Racing, A New Concept

[guitardude081]

We have a few years of USXC Vintage under our belts. Something that I've noticed in recent years is the number of Deeres that have found their way into drag racing and oval racing. 2 years ago, I found myself with a pile of mid-mount parts and sleds and nothing to do with them. The original intent was to build a Mikuni/CDI sled to use for outside work in the winter because the little Honda Foreman just doesn't like deep snow. After a lot of thought, I started formulating a grass drag concept heavily based on the 295/S that resides next to my toolbox. I started by tearing down all but 1 mid-mount and selling the parts I wouldn't need. I then picked the nicest chassis and fixed the sheet metal. This was not going to be a restoration so I decided to use my crappiest hood. (big mistake as the rest of the sled turned out nice) I built bogie roller over the course of the winter and got stuck on the motor. I didn't know what to do. I knew I wanted Comet clutching and I knew I wanted slide valve carbs, but how many? After reading the rules for several grass drag tracks, I found a loophole. They all allow Mikuni carbs up to 34mm. They don't say how many you can have. I decided right then and there that I needed to have Scott from Hewtech do up an ignition for me and that I needed to convert my motor to dual carbs. After piecing together a motor from 3 donors, all of a sudden I had something. I made some custom brackets to hold the tank and fuel pump and on a faithful Saturday a couple months ago, I stood in the shop looking at this "hodge podge" of parts going, "What the heck do I do with this hulk?". I looked at it and thought, "I can't trail ride a sled that holds 1/2 gallon of fuel and runs on 110 octane and I don't want to put miles on the crappy white drivers.....what did I just do?!". All of the second guessing was gone when I fired the motor, ran it for a half hour, loaded up, took it to the track and squeezed on the throttle. Suddenly I didn't care if the sled would only go a few thousand feet per year. I started talking to other people at other grass drags all running Deeres. It seems that our old habits of either building nice original restorations or CC racers has evolved into a new hobby of drag racing and oval racing. I have been participating on the Facebook page more than my old haunt of nearly 20 years. I think it's time we start sharing race build info on this site for all the newbies to use. This is our original database that has fallen by the wayside in recent years due to the use of social media. I would love to start loading jdsleds up with race build info as the Deere sled family grows. After we finish our Polaris 700 improver next summer, I'm going to be building a 295/S purely for drag racing. I think I've found my new addiction.

~Jack

[Matt]

Sounds good Jack. I've been drag racing this fall but I'm running Kawasakis as they have been much easier to find for me locally then JDs. I have an Invader for liquid and Intruder for fan. They were both very local, and I got the Intruder for $100, which just needed a clean-up. However next year, I will hopefully have an 800 ready to go, which I think should be competitive in 440 fan class. It will get dual Mikunis for sure as well.

I still like wearing the colors though