Back to the Future with George Klass....
(5-26-2009)
IRVINE, CA
- One neat thing
about drag racing is that it is very easy to describe to folks that know
nothing about it.
"It's an acceleration contest in a straight line, between two cars, to
see who can get to the finish line first."
I was having a discussion the other day with Carl Olson, the SFI
Motorsports Manager. Carl was a drag racer in his younger days, drove a
Top Fuel dragster for many years when dragsters had the engines in front
of the drivers (I lost interest in dragsters and Indy cars when they
stuck the engines behind the drivers, but I digress). Carl won plenty of
drag races including Top Eliminator at the final race held at Lions Drag
Strip.
At any rate, this discussion came up after Carl visited the PSCA
California Nationals held at Fontana a couple of weeks ago. PSCA is an
Affiliate Sanctioning Body under the SFI guidelines. Carl is a big
proponent of "Doorslammer Drag Racing". Carl and I both agree that drag
racing today is a throwback to drag racing of yesterday. It is sometimes
described as grass roots racing. Drag racing is and always has been
grass roots racing. Forget about NHRA National Events for a minute. That
is not drag racing, that is an entertainment package designed for TV. It
is to drag racing what "Dancing With the Stars" is to dancing. Real drag
racing is not "Professional" in the sense of NHRA National Events. Real
drag racers work for a living, at 9 to 5 jobs, and race on the weekends.
Real drag racers don't get a paycheck from a sponsor. Real drag racers
don't have an all paid crew or a public relations staff.
Drag racers like Carl came up through the ranks, in the 1950's and
1960's. The drag race classes back then included a nitro burning Top
Eliminator class, a Top Eliminator class for gasoline powered dragsters,
and then the usual classes for Jr. Fuelers, Gas Coupe & Sedans, Altereds,
Street Roadsters, Super Stockers, etc. Basically, something for
everyone. But one thing in common with all the classes was that they
were ALL grass roots racers. Sure, some of the Super Stockers were
so-called "factory cars" but for every Dyno Don Nicholson or Sox &
Martin, there were 100 guys running Super Stockers at the local tracks
that nobody ever heard about. Even at the Top Eliminator level, very few
dragsters had sponsors that paid the bills.
So, back to today. Pretty much everything that is running in "real" drag
racing today is like it was in the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's, except for
the fact that most of the cars are doorslammers. The Top Eliminator
classes are the very quick and fast "Pro Street" type of doorslammers.
The rest of the old Gas Coupe & Sedan classes and altered classes and
Super Stock classes are still racing. The names may have changed to
"Outlaw 10.5" or "Drag Radial" or "True 10.5", but it's still the same
type of guys (and gals) doing what they have always done, only for all
practical purposes, the heads-up classes are made up of cars that have
doors on them now.
The PSCA is like most grass roots organizations. They have the heads-up
classes, the Index classes and the Dial-In classes. They pull
participants from as far away from California, Nevada and Arizona, as
Alaska, Canada, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, New Mexico and
Colorado. They have classes for cars with drag slicks, cars with drag
radials and cars with street radials. Again, something for everyone. If
you have a car, stock or otherwise, there is a class for you. That's the
way it should be. That's the way it always was in drag racing.
The first time I went down a drag strip was in 1955, at the old Santa
Ana dragstrip (now John Wayne Airport in Orange County, CA). I was 16
years old, had my driver's license for about a month. I had a 1940 Ford
coupe that I drove to school, flathead powered. A "crash helmet" was not
required. Seat belts were not required (or even invented for cars at the
time). In fact, the only thing that was required was that I remove the
hubcaps.
The classes were simple. There was a class for doorslammer cars with
fenders and a class for doorslammer cars without fenders, and a class
for cars that had no doors. At the end of the day, the fastest car raced
the fastest motorcycle (which won more often than not) and that guy was
the Top Eliminator, bagged the trophy (no money) and got to kiss the
Trophy Girl. The time slips had no provision for elapsed time, only MPH.
Eventually, I became a one-third owner in a Top Fuel dragster (twin
Chevy's on straight nitro), but I started drag racing in a car with
doors and in my heart, I've always been a doorslammer kind of guy and I
always will be.
Story by George Klass
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