I went to the street nationals this weekend at Desoto Memorial Drag Strip in Bradenton, Florida. The turn out was very sparse for an event of this size. I also went to the Snowbird Nationals in December and it had an even lower turn out. At any given time you could sit wherever you want or have any place along the fence that you wanted. At the busiest, the stand may have been 25% full at best.

Not only were the stand virtually empty, but the field was quite small as well. There were quite a few high dollar cars that made the trip, but there was next to nobody in the slower classes. There may have been as many as 12 cars in the 7.50 index class (1/8th mile).

Another thing that just seemed odd is that they were running 1/8th mile on a 1/4 mile track. Are quarter mile drag races going away?

Back in the 80s The Snowbird Nationals was a huge event with full parking lots, full stands and a huge field trying to get through the qualies.

Is this unique to the Tampa area or is drag racing fading into history?

 

Seems the same way up here in Chicago, but lately its coming back.

 

I'd say that it is due to it being winter time. Even though you're in FL, I'm sure this is the time that people do most of the modifications to their rides.

 

I have been to drags here and in Tampa/st Pete.. st Pete had a few quick there but nothing that stood out. I think the quickest was a mid six fox.. the others were seven and mainly slower.

That area, because of the three long *** divided bridges, has a lot of cars that stick to rolls.

 

All the drag events round here(NW ohio/SE MI) are strong in the summer. Good turnouts at TNT.

Drag racing is alive and well around here atleast.

 

I forgot to mention.. in the tn/n bama area, it is strong.

 

Gateway in Saint Louis (granite city) closed down

 

Most events had very low attendance in Indy this year. I was worried about the sport or this track shutting down.

But there seems to be new excitement with a change in track management and more heads up racing events planned for this year. The previous track management was terrible, poor track prep, unorganized, no event ever started on time, midnight madness would shut down at 8:30pm...I could go on and on.

 

1/8-mile has really gained steam in the south, especially with radial tire stuff to try and keep a closer field for nitrous and boosted stuff. As mentioned, January can just be too early for some to come out and play. I race at Gainesville mostly and there was a good 100+ cars at both TNT Saturdays thus far with some single digit stuff as well. Once Feb-March rolls around more people will be ready to play IMHO.

Derek

 

^^How's gainesvilles tech? I was wondering if I could get by with a roll bar or am I going to need a full cage

 

Like stated above Stl gateway closed and didnt memphis close to. In the midwest

 

Since Gainesville is an NHRA owned track, they can be a little more strict on tech. A roll bar will get you down to 10.00 or 135 mph.

Memphis was just purchased by the same people that own PBIR/Moroso motorsports park and they plan to reopen under IHRA sanctioning.

Derek

 

Its slow down here also but we have some big track events like coming up will be a Mardi Gras 1/8 mile race at Hub City Dragway and it is a very big event. There is also grudge racing between the actual 1/8 mile event that the track officials encourage. I saw some street cars gown down the quarter in a grudge race that was faster than any car that was even in the event.

In the summertime it gets a whole lot better though. We have Cruising the Coast so that helps down here. We need to get one of our local tracks more involved. They only hold A king of the hill bracket race thats not worth a **** every Wednesday night. They need to swap the dates of the king of the hill with the date of the Test and Tune which they only do once a month.

Then it takes them over 25 minutes to clean up up a track spill, when the other tracks do it in roughly 10-15 minutes. For all you Miss. guys you know what track I am talking about.

 

It has definitely died down a little in my area, simply because drag racing is an expensive hobby and times are tough on a lot of people at the moment.

 

I really don't feel like putting in a full cage. I think I'll go to SGMP and see how they are there with tech. I'm not sure what I'll run, but it better be in the low 9's after I'm done.

 

I've heard SGMP can be a little less strict on tech......

but...



The safety standards are there to protect you. It's not like the track gets extra $ when they tech properly. I've seen crashes from 10 second cars with full cage that didn't require them and the drivers said they were thankful they had them. If you can afford to run low nines, why not step up to safeguard the part of the car that can't be replaced: the driver?

I didn't want to do the full cage on my Nova since I still have a full interior w/ back seat and it does limit a little bit more than a bar does, but I'm glad it's there in case the wrose happens..

Okay I'm done with the rant....

Derek

 

I wouldn't drive anything 9.99 or faster without at least an 8 point.

 

^^While that may be true, I honestly don't know what it's going to run. I have expectations, but I don't know if they will be met.

Right now I don't have anything in the car. It's a street car. I have full interior and just lack a/c. I'm hoping to get a twin setup on my new forged motor. If I don't get the twins, then I'll have the ebay kit on there still. I'll most likely end up getting a 10pt cage. I have to get another mig though, cause mine's ****.

 

Economy... Gas prices.... 9-10% unemployment.. All three.

I think LS racing has a nice core going, I'll get back into it this year. I enjoy high 9/ low 10 second stuff, not too much to worry about. I still need to run an 8.99 pass before I die though.

Tracks should have cheaper attendee prices, just $5 to watch. Folks who watch drag racing usually are not rolling in the dough.

 

I agree on all counts.