Quartermile

Quartermile, commonly written quarter mile or quarter-mile, is a unit of length equal to one quarter of a mile. In metric terms, it is approximately 402.336 meters. In the U.S. customary system, it equals 1,320 feet, making it a standard distance in certain road, automotive, and historical surveying contexts.

In drag racing, the quarter mile is the standard race distance. Races run from a fixed start to a finish line 1,320 feet away, with elapsed time (ET) and trap speed recorded. ET measures how long a racer takes to reach the finish; trap speed denotes the speed at the end of the run. The quarter mile is a central benchmark for performance in many classes, from street-legal to professional categories. Some events shorten the distance to 660 or 1,000 feet for safety, class rules, or track constraints.

Outside drag racing, the quarter mile is less common as an official competition distance. In track and field, metric distances such as 400 meters are standard, and imperial measurements are mostly historical. The quarter mile sometimes appears in automotive journalism or enthusiast discussions as an informal reference point for performance comparisons, but it is not a standard measurement in official athletic events.

Origin and usage context: The term and measurement arise from the mile-based system that was common in the British Empire and the United States. The quarter-mile length aligns with traditional road layouts and with early automotive testing practices, where a fixed, easily communicable distance was convenient for timing and comparison.