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Old 03-10-2020, 05:06 PM
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ponyakr ponyakr is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: North Louisiana
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Monte Howard was nice enuff to send me some pics & info from the time when he was driving the Ken Shawver '78 SS T/A.

"Indy USNationals class wins 2007, 2010
Norwalk class win 2007
JEGS sports nationals class win 2007
Rt66 Lucas Oil Div win 2008
Indy Fall Classic win 2007
Clay city KY IHRA div Pro-Am win 2007
Us Nationals semi finals 2012.
Sports Nationals semi finals 2007"

"The 2010 US Nationals class win was a pretty good story.

We went to Indy with a fresh engine, after our first run it was not quite as fast as I would have liked, second run it was slower. I cut the oil filter apart to find the filter full of bearing material. Not in a very good mood. I sat in the trailer thinking we were done for the weekend, I came up with a idea. Thinking my first qualifying run would get us qualified for the show. I decided to head home and put our spare short block in the car. Left the track at noon on Thursday thinking I could have it back together for first round of the eliminator on Sunday. With the help of good friend Dean Davies we started pulling the engine around 2:00 pm Thursday afternoon. By midnight we had the engine and trans out, pulled the heads, Intake, Cam & Lifters, timing chain, oil pan and pump off the hurt engine. My friend was tired and went home at midnight. He asked how long are you gonna work on it. I said well I am gonna work as late as I could. Knowing that if things went smooth that I might be able to make it back to Indy the next morning for class eliminations . I drug out the spare short block that consisted of a block, crank, rods and pistons. Cleaned up all the parts, degreed the cam in, assembled the rest of the engine and had it in the car and fired up at 3:00 am. Loaded the car and all the tools, went in the house took a shower and slept for 45 minutes and then left for Indy. With only 45 minutes sleep we ended up winning class on Friday with a spare short block that I had to scotch brite the rust out of the cylinder walls.
My friends that I parked with at Indy knew when we left Thursday that our plan was to be back Saturday night or Sunday morning. They where shocked when we pulled back in our pit spot Friday Morning. Bill Rink walked over and asked where I went. I told him the story and he said “you are nuts”."

That Bird is one of the most competitive Pontiac powered SS cars ever.
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