I’ve been buried in Kelly American Challenge racing footage on my spare time ever since I discovered that the series existed at all. It’s not so much that it’s road course racing, or that plenty of names, like Lyn St. James, got their start there. No, for me, it’s the sheer number and style of vehicles that made up a typical race. There were Camaros and Mustangs, and the occasional Mercury Capri, but the rest of the field? There were Malibus and Grand Ams, Venturas and Novas battling Dodge Aspens and Plymouth Volarés, and even a couple of different types of American Motors products, including Concords and Spirit AMXs. Six cylinders and V8s battled on the same course at the same time for the same prize, with no separation by engine displacement and certainly no green-checkered mess to deal with. Just a sprint race, best driver takes it in cars that split the difference between a street car and a Grand National stocker. Nice.
Think to other racing venues that use street cars as the base for the competition machines. Do you appreciate having a random here or there? Look to NASCAR’s past…I didn’t know the name Henley Gray at all until an hour before I started typing this, because I’d never seen a 1970 Ford Thunderbird as a NASCAR racer before that moment. Seeing a Ford Maverick running the strip wasn’t all that out of place, but seeing a four-door Maverick whip serious ass in 1975 left plenty of people dumbfounded as the Gapp and Roush “Tijuana Taxi” car used every rule-bending trick in the book to become a car to fear. Think about the Wayne County Dodges showing up at a race to play hell with Warren Johnson and Bob Glidden, before the infamous break-in at the shop occurred. Think about seeing a four-door Granada chasing down a Fox Mustang and a late second-gen Camaro around Lime Rock. Do your eyes automatically go to the surprise entry, or do you just care about who is your favorite?
Everybody wants “parity” and “close racing” catalyzed with “optimum safety”. No chance of anything remotely interesting or dangerous. Too many RULES. Detroit builds it’s most exciting car EVER and NHRA declares it is a death trap. EVERY combo except the slowest in the class carries ballast and sometimes even THEY do too. I can’t understand how they still race motorcycles, BUT freakin’ MOTORCYCLES with BALLAST! Is that not RETARDED? And the increased participation due to every racer having a FAIR chance? Why the short fields in everything but Pro Mod? The Taxi went 8s with just a 6 point, no halo and everybody had fun and nobody died. Scott Kalitta’s throttle hangs WFO and we chop the end off the race track and build cocoon cars that can SURVIVE a crash at WFO. TOTALLY LOGICAL!
John Force IS going to die some day. Would he really rather go in the seat of a race car or a bed in a nursing home? Jungle Jim Liberman died on the street in a Corvette. He REGULARLY, intentionally set his cars on fire as did Don Garlits who lives and races on. Fire burnout in an electric dragster? Hell Yes!
Right on the money my friend…
Everybody wants parity and close racing? Well, so says the sanctioning body, as it bleeds numbers from its attendance records…The sanctioning bodies came up with all the rules for one reason, and one reason only, to help GM products win. I can’t think of a time when NHRA or NASCAR changed rules to help gain parity for Ford or Chrysler. It’s always been about twisting the rules for GM. What they’ve done with Pro Stock (and Super Stock) is a sad joke. Those cars look more like pro mods than pro mods do. Yes, I miss model diversity, so much so that there is nothing they are currently doing that would ever make me want to attend another NHRA or NASCAR event. I’ll stick to the outlaw nostalgia events.
They crippled the Hemis in Pro Stock by LIMITING RPM after the championship run. LIMITING RPM in a PRO STOCK. AND a SPEC intake for the class induction innovation BUILT. They are getting what they deserve as Camaro Stock fades away. Now they are scratching their heads as to why no one built a GM powered Dart or Mustang for their INNOVATIVE new rule. Rocket Science from Glendora.
Sooooooo to wake things up they PAY racers to do better burnouts. Burnout Contests? What’s Next? Best Wrap?
Agreed and very well put!
More and more racetracks go dark every day.
Empty bleachers, high insurance rates, NIMBY neighbors, and colossal costs are the bigger problems to racing.
Actually Brian has been posting about sold out races this year on his FB account. Newbies? Masochists? I dunno….
Don’t know what everyone is jawing about here but, YES! I do.
A diverse collection of cars on the starting grid is a good thing, but sometimes the price can be too high.
An absurd example would be Dirt Late Models. They’re closer to spec races and look more like upside down johnboats than production cars. But what would happen if you forced them to run production-based noses and tails? You’d lose the sideways grip those bodies are designed to generate and would slow them down a lot. Although technically these do have the stickers claiming they’re running a lot of different models.
Then there have been several times NASCAR tried to break a two-marque battle by behaving like a pro wrestling referee when somebody was willing to show up with a brand nobody else was running. Letting a Yellow Banana run is going to breed a lot of resentment. Better to be straight up and say, “OK, we’re giving Brand X a 200 lb weight break to keep things balanced” than to create the perception of an under the table deal.
A lot of the more interesting race classes don’t have this problem though… just look at the grid in small tire radial racing. While Fox body Mustangs are common, there’s all sorts of other cars entered. At Lights Out 9, somebody was even running a Lexus SC300 – with the factory Toyota block still in there, no less.
As 14 year old kid, i would love to see that. It would be cool to the diversity in like drag racing, just like it was in the 60s, 70s, and even the 80s and 90s. That\’s is why i like watching the nostalgic racing more than the big show cars. In my mind they are just cooler for the fact of i can look at the car and know what it is(most the time).
This kid “gets it”
Short answer: YES
Short response; DITTO.
Today\’s race cars,regardless of the sanctioning body they run in ,are all \”spec\”cars,with very little or no innovations. The days of finding a competitive edge over the rest of the field are gone. Grumpy,WJ,Smokey,Watson;all of these guys,plus many others in various series noted this fact a couple of decades ago.
Spec car racing and spec everything for that matter,have made for boring racing from F1 ,to NASCAR,Indy car,and NHRA.
I\’ve not been to a race in over 10 years for this exact reason…
Exactly. Everything is just spec car racing. Or in the case of the NHRA Spec Clown Car racing 4-Wide.
No question about it. It’s a fact
NASCAR AND NHRA the diversity goes out the window on the parity bit. HEAVEN FORBID a sponsor has to put his name on anything with an AERO DISADVANTAGE, so….. BLOBS!
YES!
Of course I want diversity. Reason now I don’t watch NHRA drag racing. Pro Stock absolutely sucks! This was my favorite class too growing up but now what a waste.
remember the good times .