As a motorsports photographer, it’s difficult to convey to a non-racing-informed friend or family member the rush you experience when trying to track and take photographs of a nitro-burning machine as it makes a pass down the track. I know I’ve tried numerous times to explain it to my parents and other people who haven’t had the opportunity to check out what is most likely the greatest thing on four wheels – standing next to a Top Fuel dragster as it makes a full-bore pass on a sticky racetrack. It’s an experience that only those of us lucky (crazy?) enough to experience will understand.
Earlier this year I had the opportunity to photograph the NHRA’s nitro machines for the first time at the Four-Wide Nationals at ZMAX Dragway in North Carolina, and I have to say that I was wholly unprepared for the sheer brute force of being in close proximity to 40,000 horsepower (four cars) burning up the track at the same time. It was a stunning experience that cannot be conveyed in language – just something that must be experienced to be believed. If you’re a race fan and you’ve sat in the stands for a pair of Fuelers or Floppers you’ve gotten some of the experience, but when I tell you the ground shakes so hard you’re not sure if you’re standing or kneeling, I’m not lying.
I’ve been searching for a way to describe it to my girlfriend ever since I attended the race, and after finding this video I think I might have finally found a way. Although it’s not Top Fuel in the United States, it’s the same effect; a nitromethane-burning Fueler torching the dragstrip at Tierp Arena in Sweden, and someone from the facility tried to capture the sheer brute force of what a Fueler does to anything in its path. Notice the roof of the car buzzing up and down – that’s what it feels like under your feet.
Watch the video, and imagine what it must be like just feet from the cars on the track surface. It was the single most incredible weekend of my life, and I can’t wait to do it again. Those of you who have been there will know what I mean. Awesomeness in a can!