Betty's First Drag!

On Wednesday night I cruised down to the Beaches cruise-in and got a taste of the scene at PIR. Live music, food, drag racing, and about 200 classic cars. For a car guy like me, it was a dream. I didn't drag race because they were bracket racing and I had never raced Betty. You kind of need to know how fast your car can go because bracket racing is all about consistently setting down the same time.

So, Amy, Jessie, and I (Kelsey was with a friend at the beach) took Betty down to the Friday night drags at Portland International Raceway (PIR) yesterday evening. It was awesome. It was my first time drag racing so I did some research online and got some tips from The Staging Light. My research paid off. Other than leaving my window rolled down I didn't look like a complete novice. Staging the car correctly and knowing how to get a good reaction time made things a lot of fun.

I set down a best time of 16.912 at 82.25 MPH for the 1/4-mile. It isn't a very competitive time but it isn't bad for a pretty much stock small-block Buick. I ran consistently in the low 17's and high 16's in 8 passes. My 60-foot times were lousy (Betty's 2.78 gears just aren't made for the low-end) but she really came alive in the 1000-foot. I'm most proud of my reaction times. My best reaction time was a 0.021 and most of my RTs were consistently sub-0.300.

All in all, I we had a great time. I plan on heading out to the Wednesday night cruise-in at least once before it ends at the end of the month and I definitely need to get my Dad and his 1964 Olds F-85 out there for a little Father-Son, Buick-Olds showdown. :-)

Check out some photos here:

http://gallery.mac.com/dstewart64#100004&bgcolor=black

And a short video here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FAlMaReWuIQ