My First Drag Race...

ATLANTA- This past Friday August 28, 2015, I got the opportunity to come out and cover Championship night for Friday Night Drag Race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. As I walked in, I was in complete awe. I just couldn't believe my eyes. I was at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. I never imagined in my lifetime that I would experience this, but why not?

My first instinct was to hurry up and get to the track. Throughout my path I was able to witness the drivers preparing their cars in their assigned garage before their practice runs. Once I approached the fence behind the track a certain young man caught my eye and I approached him. The conversation went as follows:

1. "Is this your first time here?" "Yes my co-worker usually comes here."
2. "What made you want to come?" My co-worker talked me into racing my car."
3. " What kind of car do you have?" "A 2006 Jetta 2.0 Turbo."
4. "Is checking out the practice laps helping you determine if you want to race?" "Oh, I'm racing, it's just that I wanted to see how everything goes first,"
5. "Is there a particular driver or car that you want to race?" "Yeah, one of my other co-workers is here and he drives a BMW M-3."
6. "In order to get yourself ready do you have any motivational music to get you ready?" "Yeah, Young Thug"
7. "What's your game plan to beat him?" "Take the hell off!"

After successfully speaking with him, I was able to speak with an actual fan that loves drag-racing. This conversation went as follows:

"Hello how are you" "I'm good and you?"
I'm good! How long have you been coming to the drag races?" " I've been coming for about five years now on every Friday night. It gives you something to do."

The gentleman then went on to inform me about all of the crazy experiences that he has witnessed throughout the past five years. I then went on to ask...

"What is the difference between Drag Racing and NASCAR?" " NASCAR drives 200 laps around the track trying to win and Drag Race is between two cars." After he answered this question, he went on to inform me that there are 12 divisions in Drag Racing along with describing to me that if a car goes off into the other lane or on the concrete outside of the track then the other driver automatically wins.

By this time, night time has fell and ALL of the lights has come on to light up the track! At first, people who just wanted to drive their car around the track got to drive around a few laps just to get the experience. Afterwards, was the car show where the fans got to come to the grass inside the track and take a look at all of the antique and current cars with thousands of dollars worth of work on them.

Last, is what we've all were waiting for! The races began! to see all of those cars ranging from the 1950's on up to 2015 pull up to the start line! Hearing the noise of all of those engines crank up made me feel like I was on the set of Fast & the Furious! The highlight for me was that a 1970's Volkswagon Bug was winning races against Cameros, Ford pick-up trucks, Firebirds, and Malibus! There was also a 1980's Mustang that was un-beatable! Everyone was looking forward to seeing who he was going to race next and if he was going to win.

From 9 PM til about 11:45 PM the races continued all the way up until they crowned a champion. The types of cars racing were BMW, Malibu, Ford pick-up, Corvette, Porsche, Mustang, Cutlass. Below is the list of champions that was crowned:

Harbin's Mechanical Services Super Pro Division
Billy Clevenger (Jonesboro); 1963 Chevrolet Corvette

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Pro Division
David Clevenger (Hampton); 1986 Chevrolet Corvette

Zaxby's Street Outlaw Division
Lamar Chambers (Griffin); 1985 Chevrolet S-10

Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Division
Lee King (Sharpsburg); 1987 Ford Mustang

Harbin's Mechanical Services Domestic Advanced Division
Stephen DeFayette (Sharpsburg); 1988 Mazda RX7

Harding Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Domestic Division
Chris Morgan (Jackson); 1966 Ford Mustang

Truck Advanced Division
Will Coots (Stockbridge); 1985 Chevrolet C-10

Street Modified Division
Douglas Anglin (Griffin); 1988 Ford Mustang

Factory Street Division
Zachary Stripling (Stockbridge); 2014 Ford Mustang

Diesel Truck Division
Taylor Wilder (Locust Grove); 1994 Dodge Ram 1500

Truck Division
Brian Leath (Hampton); 1976 Chevrolet C-10

Sport Compact Division
Bobby Bramblett (Loganville); 1970 VW Beetle

Tuner Division
Leo Martinez (Griffin); 1993 Honda Civic

Super Bike Division
Tony Freeman (Stockbridge); 2006 Suzuki

Sport Bike Division
Bryan Berube (Forest Park); 2006 Suzuki 1300

Motorcycle Division
Ricky Harrelson (McDonough); 2006 Yamaha R6

Thunder Tower West Harley-Davidson Cruiser/Dirt Motorcycle Division
Andrew Bunn (Hampton); 1999 Harley-Davidson

ATV Division
Omar Ruiz (Cumming)

There you have it! I look forward to covering another race sometime soon in the near future! I hope you all enjoyed this read and that you felt like you were there! In the meantime, stay tuned I'll have plenty more to write about!

-Helen