Your First Time? -- Ryan's Drag strip post

I fondly remember my first time . . . nervous as hell, wondering if I was doing the right thing at the right time . . . was I too quick or not quick enough . . . but it felt GOOOOD. Oh yea . . . I was at a dragstrip.

I remember one of my best nights also, a friend from work and I were down at the KCIR strip that night, two Dodge Chargers of different era's. One a burbling V8 beast and the other a lowly 4-banger . . . but watching them both side by side time and time again made the crowd go wild. They weren't the fastest cars that night, but racing door hand to door handle, automatic (V8) to my lightning fast 5 speed shifts . . . man, talk about fun. (The next day he couldn't believe mine was a manual . . . why let off the gas?)

Ryan's post brings back my memories . . . anyone else have some good times to share?

 

I read with delight that I was not the only underage racer on the HAMB. My daddy started letting me drag race our '68 Camaro when I was 14! We would go to tracks all around Ohio on the weekends April thru November. The thoughts and feelings he describes are so accurate. I always love the first time down the track in the spring, it is like that all over again. Good job Ryan!

 

First time at Dahio drag strip in Dayton, OH. year 1954. Staged my 6 cylinder '48 Chevy coupe with the stock 216 and vacuum shift. (No way to speed shift that sucker) Turned an amazing 72.32 but it felt great being I was just 16 years old.

 

Just the opposite, bought my first car that ran in 1979, a '66 Olds Starfire. It ran nice and smooth, no smoke, no noises, nuthin'! I screwed the plate to the back and got my neighhood droogies and drove around the county. We drove by Sunshine Speedway at about 2 in the afternoon, and the gate was open, but nobody was there.

WFT? so we pulled in and I lined it up, and jammed the throttle to the floor and didn't let up until I passed the 1/8 mile line.

Wow! The skinny bias plys spun a long time, that tire smoke really followed us all the way down the track!

What's that noise?

Uhh, dude, we're stopped but it's still smoking... out the tailpipes

What's that knocking sound?

SHUT IT OFF!

Shit, I've had a car for an hour and I already blew it up. So we got out and opened the hood, nothing weird, no puddles underneath. Start it up and see what it's doing. the noise stopped, but it was still smoking, so I drove it home slowly.

Changed to straight 50wt oil to slow down the blowby. It would run without smoking when it was cold, but wait about 10 minutes and there was a smoke screen behind it. School was about 10 minutes away, work about 5. Eventually replaced the Starfire 10.25:1 compression 425 block and heads with a 8:1 ones out of a Delmont. and all was good. Haven't drag-raced anything, anywhere since.

 

I was way older than that my first time on the track. But I too, was pretty nervous.

It was in my coupe, at our first Day of the Drags. I pulled in the box and did a real weak burnout. Just kinda cleaned 'em off since I was only going to do a 70% pass for the first time. Just to get used to it, ya know. Well, I pull up to stage and it kinda hit me. I've launched this car before, and run it through the gears. Maybe not all the way through the top of fourth, but I can run it hard and let off after the 1/8th. I mean, what fun is leaving at 2000 rpm?

All of this goes through my head, AFTER, I've already prestaged. So I didn't really have time to talk myself back down. Staged, wound it up to around 4 grand, and watched the lights. Last yellow comes on, and, drop that clutch baby!

The back end squatted and hooked hard. The front left started to come up a little and then BAM! Broke the wishbones and tore the driveshaft out. Didn't even make it to the 60ft. line. Just pushed off the back of the starting line in a daze. Sucked.

Spent the rest of the day riding around with Modernbeat looking for a trailer to get back home. I still owe him a huge favor.

 

P.S. I bet Ryan only power shifted 3 times.

 

Ahh penwell, the poor ole place is slowing dying. But it keeps tring to hang on. Last time I was there only 15 cars showed up to run. There is a new track close by, a 1/8th mile track, and it seems to draw the younger crowd away.

I made my first run and the many others that follwed there. But I was there 12 years before Ryan. It isn't my first run I remember, it was later when I had decided that my 350 just wasn't enough.

A 427 from Benny's bone yard, a 4 speed from my Dad's stash, and a stock 3.90 Rear end all in my '56 Chevy Step side was my replacement. I ran it like I thought it was bullet proof and made a 13:56 for a best time. Back then that was bragging rights.

All this talk brings back other memories too. The first Pro-Street car I ever saw was there, a new, bright white T-Bird. The first death at a track I saw was there, a kid in a Anglia flipped it at the end of the track. And so on, and so on.

Good times, and good memories.

 

The first drag run is amazing. I pulled through the waterbox nervous as hell and fried the whitewalls to the line. Watched the tree go down and ended up smoking tires to the 60 foot mark and chirped second and even chirped third and crossed with a 14.88 at 91 mph. Since then ive gotten down to 13.6 with slicks and some other work, but that first run was the most amazing and nerve wrecking thing i had ever done.

 

1969 GTO judge.. 3.90 posi... 4 speed .. headers, torker, holley. this was 1978. 1970 Z/28 real solid lifter LT-1. turbo 400, high stall, 3.73 posi. had this one around 1980. had a straight axle 56 Bel Air... prolly pretty slow compared to the judge and Z, but it looked fast.

so what did I run at the drags? my 73 Datsun pickup. 2.0, weber 32/36 with an offy intake, headers and a 2" pipe with a glasspack. that bugger had 4.30 gears. ran a 17.70 @ 77 mph. according to my SUN supertach on the dash I shifted at 7,000 RPM.

oh by the way, I lived about 15 minutes from Fremont Drag Strip. where's Mr. Peabody and Sherman with thier wayback machine?

 

.... also had a 1984 Ninja 900. no way in hell I could have ever made a balls out full on pass on that thing... WAY to fast. they ran low 10's at 130 in the magazines of the day.

 

Early summer of '63. First time ever down a drag strip in any kind of car (see photo). We had borrowed a tow car, a trailer, and a helmet just to get there. It was also our first attempt at building a car. I drew the short straw and was scheduled to drive the thing. Never realized how much a guy has to pee when he's nervous.

After checking it over for the umpteenth time it was time to go. Made a short trip over to the bushes adjacent to the Minnesota Dragways scale to barf and I told them I was ready. Funny thing...after strapping in I was no longer nervous. Just concentrating on the job at hand I guess. We pushed it off at the traps end of the strip and it fired off. I drove it down past the start line and made the U-turn to stage.

As I was on a single, the flag starter just waved me on....go when you're ready. I remember the car bogging as I left the start line....it was a heavy little car with a direct drive (high gear only) and the Pontiac lacked the grunt to break the slicks loose. The bog only lasted briefly....lotsa mid-range built into that Racer Brown roller cam I guess. I was on my way !

Not much to add after that. It pulled hard to the finish line and I shut it off....coasting to a stop with the clutch disengaged. I remember my partner coming over after they caught up with the push car and asking what it was like. I told him, "Hell....I want to go faster !"

It only ran 130 mph in 11.30 seconds but we felt that to be a good starting/baseline point. The best part was everything did what it was supposed to and nothing broke or fell off.

 

April 1997 was the first pass I ever made at a dragstrip. It was a cool day and I was running in the High School Nationals at Norwalk Raceway Park with a bunch of my friends and their cars. First pass was a 12.94@109 with lots of tirespin thanks to too little of a burnout, for some reason later in the day the convertor bolts loosened up and the engine started making noise the next day... Good thing I learned about cars early on huh? Still racing the car to this day.

 

Damn, I'm a young'n. Spring of 2004 was my first time, at Cecil County dragway in Rising Sun, MD. The track is only 20 minutes way from the University of Delaware, so me and my friends would go every week to check it out. I had put the Chrysler big block in my 57 Ford in the spring of 03, but never got it down to campus, then blew the rearend out of it just before the fall semester started. So that winter I put in a fresh posi and a new set of gears and once the weather turned good, I would go back home and drive it back. Me and my roommate shot up the NJ Turnpike one night, and thrashed all night to get the car ready to pass tech...installed seat belts, battery hold down, overflow tanks...

Drove it back to school the next day, piled everybody in and drive to the track, didn't even let it cool off and got right in the staging lane. They didn't tech the car (and still don't) and I ran my fastest pass still to this day with a 15.3 @ 97. Go figure...I must have put 50+ runs on that car, and it's first is still it's fastest. Granted, the new posi wore out right after that outing, and I put a continental kit on since, but it's last time out it ran anywhere from a 15.5-15.7. Just wait until the new motor goes in it....

 

It was 1973. I was 16 and had a 4 spd Roadrunner. It was about a 60 mile drive to Budds Creek. My 19 year old brother in law was my mentor. He had a 4 spd 'Cuda and we drove down early on a Saturday morning. We'd been messing with the car to get it Virginia legal, tagged and insured for 6 months. Here's what I remember like it was yesterday.

We stopped at a McDonalds for breakfast and I was so nervous I was afraid I'd puke or shit so I wouldn't eat.

BTO's "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" was on the radio. To this day I still crank it up, like Pavlov's dog, whenever I hear it.

My clutch leg was shaking so bad the first time I staged.

I thought I was Ronnie Sox till my brother in law tells me I have to wind it past 3000 rpm in 1st gear if I want to go fast. After that I'd shift at valve float. Eventually we found a happy median. Improved that day from 15.20 to 14.30 at 99 mph.

I was already hooked from Hot Rod magazines, spectating etc, but that day sealed the deal.

 

My first time down the track was just this last year at the HAMB Drags '06.

What a trip.

Here I am all white-knuckled and shit, captured by Jim Marlett.

 

God, i feel old! My first time was 1959. No water box, hadn't been thought of yet.
Shaking left leg on the clutch.
Cad powered, 53 Henry J., Cad lasalle tranny. 6 inch slicks.
6000 rpm, start in second gear, smoking the slicks. When the slicks caught up to the 6000 rpm, shift to third. Turning 6000 again going through the lights. 12.90@113. Did it again, and again, and again.
Never forget it.

 

Great posts guys. Its strange coincidence but I only posted on an aussie site yesterday looking for tips for a newbie to the strip as I am yet to punt a car down the 1/4. Hoping to get down to a Wednesday night session on the shovel in the next weeks to see how its done and then enter the 32 coupe in the Nostalgia series in Febuary. Thanks for a little more encouragement to do this.

 

My first pass was in my old Pontiac LaMans.

I thought I was going 120 I think it was 16.20 @ 80 somthin

I eventualy got the Poncho to run low 15's.

I raced a ( run what you brung ) et class.

Great Lakes Dragaway.

I remember pulling to the line next to this kick ass 8 sec altered.
BBC & injected on alky.

He spot me 8 seconds...? I left the line, went throught the gears & could see the finish line - the altered had just left the line - i was going to win..!

Next thing i saw was his chute's.....

I swear my car just just stopped 10 feet from the finish line..!

That day, I deceided NO MATER WHAT I did to that Ponch, it would NEVER be fast enuff.

The next year I started building my first Dragster.

 

I got my driver’s license in 1956 and immediately began searching the classifieds and car lots for something that would define the new (cool and driving) me. It had to be something that would reflect my 16-year-old worldliness, knowledge, and panache. It also wouldn’t hurt if it were, in today’s terminology, a “chick magnet”.

I missed a channeled ‘33 Ford roadster by one day. I got the test drive on Tuesday and went back with the $150.00 on Wednesday only to be told it was sold earlier that morning. (Remembering now the test drive the owner gave me in that rusted shell of a body roughly welded to the stock frame, with half the body panels flapping in the wind, I think the only reason I’m still alive is that I did miss buying that roadster.)

The search was now well into its second week, and that stretched a 16-year-old’s patience a bit too far. A 1947 Ford convertible came up at – I’m not kidding here – “Honest Al’s” used car lot. It was a hideous metallic brown with fender skirts and a swan hood ornament, but it was a convertible with a V8 and a stick. It was mine the same day, and the fender skirts came off as soon as I got it home. I should have worried that first night when the rear axle broke, but it takes more than that to quench a 16-year-old’s enthusiasm. The axle was replaced, the swan was removed, and a borrowed air compressor let me coat the body with a thick coat of white primer (white primer was the definition of cool to 16-year-old Toledoans in 1956).

That convertible lasted until the spring of 1957, when I noticed some chocolate-like fluid being pumped out the dipstick tube. Further investigation showed a cracked block and a mixing of the oil and the coolant. I knew by now that my second car couldn’t be just whatever showed up at Honest Al’s. I took what seemed like forever – maybe a month – looking for my second car. I remembered Monk’s ’49 Ford coupe when I spotted a ’51 four door sedan on another car lot. I had filled the holes in the convertible’s hood with fiberglass, so I knew I could shave off those rear door handles and fill those holes as well. Then maybe nobody would notice that it wasn’t a coupe, and I’d have my version of Monk’s coupe. The shaving, nosing, and decking were all accomplished over the next few months, along with a set of “mountain gears” from J.C. Whitney when the transmission ate second gear.

Kids in the Midwest had been reading about the drag strips on the West Coast for a few years, but 1957 was the first we heard of a local strip. It was at the airport in Tecumseh, Michigan about 30 miles away. By now I was working as a soda jerk at that same drug store where the magazines had introduced me to cars. On Sundays that summer, I traded hours to get off from the drug store and drive up to Tecumseh.

You have to understand that Michigan drag strips in 1957 were a whole different thing from today’s versions. Yes, there were spectators and classes for your cars, but the main purpose was to participate. For the most part, it was just a bunch of teenagers and their cars racing to see who was fastest in their class. On my first time through tech inspection, the inspector that was assigning classes asked if my ’51 was stock. He just rolled his eyes when I told him I had “mountain gears”, and assigned me to a stock class anyway. From then on, I knew not to claim any modifications – especially something like “mountain gears”.

That same inspector said I could remove my air cleaner and my spare tire when racing. I could tell a speed secret when I heard it, so both came off before my first run. I discovered another secret on my own after my second or third pass during time trials. My ‘51 had come with deep shag carpeting from the previous owner. Inspecting the whole accelerator-to-carburetor linkage train, I determined that the carpet was blocking the accelerator pedal from going all the way to the floor. Out came the carpeting, inadvertently shaving another 20 pounds of weight, allowing another quarter-inch or so of accelerator travel, and probably doing absolutely nothing to my times or speeds.

I never won a trophy that first summer as I worked to get my ET’s down from 22 seconds to the high teens. A driver making an untimely left turn in front of me the next spring brought an end to my mountain-geared, four-doored, coupe-that-wasn’t-a-coupe. By then it was 1958, and I had enough saved up from soda-jerking to take the insurance money from the left turner and trade up to a 1955 Chevy and begin a 40-year succession of way-earlier Fords and way-later Chevys.

I was only a few months away from the 1951 when it dawned on me how ridiculous it was to think that a four-door sedan with no rear door handles could be mistaken for a coupe. But it would be over 40 years before that primal image of a Shoebox coupe imprinted on my brain as an 11-year-old would bring me back to path of righteousness. I would finally get my Shoebox coupe in 2001.

But that’s another story.

 

My dad and his bros raced all the short tracks around here like Motor City, Toledo, State Fair, etc. He raced a lot at Flat Rock Speedway and later had drivers for his cars. As we wandered home from there we had to pass by Detroit Dragway and the place was always lit up. The glow of the lights, the sound, the smell, "Dad, can't we just stop in for a minute?" He'd say "Naw screw them drag cars..." All summer it was like that. In 1971 we convinced mom and dad to take us (the whole family) to see the Super Stars of Pro Stock show. I was hooked. I couldn't get enough. What a rush. Mom was just awestruck by the Motown Missle Challenger. I felt like I was seeing royalty as all kinds of big names were there. The names I'd seen every month in dad's hot rod magazines. He had givien up racing by then but I could never get enough. It took 9 years for me to actually stage a car there. It was a 69 Firebird with a 400 and turbo 350. Just a daily driver and nothin to even look at. I didn't tell dad about it I just went. A blazing 15.46 was my best time. He wasn't too happy that I went racing in my daily driver. To hear him talk about drag racing you'd think parts were falling off of every car there as they made a pass.

I've been down that track as well as Milan and IRP since, so many times I lost count. Something that never went away...that shakey leg like Ryan talked about. A little bit at staging, and yeah man, GONE when the car was staged. But it always came back as I got stopped and rolled down the return road. What a rush. I've been 10.32 @130 in a 10" tire car no N2O. It's not in me to go bracket racing anymore. Finances and family, race gas at $10.00 a gallon, time in general. But I can't help it. I went to the track twice this season for the Fri nite shootouts at Milan. I still get all giddy like a little kid just pullin in to the place. And I still have a print for a slingshot chassis. You never know what the future may bring.

 

My first time was in 2004 at Gateway in St.Loius. I had a 1987 Dodge Dakota with a 2.2L 4 cyl. with a 5 spd. It had one of those pos computor controlled carburators on it. It didn't have a tach so I just reved it till I thought it would blow. I raced a 9 sec V-8 S10 with open headers couldn't hear my truck for nothing! Ran 20.90 at a wopping 63mph! The funny part is that the time never did get much better. I had the slowest vehicle in High school.

 

My first time racing at the drags was at the Fremont Drag Strip in about 1980. I had been into cars for a long time already, but that's the first time I actually raced at a track. I was in my '61 T-bird with a 390. It was mostly stock except for a bigger Holley double pumper and some really loud glasspacks. I think the tech inspection consisted of checking to see if my battery was tied down and whether I had all of my lug nuts on the wheels. They made me take off my hubcaps. I had a new set of tires with 1-1/2" wide whitewalls. The 390 was pretty strong, but in that heavy car, and with lousy traction, all I could manage was 89mph on the first pass and 90mph on the next two passes. I forget the ETs, but they were pretty lame. The drum brakes in that car weren't too hot and I couldn't get it slowed down fast enough to make the first exit, so I kept rolling all the way down to the last exit where the top fuel cars turn around. I remember the girl handing out the time slips in the booth was laughing at me wondering why I took the long exit. It was a blast though. It's a total rush waiting there at the starting line. Talking to the other guys while I waited in line to race was a lot of fun too. I didn't know anything about bracket racing when I got there and had to borrow another guy's shoe polish to write my ET on the windows. I thought I was cool rumbling home to my apartment late at night with big ET numbers scribbled on my windows.

 

It was June of 1965. The place was Island Dragway in Great Meadows, NJ. I had been going there to watch for almost two years and now I was finally 18 and old enough to get into the pits. My car was a '54 Chevy 2-door sedan that I had paid $50 for the year before. It had the stock 6 banger and a three speed but I had put a Hurst floorshift conversion in it so I thought I was a "real" hot rodder.

I took the car to the inspection line and they painted my "official" NHRA class designation on the window in white shoe polish, N/S.
It was the lowest stock class in the book but that didn't matter to me, I was a drag racer! I found a spot in the pit and unloaded my "tools". It was a bag with a few mismatched wrenches and a pair of pliers. I removed the air cleaner for better breathing, and I was ready to race.

I pulled through the staging lanes and as the track official motioned me to move to the line, I rolled up the window and everything became very quiet. I could no longer hear the other cars engines. I couldn't hear the track's PA system. All of that was drowned out by the beating of my heart. My pulse was racing much faster than this car would and my leg was shaking as I depressed the clutch and waited for the lights.

I don't know how high I revved the engine because I didn't have a tach but at the first sign of green I was off the clutch and underway. The first-second shift went well and soon I was in third and "streaking" towards the finish line, but should it be taking this long? Is that the finish? Is it still that far away?

I don't think I was going more than 60 or so when I crossed the line. I got out of the gas and just let the car roll out and I took the last turn off. I rolled down the window and the rush of summer air felt good. I had done it! It was wonderful and I was really excited as I pulled up to the time slip booth. The girl inside handed me a little scrap of paper and I couldn't wait to see my time. Twenty one seconds in the quarter may not seem like much but to a punk kid who had just run his first ever drag race it was as big a deal as winning the Nationals today!

 

I thought we where talking about the same Penwell!! I had my first race out there too. 1965 Chevy w/Pontiac 400. 13.40's. I had a blast. It's too bad that Penwell is slowly dying. There have been rumors of some big dollar backer coming and rebuilding the whole thing, but we'll see....

Ryan, I had no idea you where from Midland / Odessa....

Kenny

 

My first time at the lights was at Lions out in California.
My '65 Olds 442 was a product of our (Mine and me dad's) Gulf Station/Garage in long Beach. I had won a few buck street racing with it and we spent all of that and more on that car.
It was all white except for the "White Knight" in Old English script I added to the rear quarter with black pinstriping tape. It dared folks to race it.
One of our custpomers challenged me to turn up and run him there at Lions, so we prepped the car and off we went.
I watched the big guys with their rails do their burnouts and come back to the line to run. So that's what I did when my turn came.....except my car wasn't ALLOWED to do that. Dohhhhhhh.... You will NEVER KNOW how small a track announcer can make you feel when they try real hard.
Anyway they lined us up and off we went. I was beyond embarrassed and only wanted to hide. He beat me off the line by like 4 car lengths and cleaned my clock because I wasn't really into it that run. All I wantd to do was HIDE.

Anyway, my customer was laughing too hard to collect the bet we had on that race, and we ran again the next round. By then I had my head together and beat him by a quarter car length.
THAT was funckin' GRAND!! I felt so good I never did collect that bet.
I've been an addict ever since.
I do love so love going FAST.

Glenn

 

first run ever. Great Lakes Dragway. 69 Firebird, 400, 4speed, 12 bolt. Slicks hooked, and left rear Keystone mag blew up right off the line. Rim just sorta rolled away, spokes stayed with the lug nuts. Cost me a small fortune to the car home.

 

1969 Ford Galaxie at Beaver Springs PA. Ran like 18.7 but had a blast. It was an ET race, and I won my first race. It was against a 14 sec Mustang and it felt like I was halfway to pick up my timeslip before his light turned green. I got a trophy for winning an "Elimination" race and retired undefeated! I actually didn't think the old girl could stand another flogging without falling apart.
CHAZ

 

Man what a cool post. This coming summer I'm going for my first time at Lebanon Valley. Pumped as hell about it but a little nervous, hope my mill will hold out, among everything else. I'll be running a '59 Ford with a solid lifter 429 Ford, dual quads, headers, mag, ported/polished heads, C6 auto and a 4:11 spool rear with 7" slicks. I talked pop into taking his '55 down too SN60 Paxton supercharged, bored/stroked solid lifter 327, mag, fenderwell headers, tuned 750cfm carb with a 4:33 rear and 10" slicks. I'll take a shit load of pics and film for everyone to see...I'll keep y'all posted!
-Dean