[Jeff Higgins]

Last year when my son and I were out on Saturday for qualifying, we did our usual pit walk-through when they were starting to warm them up. The way the game is played is to watch for the next crew that is going to fire one up and try to get there first, for a front row seat. Being the old hands that we are, we check wind direction and stand off to one side, never directly behind and downwind. Then watch the guy's hand that reaches for the throttle. Idling these things are loud enough; when he gooses it all hell literally breaks loose. They literally "blow a hole in the crowd"; those that didn't get their ears covered are stumbling around completely disoriented. Then the car goes back to idle, and the nitro shower rains down upon them. It's like running through a sprinkler; there is that much raw unburnt fuel just spraying up out of the pipes. Now they are all blinded, eyes burning, clothes soaked in nitro, stumbling around in a state of confusion, and the guy gooses it again. Now kids are crying, wives and girlfriends are screaming, no one knows what to do. So they all run away and try to gather their senses. Then the first idiot pipes up "that was AWSOME" and they go looking for the next car so they can do it all over again.