Here in North America, we have competitive tractor pulling, where heavily modified farm machinery drag sleds of different weights as far as possible. If you’ve never been to such a gathering, they’re pretty wild and a whole lot more fun than NASCAR these days. But over in Thailand they do something entirely different, drag racing smaller farm machinery on dirt tracks.
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As Edd Ellison, who recorded this brilliant footage, observes, this is essentially the modern form of chariot racing. After all, a lot of these setups involve a pretty bare-bones frame with a platform for the driver to stand, the engine up front, and nothing in the way of protection if the contraption wrecks out.
Despite or maybe because of the incredible risk, this looks fun as hell. We can’t imagine the adrenaline rush of rocketing forward on something so small, being so exposed with no helmet, collar, pads, fire retardant suit, or a roll cage around us.
In a way this is what we’ve lost and while we get why all the safety regulations have evolved, in a way this is just such a pure form of motorsport. Yes, it’s crazy but it’s real. Nobody is paying $2,000 a ticket and barely watching. If you look, everyone standing there is captivated by every run. There’s something just so visceral about this sport.
There are larger farm machine drag racers which look more like cars, although they wouldn’t pass safety regulations at most tracks on this side of the Pacific. In a way it’s like glimpsing into the early days of motorsports in this country when the tracks weren’t grandiose, the cars were relatively simple, and the risk was far greater.
They also race snowmobiles on the dirt track. Considering it doesn’t snow in Thailand, just seeing a snowmobile there is unusual. Then you realize these people likely imported the machines specifically for racing them on the dirt and that’s just crazy.
Images via YouTube
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