Racing ?

I haven't done much drag racing but what little I have done I have enjoyed. The following couple of shots and short story are from a recent outing with the local Mopar Club...

Recently our local mopar club, First Coast Mopar Club, met up at the 1/8 mile drag strip for street night. They gave us our own lane and let us fight it out amongst ourselves. I had been looking forward to this for a while... I'll be damned if I know why. I sucked. Got there a little late into time trials and had time for 2 runs. After a .679 light I commenced to spin the tires for what felt like half the track, to a glorious 10.14 ET at 71 mph. In my mind there was no way I was gonna let up on that gas pedal.

The second run netted me a similar RT, however this time my patented "light'em up all the way" method sucked all the gas from the carb and put a major dent in my run. First round of the real thing I'm telling myself to ease up at the start, hell I've done this before, I know to keep the spin to a minimum and work into it. With new strategy in mind and a 10.00 posted on my windshield, I'm at the line next to my buddy with his '68 Barracuda 'vert. As the lights fall I'm determined to cut a good light. Oops, a little too good... .404, but I stay in it to see how I do. I over compensate in the launch department. No tire spin but not a haul ass feelin' either... also, I find myself short shiftin' worried about the fuel. I run around a 10.60 @72 mph.

Now I'm in the losers lane(consolation) and am talkin' to the loser behind me. He points out that I'm reading my time slip wrong! My times were really 10.44 and 10.78. I hurry and change my dial-in to 10.40. So it's up to the light with some old Impala 4 door low rider thing. While I'm staged, the TOP light goes out(?) so I'm quickly trying to backup or something to get it back on... I look up and the damn yellows are dropping, I get it back in first but by that time green was shinning as bright as the north star. I go, 1.28? RT. This launch was perfect, a little spin at the start and I could feel I was staying just ahead of the tires breaking loose. No short shifting this time. However, this was not the time to have a great run... 10.30 at 71 mph. I lost against the losers. Just call me "Mr. Consistent" That was it for me. I drove home with a major exhaust leak that started after my 2nd run.