Almost Dialed-In
There’s something menacing, darkly beautiful about the sound and sight of a drag car slowly rolling toward the staging beam. A big-inch motor idles, breathing heavily for air, the undulating bass note of a machine conceived, purpose-built for gobs of power, parts assembled for total acceleration. After staging, when the tree flashes green, pedal to the floor, the fat Goodyear slicks wrinkle to grip asphalt, the engine screams, — air, ignition, and fuel in balanced proportion…
I am passionate about drag racing. Concealing that would be pointless.
Conceiving, building, preparing, and driving a drag car for quarter mile competition is an art-form. It is a metaphor for living well, for seeking that sweet-spot of balance and proportion even if one never quite able to dial-in all of the elements to perfection. After all, so much is not obvious, and is outside of one’s control.
I digress into abstraction.
These photo’s were taken at Byron Dragaway, outside of Rockford, Illinois. The occasion was the annual wheel-standing contest.
