Exhibition of speed. It's a moving violation, a few points on your license, and an intrinsic gearhead calling. A display of egregious horsepower can be masterfully executed, transcending the sophomoric nature of the act and potentially raising the perpetrator to local legend. Or, if seen in the pages of Car Craft, to national icon.
Simply put, burnouts and wheelies are cool. We think so, you think so, and the readers have clamored for a big, senseless blowout of action photos of V-8 jockeys stabbing their right toes into sideways mayhem. This is it. Our e-mailbox is perpetually overloaded with photos fighting for space in the Burnout!! section of the magazine-our most popular monthly feature-so in the next 10 pages you'll find a sampling of the most artistic smokefests from readerland. And since that's not enough, we've also reloaded the action from the World Power Wheelstanding Championships held at historic Byron Dragway in Illinois.
Car Craft first covered the action at Byron in the May '05 issue, and this year's event was even crazier. Genius track promoter Ron Leek really gets it. He used to pack the place in the heyday of the '60s, running four-cars wide. In the '70s he was credited for popularizing bracket racing, and in the '80s and early '90s, his little track was the birthplace of true-10.5-tire street-car racing. Today he's got a program like none we've ever seen with the Wheelstand gig. After a full weekend of heads-up racing, the racers yank off their wheelie bars and head for the sky in a free-for-all format where each competitor has the track to himself until he breaks, gives up, or gets boo'd off by the full-capacity crowd of 10,000-plus peer-pressure instigators. This year, winners were judged by a celeb panel: Bill "Maverick" Golden, Arnie "Farmer" Beswick, Broadway Bob Metzler (who founded Byron, Great Lakes, and Cordova Dragways), and the guys from Pinks TV. There were cash prizes for wheelie categories of Best Overall, Most Violent, Most Photogenic, and Longest Distance. We've rarely seen more carnage-the winner barrel-rolled his car eight-and-a-half times-and frankly, it makes us cringe to see sheetmetal abused this way. But ask any wheelstand competitor why he does it and the answer is the same: "I figure I've got all winter to fix it." And glory is forever. Cash probably ain't, but Ron Leek dropped the bomb near the end of this year's meet: the '06 grand prize will be $25,000 for the First-place wheelstander. He says, "We'll announce rules that will make sure these are legitimate, conventional drag cars-not purpose-built wheelstanders." Expect devastation.
Want in? To get your car into future installments of Car Craft's Burnout!! section, e-mail your high-rez images (at least 5x4 at 300 dpi) and implausible tales to CarCraft@sorc.com, or use postage escargot at Car Craft Burnout!!, 6420 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048. We'll happily accept your extreme wheelstand photos too, but if you really think you're a hotshot, then watch byrondragway.com for details of the next Wheelstand Championships and sign up. After all, you can't exhibit speed unless someone's watching. And right here, 3 million people are watching. Better make it good.
Can't Get Enough?
Buy the video! Two years of Wheelstand Championships videos have been captured by Revolver Films. DVDs go for $19.95 each through byrondragway.com or priolabrosracing.com. You can also rent 'em though netflix.com.
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