Long Island’s ‘silent call’ for a drag strip

Drag racer Brian Penna of Aquebogue was at the classic car show Thursday showing off his nitrus car (#41), which he built about four years ago for competition at drag strips around the region.

His ’68 Camaro runs in the 10.5 Outlaw class, reaching speeds in excess of 175 mph and finishing the eighth-mile race in as little as 4.24 seconds.

The whole front end of the custom-built dragster comes off, as Penna demonstrated last week. That’s to allow Penna and his pit crew to easily work on the engine — or even replace it — at the track. The doors come off, too.

“We can change the pistons at the track in an hour,” Penna said. “We can change the transmission in 15 minutes.”

Penna lamented the lack of drag strips on Long Island, not only for closer-to-home competition — the closest tracks are in New Jersey — but also for practicing and testing.

“A lot of testing is needed. You want to change things… a converter, different tune-ups, but we have nowhere to test. It’s horrible. Sometimes you rent a track out of state,” Penna said. “But we’re competing against guys that can test once a week.”

Drag racing is a popular family sport, Penna said. “The last race there were 38 cars in our class. People come from all over the country and Canada,” he said. There’s a “silent call” for drag-racing on Long Island, he said. “You go to Englishtown [home of the Old Bridge Township Raceway Park] and you won’t believe how many people from Long Island are there.”

Motor sports enthusiasts have long advocated establishing a new track at the Enterprise Park at Calverton, something town officials have eschewed. Unauthorized use of the western runway at EPCAL for drag racing has caught the attention of Riverhead Police, which have set up barricades in an attempt to prevent it.

“It’s a fun sport and a family thing,” Penna said. “The wife and kids love it. These tracks are packed with kids. It’s a shame we have nothing like it here for the kids.”

Penna’s son Kevin, an 8-year-old third-grader at Aquebogue Elementary School, was all smiled at his father’s side at the car show, enjoying spending time behind the wheel in the Camaro’s cockpit as strollers ogled its shiny, massive engine.

“You’ve been going to the races with us since before you were born,” Penna said, tousling his son’s sandy hair.

The Pennas were headed to Atco Dragway in New Jersey on Friday for a weekend of racing. Penna said he didn’t race as much this year, because of the time and expense involved of getting to different out-of-state raceways.

“It’s a shame there’s nowhere to race locally,” he said.

This Thursday is the last scheduled classic car “cruise night” on the riverfront sponsored by the Town of Riverhead and the Riverhead BID Management Association. The weekly car show was originally set to end with the last Thursday in August, but officials decided to continue the popular event for another month.