Scary Moments in Your Racing Career?

[Michael Kilduff]

I thought this would be a good topic for the off season. Anyone here care to share a hair raising moment or two when you were behind the wheel, or even when checking the car and finding something wrong that could have been disasterous?

I have two to share. Several years ago I had a 67 Chevelle street car that I raced at a local track. I did the burnout, charging hard outta the waterbox and the throttle hung wide open. I'm sure everyone was wondering why I was doing a John Force style burnout across the starting line ....fortunately I kept my head and killed the ignition before I blasted all the way down the track with the *** end up in smoke . As soon as I killed the ignition the pedal came back-had a broken motor mount which kinked up the factory linkage.


Episode number two wasn't at the track, but was so scary I think I can write about it here anyway. My brother has a '70 Cuda street/strip car, he took the car to a local guy to get the ring gear changed and the posi unit rebuilt. I went with him to pick up the car. We left the shop that did the work, I was riding passenger side and heard a distinct 'ting'-the sound of metal hitting metal for a split instant as we were traveling 45 mph a mile or two from the shop. A few more seconds and I heard it again.

It dawned on me that what I was hearing was the lug nuts coming off and glancing off the wheel! I just started yelling for him to pull over-he musta thought I was nuts. As he was getting stopped asap I told him what was going on. We got stopped on the side of the road and only 2 of the lug nuts were on the right rear wheel. There was a bridge about 1000 feet ahead. To this day I check my lug nuts on everything I drive like clockwork.

If ya had something freaky happen on or off the track, feel free to chat it up!

[Chad Rhodes]

at the Memphis divisional last qualifying pass this year. Felt the motor stumble about 1100', was about to jump off the throttle when it let go, and let go BAD. I grabbed the wheel with both hands and was preaparing for having schrapnel/oil under the tires at well over 120mph. Thankfully it contained itself in the oil pan, only hole went right into the side of the starter, no oil ran out.

My biggest fear was wrecking dad's original 427/435 68 corvette that he has owned since 1970. I wasn't concerned about hurting myself, because if I had lived dad would have finished the job, lol. I am pretty sure there will be a diaper on the car from now on

[Ed Carpenter]

When I bought my car(2006) it was race ready as the guy put it. He said the engine was good to go(lesson number 1) All I did was took the auto out and installed a Jerico. My son and I went down to San Antonio on a friday night. There was probably 10 people total on the property. I made a few easy passes and then I went up and my son said time to turn it loose. I dropped the hammer and the car was on a good run until I put it into third gear and instantly I was facing the right lane wall(I was in the left lane) then it was like slow motion I was thinking did I get out of the groove or what. The car was sliding sideways and I tried to keep it out of the right hand wall but I hit it very hard. Everything from the windshield forward was trashed. It was still running when I came to a stop and I shut it off. I was very surprised when the emt guy or whoever it was said you were in the oil when you blew it up. Number 7 rod decided to exit the engine and knock off the oil filter boss coating the track with mobil 1. So that left me with a boatanchor for a motor and trashed racecar. Three passes and my new super stocker was trashed. I also felt like someone beat my *** with a baseball bat the next day also. It's all back together now(engine being freshened now) so maybe this year will be better.

[THE LEGEND]

This summer I traded my stocker for a SG/SR car. The first weekend out we won SR at Clay City. The next weekend on the 2nd pass at Pittsburgh the steering arm came loose from the rack crossing the finish line at 140+. The Good Lord was with me on that pass kept car in my lane and got it stopped with no steering.
Chip

[Don Kennedy]

Ok It was 1967 when i had just put a brand new cam in My 3 speed 55 chevy stocker . I rented the track and was testing .the first run was awesome so i came back to check over all , then the next run i left the line and was just getting ready to shift when all heck broke lose the clutch exploded and parts came up through the whole car and literally smashed the crap out of my right foot . i moved to the finished line and the owner showed up and i was really hurt . so he called my College room mate to come and pick me up , ok so i missed the next season of basket ball withthis problem , any way i had a cast on my foot for 3 months . Darn I would do the same thing again it was a really quick race car then . Lol at me for remembering 41 years ago at Bee line drag way.

[Nitro Joe Jackson]

trying to argue with Don & Katie Kennedy at Vegas a long time ago, that was scary, like talking to the wall, i knew i was not going to win that one!
lol

[Myron Piatek]

1) 1989 or 1990, I was at the Moroso 5-Day bracket race. Made a pass, went through the lights, lifted, and nothing happened. Car kept accellerating. First impulse was to jam the brakes on but I also went for the ignition switch. As soon as I killed the ignition, the was a "kaboom" and the car swerved around, but was starting to slow down. I coasted around the last turn-off and stopped, trying to regain my composure and figure out what happened. I thought I blew the engine but also noticed the car seemed to be sitting crooked. When I got out, I realized I had blown one front tire and severely flat-spotted the other. The engine wasn't blown but the throttle had stuck on an air pan I had installed.

I remember frantically searching for replacement tires or tire/wheel combo. I did find a shorter combo to borrow for the rest of the race. I think I ended up getting a little money that day.

2) Gainesville Raceway. I was in the thick of the points chase in in Pro or Super Pro ET but my Challenger was broke. A friend let me borrow his '68 or '69 big block Cuda that was capable of at least low 10's with a Dominator carb. Not wanting to run that fast, I disconnected the back barrels and figured I could short shift to run high 10's or low 11's. Shifter was an OEM type with no ratchet action. I think he had an air shifter but I always shifted manually. Anyway, I launched, went from first to third, realized what I did after a second or two, tried to go back into second and went to first instead. The valve body did not have a freewheeling first gear, so it locked up the rear wheels. People at the starting line said they got a good view of both sides of the car.

When I got back to the pits, I loaded the car up willing to take just the one tech-in point and passing on the second point earned for at least staging the car in the first round.

[cj92345]

shaking down a friends car at carlsbad raceway, car was a fresh frame-off resto race/street car, ripped off
a 11.06..pushed the brake pedal, rock hard, didn't move one i-otta, pushed again then wham brake's locked up and got it slowed down....when the resto was down they converted from power brakes to
manual brakes and the plunger rod was to short, on accel it came out of the master cylinder cup and fell
onto the little lip on the master cylinder on the second brake pump it popped back into the cup...coulda
fell all the way out than i would'nt be typing this.

[bill dedman]

I wasn't in a car...

It was 1958 or '59... can't recall the year,exactly, but at the Carlisle (Arkansas) drag strip (a WW II bomber emergency landing strip), we had no win/lose photocell system...

What we had was a guy standing on a wooden, folding chair, in the middle of the drag strip at the finish line, with a flag.... He would raise it and tip the flag toward the winning lane as the cars went by.

Yours truly thought that would be a great place to watch the race from, so, one day I volunteered to be the "JUDGE."

The stockers weren't bad.... running 75-90mph.... not too bad at all.... then came...

Raymond Godman's Memphis-based "Boll Weevil" AA/MR; nothing but a blown Hemi dragster with a T-bucket roadster body mounted to the back half... and ran something like 150+ at that time...

One trip through the traps with his Boll Weevil on one side of me and a different 150mph car on the other, and I was ready to watch the races from a different perspective. I think I told them I was sick... not too far from the truth.

To this day, sometimes I still hear that 6:71/Hilborn 4-port coming at me at warp speed.... and me with nowhere to go...

Nobody ever accused me of being smart.


Bill

[greg fulk]

1991 2nd round of elim. @ the local bracket track I had to run a "dune buggy" I was running 8.0s he was dialed in the 8.7s he left & broke an axle just as I left & he crossed into my lane & hit the gard rail! I hit the brakes & got stopped in time (thank god!)