ive been to a few tracks (lapeer MI to name one) that requires a helmet for everyone, no matter how slow or fast you are...

coasting down the track doesnt bother me, but at the same time, i dont know why people do it...lets take 72mach for instance. say that you come off the line and miss second badly...the run is scrap, but there isnt any reason that you shouldnt put it into second gear and drive the rest of the track normally. i think that what they are complaining about are people who havent broken anything, but they still dont put it into A GEAR to drive down the track. i had a pushrod break at the line a few years ago and i still ran the car hard through the traps...or as hard as it would go, as it was an elim. run...i ran in the mid 14s at like 58mph...by the time i got off the track and was towed back to the pits, it had destroyed the top end of that side of the engine...[:@]

 

why? im not saying that you should have coasted down the track, but perhaps by driving 'normal' you coudl have saved a bit of wear on the engine, and for some of us, breaking **** isnt a fiscal possibilitiy

I agree with the coasting down the track, i took off, missed the gear, and put it back in and picked up a few mph, but wasnt anywhere near a WOT run

and like Jd has said about helmets before, alot of the reason people wear helmets is because you NEVER know what the tool in the other lane is gonna do

 

It isnt required at Firebird unless you have DRs/Slicks; but they reccomend it if you can actually spin them. I usually dont, but Im gonna give 'er a shot this year. It really isnt bad for street tires either, just as long as you dont completely roast them. Just spin them a little, call it good, proceed to kick ***.

 

it was an elimination run at a national event...and i didnt want to lose. plus, by half track it sounded so awful, i figured that the motor was going to be trashed anyway...but it was only some broken pushrods, a broken rocker shaft, and a couple broken rocker arms...i was unable to repair the damage at the track (because i dont carry extra rocker arms ), but in the past i have broken top end stuff and fixed it during the night, and was ready to run by the next morning...you find out who your real friends are in the field when youre tearing an engine apart in 40 degree weather, in the middle of the night, in a light rain...and guys still help out.

 

I hate most of the things that you guys have said so far. The bikes i really hate. At the track i go to there is this idiot in an SRT-4 and when hes coming back in the return lane or pulling up to the line he like repeatedly just bounces it off the rev limiter. It sounds like ***...really. Some times i just want to give him a swift kick to the face. So what i hate are stupid people who think there car sounds good and that every one wants to hear it so they try to tach it up to 1000000 RPMS

 

I'm all against the track prep at Orlando speed world. first 1000ft is fine, then it's like a damn dirt road for the last 320.
I was sitting on my buddy's tailgate at the lights watching some passes last year. A BADASS orange vega with some cubes under the hood ran great till the 1000 then lost it, flipped, andslammed into the wall by us.Lemme tell you you will never see a chubby hawaiian run faster than i did that night.
I have a deep respect for the guys driving those 3-rotor toyota corollas and starlets. Yeah the engines are loud but to me 11000 rpm sounds good from any engine besides....weed wackers and stuff. I can understand the cars always breaking but we're talking a 1200 pound go cart that can pull the wheels in 3rd or 4th gear. Some of the guys that have been to OSW can testify to that yellow mazda Rx3 with the pro-stock wing and XBOX stickers. He lifts the tires at the 1/8th mile, has bent wheelie bars before, and if he hooksdecently and the end of the track is clean he's usually in the low 8's or 7's.

 

I go to OSW pretty often and i dont know what ur talking about[>:]

 

I'm not saying you have to drive it hard again if you blow a run...but you can atleast drive it normally down the track and not just completely roll it all the way down there.