Photo: TROG
It represents a throwback to a simpler, tougher time when racers operated outside the purview of sponsors, large crews, battles with budgetary concerns and lined up on the grid with nothing but glory as their reward.
Racing was once an entirely less slick and more dangerous pursuit as riders and drivers rolled up to a lonely salt plain, a backwoods stretch of pavement, or an underused vista of beach and fired up their garage-modified motorcycles and cars to take on all comers and run full-bore for bragging rights.
The Race of Gentlemen - known as TROG to the inside set - is a trip back in time and offers a weekend packed with no-frills racing on the beach at Wildwood, New Jersey.
Period correct cars and motorcycles show up during a greasy carnival of motor thrills to challenge each other and make history all over again. To qualify, the cars must have been produced before 1935 and can’t even include parts made after 1953. As for the motorcycles, they’re required to predate 1947 and get along with a tank shifter and a “suicide clutch.”
There are three classes competing during TROG: four-cylinder engine cars they call ‘bangers’; flathead V8 engined cars; and motorcycles of the vintage and specs laid out above. The races consist of head-to-head, one-on-one drags over a one-eighth-mile beach track.
As for the rewards; the winners take home nothing but bragging rights.
To keep things gentlemanly, contestants wear period riding and driving gear. The ‘staging boss’ is arrayed in a tuxedo and top hat, and the racers are met at the finish line by a famously fetching and high-leaping flag official.
The racing began back in 2012 when The Oilers Car Club / Motorcycle Club (who can trace their history back to 1947) decided to once again ride shepherd over the mad fools willing to go pedal to the metal on the sand.
It just so happens that The Oilers Car Club / Motorcycle Club were also co-founders of the National Hot Rod Association way back in 1949, so they have a bit of experience presiding over motoring events.
This year’s gasoline-soaked festivities take place October 1-3, 2021 in Wildwood, NJ. You can get ticket information here at theraceofgentlemen.com and here...
The Race of Gentlemen - known as TROG to the inside set - is a trip back in time and offers a weekend packed with no-frills racing on the beach at Wildwood, New Jersey.
Period correct cars and motorcycles show up during a greasy carnival of motor thrills to challenge each other and make history all over again. To qualify, the cars must have been produced before 1935 and can’t even include parts made after 1953. As for the motorcycles, they’re required to predate 1947 and get along with a tank shifter and a “suicide clutch.”
There are three classes competing during TROG: four-cylinder engine cars they call ‘bangers’; flathead V8 engined cars; and motorcycles of the vintage and specs laid out above. The races consist of head-to-head, one-on-one drags over a one-eighth-mile beach track.
As for the rewards; the winners take home nothing but bragging rights.
To keep things gentlemanly, contestants wear period riding and driving gear. The ‘staging boss’ is arrayed in a tuxedo and top hat, and the racers are met at the finish line by a famously fetching and high-leaping flag official.
The racing began back in 2012 when The Oilers Car Club / Motorcycle Club (who can trace their history back to 1947) decided to once again ride shepherd over the mad fools willing to go pedal to the metal on the sand.
It just so happens that The Oilers Car Club / Motorcycle Club were also co-founders of the National Hot Rod Association way back in 1949, so they have a bit of experience presiding over motoring events.
This year’s gasoline-soaked festivities take place October 1-3, 2021 in Wildwood, NJ. You can get ticket information here at theraceofgentlemen.com and here...
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