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Mickey Thompson's Grand Am, Part 2
After a somewhat tumultuous debut in 1973 that included driver Dale Pulde’s sudden replacement before the season opener and a nasty fire that sidelined his replacement, Butch Maas, and allowed Pulde to hop back into the…
Mickey Thompson's Grand Am, Part 1
We all have favorites in our lives. Favorite song, favorite band, favorite movie, favorite actor, favorite color, etc., etc., but for drag race nuts like us, none of them holds a candle to memories of our favorite race car.…
It was Wally's World; we were just lucky to live in it
Wednesday was a somber day around here for many longtime members of the National Dragster staff. It was Jan. 23 and marked what would have been the 100th birthday of NHRA founder Wally Parks. It's hard to believe it…
NHRA's nitro-burning females
The Force females joined Brittany, far right, at yesterday's press conference. From left is John's eldest daughter, Adria (wife of team Funny Car driver Robert Hight), as well as Ashley, Courtney, and mom Laurie.…
Friends we lost
Although the Mayans were wrong and the world didn’t end on Dec. 21, the road did end for a number of our friends since I last wrote a column here before the Christmas break, so before we move further into 2013, I’d like to…
Wrapping up 2012
Well, here it is, just five days until Christmas, which can only mean one thing: Only four more days until I begin shopping for gifts. I kid. Well, sorta.
Anyway, with that special day just around the corner and NHRA HQ about to shut down from…
Roaring with appreciation at the Lions Reunion
Compared to its Fancy Dan contemporaries Orange County Int’l Raceway and Dallas Int’l Motor Speedway, Lions Associated Drag Strip was a dust bowl wedged between freeways and refineries. Yet Lions left an indelible impression…
I'm such a T's: Traxxas, Tripp. and Tributes
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got to spend time with your loved ones to share your thankfulness. My folks – both of them big racing fans -- drove down from Oregon, and after a couple of days of sightseeing, we met up with the rest…
Bits and pieces, Part 4
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, more body parts began to surface. OK, sure that sounds like the beginning to a Jaws sequel, but it’s really just a toothy intro to another installment of Bits and Pieces, Part 4…
We be trippin'
It’s a sad fact of life that we don’t often enough get to tell people how we feel about them or to truly appreciate them before we lose them. I’ve felt that way numerous times, and every time that I write about someone we’ve lost – be it last week…
Remembering Tripp Shumake
When I joined the National DRAGSTER staff in early 1982, one of the first people to openly embrace “the new guy” was Funny Car racer Tripp Shumake. Slight of stature but big of heart, I don’t know that…
Bits and Pieces, Part 3
With Las Vegas in the rearview mirror and Pomona and the season finale in our sights, it’s time for one more spin of the jackpot wheel and the Insider finale (for now) of Bits and Pieces, your stories of salvaged strip scrap. It has been fun to see…
Bits and pieces, Part 2
Thanks to everyone for the kind and inspiring words concerning what, at least for the short term, will be a change in the publishing schedule here. I’m committed to keeping this great watering hole alive and well, which means I expect to have at…
Bits and pieces
A couple of weeks ago, in the wake of the story about Dale Emery’s memorable crash at the 1977 U.S. Nationals that made multiple mini-souvenir pieces of Mike Burkhart’s Camaro flopper, I solicited your photos and stories about your own post-crash…
Simply terrifying
After it was mentioned in a couple of the Southern California-based First Race stories, I got a few inquiries for more details about John Smyser’s…
Your first race, Part 3
I wasn’t really planning a third installment of Your First Race, but the entries just keep rolling in and so do the cheers for the topic, so here we go with round three:
Jim Lagler: “I had an older (…
Your first race, Part 2
Here’s Part 2 of Your First Race. I have to say it has been really cool reading through the submissions. Some of you I don’t know at all, and some have been previous contributors to the column, but I find all of the stories enthralling. As I prepare…
Your first race
Just got back from a great trip to St. Louis. For all the traveling I’ve done over all the years, this was my first trip to the city and to Gateway Motorsports Park. It’s one of the few tracks on the tour I hadn’t been to, so it was fun to have a…
Follow-up Friday
With this week’s Indy semi-coverage issue of National DRAGSTER safely at the printer, it’s back to Indy for the Big Go, round two. Three days at home was just enough to get the issue completed, proofed, and electronically bundled off to…
Pat Garlits: The Great Woman behind The Man
“Don [Garlits] had many close partners -- his brother Ed, Connie Swingle, Art Malone, Tom 'T.C.' Lemons, Emery Cook, and a few others. But it was his lifelong partnership with a sweet girl named Pat Bieger from…
1982 Indy: The Nitrous Nationals (or not)
This year’s Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Auto-Plus will mark the 30th anniversary of one of the greatest Funny Car runs in drag racing history, Don Prudhomme’s stunning 5.637-second blast during qualifying at the…
Backtrack Tuesday: This, That, and Other Things
It’s Backtrack Tuesday at the DRAGSTER Insider, and I'm working hard to cleanse the inbox before diving into the two weeks leading up to the Big Go, the annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Auto-Plus…
Putting a face to the name on the card
I’ll admit that my West Coast upbringing does at times bias the stories you read here, and although as a teenager I could easily recite a long list of match-race-only West Coast Funny Cars of the 1970s, my East…
Dale Emery: A life of Pure Hell, wild rides, and big wins
Race fans are accustomed to seeing Funny Cars pointed every which way on the dragstrip. When they’re not pointed toward the finish line, they can be found zigzagging around their lane (and sometimes the other). We’ve seen them bank off of guardrails…
Play it again, Sam
Sam Schermerhorn today, with girlfriend Paula and their pal, Budda
I have a pretty good grasp of drag racing’s history and even of some of the more obscure names from its past, but I’ll admit that…
More thrills from Indy '77
Although I remembered the 1977 U.S. Nationals in Tuesday’s column for Richard Tharp’s frightening near collision with Gary Read in round two of Top Fuel, as I was thumbing through a couple of thick folders…
More tall Tharp tales
Apparently, the world loves a good Richard Tharp story.
Response to Friday’s column about “King Richard” was off the charts. I guess I could have predicted that, but still I was amazed at the outpouring of kudos to me and…
'King Richard': Damndest Thing You Ever Saw
Frankly, I don’t even know where to begin when writing on The Life and Times of Richard Tharp. It has been an article I’ve wanted to write for years but put off for the same reasons I’m facing now staring at a mostly blank…
Peebles, Woodall, and a golden era
From his first slingshots to the final rear-engine car (bottom), Jackie Peebles' dragsters were adorned with 24-karat gold plating. Fire burnout, Mexico City, 1978…
Remembering 'Joe P.'
If you turned 21 years old yesterday, I’d like you to raise a glass of your now-legal-to-drink favorite alcoholic beverage and toast the memory of Joe Pisano, who left us on the day you were born, July 19, 1991.
Seems…