Dumbest things you have learned at a drag strip

A few years back I am at an IHRA national event with a buddy and the Nitro Harley's were running.
I notice a puff of smoke out about the 1000 foot mark seemingly with every pair going down the track.
I said to my friend, " are they running those things so hard they are coming apart"
He says, no, you dummy, that is the front tire coming down you are seeing.
I was like.......... Wow.......

I learned about "back pressure" and tires needing "griptions" to work right......

motors blow up.

Some people will sell you no good used parts at the track

When your kid has diarrhea don't take him. Lol

When I first started drag racing we had lots to learn, at the track with a big block Chrysler that gave us trouble for months we learnt it had a small block points distributor, they are opposite rotation !!! Top that off with a timing tape that was on backwards !!! Holding on to the timing light dumb and dumber .

When you break a u joint on the starting line, don't reach under the car to pull the driveshaft out so it pushes backward easier. 2 things will happen:

1: you'll burn the )$&@ out of your arm
2: a quart of gear oil will leak out of the trans onto the starting line area, causing a half hour cleanup and evil looks from everybody stuck in the staging lanes due to your stupidity.

Haha.... Good... Lol

Forty years ago I learned it was better to lift if you wound up in the other lane after launch!
It is also a good idea to disable the column lock if you want to cut the motor clean for a spark plug reading. It can get exciting at 118 mph if you don't.
If Ronnie Sox tells you to short shift your 440, listen to him! You might go faster!

Put ramps down, then back car off trailer. Luckily I was early, and there wasn't many people there to see this, and it did no damage.

Jumped into the right hand side of my lhd 63 Ply (im Aussie rhd is normal)during a night meeting, no passenger seat so ass on the floor and smacked my head on the cage, looking up over the dash to see who was looking I slithered across to the drivers seat.

Don`t pull UP TO the tree.............

Don't bypass the neutral safety switch.

the learning curve from a manual valve body..... to a reverse manual valve body.

When driving backwards out of control... turn your head around to see where you are going.

I will also "second" the steering lock thing

Don`t forget your neutral safety switch isn't hooked up and start your car in 1st when they pull you into the burnout box...........

Hood pins, especially with hemi hood.

Ouch

LOL! @ hood pins.... was rolling in the lanes in Vegas once night when I noted what was missing. Left my hood up against the wall and made a pass.

Fuel is ALWAYS required for proper operation of a motor vehicle. Seriously, no kidding, if you don't put fuel in the tank, it will cease to opertate.

If your desperate to have a fish fry at the race track and you are out of coleman fuel in your camp stove, race gas works!!

Also If you are racing in 90 degree weather and have a 32a15 fire suit anti monkey butt powder is your friend!

uh-huh!

If you race car feels like its leaning out on the one, two shift and then again at the 1000 foot line, PLEASE take your foot off the go peddle. Ask me how I know!!!

You can fit two adults on one tiny little minibike. Use C-clamps as foot rests.

Don't leave your tire gauge laying on the trunk. Track officials will return it, but in my experience they wont be real happy about it.

I did that exact same thing three weeks ago, everyone saw it, took two jacks and a lot of help to get it off the trailer, no harm done.

When you run Open Comp for the first time and they say take a tenth off best qualifying pass and that's your number for the event. So best was 10.29 and I put 10.39 on the window No...No...No...numerically Dumbazz...

The car won't move if you don't let go of the trans brake button

Big fuel pumps make a mess when you forget to put the fuel lines back on the bowls after a jet change.

A big cam will hide the fact that you left a plug wire off after reading plugs from your last pass...then really make you wonder why the car feels so daggum sluggish in the water box.

Many years ago a co worker was at the track with his car for his first time out. His friends were helping out. He was in the burnout box and his friends were dumping water under the tires. He did his burnout and staged. One of his friends ran up to the car while it was staged and poured water under his tires.

ha ha ha ha!

Don't drive 2 1/2 hrs to the track with out keys (locking column). Unless you bring Dizuster with you. Then it's a 10 minute operation to pick the trunk and ignition.
Doug

Yep... did that twice(not on the same day)...
hood pins.. yep... already did that on the Rampage,
its a hinged hood.. took off down the street checking
the trans.. it started to lift in front and came up
before I could slow it down... minimal damage(paint)..
make sure you have a dues fastener tool at all times
or a dime to open the hood when it catches on fire under
the hood

This one happened to a very good Friend of mine not once but twice many many years ago in his Chevele. When leaving the starting line in your 4 speed car double check to make sure its in 1st gear and NOT reverse.

I was racing in Woodburn a few years back in S/ST lucky enough to make it to the finals my opponent said in the stands no one has beat me to the strip. It's a 10.90 class?? needless to say I couldn't beat him to the strip either he was 15 car links ahead I lifted still broke out but 10.889 to his 10.743

A fresh Dana 60 will make exactly one pass without gear lube before it seizes

Never ever listen to anybody that says spray your points distributor down with WD40 to dry it out from a heavy rain - the resulting explosion will remove the cap from distributor for you and its a long way home if you drove the car to the strip.

When you let the clutch out on your bike at 10,000 rpm, make sure it is in gear.

When you launch your stick car let go of the line lock button before the front wheels come down.

When racing your late model truck, don't wait until you're one round out of the money to discover that turning on the defroster also starts the A/C compressor. It will kil .15 and your racing for the night.

in the finals in sept. smacked the guy on the tree was going to a smarta$$ and tag the brakes on the big end , and i showed him how to slide my car sideways
cheap hamburgers will cook well after the grease fire starts

Pit where you can hear the call for your class.
Missed fourth round call last week.

Roll down the window of the tow vehicle if you are going to leave it running so you don't lock yourself out of the vehicle.

Don't lock your trailer for the night with all your keys in it. Now my buddy and i have the same key for our trailers!!!!

Don't use a Mountain Dew can to drain your float Bowls. Race gas tastes like SH1T!

Not at the track but my friends garage.His cousin had a nitro Harley.New motor and went to fire it.It lit and stalled.Needless to say they didnt clear it before trying to relite it.When they did it came apart big time.One piece that just missed another friend is still in the wall. Needless to say that was like 12k down the drain fast.Rocky

If the guy you're racing is staged a car-length behind you and just sitting there, make sure you're not staging with your rear wheels.
Keep your hand off the shifter at the leave (RVMB) so you don't IMMEDIATELY hit 2nd gear.
Make sure BOTH ramps on the trailer are down before backing the car off.

I learned that engines don't run worth a crap with the distributor cap loose!!

I was getting lucky going a few rounds at my first NMCA heads up class race, as the car was real slow for some reason. Found out the rod connecting the carb secondaries was bent and they were only partially opening. Fixed that and was ready to show 'em! In the semi's now, and my opponent's car broke a valve spring after he started it in the staging lanes. Going to the final I thought, must be my day! Battery takes a dump and my car won't fire, and it was a good thing, I'd left the hood pins off after hustling to fix the carb!

Felt like a complete idiot, lesson learned, I go over everything twice now even though I'm sure I already did it.

Don't raise adj. your pinion snubber, if fuel pump is in the way.

When you can read your name on the side of your car in your rear view mirror while it's on the trailer and you are going down the highway at 65 MPH, you aint got enough tongue weight.

4.5 psi in the slicks is NOT enough.

we dug a friends Dart out of the weeds and went racing. After the first pass, I noticed one wheel had only 3 lug nuts....small track, no tech inspection. Good thing it was slow as #%@!

just how many old guys had 440 6 pak hemi's back in the day.

When camping out at the track, focus on the task at hand.......like when you get out of your trailer early in the morning to go power up the inverter for your coffee maker dont look around anywhere except your tow vehicles battery and inverter because the 300 pound chick pitted next door might be peeing out in the open. I still have nightmares seeing that huge porpoise butt.

Don't pull your gearbox apart twice because you have no reverse after fitting a new trans brake valve body, there is nothing wrong with reverse !!! Just push the button.

I got two out of mine....Then it went the rest of the season before I stripped the teeth off it from the heat treating it got.


Also, When you pull into the pits after a run and lift the hood to find the air cleaner loose but not the nut that holds it down....Check in the carb.

When you loose the stick that you set your fuel level with and you can't find it anywhere....Look inside the fuel cell.

Never lock the trailer until you have left the track....

When you ride thru the grassy areas of the pits and your four wheeler kicks up smelly dirt that got flung all over you and the wheeler, its probably not dirt....

Check the battery switch is on before you get all strapped into the car...

And no matter what, always put the hood pins back in.

When the track ambulance beats you to a stop at the end of the track, you are having a bad day - and you broke a lot of stuff on that run.

When your left brake hose is shot you will go toward the wall...if your in the left lane

[/quote]

Check the battery switch is on before you get all strapped into the car...

[/quote]

^^This!^^

John

^^This!^^

John [/quote]

Same here.... a FEW times... luckily the wife
was with me

ALWAYS... ALWAYS pull the safety pin on the chute..
it will be the one time you NEED it

Uh-huh, same here. Luckily my husband was with me.

And he likes to buckle me up in the harness. I finally figured out how to do it on my own a few weeks ago.

come back after a run and leave the water pump on as you go be social

On that note , if you have a tilt bed trailer don't release the front straps before tilting the trailer with the 4speed out of gear ...

Luckily it was a Wednesday night and I was in a not so populated section of the pits when the car rolled off while I was tipping the trailer ... no damage ...

When backing out of the trailer and the car
suddenly stops moving.. dont pull forward and
go at it harder... your collector might be hitting
the tailgate/ramp( I needed the front of the trailer
up higher to get a more level angle on the ramp/door)
it can and most likely will hurt your headers

Ah, another one I just remembered: When you reinstall the throttle cable bracket after having it plated, check for full throttle.

Dumbest things I have learned at a drag strip. going up for 3rd round, i didn't suddenly become the most popular guy at the track because everyone was waving at me. I learned that my big roll around battery charger tows quite well when pulled by the racecar.




Joe

When going down the track and you shift into 3rd gear and wonder why it seems so sluggish...you realize your thumb is still on the line-lock button. Then when you get back to the pits you buddy asks you why your brake lights were on most of the way down the track?????

Final round, do the burn out and pull to the line. Bring it up to 4600 and dump the clutch. Learned 3 things , don't leave in 2nd gear , you will loose and I needed to now replace the clutch disc,

If you have to pump the brakes three times to hold the car in the staging beams...you may have trouble getting slowed down in time to make the return road.

The lesson from the Gebhart brothers' first time at the track with our own car.

First mod I ever did to my car, first time ever at a drag strip (I was 17) I had installed a ram air intake on my 96 Impala SS, took a run down the track and when I let off the throttle at the traps the car wouldn't stop pulling, At first I panicked and tried the brakes but then by some miracle it occurred to me that I should shut the car off. I rolled it off to the side dumbfounded at what happened.

When I installed the intake, I had the hose clamp to the throttle body clocked so that the throttle lever was hitting the screw before reaching full throttle. When I mashed the gas at the track, I must have floored it so hard that it pushed the throttle lever over the screw but then it could not return so it was stuck at full throttle.

The funniest part about it was that the entire week before I had thought that car felt much slower after installing the intake but I couldn't figure out why. I was never getting full throttle.

Don't forget to put your helmet on. Got past the staging lane guy, the guy that signals you to move to the water box, the water box guy and the starter.

if I see a orange cone on the way to the staging lanes, don't wonder who's it is. Go look at at cause it was mine.

You CAN start a grass fire with downturned exhaust headers and leaned out alky injection---- the pit crew gets real excited too

So that's why I can't find any decent front end stuff in the bone yard!