SOmeone asked so here: GOOF UPS AT THE TRACK

My stupidist track mess up thus far(I say that because my luck or lack there of is legendary across the nation) is doing my burnout staging and launching only to find out I forgot to turn my fuel pump on. The second stupidist thing is I got beat by a honda cuz I lauched at 3500 with street tires and burned them close to 250 ft. The third stupidist is I left a hat on top of my car and took off in the staging lanes and by the time I found it it was destroyed.

 

hahaha, that was good.

a while back I forgot to disconnect the battery charger and dragged it behind the car halfway across the pit area before someone stopped me. They said they hollered....but hearing them over an alky injected motor? Yeah right. I have done that twice now, not counting the time I dragged the gas-powered charger. You'd think those little alligator clips wouldn't be that strong. Ran out of gas once on the return road, once on the track...and got beat by a bone-stock slant six dodge dart, and numerous other foul-ups that I won't mention. I also remember my first sprint car ride. The car owner gives me the rundown on how to operate everything. Truck pushes the car, I keep giving it gas and turned the mag on...nothing happens. They keep pushing and it just won't start, so I kicked it out and coasted back to the pits. Car owner forgot to show me how to turn the fuel on (mechanical injection). 2nd time around, I get going, turn on the fuel, then the mag....and it instantly locks the rear tires (no spark retard...locked out, wont turn the motor over). We stop, they tell me to turn on the mag first then the fuel...3rd time around I finally figured it out. Mag, fuel....boom, its' running and idling at 35-40 mph. Those things are pure adrenaline.

If you've been in racing long enough, stuff like that is bound to happen at one time or another.

 

That's some funny stuff, guys!

One to remember:

Year's ago, I was drag racing my '72 Hurst Olds at the local track. Back then, you had to wear a helmet no matter how slow the car was.

My little brother (16 at the time) had gotten into the pit crew's "kool-aid" and decided he wanted to race his new '76 Chevette.

Knowing we had to share my helmet, I raced up to the line and slapped my helmet on my soused little brother's head just before as he was being asked to back out because he didn't have one on (note: I was younger and stoopider then).

Thing is, in the rush to get him going, I slapped the helmet on his head (without strapping it down) and he pulls forward to stage. I'm looking at him in the car and I notice something strange looking about the helmet - I'd put it on his punkin' head BACKWARDS!

The lights go down and he's "off to the races". He came back to the pits wearing it the same way it went on! bahahaha! That was the funniest sight I'd ever seen I do believe.

He later said, that during his blistering 22 second journey down the quarter mile, he was consantly pushing the helmet off his nose so he could see the track ahead of him.

Good times, indeed.

 

Worst thing I ever did so far was forgetting to turn the fuel pump on. I'm sure I'll be able to top that one day.

 

1st. I broke the shifter cable off the shifter, track operator didnt think it was right for me to use vise grips?

2nd At the roundup, I thought the car might be quicker on 3 wheels...well it wasnt?

 

since i mentioned this topic i guess it's only fair to mention one of mine. was running my 64 fairlane, 302, 15 second car. did my burnout and rolled up to the starting line. starter told me to roll down the window. he asked me if this was mine and was holding a helper spring. i said yes so he threw it on the back floor. got ready to go. i brought the rpm up and the lights came down and i nailed it. only problem was i forgot to put the car back into gear.

 

Ha Ha!
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Okay, so I did a 330' burnout once when my accelerator stuck to the floor. I was standing on the brake with my left foot and stomping hell outta the accelerator pedal with my right while holding a death grip at 10 and 2 on the steering wheel.

'Nothing a little WD-40 on the cable couldn't handle in the pits.

All my buddies thought I was going for the $100 longest burnout contest!

 

I forgot to mention the time(s) that I broke the throttle cable, did the burnout, pulled to the line, bought it up on the converter, whack the gas...it goes, then back to idle, all the while my foot is planted. I idled all the way down the track, which took about 30 seconds. Must have been the slowest Maverick pass ever. Also, once I pulled into the water, and as I did, the starting line crew was clearing a mess of gravel from a pickup truck in front of me, so I layed off a minute 'til they were done. They got it cleared, gave me the OK and I hit the throttle....after about 5 seconds I realized that I was still in neutral, then shifted to high gear (foot still on floor) and proceeded to do the burnout. Couldn't have been good on the trans...or the motor. It was probalby spinning in excess of 8000 (it would do that in high gear in the burnout box) when I pulled into high from neutral. Never seemed to affect it though (C4). Went the rest of the season on the same trans...no problems at all.

 

I was running test-n-tune one night with the old truck and the track also had a paying 7.49 class run. Buddy of mine was running that class and his battery goes dead. I told him he could use mine and I would just sit in stands until he was done. He was eliminated couple of rounds later. Track makes last call for test -n-tune and he throws the battery in my truck and in the haste to get to the lanes neither one of us remembers to put the hold down on the battery. I made my run and when I got to the end of the turn off lane the truck shuts off and a puff of smoke comes up from under the hood. I coast it off into the grass behind the ticket shack. Lift up the hood and here is the battery hanging by the cables throwing arcs off the inner fender. I guess it slid off the tray when I made the turn. Burned off a couple of feet of wire before I could get a rag out of the truck and pull the terminals.. Luck we were also in too much of a hurry to actually put a wrench on the cables too.

Cleaver

 

Didn't happen to me, but the funniest thing I've seen lately is a guy that was running a '75ish Camaro (in really bad condition) with a horrible rear suspension.

When he started to come up on the converter, the ass end of the car came up what looked to be about two foot.

Right at launch, IT POOPED OUT A FREAKING COIL SPRING! He went one way and the spring went the other!

Of course he didn't know he'd lost the spring and ran the quarter mile out all the way.

The next time I saw him run (at a different track), it looked like he'd welded the suspension down. The only suspension he had was in the tires themselves. The ass end of the car bounced all the way down the track!

 

Well, you've read about mine but may as well post it here.. I had already been to the track twice without incident, so I figured I had my fire extinguisher secured good enough. Didn't turn out to be the case last time as it got loose when I launched and proceeded to empty itself inside the car! When I heard it pop, I was sure I had blown up the motor. I was quite relieved when I saw the extinguisher laying on the back floorboard in a pile of dust!

Pics are the launch, the smoke, and the mess (that back seat is black )

 

since we're confessing. at last years et finals in bakersfield calif. we bought some breakfast on the way to the track and brought it with us. we ate then i got the car all ready. i put the hood on the car. after that i started to feel pretty bad. i had to run to the port a john. was in there over 1/2 hour. when i came out everyone had gone to the staging lanes. i hopped into the car and took off. i did my burnout and staged. when the lights came down i launched and soon after the hood launched. i saw it come down in my rear view mirror and land on the track. i forgot to put the hood pins in. duh. worst thing was they motioned me to keep on going so i had to go back to the starting line to pick up the hood in front of all the people. it was a us body fiberglass hood, i put it back on. just had a few scrapes.

 

last night my buddy in a maverick got down to 5 cars in the pro class. he launched first being the slower car. got down to the other end of the track. thought the other car was coming in his blind spot. went across the line, broke out and lost. the other guy had stalled and was still at the startind line. his et was about 25.00 and won. oops.

 

Worse 2 for me so far (I think)1st was backing the car up in the pits, raised the hood to put the cleaner over the carb, walk to the back of the car realized i was not close enough for the charger to reach, get in the car, start it up, put it in reverse, go to put my foot on the brake, but it the gas pedal instead, make a quick recovery, when slamming on the brakes the hood falls, hood prop falls backwards (out across the fender).
oooops.
2nd one was trying to unload the car, removed straps, put one ramp down, a person came up and ask for a air pressure gauge. So I get it out of the van. Climb up in the car, fire it up and start backing off the trailer. Going real slow I feel the car lean "weirdly" on the passenger side. Pull forward, get out and looked, realized I did not put the other ramp down. Could have been real bad.

 

I had a 66 F-100 w/ a 390 FE in it... raced the mess out of it.
For some reason I could NOT get the carb lined out, but raced it anyways.. Finally got it lined out.. then the timing went weird on me. Had to back it down, start it. put it back, tighten it down. I won several rounds each week this way however.
One weekend my buddy was already out for the day. so he follows me to the track to watch.
I pull up, back into the burnout box, start to burn out, it coughs and dies, i try to crank it back up, it catches fire. Buddy puts the fire out with his had, retards the timing, I fire it back up, he advances it, slams the hood... and I continue to stage.
I even won that race