at the final European Championship round, the European Finals at Santa Pod Raceway (UK), 5th-8th September

The Gulf Oil – GPO Dragracing team uses and endorses exclusively Gulf Oil greases and lubricants in their history making machine.

Brainerd and Cecil County Races Dominated with Automan Products

Brainerd International Raceway was host to the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals this weekend. Gord Gingles  in  The Bull A/FD  ran a 5.296 269.73 to qualify #2 in a very stout field of TAD cars. Gord continued in eliminations to march through the field to record a win in Top Alcohol Dragster. Automan Technologies would like to congratulate him on his win and his use of Automan Technologies products.

Also this weekend at Cecil County Raceway 3 of the top 4 qualifiers at that race qualified using Automan Technologies Products.  John Finke of Selkirk, N.Y. recorded a 5.318 seconds, 270.43 mph run to qualify #1. Rich McPhillips of Phoenixville, Pa. recorded a  5.379, 258.71 to qualify #2 and Jackie Fricke of Flemington, N.J. recorded a 5.441, 256.65 to qualify #4.

The NHRA moves on to the Indianapolis Raceway Park for the US Nationals over the Labor Day weekend. This event is the marquis event on the NHRA national event trail and is sure to be a highly competitive event.

Congratulations to all these Automan Technologies customers!

Flange Head verses Hex Head Fasteners

In the nut and bolt world of fasteners, there are two distinct groups.  Hex headed, and Flange headed bolts and nuts.  Each group have different and varied applications.  Think of the flange headed as hex heads with a built in washer.  Flange headed nuts and bolts were developed in Europe and have slowly crept into the American manufacturing markets.  Early use of the flange headed fasteners were met with mixed results.  The problems were mostly in regard to proper torquing in the areas of clamping the head to the block of engines.  Early head gasket failures lead to the development of torquing to a certain number, then additional turning by degrees.  This was done to provide proper ‘stretch’ of the fastener in its application.

As it turns out the ‘register’, or land areas of the standard hex head bolt and nut have less under the head surface area then the flange headed bolt and nut.  This means if you torque a flange bolt or nut to standard SAE torque values for hex head bolts and nuts you will not achieve proper fastener ‘stretch, or loading’.  This ‘extra’ register area acts like a bigger ‘frictional clutch’, and resists turning to cause the torque wrench to indicate you have reached the torque you have set the torque wrench to.  This leaves the flange headed fastener not stretched to proper loading, which leads to failure of the clamped load of the intended assembly.

Think of the flanged fastener pre load torque value to the use of a Rockwell hardness tester.  You engage the surface with the penetrator, with a known amount of preload to position the penetrator through a rough finish or other issues with the surface you are testing.  Only then, is the final penetrating load applied to push the penetrator to a final depth, depending on the hardness.

You tighten the flange headed fastener to a torque value to take all play out of the assembly.  Then you turn the flange headed fastener an additional number of degrees to ‘stretch’ the fastener for proper loading.  Only in this way will you have a better ‘degree’, of assembly success.

Also of interest, is that you must use different torque values if you are torquing by the head of the bolt, or by torqueing the nut on the bolt.

I will address this little known area about fasteners in my next blog article……….Bob ‘Automan’ Ottow

Gulf Oil Dragracing Win in Finland

Finke wins at Epping

Motorsports mourns the loss of Paul Candies

Paul Candies, who with partner Leonard Hughes fielded championship-winning Top Fuel and Funny Car teams in the 1970s and 1980s, died July 21. Candies provided the funding and Hughes the tuning on a series of popular and powerful race cars.

The dynamic duo first joined forces in 1964 after previously fielding their own teams. Candies even drove for a short time on a Top Fuel car in the 1960s with partner Q-Ball Wales while Hughes fielded Stockers. The charismatic Candies, who ran the Otto Candies tugboat empire started by his father, brought the financial wherewithal and Hughes the mechanical skills for a series of cars that were feared from coast to coast.

In 1970, the Candies & Hughes team was part of the historic first all-team Pro final when Hughes drove the team’s No. 1 car past team driver Larry Reyes in the final round of the NHRA Gatornationals.

The team moved to Top Fuel in the 1980s, first with Texan Richard Tharp, who drove their blue fueler to the NHRA world championship in 1976, then an unsung Ohio driver named Mark Oswald, who blossomed into one of the most talented drivers on the circuit, and, when the team switched back to Funny Cars in the 1980s, helped them make history as the first team to win titles in both classes when he won the 1984 NHRA Funny Car crown.

Even after Candies and Hughes retired from the sport, the Candies name lives on in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series ranks, where his sons, P.B. and Brett, compete.

Courtesey NHRA.com

Thread Helix and how it effects torque values.

In my first post of Flange head nuts verses regular hex nuts, I mentioned that I will continue this informative series on fasteners to help to understand the mechanics of the fastener world.

Thread Helix, and its corresponding Helix angle, directly affect torque values in several ways.  Fine pitch threads have less helix angle, so it takes more turns to tighten a fastener.  The finer pitch threads also allow the minor diameter of a bolt to be bigger to allow a higher torque value, (tensile stress area).  Fine pitch fasteners have a greater holding power, then their course pitch counter parts.  So the main reason fine pitch fasteners have a higher torque values over course pitch fasteners, is strictly because their minor diameter is larger, (tensile stress area).  When you increase the diameter of the bolt, you are increasing the tensile stress area.

The larger diameter requires a higher torque value to properly ‘stretch’ the fastener for proper loading that is still in the ‘plastic’ region of the fastener material.  Over tightening a fastener stretches it into the ‘plastic’ region of the fastener material, which makes the fastener permanently longer, and failure prone after the torque value is reduced.  Proper loading of a fastener is dependent upon the material it is being used in, and the forces it is subjected to in its application.

Thread lubrication, or coatings, directly change the torque values to properly stretch the fastener.  Plating type, oils, waxes, or greases, directly change the torque required to properly stretch the fastener.  Bolt stretch gauges are one of the best ways to properly stress the fastener.

Also of interest is why a nut must be torqued to a slightly higher torque value then if tightening by a bolt head, in a bolt and nut combination.  A nut generally has a smaller thrust surface then the bolt. This smaller thrust surface resists in turning, as the pounds per square inch comes into play.  The thrust surface under the head of a bolt is generally larger, as to provide for an under the head ‘root radius’ for strength.  The nut has no ‘under head radius’.

Threads have three major applications.  They fasten things together, they transmit force, and or torque, and they are used to adjust.

Bob ‘Automan’ Ottow