Hottest and coldest drag race? (1 Viewer)

[Mike]

Has anyone ever been to a race when the thermometer read triple digits? What about freezing your tush off?

 

[glofria]

I can remember being at a ANRA race at Famoso when the weather station said 118 degrees (maybe Mike English can conform) peaked in the afternoon. Too hot to get anything done. Fortunately, I had a cousin who lived 30 miles north and had a saltwater pool that my team took over.

 

[Bubba]

The 1990 Northstar Nationals at Brainerd was a cold one! I was wearing three layers and was still begging for a bowl of soup.

 

[T.Smith]

Has anyone ever been to a race when the thermometer read triple digits? What about freezing your tush off?

A few I've been involved in...

The 2011 US Nationals, Friday it was 99 degrees and 1st round on Monday was 60 degrees. a 40 degree swing in race condition temperatures.

NHRA Norwalk in 2012, the high temps were 94 & 97 degrees on Friday and Saturday.

The coldest race I can remember participating in was the 2011 Winternationals. Temperatures were in the low 50's on Saturday & Sunday. It snowed either late Friday or Saturday.

 

[mgty3whlr]

Maple Grove hand down! When 911 went down, The Nat. event was scheduled. They postponed it and moved it foward to the first week in October. Well, If you didn't have an electric blanket while sitting in the stands, you froze your $%LLS off!

 

[MM]

Bowling Green for the NHRR has been well over 100 several times. Firesuits are no fun on those days. Been to Martin, MI in October where it was snowing. Air temp was 39 when we ran at a little after 9:30pm.

 

[Cliff]

One year I went to a race at then Firebird and Shirley was racing. Was 117 that day & she couldn't believe how hot it was. Was a brutal day for a race.

 

[TSK]

I’m surprised nobody mentioned Ennis in October. Any October.
I’ve gotten fried there more times than I care to remember.
The first round is usually tolerable. After that, it gets pretty warm.

 

[Luke Nieuwhof]

I raced at Perth Motorplex on a 44C (111F) day. Wearing leathers waiting in the staging lanes in the peak of the afternoon sun was something.
One of the coldest drags I remember at the track was technically not very cold, it was Indy in 2011. I think the Monday or the Sunday was unseasonally cold after being warm on the previous days. We didn't check the forecast and arrived at the track in shirts and shorts...we did a lot of shopping at the Nitro Mall that day!

 

[TSK]

Gainesville 2019.
Sunday morning was cloudy and fairly cool. There had been some rain.
I didn’t have a coat and was shivering through the first round.
Who buys a coat in Florida?

 

[Mike_in_Toney]

A few I've been involved in...

The 2011 US Nationals, Friday it was 99 degrees and 1st round on Monday was 60 degrees. a 40 degree swing in race condition temperatures.

NHRA Norwalk in 2012, the high temps were 94 & 97 degrees on Friday and Saturday.

The coldest race I can remember participating in was the 2011 Winternationals. Temperatures were in the low 50's on Saturday & Sunday. It snowed either late Friday or Saturday.

I was also at Indy in '11, my first national event. Loved the weather until race day. All I had was shorts but thankfully had a long sleeve shirt. Every other time I've gone to Indy I think I brought up the Alabama humidity.
The only other track I've been to was Zmax in '12 with the mist all day on Sunday which caused a whole lot of havoc for the pro stockers and the Shane Gray crash. That was a surreal moment.

 

[Chili]

Everybody that was there in Indy 2011 seem to remember the weather. That was my first Indy and it was boiling hot until Monday where everybody was freezing even though the temp wasn’t as bad as we remember. Topeka May 2002. It was maybe low 50’s to start with but had to drop into the low 40’s. Gary Ormsby Jr. ran 5.13 in Randy Meyers AFuel car which at the time was the fastest run ever in the class. ive Had many cold nights up on the mountain at Bandimere. They used to occasionally run a second divisional in September. I believe it was either 97 or 98. I had my winter jacket on and I was hanging around the staging lanes debating to stay for the final qualifying session and it started spitting snow.

 

[Ramjet]

I can remember being at a ANRA race at Famoso when the weather station said 118 degrees (maybe Mike English can conform) peaked in the afternoon. Too hot to get anything done. Fortunately, I had a cousin who lived 30 miles north and had a saltwater pool that my team took over.

Yep - The starting line was 151 degrees @ 3 PM. It was the only night Race I can remember that ANRA ever had. The Second round was at 12 AM and it was still 100 degrees outside. A customer of mine took off his shoes to get his fire suit off and burned his feet so bad he still has problems after all these years. The pair in front of me on the last qualifier oiled the track and I sat buckled in for about 10 minutes. Strange thing is the coldest I can remember was also at Famoso at the March Meet one year. It was in the high 60’s low 70’s during qualifying and the next morning it was 46 degrees after raining that night. Had to keep the motor running on a couple of squeeze bottles of gasoline for a long time with 3 tries to just switch on to the fuel pump. Something about being “Colder than a Well Diggers A$$ on New Years Day”..

 

[Paul]

There's a few Maple Grove October races that were freezing (I went to all of them, think 2016 was the last) and St. Louis 2020 on Sunday felt just like some of those Maple Grove days. The hottest would be probably the Summernationals in the late 80's (I think 89 was rough, but I was pretty young).

 

[teague14]

Maple Grove hand down! When 911 went down, The Nat. event was scheduled. They postponed it and moved it foward to the first week in October. Well, If you didn't have an electric blanket while sitting in the stands, you froze your $%LLS off!

I went to Joliet that fall. Friday night qualifying was absolutely freezing. A lot of cars couldn’t get down the track it was so cold then Bazemore came out and set the national record. I used to have a picture framed of me and Darrel Russel up on my wall from that race and we both look absolutely miserable lol

 

[mike]

A few that come to mind.

Houston 2009. The Saturday I froze my ass off for half the day. 48 degrees to mid 50s most of the day. It warmed up to the high 60s for the last fuel session. (I was in Boston days before and it wasn't as cold)

Maple Grove 2012 on the Monday low 50s all day. Felt much colder. I preferred that to Maple Grove in 07. I can't remember what the temp was but the humidity left me drenched.

Pomona, several Winters and Finals I've frozen. I've also had some Winters and Finals where I was melting.

Ennis. Numerous years over 100 and with no shade it's brutal at times.

In Australia I've crewed on days where it's been well over 100 and times where it's been in the 40s.

 

[r2]

Hottest - St Louis 2005 They emptied an entire fire truck of water to cool the first 2-300' of the track 30 minutes before first round. Night Race

Coldest - Every single Friday night session at Sears Point.

 

[twostep]

I’m surprised nobody mentioned Ennis in October. Any October.
I’ve gotten fried there more times than I care to remember.
The first round is usually tolerable. After that, it gets pretty warm.

I'll second that....they moved the race back a month several years ago in order to escape the often brutal September heat (112 here today, 175 miles northwest of Ennis) but it often doesn't matter. A few years back it was 104 ambient for the start of Q1, track temp was over 150. Half the Pro Stocks could have qualified for Top Fuel. I parked under the stands and watched what I could through the cracks in the seating. On the other hand, a couple of years ago Ennis eliminations on Sunday saw 50 degrees and it never warmed much from there. Hight ran 3.82/338 in E1 but nobody else even got close.

 

[ZWeinstein]

Coldest - Every single Friday night session at Sears Point.

I remember the first time I went to Sonoma. Being from Phoenix I had no clue a place could actually get that cold in July. As soon as the sun dipped behind the hill and the wind was blowing I was shivering.

Hottest ones I've been to was the Phoenix race that was moved to October, 100+ all three days. Luckily I was able to stock up on water at Gordie Rivera's trailer. The "Winter"nationals a couple years ago in July was tough especially shooting the first two rounds of eliminations in the stands, felt for what few people were there in the stands. The absolute hottest was the divisional race a couple years ago that was held in early September. 112 during the day. During one of the comp qualifying sessions Dean Carter told me track temp was 165 degrees. They took a break from 1-6 each day and took a water truck and sprayed the track down and then reprepped.

Coldest races I've been to was the finals in 2012. I'm pretty sure it was high 50s by the time final qualifying started and felt like the temperature dropped five degrees ever 20 mins when the sun finally set. That was back when I slept in my car at the track to save money. Ended up springing for a motel after the first night. The Phoenix race in I think in 2018 was super cold in the morning, first round of stock qualifying I think was low 40s but what was crazier was the density altitude was -500' which is crazy because the track sits at 1150' I actually don't think I took my jacket off all day which is pretty rare.

Wackiest was Denver a couple years ago, high 90s and it dropped at least 25 degrees about two hours later when a thunderstorm hit.

 

[GumbyWVU]

2015 in Charlotte for the 4-wides, at the end of March. Was "brisk". I loved it, walking around in a t-shirt but there were people I assume from "down south" there bundled up like it was winter.

2016 at Maple Grove was chilly on Sunday, thanks to clouds and showers. But in 2019, it was like 88 degrees with a very hot west wind blowing. But the humidity was really low, so it wasn't that bad.

21 in Norwalk was god-awful hot and humid on Sunday, before the storm hit. Remember several in the 90s at Columbus, plus humid.

Missed that October race at Bristol but recall chatter (no pun intended) about it being pretty chilly then.

Was at Kanawha Valley Dragway once back in the late 90s when it got too cold, they had to stop racing due to condensation/fog concerns on the track (it was very close to the Kanawha River). Was on a late September Saturday night. I thought was pretty cold, I think it was in the 40s.