The NHRA Experience: Thrilling, Dangerous, Diverse

You will be hard-pressed to find anything more Americana than drag racing. Wally Parks founded the NHRA in 1951, but I doubt the pioneer realized just how big professional drag racing would become. But despite the NHRA’s rich tradition, many sports fans like myself, had very little familiarity with the sport. That’s why when I was invited to cover the 2014 NHRA Winternationals at the legendary Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, I seized the opportunity.

What was the fuss all about? What am I missing? Boy, was I about to find out.

While many professional sports leagues do their best to separate their athletes from fans, putting up tons of barriers in the process, the NHRA embraces it. The accessibility the fans have to the drivers is astonishing. Every ticket is a pit pass, unlike Nascar.

When I asked NHRA President, Tom Compton about the fans’ close contact to their star drivers, he said “I think it makes the fans feel super closer to this sport than any sport you can describe. NHRA fans can watch them race and 15 minutes later go to the pit and talk to them. Its unlike any other thing.”

Compton is correct. It’s unheard of. Fans can walk down Nitro Alley and talk to their favorite drivers, watch them work on their cars, tear them down, smell nitro-methane and get autographs. When have you ever seen anything like that in the NFL or NBA?

Another source of pride for the NHRA is the diversity of the drivers in the field. NHRA boasts many females and minorities in its league and has been doing it for decades without any quotas or mandates to be filled. They’re holding their own too.

Courtney Force has taken the circuit by storm, winning the 2012 Rookie of The Year award and even winning the 2013 Winternationals.  Alexis DeJoria, daughter of John Paul Jones DeJoria (co-founder of Paul Mitchell and Patron), became the first female to break the four-second barrier in the division over the weekend. They can definitely hang with the big boys.

Top Fuel series driver, Antron Brown, won the 2012 NHRA championship becoming the sport’s first African American champion. Brown also, finished runner-up in the 2013 standings.

The sport has another enticing factor in its corner….its dangerous; legitimately dangerous.

NHRA cars can produce speeds topping over 320 mph at times. The nitro-methane powered engines of Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars produce approximately 7,000 horsepower, compared to Nascar’s 700 horsepower. You read that correctly.

No disrespect to Nascar, but this is a whole different level of power and force. These drivers put it all on the line.

Wrecks can be downright terrifying and even fatal too.

Over breakfast while he was enjoying a plate full of french toast before heading to the track, I asked Antron Brown how his wreck during the 2013 Winternationals at this very same track, affected his psyche.

The thrill of the sport is something you have to actually experience in person. No words can appropriately describe the feeling and the sound of these nitro filled rockets zooming down the track. Your skeleton physically shakes and you feel as if your eyeballs are about to pop out of your skull. Who wouldn’t enjoy that rush?

Above all else, aren’t sports meant for entertainment? NHRA is Mano-a-mano, one-straight shot down the strip to determine who’s best in a very quick race. In a society where we need instant gratification and struggle with ADD by the minute, it can be very easy to lose interest in a race that goes round and round for 200 laps with little change.

There is no room for error in drag racing. A fraction of a second will put you in the losing seat every time. Brown discussed the state of mind you have to condition yourself in to race. “You see the light, you go. There’s no words in your mind. its just executing it. It’s just like, yellow came on, foot goes down. There’s no telling yourself to go. You do that you’re late”, he said.

So just how difficult is it to be a race car driver? What’s it like? What do they go through? I had to find out for myself.

NHRA driver, Jack Beckman allowed me to be his passenger in a two-seat dragster so I could get a small taste of what drivers endure. A camera was attached to the car and to the steering wheel to capture a moment of a lifetime.

Often critics outside racing will turn their noses up at the notion of drivers being athletes. They could not be more wrong. The stamina, conditioning and skill you have to possess in order to master that craft is no less impressive than any other major sport.

On my brief yet amazing drag racing experience, I felt a fraction of the physicality these drivers must go through. Your helmet feels like it is trying to suffocate you. You’re crammed into the smallest of spaces and strapped in so tightly to the point that you have to turn your body just to breathe. Your head and neck violently shake as you accelerate to speeds that seem impossible. These drivers are indeed warriors.

The casual fan has been missing out on a boatload of thrills from an iconic sport. One visit to the pit and the track will breed a whole new batch of adrenaline junkies with a newfound respect for the daredevil drivers who control these powerful cars.

A man (or woman) and their car — it is throwback to the American way and the NHRA experience is American as apple pie….if apple pie could go over 300 mph.

Joshua Caudill is a writer for CraveOnline Sports, a surfing enthusiast, an unhealthy sports fanatic, and an expert on all things Patrick Swayze. You can follow him on Twitter @JoshuaCaudill85 or “like”CraveOnline Sports on Facebook.