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By David G. Firestone

Every year, I take a month-long vacation in the summer, which coincides with the NHRA Lucas Oil Route 66 Nationals. I love drag racing, and the Route 66 Nationals is the NHRA’s stop on the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour. I go with friends from work, and every year, we have a great time.

Mother Nature was not in the kindest of moods on Saturday. Friday Night Qualifying went off without a hitch. I did get to watch the Jeg’s All-Stars race their elimination races. After the Jeg’s All Stars on Saturday, it began to rain. The rain continued to fall for several hours, during which time, I wandered around the pits. I got to meet Driver Suit Blog favorites Tony Schumacher and Ron Capps. Every year, I get the chance to ask Tony Schumacher a question, and the video below is of how that went.

I got a #1 qualifier interview cap from The Thunder Valley Nationals on eBay, and I got it signed by Schumacher, Capps, Tommy Johnson Jr., Fast Jack Beckman, Erica Enders-Stevens, JR Todd, Alexis DeJoria, and John Force. The story behind these interview hats is interesting. Mello Yello gives these hats out to drivers at events, and there are a series of different colors. For qualifying and round winners who don’t wear a sponsor hat after getting out of a car for an interview, they are given either a gray, orange, or black hat. They are all of the same design. For the driver who qualifies #1, they are given a green hat, with a #1 Qualifier patch with their respective class. The drivers who win the event get a yellow cap, with a winner patch to wear, similar in design to the #1 qualifier hat. The drivers who win the championship get a white hat. Drivers wear these hats during interviews, except for John Force who prefers to wear his own hat for an interview after he qualifies #1 or wins.

Jack Beckman personalized my Infinite Hero Challenge Coin, and gave me a very heart felt thank you. I also got one of Cruz Pedregon’s valve springs from his engine, and a burnt hose cover. This is a perfect example of why Nomex is the go-to material for driver suits. This Nomex hose cover went through a serious fire, and was burnt. Nomex isn’t fireproof, it’s fire retardant, which means it will burn, but much slower than most fabrics. It will burn, but will protect whatever it is covering from fire damage for a brief time. The easy way to see if the material has been compromised is if the fabric is discolored. Notice the areas of light on the black fabric, that means that area of the fabric has been compromised. Driver suits, when burned, will show the same discoloration. Should the driver wear the suit, and suffer a similar fire, the suit won’t protect them, and serious burns can and will occur. It may seem like a waste, but countless drivers are alive and well today because of this property of Nomex.

After the rain subsided, and the track was dried, I got to watch round 3 of qualifying, which was supposed to happen at 1 pm, but took place at about 4 pm. It had a lot of good rounds, including TJ Zizzo’s explosion. We decided to go home after round 3, and as we were leaving, we saw the storm clouds were beckoning. Round 4, which started after we left was canceled due to another rainstorm.

Sunday’s weather was much better. After the first two rounds, I wandered around the pits getting hero cards, and autographs. I got pictures with, and autographs from, Driver Suit Blog favorite Vieri “V” Gaines, JR Todd, Courtney Force, and John Force. I filmed one of Antron Brown’s engine tests,

filmed some slow motion video,

and got to see Solid Rock, a 1971 Ford Mustang funny car.

In the end, Tony Schumacher, Tommy Johnson Jr, Allen Johnson, and Hector Arana Jr. won their classes, I got a sunburn, and had a great time, and I can’t wait to go back next year.

By David G. Firestone

Every summer, I make a pilgrimage to two places, Jim’s Original and The O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet. This last week, I did both. Jim’s Original is still good, and the Route 66 Nationals are always fun. This year, I went on Saturday and Sunday. Normally I would only go on Saturday, but this year I decided to double the fun. I went with Argie, a friend from work, and I spent Saturday watching racing and wandering through the pits. NHRA tickets promise that “every ticket is a pit pass” and trust me, they more than live up to that claim. You can walk around the pits and watch as the teams setup cars before races and fix cars after races. The wear and tear on nitro cars is such that the entire engine has to be disassembled, repaired, and reassembled between races, sometimes in as little as 45 minutes. Needless to say, speed is paramount.I had been fortunate enough to get a pass to the Don Schumacher Racing hospitality tent. This not only got me the tickets, but also a chance to meet Tony Schumacher, and Ron Capps. I came into the tent a little later than normal, and I got to listen Tony talk to the crowd, and take questions. I got a chance to ask him something that I have always wanted to ask a driver… “What is the weirdest thing you have ever autographed?” Having done autograph signings since I was 5, I’ve seen a lot of odd stuff get autographed over the years, and I was interested in the answer. He responded that he has signed a lot of body parts, arms, legs, etc, and that his wife hates that.

A few minutes later, he mentioned that he wears a 5-layer firesuit, as well as two additional layers of fire protection. That adds up to a total of 7 layers. Most NASCAR suits make up 3 layers, with an additional layer underneath. Nomex is not a lightweight material, and on days like Saturday, when it was 88 degrees outside, that can get very uncomfortable. He is also credited with the aforementioned canopy to Top Fuel dragsters.

One thing I love to do is to buy race-used equipment from dragsters, and I did so this year as well. I bought a couple of valves from Tasca Racing, one large,and one small,Both show tremendous use, and have chips missing from them. Valves like these are used for one race and then replaced. The wear they go through for one run is very evident.

The other race used piece of equipment is a gasket from Morgan-Lucas Racing. It shows a huge amount of wear, and is a very heavy, thick and durable gasket.

It just wouldn’t be a race for me without getting some autographs. I bought a Ron Capps funny car die cast, and had his sign it in person, and it looks really good. I had a pair of gloves I wanted to get signed, and I did, by Tommy Johnson Jr. My favorite item it this brightly painted helmet. It was signed by Robby Gordon when I bought it, and I got it signed by Clay Millian, Terry McMillen, Tony Schmacher, Tommy Johnson Jr.,Ron Capps, and the legendary Shirley Muldowney.

One thing I didn’t do as much this year was take pictures. I did take some, but not as many as last year. I did make a number of videos, as shown below.

That’s all for this week, I’ll return next week with a set of paint scheme reviews, and believe me, there are a lot of them! Hope you are all having a fun summer! Happy Belated Canada Day for our friends up North, Happy Fourth of July to my readers in the USA, and to everyone else, See you soon!

Tag: joliet

The Driver Suit Blog-Getting My Kicks At The Lucas Oil NHRA Route 66 Nationals!

The Driver Suit Blog-A Day At The Races