First Divisional or National event stories

[Justin Graham]

Hello CR, I'm just trying to make the most of my "COVID"time. I was hoping with all the Stock/SuperStock aficionados here, there would be some great stories to share.

It doesn't have to to be your first event, but just anything memorable.

I thought this would be a great time to read something fun and wholly entertaining. While possibly gaining some insight, on the in's and out's, do's and don'ts of participating in an NHRA event one day.

Thank you in advance, and I hope and pray no more persons of this great community are affected by this virus.

[Greg Gay]

Spring 1993, my first Divisional: Cecil County MD. Though I have admired Stock Eliminator for years, I have don't know many of the racers, and have never attended a race with anyone. Ryck Campbell gets the unenviable distinction of teching my car. The car is from Division 3, so no one in Division 1 really knows the car. "What's your carb numbers?" "I don't know". "What's your head number?" "I don't know". Ryck is quiet, but you can tell that he's not happy. He checks what he can see, checks my safety equipment, and lets me in.

I don't have access to a scale, so I tech in as C/SA with a minimum of 3725 lbs. I go to the scale before my first run and the person running the scale hollers out "45!". So, I go up for the first qualifying run. When I cross the scale, the scalemaster says, "You're 100 lbs. light!" I don't have any lead, the previous owner had rightfully removed it from the car. I go to the tower and talk to Greg X. "Don't you have any weight?" "No" "Can't you borrow it from someone?" "I don't know anyone." Perhaps for the first time in the history of NHRA, I am allowed to change my class to B/SA.

First round, I draw former World Champion Tex Miller. I give him a small head start and away we go! Second gear, Third gear, focus on the opponent, set the car right in beside him, a cone flashes by between us, back off, look up for the win light, and it's the 1000 foot cone! Back on the throttle, and I can't catch him.

Time to load up and go home. Though I feel like a fool, I can't wait for the next opportunity to try it again!

[Justin Graham]

Thank you Greg, that’s exactly what I was hoping for, a story like that. Thank you.

[Sam Capizzi Jr]

Here’s my story of getting to the semis in my first IhRA race.


back in 2011 or so I had the brilliant idea to take the bone stock 100,000 mile 318 motor that came with my car and put it in my dart to run Q stock. Replaced a bunch of gaskets so it didn’t leak, etc. Get it all together and it goes 13.50 something at the local track (non prep street night) on Wednesday. Figure this is great! Mind you this was with 87 Pump gas and had no clue what the weight was... loaded up and headed into Canada with a borrowed truck and no registrations/ titles etc... stopped to pick up race gas. Figured let’s put c-11 in it cus i read its fast! Stopped to pick up vinyl numbers for the car in Niagara Falls. Get to the border and they didn’t wanna let me in. Apparently heading into Canada with No title/registration, borrowed old truck is frowned upon. Spent an hour there before they finally asked. “How do we know this is your car and you won’t sell it here?” My response was simple. My Name is on the window and my wife would kill me.. so they let me in. 😂. Get to the track after midnight so gets are closed but my close buddy knows someone at IhrA so we “sneak” in.

Race day! Put the c-11 head to the scales, 150 light. No problem I got that, add the weight and we are ready for the first hit. Burn out great.. thing sounds like it’s got 600hp not 180 something. Run it through and it’s a dog 😂😂. 14.20 something on the 14.10 index, 200+ degrees thru the lights, poppin and banging, ready to grenade. Turn off track and head to the pits. Totally by passing the scales. 😅. Mind u it just went 13.53 earlier in the week. Pull a plug and it’s super lean. Take a drill to the stock jets in the 2 barrel and drop some timing out. Head back up. 14.18. Hit the scales good. Fuel check good. Did I mention it was 96 degrees outside. So first round dialed 14.10. Guy goes red. I go 14.18. Win
Second round next guy is a day late I’m really good and go 14.14 with my foot through the floor board... get to the semis and I go red like an idiot. Run it out the back door pissed off and it goes 14.103 on a 14.10. Get my check for $200.

Sounds crazy, stupid, bush league, amateur hour. You name it but looking back it was AWESOME and I wouldn’t have changed any of it. Just made me wanna jump in with both feet. Next winter had a motor and transmission built for it.

For my first NhRA national story.. got hooked heads up round one😂😂. That’s a story for another day

[Greg Gay]

But wait! . . . There's more! My first national event is Columbus. First round, I get paired up with Bob Gere I think; he had a 350 Buick back then, J/SA. We're staged, the lights come down, he takes off, my second yellow comes on and then nothing. How I didn't move, I don't know how, but I didn't move. I look over at Buster and he's just looking straight ahead. So, I drive down the track, get my time slip, and go back to the tower. Turns out Buster's finger slipped and he shut off the tree! On the re-run, I won the round, which is probably all that I won that weekend.

It makes me think that there really is a lot to learn at this game. When I bought the car, I knew nothing about having to go to points races, etc. to get into national events. I thought you just showed up, paid your money at the gate, and ran the race; just like the local bracket race. For anyone that's going to try it, I do suggest that you attend at least one race with someone who's done it.

[joe huestis]

My most memorable race. back in the day was attending the Dutch Classic at Maple Grove back when they had that race in the Springtime in May either ‘74 or ‘75. We had an entourage of about 5 or 6 cars follow each other from upstate N.Y. , most of us flat towing our cars using those old NMW hubs. Cars ranged from my ‘69 Camaro stocker, Clem LaChance and his H/MP Maverick, Fred Rice with his D/SA Mustang and a couple other local racers with their cars from back home.We arrive late at night and park in the driveway outside the gate. We all ended up sleeping in either the “Camaro Cottage “, “ Blazer Bungalow” or the “Ford Motel”. I slept in the back seat of my Camaro with my feet hanging out of the side window. I’m 6’4” tall and man did I pay for that mistake the next day ! Anyway, I make it to the semis in stock eliminator and I’m paired up with the “Mooney and Weed” E/SA Cobra Jet Convertible. I win the round and return to the pits when an Official comes up to me and says we had the handicap wrong and you need to rerun the round. Back then there was no scoreboard showing any dial. I don’t believe the index system was used yet and we may have run off national records ? Anyway, after cooling our cars down we rerun our race and I win again. Back in the pits again an official tells me they still had the “spot” wrong. We run a third time and I lose. Now everything is fine ??? I was just a 19 or 20 year old kid at the time and who was I to bitch to ? Still had a great time and would not trade those years for anything!

[Ed Carpenter]

First nhra D4 race I went to I pull into tech and Wesley walks up and says nice car wrong trim. Get it fixed before you come to another race.

[devo340]

My Son's first race in a Stocker was in 2016 @ Tulsa divisional.
We had some idea as what to do, but after his first TT, he got his weight & fuel checked like he was supposed to.


The next couple of TT's, he didn't have anything checked, since he didn't improve anything.


A friend of ours that has ran Stock & Super Stock for years, came down to our pit & said "tell your Son to stop after each TT, the NHRA officials were running after him as he went by" LOL.

[Justin Graham]

ONLY because I saw Adam Strang! post a comment I had to share this. I snapped this pic at the '19 AutoClub Finals.

I really wish budgets would make it possible to see more racers make cross country trips.

[ALMACK]

My first event in NHRA Stock was a National Open in May 2013.

I bought my '86 T-Bird Turbo Coupe in Dec. 2012 from Marty Buth ( turnkey)

I agreed to pay him his asking price in exchange he would help me thru tech teardown when I attempted to set the National Record in Q/SA the following May at the 2013 Sportsnationals. He kept his word and showed up at Bowling Green the day before.

The pics below are of the very first pass I ever made in the T-Bird class racing it. ( 2 photographers)
This was after 30 years of waiting to race with NHRA.

The T-Bird ran it's quickest pass ever at that weight.( 3290 lbs) 12.36 on a 13.80 index.
So I went 1.438 under and was the # 2 qualifier for the event on my first pass.

The backup run was 12.5x so it set the record and the car passed tech just like Marty said it would.

For me it was a great experience after waiting 30 years.

Within a 30 month span from May 2013-Oct. 2015, the T-Bird set 8 national records for both e.t. and mph and in May 2014 became the first 4 cylinder Stocker to run in the 11.80's





The car