Video: Super Class Ride-Alongs With Blake, Ondrejko

We’ve all seen plenty of onboard videos inside and outside Top Fuel Dragsters and Funny Cars down to outlaw street cars and everything in between, but only recently with the advent of the obscenely cheap GoPro camera has high definition onboard footage been a reality for the lower buck sportsman racer. As such, it’s not often you get to take a ride aboard a Super Gas or Super Comp machine.

And while we know that the “ninety” cars don’t hold quite the fan appeal that the nitro-fueled upperclassmen enjoy, a trip down the quarter mile in one of these cars offers a completely different experience from a pair of land-locked missiles in a heads-up contest.

For those unfamiliar with these two categories, they, along with Super Street, compete on a fixed index of 8.90 (Super Comp), 9.90 (Super Gas), and 10.90 (Super Street). Their index is essentially their dial-in, and everyone runs on it. The amount of horsepower these cars have will vary significantly from one to next, and although running on the very same index, can take two completely different routes down the quarter mile. This in turn creates some interesting on-track strategies as one driver chases down another or vice versa. And it sure does look exciting from the drivers seat as the car in the opposing lane is spotted a few car lengths and before they meet at the stripe.

Super class racers Rich Blake and Ryan Ondrejko both give us a little peak at this style of racing in the Super Gas and Super Comp categories respectively, and perhaps the first thing you’ll notice (as it does for most fans) is the use of throttle stops just after the launch, which is done to slow a car that would likely run a full second under the index if turned loose. And controversial or disliked as they are, it’s hard not to be intrigued by the incredibly close racing that ensues once the throttle stops have checked out.