New respect for drag racing

[Mike]

http://jalopnik.com/i-nearly-destroyed-this-dragster-and-now-i-get-drag-rac-1560909315

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

This guy had no idea where the finish line was.??........................................was he texting???

 

[yoda]

This story is starting to show up in a lot of places. I'm pretty sure he's not the first person to do that at a racing school, but good thing he wasn't in Phoenix- he could have made it to Casa Grande!

 

[Nick Name]

That is Fontana. He is lucky as that is short. When I did the school at Pomona. I thought the golf course looked too close when I was staging. I thought that thing wouldn't stop if I ran it to the finish line. Then I had to remind myself that dragsters went 300 there and stopped.
Never the less, the end of the track was coming up awfully fast. My first 1/4 mile pass, I did get out of it a little early. Then when I saw how far it was to the end when I got stopped, I was OK with running it out the back door.

Interesting side note. Our teacher was Jack Beckman. One of the guys in our group made a mistake. Enough to get you booted. Jack went over to him while he was still in the car and talked to him for quite some time.

Jack then said he could continue. I found out later that the guy was so upset at what he did, that he wanted to quit. The talk Jack was having with him was talking him out of quitting. What a class guy.

Guess who I root for in the funny car rounds.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

Jay this is not the same cars you drove. You were probably in the real Super Comp Dragsters- 8 sec machines. This guy was in the new 11 sec car,
(Dragster adventure) an entry level $399.00, ride.

 

[sdwarf36]

And at 11 seconds a pass, I'm sure the egine isn't giving many audible clues that you are at the end of a run.

 

[Raconteur]

Here's a little broader story on the same event, including the winner! Everybody knew going into the event that the engines had been backed down to the 10.30 10.50 ET range. This was not the same as a traditional school day, it was a Media Challenge, not everyone had experience on a drag strip.

http://bangshift.com/bangshift1320/socal-media-challenge-frank-hawley-drag-racing-school

 

[FABMAN]

I bet that everybody on here that has drag raced made some kind of boneheaded mistake when they first staged at the started line, I'm first to admit it but not leaving any details. I like the video below end of article where driver lost steering wheel, bet he soil his pants.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

We've all made mistakes for sure. You've got that right Jesse. But to misplace the finish line...???
Now, I'll admit to deliberately ignoring, the finish line, once or twice...........

 

[FABMAN]

Yeah, that is a bad one

 

[Randy]

I'm sure they were recalling the school car that went off the end at Pomona with not so good results.

 

[Jimbo]

Some of the stories written by people who have gone through the Frank Hawley School are really interesting to read.

One common thing in many of the stories is that the people going through the school were drag racing fans but did not have any drag racing experience before attending the school.

Sometimes just having the financial resources to pay for the school can really get you into a great deal of trouble.

Jim Hill

 

[Nick Name]

You do a lot of class room before you ever get in the car. Then you make a series of 1/8th mile runs, before you get to do 1/4 mile.

The cars we drove were the super comp cars with a chip in the MSD that only allowed us to go 120 in the quarter.

While in the second class room session, some lady was getting her SC license and she ran mid 8s in the same car we were running 11s in.