Burn up that quarter mile

The old adage goes that once there was 2 cars in a town a race happened. I see no reason to doubt that sentiment. The kinds of people who purchased cars in those days were what we call an "early adopter" today and any one of them would want to prove that their choice was the best.

In 1901 the first race that we would call a drag race was held on the boulevard between Brooklyn and Coney Island in New York. Proving that red-light to red-light is racing in its purest form. Never mind that the automatic traffic light wouldn't be invented for another 11 years.

It didn't take that long for purpose built racing circuits to start popping up around the world with Brooklands in England being the first in 1907. The oldest race track in the United States, Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville Iowa, is weirdly older than Brooklands, but spent it's early years as a horse track and auto racing didn't really take off there until the 1950s. Two notable exceptions in its history were possibly the first organized auto race in the United States in 1901 and another in 1914.

A race at Brooklands, 1930.

Racing those early cars must have been exciting to say the least. Early racing is a recipe whose main ingredients include open cockpits, narrow tires, only a hint of brakes, buggy spring suspensions and like any experimental cooking could only lead to either epic disaster or epic triumph. Of course this was also a time when people in airplanes were wing walking while the planes did 360° loops, so maybe these guys were the saner thrill seekers of their day.

Watching this video of the pre-WWI race cars posted by the folks from Goodwood Road & Racing is what got me thinking about racing this week. This video is the last half of a race that happened in the rain. As exciting as it is even this racing is only 80% (maybe less) of what the drivers were doing back in the day. The surface of this race track is immeasurably safer than any circuit from the pre-WWI era and the clothing worn by the modern drivers is infinitely better than the silk scarves and cotton overalls worn by drivers of the past. Keep that in mind as you watch these racers push these old cars to their limits and remember that the drivers of old were probably pushing even harder when these cars raced in anger.

None of that makes this race any less exciting just watch the video to see what I mean.