Dragsters
I made my first trip to Toronto Motorsports Park (formerly
Cayuga International Dragway Park) today. They have and
still are undergoing major renovations to bring the track
up to IHRA standards. A major national (or shouldI say
international) IHRA racing event will be held there next
weekend. It will be televised on ESPN 2 in the States
and TSN up here but I don't have the tv date.
The track itself is a thing of beauty! A newly laid and
relocated cement launch pad with cement track extending
to the 1/8-mile mark and freshly laid and levelled asphalt
the rest of the way. The shut down area must be almost
1/4-mile in length too :-) Unfortunately, the track just
re-opened July 5th and the cement portion of the track
is still "virgin" (read slick).
One of the big boys got loose today and went head-on
into the cement retaining wall at about 100 mph. Fortunately,
proper safety equipment for both driver and car prevented
injuries :-) A couple of others went into the wall as well but
the Dakota ran straight and true all day :-)
A jet dragster made 3 exhibition runs with the first run
an announced 415 mph (world record)! Of course, in one
of my runs, my slip showed a 14.784 @ 113.56 :-) The SC
car in the other lane ran a 12.336 @ 109.64. He blew
something (blue smoke from exhaust pipes) and I had
a good view from the 1000' mark on right up to the
timeslip booth at the end of the track. That'll teach the
young pup to try and embarrass a 4,080 lb Dakota
with a soon-to-be 64 year old driver :-)
I was told that, on my first run, a few of the construction
workers who were working on the new tower stopped
and looked out and gave a big cheer when I got a 14.8x.
One of the workers has a beauty of a red Dakota all decked
out with colour-keyed grille guard, running boards, side rails
and roll bar.
Great way to spend a 99F day. As Danny Glover says
in Lethal Weapons, I'm getting too old for this $hit :-)
Bob
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