I grew up outside of Chattanooga, TN but moved away right after college. I met a beautiful amazing woman and moved to FL. We've been married 16 years now and Covid-19 did some crazy things to our business and rentals. I moved to Canton, Ga about 5 months ago to start a new job in sales, and once the house sold the family followed up up here a little over a month ago. While I really have enjoyed the weather, the best thing has been only being 2 hours away from all of my family. My dad has been drag racing for 30 years now, and while I love going with him- living 10 hours away didn't really make that possible. However, this week my son and I went with dad to the annual Ford Summit at U.S. 60 raceway in Hardinsburg KY. There were about 20/25 cars there from all over the eastern part of the country. We started out thursday with a cookout at a local racers house, to which we rode a picnic pavilion built off of a ford ranger. it was pretty neat
The next day there were some time trials and the normal drag race bracket racing at night. Dad raced in the bracket race and I was the pit crew. Early that day we had an issue with a fan that I figured out was due to a wire that had pulled out of a relay. We seem to always have trouble at this meetup- 3 years ago it was the trans brake and 2 years ago we spun 2 rod bearings. The night went off without a hitch other than a redlight in the first round putting us on the trailer pretty early. Of course, that meant beers early as well.
I got in our car for the first time ever and took it on a cruise around the paddock to get used to things just before the bracket race that night. Our Ford crew had the whole track and I could go down safely by myself- it's honestly the best way to learn. I was confident that I could drive the car, but it's a decently fast car and I wanted to ease into it. I made one pass, but it was pretty slow.
Saturday morning however, I was given the keys to the kingdom so to speak- I was going to be the driver for the day. We were going to run time trails and then an elimination race from the guys who came up to the summit. I was pretty nervous about getting everything right to be honest- this is a $50,000 race car that I don't own- I was excited about tearing anything up.
I warmed the car up and then went to make my first time trial. My burnout was better than the day before, but I still wasn't confident enough with the line lock to really light up the tires and let it roll a bit down the line. The tires were plenty warm though, I just looked like the beginner that I was. I lined up by myself and slid into stage, and the lights didn't move. for a long time. Finally-light one, light two, and then the 3 lights down the tree before the green. I thought I was supposed to release the trans brake on the 3rd light and then it would take off....it didn't. As the light went green I sat for what felt like an eternity waiting on the car to launch. It finally did but I was so confused that I had let off of the go pedal a bit and it launched slow. I moved in and out of the throttle on the way down the track through a mix of nerves and confusion from the start. I went through the traps and was frustrated at my run, and then the motor shut off. I sat on the return road and I could tell that it was flooded from my eyes burning. We run q16 fuel and it's pretty nasty stuff. Finally the car started and we went back to the pits.
I had one more open time trial before the race. I pulled up and let it idle for too long and I killed the battery. We couldn't get it to charge when we got back so it would be no more open time trials for me. We changed the battery to the spare (we run a 16v system) and I got back up to staging for our one qualifying run.
I was next to last. I was determined to run full out this time and get things right. As I was pulling up to do my burnout- the truck in front of me left the line and promptly sheared all 5 rear drivers side wheel studs. I had a pretty darn good view of that. So I moved to the left lane and when things were cleaned up set to make my pass. The burnout went great. I lined up well and was ready for the launch. The car left pretty hard, but not insane, and it went down the track nice and straight. I felt in control for the most part for the 660ft. I had been told it would feel like the steering wheel was coming out of my hands, but it was different and I haven't figured out quite how do describe it- part blur- part hyper focused. I loved it. I remembered to shift to neutral after the traps as I slowed down so that the motor didn't load up and flood again. I pulled into the pits and my son came screaming in on his back smiling from ear to ear. 5.34! Dad came shortly after with my ticket.
I was STOKED!
I lined up for the race and put a 5.33 dial in to the car. I was racing a guy in a fox body and he dialed 5.90. In my head this felt like an eternity and I expected him to leave first for some reason. I realize now this is silly, but that's what I was thinking. So my reaction time was reallly slow and he beat me good. I passed him right past the line. But it was a safe run and I felt like a learned a ton. I felt confident and ready to do it again.
All in all in a was a great weekend of racing with my dad and my son and I was thankful for the opportunity to spend time together. Also, it looks like I'll be driving a lot more going forward. Thanks to dad for giving me the keys and for being open to me driving your race car!
