What are you strange or funny things you have seen at the race track. Mine include a car launching the ring gear and spool out the back and it rolled far enough to almost hit the car behind it in the water box-a car leaving the line and losing the oil filter and a S/S stick car breaking both rear axles at the same time- car went about two ft. tires rolled to 60ft.!

We had one of the Modified cars, the first year we leased Eddyville, that threw the balancer off at about 9000 RPM, hit the ground and went across the track, under the guardrail and got hung up in the chain link fence by the tower.
Tommy Johnson Sr backing up and running over the front end of Danny Cupples' new tube chassis Corvette, sheared the front carb off. I thought that might have been the last of "Nine Lives" ;-)
Then there was my 4-year-old, Ryan. Hopping on the Honda 70 three-wheeler after the races (like all the kids, unsupervised those days). It sitting there idling I guess, jumped on hit the shift lever and went about 30' into the fence behind the burnout area. No injuries but he stayed away from them for a while.

How about Joe Hermann, losing first round on a nice hot summer night and spending a few too many dollars at "Barb's Beer Garden". He sort of tipped over and before they helped him up, Dena Milhous, with help from others spray painted an outline around him on the patio for "evidence".

The older days were fun about every Saturday night at Eddyville, not sure how we all made it to Cedar Falls Raceway the next day..LOL!!!

I followed Marvin Lucas out of Capitol in MD once and when he pulled away from a traffic light right there his car just rolled off and up the road he went without it--had to chase him down. Then there is the one about going to Suffolk, VA from Baltimore and opening up to get the car out and it was not there. I also did the harmonic balancer dance in the water at Farmington years ago. In 65 years of doing this I could fill a page or 2 of these.

Ya we are sitting out there a hour or so before fist call. Car at the back of the trailer. Us in our chairs. Guys about 25 cars down, reving the pi** out of the small block. then pop and back fire. Here comes the the MSD trigger wheel at cruise speed of 1000 MPH. WTF... Dive,Dive. Slams right into my car. They come get the wheel. Hey you guys have any extra bolts the one asks?

Right after the new track opened at LVMS, my youngest daughter driving our Chevy Luv truck got to about 900 ft and she saw a tire and wheel pass her on the drivers side, she thought "wow, someone just lost a tire on their car, and just as it went thru the traps her score board lit up of course with a break out time the left rear of her truck dropped down. It was her tire passing her. Stiff enough suspension that the bumper never hit the ground.

Working as the starter that night. Car leaves the line and a snake falls out onto the ground. I broke both axles in the 12bolt at same time. Never left the stage beams. Dragster I was racing leaves on his green then runs flat out and broke out.

#1 A spectators Volkswagen parked in someones pit space at Bakersfield moved to the top of a 55 gallon oil drain drum.

#2 A rubber rattlesnake placed in the seat of a S/C dragster, again at a Bakersfield Division 7 event.

Bob

Similar to your #2 Progas one time a track helper at CFR was cleaning out a storage area and came across a bin full of adult toys ya they ended up everywhere at the track-in hood scoops even up the flagpole on the track tractor shift handle-OH YA

Adult toys. You hit a sore spot. Not at the track tho. Owner of the smaller storage units at my shop of the storage joint. Cleaning out a repo unit, finds a whole batch full of them in a box. Here i come back from a service call. The Smart a-- has them all stuck to my service door at the shop. I had an idea who it was. Real jokester. I Found his wifes car. Stuck 2-3 on the windshield and threw the rest on the seat.. WORE GLOVES..... One for each headlight too.. i must of laughed for a week straight.

I think yours take the prize!! LOL

quote:

Originally posted by ferndaleflyer:
I followed Marvin Lucas out of Capitol in MD once and when he pulled away from a traffic light right there his car just rolled off and up the road he went without it--had to chase him down. Then there is the one about going to Suffolk, VA from Baltimore and opening up to get the car out and it was not there. I also did the harmonic balancer dance in the water at Farmington years ago. In 65 years of doing this I could fill a page or 2 of these.

I remember hearing the story of mr.marvins car rolling off the trailer lol.

Racing in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, 25 years ago or so...I'm sure most/all of you have never been there, 1/8 mile track, out in the desert, 20 miles or so east of anything resembling civilization. Had a "fence" along the entry road and part of the way around, but the end of the track just emptied into the open desert.

For some reason, the water box was a long way from the starting line (over 100') and being as there were a lot of street racers/rookies/squirrels that raced there, they only knew what they saw the pros on TV do as it relates to burnouts and so every night at least a few would do long, smoky burnouts past the line. Didn't usually cause a lot of issues, other than the time waiting for them to back up. On this night, one guy in an early-70s stepside Chevy proceeded to do just that and got out of shape. Guy tried to save it but over-corrected and the truck did a 180 snap spin back towards the starting line and before he can get it stopped, he runs over the tree and pushes the A-frame board back towards the beams, knocking them off their bases. People are scrambling, screaming and hollering, the guy apparently panicked, throws the truck in reverse and takes off down the track, backwards, at a good clip. About half track, he spins it around again, throws it in drive and takes off again, bounding into the desert, never to be seen at the track again. Needless to say, racing was done for the night after that.

Having raced for over 50+ years I've seen some really funny stuff. At Bowling Green many years ago a racer lost his motor on the starting line. We were told it could take some time to clean up. Since I was running S/C I got out of the car and took my jacket off. The young lady I was paired with did the same, however, when her jacked came off so did her bikini top. She remarket how much cooler it was, I told her she also made the staging lanes much prettier. She was quite embarrassed. Still see her (and husband) at the races from time to time. Good friends now. At an Indy divisional my competitor apparently forgot to apply all the body fasteners to his dragster, shedding all but one panel. Since I was chasing him I really had a good view of his car, sans body panels. BTW, he was caught wearing shorts and tennis shoes, he was escorted out of the track, naked car and bent panels. I cold go one for hours on this topic. So I won't.

Missed hitting a Deer at Island Dragway on top end at 135MPH.

The funniest thing i ever saw was at Island Dragway back in the late 80`s when Buster Jackson Broke the trans at half track and kept going all the way around, down the return road and half way into the pits before someone stopped him. Trans fluid was everywhere. Skippy Carpenter was helping with the clean up and took the white powered rice and poured a bunch of it all over Buster and said, you look better now. Everybody was laughing their ass off. Buster and Skippy were good friends back then. Today, both of them have passed away. They were great guys to race with.

I've told this before but this plane landing on the track was quite interesting to see. Two dragsters were making a pass as this guy was making his approach. He went right over them.

https://www.newson6.com/story/...ing-on-tulsa-raceway

i was at a pdra race a gallot a few years back and they are bringing out a jet car at the end of the night. they pull it up in front of the water box and start hooking up to it to start it up. during that time this dude in a nice golf cart wheels up behind the water box, jumps off of his golf cart and heads to the tower for something. jet car starts up and does the normal jet car fire and smoke show while golf cart is sitting back there. lets just say the golf cart lost. funniest thing was when the dude came back and found his cart. classic.

ep

Curtis maybe 50 years or more ago I was at the Gators parked right at the finish line and a plane landed and stopped right in front of us, 2 young kids jumped out and 1 was my youngest brother. Also had the race stopped at US 30 (York, PA) once to let a plane land.....I got lots of stories and you all keep reminding me. I was at Thunder Valley OK and although I don't remember what led up to it a car ran down the tree and all the timing stuff down track, loaded up and was gone before we knew what had happened. That was around 1970-71.

quote:

Originally posted by 434 olds:
Missed hitting a Deer at Island Dragway on top end at 135MPH.

The funniest thing i ever saw was at Island Dragway back in the late 80`s when Buster Jackson Broke the trans at half track and kept going all the way around, down the return road and half way into the pits before someone stopped him. Trans fluid was everywhere. Skippy Carpenter was helping with the clean up and took the white powered rice and poured a bunch of it all over Buster and said, you look better now. Everybody was laughing their ass off. Buster and Skippy were good friends back then. Today, both of them have passed away. They were great guys to race with.

We lost a racer on August 3rd 1986 from a deer accident at Byron. The deer came out from the wooded area. RIP.... Mr Jerry Simpson. 26 Years young. We all had to go home.. Sad day.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TD3550,

quote:

Originally posted by TD3550:


We lost a racer on August 3rd 1986 from a deer accident at Byron. The deer came out from the wooded area. RIP.... Mr Jerry Simpson. 26 Years young. We all had to go home.. Sad day.

Byron is a great little track to race at. I have to get out there some time soon.

quote:

Originally posted by ferndaleflyer:
Curtis maybe 50 years or more ago I was at the Gators parked right at the finish line and a plane landed and stopped right in front of us, 2 young kids jumped out and 1 was my youngest brother. Also had the race stopped at US 30 (York, PA) once to let a plane land.....I got lots of stories and you all keep reminding me. I was at Thunder Valley OK and although I don't remember what led up to it a car ran down the tree and all the timing stuff down track, loaded up and was gone before we knew what had happened. That was around 1970-71.

How old was your brother at the time? Also why did the plane land on the track?