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My point is to know your track. If that guy knew of the lake, he would have tried to spin the car out or turn away.

The two tracks I have raced at mostly over the years I know well and would have a strategy for brake failure. Edgewater has a pretty long shutdown and a sand (mostly mud) trap, then a few trees at the edge of the Great Miami River. There were a few deaths years ago when fast cars went into the river. I have talked to bracket racers that lost brakes there, they were able to make the turn onto the return road (or into the adjacent field) without turning over.

Tri-State Dragway is similar, although they run S/P and Pro on 1/8th mile now. Go straight and you will hit 100 ft. of corn, then the river. Turn left and you can try to make the return road or more corn and then trees.

I believe that both Indy and Columbus have the large catch nets installed now.

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What ever you think, there are always options...reverse at triple digit speeds is NOT one.

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There was a guy about 5-6 years ago that was running a pretty hot Vette, ran like a high 4 eighth mile, was running at our local track.

The car came off strong and broke traction around the 60' mark, he lifted and then nailed it again. I recall thinking that was pretty dumb at the moment. It sure was.

The throttle hung and when he got to the stripe he pulled the chutes and they just sort of popped open and collapsed in a half second or so.

Instead of just hitting the kill switch, he simply held on as the car ran about 1/4 mile under full throttle. He hit the trees at the end right after he minced the hay bails and such. He lived but was air lifted. Never really heard anything after that. The Vette was hauled out of the woods in tiny pieces.

Still not sure why he didn't at least kill that motor. Maybe he was so spooked he froze up.

Every older racer at the track was shaking their head about how an experienced guy would try to get back on a busted run.

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Years ago i bought a 72 Challenger as a roller and dropped my street 440 and 727 into it. Unbeknownst to me , the car had a power brake master cylinder pushrod with a manual mc. There was no brake light switch either, so nothing to keep the rod from coming out,which it did on my first pass. What a surprise to find the brake pedal up against the bottom of the dash when it came time to stop. A downshift to 2nd didn't help much, so i went to reverse. I thought i could just bump reverse and put it back into neutral. Locked up the slicks and pitched the car sideways pretty good. Instantly. Can't say i wouldn't do it again but it would probably be a last resort. Im sure i was well below 100 mph when i thought to put it into reverse. Hate to think what would happen at high speed.

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downshift to first, and hit transbrake. That's what I would do

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Well, since this happened to my car. I kind of knew what to do, (after the fact.)
Since Billy D always shut the motor off after the stripe, he had no way of doing the correct thing. (that won't happen again)

If the engine is running ..Yes you can downshift into low gear, (powerglide) and start tapping the trans brake button.
It would most likely damage the trans, but the damage to my car, is much, much worse that a broken powerglide..
Just my from already having gone through it..


Chris..

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downshift to first, and hit transbrake. That's what I would do

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Well, since this happened to my car. I kind of knew what to do, (after the fact.)
Since Billy D always shut the motor off after the stripe, he had no way of doing the correct thing. (that won't happen again)

If the engine is running ..Yes you can downshift into low gear, (powerglide) and start tapping the trans brake button.
It would most likely damage the trans, but the damage to my car, is much, much worse that a broken powerglide..
Just my from already having gone through it..


Chris..

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exactly

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most mopar bracket guys run a torqueflite with a no low band apply trans.
so going into 1st will only make you free wheel.

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I think you will find more and more ARE running an LBA valve body these days. Both my 904's have LBA's, and my turd isn't even that fast. At RT66 I'd have to stay in it to the 2000' mark just to coast to the end of the shut down.

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There was a guy about 5-6 years ago that was running a pretty hot Vette, ran like a high 4 eighth mile, was running at our local track.

The car came off strong and broke traction around the 60' mark, he lifted and then nailed it again. I recall thinking that was pretty dumb at the moment. It sure was.

The throttle hung and when he got to the stripe he pulled the chutes and they just sort of popped open and collapsed in a half second or so.

Instead of just hitting the kill switch, he simply held on as the car ran about 1/4 mile under full throttle. He hit the trees at the end right after he minced the hay bails and such. He lived but was air lifted. Never really heard anything after that. The Vette was hauled out of the woods in tiny pieces.

Still not sure why he didn't at least kill that motor. Maybe he was so spooked he froze up.

Every older racer at the track was shaking their head about how an experienced guy would try to get back on a busted run.

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did he get knocked out? very possible.

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I'm always just a bit suprised on the people that want to go FAST 1st, slow down 2nd ..

More than once , I've had someone come up to me and say

"wow, the shut down area is short"

Did you go look at the end before you belted in ?

Ahh, gee ..No I didn't ?

Kidding me right ..No man, I didn't ..

You dumb chit ..

I have a nice brakes and a chute and think about what if each and every pass ..

Sadly few do ..

i have a friend with a old tea cup master cylinder , Hemi car goes low , low 10's big old heavy b-body ..seen it go 10.19

thinks its cool , "nostalgic"

Be real cool flying off the end at a buck 135

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yep that was the whole point for the thread, to make people think. but some find it idiotic

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Put it in Reverse.

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that tends to rip the outer race of the overruuning clutch out of the case

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How? The band stops the rear drum which stops the sprag inner race.

A local Pro Gas racer once stuffed it in Reverse at 130+ mph, (trying to hit Neutral so he could read the plugs) brought the trans to me for a look/see and I couldn't find any damage.

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Don't know John , but when I was 17 or 18 I did it in my moms 72 fury doing about 45mph , the rears locked and the engine stalled. A few years later when we junked the car I saved the trans , took it apart and when I flipped it bellhousing side down the outer race and a piece of the case fell on the floor ...

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If like you say he traveled a mile before ending up in the lake why not just shut down the engine in gear and let the distance of the shut down bring you to a slow controlled stop or controlable speed?I have seen guys blow an engine at the stripe and leave the car in gear,not touch the brakes because of oil and get it slowed enough to exit the track to the return road,even using the resistance of a rearend spool to even slow it more while exiting and steering on the return road to a safe stop.Locking slicks up at speed isn't my idea of fun.

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especially at gainsville....hell, I went through the traps at 160+ on seven cylinders, missed the second exit and took forever to get to the end of the track...that sucker is loooong

I bet If I never hit the brakes it wouldn't have coasted to the end

Now I know Gainsville is an exception....some tracks it could get nasty quick

Rickster