If it wasn’t for bad surf, Matthew Grubisa might have never gone drag racing.

Craig Hewitt has become one of many drag racers making the switch to radial tyre competition in Australia, taking his beautiful Pro Street Monaro from slicks to stiff sidewalls.

Drag racing’s problems have been well documented over the past five years, but there is a hidden factor far bigger than our straight line niche that is affecting the sport.

The Australian bracket racer is an under-appreciated species. While you can near enough to make a living bracket racing in the USA, down under our most dedicated teams are doing it all for the points.

Half a dozen years ago, Canberra’s Rick Chilton had new Bob Book engine power. In qualifying for the 2013 Winternationals he went from the outhouse to the penthouse after dropping a 7.001 at 195.59mph. The personal goal of the team’s first six second pass seemed tantalisingly close.

Specialising in race car and street car fabrication, Spot On Performance and Fabrications have been modifying cars since 2010. Owned by Danny Lansdowne and Andrew Coles, the pair have completed over 400 jobs for customers cars both in Queensland and interstate.

It’s the early nineties, and a teenaged Joe Kurtovic has just walked into Eastern Creek Raceway. The sound of the announcers bellows through the air and most fans make a beeline for the Top Fuel teams in the garages. Not so Joe.

Modified is one of Australian drag racing’s most popular brackets, if not its most diverse.

Electric cars might not be the whole future of drag racing, but they are a part of its future. It is time to start thinking about how we will be including this new type of motor into our sport.