12:05 Garage- ’70 Duster build

Moparty 2022 Grand champion drag race recap
I didn't do anything special to prep for drag racing besides dropping rear tire pressure and raising front tire pressure. Since I had problems throwing V-belts last year I knew this would be the test to see if the serpentine setup was worth the time and expense. Turns out it was good. I didn't touch the belt adjustment all weekend.
I'll start by saying I don't understand why they don't prep the starting line for us like they would the drag cars. Almost everyone in the grand champion class is running a soft tire. Granted, they aren't as soft as a drag tire, but at least give us a chance. To my surprise, there was still some prep on the starting line for my first pass on Friday. The car hooked pretty good with minimal tire spin. Around the time I got into 4th gear, something didn't feel right. I got on the brakes hard and took the first exit. The engine was barely running and I immediately smelled fuel. I got out to see a huge puddle of gas under the car. I shut it down and pushed the car away from it. Some young guys that work for Holley came to see what was going on and they saw a huge spray of fuel from the fuel rail near an injector when I cycled the key. I immediately thought it was an o-ring failure so I went on the hunt to all the vendors on site. None of them had anything so I loaded up and went to the local autoparts for some o-rings. Once I start taking it apart, I see the 1/4 screws that hold the fuel rail hold downs to the intake manifold had backed out enough to lift the rail off the injectors! This could have ended very badly for me and the car. First item on the list is lock tight on those bolts!
I was hyper focused on checking the rails the following day. I kept smelling fuel and was looking all over while in the autocross grid. I later find out the truck next to me was spewing fuel out of his vent every time he took a turn. I was smelling fuel all over his truck. That was a relief and it settled me down a bit.

Saturday drag racing was pretty good. First run out, the car ran a 12.698 at 110. They still had some prep left so the car hooked well with a 1.8 60'. The next run I was in the same lane (left) and the prep was pretty much gone. It spun and slowed to a 13 something. For the final run they put me in the right lane. The prep was gone in the groove so I decided to move out into the prep. It hooked! Keep in mind I'm not clutch dumping, just a little rev, roll out, and hammer down. It ran a 12.680 at 110 with a 1.8 60'. Who says manual trans cars can't be consistent?

They had the scales on at the end of the track so I asked if I could weigh the car. I've never weighed it, ever. It was 3535lbs with me in it and about 1/2 tank of gas. I'm about 200lbs. I guess that's about where I thought it would be but wasn't sure. I've heard of some dusters being under 3000, but I knew I wasn't that light.