Thread: I miss real drag racing

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The good news is that there are still plenty of geezers to make things happen the way we like 'em. :-)~

Most of the work I do is requested by guys from 40 up, so I get to do many things that were popular in the past. This year I designed a paint scheme for an out-of-state fuel altered... painted a psychedelic van... have five "shiney paint" choppers on the way... and have a steady flow of nice street rods coming through. Next week is nostalgia musclecar graphics on a new Detroit ponycar....for a guy who probably owned some "in the day". :-)

In a way, as long as the geezers are still playing, the good old days never die.

I live about an hours drive from Mo-Kan, where The HAMB held their yearly drags, and I've been giving serious thought about spending a weekend there and forget about NHRA and all of their BS.

well i love a front engine with my 735 donovan or just a iron head BBC i have one or the old T .the 34 truck would be cool to get back but heavy hands turn it to junk. the T went to TX and who knows if it still a car or chop all up

You guys are so right. i remember years ago when me and my late father went to englishtown and seen the cars hitting the brakes in order to not over run their dial in times! I then knew that dragracing as we knew it was gone forever! Well thats why I still building a 51 Chevy Gasser with a straight axle. Who cares about style......

I am involved in a nonaffiliated drag race club and were having a blast, 2 classes based on how many cars and their ets divide them in half after 2 or 3 qualifying runs and have at it.
we run on a 4300 ft airstrip with a concrete launch area, follow the nhra rules within reason weve been averaging over a 100 cars per race day and lots of fans.
get this 30.00 to race 5.00 for a spectator to get in and add another 2.00 for the pit pass.
we get cars coming from everywhere driving 200 miles or more to come race from the US and other provinces . so many kinds of different street and race cars coming out from grampa in his lexus to a 9 second nostalga slingshot dragster that runs a little 327. there always a good number of mid eight and 9 cars in the mix. not big payouts but just pure plain fun.
after all the runs are done we open it up for a free for all grudge races test and tunes evil burnouts until everyone is tired of making passes.
some guys get in a dozen or more passes in a day

This in my mind is what grass roots racing is all about, ive been to the big show and its great but its not real anymore to me

I have been into rodding now for thirty to forty years and can honestly say I have only been to one dragmeeting in all those years. But what has got me excited is the Nostalgia drag cars that have resufaced and are once again competing. I missed this years nostalgia meeting but after reading and looking at all the photos of the event,I am not going to miss the next one.

That is what everyone says once they attend a Nostalgia race or one of the Billetproof Drags. There was that old time festive atmosphere at the BP drags, and it felt like the times we went to the strip when we were way younger.

I can't wait for the next one in October. I haven't been down the track in 30 years.

Don

I am 62 yrs old.While I understand why we all want to remember the good old days,I do remember all of us complaining about how back then big dollars was ruining the sport.That heads up racing was dominated by the few who had the biggest budget.And that was the reason for the changes we now know.Those changes that created bracket racing to lower the costs.The developments that have occurred since then have made the cars safer and surely faster and more consistent.You can't turn a blind eye to the fact it is still the drivers R.T. that wins races.I think in part Jerry surely would agree it ant easy to run round after round on a dial.Still requires a strong wrench and a talented driver to win races.We have become stronger in our knowledge in what is happening during a drag race.We are able to tune cars better with weather stations........mainly because we have learned tons more than in the early days.The racing from the smallest backwoods race tracks to the national events has gotten tons tighter.I would challenge anyone to come to Lancaster Speedway in NYS on a Friday night to try to win their bracket.That track has exported many national racing operations and all because of the changes we made yrs ago.Every Friday the competition is at a national standard with R.T's and E.T.'s could all win a national event.

Now I don't know how many of your good folks have let go of a tranny brake button,but those of you who haven't,I suggest it all of what we remember from the old days in competition.

The other thing I wanted to point out,is during the time we all remember,not many of us,I would think,had the funds to run a Stone,Wood,Cook race car or anything close to it.That Wild Willy's car was big bucks as well for the time.

Drag racing during the old days almost never got TV coverage and that big sponsors changed that.It all by it's self allowed those 300 MPH developments for the budgets for race teams.But don't lose site of the fact<I think force would tell all of us this>that it is still better to be lucky than good.That doesn't change.


The issue I think that has undermine drag racing is stuff like the fast and fictitious.That our youth that hasn't been brought up correctly and think a muffler is the hot ticket and not much more than that.With the group I have had around me for yrs,it is a family affair.Those young people who grew up around us in the sport know better.But sadly it is a small group.We need more young people who are seriously interested in Drag Racing and it's next step.

Are we due for another course change??.I think so.Some of the Super bracket classes again have gotten way over priced.We need to find ways to open it up again to the common guys and gals for a boost in interest.

Gary

I'm not so sure that is it. For me, the sight of two new funny cars or dragsters going down the strip is simply not exciting. I pretty much lost interest in dragsters when they went to rear engines. I find much more enjoyment watching a gasser leave the line with front wheels aimed skyward, or an "obsolete" front engined dragster smoking them half way down the strip.

I think that is the attraction to shows like Pinks All Out or PassTime. We get to see cars to which we can relate. I can't relate to the Beretta's or whatever the latest body styles they are using in the top ranks these days. But that is just me.

Don

Down here, it seems to me that the hot rodders have pretty much abandoned the dragstrip long ago. Maybe racing your street car is a young mans game.

And the next generation of young men are racing Jappas.

Us old guys (Hey Im 50) will come out to watch, and race our hot rods at the nostalgia drags, because we are still passionate about it.

As for the new stuff, well I dont relate to it. Not even the doorslammers can get me too excited. But I will watch gassers hanging their front wheels.

Give me a fuel altered any day - 105 max on the wheelbase and run it over 440 yards.

there's a drag strip in North Georgia called Paradise that has nostalgia races.
it's in Calhoun, Ga they have a show and go on May 8th 2010 Show & Go (Rain date May 15th), they have a website paradisedragstrip dot net check it out the forum has pictures. I have never been but buddies say it great. then there's the one in Bowling green KY Beech Bend Raceway Park.

Well------at least yesterday at St Louis----even tho the big teams made out in TF and FC --there was some old time round wins by the other guys lack of luck--I've been known to say there's no good luck, only oppurtunity and preparedness----and of course NO luck or BAD luck---Warren actually won the race on his oponents bad luck.

Originally Posted by NTFDAY

I live about an hours drive from Mo-Kan, where The HAMB held their yearly drags, and I've been giving serious thought about spending a weekend there and forget about NHRA and all of their BS.

I was over on the HAMB site when they were starting their HA/GR dragster builds. All they wanted to do was run some 3-speed transmissions with flatheads or inline sixes and go 12.00 or slower like when all of us first started drag racing. They wanted the cars to be reminiscent of the early cars such as the Bug, with a single hoop roll bar over the driver with rearward anti-lozenging bars and side bars like is required in an 11.49 closed car of today and using 5-point belts and arm restraints, good helmet, gloves, neck collar, fire jacket, scattershield, pumpkin cover and sit ahead of the rear axle. But noooooooo, NHRA wanted them to have a full cage just like every other belly button front engine dragster you see today.

I got in touch with Jake Hairston at NHRA and tried to get them to consider amending the rules for these fellows so they could just go out and have some fun, but to no avail. Jake said that the NHRA cannot publish specific rules for every group that comes down the pike.

I'm like many of you on here. Fed up. The most fun I have had lately is sitting in the stands at a rootin', tootin' demolition derby. I don't remember when I laughed so hard.

Another venue that is going to get some attention from me is the local run what ya brung dirt circle track races. Back to basics.

Looks like others are a little jaded about the current stuff too. Take the advice of all your buddies who have been there, go to a Nostalgia race, the HAMB Drags, Billetproof Drags, etc. You will be swept back 40 years to a much more simple time when racing was less complicated and FUN. You will not be able to wait for the next time. I know I can't wait til Oct to uncork the headers and give it a go myself.

Don

Thanks for posting up the photo of the HA/GR Don. Now you see, there's a car that you could probably cobble together for $3,500 or less and go out there and run 13's with all day long and never break anything. Just go out and have fun like we used to.

Knowing what I know though, I would extend the frame rails back a little so that I could add some "C" bars to the top of the "B" bar and run them down the back to the frame rail stubs at more than a 30 degree angle to prevent collapse of the "B" bar.

There is something to be said for keeping it simple and looking like the old cars, but there is also something to be said for not bearing the weight of the car on your noggin.