2011 SS Camaro: First Day Racing in Steele, AL

So what does a pastor do when he takes the morning services and his associate takes the afternoon? Why go drag racing, of course. My first visit to Steele, AL - Alabama International Dragway - since April of 2009. A beautiful February day, 68*F. Great place to race, and I ran into some old racing buddies and met some new ones.


Out of the box, full weight+, stock street tires, only mod is the Borla Touring cat-back exhaust, I ran:

Sixty-foot: 2.057
1/8th mile: 8.828 @ 81.87
1/4 mile: 13.523 @ 105.10





I made several other runs and improved a little, trying different lauch techniques.

Then I met a fellow in a 2009 Ford Shelby GT500, a supercharged car with more than 550 HP to the wheels (mine is maybe 350). His mods are a cold-air intake, a pulley on the supercharger, and a cat-back exhaust. I challenged him to a heads-up race, promising to get it on video. Here we go with my handheld IPod video:



I ran a 2.031 60', 13.447@105.74 and he beat me handily with a 2.051 60', 11.781@122.88. And fun was had by all. Since he was on street tires, his sixty could have been better, so technically I took him on the launch, but all I saw was tail lights after that. Nice race, Neal!

After some cool-down time chatting with other racers, I decided for one last run. Turned out to be my personal best (of 7 runs):

Sixty-foot: 1.982
1/8th mile: 8.613 @ 83.77
1/4 mile: 13.224 @ 106.76

Good lane choice, a bit cooler (64*F and <190*f on the coolant), and a decent burnout (smoking the stock street tires) seemed to do the trick.


When I left, the car had 444 miles on the clock and was getting 4.9 mpg.