Thread: Things That Ruined Drag Racing!

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I was a child of the '60s, and was lucky enough to... "Be there!...Be there!...Be there!"... for the "Golden Age". If that wasn't lucky enough, I lived near Indy, and went to the Nats from the very early '60s 'til the mid seventies.

During this era, there were a few things that took the fun out of it for the spectator. Here are my "main pain" complaints:

THE AUTOMATIC TRANS: Remember when Super Stock, Pro Stock, and Gas classes were "guardrail to guardrail, wheels up in all gears, and blow the driveshaft out" racing?

THE SLIDER CLUTCH: They took away those beautiful trademark roostertails of smoke, and Top Fuel lost some of it's excitement. :-(

DROPPING TOP GAS AS AN ELIMINATOR BRACKET: Top Gas Eliminator was as big of a spectacle as top fuel, with all of those beautful twins, like the "train", Gopher State Timing Association, and the mismatched motors of Frakes and Funk. They went 200 MPH with about 4 lbs of air in the slicks!.... and that wonderful sound of blown twin motors was like a giant V-16!!!

ALLOWING FUNNYCARS TO RUN ANY MAKE OF ENGINE: There was a time when the Ford-General Motors-Chrysler-American Motors rivalry was a "raging war" in Funny Car. If it looked like a Chevy, it had to have Chevy power....and so on. Remember Orange County's "Manufacturer's Funny Car Championships"?

SUCCESS OF THE REAR ENGINE DRAGSTER: The long, sleek, dart-like "slingshot dragster" was once the symbol of drag racing! It looked like no other kind of race car. When Garlits brought out his new RED car, another racer said "I hope this thing doesn't work, because it sure is ugly!" Today's car look more like a deformed Indy car. God, I miss the full bodied FEDs!

Today I only have Pro Mod to be thankful for! At this point you can feel free to add any changes that made drag racing less exciting for you.

Well, some of us still run the manual boxes!!!! Most tell me that "You can't be consistent with a 5 speed" to which I always reply, "Oh yeah? Check out the Pro Stockers!"

I wish AFX would still be a class, kind of somewhere between Pro Stock and Funny Car.

I like the FED's, but from a safety standpoint I've got to vote for the RED's... But if I ever find a FED for sale when I hve a bit of extra cash.....

I like bracket racing for the fact that it makes all sizes of checkbooks equal, but I still miss heads up starts...and I can't afford to run a Pro class except in my wildest dreams!!!!

I think my the fun for me stopped when thay went to bracket racing.
I loved the heads up racing before the tree , yes a real flagman.
That is when I got onto oval track racing , untill I ran out of money,
so now I am back in to Hot Rods

Originally Posted by hawk56

I think my the fun for me stopped when thay went to bracket racing.
I loved the heads up racing before the tree , yes a real flagman.
That is when I got onto oval track racing , untill I ran out of money,
so now I am back in to Hot Rods

EXACTLY! - right to being priced out of stock cars and back to Hotrods, We have a hobby six class here that is very reasonable to race but by the time it came along I was too OLD - and broken up from motorcycles

Originally Posted by Dgas56

EXACTLY! - right to being priced out of stock cars and back to Hotrods, We have a hobby six class here that is very reasonable to race but by the time it came along I was too OLD - and broken up from motorcycles

You don't have to be a millionaire to run a bracket car, even out here in the sticks we have non-electronic classes. Everything comes down to being consistent and great reaction times. Our local non-electronic class bracket winner last year probably doesn't have 10K in his car and won all 5 non electronic events last summer.... Talked to him last week, his major work for the winter will be a new set of valve springs, freshen the engine, and he's ready..... Even won a couple of the events that were open to the delay box cars, and (I think) 4 of the Saturday night Gambler's races.... Drag racing has changed, granted, especially in the higher classes. But there is still a place and a class for everybody to race.. The Tree does not know the difference between a $60,000 car and a $6,000 car.

The one thing about the technology and the big bucks cars, is that eventually a lot of it filters down to street machines and Hot Rods.... Drag Racing is still alive and doing fine around here. In our little town of 5,000 people there are 5 new cars being built this winter, and none of these guys are millionaires......

computer supported racecars.

The hobby class I was refering too is a stock car dirt track class .The thing about bracket racing is anyone can get into it at almost any level. I just hate hitting my brakes to win, doesn't feel right, then you throw in all the electro stuff and safety overkill to boost the cost + support their sponsor's and I really begin to hate it , I'd rather watch the nostalgia cars and take care of my own old racing Jones at the weekend street races occasionally, We don't have all that legal Cr_p here if your caught, , plus no money ,no trophy's, no 20 grand + sub 12 sec super High Perf cars / pro street semi race cars either. Its all just good ol boy fun. nobody gets shot, nobody gets run off the road, heck, nobody even argues as we all know each other and WORK for our cars so more often than not we work on each other's cars. the odd a--h-le gets pushed out in a hurry and they don't come back. a benefit of country living- lots of ROOM w strt flat roads and no $80 a day track fee's. For a time the local law let us use the old airport runway ,all we needed was a ambulance standing by , (the driver was one of us), It has since been made into a park,so we went out in the country on Friday nights.

I would prefer heads up racing, too. Just don't have the $100,000 (minimun) annual budget to run it. The Super classes are nice. Heads up start with just a breakout rule.... I went back circle burning too and that seems to be getting to be a battle of the checkbooks now....

Flagmen racing was kewl, just the beams are a whole lot more accurate as to who jumped.... Bad side being the my reaction times are approaching laughable, especially on the Pro Tree!!!!

There was a lot of complaint when brackets became a mainstay of competition. I fully understand that the challenge became competing with the "clock", but I guess it was confusing since, to most people, the point of a race would be to determine which car is actually quicker?

How about the use of late model bodies in Gas classes? I know people like Skip Hess, Montgomery, Stone, Woods and Cook, and the Mallicoats were heros anyway, and everyone knew the cars were gassers, but I felt they started to look too much like a Funny Car.

Actually, bracket racing is more demanding of the car and driver then heads up racing. To win at the big events and a lot of times even locally your "package" (total of reaction time and time over dial in) has got to better then the other guys every round leaving no room for a slow lite or any kind of hiccup in the car. The best car and driver combination is going to be the winner, whether that is a 10 second car or a 17 second car... This becomes the great equalizer, the biggest check book and the fastest car isn't always the best....

IMO drag racing hasn't been ruined, it's just been changed....

I would like to see pro stock go with "engines that come in the car" rules ,instead of the ultra expensive and out of ordinary 500 + cube motors! It would make it more realistic!

For those who like the ol' race cars, watch for the nostalgia events. Nostalgia drag racing is becoming a big deal. Some prefer it to the big buck corporate sponsored stuff. I purdy' much like anything that goes down the 1/8 & 1/4 mile.

i agree with the auto trans, also delay boxes and throttle stops and that crap........... and besides GOODYGUYS runs front engine dragsters and as i recall no one has been seriously hurt in a long time, last "big" thing i can remeber was murry's fire which if my memory serves me he said it looked worse then it was.......

Remember the Econo Dragster Class ?
It was great then every year after the Glendor Gods allowed more and more high dollar parts to a point where it was no longer econo.
Now today one must spend half there budget on endless SFI approved this and that..
What will they come up with next year ?
SFI approved spark plug wires or how about SFI approved paint??
You never know, unapproved paint could be a fire hazard ?
The above is just me blowing off steam but in reality it is why I no longer race
Nitro™.

Fuel altereds. Wild Willy, Stone, woods and Cook..... back when you actually had to DRIVE them. I'm not saying it doesn't take skill to drive today, just that it took BALLS to drive back then.