For this week’s blog I plan to talk about the different styles of drag racing. There are many different forms of drag racing all have their ups and downs and appeal to different people. First I plan to talk about bracket racing which is what I currently do. You have a heads-up style racing which also will include no-prep racing. Then lastly I plan to talk about Index racing which is mostly used in the NHRA.

Bracket racing is a form of racing that allows for cars of all different speeds to compete against one another. In bracket racing you can have a 300hp car racing up against a 1200hp car and the lower hp car can still have just as good of chance of winning. Most local tracks run a bracket program every weekend throughout the racing season. Normally there are two different classes that you can choose to enter in one is Top Et which means electronics are allowed and Modified Et which doesn’t allow electronics. In Top Et cars are allowed to leave off a trans brake and delay box which makes it easier for a driver to cut a better reaction time along with leaving off the top bulb instead of the bottom. In Modified Et cars leave off a footbrake which is when you just build up your rpms while having your foot on the brake and leaving of the bottom bulb of the tree. With bracket racing all drivers get to make two test runs before eliminations to see how fast their cars run. From the two time runs you put a dial number on your car on what you think it will run and if you run faster than that time then you are eliminated. So, for racing each car has their dials if one car is slower than the other it gets to leave first so that by the finish line they should be even if both were to run dead on their dials.

In heads up racing the tree comes down at the same time for both drivers and whoever gets to the finish line first wins. With heads up racing it turns into a big money game most of the time and whoever has the most money in their car wins. No prep racing was thought of to get rid of the money aspect and puts it more on the tuning and driving then on the money in the car. In no prep the track is dragged before the race to remove all previous rubber which makes the track slicker. This requires the drivers to tune their cars to the track to make them get down and the car with the most hp doesn’t always win. This is turning into the most popular style of racing since it is been used on Discovery Channel’s Street Outlaws.

Index racing incorporates pieces of both styles of racing that I have stated above. Index racing is heads up but both drivers must run a specific time depending on which class they are running. Most drivers in this class run a throttle stop which helps slow down the car to run the time they are supposed to run. Like in bracket racing if you go faster then the time you are supposed to then you are eliminated.

With this blog post I hope I was able to inform new people in drag racing the different styles there are to choose from. Above I have only listed the main three types of racing but there are still plenty more. Racing is a sport that is constantly adapting and changing with what different people like.