I am an old codger, yet I am still too young to remember when NHRA (and NASCAR) weren't about the money.
Mr. niteowl77
I must have a few year on you. I can remember when the NHRA didn’t mess with the cars, the drivers, an finally the ET’s for even minor competitions.
I remember when the kids went to abandoned airports or stole road signs and blocked off roads to run what they brought.
But the first of the major changes to organized racing came with the dial-in racing that covered the bracket racing in the 1990’s. It was quickly discovered that no matter what was put on the window, the car was not going to run it. To win races, drivers had to make the car run the number. The only way to do that was to sandbag it. Sandbagging refers to dialing in a time slower than you know the car can run. Most of it hoped as there were many veriables to get a car to run to a “guessed” e.t. The predominant theory was to dial one of the slowest ET’s, and if the car ran slow, the driver could cover the dial, and if it was running quicker, he/she could always hit the brakes. There were a few that became infamous for winning most races on the brakes.
So they took the competition out of the runs and gave them the tools to play with the times. Bad move.
rwood