The Race Of Gentlemen Is A Throwback To Simpler Times

We’re finally about a month out from The Race of Gentlemen in Wildwood, New Jersey, so we figured this great piece from Autoevolution was worth a share:

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… read more >