If you haven't been to an NHRA race before, this is something you might want to know before you go! I'll try to explain this my best... When the nitromethane powered cars(Funny and Top Fuel) are rebuilt after every race, the crews have to start the cars in the pits to tune it and make sure everything is running right. No big deal, just loud right? Yeah right! I don't know anything about the chemical composition of nitromethane, but it's extremely "potent" stuff. Ok, here's a scenario: You're standing next to John Force's pit and the crew just finished assembling the motor. All of a sudden, every crew member puts on earmuffs and a gas mask. I can see why they're using earmuffs because the noise is extremely loud, way too loud to listem to with the naked ear, you'll probably suffer hearing loss from listening to one of these cars up close, not kidding; but why are they wearing gas masks? Ok, so you plug your ears with your fingers and they start the car. The car is still loud as hell and everyhting is vibrating, hey, this is kind of cool! When they rev up a Funny Car at idle, it revs twice as fast as any street bike, it's a real quick, short, crisp rev that you can literally heard for miles. When you're sitting in the stands watching some of the races, you'll hear a loud rumble(i'm getting goosebumps writing about this, seriously) as they start the car and then the noise will turn from a deep rumble to an extremely loud, I mean VERY F*CKING LOUD, crackling or rattlesnake kind of noise. It chatters and chitters and the canopy covering the pits is about to blow off from the exhaust pressure coming out of the headers. Ok, so you're standing there watching this, you're thinking to yourself, "Hey, I might wanna trade in my truck and get a Camaro and throw a 502 in and build a drag car. This is extremely cool. I love drag racing!" Right before you finish that thought, your eyes will start to burn, your nose will burn, and within ten seconds you're vision will go from looking at the drag car in front of you to a bunch of blurry tears and you won't be able to see straight. What the hell is going on??? You've been hit with, the nitromethane effect. So while you're trying to figure out what the heck is going on with your eyes and nose, you'll rub your eyes... while you're rubbing your eyes, they'll make a quick, loud rev with the engine and you'll almost lose your hearing. You turn around and you'll soon find out that there is no one within a 20 feet radius of the pit because everyone else was hit with the nitromethane fumes and they're half-dead on the ground over off to the side. Just as you're about to go insane or shout out because of the pain in your eyes, nose, and ears, you hear the engine quiet down and go into a sound that reminds me of a big diesel Kenworth on the freeway, with the supercharger whine of course. It gets quieter and quieter and eventually it stops. You're left in a frenzy trying to get your senses back and within 30 seconds, the haze of nitromethane fumes blows off into the sky and people start walking back smiling and laughing and saying how cool that was. You're thinking, "Shit, I almost died just then." Eventually, you'll gain everything back once all the fumes get out of your system and you'll want to wipe all the tears off yor face in fear of looking like a wussy infront of the crew. All the crew members take off their gasmasks and go about their business. It's over. Your first thought, "THAT SUCKED! I AM NEVER STANDING WITHIN A MILE OF THIS CAR EVER AGAIN." Your second thought, "Damn, that was pretty cool!"

I found this part out the hard way. I was walking down pit row and through the crowd, there was a big open circle with no one near the car that was being tuned. I thought that the people couldn't stand the noise and were all a bunch of wussies, so I kept walking. Within three seconds, the nitromethane fumes hit me and almost knocked me to the ground, no shit. I have been in a room that had pepperspray sprayed in it and the nitromethane felt much the same, only about ten times stronger. The fumes get into your nose and start to itch(then you start picking your nose and everyone looks at you), your eyes start to water and burn, and then you sit there in a frenzy trying to decide where you should put your hands; over your ears, over your nose, or over your eyes. You can watch and see people playing "Chicken with the car" when they start them up. Whoever can stand next to it the longest it the winner. There are a few smart people who bring their own gasmasks so they can stand next to the car when it's started while everyone within 50 feet runs away. It's truly, a real cool experience. Here are a few pictures..

Joe Amato's pit

You can see the crew members with their gasmasks on as they're about to start this Top Fuel car. Since this car was backed into the pit, the headers pointed away from the crowd, which helped because most of the fumes didn't blow right at us. Most people could stand next to this for the whole startup tuning period for this reason

The Interstate Batteries Funny Car

This car was parked inwards and you can see how the headers are pointing towards the crowd. This car was started for about five seconds when I took this picture. I took this picture and ran, so did the three guys in the picture. You can see the crew members wearing gasmasks. Notice how the canopy on the left is perfectly flat. Notice how the canopy above the Funny Car is blowing all over the place.

The crowd

You can see one guy rubbing his eyes after they just finished tuning Tony Perdregon's car.

Tuning session in John Forces pit

That yellow haze isn't the camera lense, it's the nitromethane floating through the air. The guy was shouting because his eyes were burning and you can see the woman in the red shaking off her hands as she was trying to rub the burn out of her eyes.

NHRA, bring your own gasmask!

Some of the smart people brought their own gasmasks. Next year, I'm bringing one too!
 

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