This year in drag racing (for me) (1 Viewer)

[flapjack]

Didn't get to make Topeka (family in KC area)
Didn't get to make Epping (Hour and half away for me)
Didn't sign up for All Access
Don't have cable TV, so no FS1 for me (note: I am not a TV hater, just for the money I was paying versus what I watched, didn't make economical sense)

A solution, and a way of avoiding the gripes about All Access /NHRA production/Fox broadcasting, is to get results from Drag Race Central, Twitter, or Facebook.

It sucks not being able to see it in person, I just read the results and imagine what it's like. Easy to do since I've experienced it live.

How do you cope when you can't get an in person experience?

 

[Murrieta Mad Man]

I used to drive 5 hours each way for the Winternationals and Finals. 2 hours each way for Sears Point. Always able to find a sports bar that will change one TV to the race. Make an effort, move a box if you have to...

 

[Luke Nieuwhof]

An hour and a half was too far? Man...I WISH I was an hour and a half away from an NHRA event.
Back to the question, I like the sports bar suggestion above.

 

[I was NITRO BREATH]

Come on ,Drive the hour and a half. Im lucky that etown is under an hr from nyc. but i drive 2.5 hours to reading. Not a big deal if you have a great day at the races.

 

[.]

It's unfortunate but not every drag race event can be at the end of your driveway. lolol.

An hour and a half drive to the track is nothing...

 

[flapjack]

An hour and a half was too far? Man...I WISH I was an hour and a half away from an NHRA event.
Back to the question, I like the sports bar suggestion above.

I never said it's too far, was just trying to relay that it's close. I couldn't make it for other reasons.

 

[mgty3whlr]

Fortunately for myself being where I live, Both Maple Grove and Englishtown are just a smidge over an hour's drive.
I may be wrong but If i'm correct, they are the only 2 tracks that are the closest to each other on the Nat. event schedule.
Norwalk is next I believe but that would be a hike for me. I never looked at the mileage to get there.

 

[mgty3whlr]

My trip to Maple Grove is Always on a Friday. Unfortunately like last year because of the rain, It looks like a No Go ! and Saturday doesn't look much better.

 

[ironpony]

Being self employed, my wife and i have hit as many as 13 events in one year. Wife loves nitro so that helps with being able to do it. We will drive up to 8 hrs each way, located in Hebron Ohio. Fly to Vegas.

 

[Jim]

I hope you didn't let the few (predictable) complaints here prevent you from trying AllAccess.
Like yourself (perhaps) life got in the way of me not attending any of the races I COULD easily have attended this year but, the availability of AllAccess made this one of the most enjoyable seasons I've experienced.
My only regrets: Wilk isn't leading and the web function on my Smart TV isn't as robust as I had hoped (Thank God for my Laptops and my 32 inch monitor)!

 

[Dennis]

Didn't get to make Topeka (family in KC area)
Didn't get to make Epping (Hour and half away for me)
Didn't sign up for All Access
Don't have cable TV, so no FS1 for me (note: I am not a TV hater, just for the money I was paying versus what I watched, didn't make economical sense)

Just curious, where are you located? I used to live an hour and a half from Epping. Glad to see them finally get an event, it's my favorite track.

As for TV, I got rid of cable and use SlingTV. FS1 (and the FS regionals) are included in the package - $20/month. Don't worry, you haven't missed anything. The broadcast is horrible and I've yet to make it through an entire show. I usually switch the channel 45 +/- minutes into the show. Choppy, poor production quality, and the announcing sucks. I expected some hiccups, being a new team and all, but it just never got better.

 

[flapjack]

Just curious, where are you located? I used to live an hour and a half from Epping. Glad to see them finally get an event, it's my favorite track.

Providence, RI. Tasca's race shop is in Charolette, but their main dealership is like 15 minutes away from me. They put on a nice car show every year, and BT3 fires up his funny car and gives a few good throttle whacks. Usually have one of the other Ford guys, there, too. One year it was John Force and Tim Wilkerson, they had a nice line of people looking for autographs.

 

[Nunz]

Don't mind driving to national events. From where I am in upstate NY, Etown and Reading are both in the 5 hour ballpark. We've been driving to Indy since pops actually raced there in the '70s, and that is almost exactly 600 miles. We do have a local track, Empire Dragway, which is a really nice track with new owners who are breathing new life into it. Back in the early '90s we had the IHRA Empire Nationals, which was an awesome time.

 

[The Swegian]

Brainerd is a little under an hour drive for me from my cabin. I didn't attend in 2015 for the first time since 1988, but I went for Saturday/Sunday this year. About three weeks before Indy, I decided to make the drive there. I went to Pomona for the Winternationals this year which was a last minute decision for me, mainly because the forecast said 85 degrees and sunny all weekend. It was my wife's birthday and Valentine's Day that weekend, yet when I showed her Pomona's weather forecast, she said "so why aren't you going?" I'm heading to the CHRR and Vegas in October, and then I'm going to Pomona for the Finals. My point in all of this is that the common factor that draws me to the races is more about the people I get to see that have become the best of friends than the racing itself. I love the racing, but hanging out with PJ, John Rogers, Greg Rice, Joe Sherwood at Indy makes for such a great time. For the Finals, I wasn't planning on going, but I learned a couple great Aussie friends are making the journey there and I really want to see them so I just booked a flight to LA last week. Plus, I know I get to hang out with Greg Rice there too.