quote:

Originally posted by ferndaleflyer:
Might I suggest this----Wend at 75 & 80, Fri at Manasas, Sat at Capitol, and Sun at Mason Dixon EVERY WEEK! + we had Cecil County, MIR, and Aquasco as back ups and all pretty close.

Solid point, Fern. Take care. Tom Worthington

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Originally posted by Tom396:

quote:

Originally posted by Brandon@BTE:
Drag racing was infinitely cooler back then. Great photos!

Can you put your finger on what was/is different? Take care. Tom Worthington

Open trailers. Variety of platforms used for cars. More participants and wider cultural interest. Better hats. What else can I say?

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Originally posted by Brandon@BTE:

quote:

Originally posted by Tom396:

quote:

Originally posted by Brandon@BTE:
Drag racing was infinitely cooler back then. Great photos!

Can you put your finger on what was/is different? Take care. Tom Worthington

Open trailers. Variety of platforms used for cars. More participants and wider cultural interest. Better hats. What else can I say?

Take care. Tom Worthington

quote:

Originally posted by ferndaleflyer:
Might I suggest this----Wend at 75 & 80, Fri at Manasas, Sat at Capitol, and Sun at Mason Dixon EVERY WEEK! + we had Cecil County, MIR, and Aquasco as back ups and all pretty close.

That was a little before my time but we did a little bit of Friday at 75-80, Sat at Capitol and Sunday at Mason.

No motorhome and flat towed with a 74 El Camino. I slept in the grass a few nights on the multiday races using my fire jacket as a pillow.

I swear I remember racing 6 days a week up there but don't remember how or where. At Mason Dixon on some holidays they would cook a pig and have a band. I have a picture right here in front of me from there with the drive in movie in the back ground. The good old days. Ronnie Proctor racing JUNK!

We had more racing options back then. Fuel was cheap, entry fees were cheap, smaller payouts but who cared.

$20 entry for $500 to win. 7 tracks with 1.5 hours of my house.

Greed killed our sport, as the entry fees and purse went up, less cars showed up for a weekly bracket race.

quote:

Originally posted by TomR:

Greed killed our sport, as the entry fees and purse went up, less cars showed up for a weekly bracket race.

I do not think it is GREED that is killing it. There is low dollar bracket races if you want to run them or many kinds of racing what ever you want.
Like it or not our whole World is changing. The internet has made all of us spend much more time at home on the computer (or phone) and less time outside actually doing it. We are as they say becoming prisoners of our own device.

I think the internet and living in virtual world is much of reason we do not have nearly as many young people entering our sport as we should have. Many kids would rather play video game than go outside and play football, or race or what ever.

For our sport to grow you have to bring in MORE new people faster than the old ones are retiring or dying off.

I believe the Government is trying to force electric car up us not to save the World (it won't) but to control us.
Right now we have Freedom, if you want you can jump in your car and go to anywhere in Continental United States. That will simply not be possible when we are all electric.
If we are forced to have all electric vehicles on the road you can not tow to any race track. And probably could not afford the gas for the race car.
The Economy is terrible and getting worse no matter how good Biden tells us his Bidenomics is working. I have to respectfully disagree with Mister Biden.

It is my thinking that high gas prices has hurt car count which in turn hurts payout and I just do not see it getting better under this Dictatorship. Yet some even here will still vote for more of the same.

quote:

Originally posted by TomR:
We had more racing options back then. Fuel was cheap, entry fees were cheap, smaller payouts but who cared.

$20 entry for $500 to win. 7 tracks with 1.5 hours of my house.

Greed killed our sport, as the entry fees and purse went up, less cars showed up for a weekly bracket race.

To this day, I am more than happy to just run for a plastic trophy...and sometimes do! I never b*yback, so I am still doing it pretty much the way I always did. But there are fewer and fewer choices of when and where to do it. Take care. Tom Worthington

My home track went to a $5k weekly payout before it closed. At first, the place was packed but it slowly dwindled down due to being unsustainable for the average racer.

Your weekly program is supposed to be a grass roots, everyone can run format for the little guys. The professional bracket racers can go travel and chase big money.

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it slowly dwindled down due to being unsustainable for the average racer.

My experience and feelings exactly! Probably the reason why so many local racers gave up Drag Racing. It wasn't sustainable so tracks like Fontana, Long Beach, Orange County and about a dozen others are gone. Now if you live in Southern California and want to go to a NHRA drag race you are traveling to Las Vegas (365 miles one way) or Phoenix (344 miles one way). Only a handful of people can afford to make a tow that far every weekend, I'm not one of them. The only track that is within reasonable distance is the 1/8th mile track at Barona.

Bob

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Originally posted by RPROGAS:

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it slowly dwindled down due to being unsustainable for the average racer.

My experience and feelings exactly! Probably the reason why so many local racers gave up Drag Racing. It wasn't sustainable so tracks like Fontana, Long Beach, Orange County and about a dozen others are gone. Now if you live in Southern California and want to go to a NHRA drag race you are traveling to Las Vegas (365 miles one way) or Phoenix (344 miles one way). Only a handful of people can afford to make a tow that far every weekend, I'm not one of them. The only track that is within reasonable distance is the 1/8th mile track at Barona.

Bob

6 Hours towing each way and what $400-500 in gas just to get there and back. That would sure take a lot of fun out of racing. Then you have alcohol, Entry, food and other expenses. That is not good.

The costs for everyone in the sport from track owners, racers and on down the line are NOT sustainable for the "little guy" like back in the day. Numbers dwindle.....and that hurts everyone down the line and this has been the reason for the slow but steady decline added to the other killer...property values and housing expansion around existing tracks....

I raced as often as I could....sometimes 2 tracks on one weekend..

Entry was probably 20-30-40 for $500 to win

Gas was $15-$20 for 5 gallons of Sunoco purple

I won at Island saturday night and E-town sunday....Memorial Day weekend 1988....Super Et....I don't think it was much over $1000 for both wins...

I failed to mention Bakersfield which will host a LODRS event in early October. Famoso is only 272 miles from my house but you still have to deal with the LA traffic and of course the grapevine.

The first NHRA drag strip I went to after moving to California was Bakersfield it was their March Meet. 64 Top Fuel cars, I was in total overload. Three day sleeping on the cold ground and absolutely hooked for life!

I guy could get run over sleeping on the ground at that event, there were guys who after working on their cars all night would make a midnight or later "Test Run' through the pits. 3:00 in the morning , header flames four feet high and people scrambling to get out of the way. Oh ya!

Bob