Last issue, our Pavement Pounders Shootout series brought us North of the border, to Ontario's Grand Bend Motorplex for our first international event. Eight hot Pontiacs and their owners had the opportunity to burn some rubber and make passes in front of HPP's cameras. The first four competitors basked in the limelight of our July issue, while the second group has the attention focused on them for this installment.
All eight participants are residents of the province of Ontario, which borders the states of New York and Michigan and is across the lake (Erie) from Ohio. In actuality, the Canadian-American border at Niagara Falls is only 1 hour and 20 minutes from the author's suburban Rochester home base.
Where last issue's racers all ran musclecar-era Pontiacs, we have one LT1-powered machine this time around, Tom Kehoe's green automatic '94 Trans Am GT. Those racers running traditional Pontiac power include Imran Chaudary and his '69 455-powered GTO, Wayne Schumacher with an original '72 455 H.O. Trans Am and Mike Voycey with his wheelstanding '67 464ci Firebird.
Since this shootout is a continuation of last month's installment, track and weather conditions were the same. Unlike the previous group, who came through the event without any problems larger than a malfunctioning line-lock, two of our racers suffered from race day mechanical troubles. Thankfully there were no catastrophic outcomes from the mishaps, though they made for some very tense moments, as you will soon learn.
As with the rest of our Canadian racers, we could not have hoped for friendlier and more accommodating bunch. The track personnel were also very professional and the weather was quite a bit warmer than we were expecting. Everything came together seamlessly and the day went very smoothly. With any luck, we'll be back in the Maple Leaf zone very soon!
At The Track
As reported in last month's installment, the weather conditions at Grand Bend Motorplex on Friday, September 13, 2002 were a bit warmer than we were expecting. The temperature was 79 degrees F, with a relative humidity of 62 percent and a barometric pressure of 29.70 inches. Air quality seemed to diminish through the day and by 3:30 PM, the Pontiacs had all become noticeably slower.
We also mentioned last issue that the track conditions were excellent for most of the shootout. As the day wore on though, the sun's heat had slicked things up quite a bit, despite the diligent work of assistant track manager Korey Herman and his crew.
Mike Voycey
Mike Voycey was another racer who had more than his share of problems at the track, even more frustrating after such a fantastic start. After laying down two flawless passes complete with monster wheelies, Mike had a near-disaster at the starting line preparing for run number three. "Things started out very well as our first pass was a 9.59, the sun was shining and everybody was having a great time," Voycey recalled. "On the second pass, the Bird ran a 9.57, things were going smoothly at this point. I went back to the pits to change carb spacers and came back out to make yet another pass. When I staged in the burnout, the car backfired and there were flames coming out of the carb so everybody ran to take the hood off." It was a pretty scary sight, the fire was large enough to scorch the vinyl top and cause other damage. It was put out before any serious damage occurred, but was still quite a shock. "At that time, I did not know what the problem was," Mike said. "We later found out it was an loose electrical connection under the dash-maybe because of one too many wheel stands-go figure!"
Wayne Schumacher
All of the Pontiacs in the shootout seemed to benefit from favorable traction at Grand Bend and at least one might have had a little too much. Wayne Schumacher's '72 455 H.O. Trans Am was in that category. We'll let Wayne explain: "To be honest, the car actually felt better with radials," Schumacher said. This despite that fact that he had tire slippage on nearly every pass on the radials. "With the Rockcrusher's 2.20 first gear and the 3.42s out back, it was too tall off the line with the slicks. It would either bog or wrap up the springs and didn't seem to help the e.t.'s much." Otherwise, Wayne reported that the Trans Am performed flawlessly. He said that the shifter felt like "a ball hitting a glove." He certainly made the most of the available track time, making an astounding 18 passes that afternoon. "In retrospect, I probably should have jetted the secondaries up a little, he reflected. "I might have been able to get a 105 trap speed."
Imran Chaudary
Without a doubt, Imran had a great day at Grand Bend, not seeming to be as negatively affected by the loss of track conditions later in the afternoon that the others experienced. He set new personal records in both 60-foot and 1/4-mile e.t. "The track conditions were excellent," Chaudary reported. "As a joke, I went down the track on a bicycle and it was really hard to pedal. The air was good in the morning and the tailwind also helped. " He added "My car hooked really well and ran very straight, in fact the GTO beat all of its previous records. I dropped the best 60-foot from 1.87 to 1.72 and e.t. from 12.91 to 12.76. I must have gone through the lights at about 6,000 rpm because the shift light is set at 5,900 and it went on for a few seconds going through the traps."
Tom Kehoe
To say that Tom Kehoe went above and beyond the call of duty is an understatement. His '94 Trans Am GT sprang a header leak at the number 8 cylinder earlier that morning, but Kehoe pressed on. After laying down a very nice first pass of 13.89 at 101.52, he made another run, which looked even better than the first. Unfortunately, we'll never know what the result was, as a one-time only glitch with the timing equipment prevented the recording of any info past the 330-foot mark. The info up to that point indicated that it was his best run, quite a lousy bit of luck. After that, the T/A's performance began to suffer. The header leak became more serious and another one popped up at the collector, just before the oxygen sensor by the third run. The T/A was bogging and backfiring off the line as a result and was further hampered when the 4L60-E began slipping in run four. After the fifth pass, which checked in at a 14.44 at 99.53 mph, Tom called it a day-there was no point abusing the Pontiac any further. "Even though my best run that day was not recorded completely, I still had a great time, Kehoe said later. "The T/A didn't actually break and I was able to fix the problems and make some additional upgrades, like my new converter and nitrous system. It now runs consistent 13.60s at over 101 on the motor and there is more to come."
Conclusion
Despite the obstacles of diminishing traction and air quality later in the afternoon and the mechanical problems that two of our participants experienced, spirits were very high with all who took part in the first-ever Canadian shootout.
One of the great things about an event like this is that it really brings out the best in everyone. When Mike Voycey's car caught fire for those 20 seconds or so, everyone in the vicinity jumped into action to help out their friend without any concern for personal safety. Fortunately, those quick reactions were enough to ward off any lingering damage. We can also report that Mike was able to get his car back on the track within days of the incident and it is currently running in top form.
With any luck, we'll be holding another Canadian shootout soon at Grand Bend Motorplex. The facility the staff was excellent and we extend our thanks to them and to everyone who took part in our September shootout. Again, we would also like to thank Wayne Kennedy for efficiently handling the logistics north of the border and to Korey Herman for an excellent job managing the track and crew.