LOL, I assume that remark was directed at me (maybe I am just paranoid also!! ) In the early 90's I raced in the Barber West Tour in their open wheel spec cars. I was sponsored by a MAJOR late night talk show celeb. I didn't compete in 2 of the 8 races and still almost won the championship.

Next year you may also know my name a bit better (at least I am hoping so!) I could have turned pro but grew my business instead. Now, I do it more for fun, but I would like to give it one more good run before I get too old. Maybe when I am getting social security, I'll try to become a pro drag racer.

So I think I can keep a funny car straight? Absolutely? How do I know? Hell, any idiot with a few $$$ can go to drag racing school and by the end of one day be running in the LOW 6's. How hard is that? You are at 98-99% of the car's capability in 1 day!!! LOL, if you really think that it's on the same level as road racing, I don't even know what to say to you. It would take anyone years to get to 98-99% of a car's capability on a roadcourse.Drag Race School

 

Steve,
I wasn't refering to you. I don't attack people, maybe thier ideas on occasion. I have actually enjoyed our interchanges for the most part. You might have a somewhat narrow perspective, but other than that you seem like a good guy.
Nice try on the drag school thing though. 150mph is not exactly what a funny car turns and 2.5 seconds difference in the school is an eternity in a drag race. If funny cars were so easy, why do these accomplished drivers have these absolutly awesome crashes? Do you ever go to auto-x's at Pleasanton? maybe we could check out our times some day. Drag season is about over and I haven't done an auto X in years, so it might be fun.
Good luck next year in getting some name recognition. I consider my self a very average road course, auto x, drag racer, but I do have a room that my firends say is obcenely covered with plaques and trophies for everything from auto xing, drag racing, FV racing and even some motorcycle dirt track awards.

 

The Best 40 bucks I spent all summer was D1 grand prix that was quite possibly the most fun I've ever had.

There's nothing better than standing trackside watching a car get totally sideways in a turn and flinging tiny chunks of rubber all over you.

If you've never seen a drift event then you will never understand how much fun it is ... and how much more fun it is to do.
... I just wish i had a safer place to practice.

 

I love drift ... but im not sure if id call it a motorsport either

... i think its more of an art, But it is DAMN fun. Even if you suck!!

 

The SCCA considers it a motorsport. I don't do it, this is just a comment. Looks like fun..............

 

Too each their own, this elitism has no place among real auto enthusiasts.

 

Elitism? How about this essay on the "Pyramid of Speed"?

Pyramid of Speed

 

"Reverse Kills!" Love that saying, I have racked up a few of those myself! You do know that article was written "tongue in cheek," but there sure is a lot of truth in there.

 

Yep, good satire always has a ring or truth there.

I like the term "cone dodger". I'm gonna use that on my buddy who auto-x's his Z06 quite often.

So one day he tells me he's going up to California Speedway to do some racing. I'm quite impressed. "Which layout of the track are you gonna run?". He tells me "track? What track? We're going to run in the parking lot" Geez!

Actually, he's a hell of a driver though. Still, calling him "cone dodger" will be fun.

 

Ahh man, I got in this thread too late! I was going to post the pyramid of speed link too..

Anyway, this thread has covered all the major bases but I'll go on the record also as one of the elitist bastards who thinks oval racing is retarded and drag racing is sub-retarded. I also think drag racers are poor drivers who have honed a specific skill (that does not encompass the entire experience of "driving" or "racing" as I define those terms). I freely admit that one the narrow skills that they have honed, they are better than I am, but I don't care. Furthermore, I believe practically anyone could become a pro-level drag racer after a few months of practice which is certainly not the case for the top level of real motorsports (i.e. road racing). I believe that there are some Nascar drivers who actually are very competent on road courses but there are others, whom I would beat on a road course (and I'm not a pro driver). Some of you may disagree with me on this but consider the fact that I have 3 years of kart racing experience (when I was younger) and won a divisional junior championship in Europe. Since then I have moved into cars and been tracking at the amateur level including instructing for many HPDE clubs for many years.

Jason Bourne

 

geez, what is with you kart guys? It's not like you were racing formula cars.....

 

It's cheap my friend. Some of us didn't have $50,000+ lying around when we were 12 years old. And by the way, 125cc shifter karts can obliterate any sports car out there in all performance measures other than top speed. 0-60mph is on the order of 3-4 seconds, max cornering at close to 3Gs. And when you're inches from the ground, with no chassis around you and no seatbelt, 70mph feels pretty damn fast. As much as I love driving my Z around the track, I kind of want to get back into Karts.

Jason

 

Speaking of karts,
I am having a Darn hard time finding any Kart racing around here (NC). Other than VIR that only lets you run their Karts, and oval tracks there isn't much.

 

It's not that I don't respect what you do or realize the money part, it is that you guys are the most elitist of all. The reality is that in the wheel to wheel world part of the pyramid you are the whale s**t/bottom feeders
so I can't understand why you so vocally put down all other forms of motorsports. I have a nomex suit so fire away. I haven't done karts , but if you check this thread you can see that I have done wheel to wheel.

 

We don't put down "all other forms or motorports" only the ones that require you to turn in the same direction all the time or not at all. Basically, it's about respecting the skills of the driver. Compared to road course racing, we find the skills required in drag racing to be somewhat irrelevant (to driving).

Imagine if there was a form of fully-automated drag racing where all you had to do was line up and punch a button at the right time. Then the computer optimized launch, shift points and steering for the car all the way down the straight. All you would have to do is punch the button at the optimal point and sit back and wait for your ET. Well, the current crop of drag racers would probably find that type of racing pretty pointless and stupid. They would complain that it doesn't require the skills that they have.

That's pretty much how we feel about drag racing. We have build skills in reading corners and picking lines, looking for your competitor's weak points and capitalizing on them, finding passing opportunities, heel-and-toeing downshifts, etc... To us the drag racers just mash the gas and hold the steering straight, they can't do 90% of the skills that we have worked hard to develop and that make the difference between a winner and a loser.


Jason

 

Ummmmmmmmm, I kind of remember something about cone dodgers. When i have done that I remember something about making turns in different directions and even.yes......some esses.
Back in this thread I refer to funny cars. No one yet has been so bold to say they could drive one, or even survive the crashes they frequently have while just pushing the gas and driving straight ahead. Bottom line to my envolment in this thread is that there is absolutly no tolerence by some people. When you talk about g forces a NASCAR driver pulls way more g's than anything out there EXCEPT a hot drag car.

 

Is that true? I don't know -- I'm just asking.

F1 drivers pull 3-4 g's, and not just in one direction. They're constantly experiencing heavy g loading either laterally or under acceleration and braking for 2 hours. Don't even try to compare the athletecism of a NASCAR driver with that of an F1 driver.

 

First of all there are no F1 Drivers posting elitist comments on this board. Secondly a NASCAR car has nothing special about it other than a big motor in a big car. Have you ever looked at one? It is as basic as you can get and 2 hours is a short race. The heat , g's etc are pretty incredable and you know that they also do road courses. I am not trying to compare different types of racing, I am just defending some guys that have more skill, stamina etc than they are being credited for mostly by people who don't happen to like any form of motorsports other than what they are into and really don't know much about it other than what they see on TV.
What is happening is that a bunch of non proffessional drivers (even if the are outstanding in their area's) are talking about stuff they don't know about. I don't watch NASCAR all that often either, but I have seen the cars, been in them etc. I have not driven one, but these drivers do weight training for a reason.

 

Surviving crashes? Is there some special technique only known to drag racers surviving crashes?

Brian Beckman since 1990 he has authored a series of articles on the physics of racing. In NASCAR, as opposed to the open-wheel cars of the Indy 500, Beckman says drivers experience 2-3 G's on turns. "Those (stock) cars, while they have aerodynamics, don't have quite the cornering capability of an open-wheel car."

I mentioned before, formula 1 drivers face forces of up to 5 G's.

But Beckham also says NASCAR drivers face another test: heat: "The insides of those race cars are well over 120 degrees, and they are encased inside five-layer, fireproof suits. It's not so hot in an Indy car, mostly because the engine is behind and they're open and they're small."

 

Hey, just because it's dangerous doesn't make it a respectable skill (IMO). Alligator wrestlers expose themselves to more danger than I would but that doesn't mean I think of Alligator wrestlers as amazing demi-Gods simply because they do something I would rather do. Just because something is complicated and/or dangerous does nto mean I respect it. Balancing a bowling-ball on one's head is complicated and requires practiced skill but that doesn't mean it amazes me.

And again, Nascar drivers do NOT pull more Gs than any winged car (take your pick F1, Formula Atlantic, IRL, CART, etc). Even my lowly shifter karts pull more lateral Gs than a Winston Cup car.

Jason