Thread: Things That Ruined Drag Racing!

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The ARMY car run is being called "THE Run" by NHRA writers. It was truely an 11th hour miracle! It takes quite a team to be able to do EXACTLY what they had to to snatch the champioship away from Kalitta! They had to not only have a car capable of setting a record, and conditions that made it possible, but be able to do it at exactly the right moment, when it is sooo hard to tip toe on the edge of traction, from A to B! Phenominal effort!....and I think the Kalitta team respected them for it.

I felt sorry for Dougie.

But what could he say? When someone throws down the near impossible when it counts theres not much anyone can say.

My wifes friend got vip passes to the Kalitta Mac tent and said that Connie, Scott, and Doug went out of their way to spend time with everyone and made sure everyone had fun.

I'm really surprised that the top fuel points championship didn't get a lot more press then it did.... As HRP said, it's close to miraculous to have this many factors in a points race and have them all come together at precisely the same time....

welcome to "don shumachers" nhra racing where drivers contend to win,..... THE SHUMACHER CUP!

its hard to beat the shumacher's when they own 12 teams, do you think the canned mellanie troxel because they just could not afford another paycheck to her. not, she was running to good and was creeping up on tony's shoes so they eliminated the threat. and take team force, how many cars do they run? as current champions they choose when they make thier pass. and always force and shumacher run last, they take all the information from thier team mates passes running in front of them. and in the staging lanes make fine tune adjustments to thier cars to compensate for pit set up that is no longer good enough for the current track conditions. in my opinion they should not be abel to share the info they get from the other cars, it is unfair to the under budgeted teams and its kinda like cheating. basically the only champs from now on will be force, schumacher, anderson, or someone from thier teams. it seems pro stock is heading this way also. takes the fun out of watching when you already know who will probably win.

J.R. Todd did pretty well, so it is still possible to win. Chances for the little teams are always better in slippery conditions. I personally love to watch these events, because having the most power becomes a serious problem, and us fans cannot guess who will win each pairing!!!

Hear here!
I have a short list too!
1) Allowing funny cars to narrow the bodies.
(So what if the Hawaiian flew?)
The narrowed charger was the start of the trend toward the current poopmobile shape....
2) Allowing tube frames in Pro-Stock
(So what if it was Bill Jenkin's Vega)
It made the class a techno wonder class with no 'stock' roots. Find me an OEM body panel worth a lick anywhere?
3) Allowing the first electronic delay box on the property at any drag strip anywhere on the planet.
4) Putting wheelbase limits, cid limits, ring gear limits, and anything in an unlimited class that has the word limit in it.
I want 'top' to be 'top' damnit!
Jeff

Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

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:
<snip>
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.

Originally Posted by deepnhock

Hear here!
I have a short list too!
1) Allowing funny cars to narrow the bodies.
(So what if the Hawaiian flew?)
The narrowed charger was the start of the trend toward the current poopmobile shape....
2) Allowing tube frames in Pro-Stock
(So what if it was Bill Jenkin's Vega)
It made the class a techno wonder class with no 'stock' roots. Find me an OEM body panel worth a lick anywhere?
3) Allowing the first electronic delay box on the property at any drag strip anywhere on the planet.
4) Putting wheelbase limits, cid limits, ring gear limits, and anything in an unlimited class that has the word limit in it.
I want 'top' to be 'top' damnit!
Jeff

Just my opinion, but if NHRA is worried about the speeds, I would rather they race them 1000 feet, than to put restrictions on the cars. They would probably still top 300!

I agree with #3 thats for sure.

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.

People who move next to a track and then complain about the noise!!!
Bracket racing, cars that will do 6s running 9s, boring. Tight brackets are fun but when you see a car roll off the line doing 30 mph down the track then hit the gas and finish at 200mph, Yawn.

I dont know but from my point of view drag racing is evolving here.
we have lived through our 1st year of our amature pirate drag racing club and the results were incredible.
we run on a actual 4300 ft 120 ft wide airstrip, flat long,(looks like to goes forever)and even a concrete launch pad.
The city has allowed us to shut the place down for the races and have been very cooperative and supportive in the use of the airstrip.
We were able to create enough revenue to purchase a new portatree timing syst in our 3 race day season (thats based on a 25.00 car and driver entry fee and 5.00 a head for anyone over 12)Watch out for the menonite rush!!
We have that written in our constitutuion to never increase the gate fee.
We are insured and use the nhra guidelines for safty and tech all cars.
our last race day had an amazing car count of 103 cars bikes truck etc and all winter i have had calls from guys building cars and wanting to know re rules and what they should have.
we ran giant kings of the hill last year and this year are going to have 3 classes of racers run down.
I kind of think this is what drag racing should be , more fun, some fast cars lots of street cars, some crazy guys like me running 26 inch zoomies on a rat rod bucket
looking for a few snowmobiles this year and if someone brings out one of those race quads we wont turn him away.
i have been to vegas to the big show and its great but its not the homegown
fun that we are having. When i see some of the old pics from the eatly 60s and late 50s it really reminds me of what we are doing.
This year were even going to try some flag starts on the line for fun.
here a couple pics
Drag racing is not dead it just may chnage a little