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GM Performance Parts Top Stock Series Begins At ACDelco Nationals
"GM’s history is rich with heart-stopping racing action, dedicated drivers, and finely-tuned racing machines," says Gary Penn, product specialist for GM Performance Parts. "We’ve re-introduced heads-up racing to sportsman racing. Racers like Bogan and Adams have responded with an exciting, wheel-standing, "race-to-the-wire" show that has exceeded everyone’s expectations."
With all the talk about the Chevy crate motors and their possibilities, and the earlier wins by 'traditional' Chevrolets, much of the rumblings still centers on Matt Morgan, who handily out-powered and out-drove the competition through last season, with his ’69 Mustang 428. Hard work and dedication brought Matt Morgan to the forefront of the class, after crashing in pre-season testing, and stumbling through the 2001 ACDelco Nationals. Prepared with knowledge, power, and a newly legalized wheelie bar for the GM Performance Parts U.S. Class Nationals at Byron, Illinois, Morgan stunned the Top Stock contingent. He consecutively won Byron, Norwalk, and Rockingham, before skipping the final race at Shreveport.
Morgan fired back, "I’m driving a Chevy!" If everyone thought that the Ford was the sole secret to Morgan’s success, the ACDelco Nationals presented by Chevrolet will help clear the waters. "It’s Steve Sawka’s 396 cid ‘69 Camaro from Englishtown, NJ," explained Morgan. "I set the NHRA B/SA record at Delmar, only to have the engine blow up. I spent all last week putting combo number two in the car, a 502 crate engine. I took it to Petersburg to do some testing. It went a 10.21 on the first pass, only to come back and do a 180 foot wheelstand and knock over their 330' clocks. I bent the crap out of the wheelie bar and flattened a set of headers." If they can find the transportation to get a second car to the track, Morgan’s father may compete as well, in the Mustang.
"Team Checkmate has been hard at work over the winter on the Dyno trying to catch that Ford!" said Keener. "We now have several extra motors that hopefully will all be competitive. Things are a bit improved as our performance at Rockingham may have indicated, but Adams will be tough. We have a newer version of Racepak (computer used in testing) that should help a lot with our clutch setups. The newer version Jerico 4-speeds are in the cars, and we have been working on a different header set up as well."
Matt Morgan added his view, "My pick would be Corda. Aluise is going to run well there, but running well and crossing the finish line first don't always go together." Come Saturday at the Night of Fire, the new chapter in GM Performance Parts Top Stock will unfold, showing the stalwart supporters, the new faces, who the hard runners are, and who the fast talkers are that stayed home on the porch. HOME
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Petersburg,
Va. – What started as a one-race gig showcased at the 2000 World
Nationals at Norwalk Raceway Park has grown into a full eight race series,
sponsored by GM Performance Parts. The series begins at the ACDelco
Nationals, presented by Chevrolet. In addition to the title
sponsorship, GM Performance Parts is directly involved in the class
through representation Top Stock by Mike Adams and Stock World Champion
Monty Bogan, Jr.
Mike
Adams raised the collective eyebrows of the Top Stock community by
devastating the scoreboards at a mineshaft Holley Spring Nationals.
Rockingham Dragway experienced adjusted altitude conditions of –1100
below sea level, helping Adams along to 9.953 and 9.901 elapsed times with
his ’67 Camaro 350 (a 385 FastBurn crate motor), in Top Stock trim. It
was the first 9-second pass for any small block Stocker, the first for a
crate motor, and the first for a Top Stocker.
Adams’
GM Performance Parts teammate, Monty Bogan, Jr., hopes to find that same
magic. While he normally campaigns his ’69 Camaro with a 502 GM crate
motor in Top Stock, promising test runs have already been made with a new
’74 Corvette, powered by a 385 FastBurn 350 GM crate motor.
2001
began with past and present NHRA Stock champions making the switch to Top
Stock. Al Corda won the season opener at the ACDelco Nationals with his
small block, fuel-injected ’01 Firebird, and then Kevin Helms took home
the Ironman trophy from the Amalie Nationals, driving his stick shift ’69
Camaro.
Whether
deserved or not, Morgan received the accolades typical of heads-up racing,
including finger-pointing from peanut gallery. Always up for a challenge,
the fiery Morgan tells it like it is to all naysayers. Some claim that he
must be cheating to have accomplished so much, and others simply question
the accuracy of the horsepower factor assigned to his 428 Ford. Morgan is
well-known as a hard worker, and the allegations only raise his ire.
Paul
Mercure picked up where Morgan left off, with a win at Shreveport in his
Team Checkmate ’68 Camaro. Mercure has undoubtedly the fastest stick car
in competition, and was Morgan’s primary adversary in both qualifying
and eliminations. He is backed up by his Team Checkmate cohorts, Top Stock
co-founder Mike Keener, Mark Yamarino, and John Cavataio.
Another
question mark may come from the Mopar camp. At the inaugural running of
Top Stock at Norwalk two years ago, Joe Aluise, Jr. drove his radical
tiger-schemed ’63 Belvedere to low E.T. of the event, and some
crowd-pleasing wheelstands. Despite setting the first NHRA
altitude-adjusted Stock record in the 9-second zone, Aluise was
conspicuously absent from the series last year.