How old are you and how long have you raced

As I put in another thread, I went to my 1st race at Thompson Drag Raceway in 1979 with a friend. Had my car (69 Charger 383-2bbl, 2.76 peg leg) there later that same year. IIRC, it went something like a smokin' 16.70 or 16.80 on that first pass as it vapor locked as soon as it hit 3rd gear. I was hooked and starting in a 5-yr college co-op program for mechanical/automotive engineering. So worked 3 months/went to school 3 months/repeat/repeat each year for 5 years. Each spring I'd budget $400 to buy parts for the car to make it faster. Intake, carb, headers, cam, ignition (had to have one of those big yellow Accell SuperCoils!), 8-3/4 pig with better gears, many sets of used slicks, etc, etc. Worked it's way down to running in the low 14's. Then after undergrad graduation, put the car in storage for a couple years while I went to grad school then got married and moved to Michigan. Hauled the car up there and started racing at Milan Dragway. Finally took the heads off it and had them "ported" (maybe a stretch...) but with some more cam got the car to run low 13's. By the late 80's, the 383 was tired as it was being shifted at 6700 rpm every pass (it slowed down if you shifted earlier). Blowby was too high to measure! So I pulled it and built a 440 for it and ran mid-12's with that until 1993 when our first child was born. 2 weeks prior to our first child's (daughter's) birth, we won the bracket down at Detroit Dragway. Pulled the car onto the trailer, went home and parked it, and it has not been started since!

Took a break from racing to raise our kids until our 2nd child graduated from college and moved out on his own in 2019. Wanted to get back into racing but figured Chargers had gone up in value too much to keep flogging it so I bought the avatar as a roller in October 2019 out of Texas (sight unseen - yikes!). Also wanted something lighter and faster than the Charger hence the avatar Demon purchase. Redid EVERYTHING in the car and built a 408 powertrain for it and have been racing it since 2021 first at Milan Dragway and now down here in Florida at Gainesville. 11.10@119+ is its personal best so far. It also sees quite a bit of use on the street as it's just a riot to drive. Loud, obnoxious, hard to climb into, terrible fuel economy....everything I always wanted to build and have when I was young but didn't have the means to do! I'm just an old-school, 63-year old foot-brakin' 1/4 mile bracket racer so while I used to run the "Heavy" class back in the day, now I'm relegated to the Sportsman class where we get WAY too many cheaters coming over from Pro and using t-brakes. For me, the fun is the competition of racing to the stripe. Love it!