quote:

Originally posted by Tom396:
I don't know of any test and tune/grudge nights that are suffering. And there is a good number of young people at them, both participating and just watching. It has got to be some of the lowest priced actual on-track participation available anywhere. It's not my cup of tea (nor, I suspect, anyone else's posting here), but there is no denying that it is both extremely cheap and extremely popular...and it's about cars.

But I don't travel around the country looking at test and tune nights. Maybe this only happens like this in my area. Take care. Tom Worthington

quote:

Originally posted by 1320racer:

Test/tuners, many with imports, don’t make the move to competition. The lanes are also full of older guys either having fun with their street car or making laps in their race car that they no longer race competitively.

quote:

Originally posted by RPROGAS:
"Street take overs" is not an option, at least not here in San Diego. The police have taken a very active role in arresting everyone involved, including spectators. Everyone gets to visit City Jail, find a bail bondsman and then a Lawyer. Cars get a ride on the back of a wrecker to the nearest impound yard and the towing and storage fees begin.

Barona holds a Friday night "Street Racer' event that has produced really large turnouts. The income from the Friday night events is helping to improve the track since there is no purse.

Bob

quote:

Originally posted by double trouble:
So, drag racing goes belly up............
What do you do, invest in huge warehouses?
There's a lot of racing goes on between them.
Want younger racers? go to a small/big tire race and you'll find them.

quote:

Originally posted by imakehp:
When I street raced we met in a parking lot and worked out races and then quietly left the lot in different directions to lose any "spectators", then met at the agreed-upon street, did a burnout, and raced. There and gone in a minute or two.
Back to the parking lot to try and find another race.
It only has to be a long drawn-out production if it's be filmed for TV..

Mike Greene

quote:

Originally posted by sc4087:
$100k engines

quote:

Originally posted by sc4087:

quote:

Originally posted by imakehp:
When I street raced we met in a parking lot and worked out races and then quietly left the lot in different directions to lose any "spectators", then met at the agreed-upon street, did a burnout, and raced. There and gone in a minute or two.
Back to the parking lot to try and find another race.
It only has to be a long drawn-out production if it's be filmed for TV..

This !!! If I could only go back to 1982 and street race like we did back then. We had way more fun. The TV drama BS is just track race cars with $100k engines doing made up drama for Tv.

quote:

Originally posted by Curly1:
NHRA is Dying? Well for sure it is not growing like it should. In 2002 we had 5 tracks in Dallas/ Fort Worth and every track ran about 22 week schedule for the points. We had about 200 or more cars trying to make each of the bracket teams of 50 cars. We had 19 tracks at our Division 4 Bracket Finals. Now we have 8 tracks and some are not even sending a team or can not get a full 50.

We probably had an easy 5 times more cars racing every week than we do now.

The average age of the racers was probably around 35-40 now it is probably closer to 55-60.

The NHRA started the Jr Dragster class to get younger people involved and it has brought a few in but certainly not the numbers needed to grow or even maintain.

Now you add in high gas prices, inflation, lower car count (which eventually will mean lower payout) and it is going to get worse.

I am not saying NHRA is dead or even dying but I am saying something needs to change quickly before it gets worse. And I am not going to say having a good turn out at Indy for one race means Drag racing is out of the woods and the future is bright again.

quote:

Originally posted by Bucky:


An argument can be made here that we believe the state of the world is exactly as we see it around us locally. The scene is a disaster in your area. But locally here, it's really not bad. Maybe not the highest ever numbers. But decent car counts at our local track. The next closest has great car counts. We have 4-5 tracks within reasonable driving distance in Northern Illinois.