Drag racing terminology
- Burnout: A simulated launch before the race where drivers heat the tires and lay down rubber on the track to improve traction
- Christmas tree: The red and green lights used to start a race and indicate starting violations
- Heads-up racing: When both drivers leave the starting line at the same time (no handicap)
- Hole shot: When a slower car actually beats a faster car because of better reaction time at the start
- Oil down: When a car's engine blows during a race, leaving oil and other lubricants on the strip
- Red-lighted: Leaving the starting line before the light turns green; it results in disqualification
- Top end: Finish line of drag strip
As if Friday nights aren’t hot enough during the spring and summer months, they are about to get hotter in 2014 with street legal drag racing and testing at three metro area tracks.
If you’ve ever dreamed about taking out your pride and joy on a live drag strip to see how it matches up in an eight- or quarter-mile straight line race, you have the chance each weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Atlanta Dragway in Commerce and Silver Dollar Raceway in Reynolds.
Drag racing is an American as fireworks on the Fourth of July. Tracing its roots back to World War II and the streets and dry desert beds of Southern California, Wally Parks, a hot rod enthusiast, formed the National Hot Rod Association in 1951 to take the sport mainstream.
In the South, race tracks started holding street legal drag races on weekends when stock car races weren’t running. All three of these venues stress that drag racing at their events is safe while drag racing on the street is illegal.
Here are the venues where you can take your own car out on a strip and see how it matches up:
Atlanta Motor Speedway
For years, one of the most popular events at AMS has been Friday night drag racing. Running May through August, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Friday Night Drags is “heads-up” street drag racing on AMS’s eighth-mile pit road.
More than 225 drivers compete in 18 divisions each weekend. Points are accumulated and a champion is crowned at summer’s end.
Eric Roycroft, a 32-year old auto technician from Grayson, is one of the regulars that battles for a championship each summer. He races a 1986 Ford Mustang in the Stock Suspension division. He estimates that he puts more than $10,000 in his car each year to hit speeds of 160 mph. It’s a serious hobby.
“You’re always having to upgrade and keep up with technology,” said Roycroft, who usually has a few friends tag along to be his pit crew. “With travel expenses, race fuel, maintenance, and new tires every five weeks, it adds up.”
Drawing around 5,000 fans nightly, the Friday Night Drags offers sideshow events for the entire family.
“This year, we have kids power wheel races planned, a candy scramble and fireworks on the Fourth of July,” Dustin Bixby, AMS’s director of marketing and promotion, said.
A Show-N-Shine car show is held each week where entrants are allowed to cruise the tracks at the speedway, including the banked curves.
Pit gates open at 6 p.m., grandstands open at 6:30 Fridays. $8 per person. To race or Show-N-Shine costs $20 or both for $30. Outside the track parking is free; infield parking is $20. 1500 Tara Place, Hampton. 770-946-4211, www.atlantamotorspeedway.com.
Atlanta Dragway
Want to try your hand at the same strip where drag racing legends like “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, Shirley Muldowney and John Force had success?
Through Nov. 7, Atlanta Dragway hosts Year One Fast Friday “Legal” Street Racing on the quarter-mile track at this historic dragway.
Gates open at 6 p.m., racing begins at 6:30. $20 to race and $10 to watch. 500 E. Ridgeway Road, Commerce. 706-335-2301, www.atlantadragway.com.
Silver Dollar Raceway
Located 90 miles south of Atlanta, Reynolds (population 1,036) is home to Silver Dollar Raceway.
Roycroft says he frequents Silver Dollar’s quarter-mile strip, which attracts many of the top hot rods from the region for well organized and family-friendly racing.
The story behind the track is as good as the races hosts. Twenty years ago, Ed Swearingen turned his family farm into a world-class drag strip and the action hasn’t stopped since.
Swearingen wanted to get racing off the streets and into a safe and controlled environment. He says once you attend a race or get in a car, you will be a fan.
“If you’ll get in the car and go down the track, you’ll be hooked,” he said.
The Silver Dollar Raceway’s 2014 season racing continues until November. It costs $25 to race your car.
Gates open at 6 p.m. and racing starts at 7 p.m. Fridays. $10; children under 12 are free. 42 Raceway Drive, Reynolds. 478-847-4414, www.silverdollarraceway.com.
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