Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

A friend who shall remain nameless was tossed for class at Indy for having 1 TRW pushrod that somehow got mixed in with the 15 Ford pushrods. Dempsy Hardy got tossed for class at Indy because he didnt know to put the Pontiac head in the ice cooler before CCing the combustion chamber & came up 1/2 short. In the Junior Stock days cars would have so many vacuum leaks that the motors would hardly run. We once painted a steel Doug Nash Muncie 4 speed case silver after grinding all the Doug Nash letters off then wiping it with aluminum filings while the paint was wet. I love this post, it could go on forever

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

I remember a guy who also will remain nameless Div 3 racer was about to get pumped and the tech guy asked the racer which hole he wanted to do. He said I dunno # 3 or whatever it was so he goes thru the whole thing pulls the plug, screws the P&G adapter in and removes the rockers and turns the engine over pumps up to whatever it is supposed to be and the tech guy said you are good to go--- only one problem the other 7 cylinders were .060 larger than the one they pumped---he always pumped that same cylinder till somebody protested him and he had to pull the head and they measured both the bores and stroke!!!!!!! How do you say OOOPS?

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

I remember in the early 80's getting tossed for having a sponsor decal that was "too many square inches big". Yup that's correct, a decal that was TOO BIG! Jim


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Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

I remember back in the early 80's my brother was running a 1958 Chevy wagon in IHRA Super Stock. It was a 283 econo modified piece with a 650 CFM Holly 2 bbl. Back then the head rules allowed only a port match with no polishing of the ports. The car always qualified well due to the soft index of the 2 bbl. (formula3) classes, that TRC prepped 650 Holleybflowed 730 CFM and was as quick as a 4bbl on the 283. We got pulled into tech at Darlington and was told to pull the intake, a header and two rockers and a plug. My brother and I were no engine builders and back then didn't have a clue but I mentioned to him that the exhaust ports didn't look legal. The floor of the ports on them 292 turbo heads looked pretty wide and flat from the casting line down and I was worried. The tech man (not Robert Leonard) done a visual of the heads and P&Ged the motor, and said looks good button it up. I told my brother "I hope that guy don't call little league ball games cause he can't see crap!. Don Jackson

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

[quote=Jack Matyas;373760]Wrong Jack. All the high dollar racers had them already. That's why NHRA put the max weigh at 85 pounds. There were no steel belted tires in the junk yards. You had to buy them new. And we couldn't afford one.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Never had anything in the bumper. But I remember another racer (a mopar wagon) that had lead shot leaking out of a tail light every time he made a run.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

The buick was the first car that I ever saw or heard of nitrous.
We never had a 65 dart.
The cars I was involved in were.
71 Charger (w/SS hemi)
70 Charger (440)
68 Roadrunner (big Gerry) 440 and Hemi
69 dart 340 (Jackies car)
64 Plymouth 440 (froggys car)
70 Challenger (440 six pack)

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

I must be thinking of someone else with the Dart. I deff remember the 64 and the 71 Charger, you and Tex followed me back to my house from Hampton back in 74 with the Charger on the ramp truck, I bought a 4.30 gear set from you and probably had the cash at home.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Not drag racing, but I saw a SCCA post-race tech bulletin that said a car was bounced for having the little glass nubs removed from the headlights.

I went through tech at a Div 1 WCS, and raced, with my tool box sitting on the floor in front of the passenger seat. Of course I was a nobody rookie and it was a off the street 19-second FWD stocker.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Fading memory, I suppose, as to what car it was. I do remember him imitating Tex's accent. Um, there might have been a couple beers fogging things a little. Mike told me several stories about you guys. He got a big kick out of you both.
I may have heard about that lead shot "leak". I suppose though, there was more than one car that could've leaked.
The rule change that allowed weight to be bolted on took some of the fun out of it. One reason Mike and I ran the 71 RR (in the mid 90's) was because of all of the great hiding places it had.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Those were the good old days. I paid Jim Weible about $1000 for my O/SA motor and ran 1 second under the national record the first day out.
I ran a heads up best three out of five feature race at Harmon Raceway against a D/S. I ran F/S. After he won the first round because I was late against the flagman, I won the next three runs. The F/S protested me and Red Anderson just happened to be there that day. Red passed me as legal so I got $100 for winning the race and $50 from the F/stocker for tearing down legal.
Later when they changed the rules so we couldn't run Forgetru pistons I moved to SS/X. The first nite out I lost to Jack Mullin's wagon but they ran a constelation race. I won but was 5 pounds lite because I had not weighted the new car.
Those were fun times.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Mike was a great guy. We had a lot of fun with him. You are right on the 71 cars. On our 71 Charger B/SA we had 2 hemi cylinder heads wired into the springs of the back seat.
Landy was playing with the 16 plug hemi at the time. I told him we already had 16 plugs. He laughed so hard he almost spit up his tyrolia wine.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Not that it was an "olden day," but I had the privledge of Red Anderson telling me I was 5 lbs light on my very first pass at a divisional. (Had to of been my 5th or 6th pass ever going down the drag strip.) I can say after that I threw all the weight we had in the trailer in the weight box, just to have my father come up to me saying I cant do that since they weigh weight boxes... I guess they don't weigh those anymore either lol

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

1963 at Atco a W/S 1950 Studebaker got bounced for a non-stock muffler.

A friend of mine got bounced for using his 1 ton truck spare as a spare for his 1965 Chevelle Stocker.

I got stopped going through the scales and was told to remove the 300 pound spare tire fro my trunk, it was stuffed with tires weights.

Put weights inside the rear seat bottom in my 1964 Plymouth which then rammed my seat back when I was forced to slam on the brakes at the big end.

JimR

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

I never had the nerve to pull any of these stunts. Wow!

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

That's EXACTLY the kind of story Mike liked telling me about you guys! lol! I had a good time with Mike, but I missed out a on a lot of the earlier stuff.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Another one from the Mike day's was "where's yours" .Reffering to an electric fuel pump.
They allowed them one year and nobody went any faster.
Ours was a Carter (quiet). And It was hidden between the quarter panel and the rear window interior panel. Used 2 Y fittings and a plugged piece of tubing.
The Carter would allow you to run the engine at an idle without being on. We had a switch to turn it on and off seperate from the key.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

we used the wiper switch on ours

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

It wasn't in the olden days nor did I get bounced but about 6 or 7 years ago I pulled into the staging lanes in Indy for tech, and the line was rather long so I took a walk around. After awhile the line started to move down so I returned to my car and waited. Shortly after a NHRA inspector approached me and introduced himself, Travis Miller and he went about his routine. He said that he didn't know of me or recognize the car, I said that we had just built the combination a few years prior and that I was from division 1. He gave it a good inspection and asked a lot of questions, which I politely answered. Then He asked me WHAT IS THIS? I said what? THE CAR!!! I said a Plymouth, PLYMOUTH WHAT? I said GTX, WHAT"S THAT? I said that I didn't know what GTX stood for and at the time didn't realize that if you claimed a Roadrunner it was a natural A car and I was running C. Now you had to be there to appreciate his expression when he asked me, YOU CAN"T EXPECT ME TO SIGN OFF, IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT GTX STANDS FOR? I said your kidding, NO I'M NOT!!! This is embarrassing I thought and shouted out GOOD TILL XMAS!!! Travis Miller has his head down looking down at his clip board writing something had trouble holding back a smile and said THAT WILL WORK and good luck. Later on I found out that my friend Evan Smith asked Travis Miller to grill me good. It was just one of those funny moments you won't forget.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Cool thread.
I heard one second hand from the "ole days" that was pretty funny. A Stock class racer made a pass and proceeded to get out of his car, with helmet in hand, prior to scaling. He then walked away from his car, picked up a large piece of lead that he had hidden in the weeds and placed it inside his helmet. He then hopped back in his car and strolled across the scales. Of course he must have been caught or I wouldn't have heard this story.

Another good one was a fellow that was caught with loose lead ballast in his trunk. From what I was told, the official grabbed it and tossed it on the ground. The official then went about his business, while the racer then grabbed the ballast and tossed it back in his trunk.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

That story reminds me of something that happened to me a long time ago and I'm sure the statute of limitations has run out so I'm going to tell on myself. I had set the record in my class and was just getting ready to hit the scales after my backup. It dawned on me that I hadn't added any fuel after the previous pass and told my wife that I thought I might be a couple pounds lite. Just as I was pulling onto the scales she handed me a big gulp cup full of ice tea and set it on the window frame. I reached for it and she backed up. I couldn't hardly pick it up, she had put a big lump of lead in it and poured tea on top of it. I don't know what shocked me most , the fact that she did it or the impact it delivered when I put it in my lap. The good news is I was heavy enough without it but God bless her I asked her to never do that again. :-)

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

I thought I posted this yesterday, but don't see it now ???

Anyway I had my Carter electric pump hidden pretty good. I built an open box which I welded into the top of my fuel tank on the 66 convertible.
I ran the pickup tube into the pump in the box, then ran the outlet back into the tank ,and out through the normal sender location. I used the gauge wire to power the pump . I had tapped into it with a toggle switch up under the dash where I could shut it off if anyone got too close!
I left the pushrod out of the block pump, and the removed the divider walls from the valve area in the bottom of the pump..It was there strictly for looks!

I think it was '75 or '76 when you weren't allowed much of that stuff in Stock.
Same with spool and axles and solid trailing arm bushings.
Of course I had the frame from the S/S 4 door Bel Air , spool and all , under the convertible body!
I made the solid bushings kinda short so I could hide them with a slice of rubber from the original bushings on both ends.

The next season ,they allowed all that stuff anyway , so I didn't have much to do over the winter ;-)

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Wow, I feel that I really learned some new inovative speed secrets here.

My big cheating was when I had my '69 Nova. We had the rear bumper off and noticed a perfect pocket between the bumper brackets. So we melted lead and filled it completely.
Had to use a floor jack to get the bumper back in place.

My wife and I used to joke about how funny it would be if, when we did our dry hop (everybody did them back then), the bumper would fall off right there on the line and when the track worker went over to pick it up, he couldn't.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Wow! I really feel straight arrow after reading some of this stuff.
If I showed up with this kind of stuff, I would have looked so guilty Red or Wesley would have figured out why. LOL

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

the thing to remember is.....


"its only cheatin' if yer caught"

keep'em coming i'm getting some ideas :)

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

There was a friend of mine that raced a 1958 Olds with the 371 tripower engine. After removing as much weight as he could he was too light so he sectioned a second rear bumper, put it inside the stock rear bumper and welded them into a sandwich, ground everything flush and had it rechromed. It took 4 of us to lift it into place.
Last I heard the car was in a junkyard in Burlington, NJ.

JimR

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Trust me those old boys from Farmer's era were no dummies and no where near naieve. They chose to turn a blind eye for lots of different reasons on things like creative places to hide weight because they new we had no other choice within the rules that were in place. Like Buster once told me " Son I don't care if you put in your pockets as long as it's in the gee dee car while it's going down the track"----- 1975 Div.II points race Warner Robbins Ga. It was about 1:00 am I had set the record in the old Delta 88 and just sat down at a picknick table after teardown. Along came Buster and sat across from me, to say Buster had consumed a drink or two would be a gross understatement. He asked me how I was doing and I told him fine except nobody has the time of day for me cause they all think I'm a Yankee. He gave out a big laugh and asked me where I was from. I told him born in Charlotte N.C. and live just above Richmond, Va. He said unless things had changed from when he was in school that was still a part of the south and as long as I had a Div 2 number on my window and a Buster's rebels decal on my car I was one of his. Well buddy let me tell you, he was in rare form and started telling me stories about all the things he had seen racers do over the years. Talk about getting an education on the creativity of drag racers and each story ended with a little laugh and a shake of his head. One of the things he said and I'm quoting here, was " Son--There is the caught and the uncaught and that makes for winners and losers" Buster was a master at running his Div.and dealing with people. He was a very smart man and knew how to fairly temper his decisions. Needless to say he became one of my new favorite people.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

This is a story about a comp eliminator driver that got bounced intentionally. He made a qualifying pass and ran very fast #1 qualifier. Faster than he wanted to run. I think back then there was some type of penalty for going fast even during qualifying. On the return road his crew told him how fast he had run. He drained the water from radiator and engine. Hit the scale and was light.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Back in 1970 I carried an extra set of half shafts and some lead in the area behid the seats of my 69 Vette H/S car to make weight. I would pull them out when I ran Larry Lombardo in his "Buck Shot" Nova for class at 75&80 drag way but he still out ran me.....LOL. I could get the car about 200 lbs light. Guess I wasnt fast enough for any one to catch me. I still think the 7 inch tire Jr. stock days were the most fun. Yeah even us old tech guys did some funny stuff back in the day. It was FUN !

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Hey Terry----Look familier ? :-)

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Yepper ! Looks like beautiful Aquasco and Gene in the far lane. Wonder who that is in the black Old's.....LOL
P.S. I bet its a stick shift Old's.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Dan,
Your post about someone giving you a "drink" or 4 at the end of the track is funnier than you think.....especially when its your opponent for a heads-up race and NHRA does nothing about it.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Hey Mike, Was it something I did ? ( Disclaimer ) I've done everything and seldom appologized for anything :-) As per Paul Harvey ---what's the rest of the story ?

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Bob Dwyer's Crockagator later owned by Dempsy Hardy had spring loaded studs holding the carb down in 1966. We used to get outrun on a regular basis for a long time with out P/S 59 Biscayne. I asked him what the deal was with the studs and he said it keeps the gas from foaming. 20 years later I was at his shop and he showed me a 280 hydro {273 Plymouth engine}that had just set the record at the Orange Bowl Regatta in Miami. Same studs & springs on it. This time he pulled the linkage all the way open and showed me how the front of the carb tilted up slightly. All the time we raced Im wondering why he runs the cars so rich, it made my eyes water. Old age & treachery etc.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

We were at Memphis nationals ran David Haag first round he red lighted went to scales they decided to 50-50 oops 5pds. light in front. . that was in the era they were about to quit weighing 50-50, didnt weigh anybody in time trials. i was not the only one to get bounced. i was in a 66 nova those cars were really close on 50-50.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

This wasn't in a "class" car, but it was at the 1980 NHRA World Finals in Ontario, CA involving (I'm pretty sure) Jerry Valentine.

After bracket racing all year in Florida, winning the track championship at Orlando Speed World and then the Division 2 championship in Pro ET at Gainesville, I got to go to NHRA's first world championship race for NHRA bracket cars. Once in tech, I was shocked to learn that my 3 or 4 point roll bar wasn't legal because I didn't have a side bar!:confused: (East coast/West coast rules?:rolleyes: ) I may have been missing the support plates under the floor as well. So here I was on the opposite side of the country, late in the afternoon and unable to race at the biggest event I've ever been to. Luckily an old friend who now lived in San Diego was helping me out and he found a muffler shop that was open. Got some plates welded/bolted in underneath along with exhaust tubing as a side bar, nicely painted and padded. I was nervous, but obviously had nothing to lose. Somehow, surprisingly, Mr. Valentine passed me early the next morning and I made first round. I was exhausted, nervous and redlighted very badly. I had a shot, but I can't help but wonder what may have been if I had gotten a good night's rest. I believe it was a 3 or 4 round race because not all of the qualifying division champions made it.:( At least I was there and it's a memory I'll never forget.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

didnt get bounced but was with Jerry Stein at Suffolk VA eary 70's we had the only
Max Wedge choke cables that when thru tech about 6 times, the bumper jack i ithink
when thru twice

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

Hey Alan,

Thanks for pics of my old Corvair!

I bought that car from that owner that got busted (sans nitrous) and rebuilt it to legal stocker specs and ran Div 5 afterward. Later it became a streeter. I was probably standing by you when the car ran. I remember the car hit third gear and went pop-pop-pop and roared off to the finish! The tech guy next to me (You?) just looked at me turned around and went over to the return road and flagged him down to teardown.

What a show! Thanks for the memories. That car has been gone almost 25 years. FYI: I had the back seat out at tech with my first race with it!

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

How about a well known modified racer who, before being P & G'd, tore the filter tips off a few cigerettes and stuffed them in the spark plug hole. He knew just how many to put in to get the results he wanted.

Re: Things you were bounced for in the olden days when there
 

At Indy for nationals in mid 80"s got tossed for 2lbs too much spring pressure after winning class. This was after checking it two more times on same tester checking right on. Dave Danish comes over and watches everything, he says I'll go with first test.One week later we win Keystone Nationals and Tex Miller protests us after losing in final.Of course we fixed valve springs and pass tech.The best part is they tore down Tex too.Ha-ha.