There were no tents in the Sportsman ranks like there were in the spectator areas to be sure, and nobody was sleeping in the back of their pickup trucks either. It was even fairly rare to see a 5th-wheel-based racing rig – lots of enclosed long-haul haulers and upscale motorhomes. The farms of satellite dishes among the racers and spectators was a modern touch. I saw gas grills that cost as much as a set of mag wheels back in the day. All of the cars looked first class.
On the drag midway, at least here in NC, the purpose is too eat. Yes, there were car displays and manufacturer displays; and places to buy a foot-long serrated-edged pig sticker (“Must be 21 to buy knives!”); lots of T-shirts with typical drag racing slogans – my Best of Show to this flamed-script message: “ Damned Right It’s Fast Stupid Ass” – and enough funnel cakes and NC barbeque and adult beverages to merit a Surgeon General’s warning being flown overhead.
But it was up in the stands where the essence of fun is alive and well. Maybe it’s just the fans of NC, but to them (and me) the nitro classes are it! You can mark your watch by the way the waves of fans fill up the stands and empty them when these classes come to the line and go back to the pits.
I asked the fans around me what did they like about these classes over the others. Of course I got plenty of opinions. Interestingly, to a single fan they said they’d watch these race cars if they were racing just an 1/8th mile – that was plenty long enough to get their full affect – and this was the opinion at the starting line and past the lights – yeah, they packed them in for this race.
Note: not 30,000/day as was said by some hyperventilating types – certainly that and more for the whole event, though. There are various attendance figures generated at a drag track – 1) the press’s number, 2) the Highway Patrol’s number, 3) the number given to the IRS by the promoter/owner, and 4) the sanctioning body’s number. The 30,000 figure was a legit 17--20,000 per the main day, which is a great crowd in the Carolinas for drag events.
The nitro cars have such an attractive combination of admiration, terror and thrill it is impossible to resist. Somebody is pushing, at the minimum, serious injury to the side when they light one of these rides off. Most drag racing fans can imagine themselves driving a Sportsman car, but they can’t quite suspend their disbelief long enough to conjure themselves in a nitro-barking ride.
I know I can’t, and was heartened to find others like me standing and getting a nice sunburn as another round of these beasts pushed the air into our faces and drilled sound into our ears as they went by. Yeah, there were a few adult-beverage brave types that said they’d give up a strategic part of their reproductive organs to drive a nitro car, but they were good-naturedly put back in reality by their equally-fueled buddies – “We’d be able to hear you crying up here!”, etc.
Between rounds my re-education continued. Of course you strike up conversations with those around you in the stands, and according to brothers “James” and “Dean” – ya think those were their real names? – they were here for the day and Night of Fire: “This year, because we’re not running our dogs. Thought we’d come to the races instead. Always like to see these nitro cars.”
Even though we all were keeping within our limits on adult beverages – “one of us has to drive back tonight,” Dean noted, the talk soon ventured to other items besides drag racing.
Turns out these Northern NC guys are champion beagle dog runners and breeders and proceeded to explain to me some of the nuances of their sport – like how female beagles, even though they typically have shorter legs than males, are easier to train and better at running down a rabbit on a course for grading on points. “The males are always in a peeing contest.” Plus these guys had crewed Modified roundy-round cars at Caraway NC speedway and had plenty of stock car stories from there.
Apparently they also have “a friend” who keeps “300 cock-fightin’ roosters in Louisiana, because they’re legal there,” at the ready for covert and underground matches in NC. “He just lost $75,000 on a fight – the other bird tossed his into the fence and cut him up.”
Where else can you get this kind of fun, education, and enlightenment for a reasonable ticket price? Get out to your local drag strip and have some fun – again.
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