I'm not a huge fan of drag racing. This is probably the first time I've been to a drag race in 3 or more years. But I had free tickets and time, so I went. These were ADRL (American Drag Racing League) which features 4 classes of cars and one for motorcycles. I can't tell exactly what the differences in the cars are, but they are all basically Pro Stock, Pro Mod variety, with doors that open and close. No funny cars or rails and no pure stock or slower classes. They run BIG engines. The smallest I heard them talk about was a 400 small block. Some were 800+ cid. A lot had nitrous, a lot had blowers, some ran nitro.
I guess they had already run the first class when I got there and they were on the second ones. Fast, pretty and loud they were. But they were POS. Through the entire round, I never saw a side by side race where both cars ran the whole distance. These were 1/8 mile btw. Same thing for the next class. Then the bikes ran and they were more reliable, but I'm not crazy about bikes. I'd been there a couple of hours and was considering leaving when the final class started staging. They announced they had 48 of them, vying for a 16 car field, so I stayed. They were awesome. Lots of old Vettes, a few 55-57 Chevys, a lot of Camaros, several old coupes, a few Mustangs, an AMX and the last car to run was a 53 Chevy. Probably took something close to a 4 sec flat time to make the top 16. Most races were complete runs by both cars. Fastest was a 3.67 with about 5 more under 4. Top speed was 206 with 2 or 3 more topping 200.
It was worth the trip and time overall. They handed out free tickets to this race like halloween candy, but I know why now. Cokes were $3, beer was $6. Food was in the $7 range. And parking was $10. Still I got out for under $20 and enjoyed the races.

WoO tomorrow at Kilgore TX for me.

$6 beer?????!!!!!???? That's what Aero pays for a 6 pack.

The ADRL, is outlaw style 1/8 mile drag racing. They have a 10.5 inch wide tire class, a unlimited cubic inch limit Pro Stock class, and two Pro Modified classes one with nitrious, and one with blowers or turbos. They only have safety rules with the cars. Its a true outlaw style of drag racing, run whata brung. They even allow traction control, you know the MSD six shooter which some of the sprint car guys might know about.

Anyway I have drag racing DNA, the ARDL is too the NHRA what the ASCS is the USAC and the WoO. They understand motorsports is show bussiness and getting the younger generation hooked on drag racing. Maybe Kevin Miller and the folks at DIRT should contact the mangement at the ADRL.

Jim Phelps

You just are not going to get a lot of motors that are 600c.i. or more to run like a true bracket car. I can not believe the c.i. of some of the motors now days, but we can thank Drag Racer's for the most part for giving us the formula for our 410 sprint cat engines that we love so much. Well "traditional" 410's are our real love out here in So. Cal........

Guys like Sonny Leonard have developed some scary stuff. 2140 hp out of a naturally aspirated engine is amazing. now it is 932 cubic inches......and it cost 89K.

One thing the DRL does very well is promotion. Free to get in and $10.00 to park. They have had several events that pulled in well over 40,000 spectators. Their shows are truly an "event"!