Drag racing is the purest form of motorsport – discuss – part 1
Regular listeners to MWM will recall talk of two centre holidays. These, being MWM, have a distinct motor sporting theme, rather than visiting, for example, two European cities rich in cultural heritage. One J Hindhaugh Esq. probably started it with Sebring plus NHRA at Gainesville a couple of years ago. For us, last Autumn (Fall, even) we did Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta followed by NASCAR at Charlotte a week later. It was felt that NASCAR at Talladega the day after Petit might be a bit much when we had only flown in from London on the Thursday! Both events were thoroughly enjoyed.
This year, we are combining NHRA drag racing at Bandimere Speedway in Denver with a long held desire to visit Pikes Peak Hill climb. As with NASCAR in 2007, the NHRA was a bonus – Petit Le Mans and Pikes Peak were the primary reason for the choice of holiday venue in each case – the second event really just a fabulous bonus when perusing the sporting calendar. As a quick aside, Colorado is well worth a visit for the scenery alone, or should you prefer, South Carolina has places like Charleston to enjoy.
We sat in the stands in the baking hot sun at Bandimere for the Mopar Mile High Nationals having seen all the top drivers presented to the crowd – with a positive invitation to go down and join them near the start. There’s also an open paddock – other forms of motorsport please take note.
I must confess, to my shame, that at this point I wasn’t really sure what would happen next, except that we would see the run offs through to the eventual winners in each category. I’d seen odd bits of British and US drag racing from time to time on TV; we’d also caught up on some highlights of qualifying on ESPN the night before – but had never even made the 30 minute drive from home to Santa Pod in the UK. Nor had I had time to look at Wikipedia or the NHRA website properly, both of which have good descriptions of what happens.
This lack of attendance at Santa Pod may be down to more mainstream motorsport roots or a resistance to yet another UK ex-WW2 aerodrome as a sporting venue! A good friend in the US (who grew up around NHRA with his father who worked with one of the teams) counselled that if NASCAR was redneck territory, then NHRA was even more down market ....
Back to Bandimere. Now, you might expect that they would start with slower categories, building up to the fastest, noisiest Top Fuel cars – but NO – the Top Fuelers were first on. The sound, the smell, the smoke, the visual spectacle of colourful dragsters was stunning. The sound reverberated around the rib cage as they flew past in a furious assault on the senses. And then 4 seconds and 300 mph terminal speed later, peace returned. Until the next pair and so on.
Top Fuelers were followed by Funny Cars – brilliant parodies of passenger vehicles – then Pro Stock and Bikes. Gradually eliminating the losers each time, we cycled through to the eventual winners. For the later semi finals, we stood at ground level – again we were struck by the controlled violence, the noise, the vibrations, the smells.
It was during the opening round of competition that the thought occurred to me – is drag racing not the purest form of motorsport? Yes, F1 is a technical highpoint; endurance racing is a test of the whole team; rallying requires two in the car and touring cars ... erm, don’t get me started on banger racing!
Perhaps then, pitching man or woman and machine against each other over a straight quarter mile stretch of tarmac is the ultimate – “who is best ?” - challenge. A test of reaction time off the start, the ability to control the dragster if it gets out of line and to reach the end of the timing strip first. Reaction times were typically around 0.06/0.07 seconds.
I am not suggesting it is necessarily the best form of motorsport, but rather the purest, the ultimate challenge – one that requires a huge amount of bravery – the risks are there for all to see - the Top Fuel and Funny Cars were running over 1000 yards only at Bandimere following the tragic death of Scott Kalitta just a few weeks ago.
No need for refuelling, changing tyres and human error (Peugeot at Le Mans so memorably described by Hindy as like Fred Karno’s army). No turning corners, simply a straight line, flat out, all the way blast of power.
So the question is posed – is drag racing is the purest form of motorsport? There is a strong argument that it is. However, I might need to revisit that opinion in a few days time. What could be purer than racing up a hill, or even a mountain, which they have been doing on Pikes Peak since 1916?
Part two will follow shortly...
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