The wide world of motorsports has a bit to offer for just about every car enthusiasts’ tastes, but sometimes you just need a healthy dose of entertainment for everyone. This is the realm of school bus racing and demolition derbies, where absurdity and bloodlust drive crowds absolutely insane. It’s spectacle and it’s awesome. But this video of reverse drag racing from Maine’s Beech Ridge Raceway is surely the best addition to the genre of racing best-known as “spectacle.” Driving in reverse at speed is, of course, fairly difficult on one’s own and one can imagine the challenge of driving in reverse for a good chunk of Beech Ridge’s ⅓-mile oval with four other janky heaps getting squirrely a foot or two away.
I should probably back up and explain the rules: You line up next to the cars next to you, bang the shifter to “R,” and then race three or four other cars backward to the finish line. Then…Well, that pretty much looks like all there is to it, actually. As you can imagine, there’s more than a little contact with the cars spinning and wheeling and banging and, in several cases, rolling over spectacularly. It’s absolute bedlam and it’s great. If you don’t find this even a little entertaining, check your pulse. This is some quality Saturday night fun at the local oval and a fitting send-off for so many forgettable automotive appliances.
Shouldn’t that be gard racing….