Why is the racing distance a 1/4 mile?

[budagboy2]

Ok, my chem teacher asked us this quesiton. Where did we get the 1/4 distance from? why not a 1/2 mile and so on... Hopefully one of you guys will know, thanks :)

[DUNKiNUTS]

more then likely has to deal with horses, and how they raced them. but i could be wrong

[666fast]

Farmers used to race Quarter Horses for fun. The distance just happened to be 1/4 mile from what I've read.

[ZfrkS62]

back in the 40's and 50's it was actually a half mile. i don't know why they cut it in half. Maybe the cars were all hitting the same speed because they only had 3 gears :lol:

[vexor]

well, the guys from TG seem to be doing quite a few half mile drag races between cars. Think this will catch on with others? and maybe in the future the "official" drag race time will be on a half mile strip of road.

[Mopsdrops]

mmm, was'nt it because in America the distance to the red lights where 1/4th mile where you could drag on the streets ? thats what I always thought