Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

back then that was my throttle stop, it had 3 little holes in it and i would use tape to plug one up if needed for which track and weather conditions where on hand.
Those was the days that one had to drive cars, not let go of trans brake and ride along.

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

A few years back at a Bristol points meet I made my first time trial run at the end of the pass i was sitting i line waiting to weight when a track worker came up to me and handed my 4 lugnuts with studs from my left rear wheel. The car never had a vibration. my car was a 3600# 4 speed car. The 1 stud left was one tough stud. Leigh Simmons was the div.2 photographer at the time and told me she watched the studs snap at the starting line through the view in her camera. Guess i was dam lucky.

Hammer

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

Back a long time ago (ha ha) when I was 17/18 years old a friend of mine, Neal Church, who raced at Farmington at the time, verbally told me how to make a pass in his car. He asked if I wanted to try it, and I jumped right in. Back then I was a little more fearless than I am now. :D The car was like a 71-73 Chevy Camaro and ran 6.60's in the 1/8th.

I did a really pathetic burnout, then staged and launched - cut a .550 light which is a .050 light now, which wasn't too bad for a first timer (I had made passes in my Blazer though). As soon as I launched everything went grey. Which kind of freaked me out as the car was Silver and my first thought was I had flipped the car over :D I quickly realized the full faced helmet had moved up when I launched (as it was a little too big for me) and the mouth guard was blocking my view. I reached up, pulled the helmet down and then noticed that I didn't have my foot completely to the floor, still had an inch or so to go, so I floored it and went like 6.80 or 6.90 at 101 mph. But yeah, I never took my foot off the throttle, despite being blinded for a few seconds. It's really pretty stupid looking back on it - I didn't even think about the helmet being a little loose. I hadn't even drove anything with that kind of torque/horsepower to realize what force I'd be hit with when I floored it.

Scott tries to constantly get me to make a pass in the Volare or Coronet, but I won't do it. I'm scared now in my old age :D I have raced our 68 Dart before though, althought not very well.

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

One of my most scariest moments was after a qualifying run this year at the IHRA national event in Milan.I had just made a qualifying pass,and everything was perfectly normal.As I made the turnoff at the end of the track,this guy was frantically jumping up and down and told me to stop.If you are in a race car and somebody is jumping up and down like crazy,you assume the worst.I'm thinking that maybe there is a fire or something.I stopped the car,starting unbucking the belts as fast as possible,and this guy opens my door and screams that the tower called and said that they couldn't tell if my number was 3447 or 5447.In IHRA.I run 5447 and 3447 in NHRA.I wish I could just run the same number in both sanctioning bodies,but the moral of the story is to never start screaming and jumping up and down at somebody in a race car UNLESS THERE IS A TRUE EMERGENCY!

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

I used to bracket race FWD turbo cars, one night in particular I was trying to back into someone in the lights riding the brakes pretty hard while still on the throttle (once you lift with a turbo car you can't get back in it). Right before the stripe I decided to dump it hard and lifted off the throttle. Trick was the car had power brakes, which while you are making boost have no vacuum and are really hard - BUT as soon as you lift there is a whole lotta vacuum and the brake pedal literally sucked to the floor since I was pushing it hard already. Managed not to hit anything but got a little "consultation" about excessive braking.

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

I woke up because of an odd bumping while riding in the middle of the bench seat of the truck we were using to tow a buddy's Chevy II and realized the "bumping" was because we were in the break down lane of I-74 running about 70 MPH. The driver was asleep too, with the cruise control set!
I didn't want to scream and have him reach up and jerk the wheel, his hands were in his lap, so I reached over and grabbed the wheel and shut off the cruise before hollering... The guy riding to my right never did wake up until we got stopped. I drove the rest of the way home, couldn't sleep for two days!

In 1987 at Terre Haute I launched the car in the right lane and was on a real pass, new motor, new trans, new slicks, it was running GOOD until I hit second... Then it changed lanes, just kept pulling hard left, crossed behind the other car by about two car lengths... Got it stopped OK, darn thing actually drove back to the trailer where we discovered the top rear hiem joints had pulled out of the ladder bars! The thing had a positive pinion angle of about 75 degrees! The drive shaft was long enough it didn't pull out of the trans...

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

2007 Rockingham Springnats, lost 2nd round and went home. Didnt want to be done racing for the weekend so we went to Richmond Dragway sunday for a et race. 3rd round in Top Et had to run a monza dialed about a day and a half faster then me. We went through the lights and i reached up and shut the motor off, looked at the win light to make sure i had won. Then right in front me there he was, flipping and rolling. My stupid a.s didnt ever check up, i followed the dirt oil and dust then just nailed the brakes and stopped. Right before i ran over his driver door. I jumped out the car and ran to his car yelling for him, and he didnt say anything and wasnt moving. I knew he was dead, then i saw the helmet in the seat and figured his head was still in it. He finally answered as i got closer and he started out the car very slowly. I killed the batteries (which turn the car off cause the fuel pump was still going), and started walking back. The track manager asked me if i was ok, and i was. Just a little shook up getting to watch the whole thing unfold right in front of me. The car was a total waste after that, but the guy (manny) did come by work and thank me for running over to him and checking on him. Now that was freaky. I've set on the guardrail at rockingham down by fuel check when they ran top fuel and had one hit the wall right in front of us while it was on fire, but it wasnt as scary as watching the monza crashing in front of me.
The second on my list would be the first year IHRA racing in Canada, on sunday Jack Dustmen's jet car was wide open as it went by us at the tech trailor which was about 500-600 feet past the finish line. I stepped back in the trailor, as i couldnt go to the end and help the officals clean up. Later talked to Howie and Jeff (Jeff doesnt work there anymore) and neither one of them would talk about it. Jeff hid in the woods for about 2 hours after, all they would say was his body was mush by the time they found it. The car was one place, the driver another. To this day i dont care to watch the jet cars run, ever.

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

2004 semi-final round at Lake Cumberland Dragway in Kentucky. I was running my nephew Nick Morris.
When we crossed the finish line and I looked up a labX type dog stood in the middle of the track looking right at us. Nick being the faster car got to him first and missed him. The dog tucked his tail and ran into my path. Not thinking I dodged towards the left to miss him. To my surprise he turns and runs back towards the left lane and of course I dodge again. Trying to keep from locking the brakes (although believe me I had quite a bit of pressure on that brake pedal) I had slowed down enough that when the back end started the walk or wobble I rode it out. Of course they never found the dog but Nick and I will never forget him.

That's nothing compared to the feeling at the same track a couple of years later. Several family members were running a special bracket meet. Mikey wanted our son Matt to drive his SS truck and if I remember right he may have been driving the stocker that weekend. The shifters were different and we always go to neutral in our SSr's after the finish line. Matt made his run about 2 pair in front of us. TC and I were both strapped in for our pass and they shut down the track. All you could see was smoke. I was trying to get anyones attention as to what was going on. Finally someone came to me and said no one had wrecked but they were checking the track. Talk about a bad feeling in your stomach. He had tried to go to neutral and the shifter went to reverse going 100+. He said it went both ways and the grass was starting to look real good coming at him. He grabbed the shifter and it finally straightened out. I have not forgot that feeling in the pit of my stomach to this day. The dog couldn't touch the feeling of him being hurt.
Donna Morris

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

My tales are lame compared to some, but I want to keep the thread going:

'06 SportsNationals at Columbus - Just prior to my burnout, one of the track officials noticed a leak under the car. I pulled off to the side, we took the hood off (which was a major undertaking due to the temporary arrangement of the Dzus fasteners at the time) only to find one of the fuel supply lines was extremely loose and leaking badly right down the side of the engine onto the header! I am sure that if I had done my burnout, our car would have burnt to the ground (we wouldn't have been able to get the hood off quick enough). After tuning both carbs, we had forgotten to tighten one of the lines.

'07 Chrysler Classic at Bowling Green, KY - Driving up to the lanes for my first time run, one of our rear shock mounts broke. That could have been a fun launch if it had chosen to hang on until I made the run. Thankfully, Mancini was able to pull the bracket out of a kit they had in their trailer, and I went on to a semi-final finish.

'07 PINKS, Topeka. Dad's first-ever full nitrous run in an unfamiliar car, the Tempest got sideways enough that I was sure he was going into the wall. I was sure that our PINKS episode was over at that point, but he saved it. The skid marks were quite impressive!

My brother was driving at an IRP bracket race, crossed the finish line looking at the other car, then looked up to see another car sitting in the middle of the shutdown area, about 700-800 feet down. Wasn't too scary, but it got his attention!

Then there was the time a buddy of ours had a heart attack in the pits. Thank God we were at the racetrack, as the on-site EMT's brought him back from dead. He actually died in the ambulance at least two more times before he reached the hospital. He survived it all, but couldn't race any more.

Re: Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?
 

I have worked for Jay Higgins!!! lol