Down the strip – looking back at drag racing

Report by David Harbey

9 Dec December 2020

It could be argued that it is the ultimate test, in the same way that the 100 metres is the blue riband event in athletics; a head to head contest over a quarter mile strip of tarmac on two or four wheels.

Originating in the US, with distinctly illegal stop light to stop light races it has developed into a sophisticated, if somewhat unsubtle, branch of motorsport.

We started at the top – no trips to Santa Pod (a mere 25 miles up the road) or any of the other UK drag strips. No, we started out at Bandimere – the drag strip at Denver, Colorado – for the NHRA Mopar Mile High Nationals. 

Yep, the full colorful, noisy, smoky, smelly, ground shaking experience of top line US Drag Racing. Glorious !  Oh, and it was the 50^th anniversary in 2008 – so Bandimere and I are of the same vintage.

Yes, it was another family holiday which happened to allow us to go to motorsport in far off locations – the week after we were at Pikes Peak.

That’s another PistonClick report which you can find here - Pikes Peak Hillclimb 2008.

It was a hot, hazy day at Bandimere in the 90’s at 5,860 ft altitude so the air was a little thinner than we were used to. Sun screen and ear plugs were both essentials.

Back in 2008, I was a spectator with a camera so didn’t capture too much of that day’s action. It didn’t help that we arrived as the fastest dragsters, the Top Fuel class were qualifying as we arrived – we were open-mouthed as the noisiest and fastest of the classes strutted their stuff.

The track record then stood at 4.584 seconds for the quarter mile (from 1999) and a speed over the line of 331.45 mph (from 2005) – both a whisker behind the national records.

A couple of events earlier in 2008, drag racing had suffered the loss of Scott Kalitta at New Jersey and, as a reaction, the organisers restricted the top classes to 1000 feet runs.

They still seemed very quick ! As with much of US motorsport, there is a strong element of “for the fans” with the drivers being introduced to the crowd allowing us to meet the drivers and to get close to the cars in the pits.

Tony Schumacher eventually set fastest time of the day in his US Army sponsored Top Fuel dragster.

A couple of years later and it was time to put that Santa Pod absence to rights. The May Bank Holiday European event didn’t take place in 90F heat, nor were we a mile high ! It still had the other essentials though … fast, loud, cars and bikes  !

I can’t claim to be an expert on drag racing – either in the US or Europe – so what follows is my impressions of the day. For most of the day I set up near the start where I got a view of the burn-out which preceded each run.

Regular readers will know that I extol the virtues of my portable step at race meetings – this is well before that and as such a number of the shots have the low walls between the lanes in view.

I was using my Olympus E500 at this time and, as with some of my other retrospectives, would dearly love to go back with current kit. 

Nevertheless, interesting images could be obtained especially as the cars and bikes came up to the lights for the start.

The stars of the show were, of course, the Top Fuel dragsters with a number of Scandinavian competitors present. I have to say that the fire bottle here looks somewhat small compared to the engine behind.

Swiss Urs Erbacher went on to be 2010 European Top Fuel champion.

There were visitors to the event – the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight  – and Melanie Troxel, across from the US and by strange co-incidence, the driver who had set fastest in Funny Car that day we were at Bandimere.

If you regard strapping yourself into a dragster as slightly unhinged, the idea of piloting (or hanging onto) a drag bike down the strip is even more so ! The start line provided some good side by side shots.

There was also a jet car … 

Towards the end of the day, we headed to the other side of the strip to see some of the things from a different angle …

In 2013, we found ourselves in Florida on another … well you get the picture by now, so headed north to Gainesville for the Friday practice runs of the NHRA Gatornationals.

Saturday we would be heading south to Sebring for the 12 Hour race – but that’s another story for another day.

It was the usual mix of Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycles. We found a good raised area down by the start line with a view back to the burnouts.

The road sign refers to Kenny Bernstein, the first competitor to run over 300 mph – at Gainesville in 1992.

There were some good shots of local snappers, some of whom who had clearly seen it all before.

There were the guys who just had to get that angle from the rear.

The Funny Cars have the lift up front revealing the engine and – just – the driver.

Probably my favourites to shoot are the bikes. One of my all-time favourite shots was grabbed at Gainesville – probably far from technically perfect, I feel it just captures the whole drag bike thing with the front wheel just popping up in the air.

There was a great shot back to the start area and of course the light was, well, Florida light. 

Or you can go for the start shot.

The Top Fuel though were the biggest and noisiest – and frankly, most outrageous looking.

There’s a few more shots from Santa Pod and Gainesville in my Flickr albums including a Morris Traveller and a Ford Sierra (link below). I hope this has given a sense of the sight and sound of drag racing.

The last words go to Andrew, my son. I asked him to sum up his three visits to drag racing; he said –

·       loud

·       smell of burnt rubber and methanol

·       ground shaking

·       we took too long to see it in the UK

Do it once, at least, if you get the chance – but don’t forget the earplugs !

Photographic postscript

In spring 2019, I was back at Santa Pod for a more relaxed and less frantic event. The VHRA (Vintage Hot Rod Association) run various events in the UK including the Vintage Nationals.

There’s open pits to wander round, people in period dress and the Beach Boys on the PA. 

The sun was shining but there was a chill in the air as it was early April. The full PistonClick report is still available - Vintage Hot Rod Association at Santa Pod - but here’s a flavour.

You can share this report with your friends on social media.