NHRA drag races

[whistlin six]

Looking for something to do this weekend?

Don't forget NHRA is racing down in Joliet Ill Fri-Sat and Sun.
Get a group together and come on down to see some nitro burning dragsters and funny cars cover the 1/4 mile in under 5 seconds at over 300mph.
Pretty amazing sh!t!...

http://www.nhra.com/content/event_schedule.asp?articleid=18546&zoneid=91&y=&navsource=10

I'll be working with Bob Bodes nitro funny car crew, stop by and say hi
if you can make it.

Mike

[pw_cc_runner]

What do you look like? I haven't missed an NHRA event in Joliet since the track was built.

[whistlin six]

What do you look like? I haven't missed an NHRA event in Joliet since the track was built.

If you go to the crew photos on www.bobbode.com I'm Mike.

[wheelsofsteel]

"Bonfire" :D

[whistlin six]

"Bonfire" :D

haha... see you there dude!!

[wheelsofsteel]

Of course !!!
Thanks bro.

[pw_cc_runner]

I looked for you but I guess you all didn't make it to Sunday.

[whistlin six]

I looked for you but I guess you all didn't make it to Sunday.

No we didn't make the show. Ran a 4.87@312 on Saturday but it wasn't
good enough. 4.85 was the bump :fire
Had some bad ju-ju with the car this weekend, lots of problems and
weird stuff going wrong.

We were there all day Sunday servicing the car, pitted right across from
the Force camp.

[Russ Jerome]

I dont see the Sunday race on my Roadrunner record session?
Saw the Saturday qualifying but no race Sunday??? WTF!

[domokun]

after reading the "crew" section. do you volunteer? get paid? what does it take to get into something like that?

I see you all still have full time jobs etc

[pw_cc_runner]

WTH! I looked for the car and the name, I guess I'm just blind.

[whistlin six]

after reading the "crew" section. do you volunteer? get paid? what does it take to get into something like that?

I see you all still have full time jobs etc

We have all expenses paid, food-travel-lodging ect and get paid for working on the crew as well. Not a bad deal at all.

Being a crew member requires exceptional mechanical ability and focus.
The driver is putting his life in the hands of the crew, and we all keep that
in the back of our minds when putting the car together for him.
Mistakes can cause people to get hurt, not only driver but crew as well.
I'm in charge of starting the motor, so I get very close to the injector and
hope that everyone did their jobs correctly when I pull the trigger, an
intake valve hanging open could bang the blower right there in our faces.

We all were trained on how to do our jobs, and then set free to do them
on our own, and trusted to do them correctly.

If you've got those skills, then you need to have dedication, the flexibility
to travel and the desire to work your ass off. I usually leave town on the Wednesday before a race, spend the entire day Thursday unloading the
trailer, setting up the canopy and getting the pit area ready for Friday.
A typical day for us is 15+ hours long.

If this still sounds interesting, then you need to get out there and make
it known you want to do it. Bring resumes to the track and find the team
owners or crew chiefs. Present yourself professionally and you might just
be in the right place at the right time. You'll never see an ad in the paper
for a crewmember so you need to get out there and find it yourself.

Expect to, and offer to volunteer just to get your foot in the door.
Cleaning parts is a good place to start and become accepted. A spot on
the race car will eventually become available and if you're the right person,
there you go!

If you really really want to do it, then spend a few bucks and attend a drag racing school, this will look very good on your resume.
I went to Frank Hawleys school in Cali and did the race technician program
about 8 years ago. Started out volunteering on a small dragster team for a
few years and finally landed the spot of my dreams working with Bode.

Hope that helps!

[domokun]

thanks for explaining, helps a great deal. if you are leaving on wednesday... you are gone for your full time job for 5 days... you pretty much have a race every 2 weeks. how do you do it?

[whistlin six]

thanks for explaining, helps a great deal. if you are leaving on wednesday... you are gone for your full time job for 5 days... you pretty much have a race every 2 weeks. how do you do it?

I work for myself, that makes it easy for me. The other guys either use
vacation time or pull some strings at work to get the time off.

I go on Wednesday because I can, usually travel with Bode. The crew chief
also shows up on Wednesday. The rest of the crew gets there Thursday evening so they are mostly just taking Fridays off of work.
When we fly to races we take a red eye home late Sunday evening so
we are back home for Monday morning. Honestly it takes me a day or
two to recover from a race weekend so I never schedule any work for
Monday.

We actually don't run the full season, we're doing only nine races this year.
Rumor is, Bode wants to do the first ten in a row next season, that will be
interesting.

[Syclone0044]

Hey Mike, I went to your website before going on Saturday to get an idea what you look like - pretty sure I got ya!! :thumbsup

http://i25.tinypic.com/9ko8bb.jpg

My hats off to you!

[whistlin six]

Thanks bro!! Nice pic.
Yeah that's me in the background.

Did you wait out the rain on Saturday?
The track was "killer" after they dried and prepped it.