Andris's Adventures in Racing!
By: Andris Freimanis
All my life I have loved drag racing. I grew up on it. My heroes from a very young age were Tom Hoover, Jungle Jim, Bob Glidden, Don Prudhomme and the L.A. Dart. These guys visited Edmonton International Speedway at different events throughout the 70's. I will always have fond memories of those hot summer evenings watching the racing, and dreaming of the day that I would be a racer too.
Edmonton International Speedway eventually closed, I moved to Ontario from Alberta, and I did not see a live drag race for some 20 years. I had a '67 Malibu for years, but sold it when we bought our first house. Two years ago I found a dream car of mine - a 1967 Chevelle SS with a 396, 4-speed, buckets and a console. I spent many late nights, and a lot of money restoring the car. I wanted it to be a nice daily driver that I could take to local car shows. I also wanted to make 1 pass with it down the quarter mile, to fulfill a dream, and to see what the car could do.
I drove the Chevelle down to Grand Bend Motorplex this summer to watch a race, and get a tech guy to check out the Chevelle for that one pass. My first sniff of burning rubber brought back a lot of memories. I watched the race that day, but decided to come back on a test and tune night and make that one run. I was excited!
The following Friday night I came back with the intent of making that one pass. I was nervous, but the guys at the track where a big help. The last thing they said to me before I staged the car was "have fun". I ended up making 4 passes that night, each time wanting to go a little bit faster. I have entered 4 bracket races in the trophy stock class since then. I have never gotten past the second round, but I will be back next summer.
I have learned a lot about drag racing in the past few months, mostly through trial and error. I thought that years of watching drag racing would give me the knowledge to be a natural drag racer. Not So! I have made some screw-ups that I will never make again. I'd like to share this "knowledge" because no matter how easy it looks, until you try drag racing you don't know how much there is to it.
My first two mistakes happened on that first test and tune night. I pre-staged the Chevelle before the race ahead of me was over. This kinda confuses the computer timer so wait until the times for the race ahead of you flash before staging the car. I also left my window partly rolled down going into the staging lanes. The starter asked me to roll it up before staging the car. After that night I felt I knew it all, so I entered a bracket race a few weeks later. The next mistake I made has been make by countless racers. The dreaded red light. My reaction times had steadily been going up through time trials and the first round of eliminations, so I decided to leave when I anticipated the third yellow light coming on. Oops. Better to leave a little late than to red light. The next mistake I made was to stay up until 5:00 am drinking beer and bench racing with some of the locals that night. You can't expect to do well on 3 hours sleep, although I did have a great time that night, and the race was eventually rained out the next day. A few weeks later I was back. My 60 ft. times were horrible so I decided to do a burn out before one of my time trial runs. Practice burn outs, because it is very embarrassing to stall the car in the water box. I have since installed a line-lock so it is a lot easier. I won my first round that day. I was way ahead near the top end so I flashed my brakes so as not to break out. I broke out anyway, but the other guy broke out by more, so I still won. The next round I was ahead again at the top end, but not by much. I just touched my brakes before I realized that we still had a ways to go before the end of the quarter mile. He passed me just as we crossed the finish line. That one really pissed me off! The next race was my last for the year. I had just put in the line-lock, a drive shaft loop, and re-jetted the carb. I went from a previous best time of 14.59 at 96 mph to 14.14 at 99 mph my first time trial. My next time trial I drove around the water box, then backed up into the water box to do a burn out, but I left the car in reverse. A lot of people noticed the guy in the Chevelle trying to smoke his tires in reverse. I'll NEVER make that mistake again. I won the first round that day, but lost in the second to another stinking red light.
The only way to learn is to try it. I've made some mistakes, but I have had a lot of fun this summer. I believe drag racing is a sport that can easily be taken up by anyone. You just have to try it once to get hooked.
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