is drag racing dead?

[bulletproof]

with our track closing everyone in my area is bitching about the future of our beloved sport.. they say IF we get a new track it will most likely be 1/8 mile. id rather not race 1/8... to me its no over way too fast.... like at 6 flags where you wait an hour for a 3 minute ride..to me its not as fun to watch much less drive...are we a dieing breed? is 1/4 mile be coming nostagia?

[Stich496]

not much to build anymore.... old cars are costly.. new cars are mostly fwd
and the nanny state has made it's way into the drag world.. in the rules of equipment needed...
dated equipmnet.. thats junk by the time most projects get finished..
most new reardrive cars are hairs away from needing a bar installed.. some go way over right off the showroom floor.. safe for the street but.. not the track..
something has to give or they will close one by one.. till there is only a small hand full..

[Beagle]

I'd rather not optimize a car for 1/8... next thing you know it will be arena drags. There are still a lot more 1/8 tracks than 1/4 around here. I think it takes at least 50 acres and some patient neigbors. Funny thing, it's not the old people I hear bitching about noise. It's the new mommy families and pretentious pappas. Like the people who build next to the airport that has been there 30 years and bitch because it's noisy. Really? Wow.

There was a landing strip place for sale in Oklahoma that I wanted for a strip. No restrictions, not zoned, and cheap. 1 square acre wide and 10 deep, but it wouldn't hold the shutdown for a 1/4 track according to the last time I asked on here. That's probably as big a problem as any. Noise, safety / litigation, space. Kinda sucks. Daughter's ex's family had a section (640 acres, 1 mile squared) that I sure would have liked to have. You could put one in the middle of that and tell everyone to f/o but getting electricity out there is $$$$

[Bamfster]

Far from dead in these parts ... but attendance is down. The major factor at my track is that they try to run too many categories at one event. I understand it from the tracks point of view since their bottom line is $$$. But for a guy like me that drives his car to the track and doesn't have the opportunity to "stack" 2-3 days before the event so I get a decent pit spot, it's just not fun anymore. I'd rather drive my hot rod, than sit in the sun all day to only get a handful of runs and have to walk a mile to get to see the race ....

Personally, I think the Denver metro area needs an outlaw style track, be it 1/8 or 1/4 mile that does nothing more than TnT, grudge and heads up style events. The only problem is that nobody wants it in their back yard.

[Beagle]

Far from dead in these parts ... but attendance is down. The major factor at my track is that they try to run too many categories at one event. I understand it from the tracks point of view since their bottom line is $$$. But for a guy like me that drives his car to the track and doesn't have the opportunity to "stack" 2-3 days before the event so I get a decent pit spot, it's just not fun anymore. I'd rather drive my hot rod, than sit in the sun all day to only get a handful of runs and have to walk a mile to get to see the race ....

Personally, I think the Denver metro area needs an outlaw style track, be it 1/8 or 1/4 mile that does nothing more than TnT, grudge and heads up style events. The only problem is that nobody wants it in their back yard.

I think you hit it on the head Bamf. Nice summary.

[SpiderGearsMan]

been dead for me for years , but e town , Island and Atco are still there

[milkovich]

I don't have an educated opinion on wether it's growing or not but I'd be willing to bet drag racing is doing better then any other motorsport out there.

[SuperBuickGuy]

dying, but I wonder if it's more on account of more forms of racing... autocross, for example is a lot more popular today than it was when drag racing was king. in my neck of the woods, you can do both, but autocross (and rally) are far more attended.

[A/Fuel]

It's not dead, at least I don't think so.
I went to around 18 NHRA national and divisional races along with a hand full of IHRA nitro jams this year. The crowds were not what they used to be, but still supprising considering the lack of advertising the NHRA does. Indy and Norwalk always pull huge crowds, but the places that amazed me were like Pittsburg and San Antonio, even though they were IHRA events people seem starved in those areas for a National style event.
I know this is a little off topic but I've been seeing people start to come back, investing a little more money and thinking a head a little more lately. It's a step in the right direction and to me it means it will start to trickel down little by little. Maybe not a fast as it grew in the late '90's and early 2000's, but like I said it's a step in the right direction. I'm hopeful.

[milner351]

I tend to blame lawyers and insurance companies, but that's probably not entirely correct.

Our club used to rent milan every third thursday all summer long - members could race for $35 and get in a TON of runs.

A couple years ago milan jacked up the rental rates through the roof - it's now over $60 a car up to a certain number of cars and they're also charging spectators (used to be free).

It's basically killed our club, and some others, we still rent about twice a year, but instead of a break even or slight income maker for the club - now it's a big loss.

I know tracks aren't in business to keep car clubs alive - but it sure seems like they are not thinking about the big picture, and have lost the concept of "customer service".

[Bamfster]

Definitely not dead on the national and divisional levels .... Heck I still follow the NHRA and a bunch of division 5 guys. But, in my opinion, the NHRA is going the way of NASCAR ... too much created drama and it becomes fake to me.

The local LOW BUDGET bracket guys like me are starting to dwindle around here. One of the guys I race with (84 years young this year) will show up, pay to get in, and if things start to drag out too long for him, he'll just pack up and head home. Just 10 years ago, the vast majority of our Friday night program was cars that were driven to the track. Nowadays, the Fri night guys all have enclosed trailers with motorhomes (for a 14 second street car) and start stacking Fri morning. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with them doing it that way, and my hat's off to them for being able to do it, but, that is why I haven't participated in a single event this year up on the mountain. I'll continue to go to the nationals ... haven't missed since '87 ....

[JeffMcKC]

It’s changing for sure NHRA is all about Fuel and TV. It’s not like it used to be, for better or worse. The pendulum always swings both ways. All you have to do is look at the YB Nationals to know it’s not dead.

[A/Fuel]

Nothing wrong with Fuel!
Anyway,I also see the things going on here with land speed racing coming to the mid-west, that has to be little guy racing at it's best. I think it will be more centraly located now and it will intresting to see this grow, who knows what this will spawn.

[DanStokes]

I haven't done any drag racing since I got into LSR, mostly because the LSR community is so amazingly welcoming. Just great folks.

But drag racing seems to be alive and well around here. There are 4 or 5, 1/8 mile tracks within an hour or two tow and a couple of big tracks within 3 hours. The small tracks went to 1/8 some years back when they couldn't get any more land and the cars got too fast to shut down in the available length. So we have Coastal Plains (Jacksonville), Harrels, Red Springs, Kinston, and I think I'm missing at least 1. Harrels is fun - it's pretty close to a Wildcat strip. BYO safety, 'cause they ain't checking.

Dan

[Brian Lohnes]

Yeah, Tulsa is closing but you have to remember that Memphis and st Louis are reopening. The sport has survived far worse than the last few years.