These ARE the good old days 10/12/05
First, I must tell you that I joined the Air Force in 1963 and stayed there until 1973 so, while I attended some races during that time as both a spectator and competitor, I really never was part of the legendary "good old days" when anyone could and evidently did build a Top Fuel, Fuel Coupe or AA/GS car. But after listening to the stories about those legendary times from my peers over the last 25 years or so, I decided that this year I would see if there were still some races I could attend that would compare to those "good old days." I'm pleased to report that I've found plenty of compelling races like they had in the good old days. You just have to get your butt off the couch and out from behind your computer and go looking for them. Let me give you just a few examples of races that I found just as entertaining, affordable and similar to those races from the "good ol' days." If you are a fan of so-called street legal racing, then get yourself down to Orlando Dragway for Carl Weisinger's World Street Nationals. Around 300 or so "street legal" cars attend this event every year. They race all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday (this year Oct. 14-16). For a pre-race tune-up they take over the local Orlando Race Rock Cafe on Thursday night, bringing about a hundred of the participants to the parking lot. At the end of the evening the local cops allow them to do burnouts on the street when leaving the Race Rock parking lot and then just drive away. Best of all, there is no charge for attending the Race Rock happening. For the drag race fan of fast, heads-up doorslammer racing who's grown tired of mortgaging the house to pay for the parking, tickets, food and apparel at IHRA and NHRA national events, the World Street Nationals is a very viable alternative. But you say, "I'm a fan of big-dollar bracket racing and its stars." Then I suggest you attend George Howard's "Million Dollar Bracket" race, which is held once a year at Memphis Motorsports Park. The event attracts over 400 of the very best bracket racers in the world, who, over a three-day period, race for about a half-million dollars in prize money. It is an eighth mile event, most of the competitors have five-second cars, and the winning or losing margins at the finish are almost always measured in thousandths of a second. For bracket racing fans or just fans of drag racing period, sitting at the finish line and watching literally hundreds of close races every night while enjoying some bar-b-que and a cold beer, there isn't a better race anywhere. Also, if you are a fan of great food and classic blues, any excuse to visit Memphis and Beale Street is a good one. And one more bonus for fans: I don't believe that Mr. Howard even charges spectators to come in and watch. But wait, there's more. If you are a fan of "Outlaw" doorslammer racing (and I do mean anything goes, run-what-ya-brung, heads-up Pro Mod racing) then the ADRL's annual "Dragstock" is the race for you. I attended the second annual Dragstock this year at the beautiful eighth-mile Carolina Dragway. This is a facility that as far as concessions, seating, restrooms, parking, and a great racing surface goes, is on a par with any NHRA or IHRA national event facility I've been to. A ticket for all three days cost the spectator just $30. For three days I watched 60 of the quickest and fastest Pro Modifieds in the world race. Friday was a test and tune, which a spectator could attend for just five bucks. Almost every Pro Mod car there made at least a couple of passes. I and the hard cores that showed up Friday saw 80 or more test laps beginning at noon and ending at about 10:30 at night. Saturday and Sunday were race days. Saturday's racing gave the fans three qualifying laps and then a complete race. There was another complete race on Sunday. For Pro Mod fans this event offered three days of nothing but Pro Mods, including a lot of cars and drivers never seen before. I never attended one, but I have to believe this race is this generation's version of an old "64 Funny Cars" event. But, you say, "I want to watch nitro but I can't afford to attend a national event." Well, my fellow nitro junkies, there are several affordable alternatives I have discovered for you. Two of NHRA's national event tracks, Firebird Raceway in Phoenix and The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway host pre-season test days. I've been to both of these facilities test and tune sessions and they are far and away the biggest bargain in drag racing for a true nitro-maniac. Generally both tracks attract 30-40 or more of the sport's premier Top Fuel and Funny Car teams. I really like these test sessions because it offers everything that a fan will see on a NHRA Friday or Saturday qualifying session, but without the circus atmosphere that comes with a national event. The teams and drivers are much more relaxed and available. You don't have to dodge speeding SUV's hauling a race car back to the pits. You can get an autograph or even strike up a conversation with the driver, owner, or tuner without waiting in line for an hour. In the past (and the future, I hope) you can sit wherever you wish. A ticket for one of these test sessions runs about $20-25 and if you think about it that is a real bargain. If these test sessions get too popular, promoters like Charlie Allen at Firebird will probably change all of that and raise the prices to "National Event" level, but for the time being both Allen and my buddy Chris Blair at Las Vegas have kept the prices down and the enjoyment level up. There were some other races/events I attended recently that I think represented drag racing at its best. Some of those include the Hot Rod Magazine-sponsored pump gas drags at Memphis (another event where there was no charge for watching), the World Series of Drag Racing at Cordova, IL, the Wheelstand Nationals at Ron Leek's Byron (IL) Dragway, and anything at George Ray's Outlaw Wildcat Drag strip! My point with all of this is that this year I was determined to rediscover what it is about drag racing that turned me into drag racing fanatic at the age of 12 because, you see, I'd become somewhat burned-out on the sport. I now think that I got burned out because for a time almost the only races I attended were NHRA and IHRA national events, and the only people I dealt with were the racers, promoters, and officials that put on those events. And then there is the politics involved at that level of the sport. The politics alone sucked the life out of me. After a year of taking the path less traveled, I've come to a couple of conclusions. First, I still really love the sport of drag racing and there is plenty of it out there. Second, my dad is right when he says to me, "Don't live in the past. The good old days are happening right now." There is a lot of very entertaining and affordable drag racing, including the products that IHRA and NHRA deliver, but there is also equally good if not better drag racing to watch and participate in outside of the "majors." Drag racing today is as good as it ever has been. . .you just have
to get out and look for it. So I leave you with just two words to
live by: Road Trip. |
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lmost
every time I get around a bunch of old nitro junkies like myself,
we invariably start reminiscing about the "good old days."
The conversation always gets around to those halcyon days of meets
in California or Texas or E-Town when someone attended a race with
100 Top Fuel cars or 64 Funny Cars or 50 Super Stockers. That is
followed with his selective memory of the price of a ticket, beer
or drag dog followed immediately by that person lamenting the fact
that all of that neat stuff happened in the good old days and how
we'll never see that kind of racing again. 
