Drag racer 1971

I recently stumbled across a web site of photography from my favorite sport back when I was a wee lad.

Even at the tender age of eight, I was drawn to the siren song of internal combustion.

Watching on our old black and white console TV, there was something about the idea of strapping yourself into a flimsy, grossly overpowered (and dangerous) vehicle. And flinging yourself down a quarter mile at speeds of nearly 300 miles an hour.




What's most impressive is how low-tech the whole operation seems now. There's a certain "battle wagon" feel to the cars, and a homemade feel to the primitive fire suits of the day.

And given how often these engines simply exploded in their faces, a real admiration for how insane these guys truly were.

Although modern engines also tend to detonate, at least now they have the good sense to put them behind the driver, or require Nomex firewalls between the driver and engine.





















While they persist in keeping to the old ways: No traction control, no automatic gear changers, modern drag racing has far too much professionalism and money involved to hold my attention anymore.

Still, maybe an outing to the next drag race at Sears Point (I refuse to call it Infineon) is in order for this summer.

Any takers?

And now I leave you a slice of pure cheese. A brief clip from Drag Racer 1971