Shirley was the current record holder for Milan, with an ET of 4.96 seconds, and 296 mph, set in 1996. Both of those were in jeopardy, since Shirley ran a 4.82 to beat Paul in one of their previous meetings, and Paul's car already had been in the 4.60 range elsewhere. As in 300 mph, a huge number in racing circles. A magic number. Matt walked us up to the starting line, and we watched some other cars do burnouts while we waited for the two top-fuellers.
Funny cars are very cool.
Loud, smoky burnouts, and lightning-quick launches, I thought. These alcohol burners were turning about 200 mph in 6.91 seconds through the quarter-mile. Finally Paul and Shirley did their burnouts, and the real pain began. The noise slashed through our ear plugs, and the nitrous fumes grabbed us by the throats. And as they backed up the two huge cars and began staging, it got worse and worse.