Lest you thought that there was no big money left to win in the no-prep world at this time of the year, the crew at Texas Raceway proved you wrong. The eighth-mile track in Kennedale, Texas had their Redemption 4.0 event last weekend and with no track prep and temps hovering somewhere in the 40s, it was as hairy as you’d expect. It as also as packed as you’d expect with people coming from all around the Houston area to take in the show. Drag racing’s version of gladiators VS lions didn’t fail to deliver some big thrills and some pretty wild spills as well. As we commented on a Facebook thread about no-prep racing the formula is simple.
The wrecks bring the people, the people bring the money, and the money brings the cars. The money was certainly there as Kye Kelly in his famed third generation Camaro that has laid waste to the best that the television drag racing world could throw at it fell short in the final to the Birdman (new) fourth generation Camaro. Both of these guys are hitters the grudge, no-prep, and no overly glorified world of “street racing”. Between the walls at Kennedale with no prep on the strip they both waded through competition over the course of the cold day and a $15k payout is nothing to sneeze at. There’s a new Street Outlaws spin-off coming that is centered around Kelley, so you’ll be hearing lots more about him in the coming months although his legend in this part of the sport already looms large.
Now, as usual there was some wreckage over the course of the weekend. Close calls keep it interesting but two guys hammered their cars pretty hard. The well-known Cornbread Camaro barrel rolled through the lights in pretty spectacular fashion after crossing the track and nearly clipping eventual runner up Kelly. During a pre-race test Ricky Wilson’s Firebird caught a case of concrete poisoning and judging by the nose of the car, it ain’t the first time. Below we’ll include the videos in this order: Final round race of Kelly VS Birdman, Cornbread barrel roll, and then Wilson hitting the wall.
What’s our opinion on “no-prep” racing? No one has a gun to the head of the competitors, they know what they are getting into, and the tracks are reaping huge profits. If you are screaming about someone getting killed, think about this. We were at a race two months ago on a prepped track that had multiple wrecks a day. This had two over a multiple day event. It’s all dangerous, kids.
No prep racing started in the 50’s and they did it on rock hard pie-crust slicks, 3 point cage and lap belts.
Heads up racing like this and nostalgia is hard to beat now adays. Sure beats what nhra has to offer.
They weren’t producing 2-3000K hp either back in the 50’s either!
I do watch no prep racing but would never partipate though.
All drag racing, everywhere, ought to be “no prep”! We never had track prep during the greatest period of drag racing, the ’60’s and ’70’s, we don’t need it now!
We need drivers who can drive their cars…and the track.
Your opinion is stupid.
I agree.
What in the hell is the deal with the packs of idiots standing right next to the cars in the pit and at the light? I take they’re all “qualified” to be there – ie they sniffed enough glue during drafting class and ate enough paint chips while still in the crib. Sure, the racing’s cool, but I’d rather be on the other side of the Jersey barricade when two, 2-3k HP monsters light off at the line. Morons.
What’d Hot Rod magazine call this in the 60’s?
Match Race Madness
This is version 2.0
Can sum it up with a quote from the article above:
‘The wrecks bring the people’
Basically – NASCAR. How soon till we see corn-hole being played in staging…..
The argument that tracks back in the day were prepped little if any is true. Back then the top cars were only making maybe 1,500hp and running a six-second door car was laughable. Much more horsepower today in a significantly heavier car than a fueler in the 60s. No way around physics.
Ad for accidents at a sanctioned national event verses accidents at no-prep races…. I’d like to see statistics on how many accidents plotted against the number of passes for the event. I think that data would be revealing.
No prep racing is like sex without a condom, its more satisfying but the risk is greater!
I think that this is a much more exciting style of Drag Racing than ‘bracket racing’.
Delay boxes, crossover boxes have killed the excitement of drag racing for me.
When I have to explain to my wife why a dog stock minivan running 17’s just “won” because it didn’t “break out” in the finals against a 10 second Camaro, you have lost a large portion of your audience.
My brother in law is big into bracket racing. It is great fun for HIM, not so exciting to take the family to watch though…
It’s dicey racing but like said above – beats bracket racing. https://youtu.be/_6x9HrdBkho