Our humble beginings...

     We came up with the short distance drag race concept around the mid 90's, when we operated Sullivan County Speedway (NY) while searching for an additional use for the racing facility. Politics stopped us from pursuing this form of racing at that facility, but it was a great idea that never left us. The idea was left dormant for a number of years, but was revived late 2006. We started with 50 yards back then, but settled on 100 feet because of two reasons. First, the 100 foot distance allows us to do the event in more venues. Second, 100 feet seemed to be a standard out in Washington state, and Alberta, Cananda with various clubs (i.e. Streetwheelers.. check out their website at www.streetwheelers.com ). We thought the shorter distance was working for them... let's stay consistant.   

     The HDRA (Holeshot Drag Racing Association) was formed to sanction these events, and to develop rules and standards for others to follow. The HDRA had its first informal event at the Sterling Performance Center's annual car show June 2007 with a one hour exhibition event. While 100 foot racing is a distance hard to comprehend, spectators that saw the event and racers that participated understood  it...  they got it! The 100 foot distance instantly became a viable format.

     Our first three events were held at the Waterford Speedbowl in CT this past Oct., Nov., and April, all being a success. All kinds of cars were raced; Pro-Street, Street Rods, diesel and gas trucks, tuners, bone stock daily drivers, etc. There were very few rules... cars had to be registered and street legal, right down to the tires and mufflers. If you could drive it on the street, you could race it. While there were all kinds of modified cars (mild to wild), there were plenty of stock type "Mom's Cars" out there, and they were having just as much fun. Because of this, we are going to keep the same format.