Me and my girlfriend, my best friend Matt and his uncle, my aunt and uncle, grandpa, and some of my uncles friends all went out to Route 66 friday for the first 2 rounds of qualifying for todays event. There was alot of classes I didn't know what was going on half the time. They had gas dragsters, full bodied cars that people race in events on weekends, all the way to Alchohol dragsters, pro stock, pro bike, Funny cars and top fuel cars. I THOUGHT I had gone to seen the top fuel cars many years ago so I thought I knew what I was in for.... yeah I saw alchohol dragsters not the top fuel cars.
I have to say... the top fuel / Funny cars, if you haven't seen them in person you NEED to, its like nothing you've seen before. I've seen them on tv plenty of time but it does not do it justice. It started off with watching them start one up in the pits during tuning.... they build the motor put it all together and then as they get ready to start them all of a sudden all the pit crew guys are puting on sound deadening ear muffs and gas masks! Yeah gas masks hahahah. Your thinking that seems alittle over catious and BOOM the monster comes to life with a sound you've never heard. Your standing ten feet away, your eyes are watering like crazzy, your choking, its hard to breeth and all the whileyou can feel every exhaust pulse like a punch in the chest. It idles for a short time and there is one ear pearching crack of the throttle and you and everyone for as far as you can see fliches from the noise and takes a step back. Once it was actually time to race we were up in the bleechers about 25 rows up watching and waiting. The car is towed to the line and they spend a minuet or to trying to get it to start. The motor fires up and within that first second now you can see why they used the gas masks in the pit. The motor blows a mist of unburned nitromethane with burnt up exhaust gas out both sides of the cars that spreads and lingers. They start rolling forward and as soon as they get the back tires through the water pit they smash the throtle and the you see the sort wide race slicks start spinging so fast inertia pulls the sides in and the tires gets about 6 inches narrower and 6 inches taller as smoke just pours out the back of the car and your thinking to yourself holy @!#$ they weren't kidding when people tried to explain to you how loud these cars would be. They sit there a at the staging lights geting ready. I'm sitting there in the stands geting ready I had my feet over the backrest of the row in front of my with my feet firmly planted on there seat I was leaning forward with my elbows resting on my thighs and I'm patiently waiting..... As both the cars stage "its like the calm before the storm," the exhaust notes turn quite and steady.... Light turns green and all hell breaks loose..... the sound of 15,000 combined HP is like nothing you could possibly imagine. There is so much noise it feels like your stomach is growling through your entire body, the bleachers shake so violently it took my feet that were on the row in front of my slid right off, your vision blurs as your lose focus from your head shaking, as the cars come hauling ass past you even way up in the bleachers you feel the heat form the exhaust hit you. They cross the stripe and the cars instantly turn off and parachutes come out and sit there amazed and in pain becasue you didn't plug your ears fast enough and amazed becasue the you realize the burnout you were so impressed by was NOTHING in comparision. 4 second quarter miles at 330 mph. I've never ever seen anything like it, if you take the loudest thing you could imagine and times that by about 10 and you then you have top fuel racing hahahah. Its one of those things you can never explain becasue you have to be there to feel it. I encourage everyone to go at some point to witness these cars race.
anyways on with the pics....
When we first go there you walk right next to the staging lanes for I took some pics of when we first arrived with the low level cars.
03+ cavi
This just looked funny so I took a pic
Jegs Pro Stock Cobalt
A few low level dragsters
Thats a sunfire in the left lane
Cobalt
Cobalt wheel stand
Cavi
6 second pro bikes
a couple pro stock cars
In the pits looking at top fuel dragsters and funny cars.
time for the big boys to come out and play... the stand started to get crowded
Funny cars
Now this was an adjenture all of its own... Pontiac sponcers this race series, in an attempt to show off how fast the top fuel dragsters really are Pontiac put up a G6 GXP against a top fuel car. The deal was the top fuel car would electonicly turned off 1 second after launching and the G6 would be full ot the whole run. The light turned green the top fuel car left made it about 1/4 track and shut off, with reaction times and everythign included the top fuel car was like 1/2 track before the G6 hit there 60' mark hahah. The top fueler ran a low 11 @ 88 mph with only give it gas for 1 second. The G6 ran a 16.3 @ 88 mph with the pedal to the floor the whole way hahah.
and finally some night pics, heres 2 prostock races at night, I was practicing for the funny cars and eventually got it down decent to get some night pics.
Once the funny cars came this was only good night pic I got hahaha, he did his burn out and then got stuck there becasue reverse went out.
and lastly... an atempt to catch a 300 mph flame thrower on film in the dark hahahah
hope you enjoyed
nice pics ryan.....right in my backyard and dont get a call....j/k man hope you had a good time.
good shots. anymore of thatre cavi ?
i ment anymore pics of the red cavi
