January 26, 2014
Sonoma Raceway
NHRA Test and Tune
In preparation for the upcoming 2014 racing season, Team Litton Racing headed up to the wine country for a test and tune session at Sonoma Raceway. With all the new changes to the Top Alcohol Division happening this season Crew Chief Anthony Dicero was excited to test the new combination. There are three major changes that will be taking place in the injected nitro division this year; the first is that nitro burning dragsters are able to run 95{97b644b07d318a73d8bce15dd0b5296cc4e330d3e9b7befa330643f6e455b291} nitro as opposed to 94{97b644b07d318a73d8bce15dd0b5296cc4e330d3e9b7befa330643f6e455b291}, teams are permitted to insulate their main fuel line and fuel cell, and lastly the fuel temperature chilling limit has decreased from 50° to 40°.
Driver Bill Litton felt the new changes were noticeable on the test launches. “The new engine combination even sounds different from the cockpit during the launch. It produces a deeper bass tone sound as the car digs in and hikes the front left tire.” Although, no full passes were made, the Litton Team had three excellent test runs of .918, .925, and .926 to 60 feet. The best run of the day produced a 2.41 to the 330 which was the best time the car has run.
The winter break paid off for the team and crew allowing time to step back and make some modifications. Everyone was very happy with the progress. According to Chief Dicero, “Team Litton Racing is aiming to help the competition find their way to their trailers early this year and keep our team running more of the elimination runs. The team would like to make Litton Financial, Lucas Oil, Boninfante Clutches, Protect the Harvest, and anyone else that would like to be a part of this hot rod train very happy with our performance this season. We are going into Pomona hoping to qualify the car and make some late runs. As a crew chief, these were the best three consecutive runs that I’ve had where the car responded well to the tune up. Pomona, watch out!”