When the light changes or the signaler gives the sign, two cars set off at dazzling speeds, leaving behind the stench of burned tires and the sound of roaring engines and rapturous spectators. Twelve seconds of adrenalin rushing through the driver’s veins at 180 km/h are simply a passion or thirst for an extreme experience, but the lifestyle of drag racing professionals.
AUTOMOTIVE CRAZE
Drag racing appeared in Europe in the 1930s and spread to the rest of the world by the 1960s. Two cars with roughly similar technical characteristics drive onto a two-lane road. At a signal both vehicles race to cross the finish line. Here the main thing is to avoid pedestrians and keep a firm grip on the wheel, no matter how strong the head wind.
Chaika, the Ukrainian capital’s motor-racing circuit is a great drag strip: in fact, the racetrack is high quality and it is convenient for observing safety regulations. The cars are in their parking lots, and the spectators are on the other side of the protective grating. There is a huge video screen overhead and video cameras mounted along the drag strip. The racers need to pay maximum attention, and it’s good if the fans are wild. If these factors are in place, the event will make everyone’s day, even for the uninitiated.
But this is the situation today. Five or seven years ago any legitimate drag racing was out of the question. Car races are nothing new in Ukraine. There have always been more than enough hot-rodders, especially at night. Their hobby was organized as a sports event only in 1999. Drag racing requires a straight 402-meter-long strip, braking length, two vehicles, and a signaler to start the race.
Amateur dragsters were fined, and their injured bodies were retrieved from what was left of their vehicles. They were hospitalized and stripped of their driver’s licenses, but street racing, like rock-’n’-roll, survived. It lives! There is hardly a town where dragsters and groupies do not convene on certain weekdays. The militia and ambulances are seldom seen near such drag strips. In most cases these competitions are held illegally, but they appear to be gaining in scope with every passing year.
Drag racing is a variety of our street races — something the Automotive Federation of Ukraine focused on in 2004. The first Forsazh [Afterburn] championships involved some 20 cars. The next year there were about 40 cars, and the first 2006 championships boasted over 70 contenders.
“I wouldn’t say that the teams have noticeably changed. More often than not, the drivers are the same every year. It’s a popular kind of sport, so we want to provide conditions suitable for both dragsters and viewers,” says the project’s PR manager, Iryna Manukovskaya.
Ukraine’s 2006 drag racing season has seen two rounds of the 1st National Cup — in late May and last weekend in Lviv. The events in Kyiv were on a far larger scale than in Lviv, and there were many people eager to watch them. Ukrainian drag racing regulations stipulate eight classes of cars, depending on the engine’s volume, booster, and model. Actually, this classification is arbitrary: if they cannot find adequate contenders, the race organizers accept anyone else in the Autlo slot, provided their safety conditions conform to established regulations.
Traditionally, these races are attended by local drivers and pilots from Kharkiv, Odesa, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and from other former Soviet republics. Last year, a driver from Lithuania pocketed two cups. This year the champion apparently failed to re-equip his car, so the Belarusian team stands every chance of defeating the Ukrainian team.
DRAG RACING THE BELARUSIAN WAY
The drag races met with wholehearted public support in Kyiv and Lviv. I am not an expert on race cars, so I decided to root for the Belarusian team, the only foreign one that showed a surprisingly orchestrated performance. As it turned out, the Ukrainians rooting for all those Subarus, Toyotas, Audis, and Nissans ended up bitterly disappointed, as most of the cups in the Pro and Turbo standings were won by the Honda team from Miensk.
What’s the point of these cup tournaments? Why should contestants make such long and expensive trips to take part in them? What makes the Honda a better car? Last but not least, what do those 15 seconds mean for the drag racers — life or happiness? I found myself pondering these questions, when the tense pre-start hush instantly changed to cheers and applause, followed by shouts of disappointment and sighs of despair when the finish line cameras showed the result of the race. From what I could see, the speed of the cars crossing the finish line was more than 180 km/h, and the time from the start to the finish line ranged between 12 and 15 seconds. The Cup can be lost by two- hundreds of a second.
Herman Minets, one of the Honda winners in both Cup rounds, is a professional sociologist. He doesn’t practice his profession because to him driving cars is more interesting than communicating with fellow humans. He started with go-carting, like so many others his age. He has been into drag racing for four years.
“Racing takes up more than my life, I spend 80 percent of my time here and I can’t imagine my life without it...As for Honda, I won’t go into technical details, there are secrets of the trade, you know, but this vehicle’s doing well, even using its design system. It’s definitely hard to get your car ready for a race; it takes money and time. Most importantly, you can use the engine for only one season, at best,” says Minets.
This Belarusian driver and the winning Honda Company worked on his car for almost half a year, spending some 8,000 dollars. “Of course, we had to take the engine apart and then assemble it our own way,” says the driver’s mechanic Yevgeniy, adding, “We didn’t make any changes before the second round, although some car parts were showing signs of wear and tear. We’ll prepare for the third round much better. We want to win the Cup!”
Of course, financial expenditures are not the worst thing that can happen to a racer. The chances of surviving on the race track depend heavily on its surface, the presence of potholes, and safety arrangements. Minets says that any pothole can kill the driver at this speed. Something like this happened in Lviv, but fortunately the driver survived. Drivers also complain about poor telemetry-the inaccuracy of indicators-and the ludicrous purse.
“It’s hard to go into details. Of course, all this is done not just for the money, but we’d be better off if at least our travel expenses were reimbursed. As for the rival, whether I know him or not, the main thing is to compose yourself at the start, shut yourself off from everything, and ignore your competitor,” says Minets
It is true that the lives of drag racers are both dangerous and a gamble. The Forsazh still has four Cup rounds left, and next year there will also be strictly national competitions. You should take a peek at this automotive world even if you don’t own a car and don’t understand anything about drag racing. You are welcome to watch the races, root for your favorite drivers, and above all, see what they can do at this dazzling speed.
