This video on YouTube caught our eye not only for the cool 1960’s drag racing footage, but for its title, “Back When Racing was Fun.” The video is a five minute promotional clip of a longer video from “Bee on Video.” It’s a compilation of footage taken from various drag strips from days gone by, and for those of us who can’t get enough old school drag racing footage, this video provides a fun history lesson.

As for the title, it begs the question: was drag racing actually more fun in the ‘60s?  I know for me any time I can fire up my race car and roll to the burnout box, my fun meter is piqued. In fairness to the creator of the video, he wasn’t trying to imply that the act of drag racing has lost its fun. On the forum below the video Jim Amos of “Bee on Video” attests that the title is meant to reflect how drag racing has become more of a big business and the professional teams have more pressure to perform based on sponsor money required to run a big team.

There’s some truth to this view. The days of the independent Top Fuel racer taking on the factory sponsored team and having a good chance to win are far and few between. On the other hand, there’s more to drag racing than big sponsorships and advertisements. There’s still big drag racing for the average guy. The biggest part of the sport is the often forgotten bracket and sportsman racers. These classes reflect their counterparts of the ‘60s and ‘70s with home built cars and are full of drivers whose sole purpose is to have fun. The local racer and backyard built car are still as relevant today and the aftermarket performance parts industry proves that.

Drag racing of 1960’s is often referred to as to the good old days or the glory days of racing, but isn’t any day at the track glorious?