Jungle Jim was right.  Professional drag racing classes have become all about TV rights and corporate sponsorship money.    Have you bought a ticket to an NHRA race lately?  Yikes!   What happened to match racing?  I once watched a grudge race in Miami for a suitcase full of cash.  I watched Doug Nash blow the doors off a blown fuel hemi funny car with an injected 289 Bronco.   All of today's top fuel cars are the same except for the body.  Pro stockers are practically identical as well.   Don't get me started on NASCAR.   What we need are races with cars you can buy off the showroom floor.  It would make the cars better and it might stir up some interest in our youth.  Hot rodding is about buying parts, working on your car and challenging your buddies.  I think it was Henry Ford who said  "The first car race came five minutes after the second car was built."  Who wants to watch a Focus ST outrun a Kia?  I would. 

Doug Nash bronco Buster

Bracket racing is for competitors and heads up is for spectators.

By the way it seems like your bracket racing price money is quite equal to our top fuel price money. : /


Hyvinkää, FI

Bracket racing was created to allow all racers to compete on an equal basis.  It's more a competition about who is more consistent than who is faster.  Open cars have a huge advantage as they have a better view of the race.  Back when I was bracket racing, the most frequent winners were always open street roadsters. It's frustrating to build a fast full bodied car and be beaten by a guy with a panoramic view and better brakes.  Bracket racing serves it's purpose and I'm not against it.  What gets me is watching fast cars bog off the line controlled by a computer.  What kind of racing is that?

The one thing I do like about bracket racing is the diversity of cars.  You never know what you might see.

A person's preference as to head's up racing or bracket racing is a personal choice.I have no complaint as to how you state your preference.
I have had the good luck to be successful as a heads-up racer and a bracket racer.From my personal experience, heads-up racing is easier and requires less skill than bracket racing. Heads-up racing, you rev it up and let it go, then you let up. Bracket racing is different.A bracket racer has to factor the following items:
Reaction Time -- very critical - most races won or lost at the line
Dial -in Time -- you have to know your car's capabilities
Break-out Time --  critical -- I prefer to set at barely above car's limitations
Finish Line -- Beat the car next to you
I have raced 3 speed manuals, 4 speed manuals, and automatics, all are fun. An automatic is special, you are on the rev limiter at 3800 rpm, 500 hp, let go of the trans brake, an additional 300 hp nitrous kicks in, hard on the wheelie bars, PERFECT ( no other description ).   Ernie

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.

 

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

"FREE SAMPLE"

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

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)

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?

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)