Track-rental at Island this Fall 2023

[IROCZman15]

Putting this post on here to see how much interest there is in doing a track-day private rental up here at Island Dragway this fall season. I know I personally haven't had the most successful drag racing year, but I think I would have a good chance of doing so at a Private rental with the opportunity to make lots more runs than a normal Test-n-Tune event. When news of Atco closing came along, it got me a little more serious about making this a reality, so lets here what you think.

I called and spoke to Melissa today who gave me the quick run down on rentals. I then filled out the online rental inquiry form and got to see the available dates. All rentals are on Fridays only and she mentioned one Friday in early October was tentatively taken. Early September is kinda too soon, and there is no rental availability in November at all.

open dates as of now:
September 8
September 15
September 22
September 29
October 6
October 13 (possibly tentatively taken)
October 20
October 27



If there is a handful of us here who are interested, along with a good enough amount of other buddies/racers, I think we can try to get this idea into a possibility.


here is a link to the island rental page.
https://www.islanddragway.com/2014/06/25/track-rentals/

Trust me, I know it is expensive to pay about $200 to go flog on your car at the dragstrip, so I totally get it if there is not a huge amount of people who can commit. What I do ask though, is if you think you are a solid YES or if you just have anything helpful to add, please feel free to jump in on the discussion here.

[IROCZman15]

I am asking around my groups and I think October 6 or the 20th are the two best options at this point. That is, if the 13th is truly already taken.. I will check on that soon.

Edit:
I called today and Melissa said she still has all 3 dates in October (6, 13, 20) available. She mentioned that the 6th is Colombus day weekend too which might make for a good 4 day weekend.

[townsend]

id be good for either.

[wretched73]

October is best for me. At minimum I'd spectate, Maybe I'll bring something boring just so for the poser shot in from of the NJFBOA sign.

[Blackbirdws6]

As of today, Oct 20/27 would be best dates for me.

[LTb1ow]

late Oct would be the only option for me

[ThoR294]

October is fine for me.

[thehazguy]

Dave, thanks for taking this on.

Any October date is good for me currently

[IROCZman15]

sounds good guys.

I have a list going with a bunch of people on it and I am still waiting to hear back from about half of them. The general trend is that we are looking for Friday Oct 13 or Friday Oct 20th.
So, that being said, since I Do want this to happen, if you guys want to invite other people you know or friends of friends who have vehicles that would fit this event, please start suggesting it.
People can reach out to me as much as they need to. My email address is martin.dave3@gmail.com

I mentioned about reading the website to see if your car has any issues with their rental/track rules. For clarification, do NOT worry about the antifreeze being in the car. They must have that in there for some of the real deal drag cars. However, they do NOT check inside your cooling system at tech, they have never asked me about coolant, and nobody expects you to run water on a street-car track rental day. A battery hold-down is a must though, they do check that. But it doesn't need to be some heavy duty overkill setup, as long as the battery passes their "shake around test" you should be good, but be smart about it. Make sure You feel safe enough about it, and any other tech related stuff. Tires, lug studs, lug nuts, hood latch, windows must be able to be UP when you make a pass, good hose clamps on pipes and tubes. You know, stuff that is reasonable and you would want done right on the car anyways.

[V]

Any tire requirements? I plan on getting drag radials but that probably wont happen until the spring since I'd need to buy a second pair a rear wheels.

[townsend]

Any tire requirements? I plan on getting drag radials but that probably wont happen until the spring since I'd need to buy a second pair a rear wheels.

if charlie is there doing tech (i hope not) hes the ball buster about screw in valve stems and little stuff. he gave me a hard time and carl (track owner) came over and told him to chill over my 17" drag radials with regular valve stems. i was like "dude, i ran here friday, you teched me, didnt say anything, now today youre gonna be like that" saying i cant run faster than 11.50.

at the point now if its not charlie techning me i dont even have to get out of the car.

so yea, drag radials "should" have extended studs, but then every s550 mustang and charger wouldnt be allowed to run. also faster than 11.50 screw in valve stems are required as well. the battery hold down thing too.

dave either day in october is good, just post it up about 2 weeks out please so i can make sure we are off of work. ill have 2 cars there, possibly a 3rd.

[My 87 GT]

Hey Dave can you keep me In the loop on the track rental on what day its going to be .. Thanks

[V]

ok thanks. I assume tech cant say anything about a bone stock car on street tires though. I just wasnt sure if people look down upon a street tire car running on a track rental day, something about ruining the prep or such. Because if its not an issue, I'd join this fall, and I already avoid the water box anyway. Just need a helmet and jacket.

[Blackbirdws6]

Recommend if permitting street tires that you consider them running in only one lane and/or out of the groove as if there is enough cars with them it will deteriorate the prep.

[townsend]

ok thanks. I assume tech cant say anything about a bone stock car on street tires though. I just wasnt sure if people look down upon a street tire car running on a track rental day, something about ruining the prep or such. Because if its not an issue, I'd join this fall, and I already avoid the water box anyway. Just need a helmet and jacket.

Recommend if permitting street tires that you consider them running in only one lane and/or out of the groove as if there is enough cars with them it will deteriorate the prep.

what blackbird said, street guys stay out of groove. that worked well at the atco rentals.

[IROCZman15]

yes definitely. Island typically puts 'the cone" out for treaded street tires on normal T&T events. basically they put a cone along the inside center-line area before you pull up to stage, and this cone directs/pushes the street treaded tire cars out of the rubber 'groove". DOT radials like the Mickey Thompson ET Street SS tires are allowed to stage and launch from the normal groove, as are slicks. I will check on this via my next upcoming phone call.


Currently my other questions are:
- we don't really have to drain all coolant from our cooling system? I've run there so many dozen times and not once has the coolant ever been checked or asked about. I think they just had this in the rules from a long time ago, maybe NHRA rentals or something? Anyway's I'll clarify.

- Does every car need metal valve stems (on all tires)? Sometimes the tech shed checks this, but I doubt it is likely on a private rental. I have metal valve-stems in my rear wheels, but I have rubber ones in the front skinnies and have never been hassled.


So far, it is looking like Friday October 20th is going to be the day. I've got a sufficient amount of responses both here, on text messages, and friends of friends to move forward with booking a date.

As I go through the reservation process, I will sure up the details with prices, and really whatever is listed on the website is probably the price breakdown still.
This is in-motion for the next couple days unless I hear an overwhelming amount of people requesting another day or different circumstances happen (like the date got picked by another group already).


I don't have facebook, instagram, or anything else in that realm, so if you guys do wish to share it with local racing groups,thats fine too. I've been glad to hear it made it down to the South Jersey fbody guys and elsewhere.

If anyone has questions, or wants to pass my info along, use my email: martin.dave3@gmail.com
Once I get a good group of participants I will keep both this forum page and a group email chain going.

[LTb1ow]

Do they still have the tech guy that loves to switch the battery cutoff? Cause that isn't cool

[IROCZman15]

I don't know actually. I usually just pull up, jump out and flip it off for them if i see they are looking at me.


I booked the date, and paid the deposit. We can now plan on this being a set date to have your rides ready by.

Price breakdown is as listed on their website, unless I hear otherwise.

The price for the first 15 drivers to sign-up is $150. For any drivers beyond 15, it goes to $200 per driver/car. There is a max of 40 cars allowed. As for prep, we can discuss it further, but basic prep is to have EITHER of these
a. both lanes glued and prepped to the 330 foot mark
or
b. one lane unprepped and one lane prepped to the 1/8th mile (660 feet).

...however, we can also have additional lane prep added on if we think we need it, even if we decide that day, so just keep all that in mind.

Helmets are checked over by the tech for sure, so make sure you really know/follow the helmet rules correctly. if You have any helmet related questions, ask them.

My paypal address is viper6916aol.com and you can use this to pay me. I will keep a detailed record of names, payments, and info along the way so you can be certain things will be orderly. When you paypal me, please also provide your full name, username, type of car, and your phone/email address. Using paypal, try to click the option that says "sending $ to friends and family" as then I will not incur paypal fees. It also wouldn't hurt to send me an email as a "heads-up" that you sent me payment, thanks. my email address is martin.dave3@gmail.com

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53157292062_5b2637f1c8_c.jpg

[sweetbmxrider]

They don’t want coolant in cars because if it leaks onto the track, it’s a difficult cleanup. Otherwise, it’ll be an ice rink. So it’s more of a do you want to be that guy who stops racing for an hour because you didn’t switch to water only.

[thehazguy]

Dave, as mentioned in our text message I'm in for this

[Blackbirdws6]

$ sent

[V]

Yes, please let me know about the street tire thing, either a specific lane or just stay out of the groove. I'd definitely like to get my car to the track this year still.

[LS1ow]

You guys ran water at the rentals? For real???

[wretched73]

I don't run coolant or water at the rental. Weight is weight.

[qwikz28]

I want in but I am not following, are street tires permitted?

[Blackbirdws6]

Rad is filled with PBR because Murica

[townsend]

Paypal sent Dave. Shot ya an email too. Osie will send his this evening (thats the 2nd car i was bringing).

thanks

[IROCZman15]

Townsend : awesome I got yours, thanks


Quick update: We Have 11 people confirmed and 4 people paid. I have still about 15 maybes so we can still keep looking/adding for more people to race that day. Keep passing the info along. If you have someone who is coming along, feel free to send them my contact info. Sometime in the next week I will start a group-email because many people coming are not forum members. I will still keep this forum post active also. I wil call the track again this week with questions, last week I left a message.

[qwikz28]

Sent the funds but I'm an idiot that can't follow directions

[IROCZman15]

FYI: If you are still thinking of coming and haven't reached out to me directly (not via the forum)
I'll be typing up a group email this weekend, so send me your best email address to mine: martin.dave3@gmail.com and that way you can be aware of how things are moving along.

[IROCZman15]

group email sent out.

[townsend]

received!

[LS1ow]

ill be spectating

[Blackbirdws6]

ill be spectating

What the F***

[LTb1ow]

ill be spectating

But the vette :bertstare:

[wretched73]

ill be spectating

As will I.

In 4 pit foot races??

[IROCZman15]

ah bummer, no worries
.


14 out of the 15 spots have been paid-in-full

after that it's just normal $200 pricing.

[qwikz28]

I'm in. Cousin is a maybe with his 5th gen. Trying to get out of work.

[Iroc-z86]

Payment sent for myself and my buddy.

[IROCZman15]

awesome! Got it, all set.

Quick update.

We have had 15 locked in for a few days now, and we are adding on racers at the normal $200 price for entry. I sent out a quick email this past weekend to those who are paid/confirmed and a few people who are still undecided. If you did not get the email and want me to send you a copy, reach out to me at martin.dave@gmail.com

[LS1ow]

As will I.

In 4 pit foot races??

ima need some spots and the brake

[townsend]

ima need some spots and the brake

im tubby too, so ill give you 2 strides and the hit since you hooked me up with the K member lol

[Anti_Rice_Guy]

I'm in. Cousin is a maybe with his 5th gen. Trying to get out of work.

Are you bringing the new whip???? :nick:

[qwikz28]

Are you bringing the new whip???? :nick:

I might have to if I can't get my Camaro up and running this weekend.

But seriously, that thing is awesome. I gotta get it out in the sun and take some nice pictures. Can't wait for you to see it.

[2MCHPWR]

So how strict will they enforce cage rules ?
Atco rentals - were awesome and no real issues if you were a little faster than you were allowed to be..
2009 car so the cage rule is 9.99 and faster... i'm 9.7.... how strict they gonna be? they kicked me out (after a warning) on a normal T&T night.
Thanks!!

[Blackbirdws6]

So how strict will they enforce cage rules ?
Atco rentals - were awesome and no real issues if you were a little faster than you were allowed to be..
2009 car so the cage rule is 9.99 and faster... i'm 9.7.... how strict they gonna be? they kicked me out (after a warning) on a normal T&T night.
Thanks!!

Not sure you will get a straight answer or anything with 100% guarantee that you're good. I can't imagine Dave would be able to provide any assurance that there won't be an issue either. Always a bit of a gamble. Hope to see you there.

[IROCZman15]

Yea, sorry but I can't provide any certainty about how tight the rules will be enforced. Keeping on their good side is a priority so we all will have to be mindful.


We not have 18 paid racers, 4 more pending.

[townsend]

So how strict will they enforce cage rules ?
Atco rentals - were awesome and no real issues if you were a little faster than you were allowed to be..
2009 car so the cage rule is 9.99 and faster... i'm 9.7.... how strict they gonna be? they kicked me out (after a warning) on a normal T&T night.
Thanks!!

youre gonna go to lebanon anyway scott....lol time to accept the fact you have a racecar!

since you dont even have a 6 point, youre too damn fast :kneeslap:!

if you had a 6 point they would let you slide a bit.

[townsend]

this weather better change

[qwikz28]

this weather better change

It's showing me that it won't start raining until 12. It always ends up getting pushed back anyway so we should be good.

[townsend]

It's showing me that it won't start raining until 12. It always ends up getting pushed back anyway so we should be good.

i hope so. spent so much time getting this pos back together, just wanna get a bottom 6/high 5 in the 1/8th before winter changes.

[qwikz28]

i hope so. spent so much time getting this pos back together, just wanna get a bottom 6/high 5 in the 1/8th before winter changes.

Same man. I've really been lazy but had to kick it into high gear lately to get it ready.

[Blackbirdws6]

Still early gents. Stay positive and hopefully chance of poor weather pushes off to ruin the weekend lol.

[IROCZman15]

The weather is really our only current issue to contend with. Track makes the ultimate decision.
I have got a few more racers added in and some more pending.
We even got a drag bike coming that runs low 8s. A big tire car or two, a whole range of camaros and firebirds, a 57 chevy, a nova, elcamino, the CTS-Vs, corvettes, a bunch of new gen mustangs, foxbody or two, plymouth cuda, and some other real good stuff.

Kitchen/grill will be closed for food, so plan accordingly.
Race fuel will be for sale in the trailer by tech inspection (which is now in the staging lanes)
Pro-tree will be available if requested

[IROCZman15]

Well, I didn't want to have to write this, but here we are. Just spoke with Melissa at the track and she said the forecast is going to shut us down completely for tomorrow. Big time bummer.

We have three options:
1. Move the rental to Friday October 27
2. Move the rental to Friday November 3
3. Cancel everything and push the rental deposit to 2024

While chatting with Melissa this morning she and I looked at the weather for both weekends, and while the precipitation amount can always change, the temperature predictions are typically reliable enough. Temps look good (both overnight and daytime) for the October 27th; however, after that, the temperatures take a dive and start dipping into the 30s overnight in early November. This is hardly ideal for track prep and this could essentially halt us in our tracks if we were going for that November 3 date. I almost don't want to take that risk, so it seems to be looking like next Friday October 27th would be our best shot at this point.
I have a few days to get back to her with a decision, so feel free to provide any input or suggestions.

[qwikz28]

Woohoo! Another week to get my car running right :)

[Anti_Rice_Guy]

I am away the 27th, I was going to try to stop in and see y'all today. That being said, it was raining at my house <4 miles from the track at 530 am so I think it was the right call.

[qwikz28]

Yeah we would have had to drag race jet skis today

[IROCZman15]

I live about 25 minutes from the track, and the rain would have definitely ruined our day today.

The list for our rain-date is looking good, we are even gaining some new racers who were unable to come on Oct 20th. I'll post up more details in the coming days.

[IROCZman15]

Rain-date is this Friday.
Same time 10 am gates open, racing 11-4.

We have about 24 cars coming and still maybe a few more.

[qwikz28]

Looking forward to breaking something and having to Uber home

[Blackbirdws6]

Looking forward to breaking something and having to Uber home

Nothing like a proper oil down to show your friends how much you care about their track day. :rofl:

[thehazguy]

OK, not a pro but here's a photo link from todays track rental organized by Dave.

Job well done.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/2Rhf17P2MZ6m3QfG7

[LS1ow]

How was the day boys

[V]

It was good aside from a few early delays. Rain and ambulance MIA.
But after that it was smooth sailing. Only one car had a real breakdown on the line, actually burnout box and it was u joint related i believe so no big mess.

I made like 20 or so passes. Fastest two were right at the end of the afternoon, like 4pm. My car was showing outside air temp on the track as 80 degrees then. I keeping messing around with burnout vs. no burnout, launch control on auto or custom settings, or leaving off idle etc. In better weather and more practice my goal is to drop .3 seconds more, then I'll be happy.

[IROCZman15]

I'm glad we finally got it in the books, thats for sure.
We had a great turnout, with 26 cars making passes down the track. As mentioned, we had some rain start just after tech inspection opened. The rain moved past fast, but other things moved slow, mostly due to the required ambulance not being on site. After that was all figured out we lost some time, so Melissa said we could stay as late as we wanted to and even said we could jump into the night-time TnT if anyone wanted. Jerry treated the group to a whole bunch of pizza on his dime, and that was awesome.

We got racing just before 1 and people just started making laps. The weather was wildly different than it usually is this time in October, and temps were about 78 with a D.A. of 1800 and higher. Still, some cars were hot lapping the track, while goofballs like me were experimenting with adjustments. I really should have tried to take more action photos, but I'm glad that Jerry jumped in to do just that; awesome photo album.

I made 10 passes total, but I think there were a few cars that got around 20 passes, or more! One of the racers there had a buddy who brought a drone and he got some footage. Here's a link to his videos:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=n5w-IyiZcw-ARGV6&v=DsoP9mzRv7U&feature=youtu.be

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPR7c7t2a/

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/wCx62AracuG2kk9H/?mibextid=UalRPS



Some photos:




https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53294742511_fd54ebfac6_c.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53295121684_1ce7fa0e83_c.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53295121694_522a541f2c_c.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53294994213_a9115c7ee3_c.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53294994203_96e4514148_c.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53293867167_333739445b_c.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53294996903_832039fcbe_c.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53295216450_4303a13fb3_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53294996898_860895d864_c.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53295216455_d00db00732_c.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53294745256_bd799dfb1f_c.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53296396463_1568916192_c.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53295273327_711d428cb6_c.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53296274024_976baf677a_c.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53294742481_26dc3b0ac0_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53295213585_42697ed77b_c.jpg

[Blackbirdws6]

Congrats on getting your first rental in the books. It was a nice change of pace to be a participate vs organizer/racer and looking forward to the next one. Thanks for getting it done!

V ran a new best amidst very meh street tires and inability to go WOT through most of 1st gear (11.41 @ 126+) which considering the weather, I think was pretty good.

[Anti_Rice_Guy]

Everyone else is being secretive about their results? How about that GTO convertible? I've seen that car at Chatterbox before.

[townsend]

gto vert was heavy into the 9's. car was fast as hell.

my results were a car that suddenly decided it didnt want to racecar anymore, after chasing issues all day with poor passes (fastest was 10.55 on 200, 6/10's off where it usually is) ended up finding a torched #7 exhaust valve, which has probably been some of my issue for a while, along with an 8 week russell fuel filter element failing and sending crap thru the new racetronix injectors.

dave, it was still a great day even with the hiccups, thank you for putting this together, looking forward to the next one, and thank you to jerry for the pics/pizza

[wretched73]

Congrats on getting your first rental in the books. It was a nice change of pace to be a participate vs organizer/racer and looking forward to the next one. Thanks for getting it done!

V ran a new best amidst very meh street tires and inability to go WOT through most of 1st gear (11.41 @ 126+) which considering the weather, I think was pretty good.

She's got a lot more in her

[Blackbirdws6]

She's got a lot more in her

yOu kNoW It bUD

[thehazguy]

OK, let's see. My last 3 runs. Needed to get focused on driving instead of taking pictures. Which was good to do as well.

Wanted to be consistent and have good reaction times. I think I accomplished both.

4th run - 12.890 - RT - .029

5th run - 12.880 - RT - .001

6th run - 12.880 - RT - .006

[IROCZman15]

I was just going to put my car's recap in my usual post when i get everything typed up, but in a nutshell


Ran 3 all motor passes playing around with it in open loop and an intake screen stacker thing. 1183, 11.79, 11.89 all at 113 mph.

Had done my homework and some helpful advice on getting the nitrous back to home-base this event, so as a test, for my fourth pass, I -decided to only activate the nitrous when I was in 3rd gear at halftrack, so I could see what the AFR was really doing on the bottle and i'll discuss this in my build thread.

Anyways, after that I adjusted jetting a few different times, made some low 11 second passes with it still running very rich, but my mph was going up to where it hasn't been at all this year, back above 120 mph and the car actually felt like it was pulling on the top end instead of just eating itself up like normal, and the nitrous wasn't shutting off either. Some passes I wasn't even full throttle and there were times I spun. Speaking of that, I had an oddly hard time getting a good burnout almost all of the day. It didn't want to make wheel speed and would sometimes want to dart to the right. I had to get heavier on the throttle than normal to get it to burnout, but eventually thats all it took for me to knock out a few good sixty foots 1.48, 1.46, 1.48.

On my 9th pass the car ran its fastest E.T. of the day, which was a 10.90 at 123mph. This was what I had the car doing pretty often back in October 2021 - October 2022 and somehow it has eluded me since then. So getting that mph back for me was a small victory. I knew I had one final run left before I had to start packing up so I upped the jets to be somewhat like a 165 shot, hoping maybe it could go 10.79 at 126 but I think I was lazy on the launch and over revved the shifts. It went 11.03 @ 124 mph though.

packed up and drove it home without an issue.
-actually hoping for maybe one more track day this year.

[The_Bishop]

Looks like it was a bunch of fun. Would have loved to come by to watch, but was doing college walk-throughs with my daughter.

[V]

I made 18 passes in 2 hours.
16 runs were with a mph of 121.27-123.64.
Last 3 runs were basically my best.
Best ET was 11.66.
At those last runs, my car was saying outside temp was 80* on the track.

[qwikz28]

I made 18 passes in 2 hours.
16 runs were with a mph of 121.27-123.64.
Last 3 runs were basically my best.
Best ET was 11.66.
At those last runs, my car was saying outside temp was 80* on the track.

Yeah dude you were relentless! I'm impressed your car took that abuse!

Best for the day for me was 12.494 at 114.19. A bit disappointing but that was lighting up second gear in a car throwing a knock code. Car isn't set up for the strip and I wasn't banging gears. I suck at driving in general.

If we do a rental next year, I'll be back and ready for a better time. Thanks again Dave!

[LS1ow]

Yeah dude you were relentless! I'm impressed your car took that abuse!

Best for the day for me was 12.494 at 114.19. A bit disappointing but that was lighting up second gear in a car throwing a knock code. Car isn't set up for the strip and I wasn't banging gears. I suck at driving in general.

If we do a rental next year, I'll be back and ready for a better time. Thanks again Dave!

Buy a few sawzall blades and cut off wheels, ill get you into the 11s

[qwikz28]

Buy a few sawzall blades and cut off wheels, ill get you into the 11s

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F7zj3NUbIAA4VyF.jpg