Ah, the smell of burning rubber on a Sunday afternoon.
After the rock band Queen enjoyed a Night at the Opera, they spent a Day at the Races.
And that’s where you would have found the team of Dave Sabyan Kenny Brown and Don Cachola, members of the Wine Country Racing Association, this past Sunday.
It may have been a little cool and windy for the final day of racing at the Richter Pass Speedway, on the grounds of the Osoyoos Airport, but that didn’t deter fans from coming out to cheer on the burnouts and the one-eighth mile drag races. While you could hear the thundering sounds of burnouts taking place trackside, Sabyan, Brown and Cachola could be found back in the pit area, making final preparations for racing. While all three race the car, on this day, it was Sabyan’s turn, and Dave eventually doned his race jacket, helmet and gloves, and got behind the wheel of their 1978 Monte Carlo – otherwise known as the Black Widow.
That’s when the real fun begins.
“I always say, ‘When the boy in the man dies, the man dies shortly thereafter.’ That’s how much fun we’re having,” gushed Sabyan.
Sabyan, Brown and Cachola began their equal-ownership project about nine years ago. You wouldn’t know it by looking at this black-coloured Monte, but under the hood, there’s about 840 horsepower pushing the car down the track.
“I think one of the best ways to describe it is – it’s like somebody going to a football game and not knowing any of the rules, and not having fun or enjoying it. Drag racing is much the same. We bracket race here, and the hardest part is what’s called, ‘cutting a good tree’ or getting a very good reaction time, and then running the car consistently,” offers Sabyan. “We’ll run the car today at 6.40. If we have to adjust a little bit for the weather, the wind or the track then we’ll adjust accordingly. But we want to try to run ideally within a hundredth of a second of that. If you’re not, and you’re not cutting a good tree, the competitor you’re running against will put this (Monte Carlo) on the trailer.” Yes, it’s all about the reaction time, where any type of lag from the driver, or the car, can result in a second place finish in a two car race. “What you’re watching for is, as the tree drops, each one of those amber lights drops, which is .5 of a second as they come down, while also taking into account there is a bit of a time lag in the human brain. We’re looking at anticipating the green based on point five,  and, as those ambers drop, you’ve basically got to leave before the green. There’s the lag in the human brain, the reaction of the human body, and then there’s still a bit of a delay in the car itself. So you’re leaving probably half a second before the actual green goes on, because everything takes a split second to come together for you.”

React perfectly, and you have a better chance of winning the race. React poorly, and you are left with sucking your competitors fumes. “There’s some guys who come here and they’re incredible. They cut awesome lights, every light. You hope you don’t get put up against him or her, because they’re just really good,” admits Sabyan. “I’ve seen first-time racers come out here and cut incredible lights. It’s just really getting the rhythym or timing down. Imagine yourself stopping at a traffic light, and anticipating that green light coming on, and actually leaving at that instant. “And a couple thousandths of a second will win or lose a race.” Once the final race took place Sunday, drivers first enjoyed a bit of a celebration, then took their cars back to the garage, where they will sit for the winter months.
At this point, the thrill of racing is replaced with the tedious work of fixing, replacing and upgrading – all with the goal of being fastest on the track come spring.

“We’re pretty good about going over the car after every race. We’ve been very fortunate because we’ve got the car to the point where the maintenance on it is pretty minimal. We’ve made our mistakes, and we’ve broken parts we never thought we would break. We’ve had to upgrade stuff. But we’ve got it set up pretty darn bulletproof. If we lose a race, we can’t blame the car at this point. You have to blame the driver,” points out Sabyan. “The car works really well. We’ll pull the transmission out this winter and go through it because it’s got two years on it. That’s cheap to do.”
And above all, Sabyan believes it’s important not to let the competition get out of hand, and keep the drivers safe.
“This is such a good club. We make the sport as safe as we can. There’s no such thing as a guaranteed safe race. We tech all the cars – they make the NHRA and IHRA rules that we have in place. We want to make sure everyone is safe. That’s our priority,” summarized Sabyan. “And number two, is to have fun.”
And let’s face it. Every boy inside every man wants to have fun – especially when it takes place on the race track.

-Dale Cory, ODN