When I was a kid growing up on an East Texas dairy farm in the late 50's and early 60's getting to go the races with my buddies was a real treat. We did not have a track in my home town, but there were several tracks with-in a 60 mile radius. Drag Racing was not popular back then, people sort of looked down on you if they knew you were interested in it. I had a couple of friends that were two to three years older than me that would let me tag along. They would race their cars and I thought that was the greatest thing I had ever seen. I dreamed of the day when I could do that!

Starting Line Then

Drag racing was totally different then, it was a "run what you brung" wide open free for all. There were no electronics, heck if you had a tachometer you were in high cotton, no starting tree & no top end lights. The starting line consisted of a starter that stood out in front between the two cars, he would point to one then the other and drop the flag or raise the flag while jumping in the air. Every starter had a different technique so you needed to watch his every move in order to get the advantage off the starting line.

Starting Line Now

Everything now is electronic, when you trip the first infrared beam it turns on the first of two yellow lights on the starting tree also referred to as the Christmas tree, you are now in the pre staged mode. Roll in seven more inches and the second yellow light comes on and you are now staged. When one car stages the other car has seven seconds to stage or he will be disqualified. If you are in the Pro classes, Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motor Cycle, you will run off a Pro Tree, all other categories run off the Sportsman Tree.

Pro Tree

The two trees look the same, both have a pre stage and a staged light for each driver at the very top of the tree, both have three amber lights on each side and both have a green and a red light for each driver, however, this is where the similarities ends. The Pro Tree is activated when both drivers have staged, all three ambers turn on at once and .4 of a second later the green light  turns on, if you leave before that the Red light comes on and you are disqualified. Each lane has its own set of timing lights!

Sportsman Tree

The sportsman tree looks identical to the pro tree, but instead of all three amber lights coming on at once these amber lights come on one at a time and are sequenced  .5 seconds between each light. As with the Pro Tree you want to time your reaction to leave .5 seconds after the last amber comes on.

Sanctioning Bodies

The main sanctioning body back then was the American Hot Rod Association (AHRA), however, most tracks were not sanctioned only the larger tracks were. Therefore the rules were almost non-existent at the non sanctioned race tracks during the early years. Later the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) became the dominant sanctioning bodies of the sport.

In conclusion I hope you have gained a little insight about the early years of Drag Racing, I will continue this article in a few days, where we will take a look at the finish line "Then and Now" my articles can be found at nhrastyleracing.com.