When someone oils down the track

Yesterday at local race track

Non-Mopar

At about the 1250 mark, his filter gasket decided to leave its home (Wix)

Put 2 1/2 quarts on the track, he went for a wild ride but, kept it pointed mostly straight , fast car ..

I have known him for most of my life, told him .. don't run it again

"why?) --I said, well I bet you nicked a bearing or two or all

Bet it lost oil for moment and at 6000 + rpms, it hurt it
said still has Oil pressure ?

so worried about points, goes up

and dumps the crank on the track , and was really upset about all his bad luck ..

2nd ride was wild again but, got it gathered up

That wasn't bad luck , that was being stubborn

That wasn't stubborn. That was stupid. He isn't paying his mortgage with his winnings. If he is he's a fool. It's his hobby. Not his life. And even then, it's not worth the carnage to do what he did for a trophy that has little value

That was just stupid. No excuse. Stupid.

Or stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL.

You beat me.

he has I think at last count 8 drag cars

he had two at the track being raced by others yesterday ( non family)

He is just a dedicated racer, has won several track championships

good guy but, a bit too determined to get back to Memphis

I'm glad he didn't put it on the cage , he did some driving

HA! It so rare I get the drop on anyone I'm giving myself a morning candy bar!!! I get the giggles when I cut an .080 light!!

Not to mention making a mess for the track to clean up, twice, and endangering the guy in the other lane.

1st time , ok ..but that 2nd one was not needed

A brand new 'Vette went off the end of the track a couple of years ago at Tulsa Raceway Park when we were there. I was the next one down in his lane and saw backup lights!! Fortunately he was stuck in the gravel.

Stock 'Vette, no reason to go off as they have a long shutdown area.

He has a belly pan and suspension FULL of gravel and what does he do? Promptly pulls back around to the starting line and dumps that all over the track during his burnout!!

some guys just don't get it

Made my last time run at a Divisional in Tuscon, and heard a rattle on the top end. Told my buddies I was done, that I thought it hurt a piston. It was Saturday night, so we had a BBQ and some beers, and I must've fired the car 10 times so everyone could listen, and they all came to the same conclusion.
"It's fine! You're being paranoid! Pull up there for first round in the morning, and if it sounds funny down track, then lift, but at least give yourself a chance!"

They convinced me, so the next morning I rolled into the burnout box, grabbed the line lock, took it to 6K in low, then shifted to second and rolled out of the box. Right before the tires bit, the old 440 locked up and tossed all it's guts on the pavement!
Couple of pistons and a freshen, it would still be racing! Nothing was saved in the shortblock, destroyed a nice Milodon pan also!

if I was racing the Mirada.... the mill owed me nothing, I’d a filtered it, filled it and sent it!
Duster mill... unobtanium 9.20 deck. Precaution level much higher!

Few years back on a Saturday night at Monster Mopar i was racing in no box 4th round. Norwalk. Some here probably remember this.
Was about three car lengths behind the guy i was chasing down, he broke out ultra bad( still cant figure that out) just as i crossed the finish line on a 10.01 pass, i went immediately toward the wall in the left lane.
I did an excellent job( in hindsight) saving the car from hitting the wall. Got it back to the middle, handled a couple major wiggles, and got it slowed down. Lots of smoke in the rearview mirror, and oops, zero oil pressure.
Wix oil filter let go.
Back in the pits i am white as a sheet sitting on a trailer while an army of friends jack up the car start brake cleaning under it, all over was oil , and Chuck Millen from Best Machine( who built the motor) offers up fresh oil and a filter. Must have been 50 guys around by this time, all helping in one fashion or another. Tires off, cleaning brakes, you name it, oil had gotten on it.
At this point i had zero intention of continuing on in eliminations while the track was getting cleaned up from my mess before the next round. Frankly a little shellshocked and nervous.
Somebody said, forget who it was now.... “ get back in that car now or you never will”
I ultimately got back in it, drove around the pits trying to find something wrong so i could avoid going back to the staging lanes.
I went back, zero issues ever again with that motor, that night, or at all until couple years later it was due for a freshen up due to amount of laps on it.
So, results can vary.

30 years or so as I was going thru the traps I glanced and saw my oil pressure drop. It was an old fashioned.030 over stock crank, stock rod, TRW pistons build that ran highs 9’s in the 1/4 mile. I loaded up and took it home that Sunday. I pulled the oil pan on my open car trailer at home to take a peek. As I started with number one main I pulled the cap and the bearing looked great and left the cap off. Number two was fair and when I pulled the thrust cap I thought I saw something move. Well I did as the crank was busted in half. I pulled the engine on Monday and tore into it changing the crank and bearings. With two friends taking care of the rods I lowered a fresh crank in, finished it up, and raced that Friday. Man I wish I could work like that now. This was evening work as I worked 8-4 in the steel mill.

Big dad,

I realize this is minor point but I gotta ask...does this guy preach against over tightening oil filters and or is there a chance he simply put it on loose?

(Applying the 5 whys to this scenario)

No, he has multiple race cars and makes many laps , not sure why the gasket blew out, was not a fresh oil change so he told me

I had this happen to a 340, i had made a pass and when I got my helmet off at the ET shack I though the car in front of me was knocking. It was then I noticed my oil pressure gauge bouncing. The car sounded like someone was beating on a frying pan with a spoon. I said this to my friends "oh well it was due to be freshened up anyways as long as its not the crank it will be OK". Took it apart that night and the only thing broken.....the crank! If I had another crank we could have made it back out for the midnight drags.

No diaper?

No

Give Russ a call. Don’t be “that” guy

While the diaper helps, on a big block it would have done nothing for this. My diaper doesn't contain the filter.

Was not a Mopar

IMO, Should have a engine diaper and should be fined at least 100 bucks the second time it happens.

I choose not to go to a big track thats only 20 min from me do to long drawn out oil downs,i go to a small out law track where there is rarly a oil down

The track BigDad races at, might as well be an outlaw track.

Hey now !

I've raced at much, much, much worse than the valley

allegedly , they are going to resurface track next year .

Guardrails are not too great but, don't hit'em !

Stubborn or stupid, I believe I would have taken it home, looked into why it blew the filter seal and checked for damage before making another pass. No amount of points are worth a wrecked race car.

You have to listen to it when it talks to you, even though sometimes it whispers! Kept me from making small problems into big ones.

I know I’ve told this story before but looking at my RacePak read out I discovered a high volume oil pump bypass must have been sticking and my oil pressure was Jumping to 130 pounds of pressure during a run. Who knows what would have happened if I didn’t catch that.

I remember that night, that's been a while back, lol.

Would have the next pass!

TVD getting some track love would be great!

We got a new timing slip shack !

On a concrete pad no less , of all the things needed

And I got a new sin bin parked at the track now too !

I've done exactly as described. Wix filter, gasket blows out, oil on the track, sliding all over, manage to not hit anything (airport track with no walls). That was the final so racing done for the day.

Took it home, cleaned the car up, 4 new tires, changed the oil, cut open the filter. All looked good, raced again the next weekend and won the race.

I think it was 2011 at mopars at Indy guy wheelstands smashes oil pan and oils the complete lane,next day comes back and does the same exact thing.On sunday morning his whole race operation was wrapped in caution tape.And yes I blew my motor in the semi's but pulled over instantly so not much to clean up.

That’s why your face comes up when I google “baller”! ....that was a pretty wicked video!

Sounds more like complacency, than stupid, or stubborn. The more you do anything, the more you know, or at least think you know about what you can get away with.

Guess that's why they say complacency kills. Personally guilty of it myself.

I was at Indy in 79 (I think that was the year) when Ron Mancini took his big spill in his Hemi Dart, at that time an A/MP car. Nasty looking crash. Went end over end over the guardrails....

He went past us about the 8th mile and you could see oil running under the car. Next thing you know.....

What happened is that the still pipe nipple that the filter screws on had backed out of the aluminum Milodon pump, thus detaching the filter. I've seen that happen at least twice more over the years..Ronnie McClelland's Bud's Auto Sales 66 Hemi Nostalgia Super stocker did it in the lights at Beaver Springs on a 9.70 pass, giving him a memorable ride through the lights.

Something about that steel nipple in those aluminum pump housings....now, we use loc tite and check it from time to time. In this case, we pulled the pan and checked the bearings, they were fine and he ran it again the next weekend. There is no way we would have run it again without giving it the once over.

At the most I might of taken it up, staged it and hoped the other guy went red... and just coasted down the track.