Bad Luck at Milan
August 29th, 2008
The NMCA race didn't work out so well. We got to the track and all the car wanted to do was blow the tires off. We checked everything, boost, tires, etc. and could just not get enough power out of the car to make it work. After closer examination we discovered that a front strut was damaged and the front end was bound up. We believe it was due to the car getting beat up in the trailer on some of the rough roads in the area, at least that's our best guess on what happened as the car was working perfect last week at Silver Dollar Raceway. We did end up losing in the first round due to the problem, but that was only the beginning of a very bad weekend.On the way home from the track we were following a semi in our rig when the semi came up on a wreck. We couldn't see the wreck as the semi was in the way, but we knew something was wrong when he got on the binders HARD and yanked the tractor into the left lane. With his trailer still in our lane blocking our view we were already on the brakes when we saw why he was getting all crossed up for. A drunk driver had hit a car head on in our lane and traffic was all backed up due to the wreck. As we came up on the cars waiting on the wreck they saw all the commountion behind then and started pulling off the road while the semi and our rig tried to get shut down. About the time we though we were ok the semi came back into our lane and clipped our Kenworth Toterhome knocking us sideways. Then the trailer came loose from the Toter and slammed into the back of our rig. The Toterhome is screwed up big time, as is the trailer, but we believe the car survived ok. The drunk driver killed three people in the car he hit.
The only real good news is that we're all ok, banged up a bit but nothing serious. Unfortunately. we're done for the year as we have many repairs to make to our rig and have no idea right now when we'll have everything back together again.
Pre-Race Testing a Success at Silver Dollar Raceway
August 16th, 2008
Eureka! - It's been a long hard process, but we've finally got the bugs out of the car we believe...
August 16th we took the car to Silver Dollar Raceway in Reynolds, Georgia to get some test hits on it. Even with everything detuned about as much as we can the car went 4.60 to the 1/8th leaving super soft with a 1.28 60! But the best part is no broken parts, no burnt pistons and a smile a mile wide on our faces! It was such as nice change to load the car up after testing with the confidence that we have finally got a handle on the engine and ECU problems we've been fighting for so long. It's all good now... We can't say enough good things about Silver Dollar Raceway, not only do they let our team come down and test whenever we need to, the guys that run the track, Ed Swearingen and Tim Brody, are absolutely great track owners! This track and the people there are so nice that we drive past two other NHRA tracks to go to Silver Dollar when we want to test.
Now that we have things figured out, we've loading up and getting ready to travel to Milan, Michigan for the NMCA race coming up next weekend. Look for some impressive numbers once we start turning the boost up on those big Twin Garrett Turbo's!!!
NMRA / NMCA Superbowl in Joliet, IL Race Report
July 17th, 2008
Team Keith Neal Racing went to the NMCA/NMRA Superbowl and burnt a head gasket during the first round that ended
our weekend early. Of course this was disappointing as we had our hopes up for a good race weekend, but we'll get things fixed and be back running here soon. Keith would like to thank Straightline Chassis Jimmy
Blackmon and Justin for going and all their hard work. He would also like
to congratulate Neal Racing Transmissions customers Bothwell Motorsports and John Urist for winning
their classes.
2008 Tool Dealer Expo Booth Display
July 27th, 2008
July 27th & 28th we were pleased to have the Keith Neal Racing Outlaw 10.5 Mustang on display in sponsor KnKut's booth during the 2008 Tool Dealer Expo in Orlando Florida. This annual show is where ISN (Integrated Supply Network) invites their customers to see the lastest and greatest offerings available.The race car drew a lot of attention to the booth, and hopefully we helped drum up some business for one of our great sponsors!
Now that we've got the car back at the shop we're getting all ready to compete at the 3rd Annual NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl in Joliet, IL July 17th ... Stay tuned for race results!
Snellville First Baptist Church American
Celebration Car Show
July 4th, 2008
We spent July 4 at the Snellville First Baptist church American
Celebration Car Show. The Mustang won first place. It was a huge community
event with thousands of spectators and almost 300 show cars. I would like
to thank knkuts Andy Thompson for spending the day with us setting up and
helping with the car and the huge response it got.
NMCA Race Shows Potential... "WE GOT THE POWER"
June 8th, 2008
Upgrading to the Accel DFI System proved to be the right move for the Keith Neal Racing Team we learned at the NMCA race in Atco, New Jersey. In other words, those Nasty Gremlins have been purged from the cars system and we are ready to rock and roll!!!The Mustang performed absolutely 100% flawlessly during the Atco race. Ed Hansen's new Turbo Engine was at 100% and making KILLER power, the new Accel DFI Engine Management system worked absolutely perfect and the Garrett Twin Turbos were packing in the boost big time. We can now confidently say WE'RE BACK and BETTER THAN EVER!!
Unfortunately the hot racing surface at Atco did not cooperate very well with us and we overpowered the track at Atco every pass - the same problem all the other cars that ran the right lane had. Even though each round we got thrown in the right lane and had to pedal the car, we still made it to the semifinal round, and man did it feel good for a change!
We would also like to thank Sheppard Race Cars for scaling the car out for us and getting it ready - it was perfect, so was Ed Hansen's new powerplant with those screaming black turbos from Garrett! Just wait till we get that beast hooked good!
Next stop is the NMRA Race at Milan on June 13th. We are ready, we got the power, and we're gonna wear the other guys out big time!
On a side note, we're also using a Neal Chance Aluminum Drive Cover for the converter in this car and upon inspection have found absolutely no thrust issues as some teams have been speculating with the use of the Aluminum Drive Cover.
Photo Courtesy Gonedragracing.com
Repairs Complete & Ready For Testing
May 29th, 2008
All repair work from the previous blown engine and timing issues have been repaired. We've rewired the car which included a new Racepak Data Logger and switched the engine management system to Accel DFI. We'll be testing at Silver Dollar Raceway this upcoming weekend, and if all goes well we will be competing at the 1st Annual Muscle Car Nationals in Atco, NJ June 6th - 8th.
Engine Repairs Underway
April 8th, 2008
The replacement aluminum block from Fontana arrived at the engine builder today. If all goes according to schedule they should finish up the new engine in approximately one more week.
NMRA Season Opener - Bradenton Florida
March 7th, 2008
Keith Neal Racing brought out the newly redone Outlaw 10.5 Mustang at the NMRA Bradenton Florida season opener. The team worked hard to get the car ready for it's maiden voyage after a total rebuild during the winter! We made the first race on time, but not without some sleepless nights finishing the engine install and many last minute details.Bradenton was a mixture of both good and bad news... The bad news is that on the car's first pass Gremlins found their way into the engine and it kicked out two rods shortly after launch. The good news is the culprit that caused the rod breakage has been identified - the engine management computer had a glitch in it which caused it to add way to much timing to #3 & #8 cylinders causing severe detonation. The faulty timing issue is what caused the rod breakage resulting in the total loss of a short block. So, although we did not get much data from the first race of the season we at least finally identified a bug that has been causing us major problems!
Repairs are already underway and a totally different engine management computer will used going forward to avoid another similar incident. This has been a problem that has plagued us since 2007, and although costly, by process of elimination it was something we finally tracked down what the root cause was.
Photo Courtesy Floridaracing.org
