In a recent interview with CompetitionPlus.com, ADRL Extreme 10.5 pacesetter Billy Glidden said that if he hopes to keep up with the current pace of the eliminator that he’s going to have to reinvent himself. Ever since returning from the recently completed ADRL Independence Drags in Topeka, Kan., the defending world champion has been busy doing that.

“Since we returned from Topeka, we’ve barely left out of the shop,” Glidden admitted. “I have been trying to convince my engines that they are something they’re not. I know I’m going to tear them up in their current configuration so I am making gigantic redesign changes to my engine.”

ADRL’S Extreme 10.5 Point Leader Fighting Fatal Engine Problems …

In a recent interview with CompetitionPlus.com, ADRL Extreme 10.5 pacesetter Billy Glidden said that if he hopes to keep up with the current pace of the eliminator that he’s going to have to reinvent himself. Ever since returning from the recently completed ADRL Independence Drags in Topeka, Kan., the defending world champion has been busy doing that.

“Since we returned from Topeka, we’ve barely left out of the shop,” Glidden admitted. “I have been trying to convince my engines that they are something they’re not. I know I’m going to tear them up in their current configuration so I am making gigantic redesign changes to my engine.”

This weekend Glidden will make the trip to Route 66 Raceway to get some testing/competition time at the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl event. The end results of the event will go a long way in determining whether he’ll participate in next weekend’s ADRL U.S. Drags in Richmond, Va.

Unless he remedies the illnesses that have been fatal to his 404-inch Ford engine, he won’t race in that event. Currently Glidden holds a 1,239 point lead over second place Jeff Naiser.

“It just doesn’t make good sense to spend three times the amount of money you expect to win just repairing hurt engines just for the sake of winning,” Glidden explained. “We treat this racing as a business and if it doesn’t make business sense, we’re better served to stay home and fix what is wrong.”

Glidden has been running the dyno almost non-stop since severely wounding his engines at back-to-back races in ADRL Extreme 10.5 competition.  

“My mentality has always been that you don’t put something on the dyno knowing that you are going to make it worse,” Glidden said. “I don’t run on the dyno with nitrous. Those are the changes that I have been making in order to make this engine happier when it’s on the race track.

“We made dyno pulls until late in the night on Sunday, and knock on wood that was very encouraging. I’m pretty close to break even on that thing. The one that I burned up Saturday night [in Topeka] has a lot of used parts in it. I didn’t want to take new parts and burn them up first round. I have another engine and it doesn’t have to be running while sitting in the car … just put a bottle in it, crank open the valve on the bottle and it burns up just sitting there.

“If I can make this thing live on the race track then we have a reasonable chance. We’ll see where we are at this weekend.”

 

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