Dumb question I guess, I don’t see a lot of pre war drag history. Is it more of the old dry lakes early racing history? Mostly what I see of the pre war era was circle track. The history nut in me would like to do some reading. Thanks
The name is interesting. apparently to get to the bleachers one would have to trek through rattlesnake nests to see the race. that’s even cooler than the TROG moniker.
Simple enough : A partial excerpt from Rolling Stone magazine. " From Skee-Ball arcades and carnie-manned games to doo-wop-themed gas stations and motels, Wildwood — a beach town near the southeastern tip of New Jersey — is seeped in nostalgia. And for one October weekend a year, the town doubles down on that obsession with the past. It goes back before the early 1960s – where the town’s evolution seems to stop – to the post-WWII years when automotive ingenuity was at its peak. Welcome to the Race of Gentlemen — or TROG as the regulars fondly call it — where hand-built cars and motorcycles take over the town, staging drag races down the wide beach a third of a mile from boardwalk to beachfront. Open only to builders with models from the early days of hot-rodding — pre-war car bodies, hand-shift motorcycles, and anything else made before 1947 — it showcases a racing mentality that, according to organizers, had been lost for decades before the race’s opening year in 2012. Mark Conforth, a longtime attendee who has been restoring cars for 60 years, says it’s the only event of its kind in the country. “If you dream about the old days of racing, this is the closest you’ll get,” he says. And yet Wildwood wasn’t the original venue.Founder Mel Stulz ran the car club The Oilers — a 1940s racing group that Stulz had relaunched in 2008 at the behest of its founder — and one day, as he sat looking out over the Asbury Park beach during the off-season, he imagined him and his friends racing their cars across the dense sand. A month later, in nearby Allenhurst, the first event took place with 15 cars and 15 motorcycles." Mel likes old Harleys and Vintage cars. This is his amazing vision of what some informal/formal racing was like pre WWII. Some Backyard engineering as well as well some "pro" builds. Nothing but fun with old cars Bikes and good people.....not cheap to spectate or participate but worth the ride : )
Most of the early land speed stuff was on beaches such as Pendine or Daytona. The Daytona race started on the beach in ‘36 or ‘37 I think and used the sand till the late 50s
NASCAR did have a drag racing diversion and held one way speed trail on the beach, in fact one way speed trails were how the Sportsman/Modifeds and Grand National cars qualified for the beach/road course. https://hips.hearstapps.com/mtg-pro...eeks-1.jpg?*&w=768&width=768&q=75&format=webp I did seen a photo many years ago long before A.I. of a pair of hot rods lined on the beach during speedweeks in what appeared to be a drag race with a flanger in the air and all!
They are just trying to have safe fun with their cars, not replicate any known vintage type of racing. By drag racing on sand they avoid breaking their axles, U-joints etc. Drag racing an old Ford rear end on asphalt is a recipe for breaking an axle. The Nascar drags mentioned by R. Palmer were on asphalt. The speed trials on the beach were from a rolling start. Nowadays yahoos drag race (usually up hills) on sand, this is an outgrowth of the dune buggy hobby of the 1960's. TROG is just good clean fun, it doesn't need to be a copy of anything. If it copies anything, it is the era from the late thirties to the mid fifties where hot rodders just had one car that they built with very little money out of junkyard parts.
Very rarely did they break an axle they did shear/twist axle keys, but don’t forget the early 413 Max Wedge cars had tapered axles too.
Not replicating anything but reviving the spirit of speed trials on the sand. I went to Trog at Pismo Beach in 2016 and Saturday was cold and wet and a bit miserable but those racing and those of us watching had a blast all the same. Some gal even figured out that if she offered to hold my umbrella while I took photos she got to be under the umbrella and be a little dryer. I couldn't tell you who she was or what she looked like but I got to use both hands on the camera getting shots. https://photobucket.com/bucket/c5e8...74/album/048f9aec-3cd3-4a49-beac-5214b62796f5 URL=https://hosting.photobucket.com/c5e...bc66f168d.jpg?width=960&height=720&fit=bounds][/URL]
Lap the hubs to the early Ford tapered axle and you'll never twist a key. Torque axle nut to 200 ft. lbs. But I strongly suggest a least a brake drum axle retainer as you can now break an axle rather than twist off a key. Ron
The Jalopy Journal
