It's all over at Carlsbad, Ca. www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/08/07/news/top_stories/22_16_458_6_04.txt :ball:
:af: Isn't Cally also one of the "we have to crack down on street racing" states? Nice double standard! I wonder who will get blamed when street racing motorcyclists and motorists get killed or damage property?
Yes. Street racing has killed several innocent people in the San Diego area alone in recent years. This sure does not help the situation. There is another strip out on one of the indian res. but it is only 1/8 mile at this time. Closest 1/4 mile is now California Speedway and that is a couple of hours north of San Diego. Drag City will be about the same, but is not open yet.
I was there for the last test and tune (Saturday). Got some great pics of a 10 sec 65GS vert. IMO, 1/8th mile is kinda boring. It is like getting on the freeway.. The track will be missed. It is in pretty sorry shape but I liked it, flaws and all. Track record is 5.26 @ 256, Held by John Force. Must have been one heck of a ride considering the very short shutdown area (with a dirt wall at the end of it). BTW, the office park replacing it is named the "Carlsbad Raceway Industrial Park" I hate when they do that....... Now I am sure the local cops will do a hardcore crackdown on street racing. No place left to race, no place left to go offroad without driving 3 hours........ Whats a gearhead to do?
BADBUIK PIC Is this the car you saw yesterday? Belongs to Gary Giessen. We hope to see him at Vegas in Oct and at the speed-n-feed at Cal. Spdwy. in Sept
Thats the one Skip!! Raced a white 65 Chevelle (same cowl hood). One of the closest races I have ever seen at that track. I will post the pics of it when I get a chance. Buick powered? I hope...... Wanna buy my 66 Skip? It is for sale. Might be game to trade for some body and paint work on my 4x4.......??? EDIT..... Here are the pics of battle of the 65 A bodies :TU:
They're closing the closest 1/4 mile track here too. There's a 1/8 mile track, but as was said, how exciting can that be? I've never been, but that's because of my work schedule. I would want to go just to see others' cars, as mine are lucky to be running most of the time.
Gary's car is most definately Buick powered. Big inches + a bottle. I assume running 10's that he did not push the button.
Well...that sucks!!!:rant: Was just talking about this very possiblilty with IgnitionMan and CyberBuick today at the Long Beach Swap Meet. Had no idea it was actually going thru.ou: Glad I got to go there last year!! With land being worth what it is out here in SoCal, I suppose it was only a matter of time. Developers only see the $$$ they can pocket, not the serious problems/deaths that will come from closing down the track. Kinda reminds me of Michael Douglas's character(Gordon Gecko) in Wall Street....." Greed is good".
I wish drag tracks were more like golf courses. A members thing that keeps them afloat, along with some cash when you go. The way it is now, I can't see the business proposition to keep them all from fading into the landscape. We as a bunch of guys ought to do something about it. Find an important track that can spin some cash, then build a circuit off of that. We've got all kinds of people here to make it work. Lawyers, CPAs (me, for one), along with many business operations people. Imagine the mechanics shops we could run on the side lines. Just rambling. But actually as these great places close we have no one to blame but ourselves for not keeping them going, at least the ones that can make money.
That sucks!!! Carlsbad it the first track I ever raced my car down when I was in San Diego back in '88.
Sorry to hear of the track being shut down. I don't like to see this happening but it is the way of the future with overpopulated areas, the property becomes more valuable for other ventures than what it can make as a drag strip. Michigan and Indiana both have tracks that seem to be in the middle of nowhere but they do stay there, the property has very little value for anything else. As far as 1/8 mile racing being boring, not even close to true. 1/8 mile racing is the most exciting part of the race without the ho hum 1/8 mile drive at the end. 1/8 mile keeps you closer to the race being able to find a spot to see the launch and the finishline which is hard to do with 1/4 mile. It also keeps the race closer a 9 second car racing a 14 second car is no fun, 1/8 mile turns this into a 6 second car against an 8 second car which reduces the split. 1/8 mile means you better be on your game at the light or you will be done. More and more tracks are changing to 1/8 mile to tighten competition and to limit breakage along with speeding up the program. 1/8 mile gets the racing done almost twice as fast as 1/4 mile and keeps action moving. Takes a lot longer to move the previous round out of the way with 1/4 mile than 1/8, watching a long shut down at the end is completely boring. I however would not want to watch top fuel on 1/8 mile most of the carnage happens on the top end with these as it is hard to keep them together for that long, it would be safer though and probably would save some injury and death. There was a recent death in top fuel ( Daryl Russell sp?) that would have not happened in the 1/8 mile. In a society that wants to save every life the change from 1/4 mile to 1/8 mile is inevitable. And the same people that complain about the danger of street racing are the same ones that will try their hardest to keep dragstrips from opening and trying to shut down the ones that are opened. I got to watch this first hand a few years back when a drag strip was trying to open 5 miles from my house on an old abandoned air strip. Everything from it is dangerous to it will lower my property values to it will destroy wildlife to what about the street racers coming to town to our town is planned to become a retirement community (huh). With this happening to me ( I have to drive 70 miles to the closest strip now ) I feel your pain.
I used to be a 1/4 mile snob, but since I started racing 1/8th mi two years ago I like it just as much, if not more than, 1/4mi.
Well, I do have 4.11:1 gears in my '68, so 1/8 mile can't be all that bad I guess. Never thought I was a snob though.
You can call me a 1/4 mile snob, and you can continue calling me one until I give up racing. That will be the day AFTER the powers-that-be change all drag racing to 1/8 mile. To each, his own.
I wanna see a TF or FC go down the 1/8 mile. It would run a nice 2 second time and you would probably not even be able to see it go by.
And also, I am very sorry to hear about the dragstrip closing. We have to go to either St. Thomas or Grand Bend to race because the Windsor dragstrip closed up before I was born.
