Dave Schultz Wins a Wally at Royal Purple Raceway
(MoparStyle Racing Team Sponsor Report)
November 12, 2012
Dave Schultz driving the Texas Whale won his first ever NHRA Wally at the Lonestar Shootout this past Sunday. It was a very pleasant experience after the disappointment of losing the 2012 NMCA Points Championship in Nostalgia Super Stock by less than one round, just a couple of weeks earlier in Indy. It was doubly satisfying that his wife and youngest daughter were at the track to witness Dave being able to cross "Winning a Wally" off the top of his "Bucket List".
The event started by loading up the rig with Big Red Ram and the Texas Whale on Thursday and leaving for the track early Friday. Friday was Time Trials, and that went well with Dallas able to run 9.2s for his 9.50 Index, and Dave 9.5s for his 9.75 Index. With rain coming in for the weekend, they knew they'd like to have a tenth and half in the bag for Sunday. Saturday both Dallas and Dave went a little too fast for the first round of qualifying. The second had both getting Conservative with the weight and tune, with Dallas running a 9.54 and Dave a 9.77. Neither were able to improve for the third and last round of qualifying — and so Dallas was the #5 Qualifier, and Dave was #3 (of ten cars qualified).
Video of Dallas in the Big Red Ram and Dave in the Texas during Time Trials
Sunday was eliminations.
First round Dave lined up against Doug Watkins in his beautiful Blue Chevelle running the 10.0 Index. Doug had Dave on the tree and hit the brakes between the MPH cone and the finish line for a 10.06 on a 10.0 index — but Dave lifted to put a 1/2 fender on Doug for a 9.750 on his 9.75 index. Time Slip below.
In the 2nd round Dave had to take out the same guy (Steve Stahlschmidt) who had taken out Dallas in the first round. There was Vengeance in Dave's heart. Dallas was .005 better on the tree — but he may have gave Steve about 2' too much stripe (very easy to do when your car is 1.5 seconds faster) and so he broke out with a 9.479 on a 9.5 Index — against a 11.011 on a 11.0 index. It was a very close race that could have gone either way.
For the second round Steve Red lit against Dave — but Dave says he would have had him covered at the stripe. Dave ran the car out for a 9.73 @ 140MPH so he could see where he was going to be at for the next round.
In the 3rd round Dave had Tony Smith — who owns a race chassis shop and had won the Lonestar Shootout last year. Tony was the Top Qualifier, so he earned a Bye in the previous round. He is also deadly on the tree. Strangely enough — Dave had also ran Tony in the Semis at Dallas and had won at the Stripe. Tony pressed the light and red lit — but again Dave feels he would have had him covered at the stripe. The weather had turned bad, and Dave was one of the few cars running that still had plenty of weight to take out to run his number. Pit Crew7 told Dave that Tony should have been 9.9' ahead of him at the MPH cone — and if Tony had been more, Dave says he would have let him take the stripe and breakout. Dave again ran it out for a 9.73, to remind the drivers that they'd better press the light as he had enough car. He will usually weigh the car down to keep .02-.03 of a second in the bag for the stripe.
The final round was Randy Stansbury — the guy Dave had beat in the finals at Dallas back in April. Randy was the 2nd qualifier and won the coin flip to put Dave in the Right lane. Dave had been a little slower in the right lane — and he likes to put the slower car in the right lane so they can't look over their right shoulder to see him coming. It usually scares Hell out of them when he passes. Randy had had a Bye in the Semis.
Lots of drama in the finals. Dave assumed his Crew Chief (DALLAS!) had turned off his fan and water pump after the last round — and Dallas assumed he did. While the motor was cool — Dave didn't have near a full charge (16V system without an alternator) and so he didn't do much starting to move up in the staging lanes. When under the tower — he started the car to let it car warm to 150 degrees. Dave likes to do his burnout at 150, stage at 165, and finish at 190 degrees. Just as they were to pull in the water box — the ProMod that went before them blew up (in Dave's lane), caught fire and went into the sand traps. It took 45 minutes to get all of that squared away. Dave shut the car off as soon as he saw it happen — and turned off his water pump and fan. He'd turned it on a couple of times to cycle the hot water out of the block. About 30 minutes into the wait — Dave saw the American flag was limp after having a 10-15 MPH tailwind all weekend — so he had Dallas pull another 10 pounds out of the weight box. When told to start up — Dave's car went Click-click. He had 14 Volts on the gauge. He tried once again and it went Click-Click and then started.
Dave had a much better light than Randy and passed him about 200' before he should have — and so he hit the brakes for a 9.85 at 121 MPH. Randy wasn't able to get his car to run the number with the weather deteriorating, and was a tenth too slow.
When Dave got to the Winner's Circle the car died and had to be towed back. It took an hour at 25AMPs to get it started to put in the trailer.
This was the last race of the year for the MoparStyle Racing Team. For Dave, it was a happy ending after a disappointing close loss of the 2012 Championship in Nostalgia Super Stock at Indy. The engine in the Whale is about to come out, and a new one stabbed in before taking it to Indiana for new custom headers and chassis work. Last year we threw $40,000 at the Big Red Ram — and it is good to go after some end of year freshening up.
We'd like to thank all of our sponsors (see the sponsor page on the car's sites), and hope we can count on their support again next year. We were especially proud to win a Wally and the track of our sponsor Royal Purple.
Next year Dallas and Dave will not be satisfied with anything less than #1 and #2!
