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32K views 457 replies 16 participants last post by  FearTheDeer 
#1 ·
Who goes to the local tracks to race? I might want to set up a GTG at Famosa or Irwindale if there is enough interest.
 
#4 ·
A few of us go to Irwindale and Fontucky. A couple of us may go to LA Invasion at the end of this month too.
 
#12 ·
Some things have changed at Fontana:

(e-mail from a SoCal Super Gas racer):
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 12:18 PM
Subject: Fontana Close

"It's official, the drag strip at Fontana has closed, the event this past week end was their last for the season. The County of San Bernadino closed them in violation of noise standards."

More here--"closed" is inaccurate, it appears--the schedule of events has been revised.....it does appear that some or all of the "street-legal" events will still happen.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Who races in socal?

well I have racked up hundreds of slips over the last 10+years
and manage to pick up several autocross trophies as well

I wont be ready for a two or three months with J5
I have to finish a customers car then take J5 apart
for coatings on my TriYs and new trans install b4 I run again

but I have my 9c1 that has never been to the track :)

Roger aka BallSS - runs every now and then
Shawn aka Deathmobile - has been going alot car used to belong to KLRSS
Joe aka JMalibuSS - usually goes once a year
Nick aka Fearthedear - goes
Aaron aka Socalhotrodder - does the Irwindale thing
Noel aka got bearrings - T56 install ended his domination of the 1/4

Fontana is no big loss.
RANT MODE ON
-Track sucks! REAL TALK track is placed up hill into the wind. 1200 physical altitude at the starting line 1212 at 1320 mark. google earth it~!
-crowd sucks lots people new to the sport leaving trash everywhere
just plain rude walking / meandering thru traffic on their cell phones when they put out the class calls and all the racers are in a rush
-return road is not safe, I had a 2 foot child sprint out in front of me on the return road once as the RV park on the edge return road and thier is ZERO barrier, good thing I have and autocross car and had 255 not loose drag shocks and slicks and skinnies cause I stopped 3" short of man slaughter with 255s in full ABS
-stands suck no backing or seats, heck they just got timing boards
-vendors suck, $8 for a puke burger made of cardboard $3 for a water
-facility sucks, no NOS truck or fuel truck, no drinking fountains, or place to wash your hands, no real restrooms, no place to put air in your tires or top off a radiator the kicker the speedway is super styled out, but the street legal participants are not allowed to use it
security got all bent at me cause I drove to the speedway office and purchased bottled water from the vending machine at $1.25 a bottle to top my radiator instead
-area sucks, local fast food suck, no sit down restaraunts outside the complex, no local hotels, no target no walmart no sears no parts stores
breaking something at Fontana is a major bummer local pepboys is a 50 minute adventure round trip, breakage means a hustle of buble gum and bailing wire to not have tow truck involved

-sometimes the drags are empty, on empty days they close early
-sometimes their is a line down Cherry Ave at 5AM and they turn people away
pissed off racers turned way then get picked off by the local police on the way back to the freeway
In cali entanglements with the the police in a street driven race car gan get hairy and go beyond the pain of a simple ticket
heck you get the wrong officer on the wrong day and he could make your life difficult over fully LEGAL CARB certified parts

-line to get into the complex, line to purchase a tech card, line to tech, 2-4 hour wait for a class call, 45min in the staging lanes
this is a given like death and taxes
forget trying to get into a groove driving the car, working on your launch
it's going to be 4 hours between runs and a min. 1000ft DA swing

recently power is easer to come by
-broken half shaft 03/04 cobras, broken ring gear 4th gens, LSx platform cars in the wall, nitrous import scatters at the 60', seen turbo 5.0 on its lid at half track, hondas with turbos and spray poppin half shafts at the 0.1' mark, CTSV stattered diff case ect..
12 hours at the track means sitting for a min 2 hours of cleanup of the course of the day
I have literally simmered in the sun for half the day as the first round of class calls weeds out all the weak drive lines.
Did I mention there is no shade?


if all goes stellar
-you get up at 4.30AM get in 4 runs with crap 60s, choke down a double western from down the street in the staging lanes, and put your street tires back n in the dark / buddy holding a maglight cause the staff shuts the lights off on you

But heck
One can NOT say the track prep sucks though...
... cause you would have to have track prep b4 it can suck!

So in a nut shell Fontana is great.
If your idea of a good time is paying someone to poke you in the eye with a sharp hot stick.

RANT MODE OFF

Ok Fontana has two good points,
-its fun to race with freinds, have a cold blue monster in the sun and give each other a hard time
-and the announcer dude is the funniest thing ever I love that guy
Hon Hon Honnnn Dah in the Winston cup lane~!

Ever wonder why I have a freakish Autocross car and crappy drag times on the ET page...????

Palm Springs Corvette club autocross is the 2nd week in March
and the last week in October every year.
I always make that event!!
That event has vendors, trophies, nice cheap hotels, an autozone in walking distance, the corvette people are saints, sometimes it is 105F out
some times is 65 and perfect

Basically you can run till your sick of seeing that tach pinned :)

Thats the event we should all go to!!
 
#16 ·
Fontana is the crab infested crotch of the IE.
glad I dont have to go there for training anymore :)
the town, never been to the track
 
#17 ·
Had fun at the drags tonight
Night drags mean better temps!

OC Fair helped keep the place empty!

Found the Bass Pro Shop & Panda express inland thanks to Iphone and Garmin.

Deathmobile shakedown run in 1080P HD
 
#18 · (Edited)
I haven't seen this thread in a while. Tad's writeup is dead on. Drag racing in socal when we were younger was way better. We had Brotherhood Raceway at Terminal Island and Pomona. Sometimes it feels like the drag racing at Fontana and Irwindale are just afterthoughts. I did not see them spray vht a single time yesterday the whole 4 hours we were there!! I see videos from Atco and Lebanon strips on youtube and get jealous!

That HD camera is the bomb diggity!!! HAHA! That Skyline just walked right around me! Thanks for the video yo.

Tad does the tuning on our car of course but with our new motor we are running a set of his ported heads. We had ported heads on it before. These heads from Tad flow over 270 and 190. They came pedigreed with the flow sheets for a great price. The car friggin screams on the new setup. If anyone in SoCal is thinking of going with one of his head/cam packages, come take a ride in our car. We are running the LPE211 with ours. The car keeps getting better and better each time he tweaks it. Yesterday was a lot of fun at Fontana for a change! We haven't retuned the car since the last dyno before the new CIA Quad1's and exhaust. I can't wait to see what else he can pull out of it. Thanks again Tad.

 
#19 ·
Shawn/Stu : Sorry I missed it. After the Memorial, I just spent a lot of time reflecting on things. Wasn't really in the shape to go watch racing. Also, with no current registration I couldn't run the car.

Tad: Whats with the guy in the middle of filming with the super cannon camera? Looks like a flip flop and suspenders guy to me :p

As it stands I'm putting all my eggs in 1 basket for September. No leaks, Current Tags, Trans Tune Dialed in, 28" Cheater Slicks. Hope to see you and anyone else who can make it there
 
#20 ·
We wll be there on September 3rd for twilights for sure. I am also going the 17th but possibly with a new toy instead of Deathmobile ;)

We are going to try and hit some Thursdays at Irwindale in October.
 
#21 ·
J5 - has a long list b4 drags again but I'm yet to get 1/4 tims on the LT tri-ys

Langston - is ready to rock out some Peg leg day dreams!
 
#22 ·
#23 · (Edited)
I could calculate the humidity by the squishing sound in my helmet and my pit stains!

EDIT: We need to get some more B Bodies out to the track September 3rd.

http://www.autoclubspeedway.com/Tic...et-Legal-Drags/2011-Street-Legal-Drags-7.aspx

Saturday, September 3 - TWILIGHT STREET LEGAL

Schedule

12:00pm - Ticketing/Tech
2pm-10pm - Racing

Pricing

Race your own car for only $20!

Watch your friends race for only $10
 
#25 ·
Bump- Is anybody going to Fontanner the 3rd besides us?
 
#26 ·
Shawn,

I put out the word via email to see if any of the peeps want to go.

9C1 is ready to peg leg!
WX3 rubber on order!
 
#27 ·
Sweet! We are ready to go. Intake is in but not sanded or painted. I need to wire the fan switch like you told me to.

Doc Brown in the 300 bothered us all day again the last time. Stu asked him if he had a flux capacitor in his trunk!

This time we will show up for tech the same time and do one run. Then we will wait to do the rest of the runs when it cools off. Cindi is going to meet us all later in the day to bring the kids and bring some pizzas so we all don't have to leave. I talked to Kathy and Stu is able to take a ride as passenger down the track this time!
 
#30 ·
Cindi isn't going so no pizza party today unless someone else rolls to get it. I am going to duck out early tonight for STREET FAIR!!!! We are leaving here at about noon so we can get through tech before it gets swamped. See you guys there.

Oh...

Are you bringing the Coprice Tad? Did you guys get the new rubber for your cars?

Fontanner is gonna be hot today!!!!! I am already cooking in Corona and it is ten o'clock!!!!

Tad- Can you please bring a tire pressure gauge- I forgot to get a new one and I think mine is not reading accurate. Thanks if you can.

Deathmobile is real happy today so it should be a fun run!!!
 
#31 ·
Good times with good friends today! 4 B Bodies at the track!!!! More than I have seen in over 5 years!
 
#32 ·
Brad / Wolf / Lurkers

We were there!
were were you all at?

Shawn,
Nick +1,
Me +wife,
Derek (no ride as it is in progress)

Shawn I clicked off a run right at the end of the night
ultra low budget langston clicked off 101.86 on a 2.244 60'

3x fast stock short block b-bodies beatin it up!
 
#33 ·
Peg Legged Freight Train FTW!!! I told you that car is something special. Did you avoid the water box? I like those MPH!!!!!

September 17th is the next street legal drags! Be there or be square!! Hopefully I have the fuel system fixed/upgraded by then!
 
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