Mopar Mile-High Nationals

~ Mopar Mile-High Nationals (2005), Bandimere Speedway ~

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[Description] [Bill's Photos] [Mary Jo's Photos] [Photo Credits]

Top Fuel Dragster - Blowing the Supercharger on Throttle Hit
Moper Mile-High Nationals, 2005 - Photo by M.J. Flinn
(Click Image to see Full Size Photo)

The 26th Annual Mopar Mile-High Nationals were held at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, west of Denver, on July 15, 16, and 17th. Bandimere Speedway is often referred to as "Thunder Mountain" by the drag racing teams because of the fact that it is located in the Denver foothills, and the horrendous noise that the top fuel cars produce when they make their 330 mile-per-hour runs. This track is also the highest elevation track on the NHRA drag racing circuit.

Lessons learned: I really blew it this year! I took one of my digital cameras (the good one) up to the computer to offload all of the photos so I would have lots of room to take a lot of pics at the races this year. Guess what!? I left it attached to the computer. Imagine my surprise when I got to the races and opened my camera bag only to find by crappy (other) little digital camera in there, and the good one absent. The good digital pics will have to wait until next year. Fortunately, Mary Jo had her Nikon with her and took some amazing shots.

Drag Racing Tid-Bits (Continued):

The terms "tire shake" and "tire smoke" refer to what happens to the tires in relation to their traction and the track itself. If the motor spins the tires too fast with not enough traction, the tire goes into tire smoke. If the engine is trying to spin the tires, but they have too much traction, the tire wads up and chatters, sending them into tire shake. Both result in a "pedal fest" to try to recover or shutting it down.

Those huge drag slicks (tires) have only about six to eight pounds per square inch of air in them!

The starting light is known as a "christmas tree" and consists of several sets of lights. The top two sets are the pre-staged and staged lights. Once a driver goes from pre-staged to staged, the other driver has 7 seconds to stage or is disqualified. The next three down are amber to indicate that the green light is about to light. The green light is the "go" light, and the bottom light is a red light to tell the driver that they left too soon. In drag racing, if you see green, however, you are late. Back in the day, the three amber lights would count down sequentially. Now, all three light at once before the green. They still count down sequentially for the amateur classes, however.

The pit areas in drag racing are open to the public. After a racing session, spectators are free to go watch the between race "thrash" and even stay to see (and hear) the nitro cars start up and warm up the engine. You are literally only a few feet away from a nitro engine as the driver "blips" the throttle - it is loud!

NHRA Drag Racing consists of a 23 race season, from February to November. They start and end the season in Pamona, California. The race in Denver is the beginning of the second half of the season, and also what is known as the "Western Swing" with back to back races in Denver, Seattle, and Sonoma.

The winner of a drag racing title is the driver in his or her class with the most points at the end of the 23 race season. They each get 20 points for each round of racing that they win, and 20 points for qualifying number one in each race. They are penalized points, however, for various things such as oiling down the track or punching somebody.