Ever since zMax Dragway opened in Concord, North Carolina, with its four lanes, the world has been wondering when the track would uncork all four during competition. Well, the answer is April 25, 2009.

Pinks All Out will be filming there and running cars four wide down the strip. If you live near there, make plans to check this stuff out. If you don’t, fear not, all the action will be shown on the Speed Channel when the particular episode of Pinks All Out runs.

Here’s the full press release:

SPEEDTV officials today announced that the first four-wide, nationally televised, official drag racing competition will take place during the PINKS All Out television shoot at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C., on Saturday, April 25. The episode, which is being shot for Season Three, is scheduled to tentatively premiere on Aug. 6, and is presented by NAPA.
    
Traditionally, the show’s technical advisors evaluate a field of
450-plus grassroots drag racers through two time trial sessions and a 32-car
runoff to select a field of 16 finalists. The cars are chosen by an
objective set of criteria including closeness of competition, consistency in
performance and an adherence to the rule of running “All Out.” Once
revealed, the cars are lined up in the staging lanes, rigged with cameras
and microphones, and run through a competitive eliminator commencing around
dusk.
    
That format will be altered specifically for zMAX Dragway.
    
For this event, more than 520 racers have signed up, and each will
receive two time trial runs in hopes of being selected as one of 32 cars to
participate in one of eight, four-wide eliminators. The remaining eight
contestants will then compete in the customary “side-by-side” format to the
race’s conclusion, where a best “two-out-of-three” hot lap final will
determine the winner.
    
“Listen, we took one look at this place and we wanted to be the
opening show,” said Hunter Nickell, SPEED president. “Now the Smith’s
(Bruton and Marcus) and Christian Byrd (zMAX Dragway executive director and
general manager) have this place cooking and we can’t wait to get there.”
    
Robert Ecker, SPEED vice president of programming and executive
producer of PINKS All Out, talked about the decision process in offering an
actual four-wide competition.
    
“When the prospect of bringing the show to zMAX Dragway first
presented itself, the enormity of the challenge was more than a little
daunting,” Ecker said. “At first we thought it would be cool to just run
four-wide as an exhibition, but as our discussions deepened a plan to run
competitively took shape which makes tremendous sense on multiple levels.
The entire day is now designed to build anticipation for that moment when
Rich Christensen stands in front of four high-powered cars and does the
first nationally televised competitive four-wide arm drop in drag racing
history. It promises to be an electric evening.”
    
“This is exactly why we made this place the ‘Bellagio of drag
strips,'” said Bruton Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of
Speedway Motorsports, Inc., and founder of zMAX Dragway. “When I heard that
PINKS All Out wanted to use our facility as it was designed, at its maximum
potential, by running four lanes at once, I was overjoyed. This hasn’t been
done in over 30 years, and has never been done on a properly maintained,
state-of-the-art drag strip. Something this big and this historic could only
happen at one place, and that’s zMAX Dragway.”
    
PINKS All Out is hosted by creator and executive producer Rich
Christensen and offers grassroots racers a chance to win $10,000, a new NAPA
tool chest and an opportunity to run their cars in front of a national cable
television audience on SPEED, the definitive network for motorsports and the
automotive lifestyle. All racers are asked to run “All Out,” but if they are
caught sandbagging (or slowing their cars to hit a perceived elapsed time)
they will be eliminated from competition. The show, a production of Los
Angeles-based Pullin Television, will be telecast in 720p high definition.
    
This will be the show’s first appearance in the Charlotte area, and
will be the 23rd different track visited since the inception of the show at
the Texas Motorplex on Labor Day Weekend of 2006. That inaugural show
premiered as a Thanksgiving evening network special later that year in front
of a record-breaking television audience, which spawned the creation of the
series.
    
“We had a tremendous show at Bristol Dragway with PINKS All Out a
couple of years ago,” said Jeff Byrd, president of Bristol Motor Speedway
and Bristol Dragway. “It was definitely one of the largest turnouts we’ve
ever had, outside of our NHRA events. The fans absolutely loved it and
couldn’t get enough of it. It’s a fantastic event and zMAX Dragway should
have a spectacular show, especially with them running all four lanes.”

A ‘Four-Wide’ Historical Perspective
    
As with the original PINKS and now, PINKS All Out, looking back on
history has been important to the show. But much like the almost
mythological “racing for pink slips” scrolls that emanated from Southern
California during the post World War II hot rod culture, the legend of
“four-lane” racing has been best told through story time and old photos.
    
According to National Dragster, the official publication of the
National Hot Rod Association, examples of four-wide competitions can be
traced back to the 1960s, where places like Rockford (Ill.) Dragway (now
known as Byron Dragway), Fort Worth’s Green Valley Dragway and a strip in
Fresno, Calif., among others, all held four-wide competitions. In fact, a
couple of photos from Rockford depict four “slingshot” Top Fuel cars lined
up four wide with famous NHRA “flagman” Bill Maddaugh readying a start.
    
Also from the article, former ND editor Bill Holland relayed a story
where the four-lane racing was made up of “teams,” as it was the two left
lane cars versus the two on the right. There were many concepts promoters
tried back then. There was even a promoter – at Southern California’s now
shuttered Fontana Drag City – that tried a four-wide race with jet cars.
    
Another known example comes from back in the 1970s, when
then-promoter of Maryland International Raceway, Todd Mack, rolled out a
four-wide Funny Car exhibition race. Current MIR Owner and President Royce
Miller, who also consults and is the part-time competition coordinator for
PINKS All Out, talked in further detail about some of that history.
    
“It was more of an exhibition than a true competition or drag race,”
said Miller, whose track will be hosting a PINKS All Out shoot on June 20.
“Obviously, when you are running on a track like that, the outside lanes
aren’t grooved so they were kind of in the marbles out there. How it was set
up was that one pair was put on the inside, and another pair put on the
outside, and he had two Christmas trees. At the time, his radio promotion
said, ‘side-by-side-by-side-by-side’ drag racing. And the racers were some
of the standouts of the time with the ‘Chi-Town Hustler,’ Barry Setzer’s
famous Vega and a lot of those types of cars. Each racer got paid to make
two or three runs.
    
“The other big thing was the safety factor,” Miller continued.
“Could you imagine how hairy that four-wide racing was back then with four
cars racing down the track with nothing separating those cars except an
outside guard rail – a single-strand guard rail at that? They had to stay in
their territory because it could have gotten real ugly.”
    
Miller has been instrumental in piecing together many of the
logistical aspects of this race, and marveled at Smith’s vision for creating
such an opportunity.
    
“What we’re going to do is not an exhibition, but an actual
four-wide competition,” Miller said. “For Bruton (Smith) to build a second
track, and the cost of all of that concrete that’s in there, it’s pretty
extraordinary. No one ever, in the history of the sport, has built two
complete race tracks in between the grandstands. Not to mention that both
tracks are of a high caliber with two, all-concrete surfaces all the way to
the finish line. It is just something so unique, and I don’t think there’s
anywhere else in the country that you could hold such a four-wide event,
with evenly prepared surfaces.
    
“We have two independent timing systems that aren’t set up to run
four-wide,” Miller added. “What we’re going to do is set up a special system
of simultaneous starts on both tracks, with one starter switch. We’re going
to come in with special wiring in the tower to create that. One starter will
start both trees, which will allow us to hold one drag race despite having
independent timing systems. Once they run (set in association to
Christensen’s armdrop), the numbers will create a very accurate way of
determining an actual winner. I think it’s going to be a blast to experience
that four-wide charge going down the quarter mile.”
    
PINKS All Out, called the “Woodstock of Drag Racing,” by Summit
Motorsports Park President Bill Bader Jr., is an entire day’s worth of on
track racing and off-track activities, culminating at dusk in the running of
the final 32. As part of the midway, which will feature many interactive
track displays, the SPEED Mobile Theatre will be on hand providing
air-conditioned entertainment and autograph sessions, while on track fun
includes jet cars, wheel standers, a burnout and wheelie competition and a
variety of professional and amateur drag racing equipment.
    
Tickets for PINKS All Out, April 24-25, at zMAX Dragway are on sale
now and can be purchased online at www.lowesmotorspeedway.com or by calling
the Lowe’s Motor Speedway ticket office at 1-800-455-FANS. Tickets for
Friday’s test and tune are $15, while tickets for Saturday’s qualifying
sessions and eliminations, including the four-wide racing are $25 for
reserved seats and $20 for general admission. Kids 12 and under are free
when accompanied by an adult.