NHRA / SUMMIT RACING DIVISION 5 ET FINALS
BANDIMERE SPEEDWAY, COLORADO, USA
11th -14th September 2003

The NHRA splits its sportsman racing into 7 divisions, each division made up of tracks in several states. Division 5 has tracks in such states as Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Wyoming and many more. This weekend saw the running of the final round in the championship at Bandimere Speedway. I went along on Sunday (Finals Day) to see what sportsman racing is like in the US.

The car classes for the race were as follows - Super Pro (7sec to 13sec), Pro ET (7sec to 14sec - no electronics), Sportsman (13sec and slower - no trans brake), High School (11.70sec and slower - no transbrake). For bikes there was just one class, Pro Bike (7.50sec to 15sec). All classes were bracket classes with each racer having a dial-in.

I was at first surprised to see so few classes but once I saw how many cars had entered it became clear why. Sportsman ET - 84 entries. Pro ET - 170 entries. Super Pro - 175 entries. Pro Bike - 44 entries. High School - 30 entries. That's 503 entries spread over just 5 classes!

The racing was good, but not brilliant. There was a hell of a lot of red lights and most races were decided on breakout wins - I know to a certain extend that is what bracket racing is all about but I prefer to see a race where both racers stay within there dial in. I must admit the racing did get slightly boring after a while. Not knowing any of the racers meant that there was no-one to "root for" and with no variety of classes it got a bit tedious after while. There were some close races but most were effectively won off of the startline. I think one of the problems was also that too few of the cars were running at the top-end of the bracket. Most of the Super Pro and Pro ET cars were running around the 11sec mark which provides far less excitement that a 7sec car. However I think most of the slower times were probably due to the thin Colorado air. All this is not meant to take anything away from the racers, nearly all of the cars were very well built and finely presented. I think this event was more of a 'racers event' rather than a 'spectator show'. I think this view was not just my own as there were very few spectators, those that were there seemed to be supporting a particular racer or team of racers.

So to sum sportsman racing in the US up, from this experience, lots of entrants, not a lot of variety. But still, I had an enjoyable day at a well run event and look forward to seeing some sportsman racing again, just perhaps interspersed with some other classes.

Few spectators meant lots of clear photos. The best of the 150 I took are below. There are quite a few so they will take a while to load, but stick with it, just as an incentive some of the best ones are at the bottom! I've included captions where I could think of something to say!

This was one of the quickest cars, running in the 8's I think.

Drag Racing Snowmobiles! They were surprisingly fast, running in the 10's and 11's

The Bandimere startline from the Top End.

One for the anoraks! The Bandimere sled has actual slicks on the back, and they weren't just stationary either, some clever device was rotating them slowly backwards (i.e. in the opposite direction to the tractor) thus evening out the wear and I guess getting more rubber on to the track.

This car looked as if it would go quicker than it did!

A nice looking Charger.

These two were also among the quicker cars.

The Bandimere staging lanes.

That nice Charger again.

Thanks for stopping by - hope you enjoyed it.

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