I think we all agree the basic problem is their are not enough strips to run at. That's why we always have to wait in the staging lanes, etc. I've had a dream for a long time of opening a drag strip, even tried to look into where Hot Rod was trying to get government assistance for anyone trying to open cause studies have shown that street racing is greatly decreased when a drag strip is local.
I think probably the biggest thing that will make a successful drag strip would be for the owner to know he has to cater to the street crowd and not these guys trailering in their cars. Seems like almost every track I have been to always sees the street racers as bastard children who just foul up the running for the "big boys". Kind of like we look down on 16 sec rice.
As far as safety goes, helmets are a good thing. Cages are kind of overkill on street cars. I think these rules are mainly designed to keep people from just stripping down some POS and throwing slicks on it and bringing it to the track. Don't think the rules really even meant to catch true daily driven street cars, just an unfortunate side effect of trying to keep the track safe. I mean lets face it, a true 12 sec street car that has all the nice stuff like A/C, power everything, etc is still pretty rare. I mean how many times have you seen an actual street car run at the track in the same form they run when driving around to work or something, if they even take that car to work.
Street racing is fun, it will continue to happen even if you have a strip every other block. It's just to convenient. But as for me personally, I feel much more safe doing it at the track.
