To begin, NHRA stands for National Hot Rod Association and SCS stands for Sport Compact Series. The NHRA is the governing body over drag racing in the U.S.
They have the regular NHRA races, which I will discuss in another article, and for a while they had the SCS for the import cars. Now it’s primarily the NOPI series for Import cars to drag race.
This article will cover a little about the racing but it’s more about what you see at a Sport Compact Series event.
Each racing team had a hauler that transports their cars and gear from race to race.
Fans love to come by and watch a team work on their cars.
They’ll stand around for a long time watching the teams work on the race cars.
When it’s time to race, the team takes the car to the lanes and waits their turn to race.
The teams are constantly checking the air pressure in the tires because it is so crucial to the success of the cars run down the track.
The firs thing the driver does is get the tires wet and do a burn out. This leaves sticky rubber on the track.
He then backs up and lines his car in the direct path he just laid down the sticky new rubber from his burnout.
This will help him get traction when the race starts.
The teams will check out the car one last time before the race starts.
A crew member will guide the driver up near the starting line.
Once the driver has the car positioned on the starting line, he inches forward until he causes two sets of lights to light up.
Once both drivers have done this, they are exactly even and ready to race.
A set of lights in-between them is how they start. This little “Tree” of lights is called the Christmas Tree and the race starter controls it.
When the lights on the Christmas tree flash yellow, the next light to flash is green and the drivers take off. If you leave too early, they call that a ‘red light’ and you automatically lose to the other driver in the other lane.
At a Sport Compact Drag Race, you’ll see a lot of cars that you wouldn’t think could be race cars. Like these two volksbagons below.
Even though they are still volksbagons, they go very fast.
These race teams spent a lot of time tuning up and outfitting these cars with top notch equipment to make them race ready.
A lot of police officers like to drag race so they design their race vehicle to represent their jobs. Like this truck below.
Along with different looking race cars, there were also some very cool regular cars at the races. If you can call these cars regular, lol.
I saw this car at almost every race. I really like the purple color in the paint job.
These doors are cool. Makes it easy to open your doors in tight quarters without dinging them up.
This is a nice car. I’d love to have it for summer drives with the top down.
I love the paint job on this car. Very cool.
That’s one loud sound system in this car.
They did a lot of work on this car to make it look so good.
I think this is a truck.
I think this car is very unique but I wouldn’t like to own it.
Along with the nice cars, you would also see some special motorcycles. This is a drag racing motorcycle and goes very fast.
This photo below was taken in Pomona, CA.
At the drag races, companies would have models there to promote for them.
Some companies models looked better than others.
These two girls worked for Hooters.
Some models signed posters for the fans.
And other’s signed autograph cards with their pictures on them.
The models would sometimes be interviewed for the TV broadcast from the race.
The companies with the better looking models got more free press.
Some companies would pay for a display spot and set up their tents for marketing their products and/or services.
At all of the drag races, we would set up a dyno to test the racers’ cars’ horsepower. This was a free service and very popular with the racers.
We always had a crowd. There were many who wanted to see what their dyno reading was and also many who wanted to watch.
The winners would get a plaque, a case of oil and their photo on the website for all to see.
This photo below was from Pomona, CA.
Here’s our set up and crew in Denver, Colorado.
At all of the NHRA SCS drag races, they would have bikini contests.
At one, I was asked to judge and soon I was running the contests for them.
I always enjoyed the bikini contests and the girls looked like they were having fun.
After the contests, the girls would throw out freebies to the crowd.
The photo below was from a Pomona contest.
The photo below was from an Oregon contest.
Here’s another photo from Pomona with our model in the picture with the bikini contestants.
This next photo was from a contest in New Jersey. I think number 2 won but I liked the girls in green and purple best.
At the end of the season, the winners got to pose for photos with the founder of the NHRA, Wally Parks.
Kenny Tran was the first racer to put my company name, ContraGear.com, on his race car. I’ll always remember how nice he was to do that.
I enjoyed doing Public Appearances with Kenny.
Working in the Sport Compact Series was a blast and I made a lot of friends while working these races.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about the NHRA SCS. I had a fun time while I worked on this series. I especially liked judging and running the bikini contests, but that wouldn’t be hard to assume, lol.
That completes this NHRA 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
Motorsports Degree Requirements
Any questions and/or comments may be directed to the following:
Dr. Spider Michaels, Phd.
Spider@SpiderMichaels.com
