NO they told us it was part of the show to make it interesting. ACTING, not real.
yes we do street racing made safe at the track both at countyline 1/8 dragway and PBIR(1/4)
we have roll racing , you pick you want to race from 40mph ,,20mph,,or from a dig. at pbir I do the 40mph roll and at the end of the track I am going 138 to 145 mph

we have a flagman to start you when you get to the blue cones ,,both of you should be doing about 40mph and GO,,, at the end of the track we have cones where you won or lost, at that point let off,, no clocks no lights ,(except from the dig we have a red///green to leave the line, then no lights or clocks) Rudy and I did this when he was down,, he and I had a blast,,he drove my car also, we ran 14 runs and lost none.

 

I recall the first race at PBIR when the paving was not complete and hay bales were in use, mustabin in '65 or so. In the middle of nowhere on 710 across from Pratt (in the '50s both P&W and Martin Marietta received 6500 acre grants from Florida. P&W's was still a swamp the last time I was there. MM's became International Drive. ). Think drags came later.

Used to be a flagman at PBIR in my yout but a whole 'nother story.

That said I have watched the American Top Gear a few times but consider the acting just plain "stupid" (is a fine line between "absurd" which is an art form and "stupid" which isn't) and steal most of their story lines from the UK version.

Don't get me started about car flippers in the UK or Canada who do not check the chassis for rust before buying a "project".

 

You were watching the rong Top Gear. (black car is RH in a Viper).