Suit and Gloves for Drag Racing

Series Summary

Coming from the back roads of America after the second world war, drag racing's roots were planted on dry lake beds like those found in the Mojave Desert, where hot rodders had come since the early 1930s to satisfy their need...their need for speed! One could even argue that drag racing was born with Wally Parks, who nearly four decades after his birth in 1913 would found drag racing's most successful and influential sanctioning body. But ultimately, the heart and soul of racing lies within the daredevil spirit of the human heart.

In this free video series, our expert Tina Stull will teach you how to get ready for the big race. She discusses the safety equipment you'll need, and how to get your engine ready for the big race.

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Tina Stull, and I drive the top dragster for Interstate Batteries. On behalf of Expert Village, today I want to talk about the driver's equipment. Before you're ready to race, everybody knows you have to have equipment, but what kind and how much, and when you start to look in the catalogs it can get a little confusing. In Super Comp, the super categories, and in top dragster, you need to have a minimum of a five layer racing suit. It can be a one part or a two part suit. You also need to have gloves, and inside the catalogs all of them will specify whether or not it meets the SFI rating that you need for your category. With the dragsters, you're going to need to get arm restraints. And all the major uniform companies sell all these items, or at least most of them, and they come in different styles, whether you like them higher--these are the higher ones--are to protect from burns on your arms. The lowers still due, but depending on what's most comfortable for you, you have choices of leather and then also some other kinds of materials that are also like Nomex and such that sometimes there a little bit more flexible or that everybody pretty much has their own preference. And you'll just find out by trying some different ones, which ones work best for you."