Craziest Racing story

[ZUL8TR]

Crazy moment

One crazy time was when racing 25ssh some time in the 1970's at Frostproof Fla and during the 1st lap a drenching rainstorm occured and 1/2 the course was a difficult to see thru rain deluge and the other 1/2 of the course was a beautiful sunny day. The rain was like going thru a waterfall from the sunny side. Stayed that way the entire heat. Fun weird time.

[jeff55v]

..one of them says "Boy that thing outta really run if ya plug your spark plug wires on them plugs"...

Ha-ha! Josh and I did the same thing when we dry fired his 102 at Kamp Kurz 2011. The thing started right up and ran fine. We were both in disbelief when we saw that it had been running with both spark plug wires disconnected!
My crazy story: Way back when I was racing J, we were testing a Martin 200 at our usual test site. This motor was a little more powerful than anything else this 10 year old kid had driven. My dad coached me to "just stay on the gas and take it for a spin." Well, when he started it for me, something happened with the towerhousing and the lower unit turned nearly 45 degrees from the rest of the motor. The boat spun within it's own length two or three times before I got it straightened out by turning the steering all the way to one side of it's travel! I will always remember the look on my dad's face as he scrambled to get out of my boat's way as I spun around! I didn't make it far out into the lake before the engine overheated, that's probably a good thing. My dad really called that one when he told me to take it for a spin! LOL.

[rumleyfips]

Would stopping two trains at Hickory Park NY. because someone got his van stuck on the tracks qualify as a crazy story?

[daveracerdsh]

Rental Cars

Well...like was pointed out in another post....,most of my funny stories race wise are not really on the race course....but in rental cars. There are about 8 stories...but here is the first one. We used to run the winter nationals in Indio California. Fantastic place to run....I had towed my trailer down packed to the gills with D stock hydros....and got into Palm Springs with a little money in my pocket. I thought...hmmm...I am here for 4 days...why not get a nice car to run around with. The local rental car agency (don't remember the name) had brand new Pontiac Firebirds with Corvette 350 V8s in them...needless to say a very very fast car. So....a fellow D stock driver named Tom Pearson (god rest his soul) and I decided to head back from the Indio Super 8 in my car back to the pits to check on some stuff. There is a huge golf course that borders the lake called PGA West....and the access road along it is straight as an arrow and maybe 4 miles long. Coming back..Tom says..."lets see what this thing will do" and I of course said...Me? speed in a 400 hp rental car? Never!!!! Well anyway...we get the thing up to about 110...and a coyote runs out of the desert and I hit the thing full on. WHAM! I locked the brakes up...and lemme tell you..going that fast it takes a while to stop. So...we are sitting there laughing our azzes off, and I say to Tom..."You get out and check and see where the pieces of the coyote are" and Tom says..."no you idiot..YOU get out and check" Well...all of a sudden we hear this thumping coming out from under the car....and then the coyote crawls out from underneath and runs into the desert. We were both stunned....and of course the front airdam of the car was blown apart and the tie rods were bent...but I took car back and never got a bill. Next up....the infamous Craig Fjarlie camcorder incident from Indio a few years later.

[Mark 72@E]

To repeat myself, again

I've told this story before but it seems fitting to tell it again now since 10/1/12 marks the 6th anniversary of the car crash that took Travis' life.

************************************************** *********

Travis Pond once beat me in CSR by paddling across the finish line.

Ok, it’s not quite as bad as it sounds, but here’s what happened. At Sharptown, Md in 2005 Travis was just far enough ahead of me that I didn’t see his boat quit after he went through the last turn of the race. I think I learned later he had run out of gas. So as I’m rounding the final turn my eyes are tracking the water in front of me and beyond that are the pits. And I see Gary Pond (a large target) in the pits and a couple of others waving their arms but I didn't know why. As I came out of the turn and I saw Travis’ boat sitting still I realized what they were trying to tell him: keep going, start paddling. So I crossed the finish line ahead of Travis who was now on the deck of Kevin Harrell’s CSR paddling away. And eventually he did cross the finish line under his own power and placed last in the heat and I finished next to last. But because he finished two places ahead of me in the other heat, overall he still placed higher than I did for the race. So Travis beat me because he paddled across the finish line.

Unbelievable.

[Rich Tower]

OK Mark you win the prize for the flopping around. I did a similar move but I went under the boat. Guess we learn from our mistakes?

[Rich Tower]

My first race-trying to show that I knew what I was doing. Strung the steering cable myself. The problem was it was strung backwards so when I turned right the darn boat went left.

[3autility]

25SS story

While running 25SSH at Southwick. Mass in the 80s, I was flying down the straight when a large bass (I think) jumped out to of the water right in front of me. I did not hit it but it was close!!

[daveracerdsh]

D stock

I actually do have a funny D stock story....we used to run at Capitol Lake in downtown Olympia Washington......We had a full field of D stocks back then, (late 80's)and I made a great start. Just as I was heading into the first turn, a flock of stupid ducks (and trust me ducks ARE stupid) landed right in front of me. I nailed about 3 of them...feathers and duck guts everywhere. One of them had a big hole in the middle of it...and it was still alive, turning circles with one of its wings sorta flapping, right in front of a bunch of spectators. Of course, some of them were real big tree huggers, and the looks I got when I went out with a plastic bag to pick up duck (I named it Donald) were something I won't soon forget. Please don't ask me what I did with duck though.....9US