Prepped verses no-prepped tracks

Is it the thing of the future?

i think so, the fans love the crashes, and there are plenty of crashes!

Yes the I'm stupid and I can prove it crowd likes these events. Me I am for the safety of the drivers making it down the track.

Ya, I love it when my car spins the tire thru 2nd gear.
Doug

Like Street Outlaw says =====

Just because we're dumbasses don't mean you can be too.

You can be too! If you overpower the track and stay on the throttle!!!!

Don

Guys will just have to step up their chassis set up skills and race the track.

racing on the deserted, wide, flat county roads in northern NoDak was the most fun I'd ever had with my car.

When thats not cool anymore they will start launching them from the water box on a 8.5" tire, the goal is to wad them up right.

"Extreme wet 8.5"

Many of the wrecks on no prep seem to be 500-600 feet out. Right when the speed is up. Not much adjustment will help that.
Doug

I cant waint for NO RAIN OUTS.

Even the baddest street racer in the world is getting in on the action...Sometimes you guys need to look/get out from your on little box ya live in...Just may be something fun/different to do !!

AND YES IT'S DANGEROUS AND/OR YOU MAY TOTAL YOUR CAR BUT THE FIRST TO THE FINISH LINE WITHOUT DIALS WILL ALWAYS WIN OUT...EVEN IN YOUR ON HEART IF YOU COULD REALLY DO IT...JMHO !!

http://www.dragzine.com/news/video-larry...ond-s-10-pickup

No prep stuff is fun. Really throws a curve ball at people. It also gives the underdogs a chance. It's about 50% chassis setup and 50% power management. We have a local every Friday event that's minimal prep, and there are many classes. Not uncommon for a 8 second car to get beat by a 9 second one with they have the wrong tune up and overpower the track. The spectators love it too. It takes a lot of work to do get everything working on a junk track or the street with a Dr or small tire. Ask me how I know.


Alot of people are biased because they are stuck fiddling with their delay boxes trying to run the same et every pass.

I have always been kind of an ET chaser, so, besides not wanting to wad my car up for the crowd, it won't be for me. I do think I still have some studded snow tires around though incase they have NO SNOW events.

Why not take it to the logical end? Wait for winter, hose down the track with a firehose and turn it into a skating rink - no studs allowed. Makes just as much sense.

Who thought that dumb s#%& up? Maybe track operators who wanted to stop spending money on VHT and attract the demo derby crowd? Stupidest thing I've heard in awhile. What's next, No Rollbar, Seatbelts or Helmet Racing? Let's go no prep for real. How about we throw some oil and broken parts out on the track to simulate someone having blown up their junk and race through that mess. Maybe running open cockpit cars in T-shirts. Oh...wait. They actually do that at some places.

I can't remember where it was at, but earlier this year there were 3 bad crashes at one of these races.
Looks like the quick way to destroy one's car.

After the first few pairs of cars the starting line gets better anyway.
I'll be at a no prep next weekend, the "Turkey Bash". Have a call out on a blown Alcy BBC nova. He's been talking about it or his Procharged Camaro. He's beat no matter what.
The race is a little more fun when you have skin in the game.

Following this chain of logic, How about blind folded drag racing?? It'll be a challenging heart pounder for the driver, and real fun fun fun for the fans. Sounds perfect.

Or better yet, pinned throttle drag racing. When the lights flash, the throttle locks on the floor and won't release till you hit the stripe.


Just a thought since crashes are considered entertainment.

We do have snow/ ice drags here in Wisconsin. ask r5p7 duster. Nobody is forced to do this stuff. Why would anyone have a problem with it?

Actually, from what I can remember, racing in the 60's was kinda like no prep drag racing - albeit at a much slower pace. They did use brooms to get the big stuff off the tracks and you could prep your own tires.

Too me they're a street/grudge style race in a somewhat controlled(not illegal) environment. If some guys want to take the risk, that's on them.
Kinda like the wheel stand contests, smash your car all to hell for the chance to win $5000-$10000.
I look at it as "oh well, it's their time & money"

I think it's as stupid of an idea as playing Russian Roulette.

Quit spraying the entire track with glue, make the tuners and the drivers earn there paycheck. A plus, fans always would rather see cars and drivers fighting to get down the track, the small tire car popularity has proven that.

A bonus would be that if the cars slow down substantially, we might see the fuel cars go back to running the quarter mile.

Danny

IT'S A F#CKING BLAST!!!!
Put your big boy pants on! If we can make a car go 4.90 on a 26" tire and stock suspension on a no prep track why would any of you slower or chassis car guys be scared?? Seriously, you've never been wide open on anything but a track?

Do tell. How do you go 4.90 on a 26" tire with no prep?
Doug

I think it's as dumb as it gets too. But if people want to do it, and there's people that want to watch and it outs a$$es in the seats, I guess people are going to look for the crashes. It's like the wheelie contests. I don't get it, but tracks make money doing it and there's no shortage of slack jawed goobers that show up to do it.

I'd also like to know who, where & when that happened.

Very carefully with the nitrous, I can't tell ya what car, we NEVER turn a clock on. It can grab all 3 kits on no prep on 26's. The driver is a mad man, street testing on 28's he grabbed the 3rd kit!

For the record there are cars going low 4.60's on the 26x8.5 slick, that's wild!

We have had no prep events here on the east coast long before street outlaws have made it popular. I have personally gone 5.70s on 26" slicks at one of these events, takes a little to figure out a tune that works.

That's a picture of a picture of the event.

WHY?

Because a street is not prepped...

WHY? youtube

not mine.

How much quicker are you guys on prepped tracks? Why build power to go fast and back it off?
Doug

Bunch of haters and panty waists up in here..............The tracks some of us raced on just a FEW years ago were worse than some of these so called no-Prep tracks now. Seems some don't want to try their hand unless conditions are perfect. It's called TUNING and racing the surface given. NOT bitching because the track is not good enough to fit YOUR tune. Same crowd here that was calling for NHRAs head because the Pro-Stocks were getting loose, when all they have to do is put some damn wing in the car. Race the surface given.........that's what we all used to do

I think I will go play hockey on some thin ice on the pond outside, should make it more exciting.
Not haters, just can't see why someone would put thousands of dollars into a car and take a chance you could end up like Daddy Dave. Don't get me wrong, I would love to watch train wrecks just like anybody else. As long as people don't get hurt.

Agreed. Apparently no one here has run at a track like WIR. That's a "no-prep" track all the time. Oh, and if the starting line doesn't pee in your Cheerios, the multiple 4-link-breaking dips all down the track will. I can see both sides but some guys get really spoiled getting to race at tracks that prep like they do.

Bottom line is this, if you don't like it, don't race it. Pretty simple.

WHY the attitude?

Nobody is hating on the racers who want to race on a no-prep track. Personally, I don't see why you would build a car with all that hard earned money and race on a surface that you are going to skate all the way to the end. Also, why you would build a car with all that power and not be able to put all of it to the ground. I am just looking at the logic of it all. I did not say that I didn't like it.

this is what the ignition boxes with all the bells and whistles are for. slew the rpm, timing , etc. Davis traction control..

that's why the sh$t ain't legal for regular bracket racing

There's a lot of comments here that just don't make sense.

You guys act like you race a radial prep track with 33x16's. You don't. Most tracks blow the track off run a Friday TNT. Saturday blow it off again, spray 100-330 ft and you race. The rubber from the race cars and years of vht are what makes the tire stick. You run a given track tune your chassis and race.

Race a big tire big power car, such as Pro mod, on radial prep. It will shake apart. Like racing a radial with full power on a bracket race prep.

No prep on a good track is mostly a gimmick. You scrape all the rubber up. The track is sticky after a good burnout. We have a local track that is a struggle with any heads up car on a regular bracket Sunday. Big power cars struggle not to loose it on top end. They had a no prep race. Pretty interesting first round like any heads up race. After that the track tightened up and racers adjusted. The numbers were within .2 of any other track.

Vht is not a safety measure. It's just what your used to.

First off I don't race no prep events, although show up at my local track with radials and it's like racing on a wet road.

To me it's like eating raw oysters, no way I'll waste my money on them but other people love them. It's all about doing what you like, whether it's eating raw oysters or racing at a no prep event.

Yep!

Lol I'll be on a 26" radial and no prep next year for at least 2 events. I probably have more power than the guys here hating on the no prep/grudge scene

No hating?........Really?.........maybe you should go back and read some of the posts. Like why not hose it down and let it freeze, etc. Small tire and no prep racing has been called "stupid", and about any other adjective you want to think of on this site more times than I can count. Seen them called "guard rail magnets" and all kinds of other clever nicknames. What people "like" to do is a relative thing. I don't see why guys build 1200hp motors in ex pro-Stockers and go run it in a 9.90 index class.......but I don't call them "stupid" because they do it. Why build a Top Fuel car? 10,000 HP can't possibly be put to the ground without power management and is why top crew chiefs make a million dollars a year.

Small tire and no-prep racing is challenging, some like a challenge. Anybody with enough money and decent smarts, can buy the best parts money can buy and go pretty fast on a flypaper track. Going fast on a marginal surface when the track is the equalizer is a whole new ballgame

Sounds like a fun event to watch, wreck, clean the track for two hours, wreck clean the track for two hours....
Maybe they should call it NASCAR.

Are most if not all off these races 1/8 mile only?

Now that i think about it, the traction couldn't be much worse than TnT at a local track here ... blow off the starting line, spray to the 60' once, blow the starting off at breaks & lots of street tired cars making the starting line a mess.

You race at the wrong track if it takes two hours to clean the track!!

Up here we have 2 classes that run 1/4 mile no prep, one of the cars is known to go 7.80's on a 26" slick and he's been beat a few times now (while making a clean pass)

I was going to say half an hour but left it at two thinking no one will take me literally.

That'd be a 4.95-5.0 1/8
Safe is a relative term,but wouldn't running the 1/8 & keeping actual street tires off the track be somewhat safer?

Go back to the days of doing a burnout, then a VHT hit, then stage and go, the track does nothing other than brooming the track and dragging it. Could add powdered rosin (gold dust) burnouts across the starting line again.

Yeah, at t KOTS event there are 2 slower classes both on 26" tires and a Sr group that are 1/8 mile on 28's. Some of those cars that class race have gone high 6's in NMCA classes. When they got real quick the drivers requested 1/8

I don't have a dog in this fight and don't make any where near enough power to worry about prep.
Saturday a messed up thing happened though...I was lined up against about a 2011 Cadillac CTS with a tune and street tires running about 11.90's. Just past the 330 where they stopped prep he lost it behind me. Had I not treed him he would have clipped me in the LR. I caught a glimpse of his car in my mirror in my lane sideways about a car length behind me. He didn't hit anything and didn't make any runs after that...maybe he only brought one pair of underwear...

From an outsiders point of view it seems like prep is a crutch...but I'm wrong numerous times daily...

Years ago - the tracks were all no-prep, unless you consider somebody taking a broom and knocking the biggest pebbles and rocks off the starting line. I used to get to the track an hour before the gates opened and sweep my own lane. I'd line up right against the wall and everybody thought I was crazy. Maybe I was, but I had a better chance of hooking then the guys that lined up centered in the lane.

At Phoenix Dragway in the 70's - you'd drive down a couple miles of gravel/dirt road to get there, then pit in the rocks and gravel as well. All those rocks got drug up onto the racing surface the entire time. It truly was NO PREP.