Event Coverage 1st Annual Texas Nostalgia Nationals @ Yello Belly Dragstrip Dallas TX

That would be way cool Kerry !

 

I hope it`s a dial in race it would be nice to be able to race my car again.

this is a good read for all the people that dont`get IT!`

At its most basic, legal drag racing consists of two cars lining up next to each other on a starting line at a drag strip and on a signal to go, both cars accelerate as hard as they can for a fixed distance, usually 1/4 or 1/8 of a mile. The first one to the finish line wins. Quickness counts, but speed is only an interesting side effect. If a car leaves before the start signal is given, it loses by virtue of a foul. What could be simpler?
If two cars do this sort of thing on the street, which is illegal, legitimate drag racers call this street racing, not drag racing.
As you can imagine, the simplest form of drag racing didn't last too long. Cars aren't all alike, so they were divided into classes based on car weight and modifications to the engine and chassis or the lack thereof. This is class racing. Cars in the same class race each other in round robin fashion until there is a single winner. Class winners in similar classes raced each other in eliminator brackets using some sort of handicap system so that, theoretically, both cars would have an equal chance of reaching the finish line at the same time. In the early days, this was done by starting the cars at different points on the drag strip. Later one car was given a head start by electronic starting devices. This allowed for very precise handicaps based on the class's national record of the elapsed time required to get down the drag strip. Class racing is still done at mainstream national or divisional races, but local drag racing has taken a different turn.
Sometime in the late '60s and early '70s, money began to be a huge factor. The old saying that you can't beat cubic inches (referring to the size of the engine) became you can't beat cubic money. The cost of being truly competitive in drag racing was getting out of hand for the average person. Enter bracket racing.
Since we could now give very precise starting advantages to one car or the other, why not let the driver pick the elapsed time for the vehicle? Less money, slower car. More money, faster car. But both have the same chance of reaching the finish line at the same time. But what was to keep a driver from lying about how quick the car could negotiate the drag strip? The biggest liar would be the winner. Enter the break out rule. If a car goes quicker than the prediction, it "breaks out" and loses. If both cars break out, the one which breaks out the least wins. Cars are generally grouped into large brackets primarily based on elapsed time. This bracket racing is the predominant form of racing at local drag strips.
A variation of bracket racing is having a preassigned elapsed time index, such as 7.90 seconds, where every car has the same predicted elapsed time.
Of course there are lots of subtleties to all this, but this is the basic idea. If you want to learn more about the bracket racing end of things try this link:
http://www.staginglight.com/guide/index.html
Nostalgia racing draws from both "heads up" racing, where the quickest car wins; bracket racing, where every car has an equal chance to win no matter how fast or slow it is; and index racing, where everyone has the same predicted time. I'll try to keep these straight when reporting on nostalgia races, but you may safely assume that anything ending in "Fuel," like Top Fuel and Junior Fuel, are heads up racing.


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Thats quite a read Casey .I see what your saying ,but there still isnt anything as fun as a heads up deal (like the old days) IMO.I have come to the realization that im a born loser ,so i dont expect to ever win any $ racing or an event.I do however have fun while i lose in a heads up race.Even though my car is very consistant as a bracket car ,it still aint no fun to bracket race to me.I hope they dont turn this event in to an Index deal ...

 

Casey, it's your opinion on the matter and a lot of people do not agree.

You are entitled to your opinion and that is fine. At this point I think everybody pretty much knows how you feel.

The part I am starting to have a problem with is if anybody disagrees with you you get an attitude, that is getting old.

Your "get IT" crap is a perfect example.

I agree with "The Shocker" in the above reply, heads up is far more fun for these kinds of cars and for most of the people on the HAMB to watch.

And the bottom line, however the Dirty boys set this up is fine with me...I am just wanting a good event to go to.

 

I'm looking forward to my first drag event for my car which is looking like yello belly.Hell, I'm just looking forward to driving it! Heads up sounds cool to me. I'm sure it wouldn't be an issue that I would need to worry about, but supposing I did make a killer pass and broke out of my index for my class that would be a pretty bitter pill to swallow.

 

Good luck on your coupes first time down the strip .If i dont break my car between now and then i will be there.I am planning to run at the Thaw and the Ardmore event in the mean time...

 

The response on the pre-registration has been great, LOoks like we are gonna have alot of out of towners so far, Oklahoma, arkansas, south Texas, and hopefully we get Kerry down from Kansas.

Also thanks to the sponsors that we have gotten so far, that is awesome!!!!!!

If oyu have missed it smewhere, pre-registration is up and runnng, We need sponsors and vendors, swap meet guys and gals, etc.

Rusty

 

I'm pre-registered. I'll do my best to get the digger there but If it's not ready you'll have to settle for the coupe.

 

Thanks Shocker! Seems like a cool event to get my feet wet at. Like I say...I haven't even drove it out of the driveway yet so for now it's gonna be baby steps lol.

 

When was this, "back in the day", everybody talks about?

 

I think it was some time between "Old School" and "The 80's" ...

 

Ah, the 90's.
Well I go back a little further.
In 1965 when I first started going to the drags,at the first World Finals in Tulsa, the only heads up eliminator's were Top Fuel and Top Gas.
Competition,Street,Top Stock, and Junior Stock Eliminator's were all handicapped off of the national record's of the different classes within each eliminator, as buzzard said before, with a break out if you ran faster than the record. (This was changed to a .10 under,faster, than the record the next year.)
In the days before the tree they handicapped you by car length's.
I'm not trying to influence the decision of how to run this race,I'll be there and on the track and not setting in a lawn chair in the shade,just tired of the whole "back in the day" BS.

Tim

 

hey guys..........................please be picky about the hotels you choose......

cant wait to go and see some hot rods in action...

 

I will be racing as well (never been much of a spectator).Regardless of how they did it way back when ,i think the majority would prefer a heads up start.If it were a bracket deal , i would proly own everybody with my car and the Powerglide on the foot brake (if i tried) ,but im not after winning .I just want to have fun and race.Not trying to start anything here...

 

oh yeah, having fun is what its gonna be, i need to know what octane gas we need to have on hand

 

BACK IN THE DAY...was yesterday! hell man i'am 68 yrs. old, and can't even remember. what we'r we talking about?...POP.

 

How it was way back when important. Don't want young people passing on misinformation.
As for owning everybody,well let's just say we won't go there.

 

Im not a senior citizen ,but im not young either (im 36).As far as owning goes ,i meant at bracket racing ,not being faster than everyone else ,and i think you knew that .My car has slicks, a powergilde ,and with footbraking ,its not hard to do the math.Im not consistant the car is .Go back to the early 50's and tell me how many people were Handicap start racing on airport runways with a flagman or on a two lane farm road.Thats what i meant by the "old days".I guess i should have made that more clear earlier .I dont want to argue the point ,because this is not what this thread is about.Its about putting the word out about another old car drag race event.Regardless of how the Dirtys choose to have it heads up or Dial in ,im gunna run for broke on every pass ,and if i break out and lose ,or run my # and win ,makes no difference to me .I just want to race my car and have fun with freinds ...

 

Just got a sneak peek of the rough draft t-shirt design from Slide. Its gonna be COOL!!!!

 

Slide (Mike Shoaf) Rules is all I gotta say, Way Way Cool!!!!!!!!

Also had a phone call earlier of some super fast roadster that are gonna make it out,

I have found some new hotels in the vicinty, and some new restaurants, etc just 10 minutes from the track. I will get those posted up and hopefully can finalize the host hotel info. This is really shaping up to be a great event, thanks for all the support from the local community as well as the national hot rod community,

Rusty

 

Hey Rusty,
Great thing you are doing. Looks like it will be a fun event. We have signed on as a sponsor for this, and hope this will be an annual thing.
Will there be enough pit spots? Here is a link to a Google overhead shot.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou....753174,-96.930592&spn=0.011369,0.016544&z=16

 

plenty of pit parking, vendor area, etc, the pasture to the left is for overflow parking

 

Looks like a golf course next door... I'm sure we could park on their lawn, right?

 

And its a nice golf course !

 

We will be bringing it...Yea Baby... Hey Casey, don't worry I'll bracket race ya, just be there. Heads up, bracket, index, sportsman tree, pro tree, no tree, we don,t need no stinkin tree...

 

looks like the first grudge match has came in from a 51 studebaker out of oklahoma that is challenging Doc in his 34 dodge, best out of three back to back,

 

Hey Dennis ,, tell us more about the red 55 .

 

Danny I was thinking the same thing....

 

This event is looking pretty bitchin'. I will drag the Bondo Pig down there and get some people from DuckusCrapus.com to come as well.

Thanks to those who are putting this thing on.


DuckusCrapus

 

Yeah, where's that thing been hiding??