Dave Connolly

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blue73duster

blue73duster

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is tough!!!!!!!!
I dont know how many watched the us nats, as far as TV goes
pro stocks my favorite to watch. I ALWAYS want a Mopar to win
however there are 2 non Mopar drivers I like, Connolly and ole Larry Morgan.

Dave has only ran a few pro stock races this yr, hops in a car and wins the U.S nats,,gotta respect that
 
Anyone else notice that after that little "white flame out" that happened to one of the Summit cars earlier this season (nitrous) and then all of a sudden they are not the dominant car they used to be?
 
holmes said:
Anyone else notice that after that little "white flame out" that happened to one of the Summit cars earlier this season (nitrous) and then all of a sudden they are not the dominant car they used to be?
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I have totally missed that, more details please.
 
Dave & Hid dad Ray are close friends of mine. Dave is an unbelieveable talent in and outside of the car. The amount of work they ( Team Cagnazzi) puts into their whole operation is unbelieveable. with the talent thet have, Dave & Tommy Utt, this is only the beginning.
 
Even though they are team mates you could see that Erica was really pissed at him.Either he will get a full time ride now or be fired. I don't know why someone don't snatch him up.Maybe he is tooo good ! Thumbs up for Dave ! I loved that wheel stand they showed that he did in the stocker COPO camaro.
 
Did you see Jeggy & Connely square up in stock eliminator?
Jeggy was in a Challenger Drag Pack car & Connely was in the new COPO Camaro, complete with a through back Jenkins paint scheme.
It was really cool, both cars pulled massive wheel stands.
Jeggy won.
It was neat to see good brand vs brand race.
One thought that poped into my mind was, these should be the Pro-Stock cars to repesent that class.
 
That's the one, Forgot that Jeg was in the other lane.
 
Guitar Jones said:
I have totally missed that, more details please.
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I remembered the controversy but looked it up on the web just to confirm all the details. Back in 1995, the Wayne County race shop was broken into at night and almost all of the teams Pro Stock engine components (mostly cylinder heads) were sledge hammered. The Wayne County team claimed they couldn't race for the remainder of the season due to the lack of parts following the break in. Warren Johnson made a big push during the remaining part of the '95 season and won the Pro Stock title.
I also remember some rumors back then that the "break in" was actually orchestrated by Mopar to destroy the parts so that nothing could be proven - it was never proved one way or the other. Mopar wasn't competitive in Pro Stock racing for some time after that.

Here's what the web had to say:

The team was the factory Mopar team (Wayne County racing?), with drivers Darrell Alderman and the late Scott Geoffrion. The controversy was that they were alledgedly using nitrous. Suspicions came after an engine explosion with a very suspicious flame. Supposedly, the NHRA did nothing since Mopar provided the NHRA with a lot of advertising support, both in event sponsorship and tv ads, and the NHRA didn't want to publicly rat out/punish one of their biggest supporters, thus the supposed break-in/cover up. In the end, the first "official" nitrous user was Jerry Eckman, who after being caught with nitrous bottles hidden in his oil pan after a pit area explosion, was banned from the sport.
 
I had read an article & seen a vidio interview from one of the Wayne County guys, i don't remember his name.
He had stated that their car was torn down more than anyone elses, due to fact they were so dominate.
He was very frustrated in the interview about this. He had told NHRA, if you don't want us to race, then just tell us. He felt that NHRA had it in for them.
He said that if there was NOS in the car, NHRA would have found it.

That being said, the story for the flame out of the hood scoop was that they had broken a distributor, causing the backfire.
I remember the photo of the backfire on several publications back in the day, including the NATIONAL DRAGSTER, an NHRA publication.
What better way to sell racing, just like the hype for WW Wrestling.

I have reproduced the flame from the hood scoop, like Wayne County.
Not on purpose mind you.
The ignition rotor had failed inside the distributor cap, causing a backfire flame to come out of the scoop on my racecar. No nitrious involved.
This seems to back up Wayne County's storey, but it was too simple of an answer for the media at the time. They had to be cheating!
 
"Even though they are team mates you could see that Erica was really pissed at him.Either he will get a full time ride now or be fired. I don't know why someone don't snatch him up.Maybe he is tooo good ! Thumbs up for Dave ! I loved that wheel stand they showed that he did in the stocker COPO camaro."

She was not pissed at Dave she was pissed at herself. The guy tuned her car, she went quicker and still lost. Dave is obviously a huge talent behind the wheel and the wrench, he deserves a full time ride.
 
Kevin D. said:
We mopar fans are still trying to sweep that Wayne county thing under the carpet,Kevin.LOL
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I got Alderman to sign a National Dragster cover for me yrs ago at a Mopar car show in Atlanta, he was pretty cool..


therefore,,,,,,,,,,,wayne county has to be 100% innocent :angel8:
 
I don't remember which race it was but it was shortly after they started running the Camaros. I think it was Greg Andersons car that after a run as he was pulling up to the interview spot and this white flame came belching out of his hood scoop. My best friend mentioned it to me and asked if I saw it and he thought the same thing I did. Also a Ford fan friend at work mentioned it too. After that race they dropped to the middle of the pack.
 
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