I feel it will take the entire turbo contingent hundreds of laps to find a combination that will be competitive AND consistent. I remember racing against Bob Reiger in the NMCA-- his crew would rent the track days before an event and they’d put more laps on the car in three days then we did in half a season.

Mike Moran has already shown he has the power to run the big MPH numbers but compared with the current crop of Nitrous and Blown counterparts he acknowledges he still needs to pick up the pace in the first 60 and 330’. Moran said, "We’ve made some changes and are trying new things to address those issues." I’m sure more will be known as the team begins to test and gather data.

Annette Summer is facing many of the same issues and is experimenting with many different combinations of various components to see what works and what doesn’t. While her car hasn’t run any impressive numbers to speak of, their team is more focused on putting together an entire good run start to finish instead of just trying to finesse the car out of the hole and then pouring the coals on the fire down the track.

I have little doubt they could make some 6.40 and 6.30 laps at 230-plus today but they aren’t going to learn anything from that. Even without the benefit of directly sharing knowledge with Moran, they saw early on that the key to this is going to be getting the car to respond in the beginning of the run.

Turbo lag once was and now isn’t. With the current technology today and constant development turbos will spool much faster then before. Having sufficient power to leave the starting line on tap in mere tenths of a second is available now. The issue herein lies in controlling that power as soon as the clutch is let out.

Moran broke transmissions, drive shafts, rear ends and u-joints because the power curve was so violent that the components couldn’t stand up to the abuse.

The bottom line is that most of the components and technology can be bought, but unlike a blown or nitrous combination where you can buy a “turn-key” 6.1 capable package (Hey, Mike Ashley’s car is still for sale on E-bay!), there is no such animal in the turbo world, YET!

It’s going to take the commitment of a guy like a Bob Reiger who is willing to invest the time and finances necessary to dialing these cars in to see progress and make the turbo a viable and competitive force in Pro Modified.

It looks like Annette Summer’s team, Mike Moran’s team and a few others are putting forth that kind of effort now and success is sure to follow, it’s all a matter of time (in this case the less time, the better).

I almost forgot, where are ya Uncle Bob? Give me a call and we can share 800,000 common reasons neither of us can race today! -- DA

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