(Photos by Greg Rourke) – So here’s our last blast of drag week 2017 action photos from Byron Dragway in Illinois. By the time we got to Byron there was carnage among the 389 cars that started the event. That’s pretty much the nature of the business at Drag Week and how one survives that carnage and overcomes it tends to define their experience. Byron was the third place we visited during the event and even with the carnage that competitors experienced, we still had way more than 300 competitors roll into the strip first thing in the morning.
One of the interesting things about Byron is how they prep the track. They don’t use weird chemicals or products but they are very specific in how they drag the thing. They use a huge tractor and they only drag the track in one direction. They back the tractor down the strip, drop the drag and pull it toward the starting line. They perform this operation on both lanes as necessary and frankly, it seemed to work great as traction was great for the racers.
One of the things I love about drag racing is the fact that it is a pretty specialized activity but there are so many twists and turns as to how the activity is conducted. Every track has its proclivities and Byron is no exception. I love the place and the racers did, too!
Click the images below to expand them and then scroll along to see them all –
Great stuff again