drag racing stories

[v8Fiero]

what are some of your best drag racing stories? wildest rides, most problems, biggest explosions, most interesting stories that you guys have from drag racing?

I'll start, but its probably not as good as what most of you have...

well, the first time that I took my v8 fiero to the track I blew up the stock 100k mile tranny on the first run launching at 2k rpm, I didn't even trip the lights on the tree, there was chunks of spider gear and oil all over the starting line, lol the track owner didn't like me very much that day... but it was a pretty small track that wasn't very popular that particular day and I knew most of the employees on a first name basis so I was able to talk them into letting me race my tow truck down the track since they felt bad about the fiero. So I was able to pull off a 23 sec run with a fully loaded down (spare tires, all of my strip tools, etc) pickup truck. anyway, not sure why I felt the urge to find out how fast the truck could go, but I guess I just needed a run down the track that day, that was the first and last race of the season for me.

[olds48]

LUCKILY I HAVE NEVER BROKEN ANYTHING,BUT I DID COME RRREEEAAALLL CLOSE TO SMACKING THE WALL ONE DAY. I LEARNED MYLESSON ABOUT"NEVER LIFT" ATTITUDES. BUT I WILL SAY THAT THE BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD IS THE FIRST TIME YOU EVER PUT AIR UNDER THE FRONT TIRES :D WORTH EVERY PENNY IT TOOK TO GET THERE

[us7race]

I have a story from a few years ago..
At my track we run a heads-up race that pays $100 once a month, and I always get in it and usually get beat by a guy who drives a big block Nitrous powered camaro. I always ran NA until this day..
My truck was running 6.50-6.60's that day and I had stuck the 100HP jets in my new secret Nitrous kit. We staged and (I was always a little quicker off the R.T. than he was) I let off the button much to his surprise jumping about 3 cars out of the hole on him..about the time I crossed the finishline First he went by..I ran a 6.16@111 and he ran a 6.06@123MPH He was so Pissed! But it was an experience I will never forget.

[Tod74]

The first time I took the Nova to the track I was very nervouse because I had no idea what it was gona do . I had purchased the car as a roller and just put my motor and tranny in it. The guy I bought it from claimed it worked good but that's what they all say when they are selling it to ya.I had never raced a car with a trans brake before.Well I went up for my first pass and staged the car...as soon as the top yellow came on I smashed the gas... problem was I forgot to push in the trans brake button. hahaha :oops: Talk about tree'n em.

[olds48]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Stappy]

I think the dumbest thing I've ever done is clutch shift an automatic car.
I had a Fairlane that was a mild 302, Art Carr reverse manual valve body tranny. I drove to the track in a 5 speed pick up. As I lined up for the first run, I had a good light, as I was about to shift to 2nd, I nailed the "clutch" which also happened to be the brake pedal to grab 2nd gear. Locking the brakes for like 2 feet and hitting 2nd, needless to say my dial in was a bit slower than expected. :oops:

[lively]

AND YOU COULD HERE THE CROWD SCREAMING " IS THAT A GIRL DRIVING THAT"---I ACTUALLY DID THE SAME THING IN HIGHSCHOOL SHOWING OFF IN THE PARKING LOT---REAL EMBARRASING :oops: :oops: :oops:

[topcat572]

Try staging a dragster with the rear wheels, looked cool, but they backed us up. :shock:

[johnracer]

Here's one for ya. Back in '96 or '97 I had a 63 Nova. At the time, I had been the S/P track champ twice at my home track. My usual routine was to burn out in high, roll out of the throttle, shift into neutral and let the momentum roll me in to prestage. For some reason, I let it roll in too far and staged. I looked over at the other side of the tree and the other guy was also staged, so I set the trans brake and mashed the throttle. Launched in neutral!! That'll make your momma proud...... :oops:

[Tod74]

Here's one for ya. Back in '96 or '97 I had a 63 Nova. At the time, I had been the S/P track champ twice at my home track. My usual routine was to burn out in high, roll out of the throttle, shift into neutral and let the momentum roll me in to prestage. For some reason, I let it roll in too far and staged. I looked over at the other side of the tree and the other guy was also staged, so I set the trans brake and mashed the throttle. Launched in neutral!! That'll make your momma proud...... :oops:


Doh!!!


:lol:

[johnracer]

Yes... Doh!! I'm pretty sure that's a Johnny original there....a scooter ride with the Goofy hat, ears flapping in the wind, followed shortly thereafter.

[slowmotion]

My dad was on his scooter headed to the staging lanes. There was a guy handing out free hats along the way. As my dad came towards him he yelled "Free hat?". Of course my dad whe can't pass up anything free, Reached out with one hand and grabbed the brake with the other....The front brake. Needless to say he went down and took a tumble. He was ok just bruised a little. He was just happy to have a free hat.

[insane4fbodys]

Ok in about 86 my dad helped build my first sbc. 283 bored .120 over and 12.5 to pop ups. Started with a .525 lift and kept changing it as the car would die when dropped in gear. A stall would have been good, :lol: Anyway, at .488 it could be pulled into gear with the throttle held down and brake. I went and bought a stall and fixed it. At the time we didn't know squat about auto's. Anyway after me getting beat 3 out of 3 times with this new hot rod, dad says give me the keys and get in, I'll show you how to run it. The car had a open 308 and 350 turbo at the time. Anyway he gets on top of a down grade in the road and power brakes it until it starts spinning, runs it to about 6K and bumps the factory shifter to 2nd. The car has stopped spinning and seems to be running great. Time comes for 3rd gear and he bumps the shifter again, and the car jumps and starts smoking the tires. He's never let off of it, and steering like crazy. As the car starts shifting sideways down the road and I'm seeing the yellow line at an angle to the car. I look again at him still fighting the wheel and then at the shifter thats now in reverse. :shock: I quickly pull it back into drive and the car straightens and quits spinning the tires. He's laughing saying he didn't know it would go that far and saying "good eye" on the shifter catch. Now then we turn around heading for home and look at the damage. There is 2 perfect N50 tire marks for over 450 feet down the road. Until they faded away, everybody around tried to lay longer marks and wanted to know who laid them. It was always mine and his secert, as my car wasn't that fast. BTW both tires spun together with this open rearend and amazingly the 350 stayed together for 4 years after that. Now that is a memory :D

[Tod74]

Ok in about 86 my dad helped build my first sbc. 283 bored .120 over and 12.5 to pop ups. Started with a .525 lift and kept changing it as the car would die when dropped in gear. A stall would have been good, :lol: Anyway, at .488 it could be pulled into gear with the throttle held down and brake. I went and bought a stall and fixed it. At the time we didn't know squat about auto's. Anyway after me getting beat 3 out of 3 times with this new hot rod, dad says give me the keys and get in, I'll show you how to run it. The car had a open 308 and 350 turbo at the time. Anyway he gets on top of a down grade in the road and power brakes it until it starts spinning, runs it to about 6K and bumps the factory shifter to 2nd. The car has stopped spinning and seems to be running great. Time comes for 3rd gear and he bumps the shifter again, and the car jumps and starts smoking the tires. He's never let off of it, and steering like crazy. As the car starts shifting sideways down the road and I'm seeing the yellow line at an angle to the car. I look again at him still fighting the wheel and then at the shifter thats now in reverse. :shock: I quickly pull it back into drive and the car straightens and quits spinning the tires. He's laughing saying he didn't know it would go that far and saying "good eye" on the shifter catch. Now then we turn around heading for home and look at the damage. There is 2 perfect N50 tire marks for over 450 feet down the road. Until they faded away, everybody around tried to lay longer marks and wanted to know who laid them. It was always mine and his secert, as my car wasn't that fast. BTW both tires spun together with this open rearend and amazingly the 350 stayed together for 4 years after that. Now that is a memory :D

lol..."I'll show you how to run it!!"

lmfao :D I think that is the best story so far.

I took my dad a ride in my chevelle one time and one time only ( I was in my early 20's then) all my dad kept yelling was "STOP!! KNOCK IT OFF!! I SAID QUIT IT!! TAKE ME BACK HOME!!" LOL :lol:

He said "How would thalook if a COP pull you over and here I am sittin' right next to ya? He would think I was aggin you on." :)

[olds48]

I would tell ya'll a good one concerning A 48 Olds a redhead and a hunting dog......but I gotta wait until the statute of limitations runs out :oops:

[curtisreed]

Back in high school a buddy of mine had a '70 Malibu that we built up a 350 for. A guy I knew from another town said his '57 Chevy pickup would kill the Malibu. The guy wanted to race the car so my buddy said he would but he had a broken right arm at the time and couldn't move the shifter that was on the column. He had me ride with him to shift for him, (automatic).

So we line up, we're on the converter, the arm drops, off we go. Well the seat back of the bench seat brakes and throws me backwards. I, holding on to the shifter throw it in reverse, we go about 20 feet in reverse before I can move forward enough to get it back in low. I bet it really looked strange from the outside but it happened so fast for us that we just kept going. Ended up winning the race and laughing so hard we had to stop after it was over and get out. The other guy thought he got the jump on us till we told him the story of what really happened.

He didn't think his old truck was so hot after hearing what happened. We really were idiots back then, but we had to much fun to notice. :D :D

Curtis

[insane4fbodys]

Here's another 1 that comes to mind. The same car 5 years later, SBC 400 bored .060 492 ported heads 620 lift herbert cam, STR10 crossram with 2 850 dbl pumpers and full MSD. Back then this car would run pretty damn good. Blowed a head gasket the week before on it, and had a race that night. Buddy came over and helped pull the head and replace everything to get it running for that night. I never checked the carb linkage for binding after he put it on. You can see where this is going, :shock: . Started to the local hangout about 7 miles away down a rural highway and decided to try it before we raced. My Ex was following with the jack and tires behind us and got to see the whole thing. So we tried a quick run to 85 it seemed ok, so I let off. Ok, nothing and I'm gaining speed fast. I'm now on the brakes to keep the speed down and still gaining. He says hit the pedal, and I said it's a cable it won't work. Says throw it in neutral and I'm not going to let it blow. Well I have already turned the key off about 4 times with no luck and he didn't see it. I realize then why your suppose to run the resistor they send with the MSD to kill the juice. Anyway, 1 other thing he didn't know about my car is that the steering wheel lock didn't work. He yells turn the key off, stupid so, I turn the ignition off, took the key out and handed it to him, and said now what :? It looked like 2 tug boat lights being turned on, as his eyes about popped out of his head screaming turn it back on, turn it back on, as he was trying to get the key back in it. :lol: Anyway at about 127mph I was still on the brake and started pushing with both feet to keep the engine together. Lucky for me I was to cheap to replace both head gaskets as the other 1 blew and I was able to get the RPM's down to 2500 and get it off the side of the road. He then jumped out and hit the linkage and it died. The next thing was out both front wheels(welds) was the glowing red and fire. I had a water bottle for checking the headers and had him spraying the drivers side and I unzipped and was spraying the pas. side to keep the wheels from melting. What a sight :oops: . Needless to say he helped me put the resistor in the next day before we changed both head gaskets.

[earthquake]

I had a 78 Chevy truck I pieced together out of spare parts. I took it to the track one night for a "run what ya' brung" night. I broke down on the way there and got to the track late. I jumped in to the staging lanes with my tools and air tank in the front seat floor with me. I pulled up next to what sounded like a pretty healthy 3rd gen Camaro with open headers.

The tree came down and I mashed on the throttle. I smoked the tires to about half track and stayed wheel to wheel with the Camaro. I got back to the staging lanes and started to hand the tools and air tank over to my now, ex-wife.

The guy comes running up to me in the staging lanes and said,"What the he!! is in that thing?! I couldn't lose you and you were smoking the tires 'till halftrack!!"

I popped the hood to let him see. He asked, "what is that?"

.....a 472 Cadillac with some work done.

As soon as I said that, the front of the truck was buried in people trying to get a look at it. So much for my "secret weapon"

[sds10racer]

this didn't happen at the track. was on the way home after the races and was pulling in to the truck stop at i-90 and saw a few truck ahead of me. looked in the lane that pu and cars fuel up and saw a truck hauling beehives fueling up. all around the truck was a big cloud of bees swarming. well, i was tempted to go right on by. instead i called my next to oldest son that used to work with bees to ask him what my odds were on getting stung if i fueled up anyway. he said just don't swat em, it'll make em mad. well, it was my turn, so i pulled up, wussed out and put on my jacket and pulled up the hood. started fueling up and noticed they weren't buzzing me so i relaxed and finished up. went in and paid up and was walking back to the rig and noticed the swarm was all around the trailer and race pu. the pu is white. bee hives are white. looked at the back of the pu and it was covered with bees. inside and out. called my son again and asked him if they'll just fly away when i take off and he said most of them will. it took about 5 miles till they were all off the outside. got home and looked inside the cab and there was about 100 or so inside dead or dying due to the heat.