[ponyakr]

i just thought of something interesting. back when i first started racin my goat ('73-'74) we didn't use nhra index times. we used track records for our dial-in times. at any time during the time trials, you could notify the tower that you wanted to make an attempt to lower the track record for your class. from that time on, all the cars in that class had to use the new track record as their dial-in. my goat was much quicker than the track record, so i lowered it a lot. if you ran quicker than your track record, you broke out. so it was basically a bracket race. that even makes all my wins a little more special. there's not many folks sucessfully bracket racing a 4-speed. i certainly would not attempt it today. now this incident i'm about to tell of happened towards the end of the '74 season. they came out with a soft tread tire with just a few shallow grooves that was legal for nhra stockers. this imediately dropped my et by 1/2 sec. so i set my record lower to compensate. by then nobody else runnin my class could come close. then at 1 race i ran a c/s stage 1 buick. they said he won, but didn't give out any time slips. so i went to the tower to find out the details. but i got a hostile reception. the buick guy was a local & good buddies with the chevy boys. when i politely asked about the details of the race, all the fangs came out. they told me in no uncertain terms that i had lost & the thing for me to do was load up & go home. & they were very rude in doing so. so i concockted me a plan. the next week when i teched in i lied & told them i had a ra4 370hp motor, which put me in c/s instead of d/s. i knew the tech guys were chevy dudes & would'nt no the difference. i knew i was much quicker than the buick, so i ran for the c/s class record & bombed it as low as i could. then i loaded'r up & came home. the season was almost over so i don't know if the buick ran any more that year or not. he probably talked his buddies in the tower into doing away with the record i'd set. they ran off nhra index numbers in '75 so we never saw the buick run again. now, i wouldn't do something like that today. but that was a different time, & i thought it was just the action called for in repayment for their bad attitudes & the harsh treatment i'd received. just part of history. precious memories.