My first IHRA drag race Saturday night. WOW!!!!

[nosaintsfanatic]

I was lucky enough to experiance my first IHRA drag race Saturday night near Baton Rouge LA. The top fuel dragsters were simply amazing. If you ever get a chance to go see one of these events in person, DO IT. The power of these dragsters is unreal. Your heart feels like it is going to shake out of your chest. Oh yea, don't forget ear plugs. Here are a couple terrible pics taken with my camera phone. Like a dummy, I forgot my regular camera.

Chris

 

[nosaintsfanatic]

I was lucky enough to experiance my first IHRA drag race Saturday night near Baton Rouge LA. The top fuel dragsters were simply amazing. If you ever get a chance to go see one of these events in person, DO IT. The power of these dragsters is unreal. Your heart feels like it is going to shake out of your chest. Oh yea, don't forget ear plugs. Here are a couple terrible pics taken with my camera phone. Like a dummy, I forgot my regular camera.

Chris

 

[Onomea]

Now that looks like a lotta fun!

 

[hksupervisor]

Drag racing is a whole lotta fun. You have to experience it in person to appreciate it.

 

[all5x]

I fell in love with the AA/Altered on my first trip to a meet at the Acme track in New Jersey..it was the only catagory that was not transferred over to the new IHRA series..to dangerous they said..do see them once in a while at an old timer's meet..scary machines..a local bar owner in San Francisco ran one and had it mounted on the wall behind the bar when he retired it..Fizzy's was the name of the bar..I think it still might be there..all5x

 

[TNDixieGirl]

You have to experience it in person to appreciate it.

Thats for sure.

 

[wbraswell]

I went to my first drag race in 1969 at Dallas International for the NHRA Springnationals, when I was 16, and I have been hooked ever since. I have drag raced motorcycles over 25 years. Watching fuelers and funny cars on TV is like watching someone shoot a handgun on TV. There is no way to understand how loud it really is. It's really akin to guns. It's all about power and noise. Yeah,baby!

 

[BarbC]

I love drag racing! I used to live within rumble distance of Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ. You really have to be in the stands to appreciate it, which we often were back in the 70s.

 

[rewster]

Isn't it hard to run fast in a dress & heels

Maybe Sip can fill us in.

 

[Stranglehold]

Ah, the ear ripping exhaust notes! The choking clouds of acrid tire smoke! The eye watering nitro fumes! It truely is a spectacle for the senses. I do love it so.

Roe

 

[CarlP2]

I took a friend to the NHRA event in Atlanta a few years back. I told him he had to see it live to understand. After the first pair of nitro cars went by, he said "I can feel my eyeballs vibrating!" He understood after he felt the cars go by.

 

[DWFAN]

English Town, Atco, Buds Creek, Louden, Lebanon Valley, Dover. Ah the good times. I ran this little puppy 9 years in the ECRA with one National Championship win in all that time. My first year was absolutly terrible and I wondered why I was doing it but had a great friend Paul Matyka who owns Riverside Cycle and proceded to tune a 9.0 compression 1200 cc ridged framed sportster to do 11.3 alll day long. I rode this bike for 11 years on the steet with the same engine. I only blew it up once.

Do I still have it? You bet.
DW

 

[BrianE]

DWFAN thats a nice bike. How long ago did you run at Lebanon Valley in NY? I used to race a 1997 Eagle Talon Turbo up there, that ran a best of 10.2 some years back. One day I ran across the slips and took a big sigh... memories!

 

[Miss Fire]

Aaah yes the dragstrip, the place I was almost born, missed it by 9 days

Mom and Dad met each other at Detroit Dragway in 1959, in the staging lanes!
I guess that's why it's in the blood. However I will say the bst place to experience all of it is from behind the wheel.
The sights and sounds are great but the smell, oh how I love the "Essence of Dragstrip" that magical mix of alchol fuel and burning rubber, Mmm

 

[Shorty4T]

Yes those were the days...I don't go to the drag races even today. It does get in your blood, I know if I go to the Southern Nationals I'll have to start racing again.

I used to bracket race at a local track in Covington GA called The Atlanta Speed Shop. It was my Sunday outing. Now the drag strip is a nice flat sub division. I always wanted to run Pro Stock, I always liked Lee Shepard in that class but WJ was the one to beat. The fuel cars were great for show. This was back in the day of Big Daddy and Shirley.

I still ocassionally have the need for speed. I still have the car and engine that I used to race. Just can't bring myself to sell either. For the cheap thrills now I get my adrenaline shot from 2 wheels...

It was the first production bike to break into the 10 second barrier. I just can't bring myself to lay across a gas tank on the newer bikes.

Cheers,
Sam

 

[Mickey D]

Drags are a total blast! Sears Point in Sonoma, CA is the place to be!