1976 Nitro Grass Drag Set Ups

[Ruppsforever]

Have you raced at all this summer ??

[midniterupper]

No, there haven't been any races scheduled in Michigan yet. August 26th at Nelson's Sno-Motion in Greeneville will be our first race. It's always a great time with new iron showing up for the season, some make it down the track - some don't lol!
We are still testing the Nitro of course, it's running strong this year. Should be another great year for Team Red!
I'll keep you posted on our progress and of course, the race results.
Thanks again for your time and assistance!
-Paul

[midniterupper]

Well here it is, Fall is upon us and the Grass Drag season is already underway at Hay Days! It's a great time of year for sure and this year's racing season promises to be a fast one. A lot of new technology hitting the race tracks and the sleds are pushing their limits these days, incredible Horse Power!

Anyway, all the Summer Vintage sled shows in my area are over now and the Fall shows are beginning to appear and it's good to see the popularity of these shows are increasing each season. Always great to see the old sleds resurrected and making more smiles! We had a great turnout at the Buckley Old Engine show this year. In fact, it was a record attendance year. I credit it to the Antique and Vintage sleds now being on display! So many cool old sleds on display and really unique ones too. The enjoyment is definitely a multi-generational thing now, all ages either have or are, making memories not to be forgotten. How can you beat that eh? Our old Nitro sure was a popular attraction again, kinda funny how race fuel fumes can attract racers no matter where they hide!
The great folks from the Antique Snowmobile Museum in Naubinway also brought a fantastic array of beautiful antique snowmobiles too! If you haven't yet been to their museum, put it on your list to go, but plan on spending a day there easily!

Now with Team Red here, we have been busy just getting ready for fall but we have also been checking different clutching setups on the Nitro. We have 2 basic set ups narrowed down now that are really interesting. Both have consistent performance in their own way.
    One set up gives us a great holeshot and awesome wheelies but limits the top speed to around 67-69 mph. The other setup is not quite as aggressive as the first off the line, still good, but the top speed increases to 69-71 mph. I don't have a timing system, so I can't tell if one may be quicker than the other. I only have GPS and Radar to verify my top speed. So we'll bring both setups to the track and see how the competition performs, but either way, we finally have some great clutching combinations to play with. All the years of testing is paying off and it was (is!) so fun to play with. I must have over 200 runs from testing and racing all documented in great detail in our archives, so fascinating and rewarding to review!

With great disappointment, Nelson's did not hold any grass drag races this year due to expanding their buildings and had to postpone the event until next year. So, our first race this season is at the Gregorville Sod Dragon Races. We raced there last year and had a ball! Great variety of Vintage snowmobiles that are racing, anything from 1966 skidoo one lungers to anything 670cc's or less, and nothing newer than the year 2000. Talk about never knowing what to expect! It's great!

It's a qualifying time event, .5 second classes ranging from 5.0 through 10.0 so it's a pretty fair event for all sled sizes. We placed well last year, we ought to do even better this year! Can't wait!

So now it's just detailing the sled, put on Bill's hood and run the sled on the stand every few days until we race on the 23rd. Then race again at Twisting Trails on the 30th. What a great time of year, Thanks for your interest!
Keep you posted, Think Red!
-Paul

[midniterupper]

Hello from Team Red on the grass! Well yesterday was our first actual race of this season and it was a Blast! The race was held in Gregorville and it turned out to be their biggest event yet. 160+ entries, sleds of all vintage years (some were newer with IFS were there), all were there with big anticipation of winning.

It was quite a challenge for the management to coordinate and classify which sleds were to compete against each other, but the best timed run worked out rather well and fair, certainly making for good racing action!

Our Nitro ran it's best, the combination in it is very effective and fast, but there is still room to improve. Primarily in jetting and dialing in the exhaust temps. Our timed run clocked in at 6.5 seconds @ 71 mph. That tied us with one other sled (of 8) that also dialed in a 6.5 run. However, that sled was a 1996 Polaris 650 improver. So let the racing begin!

We raced against the other 440's, all improved, none stock. One by one we eliminated them and somehow, we were up against the Pol 650. We actually raced him twice due to a technical error with the coordinators. That's okay, another chance to take it down the track. But, the final result was that the Pol won by 1 1/2 sled lengths. So, we didn't win the final but we sure kicked butt along the way. Incredible new friends, fantastic Rupp family and truly great conversations. In my book, I think we had a win. A 48 year old sled with a stock 440 engine giving a fit to a sled that has an extra cylinder and 210 cc's more, makes my day. We made an admirer of our sled for sure!

Out of it all, the best comment of the day was from a former Oval racer that, in his day, went throughout the U.S. competing against a lot of our Rupp racers. He mentioned quite a few notable names, but the best thing he said was that through all of his years of seeing Rupps compete, he said only two are impressed into his memory. One is Bill Stull's, and the other is ours. Wow! What a compliment eh? Certainly was for me!

Now, one other gentleman approached me and quietly asked if I still have the Xenoah engine under the hood, and if so, did Kevin Haase build it for me! Pretty cool! So, with these big names floating around the pits and getting these kind of compliments, I think we are making Mickey proud this season. I truly hope so.

Our next race is this coming weekend at Twisting Trails, always great competition there for sure. The Yammie boyz may be in for a big surprise this year! We are really looking forward to seeing how we do against them. Rumor has it that they have been busy visiting the performance shops locally so the fear factor must be in the back of their minds.

well, I gotta get the trailer unloaded and clean up the sled. Probably will drop down 1 main jet size to clean things up a bit too. So thanks again for following our story, hopefully all this yakking will help somebody in our Rupp family to go faster.
Take care and I'll post the next race results soon.
Stay Red!

[Ruppsforever]

Awesome job bud !!!!! Sounds like a hell of a day of racing !!! Good luck this weekend !!

[midniterupper]

Greetings from Team Red! Boy, what a weekend of great racing! The weather on Saturday was a warm one with clear skies, we were even able to enjoy the Harvest moon at our camp Friday night. It was a beautiful calm of camping at the track and everything was ready for action, and everyone was ready to race! Hats off to the awesome crew at Twisting Trails Grass Racing for providing a great event (of three) each fall, just for us to go play and beat up the competition. It's truly a great place to race your sleds, everything from the 120's to the Outlaws, and of course, the Vintage classes. This past race included racers coming from 5 states now, it's really cool to see how far folks will go just to run their sleds down the track and see what they are capable of. There were 167 entrees this weekend with more promising to come to the next two remaining races, what a blast!

Okay, now with our race results. The Nitro just keeps on getting better and making some deep impressions! At this event, there were over 20 vintage racers competing. Most are running improved or open of course and it's great to see what people will build, there is some wild combinations and creative minds out there.
In Vintage stock, we took first place with a new authority! My wife took videos of the races and by half track, it looked like I was doing a bye run. It was incredible, these are the very guys that dominated the class for years. It was a fun run and literally left the competition in the dust by hitting the 71 mph mark on radar!

The Improved class was next and they proved to be hard hitters, but chalk another 1st place Win for Team Red. It is so cool to see these guys working diligently on their sleds in between heats, while ours sits and gets polished, then beats the snot out of them! This class is gaining popularity and of course the sleds are loud, but a lesson in humility quiets them down when they get spanked by a stocker. Can't beat the feeling of that accomplishment!

Now the Vintage Open class had quite a few fast sleds to compete with. Wild combinations with respectable talent to say the least. Anyway, in our first qualifying
run, we beat them all. It was so exciting to blast past these guys at the finish line, the fans were jumping up and down along the return lane with enthusiasm for the Rupps! What a great accomplishment for our team, very well deserved.

In the Vintage Open final, we place 3rd. It was a great race with no shame being beaten by larger displacement racers. They all had bigger engines with lighter chassis of course, ranging from bored out 500cc to 650 triples again. With all these sleds coming in from different states, our Nitro shined proudly for Micky! He certainly is pushing the sled for more wins and we hope we made him proud with our wins this season so far. It certainly is being our best yet.

The most impressive aspect of our Nitro at this race was how it exploded off the line. I have been practicing my reaction time by using a Port a Tree practice light system that I purchased back in April. My wife and I play with it almost every night for about a half hour and it paid off big time. We were first off the line in every race and the sled just got up and went, I mean like big time! And it goes down the track perfectly straight, never missing a beat. We had so many other racers come into our pit and pay compliment the sled and it's performance. In fact, we had others asking for help to eliminate their bogging off the line because of how hard our Nitro hit with no bog or hesitation whatsoever. So we did what we could to help and now we are really respected at the track. So much different than 4 years ago when we were just beginning to shake up the competition, and boy did we!

The exhaust temps are continuing to improving nicely, the rpm's are holding steady throughout the run at 8250 and our top speed is consistently 70-71 mph. You just can't beat that eh? So, I will drop my mains down one size more for the next race as the plugs still appear a little rich. It may even hit 72+ mph, we never know unless we try right? Let's give it a shot.

So, overall, we are quite happy with this sled's performance this season. I believe we are approaching the limits for our stocker but the performance is unsurpassed and very impressive. The Xenoah engine when tuned properly, is a potent little powerhouse that can dominate at the races, any races for that manner.
We finally came up with a killer combination that the sled simply loves, it's so smooth and efficient, and truly a pleasure to run down the track. Especially when were beating them!

Thanks again for your interest and reading, I really appreciate your support and loyalty throughout these years. Once again Team Red has pulled ahead of the competition and now has a spot on the throne at every race we show up at. So incredible! We're kicking Asz on the Grass!

Anyway, our next race is in two weeks. The sled is already polished up and I'll make the jetting change tomorrow. I'll post the race results as soon as I get a chance. Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy this great weather and get your sleds out for some well deserved attention.
Take care now,
-Paul

[Ruppsforever]

Heck yeah bud !!!! Really looking forward to seeing your vids on facebook !! Make sure that it isn't much cooler at the next race than what it was at Twisting Trails. You don't need to lean it out too much lol !! So cool to see how well you got that thing rocking !!!

[midniterupper]

Our races for this past weekend got cancelled due to the rain. We'll see what's in store for the 28th, the Nitro is race ready!!

[midniterupper]

Hello there fellow Ruppers!
We had another great weekend of racing here in Michigan. The rain held off and the track took shape quickly after more than 2" of rain during the week. The volunteer crew covered the clay starting lines with tarps, scraped off the layer of wet clay and we were ready to race!

As with the previous race, there were 168 total entrees proving that Grass Drag Racing is still growing in popularity. It's really great to see so many young families out racing with their moms, dads and kids hitting the track. And the support between the racers is also great to see. So cool!

Anyway, we entered our normal 3 classes of Vintage Stock, Improved and Open. A lot of sleds were competing in Vintage, which is also encouraging to see. There were more vintage stock sleds than ever before, and even more in the vintage open class. How cool is that?

In the Stock class, we won 1st place. It was a lot of fun to race against a variety of oldie sleds and the range of drivers who piloted their sleds. Interesting group for sure, ranging from 16 years old to 60's year old. All were having a blast.

The vintage Improved class was fun also. These guys try their hardest to turn their sleds into rockets, you just have to admire their time spent on making their sled into a winner. We won 1st place in Improved too!

Now, like I mentioned earlier, the vintage Open class had many entrees of larger displacement and multi cylinder engine sleds. 8,000 rpm engagements, 10,000 rpm power plants, all running funny fuels with every performance combination you could think of. Very talented and creative mechanical minds out there!
So, our "little" 440 did not stand a chance against the competition in that class, but we still gave them a run for the money and a great show for the spectators.
It's always fun to see what we can do against these wild (and loud!) creations. And who knows, maybe they will foul a plug or something and give us a better chance to win.

So, this weekend was still a success with 2 more wins for Micky! We'll take that any weekend.

The sled's performance was remarkably consistent. It wasn't it's fastest, but the engine stats were very interesting. Remember, the only thing I changed from the last races was my jetting. I dropped down only 1 size on the mains. The exhaust temps in general increased, which was our goal, but the sled is still smoking quite a bit more than it should.

My mains were reduced from #240 to #230. I'm also using a product called "Energy Release" at a ratio of 128:1, 1 ounce per gallon. I mentioned this product earlier in the posts and I use it because it helped our Rotax engines when we raced back in the late 90's and early 2000's. It actually increased our peak rpm by 300 on our 700 and 800 race sleds, and it greatly reduced the metal filings in our chain cases. We mixed 3 ounces of E.R. to a full oil injection reservoir at that time. I am figuring that 1 ounce to 1 gallon of fuel wouldn't hurt, and it shouldn't be causing the engine to smoke excessively, but I may be wrong.

I mix my oil (Yamalube 2R) at 42:1. That ratio seemed safe to me, but may be too rich as the videos always show the sled smoking compared to the other sleds. The spark plugs appear on the darker side too, but I have been staying on the safe side. Oil is cheaper than pistons right?

So this past weekend, my exhaust temps were very consistent at (PTO) 927-937 degrees, (MAG) 1044-1065 degrees. That's in all 4 runs. I believe we can safely drop at least 1 main jet size, maybe even 2, but we will try one size at at a time. Max engine RPM's only varied from 8250-8254, only 68 mph top speed in all four runs too. Not bad, but we know we can do better.
I will also try mixing our fuel at 45:1 to see if that helps reduce the smoke emissions. Perhaps the Energy Release additive richens up the lubrication aspect of the fuel charge, thereby reducing the need for a richer oil mix ratio. Some guys at the track are using this oil mix at 50:1 with no apparent problems.

Disassembly and a thorough cleaning of our clutches is also in order for this week's prep along with removing our idlers and lubing them up. Other than that, the sled will be good to go for the next round of racing. That race will be held on November 11, we can't wait! What a great season so far!

Well, that's about it for now from this end. If any of you guys have experience with using Energy Release or any special oil/fuel ratios that really worked well for you, please share it. We're all in this together and on the same team. We can all learn through this forum.

Keep you posted and thanks again for your support!
-Paul

[Ruppsforever]

That is awesome man !!! Did you use Energy Release at the previous race ??

[midniterupper]

Thanks for your question, yes. I have been running this stuff since I first fired it up 4 years ago. I since have talked with a few old mechanics that used to wrench for the Skidoo snocross teams back in the late 90's, early 2000's, Blair Morgan guys. They said the stuff is really slippery and I'm mixing way too rich. They used 1 ounce per 5 gallons of race fuel.

So, Now I gotta drain my current fuel and mix some new stuff using the right ratio. Also set the oil ratio at 45:1 vs. the 42:1 that I have been using. Hope it clears out, will probably bring the mosquitos back!

Thanks again for your input!!

[Ruppsforever]

That's awesome man !! I run that stuff in my chaincase because I run an aluminum bottom sprocket. I have to drain it after every race and mix up new oil and energy release. Had this same bottom sprocket for a long time and it shows not much wear at all.

[midniterupper]

Hello there once again, we have an update from our last race of this year, (at least on grass anyway!) and we have great results. Mickey up there watching our efforts must have assisted in one way or another, we truly hope we made him proud this year.

We ended up cinching the wins in Vintage Stock and Vintage Improved. It sure was fun, the Nitro ran flawlessly and is not smoking nearly as much, so I think it likes the new fuel/oil mixtures. Exhaust temps improved as well, so we are on the right track there. People were very impressed with the holeshots this sled pulls off, it just explodes off the line. So much fun to ride! Always an attention getter, lots of happy fans out there watching and cheering us on. Could very well be the most popular sled (but certainly not the fastest!) at the races. Everyone seems to love the old Rupps. Even more so when we win! LOL!

We won 3rd in the Vintage Open Mod class, always fun to run with those boys too. Certainly no embarrassment taking 3rd in that class with all their ponies working hard! We sure gave them a good run for their money.
Sure would be tempting to build a Rupp based, Open Mod! Maybe for Christmas?? My wife has been eyeballing the Nitro since it's been winning, gonna have to keep an eye on her. I think she's coming down with Nitro fever!

The final season results are (3) First place wins in Stock, (3) First place wins in Improved, and (2) 3rd place wins in Open. We achieved our goal of dominating the stock and improved classes for this year, I know the other boys are doing a lot of thinking on what they can do to regain their position that has been overthrown by Team Red.
Well, so will we. I know there is still more ponies under the hood waiting to contribute to another fantastic year of racing!

Thanks for reading, have a safe winter.
Ride Red, Rupp's Rule!

[Ruppsforever]

That is totally awesome Bud !!! Looks like you have that thing really dialed in !! Hell Yeah Man !!!!!

[midniterupper]

Thanks Josh! Really appreciate your support and kind words. We have some work to do to it yet, replace the primary and secondary springs as they have done their jobs for an entire season. Check alignments and clean everything, dial in my jetting and then start testing again. I want to be ready for next year, and just maybe, hit some races on the snow and ice. I guess that's what they made these things for!

A lot of our sled followers want to see this sled race in the winter so I may have to give it a try. I need to make up some 10" carbide runners just in case!

Thanks again Buddy, good luck this winter! Please keep us posted on your Wins!

Rupps Rule at the Track!!

[midniterupper]

Happy New Year to our entire Rupp Family! I can't believe that 2023 is already wrapping up, it certainly has been a great year for our Grass Drags. So rewarding to dominate our classes for the entire season, very well worth the extra efforts.

Now with that thought still in mind, our continued testing has been paying off. Today the Nitro reached 72 mph in 500 feet! That's the fastest yet in testing or racing, so we must be on the right track. Still lots of ideas to prove out, but overall, we're very happy with the results. We are really looking forward to next season, hopefully we will make the competition see Red!

I'm sure we'll be testing throughout the seasons ahead, keep you posted. Thanks again for your interest!

Stay safe, enjoy your holiday and coming new year.