Tell Us About Setting A Record

[Ven302]

Have done this once or twice now, memorable ones were in Kentucky first outing with the Mustang ever! Eighth was a minimum, so why not try? We did and had a fabulous time. Two weeks later went to Indy Fall Classic and set the 1/4 Records, made a bunch of friends in the "barn" even though I really didn't have as much work to do as the others I hung around and chatted with them all. It was like the coolest place on earth. Everybody was happy and we were all there for a common goal confirmation that our stuff was fast and right! Met Ernie Neal, didn't understand his fascination until he told me of his years in SS/CS have been good friends ever since. To say that setting a record is intoxicating is an understatement, I have since encouraged many who thought they "should" to "do it" if you don't try you will never know! My absolute best was driving to Atco for one reason, drove all night alone, slept at the gate. Got in unloaded the car, teched and prepped the car, waited for some cars to make some passes. I think I made a pass at 1:30 and 3:30 to that end the fastest I had ever been, best sixty foot and on and on. Dave sealed the car and said come back in the morning to pump. I passed the tech/inspection, handshakes and a quick scribble map and I was on my way home. The nine hour drive home felt like ninety minutes, the phone calls and banter with all the friends who could not come with me. At the border I was asked if I had anything to declare and of course I said " I am an NHRA record holder!" Guard looked at me with the "what on earth are you talking about" stare and said have a nice day he probably thought I was the loon. Got home late friday night, and decided to take the car to a local Dragstrip Memories car show Saturday, still dirty still had the R on the window I was wiped out but you could not take the smile off my face! Records matter, and I rue the day that they no longer matter!

[Lyn Smith]

I have a couple of National Record stories.First is a Record setting story.Second is a attempt story.Back in June 1978 I took my 71 Buick 455 G/SA Buick to Bunker Hill Indiana to a National Open where National records could be set.Neat little track with a lot of History. Track is still open today. If I remember correctly the scales were across the street at a defunct circle track,and speaking of the scales they were racer friendly to the tune of about 75 pounds.LOL That helped me set my first National Record at 7.82 88.14 MPH..The second story doesn't go so good.Had borrowed my buddy Bobby Dee Myers 1971 Buick Sport wagon to race at the Edgewater Ohio NHRA points race.It was real fast there so I called him and asked if I should attempt to set the record.He said "go ahead, but the new cam is real close on lift". We ran quick enough to get the record,and tear down would be after the first round of eliminations on Saturday night.That's when things started down hill. I had a heads up with a slower O/SA, car but got beat with a bad light. So we went to the onsite tear down barn and a friend I had with me started to tear the engine down and loosened up the fuel line enough to drain some fuel on the intake, then promptly arced a wrench against the + cable on the alternator.We hadn't been there 2 minutes and we had the borrowed car on fire.LOL Luckily there was a fire extinguisher near by. Long story short the cam didn't check and the record attempt was denied. Just another bad racing weekend that most every racer has.LOL

[Ed Wright]

We used to get points for setting records. Of course, we ran off the records then, no dialing. If we bumped our own ET record, we got 100 points. Winning a round at a points race was 100. Setting the MPH record held by someone else was also 100. Taking the ET record from another person was 200, like winning two rounds of eliminations.