For years now I have heard that the radial scene has one foot in the coffin if you will when it comes to it’s popularity and the want for people to build radial cars…guess what, it’s all bullshit along with smoke and mirrors.

Lately there has been a lot of talk about the future of radial tire racing and whether or not there is a future with that style of racing. More and more promoters are starting to shy away from holding radial events for one reason or another. The biggest issue that is circulating now is the glue shortage and whether or not we will see a return to some of the glue manufacturing that the radial tires are so used to working with.

Let’s open the pandora’s box that everyone is too damn afraid to talk about though. The main reason for the “downfall” or lack of interest in radial racing lays with the drivers in these classes! Yes, most of them are close friends of mine, there is no secret there, but the fact is that they are the reason that so much damn glue is even needed! The lack of ability to tune to the track you are given versus expecting to hit a homer every time out is a contributing factor to this mess.

Here’s a newsflash for you young ones in the sport of drag racing, especially drag radial racing, this style of racing was around long before Donald Long, Tyler Crossnoe, and others made it a movement. In the 90’s there were drivers like Dwayne Gutridge Sr. running a hard tire and going fast. In the late 90’s and early to mid 00’s we saw people like Dwayne, Erica Ortiz, John Kolivas, Joey Bridge, Dave Hopper, Chris Tuten, Chris Little, Jason Lee, and many other’s go fast on tracks that were prepped for Pro Mods and 28x10.5 cars. So don’t for a minute tell me that we can’t have great radial race with a little less glue and track dragging.

Every time I see a track post that they are doing a test session now, they have to say whether it is a regular prep, light prep, no prep, or radial prep. Get the fuck outta here with that shit. Just either prep it or don’t prep it and let the drivers & tuners figure the fuck out. No wonder so many spectators have become fed the fuck up with radial racing. Three pair go and then the expectation is that the promoter and track use another half barrel of glue to make the track pull 500 again. So in the meantime you’ve got thousands of people either online or in person watching the tractor drag or sprayer nationals.

You want to know why it is that Pro Street and Super Street are creating waves over in PDRA and throughout the drag racing community? It’s because the rules are pretty good and you don’t have to prep for 35 minutes to send them down the track. I mean you don’t have to prep radial for 35 minutes either, but if you don’t you’ll never hear the end of if. Fans want to see cars going down the track, not tractors and rotators making the worse damn noise known to man.

At first I was skeptical of Donald’s points series for radials, but the more it goes on and the more that I talk to drivers in the points chase the more I understand why there is a need for it. Just like there is still a great need to hold events like Lights Out and No Mercy. Why I don’t agree with all of his groups scheduling of the events, I do agree that the events are much needed to fill the niche within the industry.

There are those that seem to think that the only things that matter in drag racing anymore are NHRA Nitro, Pro Mods, and No Prep. I will battle you all day long, and stand on my box to scream that bracket racing, small tire racing, radial racing, and everything in between is very much needed in the world! So let’s get past the notion that radial racing has got a foot in the coffin. Just like everything else in this industry, it all circles back around. Small rules and scheduling tweaks and everything is on a much better track again.

Plenty of rumblings that I have been witness to among drivers that would love to see an old school RvW class with real cars and not cars that started as a pile of tubes. And don’t dare try to tell me that is what Pro275 is, because it’s not. With that said, you can’t schedule radial events the same weekend as pro mods and expect 20 RvW cars to show up, it just won’t happen anymore. The fans want good side-by-side racing and they don’t care if it’s 4.20’s or 4.70’s or 3.80’s. So maybe it’s time to figure out how to get the car down in the sun during the day like it was done 20 years ago.

I’ll see y’all at the races.