A fond farewell to Raymond Beadle
ust last week, Insider reader Richard Pederson was reveling, with me, in the fact that last Friday’s column had been a joyous one, sharing great old photos instead of having to talk about another…
The Photo Hoarder
People collect all sorts of things, from cars to beer cans to movie posters and magazines, all of which require a lot of research and an outlay of dollars to build a substantial collection. For race fans like us…
Saying goodbye to Bud and P.J., two more NHRA heroes
Usually I write about racers in this column, most of them heroes of my youth whose exploits I watched from the other side of the magazine page, and all too much lately, I’ve written about not just their careers but their lives in the past tense, as…
'Fearless Fred' Goeske
A lot of race car drivers would describe themselves as “fearless,” but only one driver that I know of actually incorporated it into his name: “Fearless Fred” Goeske, who raced Funny Cars and rocket cars for decades and left…
Indy Memories, from Hutch's Hutch
Before the U.S. Nationals slips too far into our rearview mirrors, I wanted to share the photos below with you. They come from former NHRA Division 1 photographer Phil Hutchinson, who has been going to Indy for a long time…
Here, There, and Everywhere
If this is Friday, it must be Dallas, right? Well, a combination of Charlotte and Dallas, I guess. Yes, the weather gods decided to play more scheduling tricks on us, so just as it was in Indy, where we had to complete the balance of Brainerd…
Remembering John Farkonas, Bob Brooks
John Farkonas, left, with Austin Coil, center, and Pat Minick at the Chi-Town Hustler reunion in 2011. (Dennis Mothershead photo)
His was the first surname listed on the side of one of the…
Reliving some magical Indy moments
I have to admit, the 60th anniversary Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals lived up to its billing for this reporter. While some people might have gone there to see the dramatic conclusion to the Mello Yello regular season…
Kasch's Cache, Part 2
If this is Friday, then I must be in Indy, enjoying my 32nd straight trip to the Big Go. Wish you were here. You may well be. Here’s Part 2 of Tom Kasch’s cache of Indy pics, these focusing on Top Fuel and other classes, from the 1960s and early…
Fan Fotos: Kasch’s Indy Cache
Several times each week, almost without fail, I and about 50 other folks get an email from Tom Kasch with a dozen or so photos attached. They’re all images he has taken in the past 50 years, mostly from tracks…
The Tennessee Bo-Weevil
Raymond Godman, Preston Davis, and the restored Tennessee Bo-Weevil will be at this year's U.S. Nationals. (Louis Kimery photo)
When I think about this great sport that I’ve enjoyed now as…
I've Got Mail!
Remember when you first got on the Internet (or what passed for it back then)? For a lot of us early adapters in the early 1990s, that meant America Online, and save for a nitro engine, there was no more thrilling sound than hearing “You’ve Got Mail…
Fan Fotos: 1970s California Floppers
After last week’s Fan Fotos from the East Coast, we rebound back to the West Coast this week for a series of photos from Insider reader Ed Eberlein that spans from Fremont to Sacramento to Orange County Int’l Raceway to Pomona in a three-year period…
Fan Fotos: Connecticut Dragway
If you’re like me (and you probably wouldn’t be here if you weren’t), one of the great joys of longtime drag racing fans is looking at old drag racing photos. There are websites and Facebook pages aplenty filled with some ol’ time goodness…
Indy 1970
You may have seen the announcement on the NHRA.com home page last week that Don Prudhomme and Jim Nicoll will be at this year’s Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals to talk about their memorable 1970 Indy final round. It’s just one of six great…
More Things That Aren't Here Anymore
You guys are sooooo predictable. Any time I gush about “the good ol’ days” with memories about how cool things used to be, I get a tsunami of emails echoing my declarations and patting me on the back for being a…
Things That Aren't Here Anymore
You know me -- it doesn’t take much to distract me and send me plummeting off course down some uncharted lane of drag racing errata. You know how you can go to YouTube to see one video and keep following related videos until you realize it’s 4 in…
Remembering Norm Weekly, Mart Higginbotham
The weather was beautiful, the scenery was majestic, and the racing topflight last weekend in New England, where I was working the Auto-Plus NHRA New England Nationals at New England Dragway, NHRA’s second visit to the nostalgic and historic track.…
Your dads (and moms)
Thanks so much for all of the kind words on my Father’s Day article last Friday. It was an article that I’d long wanted to write but nonetheless found it difficult, both emotionally and in straying from our usual fare here, but your responses made…
Father's Day
I’m going to go not too far out on a limb here and work under the assumption that a large majority of the Insider Nation is comprised of guys a lot like me. Some older, some younger, some the same age, but all of us,…
The Ramchargers
When the email came Tuesday from Eileen Daniels, wife of the late NHRA Division 3 Director Bob Daniels, advising of the death of Jim Thornton, it was in the form of a simple link to an online obituary. She didn’t say any more and probably didn’t…
Talking 'Otie,' terminology, skyjackings, and more
By the time you read this Friday, I’ll be in Englishtown for another trip to one of my favorite races, the Toyota NHRA Summernationals. I’ve been going to the East Coast classic since the 1980s, and it seems that each race there provides something…
More Killers from Kenosha
I really had no intention of continuing the AMC drag car thread this week, but apparently, y’all weren’t ready to let it go, at least based on the outpouring of photos and thoughts that rained into my email this past week.
Steve Reyes and Bob…
A history of AMC Funny Cars
“If you had to compete with the three biggest car companies in America, what would you do?” This was the tagline on some American Motors television commercials back in the early 1970s, and it’s a valid question, for which…
A Case of the Gremlins
“Now that you did the Vega panels how about a retrospective on Gremlins — the ‘other’ sort of panel!”
So came the request from reader Ken Brodsky earlier this week. First off, I have to admit that I…
Still more Vega panels ...
After last week’s pause to remember some of our fallen friends, we return to the Vega panel thread. There’s not a whole lot of new info to share but some cool photos you guys have sent in, so let’s make this a show and tell.
The Insider’s “photo…
Remembering five fallen friends
I love email and text messages — can’t even begin to think where any of us would be without either in this day and age — but I’m almost to the point where I cringe every time a new email pops into my Inbox or my phone sounds off the arrival of a new…
More Vega panels
Ahhhh … the threads that keep on delivering. It always amazes me how one subject of a column can lead to another related one and so on. Those of you who have been around this watering hole a long time may remember the long-running wedge dragster…
So, I heard you guys have been Wondering …
Last week’s Wonder Wagon tale delivered a fine response from the Insider Nation, many of whom remember well those cars and some who were lucky to see the Vega…
No more wonderin' about the Wonder Wagon story
There’s nothing I love better than getting to the bottom of a good mystery, and when it comes to drag racing history, no chapter may be more misunderstood than Wonder Bread’s involvement with the sport back in 1972-73. Most…