To Have It No Other Way
Saturday was spent at Cordova Dragway. I wonder that the race track may be more widely known than the tiny village of some 600 residents. On the other hand Cordova in Rock Island County is home to three nuclear power generating stations.
The drag strip is twin lanes of asphalt 1,320 feet in length, with shut down lanes approximately the same length, staging lanes to 
position the race cars, viewing stands, and a raised tower for unobstructed viewing. All of this is surrounded by a number of acres, a pit area dedicated to parking race cars, as well as ample parking area for RVs and anyone desiring to camp out. The World Series of Drag Racing event was carnivalesque. All this, an informally controlled chaos: moving golf carts alongside race cars mixing with kids on electric scooters, and families on foot circulating around the pits, stopping occasionally to view an interesting race car/engine combination or to converse with a friend from last year. The event has been held at Cordova Dragway for 72 years…
Yes drag racing is retro. In the 21st century it’s an “old school” sport, an activity demanding years of mechanical know-how, as well as substantial financial resources. The beginnings date back to California in the 1930s and 40s. Quarter mile side by side acceleration competition spread to the rest of the country. I discovered drag racing as a sixteen year old kid in North Carolina.
The better part of my Saturday was spent in the pit occupied by Lumbert Brothers Racing of Oswego, Illinois. Jeff and Dave were generous to invite me to keep company with them and their new race car, a 1967 Chevy Nova, powered by a Steve Cohen 582 cubic inch blown 
Chevy motor. If you should be a gear-head you know instantly this is a very powerful, completely serious race car.
The day was long, but filled with conversation about the delights and the challenges of getting a car safely down the track. The desire is to make a run just a bit quicker toward that elusive goal – the fulfillment of the potential which the driver and crew chief imagine is inherent in their car…
One element of the day came as a surprise to me however. Late in the day as the Chicago Wise Guys cars were parked in the lanes, waiting for the call to move forward to the starting line, something happened which caused a feeling of happiness. A group of five to six drivers, some with wives present, exchanged a brief hug, shook hands, and wished one another a successful and safe pass down the track. A conviction was shared that doing what they all loved entailed high stakes, that piloting a 2,000+ horsepower race car is a special kind of dance. Preparations and adjustments are executed with care, yet the unknowns of starting line traction, the behavior of the chassis at launch, and exceeding 200 mph at the finish – demand absolute concentration of mind. A driver needs “become one” with the machine. That said, life and well-being are always at risk.
From all that I observed, they’d have it no other way.
