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Drag racing

Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. The race follows a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance, most commonly 1/4 mi, with a shorter, 1,000 ft distance becoming increasingly popular, as it has become the standard for Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars, where some major bracket races and other sanctioning bodies have adopted it as the standard. The 1/8 mi is also popular in some circles. Electronic timing and speed sensing systems have been used to record race results since the 1960s.

The history of automobiles and motorcycles being used for drag racing is nearly as long as the history of motorized vehicles themselves, and has taken the form of both illegal street racing and as a regulated motorsport.

History
Drag racing started in the 1940s. World War II veterans were prominently involved, and some early drag races were done at decommissioned aircraft bases with landing strips that made them an ideal place for the sport. In 1951, Wally Parks formed the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA). The organization banned the use of nitromethane in 1957, calling it unsafe, in part through the efforts of C. J. Hart; the ban would be lifted in 1963.

Several other racing organizations were created over the past several decades, such as the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) founded in 2014.

Thanks, in part, to the Discovery series Street Outlaws, fandom for drag racing has seen a resurgence in the past decade.

Starting
Push starts to get engines running were necessary until the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) mandated self-starters in 1976. After burnouts, cars would be pushed back by crews; this persisted until NHRA required reversing systems in 1980. Don Garlits was the first to do burnouts across the starting line, which is now standard practice. Each driver then backs up to and stages at the starting line.

Prerace preparations
Before each race (commonly known as a pass), each driver is allowed to perform a burnout, which heats the driving tires and lays rubber down at the beginning of the track, improving traction. The cars run through a "water box" (formerly a "bleach box", before bleach was replaced by flammable traction compound, which produced spectacular, and dangerous, flame burnouts; the hazard led NHRA to mandate use of water in the 1970s ).

Modern races are started electronically by a system known as a Christmas tree, which consists of a column of lights for each driver/lane, and two light beam sensors per lane on the track at the starting line. Current NHRA trees, for example, feature one blue light (split into halves), then three amber, one green, and one red. When the first light beam is broken by a vehicle's front tire(s), the vehicle is "pre-staged" (approximately 7 in from the starting line), and the pre-stage indicator on the tree is lit. When the second light beam is broken, the vehicle is "staged", and the stage indicator on the tree is lit. Vehicles may then leave the pre-stage beam, but must remain in the stage beam until the race starts.

Staging
Once one competitor is staged, their opponent has a set amount of time to stage or they will be instantly disqualified, indicated by a red light on the tree. Otherwise, once both drivers are staged, the system chooses a short delay at random (to prevent a driver being able to anticipate the start), then starts the race. The light sequence at this point varies slightly. For example, in NHRA Professional classes, three amber lights on the tree flash simultaneously, followed 0.4 seconds later by a green light (this is also known as a "pro tree"). In NHRA Sportsman classes, the amber lights illuminate in sequence from top to bottom, 0.5 seconds apart, followed 0.5 seconds later by the green light (this is also known as a "sportsman tree" or "full tree"). If a vehicle leaves the starting line before the green light illuminates, the red light for that lane illuminates instead, and the driver is disqualified (also known as red lighting). In a handicap start, the green light automatically lights up for the first driver, and the red light is only lit in the proper lane after both cars have launched if one driver leaves early, or if both drivers left early, the driver whose reaction time is worse (if one lane has a -.015 and the other lane has a -.022, the lane of the driver who committed a 0.022 is given the red light after both cars have left), as a red light infraction is only assessed to the driver with the worse infraction, if both drivers leave early. Even if both drivers leave early, the green light is automatically lit for the driver that left last, and they still may win the pass (as in the 2014 NHRA Auto Club Pro Stock final, Erica Enders-Stevens and Jason Line both committed red light infractions; only Line was assessed with a red light, as he was -.011 versus Enders-Stevens' -.002).

Measurements
Several measurements are taken for each race: reaction time, elapsed time, and speed. Reaction time is the period from the green light illuminating to the vehicle leaving the staging beams or breaking the guard beam. Elapsed time is the period from the vehicle leaving the starting line to crossing the finish line. Speed is measured through a speed trap covering the final 66 ft to the finish line, indicating average speed of the vehicle in that distance.

Except where a breakout rule is in place, the winner is the first vehicle to cross the finish line, and therefore the driver with the lowest combined reaction time and elapsed time. Because these times are measured separately, a driver with a slower elapsed time can actually win if that driver's advantage in reaction time exceeds the elapsed time difference. In heads-up racing, this is known as a holeshot win. In categories where a breakout rule is in effect (for example, NHRA Junior Dragster, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Stock, and Stock classes, as well as some dial-in classes), if a competitor is faster than his or her predetermined time (a "breakout"), that competitor loses. If both competitors are faster than their predetermined times, the competitor who breaks out by less time wins. Regardless, a red light foul is worse than a breakout, except in Junior Dragster where exceeding the absolute limit is a cause for disqualification.

Bracket system
Most race events use a traditional bracket system, where the losing car and driver are eliminated from the event while the winner advances to the next round, until a champion is crowned. Events can range from 16 to over 100 car brackets. Drivers are typically seeded by elapsed times in qualifying. In bracket racing without a breakout (such as NHRA Competition Eliminator), pairings are based on times compared to their index (faster than index for class is better). In bracket racing with a breakout (Stock, Super Stock, but also the NHRA's Super classes), the closest to the index is favorable.

A popular alternative to the standard eliminations format is the Chicago Style format (also called the Three Round format in Australia), named for the US 30 Dragstrip near Merrillville, Indiana where a midweek meet featured this format. All entered cars participate in one qualifying round, and then are paired for the elimination round. The two fastest times among winners from this round participate in the championship round. Depending on the organization, the next two fastest times may play for third, then fifth, and so forth, in consolation rounds. Currently, the National Drag Racing Championship in Australia uses the format for major categories.

Distances
The standard distance of a drag race is 1,320 feet, 402 m, or 1/4 mile (±0.2% FIA & NHRA rules). However, due to safety concerns, certain sanctioning bodies (notably the NHRA for its Top Fuel and Funny Car classes) have shortened races to 1,000 feet. Some drag strips are even shorter and run 660 feet, 201 m, or 1/8 mile. The 1,000 foot distance is now also popular with bracket racing, especially in meets where there are 1/8 mile cars and 1/4 mile cars racing together, and is used by the revived American Drag Racing League for its primary classes (not Jr Dragster). Some organizations that deal with Pro Modified and "Mountain Motor" Pro Stock cars (Professional Drag Racers Association) use the 1/8 mile distance, even if the tracks are 1/4 mile tracks.

North America
The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) oversees the majority of drag racing events in North America. The next largest organization is the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA). One of the major sanctioning bodies in drag racing.

The World Drag Racing Alliance (WDRA) WDRA is the first fully functioning sanctioning body created (one that actually sanctions facilities) since 1970.

Besides NHRA, IHRA, and WDRA, there are several other racing organizations were created over the past several decades. The Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA), founded in 2014, races 1/8 mile with events throughout the US. The National Mustang Racers Association (NMRA), started in 1999, is considered the leader in Ford motorsports events. The National Muscle Car Association (NMCA), is the longest running major street-legal drag racing association. The NMCA provides competitive and organized national event competitions from grassroots drag racers all the way to the powerful and fast VP Racing Fuels Xtreme Pro Mod racers.

There are also niche organizations for muscle cars and nostalgia vehicles. The Nostalgia Drag Racing League (NDRL) based in Brownsburg, IN, runs a series of 1/4 mile (402 m) drag races in the Midwest for 1979 and older nostalgic appearing cars, with four classes of competition running in an index system. Pro 7.0 and Pro 7.50 run heads up 200 mile per hour (320 kilometre per hour) passes, while Pro Comp and Pro Gas run 8.0 to 10.0 indices. NDRL competition vehicles typically include Front Engine Dragsters, Altereds, Funny Cars, early Pro Stock clones, Super Stocks and Gassers.

The National Electric Drag Racing Association (NEDRA) races electric vehicles against high performance gasoline-powered vehicles such as Dodge Vipers or classic muscle cars in 1/4 and 1/8 mile (402 m & 201 m) races. The current electric drag racing record is 6.940 seconds at 201.37 mph (324.0736 km/h) for a quarter mile (402 m). Another niche organization is the VWDRC which run a VW-only championship with vehicles running under 7 seconds.

Prior to the founding of the NHRA and IHRA, smaller organizations sanctioned drag racing in the early years, which included the competing AHRA in the United States from 1955 to 2005.

Australia
The first Australian Nationals event was run in 1965 at Riverside raceway, near Melbourne. The Australian National Drag Racing Association (ANDRA) was established in 1973, and today they claim they are the "best in the world outside the United States". ANDRA sanctions races throughout Australia and throughout the year at all levels, from Junior Dragster to Top Fuel.

The ANDRA Drag Racing Series is for professional drivers and riders and includes Top Fuel, Top Alcohol, Top Doorslammer (similar to the USA Pro Modified class), Pro Stock (using 400 cubic inch engines (6.5 litres)), Top Bike and Pro Stock Motorcycle.

The Summit Sportsman Series is for ANDRA sportsman drivers and riders and includes Competition, Super Stock, Super Compact, Competition Bike, Supercharged Outlaws, Top Sportsman, Modified, Super Sedan, Modified Bike, Super Street and Junior Dragster.

In 2015, after a dispute with ANDRA, Sydney Dragway, Willowbank Raceway and the Perth Motorplex invited the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) to sanction events at their tracks. Shortly thereafter the Perth Motorplex reverted to ANDRA sanction. Although greatly assisted by ANDRA prior to its construction, Springmount Raceway opted for IHRA sanction. The 400 Thunder Series targets professional racers to its races. Intended to be the premier Drag racing series in Australia it has never been able to run a truly National series and has been on a steady decline since its inception. Most recently Top Fuel Australia (the organization that represents the Top Fuel owners) recently extracted itself from the 400 Thunder series. ANDRA recently launched a new National series that will initially cater for Top Doorslammer and Top Fue Motorcycle. This series will provide a greater National coverage than the 400 Thunder Series did and will soon add other Professional categories. In 2021 Heathcote Park Raceway in Victoria was sold to new ownership and has since been sanctioned by IHRA for small regional events.

Europe
Drag racing was imported to Europe by American NATO troops during the Cold War. Races were held in West Germany beginning in the 1960s at the airbases at Ramstein and Sembach and in the UK at various airstrips and racing circuits before the opening of Europe's first permanent drag strip at Santa Pod Raceway in 1966.

The FIA organises a Europe-wide four wheeled championship for the Top Fuel, Top Methanol Dragster, Top Methanol Funny Car, Pro Modified and Pro Stock classes. FIM Europe organises a similar championship for bike classes. In addition, championships are run for sportsman classes in many countries throughout Europe by the various national motorsport governing bodies.

New Zealand
Drag racing in New Zealand started in the 1960s. The New Zealand Hot Rod Association (NZHRA) sanctioned what is believed to have been the first drag meeting at an open cut coal mine at Kopuku, south of Auckland, sometime in 1966. In 1973, the first and only purpose built drag strip opened in Meremere by the Pukekohe Hot Rod Club. In April 1993 the governance of drag racing was separated from the NZHRA and the New Zealand Drag Racing Association (NZDRA) was formed. In 2014, New Zealand's second purpose built drag strip – Masterton Motorplex – opened.

The first New Zealand Drag Racing Nationals was held in the 1966/67 season at Kopuku, near Auckland.

There are now two governing bodies operating drag racing in New Zealand with the Florida-based International Hot Rod Association sanctioning both of New Zealands major tracks at Ruapuna (Pegasus Bay Drag Racing Association ) in the South Island and Meremere Dragway Inc in the North Island which is now become the best drag strip in NZ. However, the official ASN of the sport, per FIA regulations, is the New Zealand Drag Racing Association.

South America
Many countries in South America race 200 meters, unlike in the United States and Australia, where the quarter-mile, or, 400 meters, respectively, is typical.

Organized drag racing in Colombia is the responsibility of Club G3, a private organization. The events take place at Autódromo de Tocancipá.

Brazil
Local cars like Volkswagen Gol, Chevrolet Opala and Chevrolet Chevette are the show makers for Brazilian dragstrips.

Caribbean
Curaçao

On the island of Curaçao, organization of drag racing events is handled by the Curaçao Autosport Foundation (FAC)

All racing events, including street legal competitions, happen at the Curaçao International Raceway.

Aruba
On the island of Aruba, all racing events, including street legal competitions, happen at Palomarga International Raceway.

Barbados

On the island of Barbados, organization of drag racing events is done by the Barbados Association of Dragsters and Drifters. Currently the drag racing is done at Bushy Park racing circuit over 1/8 mile, while "acceleration tests" of 1/4 mile are done at the Paragon military base.

Saint Lucia

On the Island of Saint Lucia, organization of drag racing events is done by no-one. All local groups are tie ups. Currently races are held at the US Old military base also known as the "Ca Ca Beff", "The Base" near the Hewanorra International Airport in Vieux Fort.

Dominican Republic

On Santo Domingo, organization of drag racing events is done by Autodromo Sunix and they happen at the Autodromo Sunix, close to the Airport SDQ.

South Asia
Organized drag racing is rapidly growing in India. The country's first drag race meet was organized by Autocar India in Mumbai in 2002. Since then there have been many drag racing events in India. The most popular event is Elite Octanes' Valley Run which is held at Ambey Valley air strip in Loanavla every year.

The biggest drag series event was organized by India Speed Week with three different locations around India. After the series two riders were chosen to represent the country 2017 initiative to bring 11 times world drag racing champion Rickey Gadson to India. The initiative was executed during the Valley Run 2017 event, which gave the participants a platform to perform at the highest level globally. Rickey Gadson, as an extension of the initiative invited two of the top performing drag racers to visit USA to train and get an opportunity to represent India at the World Finals of drag racing held on 16–18 November 2018 in Valdosta GA, USA. As a result, the two riders performed in their maiden event outside India. Also during the event, Amit Sharma, the fastest drag racer in Indian drag racing history, produced a time slip of 8.87 sec's – the fastest ever by any Indian.

Drag racing is also gaining popularity in Pakistan, with private organizations sponsoring such events. The Bahria Town housing project recently organized a drag racing event in Rawalpindi with the help of some of the country's best drivers.

Sri Lanka has seen an immense growth in drag racing due to legal meets held by the Ceylon Motor Sports Club, an FIA sanctioned body. In recent years, exotic cars and Japanese power houses have been taking part in these popular events.

South Africa
Drag racing is an established sport in South Africa, with a number of strips around the country including Tarlton International Raceway and ODI Raceway. Drag racing is controlled by Motorsport South Africa and all drivers are required to hold a valid Motorsport South Africa license. Drivers can compete in a number of categories including Top Eliminator, Senior Eliminator, Super Competition Eliminator, Competition Eliminator, Pro Street Bikes, Superbike Eliminator, Supersport Shootout (motorcycle), Street Modified, and Factory Stock.

Russian Federation
Drag racing in Russia started in 2004 in Moscow when the Russian Automotive Federation (RAF) sanctioned it as an official motorsport. Drag Racing became popular in Russia after "The Fast and the Furious" film in 2001, but competitions were illegal before 2004. The most outstanding drag racing event of the early years was "DRAG BITVA" (Drag Battle) which took place in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia from 2005 to 2008. Krasnoyarsk is located in the middle of Russia, so it was the best place to bring all the fastest cars from all over the country. Due to the financial situation "DRAG BITVA" was canceled in 2009 and never came back. It was difficult times for drag racing in Russia from 2009 to 2014, but it was supported by enthusiasts in every region. There were a lot of competitions but it was not as big as "DRAG BITVA". In 2014 Dragtimes company in partnership with SMP Racing became the Russian Drag Racing Championship (SMP RDRC) promoters, since then Drag Racing in Russia became more professional. From the very beginning to 2014 only streetcars were allowed to compete in Russia. Now it's also allowed to run promods and dragsters in SMP RDRC. Thanks to the efforts of SMP RDRC promoters in 2019 the first professional dragstrip in Russia "RDRC Racepark" was built. It's located near Moscow in 40 kilometers of downtown at the former airfield Bykovo. It gave many opportunities to test the cars and make new records. Before the track was built, competitions took place on straight parts of circuits, so it was not allowed to prepare the whole 1/4 mile, only 1/8 and the tracks were available for drag racers except racing weekends of local or national events. From the very beginning one of the main ideas of the promoters was to increase the quality and reach of live broadcasts, so SMP RDRC became the first racing series with its video production and remains so to this day.

Russian Championship has four classes:
 * Pro ET (Bracket class) – most of the participants here are running streetcars (e. g. BMW M5, Audi RS6, Porsche 911, Nissan GT-R, Lamborghini Huracan, etc.). It's allowed to run the car without a roll cage. Breakout for the class is 9.6 sec.
 * Street – full-body streetcars. Roll cage and all FIA or SFI safety equipment is mandatory. The class includes a lot of different cars (e. g. Toyota Supra, Audi TT RS, Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8, Honda Civic, Porsche 911 Turbo S, VAZ 2110, etc.). Breakout for the class is 8.6 sec.
 * Pro Street – full-body streetcars and 3/4 chassis cars. Breakout for the class is 7.6 sec.
 * SuperPro Street – door slammers, promods, dragsters, 3/4 chassis cars. The only limitation in the class is breakout which is 6.8 sec.

Regional Series also have four classes divided by ET:
 * Stock – Breakout 11.9 sec.
 * Super Stock – Breakout 10.9 sec.
 * Super Gas – Breakout 9.9 sec.
 * Super Comp – Breakout 8.9 sec.

The national record belongs to 4-time national champion Dmitry Samorukov: 6.325 seconds at 328.76 km/h. It was set in a special record run in 2016 on Dodge Viper Doorslammer in Grozny, Chechen Republic at "Fort Grozny" racetrack.

Dmitry Samorukov was the first Russian participant of the FIA European Championship on a newly built Chevrolet Camaro in the most competitive Promod class in 2019. After six stages of the competition, he took 10th of 38 places overall.

Russian driver Dmitry Kapustin on Nissan Skyline GT-R R32 is holding the European record of AWD streetcars: 7.182 seconds at 312.77 km/h. The record was set in a qualifying run in Grozny, Chechen Republic at "Fort Grozny" racetrack in 2018.

1/2 mile races are also popular in Russia. "Unlim 500+" is the main 1/2 mile race in Russia. It's a supercar and sportscar festival where only 500+ hp cars are allowed (e. g. Nissan GT-R, McLaren 720S, Lamborghini Aventador, Porsche 911, Ferrari 488, etc.). The national record on 1/2 mile distance also belongs to Dmitry Samorukov on Nissan GT-R R 35: 13.305 seconds at 346.48 km/h. The record was set on a test and tune day at the "RDRC Racepark" track in 2020.

Classes

There are hundreds of classes in drag racing, each with different requirements and restrictions on things such as weight, engine size, body style, modifications, and many others. NHRA and IHRA share some of these classes, but many are solely used by one sanctioning body or the other. The NHRA boasts over 200 classes, while the IHRA has fewer. Some IHRA classes have multiple sub-classes in them to differentiate by engine components and other features. There is even a class for aspiring youngsters, Junior Dragster, which typically uses an eighth-mile track, also favored by VW racers.

In 1997, the FIA (cars) and UEM (bikes) began sanctioning drag racing in Europe with a fully established European Drag Racing Championship, in cooperation (and rules compliance) with NHRA. The major European drag strips include Santa Pod Raceway in Podington, England; Alastaro Circuit, Finland; Mantorp Park, Sweden; Gardermoen Raceway, Norway and the Hockenheimring in Germany.

There is a somewhat arbitrary definition of what constitutes a "professional" class. The NHRA includes 5 pro classes; Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, Pro Modified and Pro Stock Motorcycle. The FIA features a different set of 5 pro classes; Top Fuel, Top Methanol Dragster, Top Methanol Funny Car, Pro Modified and Pro Stock. Other sanctioning bodies have similarly different definitions. A partial list of classes includes:

 * Top Fuel Dragster (TF/D). The dragsters, or "diggers", are the fastest class. Among the fastest-accelerating machines in the world, these cars can cover the dragstrip in less than 3.7 seconds and record trap speeds over 330 mph. Under current rules, Modern Top Fuel dragsters are 25 ft long and weigh 2,320 lb in race-ready trim. Methanol mixed with up to 90% nitromethane is used as fuel.

 * Top Fuel Funny Car (TF/FC). Similar to their dragster counterparts but with a shorter wheelbase and a carbon-fiber body that loosely resembles a production automobile, Funny Cars, or "floppers", routinely run in the 4.0s and can exceed 315 mph. In 2017, NHRA driver Robert Hight ran a career-best ET of 3.793 and speed of 339.87 mph.

A complete listing of all classes can be found on the respective NHRA and IHRA official websites.
 * Pro Stock (NHRA, IHRA/MMPSA). Often called "factory hot rods" because of their resemblance to production-based cars (and because they must maintain a relatively stock appearance), and commonly known as "doorslammers", Pro Stockers can record quarter-mile times in the 6.4 second range, and speeds over 210 mph. They can rev to more than 10,500 rpm and make in excess of 1300 hp. NHRA engines can be no more than 500 cuin displacement while MMPSA cars can run a maximum of 820 cuin (called "Mountain Motors").  IHRA engines can be no more than 400 cuin.  Both classes require the motors to be naturally aspirated.
 * Pro Stock Motorcycle (NHRA and IHRA). These highly modified vehicles, which can run under 6.8 seconds at more than 195 mph, feature a purpose-built tube chassis and a lightweight, aerodynamically enhanced replica of original bodywork.
 * Pro Modified (Pro Mod). Known as Top Doorslammer in Australia.  Some engine restrictions, very high power. Cars can run superchargers, turbochargers, or nitrous oxide. Cars running blowers are limited to 527 cuin while cars with nitrous can run up to 740 cuin.  This class is globally recognised, although the name differs between North America and Australia.
 * Top Alcohol Dragster (TA/D). Known as Top Methanol Dragster in FIA competition. Top Alcohol Dragsters resemble Top Fuelers, but have significant differences. They may use a supercharged methanol-burning engine or an injected nitromethane combination. They can run in the 5.1s at more than 280 mph.
 * Top Alcohol Funny Car (TA/FC). Known as Top Methanol Funny Car in FIA competition. Similar in physical appearance to their nitro-burning Funny Car counterparts, Top Alcohol Funny Cars are restricted to the use of methanol fuel and have three-speed transmissions. They can run in the 5.4s at more than 265 mph. In the IHRA, Alcohol Funny Car is the fifth pro category, replacing NHRA's Pro Stock Bike.
 * Competition Eliminator. This is the NHRA class with the most variety. Each of its 88 sections is assigned an index based on what a well-built car should run, and races are handicapped according to those indexes.
 * Outlaw Series
 * Pro FWD
 * Sport Front-Wheel-Drive (SFWD). This is a class that is dedicated to solely front wheel drive vehicles. One of the motivations behind the creation of this class was to keep cars as original looking as they could possibly be. SFWD is one of the most common and popular import drag racing classes. The two most common vehicles in this class are the Honda Civic and the Acura Integra. In this class, the number one restriction is that each vehicle must retain its original chassis. No modification to the OEM floorboard or Firewall is permitted. In addition, at least one headlight and both brake lights must be fully functional. Suspension and brake modifications are allowed to a certain extent. Aftermarket components are permitted as long as the original mounting points are not modified. All four brakes must be retained and parachutes are permitted. The stock dashboard and windshield must be retained along with the car's original interior from the front seats forward, while rear seats as well as passenger-side seat may be removed. Racing gas or E85 may be used; methanol may not. Internal engine modifications of all types, aftermarket engine blocks, and engine swaps are permitted. Engines may use nitrous oxide or be turbocharged. Tires may be a maximum of 25 in tall and 9.5 in in tread width. All cars must meet a minimum weight requirement of 2200 lb, plus any weight penalties teams may incur for having certain equipment installed that would have given them too much of an advantage over the competition.
 * Stick Shift. Reserved for vehicles with a manual transmission. The rising popularity of automatic transmissions in drag racing created the demand for these classes. Popular sanctioning bodies include United Manual Transmission Racers, Pro Stick Racing, Rocky Mountain Stick Shifters, and Ozark Mountain Super Shifters.
 * Super Comp/Quick Rod. The quickest of the heads-up Super classes (8.90 index) is composed primarily of dragsters. Most cars are capable of running well under the index but use electronic aids to run close to it without breaking out.
 * Super Gas/Super Rod. Super Gas entries, which run on a 9.90 index, are primarily full-bodied cars and street roadsters. No dragsters or altereds are permitted. As in Super Comp, competitors use electronic aids to run as close to the class standard without going under.
 * Super Street/Hot Rod. Racers compete on a fixed 10.90 index. All vehicles must be full-bodied cars and weigh no less than 2,800 pounds except for six-cylinder cars (2,000) and four-cylinder and rotary-powered cars (1,200). Engine and chassis modifications are virtually unlimited.
 * Super Stock. Super Stock vehicles resemble ordinary passenger cars, but are actually heavily modified. Entries are classified using factory shipping weight and horsepower and compete on indexes. The breakout rule is enforced.
 * Stock. Stock cars are similar to Super Stockers, but rules regarding everything from engine modifications to body alterations are much stricter. Virtually any car is eligible to compete, and entries are classified using factory shipping weight and horsepower.
 * Sport Compact
 * Top Sportsman (NHRA, IHRA, ANDRA). Competitors in these full-bodied entries may choose their own dial-in for eliminations, generally from 6.00 to 7.99 seconds. Full Tree starts are used, and the breakout rule is enforced. Cars can run in the sixes at more than 200 mph.
 * Top Dragster (T/D) (NHRA, IHRA, ANDRA). Competitors in these open-wheel entries may choose their own dial-in for eliminations, generally from 6.00 to 7.70 seconds. Full tree starts are used, and the breakout rule is enforced. Cars can run in the sixes at more than 200 mph. Cars can run any combination of motor: blown, turbo, nitrous or just all motor.
 * Top Fuel Funny Bike (high performance 5 second bikes)
 * Nostalgia Super Stock
 * NHRA and ANDRA Summit Racing series Super Pro, Pro, and bike.
 * Junior Dragster (racers between the ages of 8 and 18 may race a half scale version of the sport's fastest car, Top Fuel Dragster. Juniors run as follows: 12.90-slower for 8-9 year olds, 10-12 year olds at 8.90, and 13-18 year olds 7.90 and slower at a top speed of 85 mph). These cars race at 1/8 mile or 1/16 mile.
 * NHRA new class for Juniors is JR COMP running 6.90s at a top speed of 110 mi/h (1/8 mile or 1/16 mile).

The UEM also has a different structure of professional categories with Top Fuel Bike, Super Twin Top Fuel Bike, and Pro Stock Bike contested, leaving the entire European series with a total of 8 professional categories.

To allow different cars to compete against each other, some competitions are raced on a handicap basis, with faster cars delayed on the starting line enough to theoretically even things up with the slower car. This may be based on rule differences between the cars in stock, super stock, and modified classes, or on a competitor's chosen "dial-in" in bracket racing.

For a list of drag racing world records in each class, see Dragstrip.

Dial-in
A 'dial-in' is a time the driver estimates it will take their car to cross the finish line, and is generally displayed on one or more windows so the starter can adjust the starting lights on the tree accordingly. The slower car will then get a head start equal to the difference in the two dial-ins, so if both cars perform perfectly, they would cross the finish line dead even. If either car goes faster than its dial-in (called breaking out), it is disqualified regardless of who has the lower elapsed time; if both cars break out, the one who breaks out by the smallest amount wins. However, if a driver had jump-started (red light) or crossed a boundary line, both violations override any break out (except in some classes with an absolute break out rule such as Junior classes).

The effect of the bracket racing rules is to place a premium on consistency of performance of the driver and car rather than on raw speed, in that victory goes to the driver able to precisely predict elapsed time, whether it is fast or slow. This in turn makes victory much less dependent on budget, and more dependent on skill, making it popular with casual weekend racers.

Historic cars

 * 1954 — first slingshot, built by Mickey Thompson; Smokin' White Owl built by "Ollie" Morris, first purpose-built rear-engined dragster and first to use a Chevrolet V8 engine.
 * 1962 — the Greer–Black–Prudhomme dragster, with the best win record in NHRA history.
 * 1966 — Don Nicholson's Eliminator I, the first true Funny Car, built by Logghe Brothers.
 * 1971 — Swamp Rat XIV (or Swamp Rat 1-R), first successful rear-engined dragster, built by Don Garlits; Ed Donovan introduces the 417 Donovan hemi, an aluminum copy of the Chrysler.
 * 1974 — first tube chassis Pro Stock car, Bill Jenkins' 1972 Chevrolet Vega.
 * 1979 — Vanishing Point, rocket-powered funny car built by Sammy Miller, set current standing world record for fastest quarter-mile time (3.58 seconds) in 1984.

Glossary

 * Back half – the second half of a track, e.g. from the 1/8 mile to mark to the 1,000 foot or 1/4 mile mark for a standard track
 * Beam – electronic device (e.g. an optical beam) at the starting line to detect a car's staging position
 * Big tire – Car with a set of rear tires taller than 28.5 inches tall and or wider than 12.5 inches of tread. Car may have modifications to the rear frame rails and suspension system to allow the large tires to fit under the car.  Compare Small tire.
 * Bottle – nitrous system; also known as the jug.
 * Blanket – a ballistic cover, typically over the supercharged intake manifold assembly to contain shrapnel, in the case of an explosion.
 * Blow – see Blown.
 * Blower – supercharger (occasionally turbocharger); in '90s, generally grouped as "power adder" with turbocharger and nitrous
 * Blown – supercharged, when describing a functioning engine; wrecked, when describing an engine failure.
 * Blowover – flipping of a car, due to air under car lifting front wheels
 * Breakout – in bracket racing, running quicker than dial-in; also "breaking out".
 * Bulb(ed) – synonym for "redlight"
 * Bump – (also called on the bump or in the bubble) a driver is ranked by qualifying order if they are ranked 15 or 16 in most skill classes they are placed "on the bump" if the next driver improves and gets a better score that driver is eliminated and has to do another run to requalify. If they mess up on all qualification days, do not make it to elimination, or lose the first or second round that driver is eliminated and "placed on the trailer" and sent home.
 * Burnout – intentionally spinning and smoking the tires to build heat for better traction
 * Christmas tree (or "tree") – device at the starting line containing signal lights, used to start a race in addition to showing starting violations
 * DA – density altitude; a reference to qualities in the air.
 * Dial-in (bracket racing) – a car's pre-estimated ET for a pass, used for handicapping the start
 * Diaper – an absorbent containment blanket under the engine to prevent/reduce oil contact with the track, in the event of parts breakage
 * Dope (Southern U.S.) – nitrous or propane injection in a diesel engine
 * Doped – a car with a hidden nitrous system.
 * Digger – dragster (as distinct from a bodied car or flopper)
 * ET – Elapsed time. Time from a car leaving the starting line to crossing the finish line.
 * First or worst – if both drivers commit a foul, the driver who commits the foul first loses, unless it is two separate fouls, where the loser is the driver who committed the worse foul (lane violation is worse than foul start, and failure to participate in a post-run inspection is worst).
 * Flopper
 * commonly, Funny Car
 * any flip-top car Coined by dragster crews in the late 1960s to separate Funny Cars, which had fiberglass bodies with fenders, from dragsters.
 * Fuel – shorthand for "top fuel", a mix of methanol and nitromethane ("pop", nitro)
 * Fueler – any car running top fuel or in a top fuel class (most often, TFD or TF/FC)
 * Grenade – an engine destroyed (the engine "grenaded") due to internal failure. Distinct from "popping a blower".
 * Heads-up racing – a non-handicapped racing style where both drivers are started at the same time. Used in all professional ("pro") classes.
 * Holeshot – gaining an advantage by a faster reaction time at the start. The other driver gets "holeshotted" or "left at the tree".
 * Holeshot win – a race won by a driver with a slower elapsed time but a faster reaction time.
 * Hook[ed] up – good traction between tires and track resulting in increased acceleration and reduced slipping or smoking of tires.
 * James Bond – when a driver's reaction time is seven thousandths of a second after the green light (.007). A "James Bond Red" is a reaction time of -.007 seconds (red light), which is disqualification unless the opponent commits a more serious violation.
 * Kit – turbo or nitrous kit
 * Lit the tires – lost traction, causing burning rubber
 * Meth – methanol injection used in conjunction with gasoline (non-leaded pump) (Not to be confused with Methamphetamine)
 * Mill – any internal combustion engine used in a drag car, or hot rod
 * Nitro – nitromethane
 * Nitrous – nitrous oxide system; the gas used in such a system
 * No prep – a style of racing where the track has not been pre-treated to improve traction
 * Overdrive – ratio between the revolutions of the supercharger drive to the revolutions of the engine, controlling amount of boost; see underdrive
 * Oildown – when a car's engine or lubrication breaks during a run, leaving a streak of oil and other fluids on the track. This is punishable by fines, point penalties, and/or suspension.
 * Pedalfest – race won by pedalling; or poor track conditions that necessitate pedalling
 * Pedalling – working the throttle to maintain traction, or as a way to sandbag; "pedalled" it, had to "pedal" it
 * Pro tree – style of starting a race where the timing lights flash all three yellow lights simultaneously, and after four tenths of a second, turn green. Compare to "Standard tree".
 * Put on the trailer – lost (got "put on the trailer") or won (put the other driver on the trailer)
 * Quad - when a drag racing event features four cars in a single race, each race is called a Quad.
 * Quick 8 (Q8) – quickest eight cars in a defined race
 * Rail – dragster (as distinct from bodied car or flopper). From the exposed frame rails of early cars.
 * Redlight(ed) – jump(ed) the start, left before tree turned green. This is a loss unless the opponent commits a more serious foul (boundary lines or failed inspection).
 * Red Cherry – red light
 * Sandbagging – releasing the throttle or using the brakes at the end of the track during a bracket race after dialing a purposely slow time. Considered a dirty trick or tantamount to cheating in amateur classes.
 * Scattershield – metal sheet protecting driver in case of transmission failure
 * Slapper bar – traction bar
 * Slicks – rear tires with no tread pattern and softer rubber compound, for increased traction
 * Slingshot – early front-engined dragster, named for the driving position behind the rear wheels (erroneously attributed to launch speed).
 * Small Tire – Class of car where rear tires are shorter than or equal to 28.5 in and or equal 12.5 in of tread. This type of racing usually assumes that the rear frame rails and suspension are not radically modified.
 * Standard tree – style of starting a race where the timing lights flash in sequence five tenths of a second between each yellow light before turning green. Original starting method before introduction of pro tree.
 * Struck the tires – (also called hazing the tires, smoking the tires, or smoking out) loss of traction, causing them to smoke
 * Throw a belt – losing the drive belt connecting the engine's crankshaft to the supercharger
 * Top end – finish line of strip; high part of engine's rev band.
 * Traction bars – rear struts fixed to rear axle to keep rear axle from twisting, causing wheel hop and loss of traction; slapper bars.
 * Trap(s) – the 20 m speed trap near the finish line to measure speed & E.T.
 * Trap speed – the speed measured by the 60 foot speed trap near the finish line, indicating maximum speed reached in a run.
 * Tire shake – violent shaking of the car as the tires lose and regain traction in quick succession.
 * Wheelie bars – rear struts fixed to rear axle, which protrude out to rear of car to help prevent car's front from raising too high or flipping over on launch.

title: Drag racing


text:
Draugr

The draugr or draug (draugr, plural draugar; modern draugur, dreygur, and Danish, Swedish, and draug) is an undead creature from the Scandinavian saga literature and folktales.

Commentators extend the term draugr to the undead in medieval literature, even if it is never explicitly referred to as such in the text, and designated them rather as a haugbúi ("barrow-dweller") or an aptrganga, literally "again-walker" (afturganga).

Overview
Draugar live in their graves or royal palaces, often guarding treasure buried with them in their burial mound. They are revenants, or animated corpses with a corporeal body, rather than ghosts which possess intangible spiritual bodies.

Terminology
Old Norse draugr is defined as "a ghost, spirit, esp. the dead inhabitant of a cairn". Often the draugr is regarded not so much as a ghost but a revenant, i.e., the reanimated corpse of the deceased inside the burial mound (as in the example of Kárr inn gamli in Grettis saga).

The draugr was referred to as "barrow-wight" in the 1869 translation of Grettis saga, long before J. R. R. Tolkien employed this term in his novels, though "barrow-wight" is actually a rendering of haugbúinn (literally the ‘howe-dweller’), otherwise translated as "barrow-dweller".

Cognates and etymology
In Old Norse, the term draugr also meant a tree trunk or dry dead wood, or in poetry could refer to a man or warrior, since Old Norse poetry often used terms for trees to represent humans, especially in kennings, referencing the myth that the god Odin and his brothers created the first humans Ask and Embla from trees. There was thus a connection between the idea of a felled tree's trunk and that of a dead man's corpse.

In Swedish, draug is a modern loanword from West Norse, as the native Swedish form drög has acquired the meaning of "a pale, ineffectual, and slow-minded person that drags himself along".

The word is hypothetically traced to Proto-Indo European stem * "phantom", from * "deceive" (see also Avestan "druj").

Beings in British folklore such as "shag-boys" and "hogboons" derive their names from haugbui.

Broadened usage
Unlike Kárr inn gamli (Kar the Old) in Grettis saga, who is specifically called a draugr, Glámr the ghost in the same saga is never explicitly called a draugr in the text, though called a "troll" in it. Yet Glámr is still routinely referred to as a draugr by modern scholars.

Beings not specifically called draugar, but actually only referred to as (‘revenants’, pl. of ) and  (‘haunting’) in these medieval sagas are still commonly discussed as a draugr in various scholarly works, or the draugar and the haugbúar are lumped into one.

A further caveat is that the application of the term draugr may not necessarily follow what the term might have meant in the strict sense during medieval times, but rather follow a modern definition or notion of draugr, specifically such ghostly beings (by whatever names they are called) that occur in Icelandic folktales categorized as "Draugasögur" in Jón Árnason's collection, based on the classification groundwork laid by Konrad Maurer.

Overall classification
The draugr is a "corporeal ghost" with a physical tangible body and not an "imago", and in tales it is often delivered a "second death" by destruction of the enlivened corpse.
 * Ghost with physical body

The draugr has also been conceived of as a type of "vampire" by folktale anthologist Andrew Lang in late 1897, with the idea further pursued by more modern commentators. The focus here is not on blood-sucking, which is not attested for the draugr, but rather, contagiousness or transmittable nature of vampirism, that is to say, how a vampire begets another by turning his or her attack victim into one of his own kind. Sometimes the chain of contagion becomes an outbreak, e.g., the case of Þórólfr bægifótr (Thorolf Lame-foot or Twist-Foot), and even called an "epidemic" regarding Þórgunna (Thorgunna).
 * Vampire

A more speculative case of vampirism is that of Glámr, who was asked to tend sheep for a haunted farmstead and was subsequently found dead with his neck and every bone in his body broken. It has been surmised by commentators that Glámr by "contamination" was turned into an undead (draugr) by whatever being was haunting the farm.

Physical traits
Draugar usually possessed superhuman strength, and were "generally hideous to look at", bearing a necrotic black or blue color, and were associated with a "reek of decay" or more precisely inhabited haunts that often issued foul stench.

The draugar were said to be either hel-blár ("death-blue") or nár-fölr ("corpse-pale"). Glámr when found dead was described as "blár sem Hel en digr sem naut (black as hell and bloated to the size of a bull)". Þórólfr Lame-foot, when lying dormant, looked "uncorrupted" and also "was black as death [i.e., bruised black and blue] and swollen to the size of an ox". The close similarity of these descriptions have been noted. Laxdæla saga describes how bones were dug up belonging to a dead sorceress who had appeared in dreams, and they were "blue and evil looking".

Þráinn (Thrain) the berserker of Valland "turned himself into a troll" in Hrómundar saga Gripssonar was a fiend (dólgr) which was "black and huge.. roaring loudly and blowing fire", and moreover, possessed long scratching claws, and the claws stuck in the neck, prompting the hero Hrómundr to refer to the dragur as a sort of cat. The possession of long claws features also in the case of another revenant, Ásviðr (Aswitus) who came to life in the night and attacked his foster-brother Ásmundr (Asmundus) with them, scratching his face and tearing one of his ears.

Draugrs often give off a morbid stench, not unlike the smell of a decaying body. The mound where Kárr the Old was entombed reeked horribly. In Harðar saga Hörðr Grímkelsson’s two underlings die even before entering Sóti the Viking's mound, due to the "gust and stink (ódaun)" wafting out of it. When enraged Þráinn filled the barrow with an "evil reek."

Magical abilities
Draugar are noted for having numerous magical abilities (referred to as trollskap) resembling those of living witches and wizards, such as shape-shifting, controlling the weather, and seeing into the future.

Shape-shifting
The undead Víga-Hrappr Sumarliðason (Killer-Hrapp) of Laxdaela saga, unlike the typical guardian of a treasure hoard, does not stay put in his burial place but roams around his farmstead of Hrappstaðir, menacing the living. Víga-Hrappr's ghost, it has been suggested, was capable of transforming into the seal with human-like eyes which appeared before Þorsteinn svarti/surt (Thorsteinn the Black) sailing by ship, and was responsible for the sinking of the ship to prevent the family from reaching Hrappstaðir. The ability to shape-shift has been ascribed to Icelandic ghosts generally, particularly into the shape of a seal.

A draugr in Icelandic folktales collected in the modern age can also change into a great flayed bull, a grey horse with a broken back but no ears or tail, and a cat that would sit upon a sleeper's chest and grow steadily heavier until their victim suffocated.

Other magical abilities
Draugar have the ability to enter into the dreams of the living, and they will frequently leave a gift behind so that "the living person may be assured of the tangible nature of the visit". Draugar also have the ability to curse a victim, as shown in the Grettis saga, where Grettir is cursed to be unable to become any stronger. Draugar also brought disease to a village and could create temporary darkness in daylight hours. They preferred to be active during the night, although they did not appear to be vulnerable to sunlight like some other revenants. Draugr can also kill people with bad luck.

A draugr's presence might be shown by a great light that glowed from the mound like foxfire. This fire would form a barrier between the land of the living and the land of the dead.

The undead Víga-Hrappr exhibited the ability to sink into the ground to escape from Óláfr Hǫskuldsson the Peacock.

Some draugar are immune to weapons, and only a hero has the strength and courage needed to stand up to so formidable an opponent. In legends, the hero would often have to wrestle the draugr back to his grave, thereby defeating him, since weapons would do no good. A good example of this is found in Hrómundar saga Gripssonar. Iron could injure a draugr, as is the case with many supernatural creatures, although it would not be sufficient to stop it. Sometimes the hero is required to dispose of the body in unconventional ways. The preferred method is to cut off the draugr's head, burn the body, and dump the ashes in the sea—the emphasis being on making absolutely sure that the draugr was dead and gone.

Behaviour and character
Any mean, nasty, or greedy person can become a draugr. As Ármann Jakobsson notes, "most medieval Icelandic ghosts are evil or marginal people. If not dissatisfied or evil, they are unpopular".

Greed
The draugr's motivation was primarily envy and greed. Greed causes it to viciously attack any would-be grave robbers, but the draugr also expresses an innate envy of the living stemming from a longing for the things of life which it once had. They also exhibit an immense and nearly insatiable appetite, as shown in the encounter of Aran and Asmund, sword brothers who made an oath that, if one should die, the other would sit vigil with him for three days inside the burial mound. When Aran died, Asmund brought his own possessions into the barrow—banners, armor, hawk, hound, and horse—then set himself to wait the three days:

"During the first night, Aran got up from his chair and killed the hawk and hound and ate them. On the second night he got up again from his chair, and killed the horse and tore it into pieces; then he took great bites at the horse-flesh with his teeth, the blood streaming down from his mouth all the while he was eating…. The third night Asmund became very drowsy, and the first thing he knew, Aran had got him by the ears and torn them off."

Bloodthirst
The draugr's victims were not limited to trespassers in its home. The roaming undead devastated livestock by running the animals to death either by riding them or pursuing them in some hideous, half-flayed form. Shepherds' duties kept them outdoors at night, and they were particular targets for the hunger and hatred of the undead:

"The oxen which had been used to haul Thorolf's body were ridden to death by demons, and every single beast that came near his grave went raving mad and howled itself to death. The shepherd at Hvamm often came racing home with Thorolf after him. One day that Fall neither sheep nor shepherd came back to the farm."

Animals feeding near the grave of a draugr might be driven mad by the creature's influence. They may also die from being driven mad. Thorolf, for example, caused birds to drop dead when they flew over his bowl barrow.

Sitting posture and evil eye
The main indication that a deceased person will become a draugr is that the corpse is not in a horizontal position but is found standing upright (Víga-Hrappr), or in a sitting position (Þórólfr), indicating that the dead might return. Ármann Jakobsson suggests further that breaking the draugr's posture is a necessary or helpful step in destroying the draugr, but this is fraught with the risk of being inflicted with the evil eye, whether this is explicitly told in the case of Grettir who receives the curse from Glámr, or only implied in the case of Þórólfr, whose son warns the others to beware while they unbend Þórólfr's seated posture.

Annihilating
The revenant draugr needing to be decapitated in order to incapacitate them from further hauntings is a common theme in the family sagas.

Means of prevention

Traditionally in Iceland, a pair of open iron scissors was placed on the chest of the recently deceased, and straws or twigs might be hidden among their clothes. The big toes were tied together or needles were driven through the soles of the feet in order to keep the dead from being able to walk. Tradition also held that the coffin should be lifted and lowered in three different directions as it was carried from the house to confuse a possible draugr's sense of direction.

The most effective means of preventing the return of the dead was believed to be a corpse door, a special door through which the corpse was carried feet-first with people surrounding it so that the corpse couldn't see where it was going. The door was then bricked up to prevent a return. It is speculated that this belief began in Denmark and spread throughout the Norse culture, founded on the idea that the dead could only leave through the way they entered.

In Eyrbyggja saga, draugar are driven off by holding a "door-doom". One by one, they are summoned to the door-doom and given judgment and forced out of the home by this legal method. The home was then purified with holy water to ensure that they never came back.

Similar beings
A variation of the draugr is the haugbui (from Old Norse haugr' "howe, barrow, tumulus") which was a mound-dweller, the dead body living on within its tomb. The notable difference between the two was that the haugbui is unable to leave its grave site and only attacks those who trespass upon their territory.

Icelandic sagas
One of the best-known draugar is Glámr, who is defeated by the hero in Grettis saga. After Glámr dies on Christmas Eve, "people became aware that Glámr was not resting in peace. He wrought such havoc that some people fainted at the sight of him, while others went out of their minds". After a battle, Grettir eventually gets Glámr on his back. Just before Grettir kills him, Glámr curses Grettir because "Glámr was endowed with more evil force than most other ghosts", and thus he was able to speak and leave Grettir with his curse after his death.

A somewhat ambivalent, alternative view of the draugr is presented by the example of Gunnar Hámundarson in Njáls saga: "It seemed as though the howe was agape, and that Gunnar had turned within the howe to look upwards at the moon. They thought that they saw four lights within the howe, but not a shadow to be seen. Then they saw that Gunnar was merry, with a joyful face."

In the Eyrbyggja saga, a shepherd is assaulted by a blue-black draugr. The shepherd's neck is broken during the ensuing scuffle. The shepherd rises the next night as a draugr.

Recent

In more recent Scandinavian folklore, the draug (the modern spelling used in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) is a supernatural being that occurs in legends along the coast of Norway. Draugen was originally a dead person who either lived in the mound (in Norse called haugbúi) or went out to haunt the living. In later folklore, it became common to limit the figure to a ghost of a dead fisherman who had drifted at sea, and who was not buried in Christian soil. It was said that he wore a leather jacket or was dressed in oilskin, but had a seaweed vase for his head. He sailed in a half-boat with blocked sails (the Norwegian municipality of Bø, Nordland has the half-boat in its coat-of-arms) and announced death for those who saw him or even wanted to pull them down. This trait is common in the northernmost part of Norway, where life and culture was based on fishing more than anywhere else. The reason for this may be that the fishermen often drowned in great numbers, and the stories of restless dead coming in from sea were more common in the north than any other region of the country.

A recorded legend from Trøndelag tells how a cadaver lying on a beach became the object of a quarrel between the two types of draug (headless and seaweed-headed). A similar source even tells of a third type, the gleip, known to hitch themselves to sailors walking ashore and make them slip on the wet rocks.

But, though the draug usually presages death, there is an amusing account in Northern Norway of a northerner who managed to outwit him:

"It was Christmas Eve, and Ola went down to his boathouse to get the keg of brandy he had bought for the holidays. When he got in, he noticed a draugr sitting on the keg, staring out to sea. Ola, with great presence of mind and great bravery (it might not be amiss to state that he already had done some drinking), tiptoed up behind the draugr and struck him sharply in the small of the back, so that he went flying out through the window, with sparks hissing around him as he hit the water. Ola knew he had no time to lose, so he set off at a great rate, running through the churchyard which lay between his home and the boathouse. As he ran, he cried, 'Up, all you Christian souls, and help me!' Then he heard the sound of fighting between the ghosts and the draugr, who were battling each other with coffin boards and bunches of seaweed. The next morning, when people came to church, the whole yard was strewn with coffin covers, boat boards, and seaweed. After the fight, which the ghosts won, the draugr never came back to that district."

Use in popular culture
The modern and popular connection between the draug and the sea can be traced back to authors like Jonas Lie and Regine Nordmann, whose works include several books of fairy tales, as well as the drawings of Theodor Kittelsen, who spent some years living in Svolvær. Up north, the tradition of sea-draugs is especially vivid.

Arne Garborg describes land-draugs coming fresh from the graveyards, and the term draug is even used of vampires. The notion of draugs who live in the mountains is present in the poetic works of Henrik Ibsen (Peer Gynt), and Aasmund Olavsson Vinje. The Nynorsk translation of The Lord of the Rings used the term for both Nazgûl and the dead men of Dunharrow. Tolkien's barrow-wights bear obvious similarity to, and were inspired by the haugbúi.

In video game series such as The Elder Scrolls, draugr are the undead mummified corpses of fallen warriors that inhabit the ancient burial sites of a Nordic-inspired race of man. They first appeared in the Bloodmoon expansion to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and would later go on to appear all throughout The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Draugar are a common enemy, the first encountered by the player, in the 2018 video game God of War, with a variety of different powers and abilities. In 2019, a spaceship named Draugur was added to the game Eve Online, as the command destroyer of the Triglavian faction. Draugr appear as an enemies in the 2021 early access game Valheim, where they take the more recent, seaweed version of the Draug.

In Draug (film), a group of Viking warriors encounter the draugr while searching for a missing person inside a huge forest. The draugr are depicted as blue-black animated corpses wielding many magical abilities.

In the movie The Northman, Amleth enters a burial mound, in search of a magical sword named "Draugr". Inside the grave chamber Amleth encounters an undead Mound Dweller (draugr), who he has to fight in order to obtain the blade.

Season two episode two of Hilda, entitled "The Draugen," involved draugen as the ghosts of sailors who died at sea. While their form was ghostly, the captain was able to wear a coat, and had a shock of seaweed for hair.

The exoplanet PSR B1257+12 A has been named "Draugr".

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Draugr


text:
Day

A day is the time period of a full rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours (86,400 seconds). As a day passes at a given location it experiences morning, noon, afternoon, evening, and night. This daily cycle drives circadian rhythms in many organisms, which are vital to many life processes.

A collection of sequential days is organized into calendars as dates, almost always into weeks, months and years. A solar calendar organizes dates based on the Sun's annual cycle, giving consistent start dates for the four seasons from year to year. A lunar calendar organizes dates based on the Moon's lunar phase.

In common usage, a day starts at midnight, written as 00:00 or 12:00 am in 24- or 12-hour clocks, respectively. Because the time of midnight varies between locations, time zones are set up to facilitate the use of a uniform standard time. Other conventions are sometimes used, for example the Jewish religious calendar counts days from sunset to sunset, so the Jewish Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday. In astronomy, a day begins at noon so that observations throughout a single night are recorded as happening on the same day.

In specific applications, the definition of a day is slightly modified, such as in the SI day (exactly 86,400 seconds) used for computers and standards keeping, local mean time accounting of the Earth's natural fluctuation of a solar day, and stellar day and sidereal day (using the celestial sphere) used for astronomy. In most countries outside of the tropics, daylight saving time is practiced, and each year there will be one 23-hour civil day and one 25-hour civil day. Due to slight variations in the rotation of the Earth, there are rare times when a leap second will get inserted at the end of a UTC day, and so while almost all days have a duration of 86,400 seconds, there are these exceptional cases of a day with 86,401 seconds (in the half-century spanning 1972 through 2022, there have been a total of 27 leap seconds that have been inserted, so roughly once every other year).

Etymology
The term comes from the Old English term dæġ, with its cognates such as dagur in Icelandic, Tag in German, and dag in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Dutch – all stemming from a Proto-Germanic root *dagaz. , day is the 205th most common word in American English, and the 210th most common in English English.

Apparent and mean solar day
Several definitions of this universal human concept are used according to context, need, and convenience. Besides the day of 24 hours (86,400 seconds), the word day is used for several different spans of time based on the rotation of the Earth around its axis. An important one is the solar day, the time it takes for the Sun to return to its culmination point (its highest point in the sky). Due to an orbit's eccentricity, the Sun resides in one of the orbit's foci instead of the middle. Consequently, due to Kepler's second law, the planet travels at different speeds at various positions in its orbit, and thus a solar day is not the same length of time throughout the orbital year. Because the Earth moves along an eccentric orbit around the Sun while the Earth spins on an inclined axis, this period can be up to 7.9 seconds more than (or less than) 24 hours. In recent decades, the average length of a solar day on Earth has been about 86,400.002 seconds (24.000 000 6 hours). There are currently about 365.2421875 solar days in one mean tropical year.

Ancient custom has a new day starting at either the rising or setting of the Sun on the local horizon (Italian reckoning, for example, being 24 hours from sunset, old style). The exact moment of, and the interval between, two sunrises or sunsets depends on the geographical position (longitude and latitude, as well as altitude), and the time of year (as indicated by ancient hemispherical sundials).

A more constant day can be defined by the Sun passing through the local meridian, which happens at local noon (upper culmination) or midnight (lower culmination). The exact moment is dependent on the geographical longitude, and to a lesser extent on the time of the year. The length of such a day is nearly constant (24 hours ± 30 seconds). This is the time as indicated by modern sundials.

A further improvement defines a fictitious mean Sun that moves with constant speed along the celestial equator; the speed is the same as the average speed of the real Sun, but this removes the variation over a year as the Earth moves along its orbit around the Sun (due to both its velocity and its axial tilt).

In terms of Earth's rotation, the average day length is about 360.9856°. A day lasts for more than 360° of rotation because of the Earth's revolution around the Sun. With a full year being slightly more than 360 days, the Earth's daily orbit around the Sun is slightly less than 1°, so the day is slightly less than 361° of rotation.

Elsewhere in the Solar System or other parts of the universe, a day is a full rotation of other large astronomical objects with respect to its star.

Civil day
For civil purposes, a common clock time is typically defined for an entire region based on the local mean solar time at a central meridian. Such  time zones began to be adopted about the middle of the 19th century when railroads with regularly occurring schedules came into use, with most major countries having adopted them by 1929. As of 2015, throughout the world, 40 such zones are now in use: the central zone, from which all others are defined as offsets, is known as UTC±00, which uses Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

The most common convention starts the civil day at midnight: this is near the time of the lower culmination of the Sun on the central meridian of the time zone. Such a day may be called a calendar day.

A day is commonly divided into 24 hours, with each hour being made up of 60 minutes, and each minute composed of 60 seconds.

Sidereal day
A sidereal day or stellar day is the span of time it takes for the Earth to make one entire rotation with respect to the celestial background or a distant star (assumed to be fixed). Measuring a day as such is used in astronomy. A sidereal day is about 4 minutes less than a solar day of 24 hours (23 hours 56 minutes and 4.09 seconds), or 0.99726968 of a solar day of 24 hours. There are about 366.2422 stellar days in one mean tropical year (one stellar day more than the number of solar days).

Besides a stellar day on Earth, other bodies in the Solar System have day times, the durations of these being:

In the International System of Units
In the International System of Units (SI), a day not an official unit, but is accepted for use with SI. A day, with symbol d, is defined using SI units as 86,400 seconds; the second is the base unit of time in SI units. In 1967–68, during the 13th CGPM (Resolution 1), the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) redefined a second as "the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom". This makes the SI-based day last exactly 794,243,384,928,000 of those periods.

In decimal and metric time
Various decimal or metric time proposals have been made, but do not redefine the day, and use the day or sidereal day as a base unit. Metric time uses metric prefixes to keep time. It uses the day as the base unit, and smaller units being fractions of a day: a metric hour (deci) is $4,222.6$ of a day; a metric minute (milli) is $2,802$ of a day; etc. Similarly, in decimal time, the length of a day is static to normal time. A day is also split into 10 hours, and 10 days comprise a décade – the equivalent of a week. 3 décades make a month. Various decimal time proposals which do not redefine the day: Henri de Sarrauton's proposal kept days, and subdivided hours into 100 minutes; in Mendizábal y Tamborel's proposal, the sidereal day was the basic unit, with subdivisions made upon it;  and Rey-Pailhade's proposal divided the day 100 ''cés. ''

Other definitions
The word refers to various similarly defined ideas, such as:
 * Full day
 * 24 hours (exactly) (a nychthemeron)
 * A day counting approximation, for example "See you in three days." or "the following day"
 * The full day covering both the dark and light periods, beginning from the start of the dark period or from a point near the middle of the dark period
 * A full dark and light period, sometimes called a nychthemeron in English, from the Greek for night-day; or more colloquially the term 24 hours. In other languages, 24 hours is also often used. Other languages also have a separate word for a full day.
 * Part of a date: the day of the year (doy) in ordinal dates, day of the month (dom) in calendar dates or day of the week (dow) in week dates.
 * Time regularly spend at paid work on a single work day, cf. man-day and workweek.

 * Daytime
 * The period of light when the Sun is above the local horizon (that is, the time period from sunrise to sunset)
 * The time period from 06:00–18:00 (6:00 am – 6:00 pm) or 21:00 (9:00 pm) or another fixed clock period overlapping or offset from other time periods such as "morning", "afternoon", or "evening".
 * The time period from first-light "dawn" to last-light "dusk".

 * Other
 * A specific period of the day, which may vary by context, such as "the school day" or "the work day".

Variations in length
Mainly due to tidal deceleration – the Moon's gravitational pull slowing down the Earth's rotation – the Earth's rotational period is slowing. Because of the way the second is defined, the mean length of a solar day is now about 86,400.002 seconds, and is increasing by about 2 milliseconds per century.

Since the rotation rate of the Earth is slowing, the length of a SI second fell out of sync with a second derived from the rotational period. This arose the need for leap seconds, which insert extra seconds into Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Although typically 86,400 SI seconds in duration, a civil day can be either 86,401 or 86,399 SI seconds long on such a day. Other than the two-millisecond variation from tidal deceleration, other factors minutely affect the day's length, which creates an irregularity in the placement of leap seconds. Leap seconds are announced in advance by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), which measures the Earth's rotation and determines whether a leap second is necessary.

Geological day lengths
Discovered by paleontologist John W. Wells, the day lengths of geological periods have been estimated by measuring sedimentation rings in coral fossils, due to some biological systems being affected by the tide. The length of a day at the Earth's formation is estimated at 6 hours. Arbab I. Arbab plotted day lengths over time and found a curved line. Arbab attributed this to the change of water volume present affecting Earth's rotation.

Boundaries
For most diurnal animals, the day naturally begins at dawn and ends at sunset. Humans, with their cultural norms and scientific knowledge, have employed several different conceptions of the day's boundaries.

In the Hebrew Bible, Genesis 1:5 defines a day in terms of "evening" and "morning" before recounting the creation of the Sun to illuminate it: "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." The Jewish day begins at either sunset or nightfall (when three second-magnitude stars appear). Medieval Europe also followed this tradition, known as Florentine reckoning: In this system, a reference like "two hours into the day" meant two hours after sunset and thus times during the evening need to be shifted back one calendar day in modern reckoning. Days such as Christmas Eve, Halloween (“All Hallows’ Eve”), and the Eve of Saint Agnes are remnants of the older pattern when holidays began during the prior evening.

The common convention among the ancient Romans, ancient Chinese and in modern times is for the civil day to begin at midnight, i.e. 00:00, and to last a full 24 hours until 24:00, i.e. 00:00 of the next day.

In ancient Egypt the day was reckoned from sunrise to sunrise.

Prior to 1926, Turkey had two time systems: Turkish, counting the hours from sunset, and French, counting the hours from midnight.

Parts
Humans have divided the day in rough periods, which can have cultural implications, and other effects on humans' biological processes. The parts of the day do not have set times; they can vary by lifestyle or hours of daylight in a given place.

Daytime
Daytime is the part of the day during which sunlight directly reaches the ground, assuming that there are no obstacles. The length of daytime averages slightly more than half of the 24-hour day. Two effects make daytime on average longer than night. The Sun is not a point but has an apparent size of about 32 minutes of arc. Additionally, the atmosphere refracts sunlight in such a way that some of it reaches the ground even when the Sun is below the horizon by about 34 minutes of arc. So the first light reaches the ground when the centre of the Sun is still below the horizon by about 50 minutes of arc. Thus, daytime is on average around 7 minutes longer than 12 hours.

Daytime is further divided into morning, afternoon, and evening. Morning occurs between sunrise and noon. Afternoon occurs between noon and sunset, or between noon and the start of evening. This period of time sees human's highest body temperature, an increase of traffic collisions, and a decrease of productivity. Evening begins around 5 or 6 pm, or when the sun sets, and ends when one goes to bed.

Twilight
Twilight is the period before sunrise and after sunset in which there is natural light but no direct sunlight. The morning twilight begins at dawn and ends at sunrise, while the evening twilight begins at sunset and ends at dusk. Both periods of twilight can be divided into civil twilight, nautical twilight, and astronomical twilight. Civil twilight is when the sun is up to 6 degrees below the horizon; nautical when it is up to 12 degrees below, and astronomical when it is up to 18 degrees below.

Night
Night is the period in which the sky is dark; the period between dusk and dawn when no light from the sun is visible. Light pollution during night can impact human and animal life, for example by disrupting sleep.

title: Day