would you run in the rain?

like this guy! any tips to hook up better?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPd1V4bddpM&feature=rec-HM-r2

 

hell yeah!! i mean i drive a fuel altered... what's the difference? ha ha!!

now all that guy needs to do is shorten that thing up to a respectable wheelbase and put the motor where it belongs!

 

Man! That's crazy, lucky someone didn't get hurt.

But, I can remember when I first got my State drivers lic at 15. Folks had a 52 Ford stick shift (yea, it's years ago). When it rained and I had the privilige of driving it....by myself of course. I'd get the tires a spinning on the wet road and dream of having enough power to do that on a race track.

Little did I know it an't quite the same. Lot's more fun on the race track.

Blessings..........Ron Clevenger.

 

kamakazzee

How do you say in japanese "hold my beer, watch this"

 

In 1994, with the grandstands down the main straightaway of Fuji International Raceway full of rain soaked hardcore fans who paid 8000 yen each just to get in knowing full well there was no rain check policy, NHRA asked us to tow our race cars down the track in the rain so the Japanese spectators could at least get to see us. This was because they were going to tell them to go home as the rain was not expected to stop.

When asked, I refused to tow my TA/FC down the track. Melvin Record from NHRA thought I was kidding (he thought I didn't want to get my car wet). I told him the Japanese paid a lot of money to see us run, and we came from 1/2 way around the world to run in front of them...and that's what I planned to do. I didn't come all this way, and they didn't pay all that money to see us tow our cars down the track with tarps over them. At first there were objections, but I told them I would be responsible, not stupid, in the car.

I wrapped the ignition system in a plastic bag and towed it to the starting line. The rest of the TA/FC contingent followed suit which included Brett Williamson from the USA and Alan Dobson (Dobbo) from Australia in the Castrol Funny Car.

So there we were. Myself followed by 7 other TA/FC racers ran in the rain at Fuji International Raceway in Japan in 1994. Water was dripping through the roof hatch and into my lap the whole time. I could hardly see out the windshield.

We were told NO ONE had ever actually fired their cars and made a run in the rain before. My wife was freaking out the whole time and the photographers ran like hell.

The Japanese were on their feet as each team followed our lead. I will never forget the appreciation the Japanese fans had for our efforts to give them as much of a show as possible...as much as mother nature would allow us to.

None of the top fuel teams would fire their cars because they worried about the water causing a cross fire of the ignition system and an engine explosion.

I've told this story several times. And ever since we did it, it has been done by others in subsequent trips to Japan, where rain outs are likely. I have to be honest by saying that the response by the Japanese crowd to our willingness to give them a show even in harshest of conditions, when most racers would have said no, was a very emotional moment for me as I sat in the car with it running. The water was flowing inside the helmet, too.

This is a picture I cut out of the 1994 Fuji program. It was from a year earlier (1993) when the weather was a little better. I can't believe it's been 16 years. Yes, we went two years in a row.



.

 

great story randy thanks for posting. maybe we have a new sport here? treaded tires, windshield wipers and a front rubber scraper wing?

 

Didn't NASCAR run in the rain at a road course last weekend?

 

What is nascar,..

Cool deal Randy,..that had to be a blast....

Now only if Nhra could think like that,..we came for one purpose only
To put on a show, and or to race our asses off and have fun doing it.

 

That was a darn good promotion of our sport to another country. Well done to you and the others. If only more people had your attitude.

 

Those guys in the video probably HAD to do something for the spectators, because they promoted the race over there.

Those are some of the same guys that helped bump Don Garlits out of INDY '02. The only time Garlits didn't qualify at Indy in T/F.

The same guys that helped take out Kenny Bernstein in his Forever Red final tour.

The same guys that helped runner-up in T/F at Pomona 2 2002.

Yuichi Oyama's guys.

But that isn't Yuichi driving in the video.

 

I remember Carroll Hine and his BUCKET OF THUNDER did that and I quote we needed the run to get the check to pay for gas to get home