The Eastern Swing? (1 Viewer)

[NitroRichFire]

Since theres a Western Swing, this old man has to wonder why the NHRA has never tried an Easter Swing. After all there a 6 great tracks here on the east coast, we've got Gainesville Raceway, ZMAX Dragway, Bristol Dragway, Virginia MotorSports Park, Maple Grove Raceway and New England Dragway. At one time there were 8 tracks when You add in Atlanta Dragway and Englishtown, oh well just a thought.

 

[Cliff]

Why not?

 

[Tybamf]

Well just looking back at 2018, they ran Chicago, Virginia, Bristol and Norwalk consecutive weeks. That seems to be a pretty good eastern swing to me.

 

[Pete]

Well just looking back at 2018, they ran Chicago, Virginia, Bristol and Norwalk consecutive weeks. That seems to be a pretty good eastern swing to me.

That was a haul, but luckily it was a close ride to Indy for most...Chicago, Virginia, Bristol, Norwalk, then a weekend off before Epping

 

[Pete]

In 2017:

Epping, E-Town, Bristol, Norwalk, Chicago on consecutive weekends...OUCH

 

[Huge]

In 2017:

Epping, E-Town, Bristol, Norwalk, Chicago on consecutive weekends...OUCH

That was brutal.

 

[NitroRichFire]

Well just looking back at 2018, they ran Chicago, Virginia, Bristol and Norwalk consecutive weeks. That seems to be a pretty good eastern swing to me.

Hmmm, never considered Chicago or Norwalk as eastern tracks since they are in the North Central Division of the NHRA?

 

[Tybamf]

Hmmm, never considered Chicago or Norwalk as eastern tracks since they are in the North Central Division of the NHRA?

Norwalk sits literally 25' further west than Bristol. Plus, the NHRA was already dubbing this the Eastern Swing as referenced in the link below.

'Eastern Swing' MVP

Teams prepared for four consecutive weekends of racing that has been informally dubbed the “Eastern Swing” knowing that their fortunes in the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season could change drastically in a short period of time.

www.nhra.com

 

[NitroRichFire]

Norwalk sits literally 25' further west than Bristol. Plus, the NHRA was already dubbing this the Eastern Swing as referenced in the link below.

'Eastern Swing' MVP

Teams prepared for four consecutive weekends of racing that has been informally dubbed the “Eastern Swing” knowing that their fortunes in the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season could change drastically in a short period of time.

www.nhra.com

Thank You Sir, for educating this old man, I had no idea that Norwalk was 25’ west of Bristol, once again thank You.

 

[Pete]

Norwalk sits literally 25' further west than Bristol. Plus, the NHRA was already dubbing this the Eastern Swing as referenced in the link below.

'Eastern Swing' MVP

Teams prepared for four consecutive weekends of racing that has been informally dubbed the “Eastern Swing” knowing that their fortunes in the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season could change drastically in a short period of time.

www.nhra.com

good call

 

[TD5023]

Hmmm, never considered Chicago or Norwalk as eastern tracks since they are in the North Central Division of the NHRA?

"Central" is a bit misleading here. D3 barely gets to the Mississippi River, which is still pretty comfortably east of the center of the US. The state of Ohio is entirely in the eastern time zone, so I think it's fair to call its tracks eastern. Chicago is a bit iffy there, but it's still definitely more eastern than western. Actually, D3 only has tracks in one state fully in the central time zone: Illinois. Wisconsin would be, but the only NHRA track currently in the state is D5. D4 and D5 are the two that actually represent the middle of the country (going east-west).

 

[T.Smith]

I always thought the Mississippi River was considered the pure dividing line between East & West. That's where the radio call signs change from
East to West.

 

[TD5023]

I always thought the Mississippi River was considered the pure dividing line between East & West. That's where the radio call signs change from
East to West.

It is a good marker since it is mostly straight north-south and covers almost the entire country in that direction. The geographic center of the US is in the middle of Kansas, though.

I live in the Quad Cities, so I get to see both call signs here. Easy to tell which stations are based in Illinois vs. Iowa.

For a little size reference, I live in eastern D5. The furthest D3 races for me are Columbus and Bowling Green, both about 8 hours away. Great Bend, in-division and also in the middle of Kansas, is 10 hours. Bandimere, for an in-division race, is 12 hours (non-stop). From my location on the Mississippi, it is about the same distance to go to the center of the US heading west as it is to the middle of Ohio heading east.

 

[T.Smith]

It is a good marker since it is mostly straight north-south and covers almost the entire country in that direction. The geographic center of the US is in the middle of Kansas, though.

I live in the Quad Cities, so I get to see both call signs here. Easy to tell which stations are based in Illinois vs. Iowa.

For a little size reference, I live in eastern D5. The furthest D3 races for me are Columbus and Bowling Green, both about 8 hours away. Great Bend, in-division and also in the middle of Kansas, is 10 hours. Bandimere, for an in-division race, is 12 hours (non-stop). From my location on the Mississippi, it is about the same distance to go to the center of the US heading west as it is to the middle of Ohio heading east.

Yes you are correct. I meant to replace "pure" with "unofficial" before I clicked the post button.

 

[TD5023]

Yes you are correct. I meant to replace "pure" with "unofficial" before I clicked the post button.

And it works well in that capacity, especially since the population density is much greater east of the Mississippi.

 

[GumbyWVU]

At the risk of starting a fight (or having fruit and vegetables thrown at me), I wonder if the powers that be would ever consider dividing the season up into 4 "swings" - say, start with the southern swing, then eastern, then mid-west/northern, then western......have the "champions" of each swing set up to race in a playoff to determine the season champ in the pro categories? No more countdown at least.