Hot Rod Drag Week — is unprecedented in nature and scope of the competition between pilots in the Sportsman class. Four strips, five days and more than a thousand miles of roads.
In a way dregster be repaired only by a team, you can roll arbitrarily huge trailer with tools and spare parts, but the car has to overcome all the way on their own and take part in every event.
The winner of the class will be someone who will show the best average time of the quarter-mile in five stages. It is truly an ultimatum test for pilots, mechanics and engineering, because in one car to combine the ability to issue competitive results on the strip, while maintaining at the proper level reliability — the problem is not trivial.
In a series of reports on this iconic event, we try to capture the most vivid events, the most high-speed races and the most important moments of what happened this week. At the end discuss the results. Let's go!
In total there were more than 300 participants in nineteen classes. Variety dregster truly impressive: from almost oily runoff cars of the seventies to 3500-strong class of cars Pro Mod, can fly a quarter-mile in less than six seconds. The owners of the most radical art travel trailers, while crews on cars with minimal alterations, as a rule, can not accommodate all the luggage in the trunk and passenger compartment.
The first day
The first stage, held at Gateway Motorsports Park, immediately noted the two records in the fastest class Unlimited. Jeff Lutz catapulted his Chevrolet Camaro Pro Mod at the finish line for 6,051 seconds at a speed of output 251.95 mph. Now it separates only 0.11 seconds off the fastest street-legal dregster — Chevrolet S10 great and terrible, Larry Larson, which this year is again taking part in the Drag Week.
But the results of its main competitor Tom Bailey, gliding shestisekundny overcome the barrier, it was much less impressive — 7.272 @ 217.95 mph.
But do not forget that in this contest the result to a particular event does not mean much, not to mention the fact that the winner will determine the median of five stages.
In addition, veteran Jay Brown on the Ford Mustang «69 set a record in the class Modified NA — 8.918 seconds, and Calvin Hayward pushed the bar of time in the classroom Super Street Small Block PA on a hitherto unprecedented height — 7,596 seconds.
This year the organizers have tightened the rules in order to avoid unfair competition between the teams. From now on all the participants, the cost of the passage of less than 8.5 seconds Quarter, will be compulsorily invited to a special area, where they will prepare for the next dregster arrival. In this area, the ongoing work of all technicians will monitor activities, monitoring to the process involved only a pilot and a mechanic. On the first day under the attention of «Cerberus» got 11 cars, but there were no violations found.
Second day
On the way to the next event of the first day hero Jeff Lutz was out of control because of the failure of the fuel pump, before reaching the Lucas Oil Raceway is just 50 miles. After a sleepless night on the sidelines, he was not able to cope with technical problems and was forced to go the distance. But Tom Bailey vice versa without any problems overcame 266 miles to Indianapolis, where shestisekundnym arrival with the result of 6.335 @ 224.56 mph secured a leading position in the overall standings.
It surely made the pilot class Unlimited Iron Bryant Goldstone, who for the second time in a row to move left seven seconds. According to the results of races Goldstone and Bailey are the only parties that have an average below seven. In addition, only Bryant at the moment is a chance to become the third in the history of Drag Week racer, speaking on all five stages with the result within shestisekundnoy zone.
Insanely appeared tense struggle in the small class of Hot Rod. Over the past two days the record time was changed five times, going from Tim Hall Chianchitto to Thomas and back. The best results at the time of departure to the next stage in Union Grove Hall began to 10,282 seconds, which is the minimum margin is the first line of the results of two the events.
Next stop Great Lakes Dragway. Team there are fewer, and any predictions build just useless.
