When to start slowing down

The other day, while talking to some friends, we got to the subject of slowing 200+mph cars down.

Parachutes being deployed before the finish

I mentioned how it is that sometimes we barely slow down in time, even though we have a very long shut down area. A fellow racer said that I should practise pulling the shut just before we cross the finish line. As he elaborated, this entails that as we are crossing the finish line, not only was the parachute handle pushed, but also the parachutes were deployed and would be in the process of opening up, hereby cutting down on the track length needed to slow down. Essentially, like the pro's do it.

The picture above illustrates this concept of trowing the chutes before one crosses the finish line. Here you see Jason Line, in the far lane, deploying his chutes while crossing the finish. To watch a short super slow motion video of how the parachutes open, please click here.

I've often seen the NHRA and ADRL guys do this but somehow I never thought about this as an option until that day. It is indeed the best way to slow down, however, I just hope that the bump at the finish line combined with the parachutes being deployed doesn't upset the car too much!

Moral of the story, listen to others for they may know more than you do, or at least remind you of something important!

Thanks for reading and see you at the races!

Photo credit: Jaylyn photography

Blast from my past

The other day I stumbled upon some old pictures of when I was part of the Whathehell team and I thought it worthwhile to share them with you.

The pictures were of when we traveled to Mooresville, N.C., to take delivery of Jason Line's old GTO.  We had bought it from KB racing and crew chief Rob Downing lowered a Kaase 822 hemi in it for us. He also introduced us to Jeff Dobbins, who would become our "life line"... and still is.

The picture sequence from the left:

At this stage I was still unaware of the steep learning curve that awaited me, for I had never driven a drag race car before, let alone a Mountain Motor Pro Stock. In retrospect, this wasn't the best way to do it and I shouldn't have let them talk me into it.

Jon Kaase's 822 ci hemi engine, with intake and two set's of split dominators. I remember the heads as being huge, unlike anything I had seen before. The normally aspirated engine cranked some 1.800 plus hp, however, the exact number was never divulged to me.

Before taking delivery, Rob and Jason made sure that everything worked properly and started the engine to prove it was. Great group of guys!

KB Racing's operation in Mooresville comprises a seriously large hanger, big enough to hold a couple of large car and equipment trailers and every other equipment necessary to make them the team to beat on any given Sunday.

For those of you who are not die-hard race fans, Mooresville is also known as "Race City USA" because it has the biggest concentration of racing teams, engine builders and suppliers in the country, not only for drag racing but for Nascar and many other forms of racing as well.

Pictures: own library.