Bracket Drag Racing Basics
Vehicle, Chassis or Body
For a Bracket Race Vehicle, you can use any, Chassis or Body. The Make, Manufacturer or Body Style does not matter. It can be a Motorcycle, Corvette, Station wagon, Truck, or Dragster. Bracket Racing is about Consistency, not how fast you can go. So, with that in mind, you can even run the family Mini Van in a Bracket Race, and yes, it has been done. For a good Race Vehicle, you will want a good Strong Bodied Vehicle with very little or No Rust. You will not even get past the Vehicle Inspection, if your Vehicle is not in good shape. All Vehicles will have to pass an inspection before they are allowed to go down the track.
If you are like most Racers, you will want your Vehicle to go down the track as fast as you can get it to go. Therefore you will want a good Body, with a good strong Motor (Power Plant, Engine). You will also want the Vehicle Combination to be dependable, Race after Race. A good Combination is a Light Bodied Vehicle with a Big Horsepower motor in it. The lighter the Vehicle Body, the less Horsepower it will take to move it down the track. Another reason you want a good Vehicle Body, is because you will want to be able to Tune (Adjust) the Chassis to the Track to get the best Traction, so with that in mind you will want a Body that can be Modified. Body Modifications can be as simple as the addition of Traction Bars, to installing a complete 4 Link rear end setup with Frame rails and wheel tubes for a set of wide Slicks.
You can find good Used Race Vehicles around if you look for them. Sometimes you can find real good deals on Race Vehicles at the Race Tracks. Walk around the Pits and ask, to see if anyone knows someone that may want to sell their Race Vehicle. Usually toward the end of Racing Season, there are Racers that will sell their Race Vehicles pretty reasonable for one reason or another.
