After strong debut, Austin excited about YNot Racing’s new converter combo

After strong debut, Austin excited about YNot Racing’s new converter combo

LAS VEGAS – Going into last weekend’s NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Western Regional at ‘The Strip’ at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the YNot Racing team did not know what to expect from their second team Top Alcohol Dragster with an experimental torque converter combination. With veteran driver Mike Austin behind the wheel and supercharger guru Darren Mayer working as at tuning consultant, the team made quick progress, which has the whole YNot team excited to see what will be in store for the combination at this weekend’s SummitRacing.com Nationals this weekend in Las Vegas.

The new second car is an effort to gauge how much potential the torque converter combination has versus the traditional clutch combination. The Chip Nielsen chassis is the car that team owner Jim Whiteley drove from 2007 to 2010 with a nearly identical engine combination that the perennial title-contender Whiteley uses in his current car. Instead of the conventional three speed, this car has a two speed transmission behind the B&J Converter Drive unit.

Last weekend produced promising results in testing and during the race as the team qualified fourth with a 5.484 second elapsed time at 261.07 mph. In the first round, Austin had a blower belt break right on the starting line, ending his weekend.

“I’m just so excited about the team’s progress in such a short period of time,” said Austin. “I really learned a lot working with Darren Mayer. He is a pretty sharp guy, especially on these torque converter combinations. I think the belt just had too many runs on it; we may not get as many runs on the belt as the clutch car since we leave on a two step.

“We made some great runs,” Austin continued. “The car just runs so smooth and nice. Darren and the guys are making some changes based off what we saw last weekend, so I can’t wait to see what we can do this weekend. After my crash in Pomona, when we started the weekend, I didn’t feel 100% comfortable behind the wheel. Now that I have some good laps under my belt, I feel comfortable again and I’m ready to get back at it.”

To add to the degree of difficulty, the data logger on the car was not working last weekend.

“I think it is a testament to this team that we were able to do what we did last weekend without the help of the computer,” Austin explained. “Darren was having to tune the car off the plugs and trying things to see how the car would react. We finally got it working for the last test run we made after the race Sunday, but we smoked the tires at the hit. I think the guys will be able to do that much better with the data recorder working this weekend.”

Qualifying begins on Friday for the alcohol cars with two sessions, followed by one final session Saturday morning. Eliminations begin with round one Saturday evening and final eliminations will conclude the event on Sunday.

To find out more about YNot Racing’s promotional partners, visit the websites below:

RaceGoodyear.com - Goodyear's position as the leading tire maker in drag racing is unquestioned. The quickest, fastest and most powerful earth-bound machines in the world look to Goodyear for tires that generate enough traction to take advantage of their stunning ability to go fast in a straight line.

NGKSparkPlugs.com - When performance counts, the fastest teams on two wheels or four, on land or on water choose NGK Spark Plugs.

The team would also like to thank the continued support of J&A Services and Advanced Oilfield Services.

Contact: Pro Race Communications 979.415.4959
Photo courtesy of David Smith