I have always enjoyed racing, street ( years ago ) or on the strip.
 The T-Bird races in the early '90's sponsored by the Big D Little Birds in Dallas was a lot of fun.
The races in the early years were mostly stock T-Birds, but by the time the races were discontinued,
high performance engines were used. My engine built by John Mummert, and freshened up by Ted Eaton was high revving.
My shift light was set at 7000 rpm and rev limiter at 8000. The engine developed in excess of 450 hp with a 300 hp nitrous added.
High rpms are possible with a correctly built engine. Heads-up racing is great, but is usually won by who spends the most money,
( hp costs $$$$ ). Bracket racing leveled the field, but required additional attention to a whole set of new challenges.
Ernie

You had some real money in that YBlock.  I keep thinking about those tiny rods spinning around at 8,000 rpm.  I assume you used forged truck pieces?   The block is definitely strong enough. 

YBlocks were the first hot rod engines we could afford.  We bought whole cars for $100-$200.  Changed them over to a manual transmission if need be.  Swapped on a four barrel, added a 3.89 or 4.11 gear and you had an instant racer.  Those cars would burn a black streak on the road for a hundred feet.  If we blew an engine, we could buy another one for $50.  Back then, 1957 motors were what we wanted.  Luckily they were all over the place.  Here's a photo of a 57 Victoria I built in the 80s.

I own YBlocks for the memories.  Every time I open the hood on my TBird it makes me smile.  I think about all the Sunday nights I worked to get my car running so I could go to work on Monday.  I think about the clicking noise my Dad's 57 Custom made because the rockers were wore out.  I think about taking my girl friend to the drive in and the prom in that car. I don't have that car anymore.   I still have that girl friend.  

Never raced a Y block except on the street as a teenager.
But I have drag raced on the track since 69. Started out running F/G in a Mustang.
About 1980 or so class racing pretty much died at least in the area where I lived at the time, I fought the bracket racing form of racing for a couple of years
but towing and hotels were just to expensive. Several kids would come into my shop talking about bracket racing and convinced me to give it a try. Now I only laugh and shake my head at the Anti bracket racers. Most are clueless as to what goes on in a bracket race and the skills and knowledge to do it well, I'll say the same thing about the ones who dislike index or 8.90, 9.90, 10.90 class racing. Clueless as to what it takes to be good at it.
In a class race (stock, super stock, modified, or most sportsman classes)when 2 cars of different classes race each other one gets a head start, the only heads up race is if both cars are in the same class. Then the other chases him down to take the finish line. But if the winner runs faster than his index at some point they will have their factor changed. So what do they do... LOL, they slam on the brakes to only take a minimum of stripe. Same as a bracket racer.
I've worked for IHRA since I before I retired in 2003 and have stood at the finish line many days and watched them get on the brakes.
Totally agree with you tbirddragracer. Brackets leveled the field up to a point. But the guy with the big bucks still has an advantage, It's just not a guaranteed win as It was back in the older days..

Dave

I started drag racing as soon as I got a driver's license.  It was all street racing at first. Mostly YBlocks.  Got a lot of tickets.  Luckily, I didn't hurt myself or anyone else.  When a drag strip opened at the local airport, I moved off the street.  When Hollywood Dragway opened, it got serious. We moved to big blocks with a 1963 406 Galaxie that ran in the 12s with an automatic. When Cobra Jets came out, my buddy and I each bought one.  Mine was a daily driver and I raced it in pure stock against Road Runners and Z28s.  His was a Super Stock car and did quite well.

Over the years I've built and owned dozens of hot rods.  57 Fords, 406/427 Galaxies and Fairlanes, Shelby Mustangs, a Sunbeam tiger and at least a dozen Mustangs.  Throw in a few GMs, Mopars and some sports cars and I don't think I missed much. Some of them I wish I had back.

Bracket racing changed everything.  I bought a 1967 Camaro from a local racer.  I built a .060 over 454 with aluminum heads and a power glide.  The car would run 10.6s all day long.  My wife and I towed the car all over Florida and ran every race we could.  Bracket racing is not racing.  It's a contest to see who can build and drive the most consistent race car.  You can have all the money in the world and someone who is better at the game will take the money.  I quit racing when I got burned one night in Tampa.  Nothing serious, but it taught me a lesson.

I have friends who are serious bracket racers.  I understand that game.  These days all my racing is done on the Internet or in my mind.

I have to disagree on bracket racing not being a money maker.  Before bracket racing came into being, I was class racing and was always having to run off of some version of the national record.  Sort of like a bad form of bracket racing.  That was okay as I was able to run the record but there was always that one guy with the GM big block car in my class that could bomb the record in the final round.  That final round had no ‘break out’ rule when it came to running against the ‘record’ whereas running faster than the record in the previous rounds would be a disqualification.  It got old taking second place.
 
Bracket racing changed all that.  I had started off with a ’67 Comet with a 427 Tunnel Port with a four speed.  That car was quick but inconsistent and breakage was always a problem in the driveline area.  About the time bracket racing started to really rise in its popularity, I was in the ’64 Fairlane powered by a 428 with a power glide and it was deadly consistent.  That engine was quickly upgraded to a 427 High Riser.  It liked to be shifted at 6400 rpms and then let it go through the traps at 6800-7000 rpm depending upon the rear end gearing.  And I was there when the electronics first came out as I was not using electronics but had a field day with those that were.  That first two years of learning curve for all those that had electronics had that ’64 Fairlane at top of the heap when it came to wins.  Varying the launch rpms 200 rpms either way from 3200 would nail the reaction times to the teens run after run.
 
I remember building that first 427 HR engine for $2200 and the very first race it was in was a $5K win.  That engine was basically trouble free for nine years with just normal maintenance.  The transmission was being constantly upgraded as time went on though.  For nine years, there was always at least one big dollar race every month somewhere within travelling distance so I was not a one track car.  Just went to where the money was and did exceedingly well.  Many of those races required a minimum of six rounds of racing with seven rounds not being uncommon.  That ’64 Fairlane was well known in the local circles.  When the 427HR engine finally got tired, I put the back up 406 engine in the car and although it would only break into the 10’s with just the right weather, it was still a consistent bracket racer.
 
Here’s a picture of that car which now sits in storage.  It was retired with the 406 still in the engine bay.  While I tried to campaign that car along with the newer cars, it just cost too much to keep multiple cars going so the ’64 got parked.  While I’ve had much faster cars since that one, that ’64 still has the most memories.
 

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Very cool.  Bracket racing is a money maker, it's just not real racing in my opinion.  Bracket racing gives people a chance to run their cars and exercise their brakes.  Real racing is heads up racing.  I understand all the reasons why bracket racing came about.  It's very popular and we enjoyed it as a participant. As a spectator, it's about as boring as it gets.   Who wants to watch two computer controlled cars crawl off the line trying not to run too quick?  Maybe I'm too old to get it?

The reason I was successful at bracket racing was that I would make my dial in number ‘tough’.  That meant running it out the back door under power and I would typically make my dial in 0.01 quicker (tougher) than the car was capable of running.  If the weather or conditions changed in my favor, I would run dead on my number.  There was a giveaway program one year at the Texas Motorplex giving away free 12 volt batteries if you ran dead on your dial with the thousandths on the time slip being a zero.  I won two batteries that year.  As the weather changed during the race, I would redial accordingly.
 
Those that dialed their cars in on the soft side would either break out or hit the brakes if they saw that they had the other car ‘covered’.  For me, cutting consistent good lights at the tree while also running the car flat out the back door would put those ‘soft’ dialed cars on the trailer.  I saw very few drivers who sandbagged (dialed soft) ever make it to the final round.  I also witnessed wrecks where the cars would hit the brakes too heavily when approaching the end of the track.
 
There were different mentalities whether you were racing a faster car or if you had the faster car.  With the ’64 Fairlane, it was typically leaving the line first so it was to my advantage to run it out the back door and force the other car to play catch up.  The general rule was to always take the stripe first.  There was not much leeway for the other car to consider braking in that instance.  With my roadster which was running in the mid eights with a FE engine, it was quicker than most of the Pro field which gave the opportunity for the other driver to red light first.  It was an easy round win when that happened.  I had the same mentality with that car though as I always dialed tough and just ran it as hard as it would run out the back door.

 
Y Power here.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Bracket racing IS real racing.  Like Ted, I always pushed the other car to the limit to beat me, and most races were won at the tree.  My '69 Mach I was raced with 302 SBF, 351 SBF, 428 CJ, and 452 MR for over 25 years as a bracket car.  The name on the car was "Closing Fast" since I usually had to spot the other lane, and was always "closing fast" on the big end of the track.  Won my fair share of races and money.  Racing is about the driver and their ability to react quicker than the other driver, and control the car in a consistent manner from start to finish.  Time runs are just that, they tell you what the vehicle is capable of, but racing is a driver's game.  Joe-JDC

JDC

I'd rather watch reruns of 'Little House on the Prairie' than participate in bracket racing, especially with an automatic transmission car! 

"FREE SAMPLE"

the correct terminology should be "bracket competition", by definition, the winner of a race is the first one to cross the finish line. not the case in bracket competition. My first NHRA sanctioned race was in 1966 at Minnesota Dragways in O/ stock, 56 Ford 292. Been competing on and off since then, sold my bracket/index car (66 Fairlane) a year ago and running my 56 Ford gasser  in nostalgia /heads up events whenever I can.