Other Addicting Hobbies: Drag Racing! with Steve Roberts...

[300EVIL]

I had to cut my trip short this year to the NHRA US Nationals held in Indinapolis this year but , as usual, it was a blast! I called up Steve, AKA MixedGas on the way down and he was game. Who else would get in a car and drive 300 miles at a moments notice! Talk about hard core! Luckily I had drivers tickets as usual so we were able to get the best seats in the house.



Here we are in front of the tower...



8000+ HP up close...



Here is Antron Brown's dragster...



Here's Steve with the winning top fuel dragster driven by Larry Dixon...



Pit crew getting ready to start the engine...



Yeah, We were that close...



Steve, chillin after the race...



My dad also chillin out...



Look what showed up!!

[JohnYayas]

Pretty cool to see other folks interested in cars. If anyone has a copy of the August 2010 issue of Hot VWs, my car is in there. It was a VW drag race /car show so there was drag racing but with only 1/2 the cylinders.

[mixedgas]

The cracked oil/nitrometh fumes wreck havoc with my blood pressure medication, but I had a blast.

I need to drop lasers and switch to racing.

Unlike this laser hobby, there are women at racetracks. A good percentage of them are on crews teching or driving. Women who know their hardware. You do not find that in ham radio or lasers. It is a family friendly spot, which is very nice. No insult intended "J", but I tend to join things that are more monastic then the priesthood, and I'm a bit tired of it.

What, no pics of Crew Chief Lady? I'm very dissatisfied if there are NO pics of CCL?

There is this stunningly beautiful gal who wears a black minidress on the track, black leather boots, carries a radio and sets up this one team's cars...

One is also impressed with the NHRAs 52 minute engine rebuild rule. You would not be allowed to watch and ask questions while a crew pops a engine at a F1 or Indy race. Oh wait, at a F1 or Indy race the engine is just a LRU module and they never touch it. These guys have a crew stripping the engine and rebuilding it, including the turbocharger, while you watch, in between races.

The raw mount of horsepower from a uncooled top fuel engine is stunning,

Steve

[smogthemog]

I part built and messed around with this in my spare time

http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...aser-stuff-WHY

[RGbee]

What sort of power output are we talking about for the top fuelers, around the 2000Bhp mark?

[araugh]

Looks like a great time, auto racing always is!

[dnar]

Pure blokie pr0n. Thanks for sharing.

I used to drag race modified street (muscle) cars when I was younger (15 years ago). The adrenalin rush is addictive (and exhausting believe it or not).

Our local strip holds public races on Wednesday night, I have been meaning to get my Hemi down there for a blat.

[ireedz]

Pretty cool to see other folks interested in cars. If anyone has a copy of the August 2010 issue of Hot VWs, my car is in there. It was a VW drag race /car show so there was drag racing but with only 1/2 the cylinders.

What car is yours Gary?

[JohnYayas]

What car is yours Gary?

Mine is the blue Karmann Ghia on page 76. After re-reading my post it kind of sounds like I was part of the drag racing. I wasn't. I was just part of the normal car show.

[mikkojay]

Hey wait a second- Karmann Gia sounds kinda like "car man Gary", did I connect the dots?
Cool ride
This was my daily driver when I was in the USN in San Diego:
http://members.cox.net/mnorth1a/
It could do 13 flat in the 1/4 mile, but unfortunately I sold it about 7 years ago (cop magnet, money pit) I knew every bolt on that thing, it was made from a combination of no less than 4 parts cars. I was addicted/obsessed with that thing.
-Mike