thedrifter
08-24-09, 07:06 AM
Article published on August 24, 2009
Destination: New England Dragway
High-speed zone
Want to really step on the gas? Head to Epping
By Margot Sanger-Katz
Monitor staff
Brett Young, 23, is home on leave from the Marines this week, and he just bought a used Mustang Cobra. On Saturday, he brought his new ride to the New England Dragway in Epping to see what it could do.
The Dragway, which has won repeat national honors for good management and safety, is host to numerous car and motorcycle races all season long. But it's also a great site to explore your inner race car driver. Curious how fast your car can go? Bring it to the speedway on a Wednesday or Friday night. Want to know what it's like to race side by side with your buddy? Bring her along. For $20 - and assuming you pass a basic safety inspection - dragway officials will give you your turn on the quarter-mile track. Actually, more than one turn. Once you buy your track pass, you can keep lining up for "test and tune" runs all day long.
Drive a pickup truck or a four-cylinder sedan? That's okay. You won't break any records, but you can get a taste of drag racing. Drive an automatic transmission? That's okay, too. So do most of the serious racers. Worried your car won't handle well at high speeds? Don't. The dragway is a straight line.
"Come on a Wednesday night and run your own car," said Rick Busta, 51, of Auburn.
Busta started drag racing cars about 35 years ago after accumulating "too many tickets" on the streets. Now he races motorcycles.
"It's cheap, and it's safe," he said.
Saturdays are a little more expensive for amateurs but also feature qualifying and elimination races by more serious competitors. Unlike many NASCAR tracks in the region, everyone who visits the speedway can wander the pits, check out the vehicles and ask questions of the drivers and mechanics - often one and the same. You can also watch some souped up cars and bikes speed awfully quick down the dragway. The fastest cars top out about 200 mph and often employ "wheelie bars" to keep them from flipping over backward when they take off and parachutes to help them stop.
Be warned, the rules of drag racing are a little complicated. The fastest car doesn't always win. But if you grab a bleacher seat and make friends with the fans, you'll figure out the sport.
Or you can just ignore the rules and marvel at the vehicles. Most cars are modified Mustangs and Camaros, Michigan muscle cars from the 1970s and '80s prized for their big engines and the abundance of cheap replacement parts. But there are also specialty drag cars and all manner of custom modifications. You can also watch motorcycles and road-ready snowmobiles race. A few visitors even bring their ATVs.
Veterans warn that it doesn't take too many trips to get hooked on the sport.
"I came to watch one time," said Danny Res, 33, of Fall River, Mass., who drives a Ford Mustang in the "fast street" division and has been drag racing for eight years. "Now, I need to come every week."
Megan Whiteman, 10, has suffered a similar fate. With two drag racing parents and a 15-year-old brother who races, it was pretty much inevitable that she'd take up the sport. Now she races weekly in the "junior dragster" category - driving a narrow car with a long nose, a one-cylinder engine and the words "Brother's worst nightmare" in big letters along the side. She drives one-eighth of a mile in under nine seconds.
Veterans' warning number two: Though the price of admission seems cheap, drag racing is expensive. Several racers winced when asked to calculate what they'd put into their race cars, and several used the words "money pit."
Young is just getting started, but he said Saturday that he loved the rush of the track and was already thinking about how he could tune his Cobra to run faster. His next leave is in a few months, he said, and he plans to come back to the track to see if he can beat his fastest time.
"It's neat to sort of do it yourself," he said. "It's what you make of it.
Ellie
Destination: New England Dragway
High-speed zone
Want to really step on the gas? Head to Epping
By Margot Sanger-Katz
Monitor staff
Brett Young, 23, is home on leave from the Marines this week, and he just bought a used Mustang Cobra. On Saturday, he brought his new ride to the New England Dragway in Epping to see what it could do.
The Dragway, which has won repeat national honors for good management and safety, is host to numerous car and motorcycle races all season long. But it's also a great site to explore your inner race car driver. Curious how fast your car can go? Bring it to the speedway on a Wednesday or Friday night. Want to know what it's like to race side by side with your buddy? Bring her along. For $20 - and assuming you pass a basic safety inspection - dragway officials will give you your turn on the quarter-mile track. Actually, more than one turn. Once you buy your track pass, you can keep lining up for "test and tune" runs all day long.
Drive a pickup truck or a four-cylinder sedan? That's okay. You won't break any records, but you can get a taste of drag racing. Drive an automatic transmission? That's okay, too. So do most of the serious racers. Worried your car won't handle well at high speeds? Don't. The dragway is a straight line.
"Come on a Wednesday night and run your own car," said Rick Busta, 51, of Auburn.
Busta started drag racing cars about 35 years ago after accumulating "too many tickets" on the streets. Now he races motorcycles.
"It's cheap, and it's safe," he said.
Saturdays are a little more expensive for amateurs but also feature qualifying and elimination races by more serious competitors. Unlike many NASCAR tracks in the region, everyone who visits the speedway can wander the pits, check out the vehicles and ask questions of the drivers and mechanics - often one and the same. You can also watch some souped up cars and bikes speed awfully quick down the dragway. The fastest cars top out about 200 mph and often employ "wheelie bars" to keep them from flipping over backward when they take off and parachutes to help them stop.
Be warned, the rules of drag racing are a little complicated. The fastest car doesn't always win. But if you grab a bleacher seat and make friends with the fans, you'll figure out the sport.
Or you can just ignore the rules and marvel at the vehicles. Most cars are modified Mustangs and Camaros, Michigan muscle cars from the 1970s and '80s prized for their big engines and the abundance of cheap replacement parts. But there are also specialty drag cars and all manner of custom modifications. You can also watch motorcycles and road-ready snowmobiles race. A few visitors even bring their ATVs.
Veterans warn that it doesn't take too many trips to get hooked on the sport.
"I came to watch one time," said Danny Res, 33, of Fall River, Mass., who drives a Ford Mustang in the "fast street" division and has been drag racing for eight years. "Now, I need to come every week."
Megan Whiteman, 10, has suffered a similar fate. With two drag racing parents and a 15-year-old brother who races, it was pretty much inevitable that she'd take up the sport. Now she races weekly in the "junior dragster" category - driving a narrow car with a long nose, a one-cylinder engine and the words "Brother's worst nightmare" in big letters along the side. She drives one-eighth of a mile in under nine seconds.
Veterans' warning number two: Though the price of admission seems cheap, drag racing is expensive. Several racers winced when asked to calculate what they'd put into their race cars, and several used the words "money pit."
Young is just getting started, but he said Saturday that he loved the rush of the track and was already thinking about how he could tune his Cobra to run faster. His next leave is in a few months, he said, and he plans to come back to the track to see if he can beat his fastest time.
"It's neat to sort of do it yourself," he said. "It's what you make of it.
Ellie