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Remembering Bud Coons and 'Surfer Hank'
It’s no great secret that we’ve lost a lot of our drag racing heroes in the last decade, and if you’ve been following this column for any length of time, you know that I agonize over the losses and sometimes struggle to put…
Bristol Dragway: 50 years of memories
We’ve spent some time already this year talking about the NHRA Springnationals and about its stops at Dallas Int’l Motor Speedway and National Trail Raceway, but it all began 50 years ago at fabulous new Bristol Int'l Dragway in Tennessee, a track…
Gary Burgin, drag racing's 'Orange Baron'
We lost Funny Car great Gary Burgin last Sunday, another passing of a fine racer who forever etched his name and his cars into our memory banks.
Burgin liked to brag that he had never driven anything down the dragstrip…
Remembering Jim Kelly, 'drag racing's Ansel Adams'
Steve Reyes photos
I don’t know who illustrated the reading you did as a kid, whether it was Dr. Seuss or Charles Schulz or Sergio Aragones, but for me, my favorite reading was usually accompanied by…
The 1975 Springnationals
Even though NHRA’s Springnationals was born in Bristol and moved to Englishtown and then, as noted last week, to Dallas before ultimately ending up at its current home in Houston, in my brain, and I’m sure in the brains of…
The all-too-short life of Dallas Int'l Motor Speedway
The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series’ most recent stop was in Texas for the (deep breath) O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals presented by Super Start Batteries, and anyone who knows anything about drag racing knows…
When drag racers turn corners
Don Prudhomme, left, with Antron Brown, center, and actor Mekhi Phifer (ER, 8 Mile) at this year's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Pro/Celebrity race.
Former NHRA Top …
Drag racing's female pioneers paved the road to 200
Shirley Shahan was NHRA's first female winner, at the 1966 Winternationals, and ABC's Wide World of Sports coverage made her an instant celebrity.
Judi Boertman…
Saluting two Southern California icons
Souvenir replica pit passes were handed out to everyone in attendance.
"TV Tommy" Ivo, left, reconnected with Jeb Allen…
More cool old rear-engine cars
My columns a few weeks ago about the transition from front-engine to rear-engine Top Fuelers brought a lot of email and a slew of interesting photos about more of the earliest rear-engine attempts as well as some who took the rear-engine design to…
Fan Fotos: Beeline Dragway, 1970
I’m off this week to Charlotte for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, and the column that I had planned didn’t pan out. I’ve been holding on to the photos below for just such an occasion, so I made a beeline for them to share with you this weekend.…
'Nitro Nellie' Goins
Nellie Goins wasn’t the first female to ever strap herself into a supercharged, nitro-burning Funny Car – pioneers like Paula Murphy, Della Woods, and Shirley Muldowney all preceded her – nor the first African-American racer…
Early rear-engine iron
(Above) "Ollie" Morris' back-motor Smokin' White Owl debuted in 1954 and tore up Southern California strips. (Below) Morris, right, and sponsor Harvey Malcomson, of Harvey’s Auto Glass, worked on the car's flathead…
Fan Fotos: 1965 March Meet
Last weekend, racers descended on Bakersfield for the 58th running of the March Meet, which now is part of NHRA’s Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series but for decades was known as one of the great fuel-racing events on the calendar.
In 1959, the…
Front to back: The rear-engine transition, Part 2
Don Garlits showed that the rear-engine design was here to stay with a powerful victory at the 1971 NHRA Winternationals.
Although rear-engine Top Fuelers had found some limited…
Front to back: The rear-engine transition
Last week’s column about John Wiebe, one of the last and best holdouts of the traditional slingshot Top Fuel design, and our other discussions of the 1971 and 1972 seasons got me to…
'Kansas John' Wiebe
Steve Reyes
Ask someone on the street about Kansas, and you’ll probably hear something about wheat fields, The Wizard of Oz, or, for the rockers out there, wayward sons carrying on. Ask any longtime drag…
'Snake,' Leong celebrate 50 years of success, friendship
Fifty years ago this weekend, Don Prudhomme drove Roland Leong's Hawaiian Top Fueler to victory at the 1965 Winternationals, his first of 49 career wins.
I had planned to publish today…
Forget “Deflate-gate” — We’ve Got “Lions-gate“
You do not want to piss off this guy.
“You’re going to make me pull out what little hair I have left!”
That was the way my Monday began. On the other end of the phone was Larry Sutton, and he…
Unforgettable: Lions' 1972 Grand Premiere
Two weeks ago, when I started the 1975 thread with a report on Irwindale Raceway’s wild and wacky Grand Premiere, I mentioned the event’s Lions Drag Strip roots, a race that kicked off the fabled SoCal racing facility’s final season in 1972, and…
Dueling Winternationals kicked off 1975 season
NHRA’s incredible 1975 season didn’t officially begin until the Winternationals in Pomona Jan. 21, but by then, a lot of nitro already had been burned. As I mentioned last week, Don Prudhomme kicked off what – at the time – was the greatest season…
1975's Grand Premiere
James Warren (above) won Top Fuel, and Don Prudhomme (below) scored in Funny Car at the 4th annual Grand Premiere at Irwindale Raceway to help kick off 1975.
Forty years ago last Sunday…
I went to a garden party
I went to a garden party
to reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories
and play our songs again.
My Christmas present came early this year, in the form of an invitation to a party Dec. 5. For…
The birth of the data recorder
Ron Armstrong, standing, and Dale Armstrong pore over data printouts from an early RacePak data logger.
“People ask me what was the single thing that made the biggest progression in drag racing…
Farewell, AA/Dale
There are no professional drag racing scouts who tour North America looking for the next Don Garlits in the way hockey’s headhunters in the puck-crazed western Canadian province of Alberta scour the area’s peewee leagues…
Being thankful, and more fond farewells
By the time this gets published, it’ll be the day after Thanksgiving, and some of you may be reading this on your phones or tablets in a line somewhere awaiting Black Friday stores to open. While I’m thankful I won’t be…
Just another day with the legends
Last weekend’s 50th anniversary Auto Club NHRA Finals was steeped in nostalgia, with vintage-car displays, Cacklefests, and, the highlight for me, more Legends chats, this time involving “TV Tommy” Ivo, Ed “the Ace”…
For Greer family, another memorable moment
I have to admit, I was pretty stunned earlier this week when online voting concluded for the Most Memorable Moments in NHRA World Finals history and Shirl Greer’s amazing comeback from a nasty fire in qualifying to win the…
The Photo Hoarder, Part 2
After a two-week side trip down the memory lane of Raymond Beadle’s life, let’s return to our previous thread on photo hoarding. As noted previously, I believe that it’s a widespread practice…
Raymond Beadle, remembered
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but the loss of Raymond Beadle a week ago Monday has surely resonated within the NHRA community, and my request last Friday for your personal tales of what Beadle meant to you was…