Wednesday, May 7, 2008

NHRA Bands Hydrazine

TwoFaced,

Yes, Hydrazine is bad stuff. NHRA in the old days put the Yellow dye or what ever it was in Nitro to detect Hydrazine; they didn't want anybody to run it after some bad "Bangs". I remember Leo Payne had one gallon buried in the back of the shop at S&S Cycle, don’t know what ever happened to it.

The first contact I had with PO was from the guy that introduced the stuff to the Drag Racing Motorcycle World, Richie Richards. He had a pint can of it when we were in my garage/shop and he took the lid and filled it with PO and poured it on the garage floor, stepped about five foot away and dropped a lit match on the floor and it lit that PO. I right away started learning about mixing the stuff with Nitro. I found I didn’t need a lot to help the Alkie become a good igniter.

Here’s something of interest. I was at Union Grove on a Match Race with the local big shot fuel bike guy and I needed some Nitro. I went down the Top Fuel Car line asking to buy some and came to Big Daddy Don’s pit area, and he said he would give me what ever I need for the race. Then he asks me what color do you want? He had pure Nitro in Red, Blue, Green and the original yellow. This was during the Hydrazine band time. I took the yellow and never ask about the colors and still don’t know.

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