Cool, I feel better, I static balanced them, just like I always have . He can peel the weights if he wants .
And, yes, , I always used duct tape over weights on road race wheels . Never had one fly , that I am aware of .
Again, thanks , this place is amazing, lots of different views and backgrounds here . I love learning something new

Lets see pictures of your cars with slick's?
Jeff any funny car photos? Were you a hippy? ;)

In 88 built this drag bug with new rims and front tires and did not balance the light and narrow front tires.
I noticed at 100mph the front end and steering wheel were shaking.
In 88 I balanced the tires for safety and it's still running in Italy today. :D
In drag racing it only happens for 300 feet till it gets under 80mph in the shut down. ;)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1631153813.jpg
Road race car slicks get balanced.
The quality control of race slicks made in Chili or other countries can vary.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1631153797.jpg

Yes, my first machine took any wheel I ever bolted on . It had spacers to shim the wheel out if it was super wide . It was old school, but reliable and accurate .
My last machine , would only do up to 12 inch wide wheels, but could handle nearly any diameter tire. I did several sets of slicks on it
I just upgraded my balancer and it will accommodate nearly anything including semi wheels, huge mud bogger tires and wheels, and most any performance tire wheel combo .
Super happy with it so far . I hated my last machine .

If the wheels are screwed to the slicks balance them. If not, no point. The tire will spin on the rim every pass. Maybe just a couple inches but it will spin. Guaranteed.

Boy, I wish I had some photos. I actually might, but I would have to dig through shoe boxes under the stairs, and then they would be all yellow and curled up.

I googled up and down the interwebs for "Rocky Jewel", "Crowell Jewel" (Rocky was his nickname, the machinist I knew), "Mile High Funny Car record", and on and on. No luck.

It's hard for folks to fathom these days, but we actually had division level fuel racing back then. We are Division Six in the NHRA, by the way. It was far less expensive than most people would ever believe, too. We ran a second (third? fourth?) hand John Buttera chassis. Our Donovan 417's were hand me downs. We did not rebuild every round in those days, we merely dropped the pan and looked at the rod bearings. We would run "all day" (three or four passes) without removing the blower, manifold, or heads. We did put new clutch plates in for every run, though, since it was a "top gear only" (single speed with reverse) setup, and we relied upon clutch slippage for the first half of the track. One set of slicks lasted a couple of race weekends, depending on how deep into the eliminations we went. The car was towed on an open trailer behind an old moving truck full of tools and spares.

And yes, I was a hippie. When my wife and I first met my hair was longer than hers... I think I had cut it by the time I was helping these guys, though.

I've related the story before regarding how I had the chance to drive this thing. We had a new driver who was supposed to make licensing passes at SIR who never showed up. Car was prepped. Rocky looked at all of us and said "every last one of you has said he would give his left nut to drive this thing. Well, here's your chance". I wisely declined. So did everyone else. We pushed it back up on the trailer. Sometimes I wish I would have given it a shot...

Cool adventure Jeff.
Agree that was a great time in drag racing.
Many Pro and amateur teams in TF Funny Cars.
In the mid 70s we were at Orange County International Raceway just south of Los Angeles.
They would get 64 Funny cars for a great day of racing.
Fox night girls get in free.
Sunday Sunday Sunday.

I can still hear the voice of the guy on the radio belting out "Sixtyyyyy-foooouuuuur Funny Cars!!!" They would line them up backed into the guard rails down both sides of the track, from the starting line to the finish line, and fire them all up to get the show started. And John Denver's voice on the radio as well - "Drag racing is faaaar out!!!". Good times. I felt privileged to have been there to have seen it. And ladies always got in free.