Another new way to lose a round!
 

Saturday afternoon at Martin this past weekend I was Driving Phil Veldheer's 69 Camaro at the IHRA race in Martin, MI. I had a small issue when the car launched.......

http://youtu.be/Nox7YyroNV8

I have never had a car with a removable steering wheel and never will just because of something like this. I never took this steering wheel off when I was driving this car and had made three passes in the car prior to this run with no issues.

It kinda got my attention and caught me off guard!!!! Kept my hands busy while driving this automatic trans car!

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

did I hear a little curse there?

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

Sorry... Pardon my French!

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

That had to be a pucker moment!

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

I would have been cursin like a drunk sailor in a ***** house. Glad you did not end up in the guard rail. There always next race

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

Quick thinking!

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

Looks to me like you were way calmer than most people would be. Hell, it sounds like you only briefly lifted when the car hit the chip. Nice job!

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

Pretty nice job getting the steering wheel back on the spline.

Not a recommended method for checking the front end alignment.

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

We had a similar experience. With a hemi street race car. The steering shaft came out of the steering box. It did not end as well. But it could have been a whole lot worse. That run ended our street racing careers.

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

Now THAT is calm and collected! Very impressive!

Launch...oops, damn.....hmm,hmm,hmm gotta shift, now stick this back on......shift....nope can't catch him....crap I lost....

Could of got real ugly, congrat's on keeping it straight. (now if the other guy redlit, that would of been hilarious!)

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

Saw that happen on one of the Pinks episodes.......same result. :(

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

About 15 years Lil Joe was testing our SS/BA 65 original lightweight car at Baton Rouge and we were leaving for Indy the next day. Steering Wheel came off in a massive wheel stand, and he almost got it stopped before it hit the guard rail. Not bad, but damaged. I called our Body Shop manager about 10 pm from the track to tell him we were open for business. We got it fixed and left on time. I will say over the years when those little mishaps come along, my guys have always come through for us.

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

Nice job keeping your cool and staying off the guardrail. Could have been a lot worse.

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

....

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Great recovery ! Glad you got down the track safely. Drove a friends bracket car with a removable wheel. Was always in the back of head --What If ?

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

hundred years ago i pulled entire column out of the wagon came apart at the slip joint... coasted to end of track then couldnt turn left !

nice job of getting a "grip" on the situation !
capt.

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

Had a simular round in 2004 at the Bracket finals in Atlanta... Made the pass and went to turn left off the track and the steering wheel turned but the tires didn't turn... After about three or four revolutions the wheels truned enough to get off the track.. The tabs holding the rack had broken and the rack was turing not the steering... Had a welder there and he welded it back up... Next pass the exact same thing... The so called welder came back and wanted to re-do his work.. I put the car in the trailer without a scratch and headed home... And glad to be doing that.... I totally understand your position.....

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

Just another round of Pollack Drag Racing !!

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I just can't believe he kept his foot in it when the wheel came off!

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

Same here. His are bigger than mine.

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

The only thing worse than that is having the steering come off,and the master cylinder push rod fall out on the same run!!!!!

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

See what happens when stick racers run an auto car! They get bored and start playin around with all the other stuff in there!
Seriously, that was a great response to a real problem. Cool customer that Brad Z!

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

I would have spoke up sooner, but I just got back from SPEEDWEEKS at the Bonneville Salt Flats ten minutes ago....we were lucky we had a skilled driver do all the right things...for me (tall) to fit in this car and load and unload it with the roll bars, etc. I HAD to have a removable steering wheel..and I unloaded the car and left it with Brad, HE SAW ME PULL ON IT with all my might...and it STILL CAME OFF....I think I am going to switch to another brand...
It could have been a very bad weekend....what most people might not know is that BRAD WON THE 2nd race that was held on SUNDAY!!!

Phil

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

At the national event at Norwalk last year I saw a gentleman named Clark with GT A or B grand am launch his car, the steering wheel came offf he stopped put it back on ,continued the run and won when his opponent ran out.

Re: Another new way to lose a round!
 

Phil
I had this happen on a kit I had. I removed the steering wheel from the hub and found that when the hub was fully engaged the splined shaft protruded thru the hub just a small amount. My solution was to shim the steering wheel away from the hub. It wasn't very much.

Bill