2015 Pontiac US Nationals fastest Pontiacs ever Heads Up Shootout Class Winner

As luck would have it there was some attrition earlier in the year and at the event which resulted in a few guys missing from this years event. Steve Dale, former record holder in his GTO F/C was unable to attend as he was waiting on parts to get back together. Sponsor Bill Mellott was also in the same boat as he was waiting on parts to get his ’65 Pro Mod GTO back together as well. Rodney Butler was also sidelined due to some damage being sustained to the car while it was in transport. Being that the blower and turbo cars were missing it looked like it would be a KRE Digger vs TIP Digger final.

Mark Kauffman was going to have something to say about that and he hit the track first with his new combo which was obviously making more power. Mark stated “It’s a trikey thing getting these high powered Pro Stock cars not to shake”. Mark let the clutch go on his first pass and the car went into tire shake. He pedaled the car to a 7.76 ET @ 180 mph which is quite a bit off of his normal performance. During that pass Mark’s RacePak revealed that the engine hit the limiter when it shook, which resulted in a lifter link bar being damaged. That unfortunately ended Mark’s weekend of racing.

Jeff Kauffman was next to hit the track TAD. Jeff stated that “this is the same exact combo we ran last year when we ran the 5.991 @ 236 mph” and he was looking to better that time at the Pontiac US Nationals!

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As you can see Jeff went A to B and ran very well despite the heat and humidity (DA was over 4000 feet!) After looking at his data, he determined that the car lost the blower belt at about 1000 feet and that they had broke a rocker arm and were running on only 7 cylinders from the 1/8 mile on. Jeff stated “Not a bad pass for 7 cylinders!” We would agree…

Despite the good pass KRE had some work to do as the blower belt took out some important equipment when it decided to leave the car. Spare rockers were not a problem as they had those with them. Below is a cool view of Jeff’s PSI blower that sits on top of his TAD’s engine. Our camera mount just couldn’t handle all of those G forces!

Saturday morning the KRE team was waiting for parts to show up so that they could get the KRE Digger back on its feet.  They had a new throttle cable sent overnight to them so that could make the show.  It looked like the TIP Digger may get the trophy but that was not to be the case!  Since Swaney had a new combo in the TIP digger he decided to do a little more testing and headed out for another lap while the KRE Crew was wrenching.   Swaney bettered his time buy running a 7.02 @ 191 mph.

Kevin Swaney wanted us to say a special thanks to Steve Kauffman of Kauffman Performance, LTD. for helping him crew the car.  Swaney stated “I normally help crew Jeff when he makes a pass and he normally helps me when I am making a pass.  So we normally do not race each other!  Steve really helped me out this weekend along with my long time friend Craig Dienes”

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 SHOW TIME!

About 1:30 we made the call for the fastest . Pontiacs . ever Heads Up Shootout.  The KRE Team was able to get their Digger up and running for the finals in plenty of time to get some heat in the engine with time to spare.   While the two of these guys are friends, they are also fierce competitors and there is no doubt each wanted the bragging rights that come with this class.  Swaney stated “We know we are at a HUGE power disadvantage, we just need to beat him on the tree and hope they make a mistake.  I want to keep him honest over there….”

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Swaney did what he said he was going to do “beat Kauffman on the tree” by cutting a .069 light to Kauffman’s .072; however, he needed a lot more than that as it was all Kauffman after the ’60 mark.

See one of the QUICKEST & FASTEST side by side Pontiac races EVER!