Getting Sideways Motorsports
[size=6]2007 Drag Racing[/size=6]

Getting Sideways Motorsports can be found most Wednesday nights at New York International Raceway Park (NYIRP.com).

I have been exposed to most forms of racing throughout my life and for some reason drag racing kinda stuck. I guess it comes from my father, he raced a 1966 Buick Skylark GS for many years at Lancaster Speedway in the 70's.

2007 will find my schedule a bit more open so it looks like I will be hitting the 1/4 mile more often then in the past couple years.

I am currently working out a deal to get an '86 Mustang GT to use with my '85. I may parts one out and build a street/strip car or biuld a mild street car with one and a killer strip car with the other.



[size=5]A Little History[/size=5]

I caught the bug back in 1991. A friend of mine had some rain checks to a circle track race at Lancaster Speedway and I decided to go up and watch the drags instead. Well I was hooked!!

I started racing my 1977 Mustang II with a 302 in the Spring of 1992.
We had a few things done to it, mild cam, alum intake, 4 bbl carb, headers and a shift kit. All in all it ended up bieng a consistant 9.6's runner with a best of 9.426 on Lancaster's 1/8 mile track.

After a few years playing around with the Mustang I ended up selling it off for a 1962 F-100 that I was going to use as a show truck.

Well I couldn't stay away from racing that long so I decided I'd run whatever I had laying around. This happened to be a 1977 F-250 Camper Special with a tired 400M. Well it just so happened my step dad was parting out his 1973 Mustang Mach I and I picked up the motor and tranny for $250. What motor you may ask? How about a 1969 429 Cobra Jet with a C-6. Well my buddy had just picked up a 1978 F-350 parts truck that had a 460 in it, so I got all the mounts and brackets for nothing to bolt that monster in.

Well My first few attempts at running this truck where horrible. 13's in the 1/8 with a best of 12.976 was all I could get. Seems the 429 was a tad much for the tires with half track smoke shows being the norm. After a bit of schooling on how to back peddel, I got the big truck down to a best of 10.233.

That winter I decided to put the truck on a diet and weld the rearend. Well another truck came along with a bit more potential. In comes the 1988 Dodge Dakota. Now anyone that knows these trucks know that they didn't offer V-8's in that year. Well the previous owner didn't feel this was right and dropped a 360 with a 727 TorqueFlight in it. I was told 13's in the 1/4 easily. Well I bought it and sold off the F-250 and couldn't wait till the next season started.

That Spring I took the truck to NYIRP to try out the 1/4 mile. Well I didn't get in the 13's but 14.0's were no problem. With a bit of tinkering and some more driving lessons, I had it down to 13.6's regaulary. I figured I'd give my old stoping grond a retry so off to Lancaster to see what she had. 9.0's where all I was "allowed" to run in my class without having to bump up a class so I kinda took it easy at first and turned 9.1's. Well I am into racing for the fun of it so the trophy at the end of the night meant nothing to me so I decided to give her all she had. The result was a 8.885.

For the next two years this was my daily driver and drag truck so I drove it pretty easy but still made my appearance weekly at the track. Well unfourtanatly one day after leaving a race shop where I bought my race fuel I over revved it and snapped the crank in half. So ended my year of racing, or so I thought. I bought a 1987 Crown Vic to drive while the truck was in the shop. In the back of my mind I wondered what the Vic would do at the strip.

I decided to take a year off racing and kinda get things together at home first. The truck sat and I turned my attention to pitting on a circle track race car. Well after a while at that I missed racing so after work one day a buddy and I took off to the strip to see what his F-150 and my Vic would do. Well I blow up the Vic just turning on the road to the strip. That settled it, I was going to bring the truck out and just race it. Well after some head work was done to the truck in its down time, I decided to see what she had. 12.876 outta the box. Nice. But the season was over and I once again had to deal with another New York winter so the truck sat again.

Now I've done some stupid stuff over the years but this next move must be the biggest, I traded the truck for a 4x4 Nissan to get through the winters. So ended my racing again.

Over the next few years I had raced just about every car I owned including my motorcycles. I raced a pair of T-birds an 87 and 88 Turbo Coupes, a pair of Honda CB750's and even last year my girlfriend let me run her 1996 Caddy down the strip.

Well onto 2006.



This is my new drag car for the next season, a 1985 Mustang GT 5 spd.

I am lucky enough to have a girlfriend that sold off her snowmobile and buy me this as a Christmas gift.

Now I am only looking at getting it out on the track and see if I can get low 14's without adding anything for this year. If I get better times that would also be great. Over next winter I will install any parts that I get along the way during 2006 so 2007 should be a real fun year!!
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