Love dat song!
I was at Yello Belly Dragstrip for the first time racing
my junk. It RU
as F there. I was there to take some money in grudge racing. You have to be on your
total game there in
all aspects. My retired Marine Gunny Sgt. friend, who is a Texas DPS Officer, came along. and my neighbor's 16 yr old son. It's a place ya don't go alone, especially if you are deficient in melanin, LOL! Gunny doesn't have that problem.
We get there and set up our pit. The plan was Gunny and I would hunt for races and The Kid, nickname that stuck when he was little, would stay in the pits to protect the pit. The Kid makes me look like a midget! He's a BIG boy..........Dad was 6ft7 and Mom 6ft1!
Gunny and I found an eager candidate. We both played our roles pretty well!
I was a naive white guy that was new to grudge racing and Gunny played the black guy raised by white parents. It sucked this guy in perfectly!
Bet was for a grand.
We line up and as normal there, a HUGE group surrounding the burnout area. Gunny's there taking side bets and then lines me up. I didn't need help lining up, but it was part of the act. Gunny acted like it was his first time lining up a car....played it perfectly!
I let him tree me and didn't hit the nitrous. I made it look good, but not obvious I was sandbagging. Gunny pays off the bets at the line and we go to the guy's pit. Still in character, we both badger him for a rematch. It didn't take much and we do double or nothing.
I get to the burnout box and do a John Force burnout as I engine purge the nitrous for stealth. He fully stages first. I bump in and put her on the transbrake and launch limiter......I didn't use my transbrake on the first round.
I got him to agree to a ProTree to maybe throw him off and I'm REALLY good at chopping down a ProTree. I cut a .008 light, pulled the wheels about 8in off the ground and carried them for about 30ft and hit a 1.25 60ft. It was VERY nasty!
Gunny collected all his side bets and met me at the guy's tent. He was NOT happy!
He started to rant! Gunny and I looked at each other and smiled. The "Act" went to the wayside. The mark got really boisterous and was trying to back out and renege on the bet. Gunny said in his natural voice, "I think it would be a wise move that you pay up." Mr mark still wasn't having it and tried playing Mr Badass. Gunny nonchalantly brushed aside his jacket as to give Mr Badass a quick glimpse of his badge on his belt and patted his concealed pistol. with a big ol' grin on his face.
I struggled not to bust out laughing with the expression on his face when he sees Gunny and realizes he's been taken...........HARD!
He
really didn't like paying me off and had the proverbial "If looks could kill" look on his face as he was counting out the bills. I had a big ol' Cheshire Cat grin, as did Gunny.
That was a fun and very productive night. Gunny and I split $4500 and we each gave the Kid $100 for his part. I spent mine on parts....duh!......and Gunny bought a new custom scope for his Barrett....double duh!
Dammit! The point of my post...............I still had the stereo in the car. The second round, I had
that song "Thumpin' an Bumpin'" as I started my burnout and ran the race. I do that to focus and maybe to break or diminish their concentration. I really didn't think about the possible connotation., since it was just one song in the mix cd I made just starting line.........the only non-ZZTop song. Gunny said there was quite a bit of "Shiiiiiiiit!" and "Muthafucka!"
Gunny told me later what people said and what he said in his head, "Fucking Bill! LOL!" and shook his head!
We went back several years later with Gunny's Fox Mustang with the smallblock 427 with a Procharger I built for him. His was more of a race car and it was much easier to pull off any sandbagging. It was a VERY productive night! I did all the engine and suspension tuning. She was a breast! I never got to drive it. At that time, he was spending stupid amount of time at the damn border. All track time was for him to get it dialed in. It had to be a fun car!!!
Something to give ya an idea of how Yello Belly is today. It was quite a bit different in years back.
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