Drag Racing then and Now
Posted: Friday, December 07, 2007
by Rick Martin
Well what can I say. The awesome speeds and times they are turning now, WOW who would have ever thought.
However at what costs will they go too to keep this up? Today most of us that raced in the "Good ole Days" cannot afford to compete in the National ranks. Massive budgets along with Major sponsorship is needed just to field a small class team like S/S, S/G, S/C etc.
When I competed in the early 80's we ran in Comp, and I drove a P/S for a freind that had alot of money, however his budget was no where near what they spend today, in fact he no longer races either. I was fairly succesful in comp, but we didn't do so good in P/S, as there were a certain few namely a Lee Shepard, Lee Iaconio, and a Bill Jenkins that were the dominant drivers of the time.
Boy that was fun.
The good news that I see on the horizon is the resurgence of the Nostalgia cars. I see the F/C's, the altereds, and now some of the old style P.S cars coming in with their own little groups.
The PSCA is getting bigger and the Bad Street cars that run in the 10.5 classes all bring back great memories and a feeling that the lille guy can have fun and compete without the big Sanctioing bodies dictating who, what, where, etc. Oh yeah there are still those guys with mega bucks there also, but in general you can see more blue collar rides, and families enjoying racing.
In closing I hope that in the future we will continue to see some of the old style of racing and not lose the excitement of a car that we can relate too in our everyday life. These new cars just look like well....
However at what costs will they go too to keep this up? Today most of us that raced in the "Good ole Days" cannot afford to compete in the National ranks. Massive budgets along with Major sponsorship is needed just to field a small class team like S/S, S/G, S/C etc.
Boy that was fun.
The good news that I see on the horizon is the resurgence of the Nostalgia cars. I see the F/C's, the altereds, and now some of the old style P.S cars coming in with their own little groups.
The PSCA is getting bigger and the Bad Street cars that run in the 10.5 classes all bring back great memories and a feeling that the lille guy can have fun and compete without the big Sanctioing bodies dictating who, what, where, etc. Oh yeah there are still those guys with mega bucks there also, but in general you can see more blue collar rides, and families enjoying racing.
In closing I hope that in the future we will continue to see some of the old style of racing and not lose the excitement of a car that we can relate too in our everyday life. These new cars just look like well....
Rick Martin http://Bigrich.MyWorldVideo.com
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