My feelings about 1000' after seeing it in person (1 Viewer)

Bobby

Nitro Member
It sucks. It was supposed to keep them from blowing up. Well Antron's car proved that's not the case with two huge oildowns in qualifying, as did Tony Schumacher's during the second round of eliminations. He beat Clay Millican that round, barely, as Clay went by him just past the 1000' mark. I went by Clay's pit and told him he'd have won with 1320 foot track and he laughed and said 'that's what we were all saying'. Tony Pedregon would have lost in the first round to Bob Tasca with a 1320 foot track , because he blew up too, beating Bob by 24 ft with a 295mph top speed compared to Bob's 303.

The first thing that I noticed this weekend was how many drivers were keeping it lit all the way to 1320 , even on race day. Several. Tony Schu consistently shut off before 1320, but many , many , probably more than half of the runs I saw, did not. Why? I asked two drivers who shall remain nameless, that I chose to ask specifically because I saw them run the full 1320 more than once. They said oh no , we are shutting off after 1000' or, ' I may have gone a little long on that last one ' yeah right. I saw it. Most of them kept it lit all the way.

Which was nice, but I 'd sure like to see the real numbers on the score board, and see the right car win the race.

Tony talked about Alan wanting to run 320 at 1000' this weekend. Are you kidding me? What is the point of 1000' if you are running 315, 316 anyway, and still blowing up, still having cars not have chutes come out (one promod ended up in the sand trap Sunday), basically, all the reasons given for going to 1000' basically not proving to be valid.

I stood on the GA side at the fence near the starting line during the semis, and no doubt I wouldn't notice from that vantage point until I saw the scoreboard. Down there it's the same.

I understand not wanting to lose that sensory experience of the full on nitro motor, although , at 90 percent they really aren't...but I think it's not worth what is lost overall. Sitting at half track in the club nitro seats, it was obviously a huge difference having the race decided the length of a football field sooner than it should be.

and on TV? forget it. It really sucks on TV, and I heard Tony talk about how important TV is. No oildowns, so we can be live. Well after sunday all I can say is , so much for that.

The 1000' change is a band-aid just like 85 percent was a few years ago.

I'm just as opposed to it as I was before I saw it.

I would have liked to feel differently after seeing it, but I don't, and I 'm really perplexed as to why so many drivers still leg it to 1320 anyway.
 
I noticed several drivers keeping it lit to 1320 too, but it was mostly the "part timers". McMillen, Millican, Chrisman, Bode etc. The regular competitors seemed to have no issues clicking it off "in time".

(no offense to those drivers, I am not being critical, I am sure it is an adjustment)
 
It sucks. It was supposed to keep them from blowing up. Well Antron's car proved that's not the case with two huge oildowns in qualifying, as did Tony Schumacher's during the second round of eliminations. He beat Clay Millican that round, barely, as Clay went by him just past the 1000' mark. I went by Clay's pit and told him he'd have won with 1320 foot track and he laughed and said 'that's what we were all saying'. Tony Pedregon would have lost in the first round to Bob Tasca with a 1320 foot track , because he blew up too, beating Bob by 24 ft with a 295mph top speed compared to Bob's 303.

From August 10th:

As we get closer to the end of the season and the nitro tuners start screwing around with that "999 foot" tuneup to squeeze out that win from all this "close racing", it is inevitable, since they haven't had to win without that extra 320 feet, that some guys are gonna miss the trick and the fireballs will come earlier.

Bring lots of trash can lids and a good book to Pomona....:rolleyes:
 
I noticed several drivers keeping it lit to 1320 too,

I watched qualifying only, but I noticed Jim Head obviously run it to the quarter. My thought was that if they did go back to the quarter next year, then why not get some info beyond 1000' on a perfectly prepared track. In other words, better to be safe then sorry. Jim Head is a smart guy, he probably figured that much out - and maybe other drivers too.
 
Yah I couldn't help but notice the irony in jim head running the full quarter. There were many other full timers doing it too, Melanie, Jerry , and more.
 
Haven't seen it in person yet, but I'm a purist regarding this. 4.5 seconds was over too fast as it was, now it's 3/4 of a sec less and more than a football field shorter. Real simple, create a milder bomb, they're approaching 320 in 1000 ft., come up with a calmer tune-up, like Armstrong's, and run the 1320. As far as safety, a car running 320 to 1000ft vs. one running 320 in the 1/4 will have a lot more velocity, and obviously a much more aggressive, on the edge tune-up.
 
I've now seen my third 1000' race and my feelings are starting to solidify. I don't have the same visceral reaction that some (Bob :) ) have, but I'm becoming less of a fan of it. The reasons are many.

My big dislike is the varying finish line. Our fall seats in Vegas have a big pole in the view of the finish line. Over the years, I've perfected the lean forward, then back, to see the whole race. Now, with 1000' it works for some classes, not for others. And it just seems silly that the distances vary depending on who's running. High school football isn't run on a 75 yard field...

Like Nunzio, the race is over too fast. I have a hard time explaining to people that the sport we run is under 9 seconds long. And that the pros run under 5 seconds. Now that's under 4 seconds. Pretty soon we're talking about simply a reaction time contest that we could settle over at the Army booth...

The argument (that I subscribed to) about less part destruction and fewer oil-downs is gone. Crew chiefs have again found the limit and have crossed over the line. It's no different than before.

I want safer racing. I don't care if it means they have extend the track (in Vegas they could go to Utah, it seems) or build a sophisticated barrier system or slow the cars down. But it needs to be done, it needs to consistent. And I'd really like to see it go back to 1320'.
 
I saw my first 1000' racing and yes, I did notice a difference. It seemed like I was being a tad 'shorted'. I was with my cousins that just happened to be with me on a boat on a Lake in Oklahoma when I got the phone call about Scott's tragedy.

Bottom line, newbie's/casual fans can't tell.....but I could. Will it stop me from going? NO WAY!
 
"Pretty soon we're talking about simply a reaction time contest that we could settle over at the Army booth..."

yep...I hate it. and I won't go again if they don't fix it. Not that anyone will miss me.
 
"Pretty soon we're talking about simply a reaction time contest that we could settle over at the Army booth..."

yep...I hate it. and I won't go again if they don't fix it. Not that anyone will miss me.

Now Bob, come on, was it THAT bad to you?? After all What is a drag race?
It's a contest of acceleration, right? And at 1/4 - 1/8 - or 1,000ft, it is still a DRAG race.

It's taken over 50 years to get to the point of shortining the track, I think we'll all be gone before they have to shortin it again. Don't be too quick to give up on the sport you love.

Sit closer to the starting line and enjoy the races.:D
 
Yah I couldn't help but notice the irony in jim head running the full quarter. There were many other full timers doing it too, Melanie, Jerry , and more.

I thought on the early run on Saturday that Head drove it pretty deep, but it was really visable with the header flames on the late run Saturday that he legged it the full quarter mile. This shows that Head, one of the biggest supporters of 1000 feet felt comfortable enough with LVMS to run a full quarter mile, which begs the question why continue to run 1000 feet at tracks that can handle 1320? Incidentally it seemed like the cars that shut off right at 1000 feet needed to be towed off the track.
 
Now Bob, come on, was it THAT bad to you?? After all What is a drag race?
It's a contest of acceleration, right? And at 1/4 - 1/8 - or 1,000ft, it is still a DRAG race.

It's taken over 50 years to get to the point of shortining the track, I think we'll all be gone before they have to shortin it again. Don't be too quick to give up on the sport you love.

Sit closer to the starting line and enjoy the races.:D


Going to a drag race , to me, is not merely showing up on race day. It's traveling to the race, spending a lot of money, and wearing myself out walking around , climbing up and down grandstand stairs, baking in the sun, for three or four days, and I 'm just not going to do that for a product that is less than it should be. . there are too many other things I can be doing with my time.


There was one guy behind me when I asked one driver about this issue, and he said' I didn't even notice you were running 1000'. There's the guy Snake was talking about I guess. People that are there just for the sounds and smells and sensory overload that is top fuel racing. That's fine , but it's not enough. I enjoy real racing, and a reaction time contest just isn't very interesting. My friends who like F1 and the like could never understand what's so interesting about straight line racing. I used to argue with them. I won't defend this though. Just seeing Clay lose to Tony when with full track he'd have won just clinched the issue for me.

It breaks my heart to be honest. I finally get to a real modern track , where the sightlines are perfect, the facility is comfortable , fan friendly, everything Gainesville is not...and the racing has been gelded. Can anyone here name one single fuel race that was a come from behind win? Every single time, whoever led at 330 won ....may has well put the finish line there for all the rest of it matters.

It will be interesting to see if attendance is affected next year.
 
Going to a drag race , to me, is not merely showing up on race day. It's traveling to the race, spending a lot of money, and wearing myself out walking around , climbing up and down grandstand stairs, baking in the sun, for three or four days, and I 'm just not going to do that for a product that is less than it should be. . there are too many other things I can be doing with my time. .................................
Maybe it's time to take up knitting, huh Bob?

Seriously, take it or leave it, it's here to stay.
 
My friends who like F1 and the like could never understand what's so interesting about straight line racing. I used to argue with them.

Had a die hard F1 friend and he used to pooh-pooh drag racing. "What's the point?" I'll never forget the look on his face during the first side by side pass he saw/felt. He's a huge fan now :)
 
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