Goin' Legit

Street racers take it to the track.

This past Sunday, I headed out to Englishtown to hangout with some friends. I wasn’t there for a Mustang race or an Outlaw 10.5 event (the track did have its Ultra Quick 8 class for 10.5W cars) but rather to watch some street racing. Before you attack me for promoting street racing, this deal was completely legit. The Englishtown staff was nice enough to allow a group of grudge racers get it on at the track rather than chase them back to the streets of New York and New Jersey. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, several races were organized before the track day. Some of the races got off and some didn’t, it as typical street racing.

The only things different were that we weren’t in some random parking lot at 3AM. The racing did go off with the usual antics like negotiations, trash talking, and overall amusing fast talk. Like most street racing in New York and New Jersey, ’80 Malibus and Fox-body Mustangs dominated the racing field. I couldn’t tell exactly how quick the cars were but I would say most of them were 9-second capable rides, some quicker and some slower. There were two big-tire cars there that were definitely quicker than everyone else. Both cars were back-half combos with big block Chevy engines with a couple of hits of nitrous.

This isn’t the first time the street racers were welcomed at Englishtown; it is an occurrence that is becoming more and more common. The street racing crowd that runs at Englishtown is a tight group of racers that turn to the Internet and track events to talk trash and setup racing. My buddy who is completely submerged in the scene seemingly has stories nearly weekly of action happening at the track. It is great that Englishtown is helping the street racing problem by letting these guys have a safe environment to compete.

The popularity of track grudge racing up here is getting so big that a group of racers from Long Island organized a grudge day called No Time Nationals. The No Time moniker comes from the N/T marking on the window. That tells the tower to turn off the clocks and keep it a secret from the people in the stands. I went to last year’s event and saw a lot of familiar faces from years past; it was a great time with some great racing. There was a mix of organized No Time class racing and grudge runs. People came from the Carolinas and other far away states to take a shot at knocking off the New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania hitters. Atco Raceway hosted the No Time Nationals last year and I suggest checking out SmallBlockPosse.com for the date and location of this year’s event.

Let’s hope that more tracks become friendlier to the grudge racing crowd, it helps keeps things safe and also puts more fans in the stands and can add some nice value to the weekly bracket program. Some tracks run a grudge night/test and tune program but the guys running these money races aren’t the type to just show up on a Friday night and see what happens. When they show up, it is for an organized race. Hopefully more tracks can be as accommodating as Englishtown.