Us old guys miss the dry hop more than anything! For the younger crowd...after a fuel car would do their burnout and back up behind the starting line, they would check out the track/clutch setup with a "whack on the track" (new phrase coined here)

The cars would lurch forward violently and quickly come to a stop...shuddering sometimes for a few seconds after the dry hop. Very cool and just awesome to witness. And in the old match racing days, burnouts would sometimes go past the finish line...Jungle Jim being a prime contributor to that part of a show. I like the new cars, and love building them, but I think the fans got more "show" in the old days. This is NOT a knock of the current state of drag racing just an oldtimers viewpoint

I know technology dictates the current rituals in fuel racing. bOb