Illegal Street Racing VS Legal Hillclimbs: debate it

[JekylandHyde]

In the past few months, I have had at least six people that
regularly street race tell me they would never do the hillclimb
races that I enter because they are just too dangerous.

There is always heavy dose of irony in these conversations for me.

So, that being said, I thought you all might be able to shed some logic on this for me.

What do you think is more dangerous and why:
illegal street racing or sanctioned hillclimb races

Both take place on public roads and both have cars traveling at a high rate of speed.

What's your take?

[Drifty]

the Hill climb is more dangerous since you're in an elevated position BUT it is a santioned event so therefore the EMP are on stand by so that makes me feel more safe if i was to do a hill climb. but the danger is in both sports.. in illegal street racing there are no EMP and its not sanctioned so one also runs the risk of going to jail. But I live in Florida there is no such thing as a hill climb here so im stuck with the other one

[evil6remlin]

Hill climb:
CLOSED public road. No other cars to kill.
Emt's standing by.
Cars must be up to safety standards (cage, padding, good mechanical condition)

Street racing:
Not a closed road, cars all around you that could change lanes at any time.
no Emt's unless you've just pummled your own car against a pole or something.
Cars in varying states of working condition. (we've all see some scary cars buzzing around out there)

I'd say its a no brainer that hill climbs are safer than street racing. There's a proper medical staff nearby in the event of an wreck and if you do wreck, there's only you that has the possibility of being hurt.

[Ace$nyper]

Who said that?!?!?!

Hill climb safer and probbly 10x *at very least* more fun then street racing.

I wanta do a hill climb!!!

[Musashi3000GT]

Who the hell ever corners in a street race? its all about straight line. Seriously, like a dude in Japan told me a few years ago "in order to drag race you need the skills of a brick".

in other words any idiot can hold a wheel straight and mesh the gas. It takes actuall skill to drive up a hill with all the twists and turns and slopes and what not.

Street racing has more risks cause its illegal but hill climbing take loads of skill and higher potential of loosing control.

[CBFryman]

skill of a brick

[Ace$nyper]

Originally Posted by Musashi3000GT

Who the hell ever corners in a street race? its all about straight line. Seriously, like a dude in Japan told me a few years ago "in order to drag race you need the skills of a brick".

in other words any idiot can hold a wheel straight and mesh the gas. It takes actuall skill to drive up a hill with all the twists and turns and slopes and what not.

Street racing has more risks cause its illegal but hill climbing take loads of skill and higher potential of loosing control.

And How many 8-9 second door slammers had he drove?

I'm guessing between none and he should choke on his on spittle.

[-The Stig-]

If there were some hillclimbs near me, I'd be all for it.

All we get is the occasional track day at the two semi-local tracks, or autox'ing around some cones in a parking lot.

So-Cal has too many beaurocrates to let anybody have any fun on a closed road to do a hillclimb. It'd cost wayyy to much money to clear all the redtape (paying county officials, insurances), and by that point it probably wouldn't be profitable, or come close to covering costs.

Unfortunately.

I say closed course racing (hill climbs) are prefered, if they're available.

[JekylandHyde]

Redneck, I made a list of US Hillclimbs:
http://www.jekylhyderacing.com/ushillclimbs.htm
Isn't that So Cal?

Whoever said drag racing does not take skill has never tried achieving a 1.4 in the 60' and making a 10 second pass. Yes, road racing takes a significantly larger and more diverse set of skills, but saying drag racing takes no skill is horrible misguided.

As for the debate at hand, we are nto talking about "safety" of getting busted. We are debating, STRICTLY, the safety to your body ... the risk of getting injuried or killed.

As has been pointed out, hillclimbs have medics on hand, we have rollbars, helmets, full fire suits and extinguishers on board. The roads are COMPLETELY swept of debris and monitored throughout the event.

Street racing you are going to be unhelmetted, no harness, no driver suit, gloves or shoes. No medics on standby within an 1/8 of a mile. The road will not be swept and you have to worry about pedestrians, traffic, the GUY you are racing, and who knows what else.

The only thing that is 'more' dangerous about hillclimbing is that we are literally trying to drive at 10/10ths which you could NEVER do on the street - at least not through turns.

The one person I debated this with mentioned that when he drives hard on back roads, there is portions where he coasts at high speeds and the thought of staying WOT scares him. That I can understand. There IS an insanity to going 125+ on backroads, but what can I say ... adrenaline is a bitch of a drug to shake

[-The Stig-]

Nah, Jeff... Eureka, CA is on the border of California/Oregon.

It's a good 670 miles north of me, not hardly worth my time to race at one venue. All the rest are strewn about the Northwest, that happens to be the closest. Kind of the down side to living in a desert climate... lots of flat land.

We have some awesome roads here in the foothills that are mostly fire roads or back roads that aren't heavily travelled, but like I said before, to get through the beaurocracy of it all would cost too much.

In So-Cal there are a few semi local drag strips, Pomona Raceway (39 miles away) but that's rarely open to the public cause they host most of the NHRA events. California speedway (56 miles away), their schedule kind of sucks... so does the track. The other is Irwindale speedway (33 miles away) which is currently only 1/8th mile, but if I'm correct is getting lengthened.

And of course Los Angeles County Raceway aka LACR... is 89 miles away.

All distances are from my house... obviously, the distance is subject to change to wherever somebody lives in So-Cal.

I hardly call those tracks conviently local, for me anyways, and due to their schedules and So-Cal traffic. They can be a bitch to get to from time to time.

There used to be (as of about 12 years ago) a raceway right in the middle of the port of Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor called Terminal Island Raceway... which is about 8 miles away from me. Unfortunately, commerce got the better of it and it's land was bought up for use as storage.

[youngvr4]

straight line if a car jumps in front of me and i slam on my brakes or swerve i can avoid or possibly still live.

if you fall off a mountain YOUR DEAD

hill climb funner, hill climb more dangerous.

plus racing someone who cant drive very well in a hill climb is far more dangerous than someone trying to race straight line and cant drive. just get in the next lane

[-The Stig-]

Originally Posted by youngvr4

straight line if a car jumps in front of me and i slam on my brakes or swerve i can avoid or possibly still live.

if you fall off a mountain YOUR DEAD

hill climb funner, hill climb more dangerous.

plus racing someone who cant drive very well in a hill climb is far more dangerous than someone trying to race straight line and cant drive. just get in the next lane

You're forgetting a major point, Hill climbs are done one car at a time. It's a timed event like autox.

You're racing the clock, rather than another car.

Which, makes Hillclimbs safer...

[JekylandHyde]

youngvr4, the hillclimbs are solo events like redneck pointed out. They roads are too narrow for wheel-2-wheel.

As for going off a hill = dying.

He survived (bit his tongue though):
http://www.jekylhyderacing.com/image...hris_Burns.mpg

This guy survived without a SCRATCH on him (fellow MR2er):
http://www.cpdserver.com/conecam/vid...//mr2roll.mpeg

[BlackGT2000]

Street racing really is more dangerous because there are more variables. No matter what anyone wants to believe about the superior handling of their vehical I know that 99.9 percent of those who street race are going in a strait line, thus it feels safer. The hill climb is dangerous in the sense that the car is being pushed to more of its limits than a typical street race would, but its in a controled environment so the only real risk is to the driver, and even then the risk is less than a typical street race.

[PWRDbyUNCLEbens]

Originally Posted by Ace$nyper

And How many 8-9 second door slammers had he drove?

I'm guessing between none and he should choke on his on spittle.

True not everyone can pull good passes in a race car, but how many people can even drive the family car through auto cross course properly much less drive a fast race car for hours or even minutes on end making sure to make every turn as perfect as possible .

The fact is racing with turns isr significantly moe difficult then straight line racing. While everything takes time to master not everything is hard to learn.