Features Have you ever run a car down a drag strip or an oval track?

I have run on about fifteen different dirt and asphalt oval tracks, never been on a drag strip.

 

Nope, never, but hope to someday. The billetless show at Millan in Detroit used to let you run whatever you had at the show. I believe it was one car at a time and quarter mile. It would be cool to have some sort of dirt drags at the farm some day.

 

Dragstrip in the early sixties in this (picture of car as purchased for $5.00) :


Vintage circle track racing in the late nineties in this :


(I had more money in the nineties.)

 

I got to run my 49 Ford at the York US 30 Drag Strip, slow but it was interesting to do once or twice.

 

Man that is awesome. I’ll give you $10 for that car if you still have it.

 

Been on 3 local ovals, never on an official drag strip.

 

Drag strip is alot of waiting for a few seconds of thrills.. Then back off track and either in line or hang in pits...

 

Many times on this

 

Did some bracket racing at Fremont Raceway and Sacramento Raceway back in the late '70s when I was a teenager. In the early '80s when I was stationed at Nellis AFB I ran a motorcycle at the old Las Vegas dragstrip where Las Vegas Motor Speedway is now. Also snuck it onto the little road course they had there a few times when no one was around.

 

Lots of laps around the dirt & asphalt tracks of Western PA.

 

Did some track packing at my step daughters go kart track and ran down the dirt drag track a few times.

 

Some of my fondest memories only lasted a few seconds at a time.

 

Fairburn Dragstrip and Senoia Speedway.

 

Only drag racing for me. Carlsbad, Tucson , Pamona, Bakersfield ,Pheonix , Las vegas. And my local track Barona.

 

I have drag raced all over the western US. Although I've been a drag racer for 48 years, most of my "extra-curricular" activity has been in the 22 years leading up to 2021, when my oldest son took the wheel.
I cut my teeth at Famoso raceway, and also raced at Sacramento, Fremont, Fontana, Irwindale, Carlsbad, Phoenix, Vegas, and Bandimere. I have maybe 3000 runs under my belt.
My quickest runs have been 9,74 at 137mph in 1987 in my Dodge Challenger, alky injected big block, and 9.70 at 143 in my '65 Karmann Ghia. 135 cu in. Alky injected and turbocharged.
My biggest claim to fame outside the VW world, is being the only VW to win at the Bakersfield March Meet. Ever. It was my Holy Grail moment.
My son owns the car now and is racing it, while I am "Pit-Bitch."

 

It's not for everyone, that's a fact. What it takes from staging lanes to staged bulb to the traps becomes something more than "a few seconds of fun." All of it plays out right there. The build, the towing, the tuning, and most of all the art form of cutting a light AND if you bracket race, running the number. Nothing feels better than that. Well, adding a win light to it does. The more you race everything in life becomes 10ths of a second. Finally, there's no 2nd place. You might get runner up money and the like but it's a sudden death win or lose contest. Period. Shit, sounds like I really dig it huh? It pushes the mechanical and psychological abilities too. You go up, cut a .008 light, run your number "dead on with a 6" (as in 10.416 on a 10.41 dial). Your opponent cuts a .006 light, runs dead on with a 4. You lost by .004. You did everything right...and lost. Can you take it? I can't. I could at 1st but had enough. It isn't what most ppl think and there's a legion of those in here that know EXACTLY what I mean. Running heads-up is a money game. They know that too.

 

Drag race. Yes.

 

Yeah its addicting for sure... One of my buddies said it best. "Its the sport where you spend alot of money to impress folks you don't know". I like the nostalgia racing for sure, there is some money there but its not like NHRA stuff. Cutting a light is an art for sure, I think its mainly getting in tune with your vehicle and know its abilities backward and forward, that's what I loved about it. If it didn't do something quite right, tweak and make it work right.

 

Read my profile?!

 

Yup.

So they invented a twist to it, you can drive the car from one track to another. You get to make the challenge last for a week! and if you're a real idiot, you can drive the race car across the country to get to the first track, then back home again, and it lasts almost two weeks.

I've also raced around a parking lot with a bunch of cones in it, but that's not a choice on the list.

 

Been racing the drags for over half a century. Still do. Three cars, a S/P altered, a RPU Sportsman, and a Logghe nostalgia altered. The nostalgia races are the most fun. Less pressure. Lots of neat machinery. But the bracket races are more demanding mentally and hardware-wise than the casual observer may think.
Done road track and oval testing as a FoMoCo development engineer on some modern O/T junk. Not as exciting as it would sound. Mostly observing instrumentation, recording data and writing reports afterwards. But I'm still counting it as BTDT.
My avatar champ car replica will see some serious track time with me behind the wheel - if I live long enough to see it through to completion. Stay tuned.

 

I knew I’d forget something.

 

My issue with running one of my cars on a drag strip, is that I don’t have a lot of money, and the only way to race your car is “flat out”.
I can’t afford to replace the engine, transmission, or rear if I break it…
Not that I wouldn’t love to try it!
I did race dirt bikes in my youth…

 

Only drag racing for me at multiple different drag strips. I did pit crew for a guy with an outlaw sprint for a while and sure wanted to take that car around the track…but never did.

 

Drag racing Junior Stockers For trophies (not enough money to run for the money) was my passion from the first time at Dover in 1965, Connecticut Dragway a few times and Lebanon valley every weekend from April through September and a few Wednesday test and tune nights up to 1990 (except of my time in the USMC when I raced one time at a track in Memphis). Any and all spare money we into the cars ( not much LOL).

One of our retired Troopers was part of the actor Paul Newman's sports car team and in the off hours at Limerock he would let us take a lap with the race car, my one and only time on a road course

 

I ran my street car daily driver on the drag strip bracket racing in the mid seventies. I won every round and beat my buddy twice in finals. Drove to the track and home. It was great fun, but expensive to keep the car together and get to work every day so I traded it in on a VW. Young and invincible in my early 20's. Thirty years later my wife and kids gave me one of those NASCAR Driving experiences for my 50th birthday, that was fun so I did it again the next year. My racing itch has been scratched so I'll stick to cruising now.

 

Ah, the cones... Makes you feel like a kid taking a driving test all over again but this time using the throttle the way you dreamed of.

Yeah I do love the road trip, race, road trip. I think its ultimate test of a vehicle honestly and its owner.

 

One thing is certain. Not everyone is, or should be a racer. I've always had the mindset that it is a personal challenge. I've won and lost countless races by the slimmest of margins, reaction times down to the fourth decimal on both sides, red or green. Win or lose, it's the super tight races that are the most satisfying. Of course winning is great. But I won't beat myself up over a loss decided by thousandths of seconds. I congratulate my opponent on a heluva good race!
Also, there are those that are afraid of hurting stuff. I get it. It is work and money. A lot of both sometimes. But if you are afraid to hurt stuff, then you shouldn't be racing.
We see those that build something with big big power and limited usability, but don't use it for what it was built for. If it's bragging rights, that's OK. Just be honest about it, and please don't criticize others for what it is about hot rodding that they enjoy.
You don't have to be a racer to enjoy hot rods. Everyone derives enjoyment from different aspects.

 

you forgot salt...

 

Didn't you have to dodge the planes landing on the Old US 30?