Event Coverage Nostalgia Drag Racers, race for money, trophy, or fun?

There are a few races I do because I want to do them, but I have been doing the booked shows for a long time. Its not like I make anything, but covering expenses or close is ok. There are a few places I wont go or do even if I get paid.

I was hoping running the gasser would be more fun, but its almost more of a headache.

 

I do not need nostalgia races to attend.......I am going to race what I build no matter what....even if it is considered different at the local tracks.....It is a personel challedge for me to build and then tune the max out of the whole package.....I am not doing it because it happens to be the in fad...not trying to ride the coat-tails of the past and sell my rig as how it was done back in the day...........I am ...well I guess purely addicted....I believe all the guys and gals before me that helped create what we have today......were and are addicted.......I will never build anything I cannot afford to run......expecting to be paid to show up........That becomes a show....no different than the circus coming to town for me....I think If I became part of a big show...I would become less likely to push my tuneup and get after my goal......I will never mask my failure by saying I am doing just for the fun of it........I am too internally competitive w/ myself.....I want to run the best number possible each time.......Each blast down the 1320 is nothing more than a test-n-tune for me searching for speed...........I love the ride, you know when you made a good trip @ the other end...If I break out....its a victory...as long as its a better E.T. slip than the last...Littleman

I will add...I will spend hours and hours of work seeking that positive gain w/ what I have and afford...anyone can bolt in big HP and go fast.......but do you really know what your doing and how to manipulate it all.

 

There are to sides to the money issue-

1) If one cannot afford to drive out the gate with nothing, then they need to find another hobby
2) This is not the 60's and here in SoCal I dont have 4 tracks within an hours driving time anymore, so I will pass on taking 3 days off of work and driving 9 hrs each way just to win a jacket.

All I hope for in this deal is a chance to maybe cover travel cost and get the extra large 2 topping pizza and a pitcher of soda for me and the crew if I win.

Face it ,Very few are paid to do it, most of the racers at our level PAY to race.

 

Nostalgia Drag Racers, race for money, trophy, or fun?
My answer is we do it for all three reasons.... and a LOT more.
To me nostalgia racing is about honoring the true heros of the sport, the guys and gals that where there from the start, the pioneers. To see them at the track and better yet having the opportunity to see them do it again is more important then money or a trophy or even just the fun of it. Another very important reason is to give the fans a chance to see
what drag racing was all about in the glory years. For the ones that never got a chance to see it and for the ones that did, and appreciate us bringing back some great memories.....

 

My first thought is "trophy", because when money entered into the sport, we lost the grassroots flavor of it. But I do recall, that while we raced for class trophies in the '60's, the eliminator bracket winners got a trophy and some money. Sometimes as much as a couple hundred bucks. So today, a similar deal, keep the cash purses small, so that about all they would do is, like dreracecar says, cover some gas money and maybe a pizza, and I think you'd have an ideal set up. Me, I'd be happy with a trophy. I know my wife'd be happier if a win covered some of the expenses to get there...

 

I have been drag racing all my life, I raced old coupes and roadsters in the early years and AA fuel dragsters in the 60's and 70's and have been racing nostalgia since the eighties. Now I race Funny cars. Big money has caused the big show to become a rat race and more like a job than a pleasure or sport. Nostalgia is a way of continuing to run Nitro or Blown Alcohol with out needing the multi-million dollar sponsor to do so. Most of the nostalgia teams are owner/driver/ tuner which does not exist anymore in the big show. The competition is just as tense but on a lessor dollar scale. We do it because we love it, it is in our blood!

 

Nope if you really wanted to honor the "heros" of our sport you would be vintage racing and not nostalgia racing. A lot of difference in the two and vintage racing is the only venue that comes close to what the "heros" were doing.

 

Vintage vs. Nostalgia racing? You'll have to enlighten me on the difference....

My way of honoring the hero's of the sport is to recreate their cars (we recreate the cars that were destroyed or lost, not ones that are still "alive") We have the original drivers and crew that worked on them come out and once again have the opportunity to compete in them, or at the very least we have the families and friends join us in the displays we put on...

 

It's supposed to be fun.

 

Lots of great opinions here, keep them coming! As for me...I am all about the fun. I love the rush as others have stated. I love to make the folks that come to the track to see us go home happy. After all, if they didn't come then I wouldn't have a place to play. I also feel it is my responsibility to get kids involved when I am at the track. I hope to light the fire to keep our passion alive for the next generation. I really don't get caught up in the winning thing. I actually have more fun in the time trials. People get unfriendly when they are trying to win, just don't have time for that. I do everything myself with the help of my friends and club members. No sponsors to tell me where I need to go or how my car should look. I go when I can get away to events that I choose. I usually choose events at cool venues where I figure I can get the most passes in cause it is all about the fun.

 

rocky, i don't care why you do it!! just that you do it!! i love all the cars you build and would love to see you run sometime. alas, i am on the left coast and don't have the funds to go back east. the thing about money is, how much do you have? everybody puts in it what they can. i don't hold any contempt for anybody who has more money than me. it just makes the event more exciting. all in all, i think everybody puts more money in their hobby than they can really afford. don't we all live above our means anyway? in the '60's i chased the big time gasser class and never really got close. when i got back in around the '80's i did it more affordably. for crying out loud, i race a '32 bantam flathead altered, everybody has more money that me. it doesn't have much more hp than stock. the starter loves it when i come out of the water box sideways. everybody else seems to like it too. i race anybody who wants to race me. i have won quite a lot of money over the years but that's not why i race. i race because of the friends that race in my class and the party afterward. i.e. fun!!

 

im putting a car together at the moment, after 35 years of being out of it. hoping to come out and play with you guys. it never was about the money. i did race for money on the street, but i didnt build the cars over the years to make money, it was about the people, hanging out with friends, racing each other, having a beer after the race. but everybody knows what it costs to build anything now. its crazy for the average guy.anything the track or group could afford to help pay for fuel or expenses im sure would be appreciated , but it never was about money.

 

I do it cause it's all I know........and I like the free beer

 

I guess technically I race "vintage". Postwar builds and racing turns my crank, it's the era I missed by a few years (being born in '46). I'll run when & where I can, and if someone else likes it that's cool. Keep your money & store bought trophies, but I do like the home made ones.

Gary, your car's cool, and I love watching you head on out while my lights're still waiting to come down. Hell, I'm slow enough that it's usually the other guy who has to wait.

 

Well said !

 

Look at the rules for or go to any nostalgia race. They are late model cars with early looking bodies. They are not what got raced when our "heros" were making history. Go to a vintage race, old out of date or obsolete engines, chassis and bodies. They are not really fast by todays standards, but they are what was being raced at the time.

Hell just look at some of the goofy rules that some of the promoters even on here have, to run your rocker has to be above the spindle? Thats newstalgia racing at its best.

 

I race for the fun of it,the people there, my friends,the laughs. Money could ruin it, like it does everything else if you let it.. When your nostalgic racing , I feel your to old to worry about the money. I don't win, don't expect too. If your out for the money it's the wrong game. I go when I want and where I want. But I never had a bad time at any event even when it's been rained out. It is a car show in a way ,and you can watch your favorite cars run. And wonderful people and some are slowly slipping away every year. I went to Goodguys, I never saw so many gray hairs, me included. The young people really are not that interested except for a special few. You say Willys! They think your racing a Jeep,and that's there parents too. Go when ya can and enjoy it.

 

benji,
Very well put. Doesn't matter if it is glass or steel, tube chassis or channel, original block or merlin. Leave the purse out of it, go and race what you got when you feel like it and have more fun then is legal.

I got a willys (overland) and most younger folks think it is an old ford, so even they think jeep when you say willys they still don't know what it is. Their parents either.

 

If you're into it for the money, go bracket race!

Although I'm sure that many into it for the money couldn't handle getting there ass handed to them. So those people who come for the money beat up on the occasional racer and call themselves a winner.

 

I guess we look at it differently.... The tribute cars we build are as close to the originals as possible. The Boss Hydro and K.S. Pittman cars use all the same components as the original cars right down to the 57 olds rears and the Willys frame rails... The Maz car is as close as we could build her and still be safe... Just as important to me is we have the original drivers still driving... To me you can't get more "real" than that... As far as rules, when we built the Boss Hydro there were no rules, the only thing we followed was the NHRA rule book for safety.. we ran exhibition against a few other like styled cars. As the popularity of these cars started to grow, a bunch of the guys that had these cars got together and came up with a set of rules to ensure these old style race cars wouldn't turn into just what you say.."late model cars with early looking bodies".........

 

Professional racing is not fun, I don't care what anyone tells you. On your way out of the pits even if you won you are already thinkng about what can be done to make it faster and you know that you have a week (if you are lucky) to get it done and make it to the next track.

That makes you a pretty rare breed.

Most of what I see being called nostalgia racing is based on current NHRA rules. I can go along with the saftey equipment part of it, it just makes good common sense. But a large part of what you see is not what you are running, they are modern cars with old looking bodies.

 

We're trying to change that.... We are developing a venue for more authentic nostalgia cars, it's called the "Classical Race Groups". Right now
we have the "Classical AA/GS Group" and we're working on the "Classical AA/FC Group"...(would like to see one for "real" front motored top fuel dragsters too..) These groups are for the racers that are into the history of the sport as much as they are into the racing.... The number one rule is the cars have to LOOK like they did in the described time period....and number two, they must perform like they did.... Will it work? Who knows, but I know we'll have fun trying.....and thats what its about.

 

Well if I had the money to be serious I would be interested in the fuel coupe class. Fuel coupes just really float my boat and have floated it since I was too little to reach the peddles.

When I first got the body of the Ol' Man's gas altered I was pretty serious about the whole nostalgia racing thing and was going to put it together like it was when it last raced. So I did my research and what I found out was that nostalgia altereds were pretty much a funny car chassis with a glass roadster body stuck on there.

I since have decided that I am going to try build it back to its gas roadster days (pre-altered). I know of a couple of vintage places that run a gas roadster class and expect the cars to be vintage and true to form. I may run a better roll bar than it had originally, just for prudence sake.

I am all for fun as well. I just don't need to be in it for the ulcers.

 

Here's our current project. This was the first fuel funny car I ever got the chance to help out on.... My dad was doing the transmissions for them at the time... Plans are for us to match race former NHRA World Champ Bruce Larson and his 68 USA-1 Camaro...

 

I do it for the fun and running a stick car is just fun!!!!!!

 

What I am trying to grasp in this whole topic is What money are we talking about? First lets eliminate both fuel classes and AA/gas-Which money has ruined nostalgia/vintage drag racing in your opinion? Is it that some racers spend $1000 like you spend $10 or that some classes get $1000 to win. Do you feel that by having a $1000 purse that attitudes change between racers? I mean that I will race you just as hard for a hotdog as I would for a grand but dont expect me there if there is travel involved if you are only paying out hotdogs, it just boils down to economics.

Some of the best times I have had with the other racers is in staging from the first round to the final round with whomever is next to me.

 

Don,

I did my racing between 1952 to 1957 when I got married. We started racing on the street in the early '50's, about 1952 or 53, in my case. Eventually we started racing at night on an old air strip. We would cut the fence and go race and then put the fence back up. Well, we got caught and that stopped the racing for a while until a city police officer by the name of Bob Cresse came up with a plan. He contacted the owner of the strip and negotiated a deal where by if we could get some insurance we could race on the weekends. I forget exactly how many days a month we raced but it was enough to keep most of us from racing on the street, most of the time. That was how Kingdon Drag Strip in Lodi, CA got started. I ran a '40 2dr sdn that was gutted out and ran what we called class B/F coupe and sedan. The B was for the smaller engine and F was for Fuel. 10% nitro was what I ran.

 

Screw it!

This is a traditional site anyway................

 

We're reliving our childhood and racing with likeminded people. That trophy will be covered in dust in a couple of months but the memories will last a lifetime

 

Great stuff!