I know it's a pickup truck, and not a race car. But by early 1999, it had been too long since I'd raced, I wanted to have some fun, and the Camaro was still in storage. I thought, what the heck, it's a Dakota "Sport" with a Magnum V8, and I was curious to see how it would run. I'm still trying to surpass my current best E.T., of 15.19, but it's slowed down over the last year or two. I think it's starting to show the results of 170,000+ miles on the clock and the constant flogging at the track.

To download an image of the truck suitable for a desktop background, check out my backgrounds page. You'll also find a bunch of other images there you may like...

The 5.2L (318 c.i.) Magnum engine is mostly stock, with the most noticeable improvement coming from a Mopar Performance engine controller. It helped throttle response immensely, and shaved almost half a second off the 1/4 mile E.T. Dodge should've put these in from the factory, or at least made it an option. I cured the pinging caused by the new timing with a 180 degree thermostat (stock is 195) and a colder set of plugs. Breathing is improved with a K&N air filter, an F&B throttle body, a Random Technology high-flow catalytic converter, and an Edelbrock muffler.

I also installed an F&B Throttlebodies specially machined throttle body on the intake manifold. It's an excellent piece of workmanship, and the builder/designer is a true Dodge performance enthusiast, with a Dakota of his own. Before you consider any intake hardware for your Dakota, check them out. I can promise you won't be disappointed with either the product or service.

In the drivetrain department, I've installed a shift kit in the transmission to firm up the automatic slush box, but in my efforts not to go overboard on the hard shifts, I can barely tell a difference. I recently replaced the tired limited-slip posi unit in the rearend with a much stronger and more reliable Powertrax No-Slip locking differential.

Trying to solve the resultant tire spin problems, I've installed a set of QA-1/HAL Corp. racing shocks in the front, and a set of Calvert Trac-bars and drag shocks out back. Rolling stock now consists of a pair of BFGoodrich 275/60 Drag Radials mounted on 15x8 Weld Racing Pro Star rims in the rear, and 235/60's on 15x7's in the front.

Switching to a Standard 5 on 4-1/2" Mopar Bolt Pattern
My Dakota, and all Gen II Dakotas from '92-'96, came from the factory with a unique 6 lug on 4-1/2" bolt pattern. Not exactly a great selection of wheels in that bolt pattern from the aftermarket. Making the swich to a standard Mopar/Ford 5 lug on 4-1/2" pattern is just too easy, and is done simply by swapping the brake hardware and axles from a 1990 Dakota. In the front, when it was time for new rotors anyway, I just got ones for a '90 Dakota, instead of a '94. No redrilling of hubs is necessary, and the calipers and pads are the same. Out back, I just ordered a set of '90 Dakota axles, and bought a new set of drums, also for a '90 Dakota. All the dimensions are the same, so it was a relatively easy swap. I ordered my axles from Tom's Differentials. He offers stock type axles, but they get an extra heat treatment over the factory units, for the same price.

I also lowered it just a couple inches from stock (to get rid of that silly "up on tippy-toes" look) with shackles in the rear and spindles in the front, all from Western Chassis.

The 1999 Season:
In January of '99 I took it to the track and entered it into the Summit ET Bracket races. I missed the first points race so I decided it would just be for fun, and not for points. As it turned out, I won the first race I entered! The rest of that season, I won several trophy races, made it to two more final rounds in the Summit Series, and earned enough points to take the Track Championship in the Street class! What would you do? I'm still racing it.
Finish: 1st place - Track Champion.

The 2000 Season:
The 2000 Summit points races didn't go so well for me, despite doing pretty decent in the Wednesday night Trophy races, with three runner ups and one win. Between my screw ups, the tough competition, and the truck's inconsistency, I could only manage a single Summit Series race win on July 4th. I'll have to work on a few things to get back to winning more often next year.
Finish: 11th place.

The 2001 Season:
Overall, I fared much better than last year. I won two Trophy races, but my only Summit Series race win came at the July 4th race (again!). Coming in to the last points race of the year, I was in first place. Despite some incredible luck in the first round, and taking out one of the other racers in contention for the championship in the second, I wasn't able to get past the third round. The guy who came in to the race in second place did his job that day, went all the way to win in the final, and took the championship in the process. With one win and several late round finishes, I still won more cash than I spent to race this year.
Finish: 2nd place.

The 2002 season:
I don't intend to run the Trophy races this year, unless the track changes their policy regarding track surface preparation. They don't seem to think it's a good idea to allow the cars to hook up during those races. The conditions are so different from the weekend points races, there's really no reason to spend the money to spin my tires all night. So this season will be pretty much just points races.

Due to track renovations, it's been a short Summit Series points season anyway, with a total of only five races on the schedule. Fortunately, I was able to win the first race and start off with the points lead! My luck on July 4th races held up again this year when I won that race too. It's the third year in a row I've won the Independence Day race. The last points race was Labor Day, and was a mixture of good and bad. Although I wanted to do a better job that day, I did finish the season in 1st place, securing my second Track Championship! I also won more money again this year than I spent to race, which is always a plus!
Finish: 1st place - Track Champion.

After the main points season was over, they had one more race just for cash. I didn't do so well in my final outing, except that I finally set a new personal best elapsed time with the truck, at 15.19 seconds and 89 mph. If I had gone a few more rounds, I might have had a chance to lower it further, there were none of the usual headwinds that day. Winning a few rounds would've been nice, but overall it wasn't the worst way to end the season...

The 2003 season:
I wasn't planning on racing this year. If I'm going to spend money on racing, I really should put it into getting the Camaro running again. But just because it's cheaper for now, I've decided to try it with the truck for a while. I'm not commited to running points yet, I was just going to see how it goes, and maybe make some money to help pay for the Camaro refurbishing.

The first points night that didn't get rained out went pretty well, I lasted four rounds, and the truck and driver were doing great. A slight miscalculation of the dial-in caused my night to end early. I raced a few more times and did ok, reaching as high as 3rd place, but I've had to put the racing on hold for a while again...

The 2004 season:
My worst season ever an Infineon Raceway. Too many distractions this year I guess, with moving, changing jobs, etc. I did nothing noteworthy at the track this year, and for the first time, didn't win a race all season. Plus we only had a total of 5 points races, so any one bad day has a large impact on the final season results. Makes me want even more to be racing my Camaro instead of the truck. I need to figure out a way to bring it out here and store it in California, and race it like it was built to do.
Finish: Not worth mentioning, looking forward to next year.

The 2005 season:
No money or time to race much this year, and the ET Finals are in Arizona, too far to drive. I'll be taking it easy on the truck this year, running races now and then when I can, and hopefully bringing out my Camaro to race again sometime soon.

2006:
Finally got a place to store the Camaro, so I brought it out from Florida. It will be quite a while before I have the money and time to do all the work it wil take to get it race ready again, so the truck gets pressed into service at least another year. I'll make an attempt to run points this year, so we'll see how it goes.

So far, I'm off to a miserable season. The truck is totally inconsistent, and some necessary repairs to the brakes seem to have caused it to react totally differently to the tree than I'm used to, and consistent lights and E.T.'s are but a distant memory. The MPH is always slow now too, even in good weather, so I know it's really getting time to retire it from racing. I feel a little distracted at the track this year anyway; I'm itching to be racing the Camaro instead...

2007:
I didn't want to race the truck this year, I was hoping to have the Camaro finished. But, life being what it is, I don't have the Camaro ready to race yet.

It was another dismal season for me and the truck, and I capped off the season with the hood flying open while going down the track, smashing the windsheild, and bending itself and the roof into a wavy mess. I wish I couldn've gotten through just one more weekend successfully. The Camaro should be done by next year, so this was probably the last race in the truck for a while.

The above photo shows it dressed up for the 2001 Summit ET Racing Finals. I save the magnetic flames for the once a year Finals race, along with the Summit and Sears Point team stickers that I put on with magnetic material too. It would be silly to leave the stickers on all the time, but at the Finals I allow myself that bit of frivolous fun. Makes 'er feel more like a real race vehicle too.

I did pretty well at the Division 7 Finals race in 2001, going four rounds, making it down to 19 cars, and winning more than enough to pay for gas on the way home. In 2002, I went the same number of rounds. One of these days I hope to go further. When I started racing the Dakota in '99 it was running low 16's. With the changes I've made so far, it's best 1/4 mile elapsed time is 15.19 seconds at 89 mph. For more information about my truck than you could ever want to know, see the post of Scott's Dakota on Jon Steiger's DragTruk.com website.

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Last Updated October 11, 2007
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