Friday night at the drags

Z-28 vs Stingray

Friday Feb 3 2017

Millie and I went to the drag races on Friday night. The Homestead NASCAR track down the street from us has a locals night on the first Friday of every month. Promoted as Fast Lane Friday you can race anything as long as it is legally tagged for the street. 

 Homestead Speedway

 

The ¼ mile track is laid out on pit road of the big NASCAR oval, spectators have very good seats above the garages. All the grandstand seating is closed for the drag races.

The burn out smoke was from the little Mustang II, not the newer Mustang

 

For five hours, from 7pm till midnight participants can race as much as they like. However, later in the evening the line of racers grew longer and longer, so early birds got more runs in.

Nicely restored Z-28 Camero vs a hopped up Dodge Dart

We saw everything you could imagine racing Soccer mom's in SUV's, lots of those little cars with the beehive mufflers, more Mustangs than anything else, as well as numerous Camero's and Chargers. Foreign cars were represented by Porsche, Mercedes Benz's, even a Mini Cooper and an Infinity.

Mini Cooper, check out the (fake) heat signature radiating from the grill

My two personal favorites were an authentic (not a reproduction) Shelby Cobra and a 1930's Ford hot rod. Both were in beautiful condition, if either were mine, I don't think I would have the heart to abuse them on a drag strip.

Shelby Cobra vs Ford "Hot Rod"

 

One of the highlights was a 1940's ford coupe raced by an 84 year old grandfather. He always ran solo, never racing another car. The coupe was pretty fast and several times lifted the front wheels off the ground while accelerating.

Owned and driven by an 84 yr old grandfather

The sleeper of the evening was a Jeep Grand Cherokee. First racing a Mustang and next a Charger, he soundly defeated both. On his third race against a sports car, (I'm not sure what brand it was) it looked like it was going to be a repeat performance. The Jeep accelerated away by two or three lengths when something happened. He missed a shift or the motor stumbled, whatever it was it gave the sports car enough time to overtake the Jeep. He didn't have enough track left to regain the lead.

Grand Cherokee vs Mustang

 

Grand Cherokee vs Dodge Charger

Grand Cherokee vs ?

The stands were packed with spectators, Millie and I were in the minority on several counts. The mostly young Hispanic crowd, although enthusiastic was well mannered. Behind us was a group of (not Hispanic) men who's pre race banter got old after a while, as they solicited bets for each match up. They moved on after they ran out of dollars or whatever they were drinking in solo cups.

Porsche vs Cobra

Our date night at the drags was fun, it brought back memories of our youth. We stayed for four hours, only leaving early to beat the large crowd out of the parking lot.