too many tracks are gone already
I dont think that is a green movement thing. The 1000 foot thing is for safety. They instituted that after kalitta died. 1/8th mile racing has been around for as long as i can remember. Its just getting more popular for some reason. I guess if youre doing it, its fun. Watching it sucks if you grew up on quarter mile.
A little of subject, bare with me... :iamwithstupid:
Good points Hemi Rebel, but Actually allot of 1/8 mile/660ft tracks are on much smaller pieces of property too & cheaper family owned & ran facilities, very old in many cases, not all are just shortened 1/4 mile big dollar tracks... I really like to run both, you need a different set up for both, totally different animals... I many times made some pretty good money, match racing 1/8 mile tracks @ many smaller facilities, mostly in the South, between races traveling from Calif. & back, it really helped support my race cars, "any track is better than no track, at all"....
But I prefer 1/4 mile/1320ft for all professional classes & would like to see the rules change, in the only 2 classes, both Fuel/Nitro, that are the only ones currently running 1000ft T/F & F/C go back to a full 1/4 mile... The track shortening was a knee jerk reaction, to the absolute stupidity of the NHRA/E-Town track operators, putting a stupid "damn crane at the end" of Englishtown shut down area, just beyond the catch net, that Scott Kalita's T/F dragster ultimately hit after his car stretched the safety net, when the chutes opened too late & car wasn't slowed down enough {very similar to Fremont/Baylands demise & a wrongful death suit}, to close to the net, for the net stretching & it's ability to stop it... The 320 ft shortening to 1000ft, was supposed to be just temporary, untilthey could figure out whay they were all blowing up at the 1000ft range in the 1320ft era... IMHFO it isn't really any safer now, except for a couple of older NHRA Sanctioned tracks,
with very short shut down areas, they just push the Nitro cars "harder earlier" now, much more clutch/tire technology/expense & they just blow up at the 800ft mark now in the 1000ft era, instead of blowing up at the 1000ft mark of the 1320ft-1/4 mile era... IMHFO they almost all still drive it out the back door, to nearly 1320ft anyway, for MPH #'s & the little round bonus points, for high MPH....
IMHFO all Professional classes, should have a smaller engines now{maybe like 431-450ci limit} like they had years ago {shorter strokes, can handle more RPM's, with out exploding}, maybe mandate a lower gear ratio {limit speed & not ET}, maybe take some fuel pump away {only 1 single pump}, maybe limit the blower sizes & overdrive {maybe 12-71:1 or no Hi-Helix rotors, no 40%-50% overdrives, like in many cases}, maybe limit them less Nitro %'s {like 80%, instead of 90%+}, maybe go back to a single plug heads & a single Magneto ignitons systems {less spark they can't burn as much fuel}, these are just a few examples of how they {NHRA} could make it much safer & probably even much more competitive once again, in all Fuel/Nitro Classes again {even some similar rule changes in P/S & P/SM}, maybe be able to get more people back into Nitro Classes T/F & F/C make it a "slight bit more affordable", have larger fields, instead of just a couple super 3 or 4 car teams, like it's become now.... IHRA & AHRA {
granted they're not as fast or competitive as NHRA equivalents} they still runs 1320ft-1/4 mile at select tracks still in their Nitro Categories, no deaths or horrendous wreckage....
there's more than one way to skin a cat, food for thought... sorry rant over... my $0.02 cents
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I went to the local dragstrip (Gulfport Dragway) today during one of their bigger events (King of the Coast) only to find out that they where/are running 1/8 mile vs 1/4. I have to say I am not a fan...every wednesday all the local boys come out and put on a hell of a show running bracket races at the full 1/4 and if your a spectator it only runs you $7. Today I paid $15 to see a bunch of folks run the 1/8.
Now I'm not much of a mathematician but I'm fairly sure I just paid over 2X the $$$ for half the distance. Not to mention it was only the racers there VS every wednesday where the whole town comes out to watch. The bleachers were absolutely empty and after a few 1/8 mile passes I completely understand, the 1/8 mile run is just plain to short as a spectator.
Bring back the 1/4 Mile!!
LOL... yeah it's kind of a screwing, with out a reach around...
