Emerald Coast Dragway

[dirtysouth]

S'posed to open by Memorial Day! Whoot Whoot!

 

[pcolagunner]

Is that the old Holt Dragway?

 

[Chaps]

That's great!

 

[MarkS]

Is that the old Holt Dragway?

Yes that's the one south of the Okaloosa & Santa Rosa county line

 

[donr101395]

Read that this morning. Hope it works for them.

 

[wld1985]

same owners? Did they ever fix the track like they wanted? or they just reopening it, I remember is was going to be like a Million to do the track they wanted to build and they shut it down.

 

[donr101395]

same owners? Did they ever fix the track like they wanted? or they just reopening it, I remember is was going to be like a Million to do the track they wanted to build and they shut it down.

It was foreclosed on in 2011 and two new people bought it. They are planning on resurfacing the track, expanding the sand pit, removing the steel track barriers and replacing them with cement barriers and remodeling the control tower; all before Memorial Day.

 

[wld1985]

It was foreclosed on in 2011 and two new people bought it. They are planning on resurfacing the track, expanding the sand pit, removing the steel track barriers and replacing them with cement barriers and remodeling the control tower; all before Memorial Day.

Wow thats alot of work.. But Good luck to them, I use to go Back in the Day.. Probably around 2000 and I always had fun, Saw many neat cars..

 

[bac3996]

They run bracket racing or I guess some call it grudge runs? They run street cars or does everything need a cage? Been many years since I've been to drags.

Lost our track up north during mid 80s so we turned around and ran circle tracks late model division .

Chopped up a lot of 70 Chevelle's & Malibu's to keep body panels straight, went onto run modified s for a few years but got to dam expensive.


Miss the old times of running both a 57 Belair hard top with straight axle, glass nose 331cui tunnel ram duel Holley 850s or the street car a 1966 Fairlane with a 351 Cleveland mild cam, 650 Holley, FMX automatic with a racing B&M shift kit and a hand dial you could dial how hard a shift you wanted.

Todays technology is way above what we had. We had high energy Accel coils and had to change distributor springs and weights to advance the timing. Your dwell meter was your best friend.

Things have change a lot.

 

[StorMay05]

They run bracket racing or I guess some call it grudge runs? They run street cars or does everything need a cage? Been many years since I've been to drags.

Lost our track up north during mid 80s so we turned around and ran circle tracks late model division .

Chopped up a lot of 70 Chevelle's & Malibu's to keep body panels straight, went onto run modified s for a few years but got to dam expensive.


Miss the old times of running both a 57 Belair hard top with straight axle, glass nose 331cui tunnel ram duel Holley 850s or the street car a 1966 Fairlane with a 351 Cleveland mild cam, 650 Holley, FMX automatic with a racing B&M shift kit and a hand dial you could dial how hard a shift you wanted.

Todays technology is way above what we had. We had high energy Accel coils and had to change distributor springs and weights to advance the timing. Your dwell meter was your best friend.

Things have change a lot.

If they open the track under the same rules they should allow street cars to run, up to a certain ET of course. I hate being a correcter but since you asked grudge racing and bracket racing are different. Bracket racing is the traditional racing you seem familiar with, cars running similar ETs, competing on a spread, time slips etc. Grudge is more informal, two people usually agree to race. The race usually isn't timed, so people don't know exactly what the other car can run.

I agree that technology of today is amazing, with one exception. All that technology needs to be ran on drive by wire to be controled properly, which creates a slight delay from the time the pedals pressed to when the engine wraps up. So some of the old technology has an advantage right off the line.

 

[dirtysouth]

Supposed to close on the 26th. Same guy owns 3 other tracks.

 

[bac3996]

The track we ran up north was run on Sunday afternoons and StorMay05 your right it was bracket racing and a mix of Pro racers to, Had a mix of dragster and Top fuelers, funny cars old time gasser etc.

But twice a month usually Weds nights they held grudge races. Run what you bring against who ever would race you. That's when big money & occasional pink slips changed hands.

More then one car went home on a tow bar with pieces in the back of a pickup.

Remember seeing many transmission peices and parts as well as drive shafts coming thru the floor boards. Finally the track ruled you need scatter shield and drive shaft loops.

 

[dirtysouth]

Hope to see it come to light. I gotta couple three or four that I'd love to grudge race.

 

[ksenter]

If they open the track under the same rules they should allow street cars to run, up to a certain ET of course. I hate being a correcter but since you asked grudge racing and bracket racing are different. Bracket racing is the traditional racing you seem familiar with, cars running similar ETs, competing on a spread, time slips etc. Grudge is more informal, two people usually agree to race. The race usually isn't timed, so people don't know exactly what the other car can run.

I agree that technology of today is amazing, with one exception. All that technology needs to be ran on drive by wire to be controled properly, which creates a slight delay from the time the pedals pressed to when the engine wraps up. So some of the old technology has an advantage right off the line.

Disagree. The lapse of time sensation is nearly gone. I can't think of one piece of yesterday's technology better than today's. There are still traces of yesterday's technology throughout, all of which have been vastly improved. Doesn't go without saying us young guys are greatful the old timers did as much, and continue to do, what they did and do for racing and hot rodding in general

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[StorMay05]

Disagree. The lapse of time sensation is nearly gone. I can't think of one piece of yesterday's technology better than today's. There are still traces of yesterday's technology throughout, all of which have been vastly improved. Doesn't go without saying us young guys are greatful the old timers did as much, and continue to do, what they did and do for racing and hot rodding in general

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

My bad, I should have been more clear. The only advantage any old car has is simply getting off the line a split second faster. From what I've seen a mechanical linkage from the pedal to the throttle is always a little faster, then a wire to a sensor to the throttle. It's not much, and can easily be compensated for by any okay driver. As far as any of the new we technology goes, I completely agree that it's far better performing, easier to tune once setup, more efficient and longer lasting.

 

[benchrest]

and u know what else, on days theyre not racing it would be a great place for some long range shooting.

 

[benchrest]

for all the racers and race fans there is plans for a huge road course in defuniak springs just down the road from holt. its supposed to be an 80 million dollar course covering 1400 acres. it will be located on hwy 331 at the defuniak exit just east of the motels there. the main investor is the Andretti group. the mayor of defuniak has been making lots of plans for the track and he has already went to Birmingham international raceway to do his research. the track will be 3 miles long

 

[fv22]

for all the racers and race fans there is plans for a huge road course in defuniak springs just down the road from holt. its supposed to be an 80 million dollar course covering 1400 acres. it will be located on hwy 331 at the defuniak exit just east of the motels there. the main investor is the Andretti group. the mayor of defuniak has been making lots of plans for the track and he has already went to Birmingham international raceway to do his research. the track will be 3 miles long

Now this really sounds good. Would be nice to have a track that's just a 2 hour tow away. Now most of the tracks I race at are 6 to 8 or more hours away. Hope it happens though, not like the one that was supposed to be built near Mobile, never got off the planning stages.

 

[StorMay05]

I hope the track in defiuniak comes true I'd love to see a close by road course.

 

[MAXman]

If they run it the same way the last owners did, I believe you can run tandem, "against" someone else or by yourself. You would also be able to have them not post the speeds or times, at least they never did for that white Acura that would run.

I'm glad it's coming back, I knew some dudes that were really into it that were a left hanging, so to speak, when it closed. I'm not really into drag racing strait lines(or seeing who has more money to put in a car), but a part of the inner 16 year old died when they closed it.