At first glance, spectator drags are a horrible idea. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, it works like this: at some small circle track in the Northeast, especially around Maine, people in street-going vehicles race each other two-at-a-time around the ring, from a dead stop. First one across the line wins, regardless of how they got there…which at plenty of tracks means that someone is going to get PIT-maneuvered because some hot-shoe in a V6 Camaro saw it happen at Talladega once and firmly believes in the “move or be moved” method of passing the other car. In those situations, feelings get hurt, anger gets flared up and someone usually gets their brain rattled at some point with a right cross. But the other side of the coin is the kind of racing you’ll see here: zero F’s given, balls-out driving that frankly kicks the shit out of a lot of NASCAR racing lately. If there’s a cash prize for winning, it can’t be more than a couple hundred dollars. If something happens to the car being races, “oh well”, hope you brought a trailer. But it’s driver against driver, vehicle choice be damned…all wheel drive? Acura versus Mustang? Whatever…get it out on the asphalt and don’t stop until you’ve crossed the finish line. Or blow the engine…you know, whatever works.
The mix of vehicles that rolled out at S are a pretty common selection…a few front-drivers, an Audi, a V6 Mustang, and some old muscle that honestly needs to be seen to be believed. We aren’t giving away anything…just trust us that some of this racing is genuinely close and genuinely good. We could watch quite a bit of this. Maybe even 500 laps worth.
