Last night I made my first trek to race in the form of dirt drags at Lake County Fairgrounds.
I was a bit hesitant to get into many classes since I really don’t have the tree figured out yet.
BP says there is a set time from when both stage bulbs light to when pro tree shows the yellow. The guy running the show says he randomly assigns a delay so you can’t guess it. Well that won’t stop racers from trying it lol.
Anyway I did 7 or 8 practice passes with mixed results on the tree - best I think was .05 though had some red bulbs in there for sure.
I signed up for the 4/6 cyl 4wd class originally, but at the end of practice there were only 2 of us in that class so I also signed up for street gas which is a 4.50 index class.
We then waited quite a while as they ran out all the quad and bike classes. My first race came up against Mikey Reed whose truck runs close to 4.50 and I ended up losing that one. This put me into the loser bracket (double elimination) where I fairly quickly ran up against BP. I managed to beat him as he was guessing how much to slow down to not break out and I got by. After four races it was down to me and Mikey again. Our first rematch he put up a red bulbs trying to squeeze the tree too much. Our second rematch and the final I did my regular count and it seemed like we were way past the time the light should come down and I just went. Well this tripped the red bulb, but Mikey did the same and he red lighted by more. 8 vehicles in the class, it took six passes to finish it.
Then I went almost immediately into the 4/6 4wd class where the only competition was a stick shift Subaru. I beat him the first match and he red lighted the second.
Street gas payout
BP ran a bunch of classes with the quad and S10 I know he collected some $. I spent $20 to enter two classes and collected $70.
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
I shelled out $70 and got $50 back. Unfortunately the car count was super low and I only had one person to beat in both the 4.0 index for trucks, and the RWS classes. This only got me my money back. And you heard the story about the 4.5 index where I basically handed Andy the win. DOH!
I was in four classes for ATV. I got runner up in three of four classes, and went some rounds successfully, but a couple classes were only me and one other guy. This same guy beat me in the finals of every class I was in.
But I was pretty pleased that I had no real issues with my riding and was a lot more consistent from run to run, beating most of my opponents on the tree. But at the end of the day, my 4.3-4.4 times are going to need to be 4.0s to start actually winning classes. This winter is likely going to be some engine upgrades to make that happen.
Funny story, as I was packing up at the end of the night, a young kid shows up with his girlfriend very interested in my truck. He has an S10 too, so I spent a little time telling him all about it, showing him under the hood, etc. While this was happening, the Sheriff who was watching all night drives up and expressed his love for the truck too. He said "that's a real sleeper. People are probably really surprised when they pull up and get their doors blown off". I didn't elaborate on any street racing that may or may not have occurred, but just laughed along.
Last Sunday's dirt race was at the Medina County Fairgrounds. It was supposed to start time runs at 2pm and eliminations at 4pm. I got a phone call from Tony Reed who we race with in the dirt, as I was already on the fairgrounds telling me they were still doing tractor pulls at almost 2pm... Then the fair people were going to tear the dirt back up and try to prep the surface for dirt racing. By the time the tractors were done pulling and the surface was ready it was just about 4pm. KOI, the group that puts on the dirt drags, cut the practice time from two hours to under an hour due to a 7:45 curfew. This also initiated the single elimination race from the usual double eliminations to save time. Ultimately this didn't bother me too much as I really didn't feel like getting home super late.
On the Raptor in my first class, I fell asleep at the tree and lost by .02 I think, to a big 4wd utility quad who was wheelie-ing for about the first 50' of the race. The track had become pretty loose already, so a 4x4 was going to be more advantageous.
My 2nd class I was in was apparently only me and one other guy, and I was able to squeak out a win there. Although I didn't know it at the time, that it was the finals.
In my next two classes I had some problems shifting. The first race was the 2-3 shift that gave me problems, and the 2nd race was 3-4. I'm not quite sure what the issue was. It was sad because both of those were races I could have won. I think it was me maybe holding the gear with foot too long and not letting the shift lever back down. I drove it on the street on monday and tried to duplicate the problem with no success. There's one more race this season so I'm going to leave it alone until after that. I think it's me, and if necessary a small shift lever adjustment may be required.
Then it was on to racing the S10. Despite the slippery racing surface, I was able to sweep all three of my classes. My closest race of the day was in the 4.5 index against MostMint in his Caddy. I got him in a holeshot win. I can't remember the exact margin of victory, but I think I ran a 4.56 to his 4.52. He will have that info. You could feel us both shoving our gas pedals a little harder than normal at the finish line.
The gas 4.0 was actually not a big deal. Only a couple vehicles to beat there, and none were as fast as I was.
The big class for some reason was the 2wd class. I think there were 13 or 14 trucks. I unfortunately had to race our friend Chriss Hill in his rear engine Silverado. He was one of the only real threats in the class besides a drag Firebird (1980ish) who seemed to have potential. I was able to get past Chris with a few tenths to spare, so I had to just make sure I didn't make any real mistakes on the tree (like redlight) to get to the finals. I did end up racing the Firebird, but he just couldn't put all his power to the ground and I was able to put maybe two lengths on him at the stripe. It was funny at Medina, because for some reason there were a good amount of spectators in the stands, and people were cheering like crazy after the race. I'm sure there was alcohol involved, but they were having fun!
I had a great payout of $160 for that race. The next race will be at 42 on Friday Sept 12th. Hopefully the weather holds up as the Spring race there was rained out. I'll post a couple videos from my phone in a little while.
I was already right outside the fairgrounds when BP called to tell me they were going to be quite late, so I just hung out. Since they were so late, we had plenty of time to figure out where to pit, and we ended up with a good spot along the fence near the entrance to the race area, and we actually put the pop up on the other side of the fence. Shade was nice while we were waiting around for 2 hrs, and while BP was waiting between classes with his gear on for the quad. Also we were closest to the registration tent so when he called for registration I got right over there and there was no waiting.
I got in before the line got long
I put the Caddy into street gas 4.50 index and 4/6cyl 4WD.
quite a few vehicles participating
In the second round of street gas I came up against my brother and to my surprise the Caddy was faster than the S10. Track conditions were not good for the 2WD but the Caddy didn't really care. With my Firehawk Indy 500s I still managed a 4.52. Still I got treed by .1 so I lost by .006. If this is double elimination I'm pretty sure I get another shot at this.
In the 4/6 cyl 4WD there were only two of us and I won that class, so I'm broke even on race fees for the day. The Caddy is 3-0 in that class so far.
We were definitely getting cheers from the fans at this event, first time for that on dirt. First time I've heard fans cheering for racing I was participating in since Quaker City back in the early 90's.
I have some video from this hopefully I can get it published.
No trophies so money will have to do
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
I need competition to beat. I'm usually the fastest in 2wd, so the more cars there are, the better off I am. In index 4.5, that one gets pretty competitive so there's no guarantee there. And I've been throwing my hat in the 4.0 index class cuz for some reason not a lot of people race in it, so I've had some success.
The classes on my quad are a crapshoot. I'm just there to have fun, and I'm competitive against local guys, but when. The bigshots show up, they're too much for me. So if I get anything back from those, it's just a bonus.
So if you want to come play in the dirt, get those mud tires on that Maliboost and see what she's got.
TireSmoker wrote: Thu Aug 07, 2025 4:28 pm
Am I wrong... or do you guys almost always come out money ahead at these events?? Sure seems like it...
I'm still on the learning curve so I'm 1 for 5 cashing in the largest class I do - street gas 4.50 index. Some of those early ones were affected by the black car not close to the index and/or my reaction times.
The 4/6 4WD non turbo class is pretty much mine until more competitors show up. Setting up a car to run multiple classes and getting the tree down are still on the table for me.
I feel like this type of racing is just getting started so skill levels are all over the place - with lots of people who don't even know how to stage properly. I don't have a good read on the number of people who are attending many of these in a season.
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
