Drag racing was born in the dry lake beds in the California deserts. Speed demons were able to break the 100mph barrier on the Muroc dry lake bed in California’s Mojave Desert, but it was not until 1950 that a man by the name of C.J. 1974: NHRA establishes a points system. Saturday Night Nitro with NHRA Hot Rod Heritage, Drag Racing 101: Understanding the Basics of 1320 Racing, Celebrating Mopar's 80th Birthday the Mile-High Way, Yes, I would like to receive emails from Nitto Tire and Driving Line, I’d like to receive Driving Line’s twice-monthly eNewsletter, Sign me up for a quarterly digital magazine subscription. The 260mph record was beaten as early as 1984. The first competitors simply souped up their daily driver and took it to the track for the weekend, but today top-fuel dragsters dominate the speed records. as an automotive machinist under Bob Brooks, in the piston dept.
What started out as a group of guys choosing to be different in bracket racing, quickly evolved into a lucrative match race circuit and the inspiration for the Top Doorslammer class in Australia.
When the NHRA celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2001, it was clear to all that drag racing had truly stamped its mark on the heart of the American public. Drag racing seems like it’s been with us forever. Parks would run both the NHRA and. The Albertson Olds and Dragmaster Dart were the cars to beat. As the decade turned drag racing began to get organised. Wally Parks again helped create the group. As the sport grew the first drag racing superstars emerged. Just north of where the first official drag races were held was where the NHRA held their first event. Eddie Hill hits 300mph (source: Tom Margie), Stephan Papadakis at the Battle of the Imports (source: Papadakis Racing). Because of the dangerous nature of these machines and for weight distribution, the engine is located as far back as possible. The official NHRA Funny Car quarter-mile speed record became—and still is—Jack Beckman’s 333.66mph. The Top Fuel Dragster uses small front wheel with a long front frame. Large rear wheels and tires help put the immense power to the ground and move the cars in a straight line as quickly as possible. It really makes me appreciate more the racing events!
You will see his name again in this story. A new sanctioning body, the National Electric Drag Racing Association (NEDRA) is the first exclusively-alternative-power quarter-mile sanctioning body. As long as fuel and fierce competitiveness combine, drag racing will continue unabated.
2015: The calculated power of a Top Fuel engine is now between 8500 and 10,000hp, with 6,000 foot-pounds of torque. That is really quite awesome, and I’m glad that TopSpeed had a category like this.
If California is the hometown of drag racing,are there also drag racers there? His run and record is official, but evidence suggests that “Golden Greek” Chris Karamesines ran 204mph in Illinois months before, with Frank Cannon also running over 200mph at LIONS Drag Strip that July. Engineers tweaked suspensions to solve the problem: altered wheelbases, solid front axles, nose-in-the-air stances… all designed to put more weight on those rear tires, encouraging them to hook up rather than go up in smoke. Shirley Muldowney and Lucille Lee face off in Columbus in the first all-female Top Fuel final in NHRA history. Cars were driven to the track or towed in makeshift trailers. Early 1930s: The dry lakebeds of Southern California were wide-open and available to hot rodders to drive as fast as they dared. Wally Parks was the associations first President and once noted, “we did have ambitions of its becoming a national sports entity. Don Prudhomme made the first five-second Funny Car pass, a 5.98, along with the class’ first 240mph trap speed. In 2017, Time magazine named RuPaul as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In the face of the NHRA’s nitro ban, and with the AHRA lacking a full schedule of events, a group of independent racers created the famed “Smoker’s Meet” at Bakersfield. He succeeded and within two years all car engines sat behind the drivers.
Leek’s innovation was racing against yourself as much as you’re racing against the clock or the guy next to you. Also, NHRA established its Stock Eliminator class—one of many attempts to get back to grassroots racing, using cars that looked like the ones that you could buy in showrooms. Support Your Local PBS Station:
The first official six-second Top Fuel run is owned by Dave Beebe, running an altitude-adjusted 6.94 e.t. In the Factory Experimental division, making power was not the problem… hooking up on the crappy slicks of the day was an issue. By using this mixture instead of regular gasoline, the cars are able to produce more power in their engines.
1970: NHRA adopts and renames the Pro Stock class, slotting it beneath the Top Fuel and Funny Car in their hierarchy. Popular mythology ties it to quarter-horse racing, or the distance of a city block, but in an interview with hot-rodding historian Gray Baskerville, appearing in Rod & Custom magazine in 2001, drag racer/ eyewitness Leslie Long swore that it was simply the length of runway available, plus a short run-off, at the Santa Ana facility. Ford and Chrysler battled to make the best cars with designs becoming more radical. 1990: Battle of the Imports, the first all-import drag race, is held at LACR in Palmdale. Find out more about this iconic sport of the '30s and '40s. You predict the time you’re going to run, and so does the guy in the other lane. Hopefully, one of this days, I may have the chance to try this sport. 2001: NHRA introduces its Import Drag Racing Series with a six-race schedule.
Today, the track has undergone $6,000,000 worth of expansions and upgrades, and hosts the first and last event of each season. All rights reserved. The Top Fuel winner, for example, won a $25,000 bonus.
1984: Don Garlits tops 260mph. Larger changes would soon be in effect. 1947: The Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) is formed, meant to organize this growing band of speed fiends. On June 21, Funny Car pilot Scott Kalitta was killed when his engine exploded near the finish line, his parachutes did not deploy, and he smashed into a heavy crane that ESPN was using for filming. We invite you to get behind the wheel with us, it's certain to be an interesting drive. 1998: The IDRC (Import Drag Racing Circuit) arrives to cater to the newly-emerging power-mar four-cylinder crowd. Continue on to the site and look for links to the latest articles, as soon as they are released. Which of these is correct? at Odessa, Texas. No more having to guess who won. 1971: Following a catastrophic 1970 crash that saw him hospitalized after a blown driveling hacked off half his foot, Don Garlits develops and builds Swamp Rat XIV, the first successful rear-engined dragster. His first goal was to establish a distance for the cars to race. Their finest hour resulted in the first six-second doorslammer pass in drag racing history. Getting back to the past gives me so a hint on where all this exciting and jaw dropping racing started.
Slingshots were the gold standard of speed until the early 1970s.
Prudhomme breaks the 5.20 mark in Top Fuel. 1981: A “win light” appears on the scoreboard. Most recently the 330mph barrier was exceeded in 1999 by Tony Schumacher.
1957: Nitromethane, used as a fuel in top classes, was notorious: it was volatile, and propelled cars to then-unheard-of speeds. Things happened and we went with our instincts.”, Hit the jump for more details on the History of Drag Racing. Pappy had become a racing icon and went on to hold multiple positions within the NHRA. A match race at LIONS Drag Strip saw John Mulligan run a 6.95 quarter-mile in his Top Fueler, but the run was deemed unofficial. In the 1930s as engines got better and drivers got braver, speeds began topping 100mph. (336) posted on 06.24.2011 Drag racing would be great to watch. The season-opener is the Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals. Nope. Wally Parks (photo: Tom Medley/N.H.R.A., via New York Times), Early Santa Ana drags (source: Pinups & Kustoms Magazine). The first NHRA World Champ was Buddy Garner, in a Chevy-powered C/Altered Plymouth, who won 24 of 26 events that year. 1976: Shirley Muldowney becomes the first woman to win a national event in a pro NHRA category (Top Fuel). Chrysler’s 392 Hemi engine, dating to the late ‘50s, was the standard among racers, but junkyards were bereft of usable blocks by 1971, and nitromethane demanded frequent rebuilds.
Wally Parks was another pioneer of the drag racing world who earned his credit on the dry lake speed trials. The reasoning behind the quarter-mile distance is as murky as the origin of the term “drag-racing”. Whoever is closest to their prediction, without going quicker, wins; consistentcy is rewarded over all-out speed. One theory is that because these races stem from a challenge made from one party to another that the first racer may have said, “Drag your car out of the garage and race me!” Another idea seems more rooted in fact and based upon where the race would take place. This was the era of sponsorship with big companies throwing their support behind teams. Continue on to reading this issue and look for links to the latest issues, straight to your inbox, as soon as they’re released! 1946: Restless young adrenaline junkies turn to hopping up cars; speed contests and bad behavior spill onto the streets of America, giving the boys and their fenders jalopies something of a reputation. Soon after, Gene Snow ran the first four-second NHRA run. 1966: Mercury asks the Logghe Brothers to build a one-piece flip-top fiberglass Comet body and tube frame chassis to match—a recipe that, with some tweaks, still holds today. 1959: Historic Santa Ana closes, its runway annexed by the airport for expansion. These non-sanctioned events were essentially illegal drag races that took place throughout the country.
2002: John Lingenfelter pilots the first front-wheel-drive car into the 6s, a Chevy Cavalier that went 6.993 at 197.67mph.
It worked; bracket racing today is a track staple nationwide. or a champion racer? Fans throughout the country can enjoy races year round with 140 member tracks hosting 35,000 licensed competitors.
Sorry, but you statement about Lions Drag Strip, is incorrect.
In 1953 the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds played host to the inaugural race of an event that would become famous. 1982: NHRA embraces the 500-cubic-inch Pro Stock formula and Don Prudhomme breaks the 250mph barrier in a funny car. 1973: Don Prudhomme becomes the first driver to win championships in both Funny Car and Top Fuel. We may never know the first time a sanctioned race was called a drag race, but all of these ideas are possibilities.
AHRA, meanwhile, announced plans for its Grand American Series of Professional Drag Racing. The NHRA outlaws big-block Pro Stock cars; the Sox & Martin Hemi Plymouths had won both seasons of the new class, and the NHRA wanted to shake things up. Mickey had a great deal to do with Lions Drag Strip - Shortly after Lions was created, The drag strip at the Orange County Fair grounds started up - Shortly after that Irwindale Raceway was developed - You can check out Lions Drag Strip on line by just doing a search for "Lions Drag Strip". drag racing.
And each of the Big Three’s drag racing packages are refined: 409-powered Chevy Impala Z11s, lightweight 427-cube Ford Galaxies and 413-cube Plymouth Belvederes become the scourges of the strip.
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