Who invented the 1/4 mile

[Bewitched666]

Guys we've all been racing or love to see drag racing on the strip.

I grew up with my dad racing the 1/4 mile since i was born in '69
I never dug into the history of the 1/4 and 1/8 length but can someone tell me who invented the 1/4 mile and 1/8 mile length?

Why dont we run a 1/2 mile,i dont like the 1/8 mile as it is to short for me imo.

Brainstorm on this and i will search the net too.

Greets Stanford

[Lee.C]

a 1/4 mile is roughly the distance between 2 "Stop lights" in the USA - Right guys 

And the term "Drag" comes form the "Main Drag" used to describe the Main road in a town - where everyone went cruzing on a friday and saturday night 

God I wish I was around in the late 50's early 60's 

[ian c]

http://www.nhra.com/aboutnhr/history.html

[ian c]

http://www.hardcore50.com/members/history.htm

found this too , but no mention of why a quarter .

i think lee must be right about the city block thing .

[Sarge]

I remember attending some half mile drag meets at Riverside Raceway in the early '60's.  The racing was held on the back straightaway.  Hard to imagine having a POS that was scary in the 1/4 to start with and then tacking on an extra 1/4 for added excitement.

[ian c]

HALF A MILE !!!   

i reckon my car could reach 100mph in that distance !!!

[Martin]

have you noticed that they have made topfuel race over 1000' insted if 1320' to try and slow the cars down.

[SteveW]

Yes but it's only a 'temporary' measure until they figure out what the can do to improve the safety.

Regarding the 1/4 mile, a book I have called 'The birth of Hot Rodding' describes how just after the war west coast hot rodders wanted to race more than once a month on the salt flats so raced on the streets. With that being really dangerous and alot of deaths occuring they then found the use of the old airstrips that were built to house the large number of aircraft that was being built for the war to test. These strips were 1 mile long and test runs determined that 1/4 mile would be the perfect race distance with the remaining 3/4 mile to slow down!

The book is an amazing read with some really cool photo's, the foreward was written by the late, great Wally Parks and the actual book written by Robert Genat and Don Cox.

[Zach Gomulka]

I know Wally Parks (founding father of the SCTA and NHRA) was pushing for 1/8th mile to reduce engine meltdowns and increase safety. He was probably right!

[GreenTom]

as I remember the 1/4 mile races were known before car was truely invented It was also in USA
horse racing events were made on the quater mile distance (do you know the grate horses named "quater horse" briliant horses to work with the sheeps, cows and other biger animals. nowdays used mostly on rodeo shows bou also used on the willage site the cowboys were racing on the 1/4 mile distance.

If I'm worng corect me (especially You guys who live in states

damn I miss the horse ridding

[Prowagen]

I think the 1000ft racing was just a knee jerk reaction, fatalaties are going to happen in racing full stop. I would imagine they will be hard pushed to make things safer unless they are going to stop racing at tracks that were built in the 60's or have a minimum run off requirement of a mile. Lets face it if your running at 330mph and black out or get knocked unconcious virtually all the safety equipment in the world isn't going to save you.

Just my 2 pence worth.
 

[bullitt]

green tom is right on my opinion.

it is a rodeo tradition. a whole hose race is named "quarter", isn't it? it is just the run of veal  escaping that cowboys had to follow....
a quarter of mile!