Bone head mistakes
 

What do you do to prevent them? I left with the burn out limiter on in eliminations.

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Ouch! the only thing I know is to obsessively always do things exactly the same in the same order, every run.

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Dave has the answer, plus practice, practice, practice.

When seated in the car, ready to race, close your eyes and visualize every move then physically do the moves, then repeat.

PS: quickly put the past behind and focus on the next outing. We are not perfect and mistakes will happen. Learning and improving is the goal

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Only sure fire way is to have a checklist.

For 99.9999999999999999999999999% of the time, your flight gets you to your destination safely, your lights at home are on, and your military is as effective as it is from the use and rigid adherence to checklists.

Make a short one with all the key actions, and tape it to the dashboard. Make it a point to use it every time. It would have caught your miss.

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

A note on the dash can make a difference alright. In the early 80s I switched from a forward to reverse valve body without missing a beat. But I was young back then.

25 years later, after more than a decade away from racing, I made the same change and repeatedly shifted from first into neutral, losing a couple of first round races in the process.

I solved it by taping a sizable note to the tach that said simply "PULL!" to remind myself to pull the shift lever back rather than push it forward.

I may have looked stupid with that note there but I never missed the shift again.

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Talk about a bonehead move, the points race before the Gators all my time runs were 10:38, got the stage in first round and I wrote down on the window 10:32,I was having a knee replacement the next week and that's all I was thinking about, lesson learned focus focus focus...Jay

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Why use a chip for the burnout??????????????????????????????
Dan

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

I've heard many people talk about forgetting to turn on their air bottle. Why turn it off? usually because it has a leak somewhere. Solution, fix the leak. When I take my car out of the trailer, the air bottle stays on until I load it up again. It takes planning to keep from making mistakes. Like was said, practice, practice.....
Dan

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

I hit the transbrake in 2nd gear once. Rolled the lights, of coarse. Painted a bright yellow stripe up the side of the shifter and frame and I check it every time as I roll up to the line.
Do what works for you no matter what.

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Oh, I don’t know Dan ?? Why have auto and life insurance ?? We are talking about HIGH dollar engines with minimal valve clearance.....

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Like Kevin says, checklists will save you lots of grief!
When I was still at Boeing, there were written checklists or procedures for almost everything.
We even had a doctor that spent time at Boeing learning about checklists so he could apply the same to the surgery room, thus reducing errors during surgeries.
His book, The Checklist Manifesto, became a best seller:

https://www.amazon.com/Checklist-Man.../dp/0312430000

http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers...er/i_bca05.pdf

This is an example of a checklist for an airline pilot getting ready to take-off on a Boeing 737-800...

https://flyuk.aero/assets/downloads/...ECKLIST-V2.pdf

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

One of the best bone head mistakes for me was: I runner-upped in a BIG Super Stock race at a track in KY. Winner paid $2000. RU paid $400. It was an IHRA race. The guy who won could just barely run the index. It was a LONG weekend and me and my partner were tired and wanna to get on the road and home. They (IHRA) was going to check the winner but just the carb. My partner said "hell, ain't no way he can be wrong. He's not running fast enough to be wrong". We load up, hit the road and 3 miles down the road I get a call on the CB to come back to track. HE WAS WRONG. I turned around and head back. Drive straight over to tear down and talk to the official. He said "Sorry, you left the track, we're not going to check you." Well, that cost me $1600

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

We were all stuck in the mud at Houston one time and I had to park the car up on the pavement quite a ways away from my pit area. Left my battery charger and generator in the trunk of the car for the first round of eliminations. Remember that Bobby Brannon???

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

I use to think I could write a book about 101 ways to loose a drag race - I am way beyond 101.

Not making mistakes is in your DNA or it isn't.

IMHO

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Is that a nice way of saying that some people can't be helped? I knew a wise older Christian pastor who came to that conclusion when the same people over and over made the same mistakes, listened to your advice, and then went out and did the same dumb thing, they can't be helped. I do wonder about some of the DNA that's out there,however.

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

I like all of us have made and are still making the bonehead mistakes but each one I make I do the same thing whether it's a life lesson or racing , I backtrack examine how it happened and change something so it can't happen again. I did the same thing once in a big race, at the time I had an on/ off switch on the rev limiter for the burnout so I wired it in with the line lock so it was on a momentary switch and I don't have to remember to turn it off. When coming out of the burnout I pump the line lock switch off then back on that releases the line lock but then I still have the rev ltr on til I complete the burnout in case I happen to hit some water or something before I let off the gas, been working fine for years and one more way to lose eliminated but I still keep inventing new ways ! Hey keeps the adventure rolling!

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Btw I don't let the engine hit the rev limiter during the burnout its just there for safety

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

If you can't do a burnout without using a rev limiter......take up tennis.
Dan

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

I have driven to the staging lanes with my battery charger still connected.......

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Pulled into the water without my helmet on...two different occasions.
Made a Q run at a divisional with the passenger window open, nobody noticed!

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Tennis, Dan, tennis. ;-)

I was "helping out" and installed a mechanical oil pressure gauge on Don Himes' 69 Road Runner. Apparently, I didn't completely tighten the end of the line that goes to the gauge. It came off and oiled his under dash and carpet pretty good. He never let me live that one down. Hey, at least the zero gauge reading wasn't the motor! I know, tennis, Dave, tennis.

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

And that's why you run a high-side limiter, correct? Why would the burnout require a lower limit to prevent damage?

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

How about this.
An older track I raced at for the first time. The burn out box was next
to the tower, just in front of it. You had to back into it.Need I say more!!!!
Terry K

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Dan, I am sorry I am not as talented as you....Regards...MJ QUINN

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Ive seen a new driver step into an existing good car and get so excited about winning a round that when dumping the water he eliminated step one, drain the water. In his haste he pulled the top hose off the radiator and proceeded to dump the boiling hot water directly into his crotch. It was ugly, real ugly after that, hospital visit, no pants at all for a good length of time due to severe burns. I got the "no" out of my mouth but not in time

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

I have made several passes without my Helmet in place!

Due to the heat in Vegas.....I only put it on only near front of staging
lanes.
.
Several times the starting line crew has not noticed either......
I do not realize I forgot it = until I go to take it off approaching
the time slip booth.

Fortunately, at my advanced age.......I have an extremely hard
head (Just ask my boys!)

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

[QUOTE=Dave Gantz;564502]Tennis, Dan, tennis. ;-)

Now that is funny.......

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Left the linkage off one of the AFBs on my Max Wedge, the good thing it was a test and tune run. I was thinking what the F__K! LOL!

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Once I was doubled up in S/ST and S/P after a time hit in S/P I took a time hit in S/ST without changing the box . That was the longest second....:eek:

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

I ran my Max Wedge with one carb once, it was still .1 under! The dumbest thing I've done was when I was a Sportsman bracket racer. I ran out of gas a couple hundred feet away from the finish line and lost the race because of it. I came back to the pits and I was so angry with myself that I threw all my stuff into the car (it was a driver) and hit the road. Then I ran out of gas for real--of course running out of gas enough to lose a race is different from running out of gas on the road. I had to walk a couple of miles to buy a gallon of water then empty it out and fill it up with gas.

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Never had a race car, then decided to run AH. DUH!!!!

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Now that did make me LAUGH OUT LOUD!:p

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The first year VMP had a division race, the ticket booths at the entrance gates had canopies all the way around them that hung out about 2-3 ft.......if you will notice now the canopies have been removed and are no longer on the booths. That first year my enclosed trailer grabbed the corner of the booth and I never noticed it.....until I saw people pointing and screaming.......I was dragging the ticket booth and the person in it ( the booths were on skids ) into the pit area with me.......about 30 ft actually.......money was floating in the booth everywhere and it was 10 degrees from turning over......the lady inside had choice four letter words for me and it was an NHRA ticket booth record on skids that I still hold. My buddy was so embarrassed I didn't see him again until the next day.

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

Lmao!!!!

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

You win!!!

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Never had a race car, then decided to build a GT/MA Mustang. And drive it to the strip...

Re: Bone head mistakes
 

I agree. Wow!