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Drag Racing Story of the Day!

VHT Dustin'

By Steve Gibbs

We actually did VHT the Pomona track once (early ‘70s), using a helicopter agricultural spray rig. Honest... I'm not making this up!

When the liquid traction compounds first came on the scene, there were two basic ways they were used. One was to "paint" the tires prior to the run, and the other way was to "puddle" the liquid and do a burn out through it. (Messy, messy, messy). John Zenda was working at Sacramento Raceway, and began spraying VHT on large portions of the track. I believe John was the first to attempt this, and the results were impressive. Jack Hart and I arranged for Zenda to come to Pomona to oversee this radical new method of track preparation for the Winternationals. 

Since we had no equipment to work with, I contacted a local crop duster, and talked them into applying the VHT to the track. Well, it was the fastest anyone had ever sprayed a track, but damn, what a mess! You can imagine what the air turbulence from the chopper blades did. We had VHT everywhere... on both sides of the guardrails, the return road, even the front rows of the bleachers! The chopper owner was pissed! He had never seen anything like the VHT stuff, and is probably still trying to clean up his equipment. 

In spite of the "three ring circus," the track did work well, and we have been spraying them ever since... but not with a crop duster. I could write a book about track prep and pre-race ceremonies alone...

Hook
stevengordy@earthlink.net

 




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