Drag Racing

THE DRAG STRIP

In the mid-60’s, Bob Kennedy of Team Champion was the first racer in Indiana to break the 1-second barrier with a rail design car powered by a huge Kemtron motor. The strip he did this on was located in a slot shop had two lanes about 6" apart. It was constructed of ž" plywood and painted with black enamel. The glue used then was STP thinned with a small amount of lighter fluid. By today’s standards, that strip was about as level and smooth as Rosanne’s spinal column.

The serious drag enthusiast today - if he or she is going to race their ultra-scale models at speeds in excess of 110 actual mph - will only want to risk their equipment on laser-leveled strips that are smoother than a pane of glass! Most of the modern era drag strips have less than 1/8" height differential from one end to the other. Construction of modern drag strips is not something to be left to chance and the best ones have been built by the commercial builders who have all the tools and know all the tricks. Little known is the fact that the "need for speed" in a straight line is NOT restricted to 24^th scale cars. There are hundreds of 64^th scale drag enthusiasts and we checked with Doug Shepard of 21^st Century Tracks who gave us this report: "For all the Right Reasons, 21^st Century Tracks has produced over a dozen drag strips with absolutely no advertising. People have literally crawled out of the woodwork to buy HO Drag Strips and every one of them as also been configured for the Trik Trax photo sensors to run a standard Drag Trax system from Christmas Tree to Pink Slips. How’s that for piggy-backing?"

Doug also added, "What 64^th as well as 24^th scale drag racers have in common is the Need For Speed in a straight line. It is also generally bracket racing, so it’s "run-what-cha-brung" as well. About the only difference is that 24^th racers pretty much expect to race on either a "true scale" 1/8^th or ź mile drag strip. H.O. drag strip racers only have a 20’8" true scale quarter mile, and H.O. cars that want to run on the Bonneville Salt Flats that don’t care about a drag strip’s length because they’ll take all they can get!"

Mr. Shepard concluded his comments by saying, "If it’s good for the NHRA , it’s good for TOA Members!!"

	Track Owners Association, Inc.
	May 1998 Feature Report


Back	Home	Next