thoughts and advice for a newbie to drag racing?

The engine you have should be pretty fast as it is. You might want to screw around with your timing a bit, and light weight advance springs in the distributor if you don't have them already.

Then get a sure grip in there, with some nice gears if possible, probably 3.50 or 3.73 if you want to drive on the highway. you could do 4.10s but highway driving will stink.

with a sure grip and everything you have now, you should be in the 14s in the quarter mile pretty easily.