I don't know if you had a chance or not on Saturday to witness one of the funniest things I've ever seen at a drag race, and certainly not at an event the caliber of the NMCA event at Pomona.
Several of us were up in a suite on the 2nd level of the control tower building looking directly down the strip. A clean black '66/'67 Chevelle rolled out the staging lanes to make a run down the strip. Obviously a street only car but nice and clean and certainly not a race car. It must have been the poor guys' very first attempt at drag racing because he didn't have a clue about how to line his car up and stage. The track workers must have spent over five minutes explaining what he needed to do and finally got him lined up, staged and ready to go.
The tree counts down, turns green, and he's sitting admiring the pretty color! Finally he's off down the strip on his run. Nothing earthshaking but straight down the strip.
Straight turned out to be the key word here because he got to the finish line and kept on going...straight down the entire length of the shutown road and into the sandpit! Granted, Pomona doesn't have an excess of shutdown length but way more than enough for any doorslammer.
They had to shut the racing down while they pulled the Chevelle out of the kitty litter. Chevy people! He was a good source of amusement for the rest of the weekend.