Music City Raceway - 07/29/2017

SCraig · Jul 30, 2017

This track has been around forever although it was formerly known as Union Hill Dragway. They celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2008, and I've been going there since I was a teenager. Early in the week I was hesitant to go since it has been in the mid 90's with heat indices of 105+ for the past few weeks. But a cold front came through and Saturday was in the mid 80's with low humidity and lots of sun.

They had a diverse mix as usual:

A few Junior Dragsters -

Lots of smoke -

Some wheelstanders -

Some dragsters, both old-school and new-school -

And some really quick doorslammers -

NHRA rules require anything in a class that runs over 150mph in the 1/4 mile have a parachute installed. Anything that runs over 200 mph has to have dual parachutes installed. As can be seen this one has a single 'chute so it is in a 150mph class.

qmr55 · Jul 30, 2017

Nice shots!!

Dean_Gretsch · Jul 30, 2017

They do some beautiful paintjobs don't they?

SCraig · Jul 30, 2017

Thanks guys.

Some of the paint is really great, some not so good. These are mostly just weekend racers and some tend to put their money into the engine and powertrain with the body coming last. There are always some there with patches of primer and then there are some, like the '67 Camaro in the third photo, that are immaculate every weekend.

Dean_Gretsch · Jul 30, 2017

SCraig said:
Thanks guys.

Some of the paint is really great, some not so good. These are mostly just weekend racers and some tend to put their money into the engine and powertrain with the body coming last. There are always some there with patches of primer and then there are some, like the '67 Camaro in the third photo, that are immaculate every weekend.

I know what you mean. A couple weeks ago, I saw a flat black primered Duster go up against a beautifully painted Camaro. The Duster won. I figured he put the extra money into engine or power train.

tirediron · Jul 30, 2017

That's some horsepower!! Nice.

SCraig · Jul 30, 2017

Dean_Gretsch said:
I know what you mean. A couple weeks ago, I saw a flat black primered Duster go up against a beautifully painted Camaro. The Duster won. I figured he put the extra money into engine or power train.

As the old saying goes, "Pretty don't make you faster". To me though it's would just be a matter of pride. I have a friend who owns a couple of stock cars, and they don't go on the track beat up or dirty. They are always as well-maintained as he can make them.

tirediron said:
That's some horsepower!! Nice.

It varies with the class, of course. My guess is that these range from about 500hp to around 800hp but I could be way off to. Except the Junior Dragster naturally, they run very small engines. This is just a little 1/8 mile track so no monster horsepower here.

The Top Fuel and Fuel Funny Car classes are running between 10,000 and 11,000 horsepower and when they launch it honestly sounds like lightning struck a few feet away. The ground shakes, the grandstands shake, the people shake. It's an amazing experience.