Drag Racing Discussions > Front Engine Dragsters

Support equipment to field a vintage style fed..

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ricci32:
This spring will be my fist attempt at fielding and driving my vintage style front engine dragster. I have raced most of my life from go carts to eastern dirt modifieds and have not raced competitively since 2004 looking to stock my trailer with support equipment and spares. most of the tracks I will race are 3+ hours from home.  What do you guys bring and what do you outfit your trailers with generator compressor drill press etc. and what spares for the car. My modified due to wheel to wheel racing  had almost a second car in spares minus the chassis.. Im trying to be organized and prepared. Thanks.

dusterdave173:
I went through same deal and found this---you need great food, big cooler, 10 gallons alky and comfortable chairs. Honest, I plan to take a spare Powerglide when I go far away from home but otherwise --this kind of racing is so laid back--no pressure--
I keep a spare tube for front tires, plenty of bolts/fasteners/ spare Dzus buttons, tuning items for injection, extra oil and filters in case I fuddy up the oil--big drain pan, lots of zip ties, a jack and an air tank, some extra spark plugs and a spare mag cap/rotor and thats about it.
I can see when I go 4 states away I will want that spare tranny and a couple spare trailer tires.
I put my generator on the trailer tongue and have a spare battery on a cart for starting insurance, a spare head gasket and a few other gaskets.
I used to carry enough stuff so if I never made it back home I could start over but those days and that kind of work is behind me now at my age. Amazing how well a trailer pulls with a 1300 lb car and a beer cooler.

H.G. Wells:
I crewed on a team for a season or so before I built mine and the most valuable thing I learned was what not to bring. Easy to go over board and I hate to work on my stuff at the track. I have an air tank, not a compressor. If I have to break out the impact I probably will not be working on it at the track. May come in handy for trailer tires if you have the room.

I have a small 5 drawer top box just with track tools, jack, stands, ramps, 5gal bucket half full of assorted fasteners and hose fittings. Timing light, spare Vertex, (if you have it you may never need it, but if you are without a spare your primary will die) Oil, filter, trans fluid, drain pan, EZ up, lights, generator, batt charger, spare starter (see mag reasoning) 5gallons more fuel than you think you will need. I use a 30 gal plastic drum and keep an empty 5gal racer jug in the trailer. In the tool box i also keep a terminal end kit, soldering iron, shrink tube, and some wire. Bunch of spark plugs.

A dry erase board for those "next time I need to remember to bring......" moments.

Chairs, cooler full of water is more important that you might think. Snacks and I use a collapsible trash can with a bag. 

dusterdave173:
and don't foget that step stool--that climbing in and out the side door is tough on old knees
and my cheap box fan comes in very handy

JrFuel Hayden:
Well my 2 cents is, it depends on what kind of racing you are doing, ie, just racing for the fun of it, racing dial-in, or bracket , etc, BUT if you are racing for a series points/ championships, like we do. We have won 3 NHRA Heritage championships, so we don't plan on doing major work on the car, but we are prepared for it. You can't win events or championships if you don't make rounds.
So what we bring,[chasing points]  is two 10x15 easy-ups [ Calif Sun] that we install lights under the easy-ups for racing, working, eating at night, 3 outside trailer lights too, 4' fan to blow alky fumes away from crew and driver during warm-ups, four 3" ramps to get the Pro-Jacks under the car that raises the dragster to waist level [ our crew ages range from 54 to 74], of course generator , air compressor to operate that stuff, yes a small stool to get in & out of trailer and the driver to get in the race car for warm-ups [ it's a rule, no car can be running w/o a license driver] , gas jug for generator [ we seem to refill it everyday on the way back to the track from the hotel] a jug for water to fill the water jackets, five 5 gal jugs of alky in case we get 3 qualifying and 3 elim runs, tools to do between runs work, valve lash checking, valve spring checking and RR to replace springs, timing light, leak down tool [ for engine and barrel valve], torque wrench [ small & big], small air tank to take to staging lanes for last minute changes, air gauge of course, infra-red heat gun to check engine heat for warm-ups, and heat just before staging, track and tire temps, and engine and tire temp after a run, filtered funnel for fuel, drain pan to drain puke tank after every run, tune-up stuff, jets, shims, even nozzles, enough spark plugs to check for heat and jetting changes [ I change at least one new plug every run to see what's going inside the combustion camber & I will change all the plugs on an important race], 2 step chips, shift light chips, laptop computer to down load RacePak info to make tune-up and race car changes, spare, but different slicks on wheels, spare but different 3'rd member , 3 different converters [ we might just change one, but since I have them, I bring them in case a fellow JF racer needs them], of course oil, for motor, trans rear-end, pit scooter and generator, head and intake gaskets, spare rocker arms, push rods, spare mag and cap rotor, wires, spare pilot chute, burn-out screen, primer bottle, front end ballast, engine blanket to cover motor to keep heat in the motor between the pit and start-up lane [ I try to get the all iron motor up to 180° to 200° while staging] flash lites, and of course 4 tables, 8 chairs, 3 coolers, BBQ, lunch , battery charger, 24 volt remote battery for starting [ it weighs 10 lbs] and enough tools to do all this work.
Banners and catalogs for the JrFuel Dragster Association sponsors [ Mallory Print, Hayden Wheels, A-1 Performance, S & W Race Cars, ERC Race fuel, Motul oil], and JFDA T Shirts we sell at the tracks.
That's all I can remember now.

Jon

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