Wednesday, August 23, 1978
University Daily Kansan
Drag racers live for speed
By BRAD H. HAMILTON
Staff Writer
Engines start to scream. then slow.
A green light flashes and a deafening roar reverberates across the crowd stands. Tires screech, chrome flashes and flames shoot from dual exhausts and headers. The smell of burning rubber and gas funnels beds. Men with large bellies, stripped to the waist, strain against the sides of their cars while pushing them to the pits.
A young man, hoping to impress his girlfriend with a big trophy, disappears beneath an upraised raid to make last minute adjustments on his delicate engine. His another Satan (a former lawyer) drives him northwest of Lawrence just south of Kangas Highway 40.
The scene that takes place at the dragway every Saturday night is reminiscent of the late '50s, a throwback to another era when the fastest driver was king of the drag strip.
SPECTATORS, ranging from babies to girlfriends to little old ladies, gather around the quarter-mile asphalt strip to talk about cars and watch their race. Beer cans appear from large coolers and once emptied, find their way to the littered ground around the stands. Shouts pierce the air as applause cheers and moan for their favorite drivers.
"Damn, Billy broke out, he had a 9.9 on 10.1 and that breaks," I cracked a shout from the stands referring to a driver who had gone wrong with his brakes at time brackets and thus disqualified himself.
"All right, he had him all the way!" yelled a young driver to his girlfriend.
Drivers enter certain time bracket classifications by estimating their elapsed time on the quarter-mile strip. If they go faster than that time they are disqualified.
CARS WITH similar times in each class are matched up for later races.
The air is filled with excitement each time two cars line up for their 12-second race.
According to Louise Pierce, who, with her husband, owns the track, the sport of drag racing has grown rapidly in the past three years.
"When we first bought the track we would have about 60 or 70 cars race a night." Pierce said. "Now we have about 120 regular customers."
"Last year it really started growing. Now we have cars coming here from Manhattan, Kansas City, Atchison, Leavenworth and Omaha, out of our racers aren't from Lawrence."
On Saturdays the strip holds special meets in different categories sometimes offering purses as large as $300. One meet this summer drew almost 150 spectators at $3 each. According to Pierce, an average audience will range from 100 to 200 people.
IN ADDITION to the Saturday night meets, the dragway holds grudge matches
Wednesday nights in which racing rivals can find out who is faster.
The language in the pits, where the drivers line their cars up and push them towards the start, can be understood only by those familiar with the sport.
"I've got a 327 block with a 258 crank so it comes out to about a 301," one roared before another he got into his car. "I shelled the rear end four times." The numbers refer to the hard-to-find back tires insured in cubic inches. "Sheiling the rear end means blowing the differential gears apart."
The cars often look like their racers of the early 60s and some of them are that old. As they line up to start a race they look more like fire-breathing monsters than a four wheel combustion vehicle designed to take you to the grocery store.
THEIR OVERSIZED rear tires and under-
dressed front tires make the cars look like
Before the cars approach the line the drivers pour mixtures of soapy water under the tires and then accelerate rapidly, spinning the tires, so the tires will be hot before the start. Hot tires grip the road more firmly.
Tom Young, 19, Lansing, comes to the dragway about every Saturday night and does well with the 1960 Chevrolet he bought in a junkyard for $25.
read the body, the transmission,
the end and the engine and I put in a 327
race.
Young, who works for his brother in a car repair shop, plays basketball for Baker
"This is my third year of racing," he said,
"I started when I was 18, and it do as much
"THE COMPETITION is a lot better now. It used to be that there were only about 60 cars here on a Saturday night but now there are usually more than 100."
"You've got to be consistent or you don't win," he said. "A lot of racers sandwish it at the end. That means they put on the brakes if they're ahead at the end so they get a slower time than the car will do. That's looked down on around here.
According to Young, consistency is the key to winning.
"I race because it's a different sport. Not many people can save they drove cars."
Kathy Rhoad, one of several woman
drivers who race at the drag strip, comes with a ticket. He was injured with her boyfriend Steve Dallis, who died in a crash.
Dallas said they come to Lawrence for the drag strip.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's the best
thing we've done. We've been to some
others but this is the only one."
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ACCORDING TO Louise Pierce, the track opens in March with grouse races. In April there are regular meets on Sundays and then on Saturday nights in June. On Oct. 1 they switch back to Sundays until November, when they close for the season.
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"We've already lost seven races in the beginning of the season on account of bad weather," Pierce said. "We hold the race on Sunday and we have it rained on us at a Sunday. That way people can just stay the night in town and don't have to drive all the way back home."
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