"We plan to put on this event on an annual basis." When asked why this and similar races drew such a large crowd, Sorensen explained, "The spectators can relate to the cars." Also by letting spectators approach the concrete barriers (but not past the starting line), they can be close to the action. "We want to prevent street racing by putting on a simulated street race," Sorenson told us. We spoke with race organizers Marc Sorenson and Jesse Jennings, who both echoed Chicago's Trent Eckhart's sentiments. Some of the quickest cars in the country were there, and spectator attendance was huge, with wall-to-wall people and a line to get into the track stretching more than a mile out. It differed from KOTS in that there were no real classes-it was an invitational, so the race organizers picked cars that as a group were fairly evenly matched. Most recently, Car Craft attended the Outlaw Armageddon no-prep race at Thunder Valley Raceway Park in Lexington, Oklahoma, and it was one of the most exciting races we've covered in the last decade. Gangster class is made for street cars they must be registered, insured, and working lights, horn, and wipers. Senior cars race on up to a 28x10.5 tire and need a parachute, Junior cars can't run larger than a 275 or 8.5-inch tire and stock suspension.
"The tires are basically the limiting factor," Eckhart explains. The rules are simple, with just three classes-Senior, Junior, and Gangster-and simple rules. "We allow close spectator participation," Eckhart says, "and we wanted to keep that street-race vibe." It did feel like a street race, too, with a crowd lining the track and gathered behind the starting line. Car Craft covered some of the action at KOTS in 2014 and it was thrilling. Eckhart and Steve conjured up KOTS, which is basically the Super Bowl of unprepped grudge racing around 2006, and it has grown in popularity since. Real Street Drags is still happening at GLD, only now it's part of the official schedule and run with a safety crew present. It works best when it's less than 1/8-inch thick." When it gets too thick or becomes uneven, track officials will either scrape the excess "dough" from the track surface or apply more traction compound and re-drag the track. When it's applied correctly, you can see it, especially on the starting line. "Similar to the ingredients you use to bake a cake, the chemistry in traction compound reacts with rubber to form a dough that is spread on the track. "I think of it like a dough," Rueckert says. The two steps are both necessary because a chemical reaction takes place between rubber and the traction compound that forms a sticky surface along the length of the track. Anyone who's been to a drag race is familiar with the routine: traction compound is sprayed on the track, followed by several passes with tractor dragging old tires over the compound. Jason is obviously partial to his company's brand of traction compound, Lane Choice 7, but he says all traction compounds-whether it's VHT or Pimp Juice-work in a similar manner: they are an adhesive that bonds rubber to a concrete surface.
He and his buddy, Tyler Crossnoe, are often called in to do track prep at big events. We talked with Jason Rueckert, Midwest regional manager for VP Racing Fuels. What's a no-prep race? The best way to answer that is to first look at what track prep is.