Can anyone tell us why these don’t happen here anymore?!? This past weekend at Dragstalgia, held at the Santa Pod Raceway in Wellingborough, Bedford, UK, one of the highlights of the show were the “fire burnouts”, which apparently take place every year at Dragstalgia.

We could say it over and over again — FIRE BURNOUT FIRE BURNOUT FIRE BURNOUT and the idea still isn’t as awesome as it had to be to sit in the stands and watch this craziness. Here in the States, we have lame burnout contests where it’s a big deal if a competitor beats the death out of their engine and transmission long enough to pop a tire, or they spend the extra money (!) for the tires that have color embedded in the surface to make red or blue burnouts — that’s what gets the crowds rocking and rolling. Is it just us, or do you all think that’s sad too? 

What ever happened to taking chances once in a while? After all, these guys are proving that tossing a bit of race fuel on the tires and setting them ablaze with a torch is a fabulous idea, and we have to agree…this is some of the badass type of behavior that could bring drag racing back to life here.

Never mind the fact that it’s slightly dangerous, or that it would likely quadruple insurance rates for a given event — who has to tell? We could just set up eight, maybe ten pre-arranged competitors at any given race that are willing to roast the hides off their hotrod, and all of a sudden, NHRA racing would be the biggest thing on television.

Alas, this is something that could never happen in the USA — the lawyers and suits have made sure of that — but we thank our crazy British friends for keeping it real.