[coverattach=1](4-16-09)Street, MD - The first time Jim Halsey ever let out the clutch on his ultra-trick outlaw Camaro, he was looking down track as he sat on the starting line at South Georgia Motorsports Park last February. Fast forward two months and Halsey found himself at the same facility - this time in the winner's circle. His latest win, the ADRL Hardee's Georgia Drags V was held on April 10-11, and is the second of a ten race schedule of the O'Fallon, MO-based sanctioning body. The win marks Halsey's third while competing in the ranks of ADRL's Pro Nitrous division.
Halsey qualified well for this event, his 3.94 @ 196 mph put the Street, Maryland racer solidly in the number 2 position on the qualifying sheet. Halsey was then set for his round one match-up on Saturday, which turned out to be a single pass when Thomas Myers experienced mechanical trouble. Taking the tree for a solo run, Halsey laid down his quickest lap of the weekend with a 3.89 elapsed time. Scary was the thought, however, at realizing just what this car was capable of running considering the extremely soft tune-up in place for the opening round. And that's about when the trouble started.
You'd have a difficult time believing it just by glancing at the stats, but Jim Halsey is a man suffering from new car blues. It's been a feast or famine learning curve, but somehow Halsey continues to go rounds, and yes, he'll gladly except a lucky break when one comes knocking at his door. Such was the case in round two, when Halsey took yet another solo pass after Pat Stoken hurt a motor in the previous round and couldn't answer the call. "We knew fairly early that we'd be on a single so we tried something different and the car didn't like it at all," says Halsey, as he spoke of how the car shook the tires early, forcing him to lift.
In a mirror reflection of round two, Halsey's Camaro again rattled the tires hard in his semi-final match up against Burton Auxier. "I was so frustrated I didn't even call Eric (Davis) on the radio," says Halsey, who was totally unaware of his competitor's red-light start. "I kept wondering why Bret Kepner was talking to me and asking me questions in the shut down," laughed Halsey. Sensing that he should probably bring Halsey up to speed, Kepner posed an off the cuff question: "You do know that Burton red-lighted, don't you?" Such was Halsey's series of lucky breaks, right into the final round. "When it's your day it's your day," says Halsey.
It wasn't until Steve Vick hammered out a 3.95 on the final pass of the event that Halsey got some door handle to door handle competition. "I even did my job on the starting line this time," chuckled Halsey. "We made some monster changes just prior to the finals, so our 3.92 really showed promise." Despite an often turbulent outcome with early set-up combinations, Halsey is confident that his new McAmis Camaro - which has gone as quick as 3.84 @ 196 in testing - will perform with the same consistency as his prior Camaro, aptly named the "Big Red Machine" and is best known for dipping into the 5 second zone for the first time in nitrous doorslammer history last October in Englishtown, NJ. "That car would go down the return road if we needed it to," laughed Halsey.
As for his new, state of the art outlaw Camaro, of which he took delivery just before Christmas, Halsey was instantly amazed at the difference in the control system. "Our other three McAmis Camaros were pretty much refined versions of the previous one, but this car is radically different from anything we've ever had." says Halsey. The actual weight of the car is somewhat of a mystery, as Halsey and crew retain that info within the camp. One thing is for sure, the same 820 c.i. Fulton engine that rotated the earth in Englishtown last year is also providing the motivation for Halsey's latest ride.
The recent Valdosta victory extends Halsey's commanding point lead in Pro Nitrous, a division in which he finished 5th last season. Out of two races complete on ADRL's ten event series this year, Halsey has gone to the finals at both events.
Jim Halsey wishes to thank:
Cathy Crouse
Eric Davis
Allen Lay
Richard Crouse
Gene Fulton
Tim McAmis
Patrick and Constance Smith
yellowbullet.com
Halsey qualified well for this event, his 3.94 @ 196 mph put the Street, Maryland racer solidly in the number 2 position on the qualifying sheet. Halsey was then set for his round one match-up on Saturday, which turned out to be a single pass when Thomas Myers experienced mechanical trouble. Taking the tree for a solo run, Halsey laid down his quickest lap of the weekend with a 3.89 elapsed time. Scary was the thought, however, at realizing just what this car was capable of running considering the extremely soft tune-up in place for the opening round. And that's about when the trouble started.
You'd have a difficult time believing it just by glancing at the stats, but Jim Halsey is a man suffering from new car blues. It's been a feast or famine learning curve, but somehow Halsey continues to go rounds, and yes, he'll gladly except a lucky break when one comes knocking at his door. Such was the case in round two, when Halsey took yet another solo pass after Pat Stoken hurt a motor in the previous round and couldn't answer the call. "We knew fairly early that we'd be on a single so we tried something different and the car didn't like it at all," says Halsey, as he spoke of how the car shook the tires early, forcing him to lift.
In a mirror reflection of round two, Halsey's Camaro again rattled the tires hard in his semi-final match up against Burton Auxier. "I was so frustrated I didn't even call Eric (Davis) on the radio," says Halsey, who was totally unaware of his competitor's red-light start. "I kept wondering why Bret Kepner was talking to me and asking me questions in the shut down," laughed Halsey. Sensing that he should probably bring Halsey up to speed, Kepner posed an off the cuff question: "You do know that Burton red-lighted, don't you?" Such was Halsey's series of lucky breaks, right into the final round. "When it's your day it's your day," says Halsey.
It wasn't until Steve Vick hammered out a 3.95 on the final pass of the event that Halsey got some door handle to door handle competition. "I even did my job on the starting line this time," chuckled Halsey. "We made some monster changes just prior to the finals, so our 3.92 really showed promise." Despite an often turbulent outcome with early set-up combinations, Halsey is confident that his new McAmis Camaro - which has gone as quick as 3.84 @ 196 in testing - will perform with the same consistency as his prior Camaro, aptly named the "Big Red Machine" and is best known for dipping into the 5 second zone for the first time in nitrous doorslammer history last October in Englishtown, NJ. "That car would go down the return road if we needed it to," laughed Halsey.
As for his new, state of the art outlaw Camaro, of which he took delivery just before Christmas, Halsey was instantly amazed at the difference in the control system. "Our other three McAmis Camaros were pretty much refined versions of the previous one, but this car is radically different from anything we've ever had." says Halsey. The actual weight of the car is somewhat of a mystery, as Halsey and crew retain that info within the camp. One thing is for sure, the same 820 c.i. Fulton engine that rotated the earth in Englishtown last year is also providing the motivation for Halsey's latest ride.
The recent Valdosta victory extends Halsey's commanding point lead in Pro Nitrous, a division in which he finished 5th last season. Out of two races complete on ADRL's ten event series this year, Halsey has gone to the finals at both events.
Jim Halsey wishes to thank:
Cathy Crouse
Eric Davis
Allen Lay
Richard Crouse
Gene Fulton
Tim McAmis
Patrick and Constance Smith
yellowbullet.com
