Overview of Drag Racing
The standard distance of a drag race is 1,320 feet or a quarter mile. Drag strips can be as short as 660 feet or an eighth mile. The minimum land needed to build a track is around 200 acres. A drag strip needs to be long enough for vehicles to reach top speed and are typically between 1,320 and 1,500 feet long. This equates to 2.5-3 acres. Drag strips have a staging area for burnouts to heat up tires and improve traction, a Christmas tree that counts down to the start, and return lanes to go back to the pits.
Racing Classes and Modifications
The NHRA took a controversial step by shortening Top Fuel and Funny Car races to 1,000 feet instead of the standard quarter-mile of 1,320 feet, while Pro Stock and Motorcycle classes still run a quarter-mile. Top Fuel cars can achieve speeds of 320 mph in the thousand feet in under three seconds. The NMRA may move Street Outlaw racing to 1/8 or 1/4 mile distances. In 2015, the NHRA threatened to revoke Street Outlaw licenses but backed off after a letter was sent in protest.
NEDRA races electric vehicles against muscle cars in 1/4 and 1/8 mile races, with electric vehicles achieving quarter mile records of 6.940 seconds at 201 mph.
Economics, Conversions, and Other Units
Owners of drag strips make money from admission fees, concessions, and percentages of winnings, with fees usually set at $15-30 per racer. How far is 1,000 miles in feet? A mile is 5,280 feet. Converting feet to meters, one foot equals 0.3048 meters. Converting miles to kilometers without complex calculations, a mile is 5280 feet or 1.609 km. The kilometer is another unit, 1,000 meters or 0.62 miles, used to calculate distance.
The fastest quarter-mile production car record is held by the Rimac Nevera with a time of 8.58 seconds at 167.51 mph.