{"id":28179,"date":"2019-09-19T17:00:58","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T21:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=28179"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:24:16","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:24:16","slug":"prep-or-no-prep-that-is-the-question-no-prep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2019\/09\/prep-or-no-prep-that-is-the-question-no-prep.html","title":{"rendered":"Prep or No-Prep: That is the Question \u2013 No-Prep"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Now introducing the latest craze: No-Prep racing. Let us\nrefer back to a few key points already discussed here. Drag racing was the\nresult of taking \u201cdangerous\u201d racing off the street and making a safe and\norganized way for people to compete in a more controlled environment. Track\nprep evolved alongside drag racing to further maintain safety as horsepower\nlevels increased. The popularity of No-Prep racing seems counterproductive to\nwhat sanctioned racing is all about, at least on the surface. I will admit, I\u2019m\nguilty of shying away from the idea of No-Prep racing, especially with high-horsepower vehicles running independent rear suspension. Beneath the surface,\nhowever, there may be some really nice positives buried in the notation of this\ntype of racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many people consider the popularity of Street Outlaws<\/i> being the driving force of pushing the popularity of No-Prep racing. The wildly successful TV series was first aired in 2013 and featured some serious grudge racing on the street. While it’s debatable how staged the show is, one thing is for sure: it shined a light on street racing like a bug zapper to a moth.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"street<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The fact is most of the racecars on the TV show are full-blown drag cars that are heavily modified and have full cages with the drivers\noutfitted in certified safety gear. These big tire cars are usually running,\nwell, big tires, and solid rear axles with production and safety crews on site.\nThese particular cars are fine tuned and built with the sole purpose of\nhandling high horsepower – a far cry from a heavily modified street car. The premise of the show revolves around a\nvariety of people with their racecars and crews to take to the streets for a\ngrudge race. By removing track prep from the equation, they put the success of\na run in the hands of both the driver and the car. The car’s ability to put all of\nthat power to the ground and the driver’s ability to overcome the lack of\nperfect conditions draws a lot of people to this style of racing. It\u2019s a way of leveling the playing field, so\nto speak, removing the handicap, putting the victory directly on the driver and\ncar, and not the prep, track or luck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The growing popularity of No-Prep racing is taking the more\n\u201craw\u201d form of racing off the streets and giving those with a point to prove or\ngrudge to settle a level playing field to play on. Tracks and promoters hosting\nNo-Prep events take thousands of races off the street and put them on the\ntrack. Reflecting back to why NHRA and drag strips started, this is a great\nthing. Street racers view it as a\nneutral battleground offering no advantage to either racer. A victory in a\nNo-Prep race has just as much \u201cstreet cred\u201d as an actual street race. Any race on a track instead of on the street\nis what the \u201cadult\u201d racers would call a win regardless. It\u2019s sort of like that\nold saying, \u201cIf you can\u2019t beat \u2018em, join \u2018em.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The irony behind the whole No-Prep concept is that there is\nactually still a decent amount of prep involved in some cases. Some tracks or\nevents prepare for a No-Prep race by doing nothing. Whatever was on the surface\nfrom the previous event stays. No additional chemicals are applied and no\nmachinery is used to enhance the surface prior to the race in order to provide\nmore traction. On the other hand, some events spend a fair amount of time\nactually scraping off and removing any sort of rubber or chemical off of the\ntrack and take it back to bare concrete to closer simulate actual road\nconditions. They still clean, sweep and dry the track just like a regular\nrace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t help but also bring up \u201croll racing\u201d events to go\nalongside of No-Prep racing. The concept is the same in that it\u2019s made to\nsimulate a certain type of street racing just like No-Prep does. A very popular\nform of street racing is roll racing. Rather than starting the race from a\ncomplete stop the vehicles are traveling at a fixed speed (usually 40-60 mph)\nuntil a signal is given and both vehicles accelerate at the same time from the\nrolling start. The allure behind roll racing on the street is that it\u2019s easier\nto set up and showcases more of the car’s overall power and driver’s skills. Roll\nracing has also been picking up steam and being offered as an alternative type\nof racing event at drag strips. Due to track layouts and space, fewer tracks\nare able to accommodate this type of racing. Oftentimes, the racers begin from\nthe staging lanes accelerating to a set speed by the time they get to the\n\u201ctree\u201d and accelerate as they cross the staging beams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How far will No-Prep or roll racing go on tracks? It may be too early to tell just yet. Some feel removing track prep makes for more dangerous conditions, which could lead to more accidents, which is counterproductive to why NHRA and drag strips even exist. Others think it could be a huge money-maker and help keep racing off the street. Either way, both are gaining popularity almost just as fast as drag racing itself. As for now, drag strips offer a variety of racing for everyone, so please keep it at the track, folks! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now introducing the latest craze: No-Prep racing. Let us refer back to a few key points already discussed here. Drag racing was the result of taking \u201cdangerous\u201d racing off the street and making a safe and organized way for people to compete in a more controlled environment. Track prep evolved alongside drag racing to further maintain safety as horsepower levels increased. The popularity of No-Prep racing seems counterproductive to what sanctioned racing is all about, at least on the surface. I will admit, I\u2019m guilty of shying away from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":28189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[575],"tags":[528],"class_list":["post-28179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-drag-racing"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/feature-13.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28179"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28179"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28203,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28179\/revisions\/28203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}