Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

I think I could write a book. Here are some good ones.---Memphis class final,pinion nut backs off pinion falls out but does not lock up rear. As a luck would have it I reused the ring and pinion only having to replace the pinion bearing.------Elim final York Us 30 at night. Racing Al Corda I saw headlights comming right at us at a 1000 ft. An airplane came out onto the track(which was an airstrip) and took off right over top of us.----Sportsnationals No Problem,LA. Got on the brakes to hard and blew out both front tires. With no brakes thank goodness for long shut down. Just grazed wall.-------US RT 70 Columbia.Mo. stopped @ construction site 18 wheeler does'nt. Pushes Motorhome 3 ft into my trailer and my truck into flat bed in front of me. Truck&trailer junk, car lots of damage.-------Riding in my truck around loop Dallas Tx. @ night a 3ft 30lb. boom extendtion from a wrecker comes through my windshield with enough force to break off bucket seat. Needless to say it was on the pass. side or I'm not writing this.-----Two bad experiences on RT 40 comming home from Pomona near Needles,Ca. One time truck motor went south and I had to spend Thanksgiving on the road. And another time going thru @ night I felt a vibration (rolling along about 80) pulled off next exit to find I only had 2 lugs out of 8 holding dual wheels on. I had to rob 3 off of the other side to get by.----But with out a doubt the worst was Gary,IN. comming home from the Joliet race. I stopped @ the Flying J was gone from my rig no more than 15min. to come out and find everything gone,stolen just that quick. I can tell you it was a sick feeling . I was very lucky getting the rig and car back minus all my tools, spare parts, and some other stuff in the trailer.-----Other than these few occurances I have had alot of fun and good times. Oh by the way I have yet to fall off the roof of anything while "On The Road" like a buddy of mine.

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

.....oh really ?? :-)

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

Whoever stayed for the 1st attempt at the S/St finals at LVD Open in 2007 saw Larry Peotter & I get a liitle out of shape in the dirt at about 900 ft. My opponent in the semis had the left lane closet to the dirt track, which had been running for about 1/2 hr already, he was next to me off the line, looked again at 330 he wasnt there,saw him at ticket booth. He was screaming about the track,went to the tower, they said he was out of the grove. So I got ready for the final, got put in the left lane, at 8-900 feet they said at the starting line you could see both doors, I was lucky enough to save it & they made us rerun the final at Etown where I got my 1st Wally.

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

A guy asked me to drive his little tube chassis vega in box for a while.. Like 3rd round I ran a faster car and went to kill a bunch at the stripe cause I was get'n there a ton.. That little car had really good brakes because I proceeded to lock all 4 tires up and get dirt track sideways.. I didnt wreck it but man I thought I had.. It didnt scare me that I about wrecked, it scared me that I almost wrecked a car that wasnt mine.. I just kept thinking how was I gonna look him in the face if I had wrecked his car... My ole nova you could get on the brakes as hard as you wanted and it "might" attempt to slide the front wheels occaisionally, but this little car just locked em up.. I won that round, but was a lot more gracious with the brake pedal at the stripe..

I dont drive other peoples cars very much, just dont like it much, I drove another guys super gas car and I came down the hill from tech at clay city and didnt have a sign of a brake pedal.. (the master cylinder rod had fallen out).. Why people build cars and dont fix them where this cant happen I dont know.. The same guy didnt fix it where it couldnt happen again and hit a car in the lanes at bristol when it did it again.. Needless to say I never drove that car again..

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

Lost race car & trailer while driving down the road....
It was back in '80-'81, it was the last race of the year and we were nearly home, all we had to do was get over this last climb and we were good to go.

My partner was driving our truck at the time, and as he manually down shifted (4 speed) the truck near the bottom of this upcoming climb (to maintain some speed) the ball snaped and the safety chains let go, (YES it was the big 10,000 lbs. machined ball & large shaft).

We were doing about 70-75 when we hit the bottom of the hill... there we're four lanes, 2 going up & 2 coming down. We were in the far right hand lane. When the trailer (with the car on it) broke loose,
it took off across the 3 lanes on our left, just missed hiting 2 cars and a semi truck that were coming down the hill...

this steep hill had 200' drop offs on both sides... the trailer (with the car still on it ) just barely caught the end of the left hand gaurd rail... this grabbed the whole trailer & car up onto the gaurd rail where it sat there teetering. It could have went over the 200' drop at anytime.

About 15 mins later a HP came by... he called a wrecker (no cell phones back then )... and the wrecker came and pulled the trailer off of the rail.... we backed the car off the trailer and drove it to a friends place near by.

You can never be too careful or alert. and you can't check your equipment often enough... **** happens fast.. and That was some scary ****!

Larry

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

Was doing tech assignment for winners directing them to either the scales or fuel check at the Gatornationals back in the 70's. I was standing in the grass next to the ditch between the ET shack and the guardrail down past the finish line. Russell Mendez was driving a hydrogen peroxide dragster and just went over 312 mph when he pulled his chutes at the finish line. The front of the car came up slightly off the ground and when it set down the front wheels were turned to the right, resulting in the car turning to the right slightly. Now I am standing there and it is heading right at me and I am frozen with no place to go as it is approaching me at a blink of the eye rate. Unfortunately for Mendez the nose of the dragster went under the guardrail and clipped off three of the concrete supporting poles before it jammed under and came to an extremely sudden stop killing him immediately. It was a horrible sight to witness.

I guess that they do not want me upstairs/downstairs as this was one of six times that I should have died.

Ron Ortiz

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

Hey Tim.....Remind me never to hook up with you at the races....I like my lug nuts....worst that ever happened to me was coming out of the bathroom with my fly down...LOL......Hey have a Merry Christmas...Joe

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

Tim,

I would have to agree with Joe...that is some scary ***** you have been through. Glad I moved out of Division 1 and moved west to Division 6.

Had a scary on track incident this year myself. Track Medicine Hat, Alberta. NHRA National Open Double-header, Sunday race. Semi-finals of Super Gas. It had been raining off and on all day and in this part of the country, windy and a bit of a dust bowl. Dust blowing across top end of track much like what happens at Vegas. Sheer darkness. I'm racing Dennis White from Brandon, Manitoba for the upteenth time in the past 3 years. I'm out on Dennis in the right lane with a .019 light to his .100 something light. Past 330 car starts to fishtail and I end up following Dennis through the lights in his lane. I saw the wall for a lonnnnnnng time.

He goes on to win his first Wally and I nearly have a heart attack.

NHRA and track claim no responsibility as I asked if they found anything on track. Division Director and club president say they found nothing. Car is A-ok but I was not!

Kinda' reminded me of what happened to Alan Freese in Comp at LVM national this year. He went on his lid. I was lucky!

Be careful when you race at night after a rain delay and blustery winds!

Cheers!

Mike Ferstl
SG SR 6091

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

First scary moment ,E-town in '80 on a Wed nite. Super Street final. Both cars prestaged ,when the starter flips the red lites on and runs out frantically waving his arms to back up! .......The wheelstander that had just run before us, the "Back Up Pickup" decided to turn around and come back to the starting line one more time than was planned. ....Somehow managed to keep my head, and got the win. .....................Second scary moment, Maple Grove 1981 Money Trail S/ST race. ....I was leading the overall points and I blew up my car in time trials. .... George Menser,from S&W's speed shop offers me the use of his beautiful '69 Camaro convertable ! .........Won the 1/4 final round and as I hit the brakes, the pedal went to the floor!!........There was no sand trap back then , only the wire mesh catch fence before the road........I scrubbed off all the speed I could and with no time or room to spare, I started bumping the shifter in and out of reverse, finally spinning the car out a few feet from the net,pointing back at the starting line, to both my amazement and that of the racers at the end of the track........Fortunatly as I've gone faster, I haven't had any real scary ones. .......Tom

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

think it was last year at orlando div 2 race thur night we went out to eat with a lot of racers while rigs were parked in the field.
had a good supper, the "driver" ( tim) figured we would stop at this little bar to shoot pool well a certian
BIG HANDed racer clears the door yells who is the badest MF here.
ya could hear a pin drop till bar maid said she was. the big handed driver said ok just wanted to know .

jim