Went to the dragstrip this morning. First pass I missed third, but not a bad run otherwise. But the second pass was when the excitement kicked in.
My launch in the left lane was good. Shift to second resulted in some wheel spin, which I expected. Shift into third the rear end was a little squirrelier than normal, nothing major. BUT, when I shifted into fourth, the rear end kicked out to the right. Now THAT I did not expect. Then the whole damn car acted like it wanted to swap ends. I let off the gas; did not hit the brakes; I had no clue where the Mustang was in the right lane. I glanced in my mirror - he backed way off when he saw what was happening (whew).
I was trying like hell not to over-correct. I know my eyes were as big a saucers. Car acted like it was going to straighten out but then started up with the swerving again before it finally settled down. Don't know how fast I was going when it started fishtailing but I coasted to a 12.181 at 101.93 while trying to get my car under control.
I've made at least 30 passes previously in this car so I knew I didn't have the power to kick the rear out on a 3-4 shift. Found out that the car ahead of me broke a hose and lost coolant right about where I made my shift. Track was shut down for 45 minutes while they cleaned it up. Took me almost as long to clean my drawers. I’ll never complain again about how long track clean-up takes.
