The utterly hatstand sport of tether car racing dates back to the 1930s. AMRCA which oversees the three existing US tracks in California, Indianapolis and Long Island explainz:
The classes are 1.5cc (.09 cu in), 2.5cc (.15 cu in), 5cc (.29 cu in), and 10cc (.61 cu in). Running on an alcohol-oil fuel and using tuned exhaust pipes the engines peak out at over 44,000 rpm in the smallest class. The cars run on a special circular track held to the center post by a wire tether. The person running the car stays on the outside of the track and the helper in the center assists the car off the line and stabilizes it until it reaches about 80 mph and then steps onto a small platform on the center pole until the car is shut off at the end of the run.
In the clip above, filmed at Whittier Narrows in California back in 2011, an especially nippy model accelerates to a squealy, supercar-bothering 205mph (330km/h).
