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Tuning consultant Lonnie Houde with LHP Racing had one of his best weekends at the race track this past weekend as he helped get Rod Burbage, owner of Spec Rite Torque Converters, secure the biggest win of his racing career.
This was the first year Burbage had been to the Street Car Super Nationals event since changing his whole engine combination 3 years ago and he wasn’t coming to have fun, he was dead set on winning. The 2-time West Coast Outlaw Pro Mod Association champ strung together four (4) 6-teen passes during qualifying with the best being a 6.15 placing him 6th in the 32 car qualified ladder.
During the first round of eliminations on Sunday, Houde and Burbage set a new personal low ET for their weekend with a 6.13 round win over Garrett Richards. After the first round of all “heads up” classes it was decided to switch the entire event to 1/8th-mile due to strong wind gusts and cold temperatures which put up safety concerns for the track and event officials.
Lonnie Houde has experience of tuning screw blown engines on the 1/8th-mile after working for many ADRL Pro Extreme teams, but it would be a new game for Burbage who only has ran 1/4-mile events. Rod knew he had to be on his game on the tree and he stepped it up. In the second round he got a win over Shawn Jones with a soft 4.10.
Event promoter Mel Roth has always said “no one has EVER won this event without getting at least one lucky round” and the third round was Burbage’s lucky break as Mike Maggio left way early flashing the red light handing the win to Burbage who ran a 4.04, Maggio threw away a better 4.00.
In the fourth round (semi-finals) Rod was faced against Pro Street legend Ed Thornton in his turbocharged 1963 Corvette. Burbage left the line first and never looked back as he won with a 4.12 to Thornton’s 4.14. The crew was wondering what was up with the low ET compared to the 4.04 the round before and the computer showed that Rod short shifted and killed the early momentum of the run.
In the final round Rod was faced with another west-coast local Giuseppe Gentile and his twin-turbo 2007 Shelby GT500 Mustang. Gentile had lane choice and chose the left lane. With the track temp somewhere around 38 degrees in the final round (no, that is not a typo) both lanes seemed even, and surprisingly pretty tight. When the tree dropped Gentile was off the line first but shortly ran into traction problems which allowed Burbage to cruise down the 660’ for the win with a 4.03 pass at 187.
Going into the event Lonnie Houde and Rod Burbage’s plan was to kill them with consistency and that is just what they did to get the win. Burbage wants to thank his wife, Melynda, and their crew consisted of Ray Simms, Mike Reed and Phil Simms for all their hard work as well as Cory and Cole Dow for driving the rig to this event and their additional help throughout the weekend. Also, Burbage wants to thank Lonnie Houde for the tuning assistance and Bob Bunker Jr. for building him a racecar that works great.
To get a hold of Lonnie Houde for tuning assistance, in need of a fuel system flowed/set up or you want your engine ran on a dyno visit LHP Racing at www.LHPRacing.com or search for “Lonnie Houde Performance” on facebook.
Rod Burbage’s 1958 Corvette is the research and development for his company, Spec Rite Torque Converters. Spec-Rite Torque Converters are custom built for your application. Every converter is built one-at-a-time using only the finest parts available. This means you get the right converter, specifically for your combination, the first time. Burbage states “We put extensive time into the research and development of our converters and transmissions in order to produce the best products possible. They are put to the test on the track and on the street under serious horsepower in order to test their durability and strength.”
Visit Spec Rite Torque Converters website to see what they can do for your racing program at Spec Rite Torque Converters.
This was the first year Burbage had been to the Street Car Super Nationals event since changing his whole engine combination 3 years ago and he wasn’t coming to have fun, he was dead set on winning. The 2-time West Coast Outlaw Pro Mod Association champ strung together four (4) 6-teen passes during qualifying with the best being a 6.15 placing him 6th in the 32 car qualified ladder.
During the first round of eliminations on Sunday, Houde and Burbage set a new personal low ET for their weekend with a 6.13 round win over Garrett Richards. After the first round of all “heads up” classes it was decided to switch the entire event to 1/8th-mile due to strong wind gusts and cold temperatures which put up safety concerns for the track and event officials.
Lonnie Houde has experience of tuning screw blown engines on the 1/8th-mile after working for many ADRL Pro Extreme teams, but it would be a new game for Burbage who only has ran 1/4-mile events. Rod knew he had to be on his game on the tree and he stepped it up. In the second round he got a win over Shawn Jones with a soft 4.10.
Event promoter Mel Roth has always said “no one has EVER won this event without getting at least one lucky round” and the third round was Burbage’s lucky break as Mike Maggio left way early flashing the red light handing the win to Burbage who ran a 4.04, Maggio threw away a better 4.00.
In the fourth round (semi-finals) Rod was faced against Pro Street legend Ed Thornton in his turbocharged 1963 Corvette. Burbage left the line first and never looked back as he won with a 4.12 to Thornton’s 4.14. The crew was wondering what was up with the low ET compared to the 4.04 the round before and the computer showed that Rod short shifted and killed the early momentum of the run.
In the final round Rod was faced with another west-coast local Giuseppe Gentile and his twin-turbo 2007 Shelby GT500 Mustang. Gentile had lane choice and chose the left lane. With the track temp somewhere around 38 degrees in the final round (no, that is not a typo) both lanes seemed even, and surprisingly pretty tight. When the tree dropped Gentile was off the line first but shortly ran into traction problems which allowed Burbage to cruise down the 660’ for the win with a 4.03 pass at 187.
Going into the event Lonnie Houde and Rod Burbage’s plan was to kill them with consistency and that is just what they did to get the win. Burbage wants to thank his wife, Melynda, and their crew consisted of Ray Simms, Mike Reed and Phil Simms for all their hard work as well as Cory and Cole Dow for driving the rig to this event and their additional help throughout the weekend. Also, Burbage wants to thank Lonnie Houde for the tuning assistance and Bob Bunker Jr. for building him a racecar that works great.
To get a hold of Lonnie Houde for tuning assistance, in need of a fuel system flowed/set up or you want your engine ran on a dyno visit LHP Racing at www.LHPRacing.com or search for “Lonnie Houde Performance” on facebook.
Rod Burbage’s 1958 Corvette is the research and development for his company, Spec Rite Torque Converters. Spec-Rite Torque Converters are custom built for your application. Every converter is built one-at-a-time using only the finest parts available. This means you get the right converter, specifically for your combination, the first time. Burbage states “We put extensive time into the research and development of our converters and transmissions in order to produce the best products possible. They are put to the test on the track and on the street under serious horsepower in order to test their durability and strength.”
Visit Spec Rite Torque Converters website to see what they can do for your racing program at Spec Rite Torque Converters.
