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Our drag sport, illustrated
National DRAGSTER may have the longevity record for drag racing weeklies, and Drag News will always be considered by some to have been the sport's authoritative tome, but there still was room for others to…
The 'Garage Photo'
If there's a single photo that resonates deeply with all of us old-time race fans and racers, it’s this famous shot of "the Ridge Route Terrors," Roger Coburn and James Warren, photographed by Jon Asher in Coburn's garage.
Everything in this…
Being thankful
It's a bit of a short week here at National DRAGSTER what with Thanksgiving this Thursday and Friday off for a four-day weekend, so this will be the lone column of the week. We're actually shipping this week's issue…
How to avoid the champions curse? Buy us lunch
Wow, just five days into the off-season, and it has been pretty eventful already. Rumors of firings and hirings (some of them even true) are flying faster than fuelers, Austin Coil ends his 26-year relationship with John…
No Maas? No way!
Butch Maas was flanked by his sisters, Judi, left, and Linda, as they helped their mom celebrate her 75th birthday in 1995. "It actually was one of the last times we were together," said Linda.…
Sorry, Butch
Two days after receiving the news, I still hate myself. Well, maybe that's a bit strong, but I'm certainly very mad at myself.
Tuesday evening, we lost Butch Maas to cancer, and I lost my chance to glean from him his…
The Johnny Appleseed of the Fiberglass Forest
Although carbon fiber has replaced fiberglass as the material of choice for Funny Car bodies, there's not a longtime fan around who doesn't recall Steve Evans hawking flopper shows and promising fans that "the pits will look like a fiberglass forest…
Running up the ol' phone bill
I devoted most of yesterday to trying to make some of the phone calls I mentioned in the column a week ago and trying to at least touch base with some of the people I've yet to reach but have promised myself I would. …
'I always liked to hear about the old-timers'
Those of you who have followed this column since its inception July 23, 2007, some 380 entries ago according to my quick math, have seen this column evolve into its current format. Originally, it was conceived as a behind-the-scenes look at how …
Odds and ends injected to the thread
There are times when I wish that I could work exclusively on this column, and this is one of those weeks. I have so many things on my "want-to" list that I just can’t seem to get to them. I have promises out to so many people to call for stories…
Stars of the East Coast Fuel Funny Car Circuit
Two weeks ago, we heard from former Funny Car racer Jeff Foulk, who shared his memories of the East Coast Fuel Funny Car Circuit, and this week, I heard from fellow era flopper pilot Drake Viscome, who dropped me not one but…
Injected Funny Cars: How it was
They may not have sported superchargers, but it's clear that, pardon the pun, injected Funny Cars have blown a lot of people away over the years, at least based on the outpouring of info that the last few columns has inspired.
I received a great…
Twenty years ago, NHRA played hardball with NASCAR
On Thursday, Darrell Gwynn will be in Reading, where he and his father, Jerry, along with NHRA Board Chairman Dallas Gardner, former NHRA VP Steve Gibbs, former NHRA Division Director Darwin Doll, Kenny Koretsky, and Jack…
Groovin' at the 'Grove
In Tuesday's injected Funny car follow-up, I featured the Glory Daze Camaro of Kevin Johnson and mentioned that his dad, John, had taken some pretty cool photos from Maple Grove Raceway while working there in the early 1970s…
More injected Funny Cars!
First, I want to thank you all for the kind words about the Jeb Allen article last Tuesday. It was challenging for reasons that many of you understand and for the…
Jeb Allen: Building a new life, one home at a time
From the outside, Jeb Allen looked like he had it all. He was driving a Top Fueler and on the front cover of the sport's most popular magazine, Drag Racing USA, when he was 17. He became a national event Top Fuel…
Midwest injected Funny Cars of the 1970s
Injected fuel cars are a big part of the sport's history from Jr. Fuel on up, and although the combination lives on today in the Top Alcohol Dragster class in the A/Fuel designation, injected fuel funnies are no more, though…
The big ramp-truck send-off column
Just as the ramp trucks themselves passed into history, to be replaced by enclosed trailers, then fifth-wheel trailers, and ultimately 18-wheelers, so too must end (for now) the history of ramp trucks here. Oh sure, I could (and probably will)…
Three dozen ramp-truck photos!
Well, I'm back safely from yet another Big Go and ready to make up for lost time. I looked at the Last updated tag on the home page yesterday when I arrived back in SoCal and saw that it had been a whole week since I had posted. Wow, sorry about…
Warning! Runaway ramp-truck column ahead!
Another column, another collection of awesome ramp-truck shots sent by the Insider Nation. Anymore, I'm finding it cooler to ogle the cars on the backs of the trucks than I am the trucks themselves. As we are rediscovering/…
Ramp trucks? Yeah, we've got ramp trucks
You guys had a lot of spare time on your hands this weekend, right? I don't know how else to explain the avalanche of ramp-truck photos that appeared in my Inbox the last several days. Seems that a lot of you have either been scouring the Internet…
Keep on truckin'
And the wheels on the ramp truck thread go 'round and 'round.
So here we are, columns later still talking about ramp trucks as this thing grows bigger and bigger tentacles, reminding many of the way that our wedge dragster thread spiraled out of…
Ramp Truck Tuesday
It's Ramp Truck Tuesday at the Insider … OK, well, I guess it doesn't need its own day of the week anymore because stuff just keeps pouring in. I've received a ton of ramp-truck photos – including…
Band of brothers
How many can you name? (View bigger)
They belong to a fraternity founded in the…
Of Snakes, Mongooses, and horses
Today's column is a bit of a mash up of comments from recent columns, including the ongoing ramp-truck discussions, Tommy Ivo's glass-sided trailers, "the Snake" and "the Mongoose," and Hot Wheels. I'm having to create so many subfolders in my email…
'Snake' and 'Mongoose' collection
Y'know, I thought I was one of the biggest "Snake" and "Mongoose" fans in the world, but Jeff Mittendorf has me and just about the rest of you beat like the Army Monza did the world in 1975-76. I was the lucky guy who grew up playing with the Hot…
More ramp-truck ramblings
Not unexpectedly, everyone flipped over "T.V. Tommy" Ivo's trailer gallery here Tuesday, including Jim Randel, who saw Ivo's Corvette-topped truck in the early 1970s.
"This was probably around 1971 to 1972 timeframe at Motion Raceway off of Route…
Tommy's towing toys
So, last week I mentioned that Tommy Ivo was putting together a little something for your reading enjoyment about his glass-sided haulers. I had dropped him a line to ask where he had gotten the idea, how they came to be, etc., and, as always, "your…
Is there anything you guys don’t know?
If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times in the 350-plus columns I've filed here: You guys rock. Sure, a lot of times, I'm the guy coming up with the topics based on whatever tickles my fancy that week, but it's the ongoing dialogue that…
Just ramp truckin' along ...
Predictably, the ramp-truck thread is expanding and appears about to run out of control like a trailer that jumped its hitch. And I'm smiling all the while.
Keith Crouch of Toledo, Ohio, wrote, "I find this 'Snake' and '…