Hey Guys-
I'm the guy that was driving the Bounty Hunters '64 Max Wedge clone. Although i'm 19 years old, this July I will be celebrating a decade of racing. I ran a '64 Fury last year that could best be described as a NSS car with just a single carb on it. We ran at capitol and came to be good friends with Dave Reitz. My Dad also used to work with Barbara Sneden at the USCG headquarters in DC, so we have come to know Tom and Barbara pretty well also. It was Tom that basically set up the deal for us to get the car.
Don't worry, I won't be posting any mopar-loving junk on here. I noticed some of you are local and I don't feel like getting jumped. lol. (I really like all brands, just partial to the mopars as I have a lot of parts laying around lol. My Dad had a gasser-style primer grey, straight axle 63 chevy II when he was around 18.) Anyways, I will attempt to add any information that I can here.
I made some changes to the car, and sunday, took it to my close-by track 75-80 in monrovia, md. the only track in america to come back from the dead. (it was closed and grown over for years)
anyhow, my son and i are riding over to tech and we see an old "Bounty Hunters" 64 dodge and drive over. it is a tribute to one of the cars my uncles and father raced. some guys bought it and got it running. so we line up and go barreling down the big-end, i look over and see my dad's name. i really cant describe how strange that felt. like racing his ghost in a way. the guys who have it intend to keep it that way and really appreciated me filling in the blanks. they knew it was famous, but really did'nt know the people involved. anyhow, i'm babbling on.......it was COOL.
75-80 is also about 20 min from where I live. I was the one that broke in and took all those pics of it last summer when it was rotting away. I'm really glad Mr Crawford re-opened it. I can post those pics if you like. The only real blank spot we had was with Bobby and Dickie, I was going to ask Dave about them at Capitol last week but his wheels weren't in yet, and I hurt something on the motor and got to spend saturday fixing it instead of racing with him.. I'm almost glad it did because it allowed me to meet Bob Jr. It was great to meet you Bob and thanks for filling in all that we didn't know.
That's awesome Bob!!!! I lost my father when I was 5 years old in a plane crash so I never got to experience those kind of memories. It had to be a very special day for you and your dad's experiences of your childhood and years together. I'm sure you and the new owners will become close friends.
I'd be pretty lost without my Dad.. kinda hits home.
Bob: Great story at an historic track. Does 75-80 still have the "hill" in it? I have to admit I don't remember much from the photos.
Realizing that was an emotional event but we've gotta know. Did you paste them down at the big end when that "boat" motor came alive
robert
In the shutdown? Oh yeah. You can see it in the videos he just posted. We were running the same mph, he was just a little bit faster by around 1 mph give or take. Mine was way fat (the egt's were about 100 degrees too cold) but so was his. I would imagine he would mph better on a good day because I have a stock (casting date is 12-27-62) cross ram on it.
Hey Bob,how's the turn outs been at 75/80 ??? Are they getting decent crowds yet ?/ From your pictures the track looked like it was a small crowd. John
It was 95 degrees and humid that day. Friday nights are supposedly packed.. so was Sunday on the opening week.
75-80 is now basically a heads up outlaw track. mostly caters to the OPS and UDR type of cars. (outlaw pro-street and unlimited drag radial) those guys are busting off mid 4 second 1/8 passes. (street legal) :eek: they also run index classes heads up.
i was there for test-n-tune after having my car run on maryland performance centers chassis dyno. the car drives so much easier now. idling cleaner, cruizing the pits or return road down low and stumble free launching, but was lazy on top-end.
the air temp in the dyno room was 65. at the track was 95.
i used to run 93 jets and no power valves. they added power valves and figured out that with the valves, the car liked 90 jets on the dyno and 38 degrees timing. (was told that 90 jets + power valves = about 95 jets)
it was so hot out, that it was way rich. if i had known, i coulda tried some 87 jets and picked it up back to normal. car only went 127 in the bad air, and a best of only 10.89. not enough to handle the "Bounty Hunters" consistent 10.60s@127. he normally runs 10.30s-40s
so the next time we meet..............it should be a different story and more fun for both drivers.
but to line up with all those memories in heart, honor my late father, and make more cool family history.........priceless.
i have a few vids, and more pics.......i'll post a link when i have them loaded.
PS: the wore out 469 put down 530 HP to the rear wheels, (about 775 @ crank) and without pushing air, buzzed right up to 135 MPH (the speed limit)
Bob, The story itself is amazing but the fact that both cars run about the same e.t.s is really amazing. No doubt there will be much fun in the future whenever the cars meet.
That was the second weekend out with the car. It went 10.31 at 131 last weekend. I want to get the 60' down to around a 1.35, as the mph shows that the car can potentially run very low 10's, as does your car. They should be very even with everything "right." Like I said, I doubt anyone really cares who won, just that the race happened and someone thought to get it on video. To have that race at that track, which looks really nostalgic, was really cool.
They will run normal bracket races in the near future...
Great videos. We need to do this again soon.
bang
.
