subfloor@centurytrans

After a couple years of talking about it (and several delays due to multiple breakages) I finally got my son behind the wheel of my car last night at Sacramento Raceway.

The original plan was to start off very gradual - run it hard to the 330 a few times, then 660', 1000' and finally an all out pass - but I got the okay to ride in the car with him the whole way down (and on every pass) so that quickly went out the window.

I made two passes with him, first as a passenger so he could get a feel for it and I could talk him through everything. Even though he's been to the track hundreds of times before watching, I couldn't emphasize enough that it's a totally different experience when you're actually in the car.

I know a lot of people are likely to think my car was not the way for him to learn but given I had it detuned quite a bit, the drag radials were brand new and I was riding shotgun I figured we'd be fine doing it that way and he did extremely well.

Apart from needing some work on his lights (which I know will come from practice) I think he did an awesome job and feel very proud. His technique on the first two burnouts was a little off but he quickly mastered it and on his last run got a 1.502 60ft which is very hard to do at Sacramento unless you get the tires heated up properly.

All of his 5 timeslips are shown below and what I did was let him make the first two with the car detuned quite a bit (I ran a 10.354 at the end of the night by myself) and then added a couple degrees of timing back in after each one. Although he easily could have made a solo pass last night, I decided to play it safe and stay with him the entire time.



1st pass - 10.989


4th pass - 10.627

BLEKVET

WAY COOL !

Like father, like son.

Joe_G

Awesome! Good thing about drag racing is that you have plenty of time to spend quality father and son time between rounds. I hope my boys show some interest later, so far at 10 & 7 they don't show much interest.

Your son is also the first guy I can think of that got a 10 second pass for his first pass...I think mine was in the 14's!

Wayne O

Good on you for letting your son drive and enjoying the sport together! I'm not into drag racing but I have let my son drive my car on a road course. He started with both classroom and on-track instruction and afterwards I rode shotgun with him. Do things together with your kids while you can.

Crowhater

Chris you pulled a bunch of power, the car sounded lazy but that car turned all the way up would be a handful for anyone.

Next week I will run mine and see what she can do against the clock. I ordered new Hoosiers yesterday 315/35-17 and I sure hope they will hook up.

veni vidi vert

That's awesome..

Aviator

383vett

Way to go Christopher and Josh. I've seen you two together at the races dozens of times and wondered when he was going to get behind the wheel.

michaelinmech

Takin it to the track is the only way to fly - NICE going all around

ShaneFap

Very awesome

jdk541

That is so cool! What a great father - son experience that will last a lifetime.

You're a good father.

dvilin

HOXXOH

I'll bet he still has a grin today.

BTW, did you tell him the 10.56 pass would have been in the 10.3x's if he didn't have a bunch of extra weight (you) in the car?

subfloor@centurytrans

I think he pointed that out to me before I had even thought about it.

Oh yeah, he definitely still does.

383vett

Yeah Christopher, this will make up for some of the beatings you gave him years ago.

RapidRick

For those of us who are sincere Motorheads, it's our own blessing to be able to share the actual in car experiences with a son or daughter. Fantastic!
Thanks for sharing it with us Gents....

Joe_G

And it was wonderful that the track let you do it.

Christopher I bet your status as a regular and someone who supports them, rather than complain to them, had a lot to do with that.

s1k0

I wish my dad was into this stuff lol.

peter pan

Awesome and nothing like father son bonding.

NA or blower build and what stall?

C6Whatever

I think that is great. I wish there were more fathers that would spend time like that with their sons.

Hats off to you

Lisa