A change from 59 to 93 degrees in two and a half hours is drastic. A change from 0 to 100 mph in 0.8 seconds is a face-contorting, ear-flattening, physics-challenging rocket ride to make even an F-16 fighter jet envious. To quote Charles Darwin, "It is not the strongest of the species that survives but the one most responsive to change." If this is true, the grand opening of zMax Dragway in Concord, N.C., featuring 7,000+ horsepower top fuel dragsters (the fastest-accelerating machines on the planet) may have been a glimpse into the future of earth's gene pool.
When Hannah Martell, graphic designer, and I left Wisconsin the morning of September 8, it was 59 degrees. When we landed in Charlotte two and a half hours later, I could have sworn we landed on the equator: 93 degrees with heavy humidity. I questioned whether my Wisconsin body, typically fueled by cheese and bratwurst, could survive in this environment. I felt like a deep-sea creature, yanked from the cool depths to this sweltering surface.
We were in town to cover the collection of top fuel, funny cars, pro stock motorcycles and pro stock cars that had descended on Concord, N.C., September 10-14 for the zMax Dragway inaugural National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Nationals. Deemed the "Bellagio of Dragstrips," zMax is an $80M, state-of-the-art facility featuring the only all-concrete, four-lane drag strip in the country. Typically, a drag strip will have concrete for the first 660 feet and then transition to asphalt. When traveling at incredibly high speeds, any transition can become a very bad thing. When the racer's wheels hit asphalt after running on concrete, their traction can be compromised. The perfectly level 1,320 feet of concrete at zMax eliminates this transition and should be a breeding ground for broken records.
Bruton Smith, owner of Speedway Motorsports, Inc., is notorious for making big splashes. The billionaire owns the place down the street from zMax, Lowe's Motor Speedway (in addition to seven other NASCAR tracks). He settles for nothing but the best, no exceptions. When building zMax, every detail was covered. A typical dragway has two lanes; zMax has four. Behind the starting line stands a 34,000 square foot tower that includes 16 luxury suites. Clearly, the finest quality was a priority, and when it came to selecting a scale, Rice Lake was there.
