Brianna Bevilacqua

Dr.Blair

English 1103-018

03 December 2013

Drag Racing

“Anything you can do I can do better” has always been one of my favorite quotes. I

always loved a challenge even as a little girl. I didn’t care if someone told me I couldn’t do

something that just made me want to do it more. Growing up as my dad’s only child and

only daughter he got to treat me like the son he never had. He shared his love of everything

that has an engine. My dad is the reason I drive a truck, ride four wheelers and most

importantly the reason I drag race. My dad and even my grandfather have been drag racing

since they were old enough to drive and they passed down the tradition to me. Drag racing

is not usually a “girl’s sport” but knowing that and my love of cars compelled me to start

drag racing. I had a lot to learn before I could actually go to the track and race. First I had to

learn to drive stick, then I had to learn how to make a pass and then last but definitely not

least I had to actually take my car to the track.

For my 16th birthday my dad surprised me with a 1993 Ford Mustang 5.0. I cried

when I saw it I was so excited! I got in it to fire it up and I realized it was a manual

transmission. I knew how to start one but I didn’t know how to drive one. My dad ensured

me that he would teach me and I would be driving stick in no time. On our free weekends

my dad would take me to big open parking lots that weren’t being used on the weekends

and he would teach me to drive stick. The first hurdle I had to get over was learning how to

take off which means get the car rolling. There are 3 petals, starting from the left there’s the

clutch then the brake and then the gas. The clutch is there because you have to push that in

while you’re shifting gears. The clutch also plays an important role in taking off. When

taking off you have the clutch pushed all the way down with your left foot and you take

your right foot off the brake and switch it to the gas. Next you have to let up on the clutch

and push down the gas at the exact ratio to get the car rolling once the car is rolling you let

up off the clutch completely but keeping your toe hovered above it and then press the gas

like normal until you have to shift into the next gear. After that part everything was easy I

knew when to shift and that I had to press the clutch in while shifting but taking off was so

hard for me to get. It took me many tries and at first it took me forever to actually get the

car rolling. My dad was a very good teacher though, he didn’t get frustrated with me he just

kept giving me good tips and he was exactly right. I would just get so frustrated with myself

and I felt like I was never going to get it but after a few weekends of practice I had it down

pretty well. Although I was getting good at driving stick this was not the end of my visits to

the parking lot.

The next step in learning my secondary discourse of drag racing was to learn how to

make a pass. A pass is basically when you drive your car as fast as you can down a drag

strip, which is usually a quarter mile but in some cases it’s an eighth of a mile. You get

timed so the smaller the time it takes you to get down a quarter mile, the faster your car is.

A couple things are different when just regularly driving a stick versus actually making a

pass. The first thing that was different was taking off, but taking off when making a pass is

actually a lot easier than regular driving. When making a pass you hold you left foot on the

clutch and press lightly on the gas so that the rpms are at about 1500 to 2000. Once the

green light comes on you press down on the gas as hard as you can and let off the clutch

really fast at the same time. When doing this the car will take off really fast allowing you to

get a fast start and make a good pass. The second thing that was different is when actually

drag racing you shift when the rpms are at 5500 whereas when driving stick normally you

would shift at 2500. What my dad would do in the parking lot was make me do my burnout,

which is essential for drag racing so you get traction, then had me line up with my tires on a

horizontal line of a parking spot and I would rev up my engine to hold my rpms up and

then he would count down and I would take off fast and shift fast and make it all the way to

about 4th gear before I would have to slow down because the parking lot was ending. I did

this multiple times, obviously there was no way to tell what time my car was running, how

fast it was going the quarter mile, but I needed to at least get the hang of it before we

moved onto the fun part, taking my car to the track.

The first time we ever went to the track to race my car, we loaded up the trailer the

night before so we could leave early the next morning. My car was washed and strapped

onto the trailer and my helmet was in the front seat I was ready to race. I couldn’t sleep

that night I was so excited. My dad and I woke up early the next morning and we headed to

Atco Raceway in Atco, NJ. When you get to the track there was a couple procedures we had

to go through. When you pay to get in they hand you a driver liability waiver where you

have to fill out all your information and information about the car you’re driving. While my

dad got my car off the trailer I filled out the waiver. The next step is usually to let a little air

out of the tires. This helps gain traction on the track which you need in order to stay going

in a straight line. Then after that I had to drive my car over to tech inspection where an

official from the track checks out your car briefly just to make sure it’s safe to go down the

track, they also check your helmet and take your liability waiver. Once they decide

everything is good they will write a number on your windshield and windows with window

paint which helps the track identify who’s car is who. After tech inspection I was ready to

race. I got lined up in the staging lanes, usually there’s about 6 of them and they’re just

waiting spots for the cars who aren’t racing at that moment. The staging lanes go two at a

time the first lane number one will get to have the left side of the track and staging lane

number two has the right side. Before I knew it, it was my turn to pull up and get closer to

the actual track. Once the person in front of me had gone down the track and turned off the

strip onto the turn off road a track official signaled me in. He’ll wave his hand telling you to

pull up and then close it in a fist when it’s time to stop pulling up. You don’t pull up to the

starting line first you have to do a burn out before you can do that. When it’s safe for you to

do your burnout the official will put his thumb up and wave it up and down. Once you do a

good enough burn out he’ll wave you down telling you to go to the starting line. The next

part is a bit tricky. In order to insure that no one starts even an inch ahead of another

person you have to stage. There 2 rows of 2 yellow lights aligned vertically on each side of

the tree. When the top 2 lights come on you know you still have to move up a little bit, once

the top two lights and the bottom 2 lights are on you are in the exact spot you’re supposed

to be in. When you are correctly staged you know it’s time to hold down the clutch and rev

up your engine a little bit and get ready to lanch (take off). The tree won’t go down until the

person beside you is also correctly staged but you have to focus on your side of the tree not

theirs because it happens faster than you think. When you’re both correctly staged the tree

will go down. First 3 yellow lights aligned vertically and then the green light right under

that. When the third yellow light comes on it is safe to launch because by the time your

brain processes that it saw the yellow light, the green light is already on. Then it’s time to

floor it and have some fun! I executed all these steps perfectly my first time going down the

track. Once I completed my pass I turned off the track onto the turn off road. Along this

road back to the pits there is a booth you stop at to get your time slip. Your time slip tells

you you’re reaction time, your 60 foot time, 330 foot time, 1/8 mile time and mph, 1000

foot time and the most important your ¼ mile time. I was so excited that I didn’t even care

what I ran. I took my slip and got back into the staging lanes and got ready to go again!

Drag racing is one of my favorite things to do but it’s not always easy. I almost gave

it up once when I had an incident at the track. I was driving one of my dad’s mustangs and I

got up there and got staged and when I went to launch the car just shut off and I couldn’t

get it to go back on no matter what I did. My dad wasn’t around because he was racing that

day too. Everyone in the crowd was looking at me it was awful. A few crew members had to

push my car off the track while I steered, it was mortifying! I sat in the truck the rest of the

day and cried I was so embarrassed. What I had to realize though was that it wasn’t my

fault it was the car’s fault and all of those people in the stands and all the other racers

understood that because at some point in time something like that has happened to them,

everyone has car problems. Through this experience I learned that drag racing has actually

made me a lot stronger and given me a lot more self confidence. I have been discriminated

against because I’m a girl and people think I don’t know what I’m doing but I’m a good

driver and at least I’m out there doing what I love.

I wouldn’t trade drag racing for the world. It gives me an adrenaline rush that is

indescribable. I hope that one day when I have kids they will share my love of fast cars and

racing. I’ll teach them the same way my dad taught me. It was not an easy learning process

but it was so worth it in the end. Even though I’ve been racing for 3 years now there’s still

so much to learn. I will keep racing and keep progressing as a driver. Who knows maybe

one day I’ll race with the pros.

"Basics of Drag Racing." ATOM NHRA Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.

"Courtney Steals The Show At Toyota Nationals." Drag Racing News. N.p., 25 Oct. 2013. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.

"Force Rolls With Changes To 16th NHRA Title." Drag Racing News. N.p., 1 Nov. 2013. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.

"Movies Influence Illegal Street Racing - Chase Duvall's Zone." Chase Duvall's Zone. N.p., 13 Oct. 2013. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.

"Take It from the Drivers." Take It from the Drivers. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.

TIME SLIP Tree

Staging lanes Atco Raceway

the track