I have seen people loose sight of their racing goals, go fast, beat their completion and HAVE FUN after racing for several years. I took me over 15 yrs racing in NHRA stock class racing for me to come to my senses at the 1988 World Finals in Pomona, I had let a friend drive my Stocker at that race and he had red lighted(-.498) in the class finals against Mary Ann Method and outran her
We got rained out after that and had to come back the following weekend to finish that race, he red lighted again in the 1/4 finals by -.493
I remember walking from the pits up to the staging lanes and found myself biting my tonque and being very stress out and mad about drag racing in general when it finally hit me, I hadn't had any fun drag racing in over four years I hadn't won a race in the last four years either
I was trying to sell the stocker and I did that right after that race and took up flying lessons the next spring
I had wanted to be a pilot for a long time but the time and money constraints wouldn't allow me to do both until the stocker went away.
I found out later that flying is a lot of work and general flying is not a lot of fun for me, aerobatics is though
I ended up buying a small 7 passenger airplane( Piper Cherokee 6 260HP) with a friend and that deal went sour so he bought me out six months later
I ended up doing some car trading and cash for my own airplane a year later in 1991, a 1960 Piper Comanche 250 with a 260 HP Lycoming motor It was fast (185 MPH cruise at 2400 RPM straight and level)and comfortable but it wasn't a good toy to fly somewhere close (within 100 miles from your home airport) for lunch like most small airplane owners use their airplanes for. I kept it until 2006 (We flew it al over the western U.S. and had a lot of fun traveling. I put a little over 900 hrs. in that airplane) when it got totaled by a hail storm after moving it up here to Bend, OR
Bottom line is I've been hooked on drag racing for a long time, I won my first trophy in 1964, and ended up going back to doing it with the reservation that I would quit again when it wasn't fun anymore
I have friends who went to the races to have fun and I use to Poo Poo them about not being a serious racer
DON'T be that person Have fun and be safe