Drag Racing is Dying

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There is more to life than a straight line down the track. Everybody has their own tastes when it comes to racing. I can't stand NASCAR in anyway shape or form. Drag racing kind of the same thing, I'm just no into pure drag race cars. I'm more into I drive to work everyday in this car and on the weekend I take it to the track.
 
1970Duster said:
There is more to life than a straight line down the track. Everybody has their own tastes when it comes to racing. I can't stand NASCAR in anyway shape or form. Drag racing kind of the same thing, I'm just no into pure drag race cars. I'm more into I drive to work everyday in this car and on the weekend I take it to the track.
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exactly the point .....the reason drag racing is dying in its original form is because it is getting replaced by a version of the sport with foreign influence. Its not good its not bad .....its just what it is. That is WHY drag racing is dying.

shouldn't be much harder than that.
 
1qwikScamp said:
.............this thread is toast, I should have known I was in an argument with a woman.
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well, you don't have to go there.......its just a discussion ....nothing personal, in my books we are still FABO siblings because regardless your style, your scamp could be on a scrap pile now, so I appreciate that you are keeping it on the road.

No bigs .....in fact I will even friend request you, because it is what it is and its all good. :)
 
I will just say this, and I know someone can flood me with statistics, but this is how I feel. Two SOBER people can go out of town to their marked 1/4, and have a safe race. I have done this countless time, without incident. No alcohol! When the race is for sure decided, it's over, even if the 1/4 isn't up. My nephew would "drift" on the street. This involved doing 70 mph around a tight corner and use the hand parking brake between the bucket seats. I wouldn't ride with him. To me, this is death for somebody waitn' to happen. I was attracted to drag racing at the track (test and tune) because it pertained to what I did on the street.
 
I'll look down my nose at it. Drifting is stupid. I don't like it.
 
to me there are a couple of reasons that drag racing is not as popular as it once was.

one reason in my area is that there are 4 tracks within an hours drive of each other.
None of them want to work together on schedules that would allow them to share the area racers. It can be done, but nobody wants the other to have any success. For that reason, none of them can have killer car counts.

The other reason, and in my opinion the biggest, is entertainment selection.

Think about it. in the 50's, 60's, and 70's what did young people have to do for fun and entertainment?

1. drive in movies
2. going to the drag strip to watch or race.
3. Cruising the town and hitting the local hangouts like a mom and pop burger joint.

There really was not a whole lot more to do than that for people looking to have fun and stay out of trouble. unless you wanted to stay home and watch what was on the only 3 TV channels available.

Now days the list of entertainment options are unlimited. There is a market for almost anything that you can imagine. Technology has opened so many more options for entertainment, and the population is much more spread among different interest because of it.

That's the conclusion that I've drawn based on talks with folks who are much older than myself.

And for the record........I think drifting is pretty stupid as well
 
In the 60 & 70 you tweek your car drive it on the street, race friends it was great..Made a few bucks too.

The money guys took over and unless you got the bucks 99% of the time you lose.
Nowadays you spend big bucks on your car, do you really want to blow it up or crash it..?
 
Some good valid points,some so ,not. Gotta remember Wally Parks dug up the N.H
R.A,AND edited Hot Rod magazine,with a iron fist, during the growing years. Parks argued with Garlits,Mickey Thompson,and others ,about pioneering ideas. N.H.R.A.(No Hot Rods Allowed..???,lol.) ,got sold to big business. Racing has become a big business ( with insurance,lawsuits,and overhead). I was part,of a group that actually got a commitment for a rarely used airstrip ,on Sundays.(New Cuyama, Ca. Most buildings,are WW2 era). The car club, agreed to the overhaul, & rough work. The club even had a fundraiser for it, we were swamped (near 100,000 ...,2 day affair.).Sorry for the long post,just needed to vent...(Politics,of course... We were suppposed to pave ,and pay insurance yearly. Insurance,obviously,the rest????)
Sorry ,about the long blab. Seen gold in agreements,go to dust. Drag racing(heads up,legal or not) will continue.
 
Racing is doing fine. Get off your ***, quit crying like a bunch of pussies and go do it. You're over thinking it, if I worried that much about everything I'd be too scared to leave the house. People spend too much time focusing on why they shouldn't do something or that it's too hard, if you put some effort in you can join us at the track or in the industrial park. I'm not a "crowd favorite" here, I don't care, maybe I'm different because I focus more on how I can keep doing what I love and how I can get faster every year.
 
D-50394 said:
The problem around here is there are so many tracks around here that it spreads the crowd out and there is not a lot of people at one place. There is at least 6 tracks within 60 miles from my house.
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Gee, thats a rough problem to have....We don't have enough tracks in our area...have to travel several hours and many miles to a track here. Land is too expensive, insurance is too expensive, and parts ( and gas) are too fracking expensive up here to race!!!

Yes...GAS IS expensive up here...$1.01/liter today, which works out to $3.78/US gallon, then add the $$$ exchange, and it's up over $4.00/US gallon...and that's Regular!
 
My local track 1/8 mile track seems to be getting less popular. I love it down there. The stands are empty for the most part but the staging lanes are generally full during the program. They raised there prices on things and people quit going. There's also more foreign cars down there than what has been in past years. I do love seeing these rust bucket G body Chevys whoop there a$$ though. Lol theres not to many mopars that run down there.
 
SpareParts said:
Racing is doing fine. Get off your ***, quit crying like a bunch of pussies and go do it. You're over thinking it, if I worried that much about everything I'd be too scared to leave the house. People spend too much time focusing on why they shouldn't do something or that it's too hard, if you put some effort in you can join us at the track or in the industrial park. I'm not a "crowd favorite" here, I don't care, maybe I'm different because I focus more on how I can keep doing what I love and how I can get faster every year.
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Very well said.
 
I always had the impression drifting was invented by kids who did't have enough horsepower or skills to win at drag- and circuitracing? :toothy7:
 
i'm not big on drifting but i think rally racing is cool. somethin about the dirt mud and snow lol.

i heard the SRT dart is going to be AWD & 2.4 turbo

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O33Lp9yjHE4#t=158"]The Sights and Sounds of Rallycross Racing - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do5AKuHluIk"]SNO*DRIFT RALLY (Sweet Beat Edition) - YouTube[/ame]
 
I'll throw this perspective out too. Where there ARE tracks, like here for instance, we have a nice NHRA sanctioned 1/4 mile track in Reynolds, Georgia about 60 miles away.

By the time we get loaded up, gassed up and drive down, all we get is about 5-6 runs if we're lucky. That's total bullshit. It's gotten so the little guy ain't got a chance anywhere really. It ain't worth all the trouble and expense of goin just for that few runs.
 
Apples to oranges here people. Two completely different sports and drifting isn't stealing kids from drag racing. Drifting isn't popular enough to have tracks dough it every weekend and like someone else said, it's not really something you can do on the street.
 
Sure racing isnt what it was back in the 60s and 70s but its still a very popular thing, the only problem i see is thats he big money guys took over, not that there arent classes for the slower and stock cars, but to really compete in the "popular" classes you need such high dollar stuff, x275, 10.5 outlaw, pro mod, i mean can the average guy really compete with richard sexton or tim lynch lol, but if its what you love who cares if you win or lose, like spare parts said get off you *** and get out there and run your car, change a jet or bump the timig up to find a few ponies, its all about having fun and i think some people got away from that
 
twayne24365 said:
Sure racing isnt what it was back in the 60s and 70s but its still a very popular thing, the only problem i see is thats he big money guys took over, not that there arent classes for the slower and stock cars, but to really compete in the "popular" classes you need such high dollar stuff, x275, 10.5 outlaw, pro mod, i mean can the average guy really compete with richard sexton or tim lynch lol, but if its what you love who cares if you win or lose, like spare parts said get off you *** and get out there and run your car, change a jet or bump the timig up to find a few ponies, its all about having fun and i think some people got away from that
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a lot of good points on here. my problem w/ drag racing is:electronics are killing it, me and a bunch of people I know aren`t interested in watching a car or dragster leave the line-shut off-come back to life and run down a real car. delay boxes and all included, next big deal will prob. be setting in the stands w/ a joy stick. and just as big w/ me is 1/8 mile racing, I hate it and will not pay to see it. i have a friend that`s got a low 9 sec. vega, knocking on the 8`s, he even switched back to foot braking says he`s having more fun. and the nhra is to blame too, for making it too expensive for the average guy anymore, lets face it, when you have a set of lap belts that haven`t seen sunshine but 2-3 times, and you have to replace them every two yrs., come on! also grew up on small town drifting as such, did it on dirt roads, and the streets when the cops were at the other end of town, doesn`t hold any thing for me anymore. I still enjoy 1/4 racing. the problem is w/ me you can`t gear a street car for 1/8 mile b.s.----rant over -bob:protest::protest::protest:
 
Wow!! When I started this thread I didn't think it would go the direction it did. But, back to the OP, I just see a downward trend. I have Muncie Dragway 40 miles away from me. I've seen it packed on money nights, and almost deserted on test-n-tune sessions. I've been involved in drag racing since I was a kid going to help dad race his '55 Chevy B/G gasser. I will continue to be involved till they chain the last gate on the last track. My daughter wants to get involved, and I'm hoping she'll get a chance to run when she turns 16 in 2 years.
As far as street racing, I quit that long ago. I don't even street my hot rods, since it's such a big temptation for me. If I got caught, I'm sure my badge would be history.
 
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