Nathan Sitko prepares to get into his Top Alcohol Funny Car. The car is 125" from front wheel
centerline, to rear wheel centerline. The chassis is made of chrome-moly pipe, welded together
and inspected for safety by certified officials of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA).
Inside the engine bay is a 511-cubic inch, billet aluminum Chrysler Hemi, built by Brad Anderson
Enterprises. The internals of the engine include a 75-pound solid steel crankshaft that turns at
well over 10,000 RPM, aluminum connecting rods, 4.475"-diameter pistons and cylinder walls made of
solid steel. The camshaft, with over 0.825" of lift, turns even faster, pushing the 1" lifters up and
down at a frightening pace, moving the long pushrods up through the cylinder heads causing the rocker
arms to push down hard on the valve springs. These valve springs have a seat pressure of over 600 lbs
at their installed height. When open, the spring pressure is up over 1,400 lbs. The valves the springs
move up and down are made of titanium. Sitting on top of this monster is a beast all on its own.
The PSI Screwtype supercharger moves over 55 pounds per square inch of air into the motor, bringing
the power of this methanol-fueled machine up to 3,500 horsepower.
Getting this power to the pavement is a 10.7" Molinari clutch, shrouded by a titanium sheild. This clutch
is located in front of a Lenco 3-speed transmission, power shifted by the push of a button, allowing C02
to flow to the shifter pods, putting the car into the next gear. Through a rearend housing, through the
axles and the wheels, into 15"X17"X34.5" racing slicks and its all power down onto the pavement.
The car is wrapped in a carbon fibre-kevlar mixed body, designed after a 2002 Pontiac Firedbird. It sits
so low to the ground that, on a real hard run, the corner of the body in front of the rear tire will scrape
along the ground for the first 15 feet. The body has lexan windows and an escape hatch on the roof. Afterall,
there isn't room for doors! There is also a "fire tunnel" from the engine bay to the leftside lexan window
into the atmosphere to prevent smoke, fire and hot pieces of metal from entering the drivers area during
a rough run. Oh, did I mention, the driver sits behind the engine, stradling the transmission between
his legs, with a driveshaft turning beneath him as he sits on a seat located less than an inch away from the
rear end? The huge rear tires literally rub the sides of the cockpit.
He looks like a spaceman once in his gear. Nathan Sitko's equipment protects from fire, shaking so hard you
can't see and other dangers of the sport. The driver wears a 20-layer SFI certified firesuit as well as boots
meeting this same standard. Underneath this suit is Nomex long underwear, socks and a long sleeved shirt.
Covering his hands are Carbon-X gloves also meeting the SFI certification given to the suit and the boots.
Arm restraints attach to the 7-point harness the driver is strapped down into the car with. The driver wears
a full face helmet with a Nomex, fire proof head sock built in as well as a line which is hooked up to a
fresh air bottle so the driver can breathe through the smoke and fumes otherwise injested on a regular run.
The driver also wears a neck brace and a Hans device to keep his head straight in an impact situation.
He walks over to his ride, wearing his space suit and climbs into a foam fitted seat. The sides of his helmet
rub on the lateral head pads built into the 6-point roll cage. He's belted in by his crewmembers, so tightly
that a weekend of racing will leave his shoulders pinched, bruised and soar. They plug his helmet into the fresh
air supply and test it. A crewmember will then remove the safety pin from the fire extinguishers, mounted between
the two front wheels as another crewmember turns on the CO2 bottle used for the shifters and for various timers.
Another crew member checks the engine over, making sure the spark plug wires are snapped down tightly. They are
attached to a 44-AMP generating Magneto built by MSD sitting on a Sitko Mag Drive. The car's fuel tank is filled
with 10 gallons of methanol and the oil tank is filled with 19 litres of thick racing oil. It will use most of
this fuel and the oil will be useless after just 2 runs. Tire pressure is checked and the wheelie bar is lowered
as the car moves up the staging lanes.
The car is moved in behind the burnout box and the airplane style starter mounted on the front of the supercharger.
The crew gives the signal to Nathan as the starter is plugged in. On the track ahead of him are two teams and
their cars are staging. The fuel and rubber smell is burning Nathan's eyes, but nothing can sway his concentration.
As the two cars in front of him leave the starting line, he turns on the Mag killswitch, pushes in the heavy clutch
peddle, grabs the brake and awaits his turn. The cars turn off the track and the officials give the next two teams
the signal. Nathan pushes the throttle peddle, opening the injector scoop butterflies as the crew cheif poors some
methanol into the supercharger. Nathan takes his foot off of the throttle pedal and the crew cheif gives the signal
for the crew member to press the power switch on the starter. Grounding wires are removed from the cars coil box and
the beast roars to life.
Nathan looks down at the tachometer and it reads 2,400 RPM. He then looks over to the oil pressure gauge, which reads
150-psi. As a crew member close the body he pushes the shifter buttons located on his steering wheel in, putting the
car in it's third and highest gear. The body is latched down and the crew cheif is already waiting on the track. He
motions Nathan to start moving ahead as he checks to make sure the shifter buttons are in. Through the burnout box and
up another 10 feet and the crew cheif gives the burnout signal. Nathan feathers the clutch out while giving the throttle
a quick crack, backing it down and then bring it smoothly up to 7,000 RPM. The car starts to steer itself left and, while
correcting he cracks the throttle up to 8,000 RPM passing the christmas tree with tires ablaze. After moving about 45-feet
passed the starting line Nathan gets off of the throttle peddle and pushes the clutch all the way in. Straightening the
car out with his left hand and applying the brakes with his right, Nathan brings the car to a stop.
It takes until the 330' mark on the track to stop the car because it has already reached a speed of 65 miles per hour. And
that was just the burnout!
Once stopped, Nathan peers down at the RPM. It's a little low, around 1,900, so he gives the throttle a quick crack with
the clutch in and the brake on. This clears fuel out of the cylinders and lets the RPM move back to 2,400. In the meantime,
he takes a quick look at the oil pressure gauge. It's sitting at 120-psi now because the engine has already built up a lot
of heat. He pulls the shift buttons out so the car is now in 1st gear, pulls the reverse lever while feathering the clutch
until it goes into backup mode. He releases the clutch almost all of the way and begins briskly moving backwards until he sees
two crewmembers in front of him - one to guide him back and one to spray de-icer on the injector butterflies. He pushes in
the clutch about half way and follows his guides direction until she tells him to stop about 4 feet behind the startingline.
He puts the car into forward and moves up a few inches just to make sure. A crew member moves to the left tire and another
one to the right as they pick off any large lumps of rubber or anything else that may have been collected by the super
sticky, super hot rear tires. Another crew member checks the hieght of the wheelie bar with his foot. If the wheel sits on
his toes with a light amount of pressure, it's set about right. Nathan looks down at the oil pressure again, it's at 100 lbs
and he brings the motor up to 4,000 RPM while looking at the pressure. It goes up to 120 lbs quickly and he drops the RPM.
He looks up to see the crew cheif signalling him up to the starting line. The crew cheif brings him to within a few inches
of the prestage beam and he tells him to stop. Standing on the track this whole time, the crew cheif knows what RPM the
driver should leave at and gives him the signal. The track is very sticky and the crew cheif holds up 7 fingers. He tells
Nathan to stage the car as a crew member sprays more de-iver on the butterflies.
Nathan closes his helmet visor, looks at the oil pressure and turns his oxygen supply on. He rolls slowly ahead until the
prestage bulb comes on. He whips the throttle quickly twice to signal the other driver he is ready. He hears the other
driver do the same and Nathan brings the motor up to 7,000 RPM. He counts to 3 and moves the car slowly into the stage beams.
During qualifying, he'll make sure to stage quite shallow. This makes it so the car takes longer to break the stage beam
and therefore, delays the start of the timers, allowing the car to gain a little bit of momentum, helping out the elapsed
time. But this is eliminations and Nathan goes in quite deep, causing the prestage light to blink off and on again 2 or 3
times. As soon as he is staged, Nathan's focus goes to the bottom of the three ambers. It's a pro tree, so in anywhere between
0.5 seconds and 7 seconds, the three LED amber lights simultaneously come on and Nathan punches the throttle while he dumps the
clutch peddle just as quickly. His reaction time should be between 0.020 and 0.060 seconds and the race has begun.
The car launches hard, pushing up on the wheelie bar with the front wheels about 3-inches off of the ground. The car gives him a solid
shake, but it's not hard enough to warrant a short shift or a quick peddle (where the driver lifts his foot off and on the
throttle again). He passes the 60' timers in 0.960 seconds at about 8,500 RPM. His eyes and senses catch up to him about 100' off
the starting line. He steers the car hard to keep it in the middle of the lane, trying to tame the animal while it's at full roar.
At the 330' mark, he reaches 9,500 RPM and he thinks about the shift light. Now, 500' down the track, the car is at 10,000 RPM and
the shift light comes on. Nathan reacts to the light quickly. The light, set to come on at 10,000, mixed with Nathan's reaction time
to it, the car is shifted at about 10,200 RPM. The shift pushes Nathan even further back into the seat and the car begins to move around.
With this amount of power put down onto the surface, it's amazing that these cars get down the racetrack at all. He passes the 660'
timers, halfway to the finish line, moving at just over 200 miles per hour already. The car is now straightening itself out as the RPMs
climb rapidly. He reaches 900' when the shift light comes on, again at 10,000 RPM, he shifts the car and the tires grow to unbelieveable
proportions, passing the 1,000' marker in about 4.90 seconds. 100' to go to the finish line and he reaches for the parachutes. By the
time they come out, he's 50' passed the finish line and off the throttle. He uses the force from the parachutes coming out to help him
push the clutch peddle back in. Once the motor settles down he pulls the fuel shut off and tuggs on the brake until he hears
the motor come up in RPM. He lets go of the brake and hits the mag kill switch, shutting the motor off. He rides the brakes
and turns the car around the corner just before the sand trap. He brings the car to stop and breathes for the first time since
staging. He turns off his fresh air, pulls the shift buttons out, turns the tachometer and shift light switch off and undoes
his 7-point harness. He climbs out of the escape hatch and the run is over.
From the time he left the starting line to when he reached the finish line was 5.8 seconds and he reached 250 miles per hour. Another
8 seconds and he was around the corner and climbing out of the car. He dumped the clutch, shifted two gears, steered the car around and pulled
the parachutes in less than 6 seconds.
