Adventures....: Drag Racing

On February 29th I went into Al Spitzer Ford in Cuyahoga Falls with the intent of buying a $5 part for my '97 Explorer. I ended up not buying the part, but did drive home in an '06 Mustang GT....

Come to find out, three other guys I work with also owned Mustangs, pictured below waiting in the queue; '89 5.0 (light blue), '88 5.0 Convertible (dark blue), and '01 Bullitt (not pictured). So there was only one logical thing for us all to do..... DRAG RACE!!

About a month ago now, we all met at Dragway 42 after work for Test & Tune Night. The way it works is you pay $15 per car and get all the runs in you can until the track closes at 11pm. I personally got in 9 runs!

Now I've never actually been drag racing before (other than at red lights on surface streets -- Mom, don't read that part haha). My buddies prepped me on what to expect and how to do it. It was pretty easy, pull your car up to the line so that the top 2 lights on the "Christmas Tree" light up, once both cars are in place - three yellow lights fire off in succession, wait for the second yellow light to turn on and slam on the gas as fast as you can!! By the time you react to the second yellow light and hit the gas, the green will be lit.

The first time I pulled up to the start line I was terrified! I forgot everything my friends had told me and was sweating pretty good. I said a little prayer "God, please don't let me hurt myself or crash the car".... I got lined up -- the light turned Green and I SLAMMED the gas. I was so intent on not crashing that I never once took my eyes off the road and has a two-handed death grip on the steering wheel!! I won my race though -- beating the '88 Mustang 5.0!!!!

I raced 9 times and won 7. My only losses were to my friend Matt in the 2001 Mustang Bullitt Edition. Even with that, he only beat me by 0.151 seconds..... With a high performance exhaust and a supercharger he'll be eating my tire smoke!!