First time you ever drove a race car?

[Jking24]

GRT24:I put a buddy in my limited LM once after a practice night, been to the races a few times but never drove anything on dirt. I almost had to make him as he kept saying NO, it's fine I don't need to drive it. Well he finally gets in it and runs around the bottom more drag racing (being respectful of the equipment and his lack of experience) but finally starts sort of making decent laps for a noob. 2 other cars decided to go make laps so they pulled on the track (he didn't see them pull on half a track behind him) and they run him down and pass him between him and the wall right at the flag stand. He pulled off right after that.He said: "You know I thought i was going reasonably fast until the street stock blew by me" I said: "Well actually that was a mini stock with a street stock behind him but they passed you so fast that you never saw the mini stock in front, lol"

Billet, that's a great story and it reminded me of one about The the guy that helped me start running my own stuff. this gentleman has been around race cars for the better part of 50 years. A few years before i started helping him his son drove for him. We'll i guess one week the son couldn't make it for whatever reason and neither could any of his crew members. He said i thought dammit i wanna race ! He said hell with it its my car i wanna race, ill drive it myself. So he towed two and a half hours to hagerstown speedway went out for hotlaps made about a Half a lap one guy passed him on the outside and the other passed him on the inside. He jerked the wheel smacked the wall and knocked all the rf suspension off. Needless to say he didn't do that again lol

[TS3g]

My first time was when I was 15 at Salina Speedway in Salina, KS in a friend's modified. They used to have practice sessions on Wednesday nights back in the early 2000s, and he was pretty new to racing, so he asked me to go help him a little. After a few sessions, he asked if I wanted to give it a try. I went out and kinda putted around the bottom at ¼ throttle, basically doing the drag race thing like billet said his friend did, until I finally worked up enough courage to open her up. Coming off of 2, I landed in the throttle, the car jumped sideways, and I immediately overcorrected and proceeded to launch the car off the back stretch Dukes of Hazzard style into the wheat field below. Luckily it didn’t tear anything up and my friend thought it was funny as he!!.

A few weeks later, I got my hobby stock finished up and took it down to Salina to get some laps in. Learning from my previous endeavor, I slowly built up speed, and by the end of the first session, I thought I was getting it. Like it felt fast, and I thought “I got this!” That is until I pulled into my pit stall and my Dad asked when I was going to press on the gas. The next week I made my first start and got lapped…in my heat race. I won my first feature six races late though, so apparently I picked it up pretty fast.

[GRT24]

That same night I first drove I came off the corner and let the car rotate to much and over corrected about 6 times back and forth. I was bouncing back and fourth of the springs. I was trying to gas through it. I’d snap the wheel back and mash the gas. I felt like was in a washer machine.

[billetbirdcage]

TS3g: I assume you went off the back stretch more nose first, because typically back then if you tried to save the car from going off the back stretch by turning left and go off with the back end of the car you would typically roll, lol

My dad raced some after I started racing, but he wasn't all that great at it and we raced together for about 2 years before I moved from limited Lates to open cars. Now we all know for whatever reason we can be short with family and I didn't like my dad driving one of my open cars (sad right, but he did tend to get into wrecks), well one day at the track we only had 20 cars or so at 2 shows at the fair grounds in Oklahoma City and it was 400.00 to start both nights. I had the spare car in the hauler so, I figured I would let my dad drive it for the start money. Now I didn't plan on him actually racing it just make a lap and pull off, so I didn't change the gears (being lazy, too much gear for that 1/2 mile track). So he does what I told him and just makes a lap and pulls off.

The next day an official comes over and asks my dad this: "Stan what happened to you yesterday, did the throttle stick . . . (pause. . . pause) SHUT?" I about died laughing

[AllenK]

The only time I've ever driven a racecar other than track packing was in a bomber class Nova my cousin built for his 14 year old son. We carved out a very small bullring in our grandma's pasture for his son to practice on. I went out and turned some laps. As others have said, I thought I was really ripping it. First thing my cousin said to me was "Now you need to step on the gas." The boy never got the hang of racing,and quit pretty quickly. Younger brother had a much better career.

I have drag raced many times,but only in a street car. Not at the track every time either.

[TS3g]

@billet: Yeah, it was nose first. When the car stepped out, I must have turned the wheel full lock to the right, and basically launched off the back stretch at a perfect 90*, with all four tires off the ground. It scared me to death. I was shaking so bad when I got back to the pits that I could barely unbuckle the seat belts, lol.

You are right though, I've seen many cars roll off the back side there. It’s not as bad as it used to be since they reconfigured the track. I still miss the old Salina

[racincowboy02]

Never raced a car bu ive raced go karts many times

[Mod22]

I ran a mechanics race in 1995 in the bomber class at our local track. I started 4th and was lucky enough to take the win against 21 other mechanics. But my highlight in racing for me was being able to carry the flag for the national anthem on 4 different occasions.

[b1eagle]

1973 at Richlands Va. Motor Speedway.A 1967 Chevy Nova 6 cyl I built complete myself.I won my first race and the next 12 in a rowe.

[zyoung25]

2016 I done the Wallace experience at atomic. I raced go karts from 06-10. Maybe one day I'll have enough cash actaully build a race car of my own. It just won't be the same without my old man being here to see it.