1/8th vs. 1/4mi racing

[Subman]

Around my home town we only have three local tracks all are 1/8 mile and if you can't cut an 0 light it is over for ya, there is not that extra 660 to make it up. I can cut 0 lights all day so the 1/8 is ok with me:happy2:

I started drag racing in 1960. Home track was 1/4 mile then and after being gone 46 years and finally moving back it's 1/8 mile now. Aa girl was killed on a motorcyle in the 80's and they shortened it for insurance reasons. I have no problem racing 1/8 mile on an 1/8 mile track. It's only the 1/8 on a safely operated 1/4 mile track that I have a problem with, especially when all the other classes in the same diesel event, (two being faster by the way) are all running 1/4th mile. I don't buy the excuses posted by any of the proponents in that scenaro period. It's all about a certain group of individuals who are afraid of breaking that don't want to run the 1/4 mile and use the excuse of closer racing, more fan interest and more rounds due to less breakage that push this. I say BS to the more fan interest and while I agree there are closer races, that last 660 decides a lot of races. Maybe not for the 12 valve cummins that have a tough time making rounds but sure does for the rest of us, common rail cummins included.

 

[Hole Shot]

Whats the best racing heads up or bracket. I feel that in the 1/8 or the 1/4 if you are bracket racing if you are runing someone who cuts a 0.030 and you cut a .234 how are you going to make it up with out breaking out, without dialing down. Now on the heads up side if you leave late and have a faster truck I guess you stand a chance to make it up. I know the man behind the Redneck Nationals and he said if the west coast group come and the racers want the 1/4 it will be the 1/4. Some of you now there truck and it is a dodge and as bad as I hate to admit it the truck is very fast if you cant run at least a 9.50 you may get more than what you ask for and the truck has no problem going rounds. I dont know any of your trucks but if you are not as fast as Buck 's " worlds fastest 4wd Duramax" truck I think you will come out better to not ask for it and learn to leave. Put the BS to bed thats the truth, and to Buck Robert is great freind of mine but I'm all ways pulling for ya good luck this year at all the events.:hello:

 

[Redbowties88]

1/4 without a doubt.... the 1/8 just isnt as fun its over before it began. if someone invited me as a fan to go to a diesel drag event just to watch and they told me all the racing was only going to be 1/8 i would say no thank you

 

[Subman]

Whats the best racing heads up or bracket. I feel that in the 1/8 or the 1/4 if you are bracket racing if you are runing someone who cuts a 0.030 and you cut a .234 how are you going to make it up with out breaking out, without dialing down. Now on the heads up side if you leave late and have a faster truck I guess you stand a chance to make it up. I know the man behind the Redneck Nationals and he said if the west coast group come and the racers want the 1/4 it will be the 1/4. Some of you now there truck and it is a dodge and as bad as I hate to admit it the truck is very fast if you cant run at least a 9.50 you may get more than what you ask for and the truck has no problem going rounds. I dont know any of your trucks but if you are not as fast as Buck 's " worlds fastest 4wd Duramax" truck I think you will come out better to not ask for it and learn to leave. Put the BS to bed thats the truth, and to Buck Robert is great freind of mine but I'm all ways pulling for ya good luck this year at all the events.:hello:

The one truck I saw at the NHRDA eastern finals last fall in Bowling Green that was fast and went all the rounds was the Smith truck. The BigDodge truck was fast but didn't make it through the qualifying. Caged Fury never made it off the line. I know all those trucks are quick along with Gabby's in Fl and Stuckey's as well. I just want to see them compete and complete an entire race. I haven't got to see Buck's truck in person yet and very much looking forward to that. The TS event is going to be 1/4 mile. It should be a hell of a lot of fun, it will be very interesting to see how many of the 25 or so Prostreet trucks that are reportly going to come and race, actually finish the race, especially the 9 sec ones. We might even see an 8 sec pass in a prostreet truck at TS if the track prep is good.:thumb: It was not good last fall, slicker than snot.

 

[Hole Shot]

If you can take your truck for a 9.00 you will be top dog . I wish you the best with your 8 second run after all I am not aganist you drive a duramax. I have seen your on truck suncoast's site it seems to do well. :thumb:

 

[McRat]

Unlike what is posted on the internet, there aren't 24 ProStreet trucks at a typical event, nor has there ever been. Maybe 6? 12 would be a large event.

What it takes to win isn't 9.50. Those are normally reserved for private track rental days. A fast event will see a high 9 truck win. Colorado took an 11.0 to win. Yes, there were two "9 second" trucks there. The fastest pass of the event was 11.000, and it wasn't done by a 9 second truck.

The truth is the attrition rate is really high. A normal event will see half the trucks break, regardless of the track length.

Their plan to fix it was first a 10.50 index. Didn't work. Now the plan is 1/8th mile, and so far, nothing has changed.

So to win ProStreet events, here is your order of battle:

Reliability
R/T's
ET's

 

[LBZ]

Even if they switched it to 100' tracks, guys would still push their trucks to the point of breaking. One guy cuts a 1.9 100' so the next guy wants to do a 1.8 and so on. Breaking won't stop just because the track got shorter!

Just run drag racing the way it was meant and be done with it. 1/4 mile on tracks built for 1/4mile. If you really want to hold a sanctioned 1/8th event on any track. It should at least be decided way in advance so guys have time for truck set-up and testing. Not the day of the event!!!

If your POS DODGE FORD DURAMAX can't hold together, then build it better or slow it down/drop a class. Stop ruining it for those that can hack the full length track-you bunch of whining pussies!!:baby:

 

[S Phinney]

Unlike what is posted on the internet, there aren't 24 ProStreet trucks at a typical event, nor has there ever been. Maybe 6? 12 would be a large event.

What it takes to win isn't 9.50. Those are normally reserved for private track rental days. A fast event will see a high 9 truck win. Colorado took an 11.0 to win. Yes, there were two "9 second" trucks there. The fastest pass of the event was 11.000, and it wasn't done by a 9 second truck.

The truth is the attrition rate is really high. A normal event will see half the trucks break, regardless of the track length.

Their plan to fix it was first a 10.50 index. Didn't work. Now the plan is 1/8th mile, and so far, nothing has changed.

So to win ProStreet events, here is your order of battle:

Reliability
R/T's
ET's

McRat your truck has to be more durable than most trucks since you run the land speed events. With the assumption that most races are won on reliability why don't you compete in more events? You should have a better chance than most with it being able to hold together at the demands of the Salt Flats.

 

[Subman]

If you can take your truck for a 9.00 you will be top dog . I wish you the best with your 8 second run after all I am not aganist you drive a duramax. I have seen your on truck suncoast's site it seems to do well. :thumb:

Our truck has no chance of a 8 second pass, too heavy and to pump the engine that much would make it like the rest of those pushing it, one pass wonders. If we can hit mid 9's I'll be very happy. I think McRat has it damn close. Be good on the light and go rounds, and only go fast enough to win. I don't know how well we'll do at TS, but we will go back there with that philosphy in mind. Quailify high enough so we are not laddered against the really fast trucks in the first round, but save the truck as much as we can and try to out last them.

You have to make 3 qualifying passes. It will be interesting to see how many guys don't make three passes and say they are broke so they can save their truck. To me that should be an automatic DQ but we'll see how it shakes out. Rob is one of the best diesel drag racers in the county and hard to beat on the lights. Really looking forward to it.:happy2:

 

[McRat]

McRat your truck has to be more durable than most trucks since you run the land speed events. With the assumption that most races are won on reliability why don't you compete in more events? You should have a better chance than most with it being able to hold together at the demands of the Salt Flats.

Yeah, I hear that alot, especially from the Spectators at CompD who then say "nobody wants you racing!" in the next sentence.

Nothing would be more fun than being able to sledpull, dragrace, autoX, and LSR race constantly.

But the reality is limited time and limited budget. 2009 was a dismal year in the manufacturing sector, and 2010 isn't looking too bright either. So while my "real job" is not going to collapse, I can't ignore the situation either. So we will race when we can afford it. The children are older now, and have a lot of activities on weekends as well. We are putting our kids and business before racing for the time being.

Even with the cutbacks, I think we ran 7 race events last year. That is more than many people run. But it's certainly down from the 12 or more we used to run.

However, it remains one of the few trucks that has won a ProStreet drag event and won a SuperStreet sled pull as well. And it drove to and from both events. At Bandimere Dragstrip, CO it beat Orange Crush, Jimmy Smith, TTS D'amico, NADP?, etc, then it beat D'amico, Tolesanti, etc, at the Lancaster Sled Pull. So it has proved to a lot of folk that an LLY can hang with the other diesel pickups. If that is as far as we get with the truck, well, it could have turned out a lot worse.

But it isn't being retired quite yet. It is being prepped for an attempt at being the first diesel truck to hit 200mph in the dirt. Currently the fastest diesel truck in the dirt is 163mph.