Been alot of talk lately about re-opening the glorious old dragstrips that we've all got these bitchin' scanned photos of on our laptops (I think this might be the old U.S. 30 Drag-O-Way?). Got a whole folder of this shit. And it's all awesome.
But here's the thing: we can't bring back the Glory Days by just cleaning up the pavement on these old strips and wheelin' out the old guys and misting up over beers and stories about what happened fifty years ago. What made those old tracks so great was that it was the Wild West every weekend, son. Anything went and it usually did. Hell yes, it was dangerous. Talk to any of the guys who were racing in the Sixties, like I have, and they'll tell you more guys died right before their eyes than they'd care to remember. But GOD did they do some unbelievable things and change the world and build some beautiful machines.
Look, I get it. The NHRA can't do what they do without all the safety stuff and the teams can't run without the corporate sponsors and we live in an overly-litigious society that allows a shithead to own a guy's Pro Stock just because he tripped over a wrench in the pits. And covering a quarter mile in under 4 seconds is impressive. A testament to ingenuity and the spirit of hotrodders, really. But this "Nostalgia Drag Racing" circuit that the NHRA and Good Guys have tried to cop as a real "throwback" to the Good Ol' Days just because the butt-ugly rails are running motors in front of the driver is some bullshit. The only nostalgia at those races is between the ears of the oldest guy on the crew. It's like laying down the cash to go to ye olde renaissance faire and finding that the fat chicks in costume and speaking the king's english just won't fully commit to the nostalgia because they just need to show off their shitty pagan tattoos and they have to wear their prescription glasses and they're not about to give up their Tivas under their burlap dresses. Gimme a fucking break. Like the dirt track guys' girlfriends' tube tops say: "Go Big Or Go Home."
To truly bring this stuff back –– and I do think it could be and should be –– is to somehow get a group of racers together who have the right attitude. That'll lead everything else. That outlaw spirit and fearlessness will ensure the right motors being built, the right paint to be taped out, repopped 'smoker' tires to be made once again, era-correct track surface to be laid down, the right push cars to be built, the right trailers to be made. Hell, there was real style back then that just doesn't exist anymore and I just know there's at least a small group of souls who 'get it.' And that's all we need.
BRING IT. Keep the modern stuff, but build a small, insanely dedicated circuit of lunatics who love the old stuff enough to figure out how to hide a modern fire extinguisher creatively. It'll be the "Mad Men" of drag racing. And that's all good.
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