The mortal enemy of drag racing automatic transmissions is heat and one knows that better than the guys running today’s crop of ultra-high horsepower turbocharged/automatic combos. Those racers competing against the turbo guys have a couple of options at their disposal but the one that some guys have really perfected is how to stage against them to basically guarantee that the transmission in the turbo car is about ready to melt into a puddle before it leaves the starting line. Pro Mod legend Ricky Smith has aided and abetted in the deaths of LOTS of competitors transmissions. Why?
Well when these guys get the cars into the fully staged position and have the thing on the brake with their foot mashed to the floor building boost they are also generating heat in spades. There has been talk of 300-degree per second temp spikes inside the units and the longer you hold them there, the hotter they get. During a traditional drag race you can essentially bluff the other guy into staging first and getting up on the revs early so his junk gets hot while you stage but during a grudge race things are different, right? May not that much looking at this video.
The two cars here are the well known Birdman Camaro and the Your Mom Nova. Yes, it is the greatest named race car ever. This video from Urban Hillbilly was taken at the Armageddon no prep race which was run on the strip at Thunder Valley Dragway in Oklahoma. Rather than a tree we have the dude with a flashlight and here’s where the fun begins.
Starter guy calls Birman ahead first and puts him into place at which point the Camaro goes to the deck and starts spooling up, throwing fire out the pipes while looking like it is about to rampage. On the other side? Your Mom (we love that) gets the call to pull into position and the car does begin moving…about a millimeter a second while Birman is getting hotter and hotter. It is a painfully long process before the two “get the light” and leave.
So now you get to be the ref here. Was Birdman too eager to get in and get on the pedal? Was Your Mom slow to stage on purpose? Shenanigans or savvy racing? A screw job or a veteran move? Press play and you tell us below! Burndown or self inflicted wound?
BS
Whether BS or gamesmanship, looks like the starter figured it out. As soon as the Nova was close, he hit the light. Camaro was ready and treed the Nova bad.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
maybe i’m the only one who noticed, but can we see more of the chick backing the car up?
looked really nice 🙂
guess that could be a great weapon to help distract your opponent
sure as heck would work on me 🙂
It should be done like Frank Iaconio used to do it. Do your burn out, pre stage then go right in and put both lights on and wait for the other guy to play his games. At that point he only has 7 seconds to play. If the other guy doesn’t like it to bad.
That’d be great ‘cept they’re not using a tree..
If you’re going to use a track, use a friggin’ tree ferchrisssakes. Using a flashlight at a real track is just being a bunch of posers. Use the tree, use the finish line lights, and you know who wins. All the rest is just proof that “outlaw” racing has either jumped the shark or is head in’ up the ramp.
Bad Starter in my opinion. The Nova did exactly what the starter was asking him to do, rolled in as asked and he wasn’t rolling in too slow, no way! And yes i do think Birdman got on the power way too early.. And to flash the light while it was still pointing at the ground, what an idiot. Nova didn’t stand a chance..
I have to agree with the others, Use a real tree. Those are two big horsepower cars, A lot of damage can be done by silly mistakes. I blame the starter too.
On a tree you pre stage, the other guy/girl pre stages. You stage the other car stages you race. Pretty simple.
That Camaro sure looked like a handful to drive
Haven’t run a turbo car myself, but if the starter is bringing you in first and you are the turbo car, you know he has to line the other guy up next, so… why not bump in at an idle get set, and when the other guy is getting lined up, then get on it to build boost. It’s what I’d have done I suppose.
Exactly
Guys, you’re not watching the whole video. We actually get pulled up first and stopped. Then Birdman is pulled up. Then back to us. We thought once Birdman was stopped we were about to have a automobile race. Everyone was confused. We came in slow he second time because rules were if you bumped over the line, you were DQ’d. Bad deal for all.