Midnight Madness At San Antonio Raceway

Drag Racing.......35 degrees???

We went to San Antonio Raceway last night and I have to ask, besides racing on snow AND Ice Racing, what is the coldest any one here has ever seen 10.5 cars and grudge racing on a drag strip?

Track temp last time we checked, was a warm 35 degrees.

There was a mustang out there, probably a high 6 low 7 second car in good conditions, that just blew the tires off. The reason I mention this is because one of his guys with that car asked the track official if they thought about spraying any vht on the track to help out, the official informed him that "They Did".

It was quite the evening to say the least and fun to be at the track regardless of the temp.

 

I guess the temp is screwed up every where. The guys in Vegas were wearing winter coats yesterday testing. Its minus 30 o C, with the wind here in Toronto. BUR

 

everyone knows that they don't use VHT in Texas.
they use WD40 http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/aa173/nitrovid/?action=view&current=bstoffrnet112307.flv

 

LOL
Now that's funny, Texans, you gotta love em.

okay, now I've watched the video, man, there's some scarry stuff on there.

 

The cold plus all the cars that were running on regular street tires ruins the track pretty good, if you can make your passes early before the street cars get on it you can put down some good runs. When I go out to help someone with a jr dragster we get there early and finish early, after 2 or 3 hours of street tire cars the track goes away so bad that a jr can't hook up, the first 15 ft or so of the starting line goes bald from the street tires ripping the rubber off the track. I know, I've at raced there at SAR since they opened the track.

Believe it or not alot of people who run jr dragsters (including me) clean the tires off coat them with WD40 (some others use deep woods off, a 50/50 mix of mineral spirits and diesel fuel conditioner, or what ever kind of concoction), them wrap them with plastic shrink wrap, and let them sit take them to the starter box, pull the plastic wrap off the tires, the WD40 (or other concoctions) makes the tires nice and soft and they'll hook up on a slick track

BTW: On opening day at SAR on a green track with just VHT on it (no rubber) Doug Foxworth ran the Havoc T/F car that night, he lifted at a 1000ft because the tires broke loose and still ran a 4.99!

 

Interesting, I'll get a hold of Bobby Rex and Doug to find out about that particular evening to see if the track temp was in fact in the low 30's.

thanks for your input there Kenneth.

 

Your right about the scarry stuff!! But if you notice they all have something in common and probably the root of all their trouble!! Their wheel bases are less than half what they should be and they all got weird stuff like doors on em!!! LOL

 

Doors

an old racer told me a long time ago that real race cars dont have doors



i do like the fast door slammers if they have a blower hangin out of the hood

 

We had the SAR awards banquet last night and I talked with Tommy our starter he said at the last midnight madness the track temp was a balmy 28 degree's (there was also ice on the roof of the timing tower). Tommy has been reading these message boards and reading about people complain about the track saying that the track wasn't preped, he said for them to come out on a Saturday when we have our normal bracket racing when it's warm, and hardly no street tired cars cars are going down the track, and told them that they will break parts in their drivelines, Tommy is very very fanatical about track prep, but when it's that cold, and with all the street cars pulling the rubber off the track, there is no way anyone can make a 7 second hook up.

BTW: I added the the part about the run Doug Foxworth made when the track first opened with no rubber on it (just vht) just to let everyone know that they do prep the track (it was in the mid-high 70's when they made that run)

The NHRA is seriously considering not running qualifing or racing if the temp goes below 60 degrees for safety reasons.

 

How many of you out there are able to race at your local track in Jan/Feb.????
A-fuel cars have been testing at Houston Raceway Park since the 1st of the year. 65 to 75 degree weather and a pretty good track!