CraigB's Drag Racing Photos

CraigB

CraigB

Ich bin ein Kartoffel
DONOR
Joined
Feb 14, 2007
Messages
17,852
Location
SWMO
Car(s)
Mustang SVO - Frontier Pro-4X - BRZ - D21 Hardbody
I have been taking photos at dragstrips around the midwest for at least 20 years. Recently my sister-in-law and I have been taking photos here at Mo-Kan Dragway, printing 8x10 prints on site and selling them. I thought you guys might get a kick out of seeing some of the cars I'm around every weekend. I'll try to put a little cutline with info on the car if I know it.



A 1932 Chevrolet that runs 9.80s on the 1/4 mile with a supercharged 421 cubic inch small block Chevrolet V8. He went from a 400 cubic engine to the new engine over the winter and is having trouble keeping the front on terra firma.



I'm not certain of the year of this one, best guess is a 1953-1954 Chevrolet. It's powered by a 500+ cubic inch big block Chevrolet and runs in the low 10s, but sometimes dips into the high 9s. He drives about 3 hours to race with us.



This local guy drives his gen-5 Camaro to the track, rips off some high 11 second times and drives home. He's a mechanic at a local Chevrolet dealer.



This Hellcat owner drives 150 miles to race. He changes out the stock rear wheels for his drag radials, runs 10s then swaps the stock rear wheels back on for the drive home.



I'm a little bike ignorant unless I have the tech card in front of me, but I can tell it's a Kawasaki Nikja. Beyond that the only thing I do remember is he was running mid-9s at 140+.



No surprise that my favorite car is a Mustang. This is an Ecoboost model, has a few bolt-on parts, a computer tune and has run 11.78 @ 115. Did I mention it's an automatic? For all the haters of a 4-cylinder Mustang, these do really well.



Another KC area racer. He doesn't really want the car to do this, at least that's what he tells me. However he's been doing it for at least 5 years that I am aware of, so he's had time to settle it down if he really wanted to... :lol:



I'd say this is your typical "bracket car", a backhalved Vega, probably with a small block Chevy and runs somewhere in the low 11s, high 10s.

I hope you guy will enjoy these photos and if you do I'll add more each week.
 
Excellent! Lots of air there.
 
Yes, most excellent! Plese keep up the photos.

Bike appears to be a Kawasaki Ninja 1000 with a stretched rear swing arm
 
Awesome! Thanks for these, especially the added line about the story / what's inside the car and the time :)
 
Please keep posting, Craig. I especially love the captions to every picture.
 
CraigB said:


I'm not certain of the year of this one, best guess is a 1953-1954 Chevrolet. It's powered by a 500+ cubic inch big block Chevrolet and runs in the low 10s, but sometimes dips into the high 9s. He drives about 3 hours to race with us.
Click to expand...

It's a '49 unless he's swapped the grille.

BTW, thanks for posting these. You're pretty darn good with a camera!

SL
 
The following photos are of the Outlaw Fuel Altered Association taken at the 2015 Labor Day show. It's a group that is mostly Texas based teams that run, again, mostly in Texas. They have been coming to our Labor Day Weekend Classic event for over a decade. However, this year, they have decided to run a single day show on Memorial Weekend.

I don't have much to say about each car, as they are all very similar, but they all run somewhere in the 3.90-4.30 range on the 1/8th mile. With a MPH range of 165-195.



Mark Bowman in the Blown Income is a long time driver of very fast vehicles, as you'll find most of the drivers of this class are seasoned veterans of drag racing. You wouldn't want to put just anyone in a 125" wheelbase, 2,500+ horsepower car. Anytime I hear someone say that drag racing takes no talent, I show them these cars.



Final round action shows the massive amounts of clutch slippage they use on these cars to launch. I'm not 100% sure how it works, uses pneumatic actuation I believe. The left lane, Donney Massey in the "Showtime", defeated right lane, J. Jones in the "Texas Tremor", 3.86 @ 185 to 3.94 @ 184.



New to the OFAA last year, Brett Henry in the Iron Cross, is one of my favorites. The car has been around for at least a decade, but recently received a new chassis and more power. Henry always lays down a hell of a burnout. I have even seen him put the rear tire against the guardrail during a burnout and just keep going!



Anthony Whitfield's Mighty Mouse is probably the only small block Chevrolet entry in a field of Keith Black Hemis. While not the fastest on the list, sometimes just getting down the track is all it takes.



T. Brian in the N'Tense altered. Don't know much of the car or driver, but the silver straps that run from the blower to the headers are there in case of a blower explosion. Keeps the blower case from becoming a high velocity projectile.



E. Buchanan in the Nitro Relapse. Again, I don't know much about this one, but love the name and that's part of the history of fuel altereds. Historic F/As include the "Winged Express", "Pure Hell" and many more.



Terry Brian in the Nitro Warrior.



Circuit promoter and many time champion, Bobby Marriot in the "Shockwave".



Eventual event winner, Donnie Massey.



Another shot featuring the Texas Tremor.



Recently stepping into the OFAA from nostalgia fuel dragsters, John Umlauf. Umlauf is a Missouri resident and runs with another fuel circuit, the Central States Superchargers Assoc.



Jeff Woolard is another veteran of the sport, having spent many a year in bracket racing before venturing into the F/A ranks. I'll have to dig up a photo that one of our staff photographers took back when dad and I published a newspaper. She captured Jeff's front engine dragster nearly vertical.

That's all for now. More later...
 
do those rear spoilers actually do anything?
by the time there is enough airflow to generate downforce, the tires sure must have gripped by then?
 
They must help keep the car planted and the tires stuck to the pavement. Keep in mind a drag slick grows in height as the speed increases. It also gets narrower as speed ramps up.

Later I'll see if I can find a video of that phenomena.

Edit: As promised. The downtrack shot starts around 1:00.

 
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bone said:
do those rear spoilers actually do anything?
by the time there is enough airflow to generate downforce, the tires sure must have gripped by then?
Click to expand...


Yes they do. As noted by Craig, the tires change shape during the run. There is also a drastic change in the dynamics of the car during the run. At the start the engine produces a nice amount of down force with the thrust produced from the pipes pointing towards the sky. As the car gets moving that is not enough to keep the rear end planted and the wing takes over.
 
Gah, these are so cool. I love seeing the tires fold up on the launch, too. Captured at just the right time.
 
GRtak said:
Yes they do. As noted by Craig, the tires change shape during the run. There is also a drastic change in the dynamics of the car during the run. At the start the engine produces a nice amount of down force with the thrust produced from the pipes pointing towards the sky. As the car gets moving that is not enough to keep the rear end planted and the wing takes over.
Click to expand...

Huh, that's a cool fact. I've always wondered why that's the case with dragsters.
 
Since I was on the road the last two races and the race this past weekend rained out, here's some more photos from our 50th Labor Day Weekend Classic from last year. This class was called MAKO Real Street and this was their last race. The class was started at Mo-Kan over 10 years ago and raced at several tracks in the area. It was based on the idea of running a small tire, 28x10.5" or smaller and had minimum weights for different combinations of engine and power adder. There's lots of race series/classes like this all over the nation, but the rise of the X275 class has started to hurt these smaller series. I think mostly because they were originally fairly reasonable to build a car for and be competitive. However, as with most things racing, it's become a "Who can spend the most cubic dollars?" race. I've heard of some of these cars costing upwards of $150K+, with the small guys can't compete and drops out because he can't afford the latest traction control or that $60k Steve Morris twin turbo big block Ford. Enough of me ranting, on to the photos...




Adam "Young Gun" Wright has raced this Camaro for the last 5 years or so, I believe he once told me it was his uncle's car. It has gone through a transformation from a 13 second street car (1/4 mile) to running 5.20s in the 1/8th mile (low 8s 1/4). I think the current combination is a 500+ cubic inch big block Chevy on nitrous.




A semi-local shop (Sho-Me Speed in Nixa, MO) built this 5th gen Camaro and brought it out for some shakedown runs just weeks before the start of Hot Rod Drag Week.




The final MAKO Real Street final, Tony Phillips (left lane) squares off against Mike "Fat Cat" White (right lane).




John Heard is another long time MAKO racer with his Chevrolet Nova. He too has slowly made the car faster and faster over the years, dipping into the 4s at nearly 150 mph.




Mike "Fat Cat" White in his Chevrolet Malibu. The colorful nicknames in this class is just part of the fun.





I don't know much about this Mustang in it's current form. I do know that it survived the Joplin tornado in a friend's body shop. After a large truss fell on it, he rebuilt to for the owner. After it was done it was stunningly beautiful. However, when I walked around back I pointed out to my friend that he had put a 1985-1986 rear bumper on a car with a 1979-1982 front bumper. He hates me to this day...




Another Mustang that I don't have much info on and another Sho-Me Speed Camaro.




Same Mustang as the above photo, no idea who it is.





Tony Phillips with the bright orange forth generation Camaro always finds a way to get down the track and sometimes that's all it takes in this class.




Less of an action shot and more of a people shot here. The two people nearest the camera worked/promoted the MAKO series. The big dude on the left knows me, I know him, but I don't think we know each others names. :D In the middle (grey pony tail) is Jeff Holloway. Jeff has been a long time friend of my dad's and started the MAKO series. His son is on his right.




Not much info on the 'Vette. It was a beautiful car though.




As I said, some times just getting down the track is all it takes. Tony Phillips and his crew celebrate their MAKO Real Street victory here in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Winner's Circle.
 
That's some good stuff in here. The Hellcat is pretty badass, plus bonus points for him driving it home.
 
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