The Fury of Drag Racing
Drag racing is a fast and exhilarating motorsport. It is basically when two very high powered specially engineered cars line up against each other and race to the finish line. The first one to cross the finish line wins; it’s as simple as that. The sport has many categories and is also very dangerous due to the high speeds involved in racing. These cars, being very powerful, sometimes go out of control and crash in spectacular fashion on the track. This sport though is very popular amongst fans of motorsports all over the world.
Anyone that has ever watched a drag race before was probably amazed at just how fast these vehicles can go. These beasts growl at the starting line then explode off with a huge fireball of flames emitting behind them as they charge down to the finish line. The sheer quickness of acceleration and the insane top speeds reached by these cars is truly amazing. The fastest type of drag racing occurs in the Top Fuel category of the sport. “Among the fastest-accelerating machines in the world, 7,000-horsepower Top Fuel dragsters are often referred to as the “kings of the sport,” and with good reason. They are capable of covering a quarter-mile in 4.4 seconds at more than 330 mph. At those speeds everything becomes a blur and the race is over if a person turns around for even a minute. There are other categories like the strangely named Funny Car category and the Pro Stock category, but for pure speed and thrill, it doesn’t get better than the Top Fuel category of drag racing.
What exactly makes this sport enjoyable to watch? For an outsider it would seem to be two cars racing down a track to see which one is faster. They could ask; where is the skill of the driver or what is the point in seeing which car can go faster down a race track? These are very good questions and it seems that one needs to have a deep seeded love for motorsports to really enjoy the sport of drag racing. The skill level comes from the driver controlling something that has the capability of accelerating to 330 mph and reaching that speed in 4.4 seconds. Just holding onto the steering wheel and keeping a car straight and level at that speed requires a great deal of skill and training. Watching two cars going down a race track over and over again seems to be something that only a true motor-sport fan can enjoy. Those that don’t understand can always bring up issues such as; how can it be entertaining just to see two cars on a track and what does one get out of it? However that seems to be missing the point. Drag racing, like all sports, appeals to some and not to others. The ones it does appeal to get behind it completely and enjoy it thoroughly because it speaks to them about their passion for speed and the adrenaline rush they get from watching two cars accelerating at insane speeds. Or it could be they simply like the crashes, the thrill.
The crashes that occur in drag racing are spectacular and very dangerous. At the speeds these cars travel at, one tiny miscalculation or a slightly wrong manoeuvre can send the car skidding and crashing into the barriers. The crashes that happen usually engulf the whole car in flames because of the huge amounts of fuel on board that are needed to power the cars. Most crashes occur when a car grazes the sidewall or the driver can’t control the steering wheel, this usually sends the car into a flip and a severe crash occurs. Other times there is so much acceleration and torque produced by the cars that the front end lifts up and the car goes somersaulting into a ball of twisted metal. It seems to be these dangers and the thrill of speed that keeps on bringing the fans back to the sport over and over again.
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