Re: "Lollygaggers"
I got to race one of the " Lollygaggers"( Does that mean that they have a difficultly swallowing?) at the Sports in Columbus. We were on the left side of the ladder and Stock was first out for first round and the left side was called first. Having observed my competition's tendency about being late to staging in the past I was prepared to wait. I waited until the right side was called and then I went to staging. It was no big surprise that the future world champ was nowhere to be found. I had already been instructed to pull into the lanes for a competition single when he and his entourage shows up. We flip for lanes, I lose and I pull up to my lane. There are ten pair of cars in front of us. We are the last pair. I'm just a little irritated that this racer is so inconsiderate, I relax and realize he is just trying to gain an advantage. The next thing I hear is a starter that will not engage the fly wheel. The look of panic on the pit crews face was priceless. Up comes the hood on the 428 Mustang, out comes the hammers and the tapping begins. Success, they finally get it to start. There are six or seven pairs of cars left in front of us and my competition will not turn off his engine because it might not restart. All of a sudden my competition wanted to get to the starting line as soon as possible. It was something about the block being full of concrete and elevated water temp. Well being from the South where life is at a much more leisurely pace I could not understand what all the big rush was about, we had all morning. Well in all this rush I forget to put my helmet on until I pulled into the water box. The official stopped me and told me to put my helmet on. Then I restarted my engine and started my burn out, the motor goes dead. Trying to restart I see the problem. I forgot to turn the fuel pump on. Of course my opponent is already out of the water box and had to wait on me to get to the line. We both like to stage last ( I bet that 428 has been running for 10 to 15 minutes) the announcer commented that we both had a full tank of fuel because no one wanted to stage first. He goes in then I stage last. He is .02 I'm .04 he wins. At the scale ( I always weigh) I get out to congratulate him on his win and wish him luck next round. To my surprise my truck will not start and had to be pushed off of the scales. The 428 Ford is shut off for fuel check, boy those things get very hot when you cant turn them off. At fuel check I told him we would have to do this again real soon.
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