(07/27/09) Have you ever competed in an official race/pull/etc.?

[Randy_the_Hack]

This week's poll: Have you ever competed in an official race/pull/etc.? No bench racing here guys... you ever been on a sanctioned track? Feel free to include bikes, cars, planes, boats - whatever you have raced or pulled.

 

[Randy_the_Hack]

I built an old Honda 450 out of a box of parts a long time ago. Paid $15 for the whole thing... and then spend another $50 or so for missing parts. When I had it done, it ran, but ran like crap. So... I threw it on the trailer with a buddy's dragster - a sweet '68 Camaro he built for racing 1/8th mile drag racing - and I ran it once to (in my mind) blow the carbon and such out of it.

What a mistake. Burned out just fine... then proceeded to wind it up and dump the clutch, which threw it into a wheelie that dumped me off the back while still hanging onto the bars with me running behind the thing. Got the front wheel down and me back on the bike. Scared the holy crap out of me. Came up to the line with the engine screaming, then took off (slower than anyone in the history of drag racing) and the bike began cutting out in one cylinder about 100 feet down the track. Apparently the reason the bike didn't run too well was a weak condenser. The hotter the thing got, the worse it ran.

Ran 3 more times that night, without a repeat of the first wheelie... but never managed to get the thing to run right... until the last run. The first 3 passes were qualifications... to determine ET. Final run was the one and only actual race. The bike ran fine... and I ran against a dirt bike... and lost!

Totally humiliated and (thank God) still in one piece, I pulled the bike back to the pits and I've never stepped foot on another track again.

It's amazing some of the things that seem to make good sense when you're young. at:

 

[btfarm]

Way back in the mid '60s at Oswego (Illinois) Drag Raceway I ran a '59 Chev 348 Tri-power several times during the summer. Not impressive but it was fun. All the rest of my racing career has been, ahem... Unsanctioned...

 

[THEFERMANATOR]

When I was younger I had an old VW rail I used to race. Later on I upgraded to a single seat VW rail chassis that was meant for racing and ran several IVWA events with it. 2 car accidents ended that though.

 

[625fireman]

I pulled my garden tractor for the first time sat.(25 july) I plan on doing it again had alot of fun missed 3rd place by 1.5 inches.