Box and No Box

[pittsburghracer]

Ohhh and another thing classes used to go by the time you ran. 0-11.99 Pro
12.00-13.99 Heavy
14.00-up street car (no slicks allowed) and street tires were crap back then. Box, no box, didn’t matter. Everything went by time. You foot breakers are spoiled today.

 

[gumper]

Hell, most box racers today don’t even have to push their throttle down at the line. Burnout buttons, bumping up, bumping down, talk about spoiled

 

[Demonx2]

You young guys better get used to change like we did or give up the sport. We went from five yellows to three yellows, 45 degree slanted bulbs to straight on, floodlight bulbs to led bulbs, regular wiring to fiber optic wiring. The sport and technology is constantly changing. Get onboard the train or get in the bike lane.

Errrr....young guy? I'm darn close to your age!! I just happened to have taken a 27 year hiatus from racing while raising a family. For all we know, we may have seen each other at Quaker City back in the 80's where I did a lot of racing.

And no, I'm not a "box hater" racer. It's just not for me. If I was king for a day, the box, no box, and footbrake cars would all have their own class. Oh wait, they're supposed to!! We just tracks to enforce it and everybody could enjoy our sport on equal footing.

 

[Demonx2]

Ohhh and another thing classes used to go by the time you ran. 0-11.99 Pro
12.00-13.99 Heavy
14.00-up street car (no slicks allowed) and street tires were crap back then. Box, no box, didn’t matter. Everything went by time. You foot breakers are spoiled today.

Heavy...did you say Heavy? If you look close at this pic from 90 or 91, you'll see my Charger ran in the Heavy class!! (I always thought it was an ironic name for the class because it described my car all too well. That car IS heavy - it weighs 4260#'s without me!)

Funny thing is when I rolled it out of the garage a couple years ago to wash it with the dust it had gathered over all those years, it still had the HVY labels on the glass!

 

[pittsburghracer]

Errrr....young guy? I'm darn close to your age!! I just happened to have taken a 27 year hiatus from racing while raising a family. For all we know, we may have seen each other at Quaker City back in the 80's where I did a lot of racing.

And no, I'm not a "box hater" racer. It's just not for me. If I was king for a day, the box, no box, and footbrake cars would all have their own class. Oh wait, they're supposed to!! We just tracks to enforce it and everybody could enjoy our sport on equal footing.

Trust me the tracks tried to keep the transbrake and footbrake cars separate but do you know who didn’t support it??? The racers. As a matter of fact I put a long throw transbrake button in my car so I could remove my box for the best no box race in the country. It’s was called the No Box Bonanza held at Norwalk. I paid my entry fee and they didn’t so Norwalk canceled it and never tried again. I looked at the schedule and had an open week and I just wanted to race. Quaker City hold a 5000.00, 10,000.00,5000.00 race twice a year. It’s 300.00 to enter box class for that money. It’s 2500.00, 5000.00, 2500.00 for the no box cars to win for 150.00. They keep the footbrake and transbrake cars separate till they join them for the final rounds. Well guess what??? The local guys that race there weekly won’t support it so they have to cut the purse every race. Box pays full payout because they have enough cars 90% of the time. Hmmmm. The needed car count for both classes is always listed on the flyer.

 

[Charrlie_S]

Ohhh and another thing classes used to go by the time you ran. 0-11.99 Pro
12.00-13.99 Heavy
14.00-up street car (no slicks allowed) and street tires were crap back then. Box, no box, didn’t matter. Everything went by time. You foot breakers are spoiled today.

We had
Super Pro= 0-9.99
Pro= 10- 11.99
Heavy= 12.0- 13.99
Street= 14.0- slower, slicks were allowed
This was before the days of the "box"
I had a small block Chevy powered front motor dragster for Super Pro, a 440 mopar powered altered wheelbase 68 Merc Cougar for pro, a 273 powered 65 Valiant for heavy, and a 170 slant six powered 65 Valiant for street. I would have all four cars at the track (home track) on the same day, and raced some of them at other tracks 3-4 days a week. I quit racing about 1985 when the boxes got sophisticated enough, that a foot breaker was really hard pressed to make it into the "money" rounds of the "big money" (for that time) races. Back then box and no box ran together. I got back into racing about 2000 as a foot breaker with my Slant six powered car.
In my opinion the box is a crutch for drivers that are unable to adjust their driving to varying conditions. I would like to see a box driver run any two cars similar to my 4 cars (on the same day), and go more than 2 rounds as a foot breaker.
PS: I have my fire suit on and ready for the flames
PPS: PB Racer, I had my slant six Barracuda up to Pittsburg around 2006 for a Mopar meet, and I have raced at 49 different dragstrips

 

[pittsburghracer]

I’m pretty sure at Keystone they broke up the pro and super pro a few years later. When I was racing my red 1982 Dodge Charger I finally gave in around 1994 and switched to powerglide with a transbrake and delay box. Stock crank 440 with 906 heads and a Tunnelram with two 750 holleys that ran 10.0’s all year long.

 

[Demonx2]

I’m pretty sure at Keystone they broke up the pro and super pro a few years later. When I was racing my red 1982 Dodge Charger I finally gave in around 1994 and switched to powerglide with a transbrake and delay box. Stock crank 440 with 906 heads and a Tunnelram with two 750 holleys that ran 10.0’s all year long.

View attachment 1715992166

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I know I'm not the only one that is not surprised that yet another car of yours was wheels up!!

 

[RockinRobin]

For the box haters, how do you feel about foot brakers running against trans brake (pro) cars? One of the tracks I used race at allowed that. They said there wasn't enough cars to have both foot brake and pro, so they combined them. I quit racing there, at the time I didn't have a trans brake but do now.

All of the tracks where I race don't have a separate footbrake class, so I've had to race against transbrakers for years. It makes it tough, but I stubbornly refuse to transbrake or let some device do the shifting for me. I would love to do a footbrake only race but they are too far away for me.

 

[pittsburghracer]

All of the tracks where I race don't have a separate footbrake class, so I've had to race against transbrakers for years. It makes it tough, but I stubbornly refuse to transbrake or let some device do the shifting for me. I would love to do a footbrake only race but they are too far away for me.

Talk to your tracks and talk to sponsors. I can’t believe in Texas or any other race heavy state that you couldn’t get at least one footbrake race to see if the interest is there. Who knows where it could go for there. Do you know any local race promoters??? I know classes like the heads up class at monster mopar at Norwalk couldn’t continue without sponsor money. Car count just isn’t there to support the class. I even offered up and gave 50.00 to low qualifier during first round qualifying and I’m broke and don’t even run the class. Every little bit helps.

 

[o1heavy]

We use a 4th protree in Our local 7.0 index class , we had a few of the guys push and push until delay boxes were allowed,
Am I Missing something,
Only thing I can think of is they have found a way to go red and the box allows them to slow the reaction down,
They are still leaving on the amber As all the ambers come on together I would assume,

This has been bugging me for a while
Sorry not my intent to hi Jack the thread ..

 

[RockinRobin]

Talk to your tracks and talk to sponsors. I can’t believe in Texas or any other race heavy state that you couldn’t get at least one footbrake race to see if the interest is there. Who knows where it could go for there. Do you know any local race promoters??? I know classes like the heads up class at monster mopar at Norwalk couldn’t continue without sponsor money. Car count just isn’t there to support the class. I even offered up and gave 50.00 to low qualifier during first round qualifying and I’m broke and don’t even run the class. Every little bit helps.

Good Idea, I'll give it a try. The 2 tracks I go to the most, 1 is all about promod and grudge, the other is no prep and box, so it might be a tough sell.

 

[RockinRobin]

We use a 4th protree in Our local 7.0 index class , we had a few of the guys push and push until delay boxes were allowed,
Am I Missing something,
Only thing I can think of is they have found a way to go red and the box allows them to slow the reaction down,
They are still leaving on the amber As all the ambers come on together I would assume,

This has been bugging me for a while
Sorry not my intent to hi Jack the thread ..

I don't know any box guys where I race that could slow their cars down enough to race 7.0 (I'm assuming 8th mile) They are all 5.80 and faster.
I think changing the index rules for these guys is crap.