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iTrader: (4)

I had such a great time I decided to do a little writeup of my experience at the “Flashlight Drags” that were held July 8th at Greene County Airport in Waynesburg PA. I heard about these events before but never got a chance to go to one until now. They are held at a few smaller airports in my area ranging from 20mins to 2hour of driving time (for me) to each one. The Flashlight Drags are run by a company named Altered Gas (www.alteredgas.com) and they were extremely nice and helpful. This was my first time at one of these events and my first time racing, but I never felt intimidated or unsure what to do. The intention of the event is not to be a timed race, but to closely resemble actual street racing. The starting mechanism is a girl with a flashlight, the race is an 1/8th mile, cars must be street legal, the track is just like normal road not a prepped track. This made it kinda cool because you can find out how your car will run against others on the street, not on the controlled conditions of a track. These races are for street legal vehicles only and there are a bunch of limitations on what you can run, but in reality the rules are pretty loose and you can run almost anything. (You fill out the tech inspection sheet yourself and decide if YOU pass or fail..haha) You are supposed to be mufflered and no slicks are allowed, but let me tell you that there were many car running mile wide M/Ts in the back and were almost pulling wheels at the light, not to mention being as loud as a top fuel dragster…

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iTrader: (4)

As I said before these events are held at airports, and yes you race down the runway which was really cool. Ive often driven past airports and wondered what it might be like to get a chance to blast down the runway at WOT. (It was awesome) The racing basically goes like this. After the drivers meeting, they had everyone do a parade lap around the runway and taxi areas which amounted to a giant oval track. This was really an awesome sight, if I had to guess id say there were about 150-200 cars racing that day and they stretched almost entirely around the oval during the parade lap. The event owners said this was the biggest flashlight drag they have ever had. The best part was that there was every type of car and truck imaginable there and ready to race. Everything from hotrods, late model mustangs and ls1s, lifted diesel trucks, imports, 70s muscle, Harleys, street bikes, vipers, grocery getters, suvs, etc… After this we formed into 3 lanes. Lanes 1 & 2 were for races that were prearranged or grudge matches, lane 3 was for ppl that didn’t have a partner and would get matched up with someone random when it was their turn. Well, since I went alone on Sunday I hopped into lane 3 and took my chances. This was my first ever legitimate (read: legal) race and I was pretty nervous waiting in the line for my turn. Not to mention that it was 100 degrees on Sunday and on the tarmac it had to be 120+ and you are not allowed to run AC while on the runway because it could drip and later make landing dangerous for planes. So I was sweating my butt off the entire time but it was still a blast. Thankfully I have a 160degree T-stat because there was a ton of idling on the hot track. Seeing as its an airport, there wasn’t any trees or shade to get out of the sun. But, I never went over 220 though on the gauge. So I finally got to the front of the line and got matched up with a 1965 Dodge Coronet 440. I always dreamed of running against a big block from back in my fathers day because he and my uncles hyped them up so much and I got my chance. It was pretty original looking and didn’t have a power adder that I could see and wasn’t running slicks or DRs so I wasn’t nervous. I was running street tires (cheap Sumitomo HTR zIIs brand new) so I drove around the water box and didn’t do a burnout but the pavement was so hot and I had a 20min drive to get there my tires were pretty warm.

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iTrader: (4)

. They have a guy line you up evenly then he walks behind the cars, and signals to a girl in front of you, she is holding a big deer spotting light pointed at the ground, turns it upright when she gets the signal, then waits a second or two and lights it which is the signal to gun it. This is the starting mechanism for all the races, and although its imprecise, it would be more like something you would do in an actual streetrace, so I was kinda digging it. So I floor it off the line, my converter(3200stall 2.0str) flashes to 3200rpm, I spin a little then hook and go. I had him from the line and pulled away easily down the track. They have it setup as only an 1/8th mile track which I didn’t really like but again this is probably more like real street racing where its hard to find a long, flat, open ¼ with room to slow down. I beat him by roughly 3-4 cars and my heart was pumping. As we drove around the oval to get to the end of the line he wouldn’t even look at me or give me a thumbs up. I thought this was kinda lame, but seeing as im 22 and he looked about 65+ I didn’t really care. I tired to talk to him afterwards but he wasn’t having it, so I left it alone. The next race I paired up with a guy running an older chevy pickup maybe mid 70-80’s I think, with huge slicks on it, a 383stroker, and a fuel cell in the trunk. I kinda knew from the start I wasn’t winning this one on street tires but was curious what it would do so I went ahead with the race. Im running a few boltons, and a little stall, and on street tires I went 13.5 with 2.1 60ft on my gtech pro (probably not accurate but gives an idea). The guy said the truck would do 13.1-13.2 all day on the track so we figured it would be a close race. It was all original sheet metal, so that thing had to be really heavy, and it was more of a show truck then a race truck so I was cool with it. So we get lined up and he gets the jump on me out of the hole, when I finally hook he has 2 cars on me. We keep even all the way down the track and he beats me by 2 cars. I still have stock 2.73 gears which im sure are hurting me in the 1/8th, in the ¼ I bet I would’ve caught him. Even so, with only Et streets I bet I could’ve ran even with him. But the guy was really cool and we talked a bunch afterwards so it was a great race.

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iTrader: (4)

My next race (if you wanna call it that) I took my chances again in lane 3 hoping to get paired up for a decent race, but after a long wait I got stuck with a hemi crewcab dodge 1500. Damn! Well again I drive around the waterbox, but he stops in it and rips a giant burnout like a redneck and he must have been running straight pipes cause it was crazy loud. So we get lined up after his big show, I kill him out of the hole, and kill him all the way down the 1/8th and finish with around 15 or more lengths on him. All that waiting for that crap race! Those damn hemi commercials brainwashed people into thinking their trucks are fast or something, it’s a real shame… After this race I called it quits because of the heat and taking so long to get a race. I let the car cool and watched a few races then left. As the day went on the original 150-200 cars racing dwindled because of breakdowns, drivers getting tired, and the heat, so you could get in races much faster but I had enough and was ready for a dip in the pool at home… All in all it was a great day and lots of fun. You could just make an agreement with someone, line up and race them just like a street race, but not go to jail afterwards. It was $25 bucks to race from 2-6pm and 5 bucks to watch. The next one im going to is Aug 5th, if any of you guys wanna get a cruise together, we can all roll up in a group and do it right… pm me

PewterScreaminMach

iTrader: (7)

That sounds like a lot of fun (minus the heat and long wait times, but you get that at the track, too, so it works out). It definitely sounds like a great way to settle a grudge match. Congrats on the wins!

matt3383

iTrader: (3)

sounds like a lot of fun