Drag Racing Adventures
Drag racing a Roadster is a ton of fun! Zooming up to 100 mph in a safe, legal environment is great, but the real fun was hanging out with the hardcore EV drag racing community. None of the Tesla owners had done it before, so we learned a lot about drag racing.
On Friday, with my state of charge below 50%, I was stuck in the area of 13.3 and 13.4 second 1/4 mile ETs, with speeds in the 99's. Late in the evening, I decided to try two-footed launching and on my second attempt hit 100.07 mph on a 13.363 second 1/4 mile ET. My best time Friday was 13.318 seconds ET. While I was excited to finally break 100 mph, I was disappointed that I was so far from breaking below 13.0.
On Saturday, with a nearly full charge, my first two runs were each 12.989 second 1/4 mile ETs, at 103.42 mph and 103.48 mph. Those were single foot launches, nothing different from what I was doing for most of the runs the night before. Apparently, the state of charge made a big difference!
In addition to finally getting below 13 seconds, the first run was against White Zombie! WZ pulled out in front, but then I held on and was very slowly gaining as we hurtled down the track together, with WZ hitting 102.11 mph on a 12.468 second 1/4 ET. Words cannot describe how exciting it was to be flying down the road pacing/slowly gaining on an EV drag racing legend. I was lucky they didn't get a sub-12 time on that run so that I could feel like I was actually in the race for a few seconds.
The second run was also a blast. I ran against Scott Ferguson in his matching Radiant Red Roadster. We both got excellent starts, with close sub 0.1-second reaction times, and crossing the 1/4 mile line just 0.0478 seconds apart. That really was a race!
In the course of the evening, several of us offered John Wayland an opportunity to make a run in our Roadsters, but it was Scott who got John into the driver's seat. I was able to get into the opposing lane and race against Plasma Boy himself on his first run in a Roadster. John's reaction time was half mine (0.049 vs. 0.109 seconds) and he crossed the 1/4-mile line 0.0957 seconds ahead of me.
I'd like to thank
John Wayland for all he's done to raise awareness about the capabilities of EVs, for organizing this event, and for inviting us to join in the fun.
My thanks to the whole
NEDRA community for making our group of Tesla owners feel very welcome in a group that has worked so passionately for decades to created custom vehicles that are now getting competition from production vehicles that only require someone willing and able to write a big check. I just sent in my payment for NEDRA lifetime membership and plan to do this again!
Finally, I'd also like to thank
Northwest Handling Systems for throwing a party for our arrival and providing charging for our road-tripping Roadsters.
