Dirt Oval Racing in a 79 camaro with team PGD Racing

[memo45_m]

Calling it the NASCAR on dirt, makes everyone understand theses cars only run left but drifting these monsters is really fun, especially that's competition ranging from small 600cc bike engines to the massive 900hp V8's from the 3 big American stables, this is called Dirt Oval Racing.
Racing now for Team PGD Racing in a 79 camero is my latest outing at the track in my 13 years of racing. Thank my instructor and his wife for providing me this opportunity and letting me add this experience for dirt racing.

Team PGD Racing:

• George Rabbit aka Bugs - owner, driver car 15g
• Phyllis Colaizzi aka rowdy - manager, ex-driver car 51
• Aaron Arnold - crew chief
• Duhan Lee aka 4extra - pit crew
• Mohnish aka memo45_m - pit crew for 15g, driver 51
• John - pit crew for advice
• Dale aka Pops - the man who had started it all.

Vehicle Type

• Car 51 - IMCA street stock. 79 camaro
• Car 15g - IMCA modified. 87 camaro frame
• both are dirt oval racing cars, built as per IMCA and SFI requirements

Engine Specifications:

• Chevy big block
• Car 51 - 454 in³ (7.4 L) - bore x stroke: 4.094 in x 3.76 in (104 mm by 96 mm), producing 620 hp (462 kW) / 650 lb·ft (881 N·m) torque.
• Car 15g - 572 CID (9.4 L) - bore x stroke: 4.650 in x 4.375 in (120mm by 107 mm), producing 802 hp (599 kW) and 700 lb·ft (950 N·m) of torque.
• home built at PGD racing

Turbocharger & Induction:

• Both cars are naturally aspirated with custom built 4-barrel carbs.

Fuel & Tuning:

• Car 51 - gasoline/petrol.
• Car 15g - alcohol.

Exhaust:

• custom headers, straight pipes with muffler(muffler make no difference)

Drivetrain:

• Custom built sagna transmissions with 2 speed forward and 1 reverse.

Weight reduction & transfer:

• sheet metal body on frame, with roll cage only
• Custom made locking diff.

Suspension wheels & tires:

• Custom suspension.
• Tires are Wiston cup take offs.
• IMCA certified wheels.

Interior:

• Just a driver's seat, 5-point harness and a dash with oil temp and pressure, rpm, and engine temp.

Exterior:

• racing colors

Basic rules and SR for Street Stock class
The “Super Stock -- Street Stock” division is open to any American manufactured steel bodied production automobile or station wagon from 1955 up, having a wheelbase of 108” or longer. (No sports cars, no pickups, panels, convertibles, El Caminos, or 4-wheel drive vehicles allowed.) All cars must be strictly stock, excluding the following modifications.

1) BODIES: A metal firewall must separate the driver from the trunk area. Inner front fender wells (splash pans) may be removed and fenders and quarter panels may be trimmed at the wheel openings for tire clearance. Doors must be welded, bolted or riveted shut at all times; hoods and deck lids to be properly fastened. All cars are to be brightly painted and the body sheet metal must be kept in good condition throughout the season. No rear view mirrors or two-way radios allowed. Fiberglass hoods are allowed. Steel replacement fenders, doors and quarter-panels are allowed, but must look stock. Check with officials.

2) NUMBERS: Car numbers must be obtained at a cost of $25.00 per car, and the application form properly filled out and returned to the Speedway before being allowed to compete. Car numbers must be painted (no spray cans) in contrasting colors, must be at least 20” high on both sides, on deck and top of car, and on left front of headlight panel or front edge of hood on left side (at least 4” high), before you will be scored for racing.

3) INTERIORS: All upholstery, wiring and glass must be removed, including headlights, tail lights, chrome trim and anything else that may come loose and become hazardous. Dashboards optional; if removed, all sharp edges must be rounded off. Original seats must be removed and replaced with only one sturdy bucket type seat properly fastened to the roll cage. The driver must wear safety approved aircraft or racing type of seat belts, shoulder harness, helmet and eye protection at all times. A fire extinguisher must be in reach of driver.

4) ROLL BARS: A full 4-post roll cage must be properly installed using steel pipe or tubing of 1-1/2” OD or larger mounted to the frame or on steel plates welded to and bolted below the floor boards on any unibody cars. Three or more side bars arched outwards must be placed between the driver on the left door with several vertical braces and gussets at all welded joints. (Min. of 2 door bars on right side.) All welding is to be done electrically with no galvanized pipe or threaded joints allowed. Roll bar padding is mandatory near driver’s head and body. Additional gusseting and triangulation of all cage construction is recommended.

5) FUEL AND SYSTEMS: Stock gas tanks must be removed and replaced with a fuel cell max. 22 gallon capacity, must be in steel container of 20 ga. or heavier, and securely mounted. You must run gas only. All fuel lines running under the floor boards or be sealed in conduit or steel tubing if run inside of car. No electric pumps. Stock type fuel pumps only allowed. Your fuel system must be well protected from rupture.

6) FRAMES AND SUSPENSIONS: It is highly recommended that you use heavy duty components such as the Impala type spindles, hubs, brakes, ball joints, etc., on the lighter Camaro and Nova suspensions or Galaxie frames or parts on the Mustang or Fairlane suspensions, etc. However, in the interchanging of these parts, only stock components may be used; family interchange only. All brakes must be in good working order on all four wheels, using stock components only. Pedal assembly brake master cylinder bias adjusters optional. Only ONE shock per wheel, and no coil over type shocks allowed. Weight adjusters allowed. Quick steer optional. Upper tubular A-frames allowed. You may replace the upper A-frame mounts.

7) TRANSMISSIONS, REAR ENDS AND RUNNING GEARS: All cars must be equipped with an OEM stock production passenger car transmission having forward and reverse gears. A stock steel fly wheel, pressure plate, and single disc clutch on all standards must have driver protected scatter shield, steel mesh belting or explosion proof bell housings before being allowed to run. All automatics must have a working stock torque converter. NO RACING TRANSMISSIONS. Inspection hole in bell housing for inspection of the clutch required, or be willing to remove transmission upon request of officials.

REAR ENDS: Any passenger car rear end may be used. Gear ratios may be changed, locked or stock OEM production type posi-trac. No aluminum pumpkins, carriers, housing or any other racing components. The interchanging of any heavier duty passenger car rear end is allowed. Housings may be narrowed, but must be gusseted or strapped in the welded area. No ¾ T floaters or quick-change rear ends will be allowed. All rear suspension systems must be stock without the addition of any racing applications. Mono-leaf springs, coil overs, snubbers, Reese bars or 5tharm, etc. will NOT be allowed. Panhard bar okay. Grand National floater rear-end allowed.

8) DRIVE SHAFTS: Must be painted white and have a full 360 steel loop within 12” of front joint encircling the shaft. This safety loop is mandatory and must be fastened properly to the floorboards or frame to prevent the front half of the shaft from falling to the ground.

9) ALL CLASSES MUST RUN MUFFLERS.

10) TIRES AND WHEELS: All wheels must be steel and of heavy duty type such as white spoke, chrome spoke, rally type of wheels with heavy plated centers. No bead locks are allowed. It is recommended that all wheel studs and nuts be replaced with heavy duty ½” or larger. (These bolts and nuts are used on ¾-ton and 1-ton trucks, or are of racing type, and can easily be purchased through a parts dealer.) No racing tires or racing recaps allowed, except Towel City 11 inch coarse #66 or #77 compound retread on a Winston Cup radial casing or asphalt take-offs with I-76 stamp.

11) ENGINES: Engines may be interchanged in family line of car only, i.e., any Chevrolet engine may be installed in any other GM car, but not in Formoco or Mopar vehicles. All engines being used must be OEM stock American manufactured with cast iron blocks and heads. No set backs No spark boxes (MSD, etc.). After-market distributors okay. Headers optional. Pop-up pistons okay.

HEADS AND INTAKE One 4-bbl or one 2-bbl carburetor maximum. No aluminum heads. Roller rockers optional. No stud girdles allowed. Positive stop rocker arm adjusting nuts allowable. May use aluminum intake manifolds.

COOLING AND OILING SYSTEMS must be stock. Only one radiator ahead of the engine is allowed. Aluminum radiator okay. No dry sumps or oil coolers; oil pans optional.

12) APPEARANCE, MATERIALS AND PROTECTION: All competition cars must be stock appearing both inside and outside. There will be no gutting of the cowls, firewalls or trunk floors. All unnecessary holes must be covered. Any rusted sections must be patched or replaced with steel sheet metal. (No aluminum.) Stock grills may be exchanged with steel or aluminum mesh or expanded metal. Cars may use stock appearing rubber nose pieces. (No wedge noses, front or any kind are allowed unless it came stock with the car.) Six (6) or more vertical steel bars of 3/8” or heavier material spaced approximately 4” apart must be installed in the windshield opening in front of the driver for protection. Single side kick-off bars flush with the body are optional. Reinforcement behind stock bumpers properly welded to the frame is allowed. No sharp edges anywhere on car, bumpers, fenders or kick-offs; your racing will be suspended immediately until problem is repaired. If a car is not in compliance with this rule, I-76 officials have the right to assess a weight penalty and the position on the car to be mounted. 5” rear spoiler allowed on rear of trunk lid. Stock bumpers or plastic nose pieces may run fabricated tubular bumpers.

13) All drivers in all divisions must wear an approved firesuit and fireproof underwear, helmet and eye protection while on the race track.

[redrage]

Awesome memo_45! this experience must have been great! the 15g must have been the meat of the pack!

[memo45_m]

Well we race every Saturday at a track about 90miles from Denver called the I76 speedway, it is a 17 degree-banked dirt 1/4 mile, left only track, I have been driving only the 51 car still getting a feel for the track and getting used to only left turns, Drifting only left is still something I am learning and I just finished my 9th weekend with the team, My best finish has been a 4th from a pack of 19 cars starting from the back with a flat in the qualifying race, which was last Saturday.
Other than driving I have to also manage pit for the 15G car.
As u see my boss and instructor is a 67 year old who still races, his wife who's position I fill in 51 is is 65 and suffering medical conditions after her accident about 7weeks ago on track, so we have some teamwork to put together. Only me and Lee work if t e 15G is being driven so it some hard work out at the pits.

[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by memo45_m

Well we race every Saturday

What a lovely way to spend those weekends. Must be quite a rush of adrenalin driving that monster around.

Good going Mohnish and wishing you the very best.

Please post more pics and some video's too.

[nitrous]

Wow! Thanks for sharing your valuable experience, buddy.
I have a few queries.
1. What is the budget for a race weekend per car?
2. What is the cost of doing up the car?
3. Sponsorships

[Jay]

Finally posted about it eh ? got any vids ?

[memo45_m]

@nitrous: We can run only one car a week-end as of transportation problems.
the week-end budget is close to 500$ a car, The cars are built from the ground up cost close to 20,000$ a car, and we have a couple of sponsors like napa auto parts and other private company likes but its a small team. The over all running cost for the year is close to 100,000$ for both the cars.


@JAY : Ya dude what to do goin to coll from 7am in the morning to 11pm in the night is not the best thing in life, I am attending this drag school through the week from 12.30pm to 5.00pm, well the best part of all this is i get to come back home pretty soon.

[VJ_MAVRICK]

Wow memo45_m ! Thats really some kind of racing stint you are experiencing. Keep the pics coming and is this race pertained to only Denver or you guys keep going across the country too for other races.
Have fun and do drive safe revving your ride to its limit. All the very best

[memo45_m]

@VJ we run only one track thats about 100miles from Denver, budget and transportation issues. But its fun will be running both the cars for the 4th of july so lets see, right now I an in New York trying to spend some holidays.

[sujaylahiri]

What kind of compression ratio are you guys running for both the cars? Is it any different for the one running on alcohol?

[memo45_m]

Ya the alcohol mod runs a higher compression of 11.9:1 as compared to the gasoline one which runs 10.7:1, both are naturally aspirated and both have custom built 2 barallel carbs on them.