Do not eat or drink this before smelling nitro...

[Mike]

Random late night question: Getting a whiff of nitro could cause reactions. I've heard stories of unexpecting fans puking.

Is there a certain food or drink you would never ingest before walking through the nitro pits when engines are being fired?

 

[ZWeinstein]

Its funny, in all the years I have gone, I can think of only one person I ever saw puke. Seen plenty of folks hacking up a lung. I think I would never want to be hammered and then get a whiff of nitro. I feel like that is a good chain reaction waiting to happen. The closest I ever came to puking was one year Beckman and Scelzi who were pitted next to each other fired up at the same time and I just so happened to stand in the perfect spot where the wind seemed to swirl and I was hacking something fierce to the point that I was coughing up smoke as I walked away. I learned early on to stand at a point where I can get the eyes watering, the nose running and a little tickle in the throat without getting to big of a nitro hit.

Probably my all-time favorite story was one year I took a buddy of mine for pre-season testing one day. We were 18 and he was your typical macho hard headed 18 year old and he wanted to stand right at the ropes. I told him it will probably be too rough on him and he ended up betting me $10 that he could stand at the rope for an entire Force warmup. This was back when he & Coil started on gas for about 20 seconds and then switched to nitro with a throttle whack. To his credit he stayed at the rope the entire time but the second he clicked it off he was running for the trash can and was close to puking.

 

[z28]

Its funny, in all the years I have gone, I can think of only one person I ever saw puke. Seen plenty of folks hacking up a lung. I think I would never want to be hammered and then get a whiff of nitro. I feel like that is a good chain reaction waiting to happen. The closest I ever came to puking was one year Beckman and Scelzi who were pitted next to each other fired up at the same time and I just so happened to stand in the perfect spot where the wind seemed to swirl and I was hacking something fierce to the point that I was coughing up smoke as I walked away. I learned early on to stand at a point where I can get the eyes watering, the nose running and a little tickle in the throat without getting to big of a nitro hit.

Probably my all-time favorite story was one year I took a buddy of mine for pre-season testing one day. We were 18 and he was your typical macho hard headed 18 year old and he wanted to stand right at the ropes. I told him it will probably be too rough on him and he ended up betting me $10 that he could stand at the rope for an entire Force warmup. This was back when he & Coil started on gas for about 20 seconds and then switched to nitro with a throttle whack. To his credit he stayed at the rope the entire time but the second he clicked it off he was running for the trash can and was close to puking.

I always get a kick out of watching people bail out when they fire one up. I learned early on to stay back.

 

[T.Smith]

How about a greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray.

 

[Cliff]

Drag dawg?

 

[onfire]

How about a greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray.

That’s a little Weird Tony…….but it’ll work if ya know the Science….

 

[65 Goatboy]

I always get a kick out of watching people bail out when they fire one up. I learned early on to stay back.

My first race in the early 90's in Memphis I stood at the fence near the starting line with 2 FC's at the line for qual. #2. I set my plastic cup of beer down on the ground so I could press my headphones tighter. After the launch people were running away as fast as they could, lot's of girls dragging their boyfriends by the arm. I picked up my beer and bits of rubber were floating in it and I was covered head to toe.

 

[mick]

how about swilling the rest of the beer in the can just before you enter pits, only to realize someone
put a cigarette out in your beer, and the butt is now in your gut.

 

[65 Goatboy]

Hope that didn't happen!

 

[T.Smith]

How about a hot bowl of chitlin soup, with onions and sardines on the side.

 

[mick]

How about a hot bowl of chitlin soup, with onions and sardines on the side.

probably don't even need nitro fumes for that to get ugly

 

[camaro]

i have a ritual, in that, i do not eat anything, until the race is over and i'm back at the hotel. I refuse to use 'port a pottys'. It takes me weeks to get the sight and smell of those things, out of my head . . . . so if i get hungry at the races, I figure, between the thought of using one of those things and the ridiculous price of track food, is plenty of motivation to go on a 'Fast' until i get back in 'safer' Surroundings

 

[65 Goatboy]

i have a ritual, in that, i do not eat anything, until the race is over and i'm back at the hotel. I refuse to use 'port a pottys'. It takes me weeks to get the sight and smell of those things, out of my head . . . . so if i get hungry at the races, I figure, between the thought of using one of those things and the ridiculous price of track food, is plenty of motivation to go on a 'Fast' until i get back in 'safer' Surroundings

You must be at the wrong track. Try St. Louis.

 

[Greasemunk]

Being the Start Line TV reporter for the Australian Championship for a number of years, I've had my share of nitro tears over the years. The worst one I can remember was standing between two Fuel Dragsters on a PERFECTLY still night after having a bit of a chest infection the week before. They were running FAT. I was in the centre of the track and when the cars launched it trigged a coughing fit that resulted in me puking on the grass in front of 20,000 odd people.

No matter where I went on the line I could not get a breath of oxygen - everything was nitro. And as anyone who has been on the startline knows, once you start coughing on nitro you will keep on coughing. Until You Puke.

That wasn't fun.