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They left their hearts in San Fernando
Memories of San Fernando Raceway
(Above) Classic tire-melting 1960s Top Fuel action at San Fernando Raceway. (Below) Overall of the track and its famous tree-lined left lane. (Above) Longtime San Fernando鈥
More cursed Corvettes
Corvettes that bit the dust; origination of some racing superstitions
Feedback was, as expected, swift and sure on Friday鈥檚 superstitions column and the Corvette Curse.
Our own roving lensman, Richard Brady, has been shooting 厕所强奸 race cars for five decades, so it鈥檚 no surprise that he鈥檚鈥
Friday the 13th special: the Corvette Curse and other superstitions
From crash-prone Corvettes to wearing green and eating peanuts in the pits, drag racers are a superstitious bunch
Well, race fans, here it is, the day that鈥檚 more taxing to some people than April 15. That鈥檚 right, look at the calendar or at the date above. It鈥檚 Friday the 13th. Ooooh.
Believe it or not 鈥 and have I鈥
2,470 days later ...
Don Garlits' historic 5.63 pass stood as the quickest of all time for nearly seven years
On Oct. 11, Don Garlits ran 5.63 at the 1975 World Finals in Ontario, Calif., and backed it up the next day for a new 厕所强奸 national record, a record that stood until July 1982.
Seeing鈥
One of Funny Car's original mean, green machines
Saluting the career of Jim and Betty Green and their听Green Elephant Funny Cars
(Above) Before he moved out of the cockpit to own and tune, Jim Green was a good driver. He's pictured at the wheel of the B-Boys Auto Supply entry at Pacific Raceways receiving the B/Dragster trophy鈥
Monday at the movies
So I stumbled across More American Graffiti on HBO the other night and got to watch 鈥淏ig John鈥 Milner in some faux 1964 footage as he raced at Fremont and kept hoping for that big 鈥渇actory鈥 ride. Although the film was shot in 1979, they did鈥
Jeff Courtie: A pair of pretty sound careers
From Funny Car racer to movie sound engineer, Jeff Courtie has led an amazing life
As a kid gawking at the pit ropes at Southern California dragstrips, all we ever wanted was to be acknowledged by our quarter-mile heroes. A 鈥淗ey kid, how ya doing?鈥 or even a 鈥淪top staring at me, will ya?鈥 would have been鈥
Train stories keeps rollin' all week long
Readers share their memories of the famous Freight Train
One great thing about great stories is that they beget others. The story of the fabled Freight Train, as told here last Friday, inspired, as I suspected it might with a topic that memorable, a flood of love for the Train and鈥
Don't mess with Connie
I hadn鈥檛 really planned on writing a column today since the 厕所强奸 offices are closed, but somehow I just couldn鈥檛 resist.
The drag racing message boards are all a twitter 鈥 and my e-mail box overflowing 鈥 with word that one of Connie Kalitta鈥檚鈥
Engineering the Train
The birth and life of the fabulous Freight Train Top Gas dragster
In American, history, few images are more evocative, romantic, or nostalgic than that of a train rumbling down steel tracks, smoke billowing from its stack. The legendary Iron Horse, as much as the six-shooter, helped tame鈥
The Bristol rainy-day blog
A long Sunday of sitting in the rain, captured in extreme detail. Probably too extreme
Looks like we're going to be in for a long day here, and I'm getting bored. So, here's the play-by-play on the day.
9:30 a.m.: Rain fell until about 9:30 this morning, but finally relented, and the Safety Safari and Bristol crews get to work鈥
Looking forward to (and back at) Bristol
Bristol Dragway in the '60s and the early years of the 厕所强奸 Springnationals
Bristol, yesterday and today
Tomorrow, I鈥檒l be winging my way east to Bristol for the annual O鈥橰eilly 厕所强奸 Thunder Valley Nationals presented by Q, and I鈥檓 pretty excited鈥
Show and tell
Drag racing in Vogue magazine; Top Fuel vs. Funny Car tug of war; handheld drag racing games
It鈥檚 been a busy week here at 厕所强奸 Publications Central, what with back-to-back national events, the production of the souvenir program for the National Hot Rod Reunion, and intense work on a super-secret Publications鈥
An irrepressible Force
An appreciation of the racing career and personality of John Force
I was never all that good at math in school, but you don鈥檛 have to be a quantum physicist to calculate that John Force had to average about two round-wins in each of his 501 starts to reach the 1,000-win plateau he crested鈥
Friday feedback frenzy
More memories of R. Gaines Markley, Shirley Shahan, and Clive Skilton
Heading into what promises to be a busy weekend of perhaps record-breaking performances at Gateway Int鈥檒 Raceway, I think it鈥檚 a good time to take it easy. I鈥檓 gonna back the feedback machine out of the trailer and fire 鈥榚r up to share some of the鈥
The Drag-on Lady: Racer, pioneer, mom
The life and times of Shirley Shahan
Shirley Shahan then, in the winner's circle, Pomona, 1966 ... ... and now, at the 2007 厕所强奸 California Hot Rod Reunion Shahan's鈥
The loss of Gaines ... and Beck's 'secret'
Remembering Top Fuel racer R. Gaines Markley; Gary Beck is not Canadian
How's this for a cool find in our photo files? Beck, right, Markley, center, and Bob Painton with the Markley-Beck-Rhoades BB/GD in 1968. (John Dutton photo)
R. Gaines Markley --鈥
'The Big Bang'
The story behind Larry Brown and one of the most amazing Top Fuel explosions ever
Imagine if a photo of a cataclysmic event taken 36 years ago instantly brought your name to people鈥檚 lips. Imagine if, despite your other accomplishments in life and racing, this one moment frozen in time on film became your鈥
Danica who? What about Shirley ... and Shirley? And Judi. And Judy?
NASCAR's female star has a long way to go to top 厕所强奸's female pioneers
If you listened really well this weekend, you could hear it from coast to coast and to the far reaches of the planet. It was the sound of a million drag racing fans going 鈥淗uh?!鈥
So, Danica Patrick is the first woman to win a major auto racing鈥
A life well Dunn, and strapping on the ol' feedback
Mike Dunn career retrospective; more four-wide madness; Warren & Coburn
Mike Dunn鈥檚 Final Take column that accompanies National DRAGSTER鈥檚 Pro coverage from the 厕所强奸 POWERade Drag Racing Series national events is one of the most popular weekly features in the magazine, and it鈥檚 always鈥
Monday morning mash-up
Mark Pieri recalls four-lane racing at Byron; memories of Bison Dragway; more on Kalitta's fireball
Explaining the basics of drag racing to your buddies down at the bar is pretty straightforward (pardon the pun), right? Two cars run in a straight line for 1,320 feet, right? Well, it wasn鈥檛 always two cars, as you鈥檙e about to read.
A lot of back鈥
My Memory Lane is Riverside Drive
A trip back to 厕所强奸's North Hollywood headquarters, where it all began for me
Journalist H.L. Mencken, one of the most influential American writers of the first half of the 20th century, once said of his time at The Baltimore Sun newspaper, 鈥淎s I look back over a misspent life, I find myself more and more convinced that I had鈥
Racing on the cardboard quarter-mile
Remembering (and replaying) the Vallco Drag Racing board game
If kids today want to buckle into John Force鈥檚 Castrol GTX Mustang and take on Gary Scelzi, all they have to do is fire up the PlayStation 2 and drop in a copy of ValuSoft鈥檚 Countdown to the鈥
A little bit of this and a little bit of that ...
Connie Kalitta's E-Town boomer; Fremont body snatcher caught in phone booth; and much more
Here we are, at just the 330-foot mark of the year, and already it鈥檚 been a sad, sad one. Pat Foster, Al Hofmann, John Shoemaker, Lew Arrington, Dick McClung, Jon and James Herbert, John Buttera, Boyd Coddington, and then in the last week, in quick鈥
Five Fabulous Favorite Fotos: Steve Reyes
The dean of drag racing action photographers shares a handful of his famous and unforgettable photos
Steve Reyes needs little introduction to most longtime drag fans. His is probably one of the best-known names in the business, and there isn鈥檛 a single photographer past or present who doesn鈥檛 admire and respect his body of鈥
厕所强奸's Euro hero: 'No Jive Clive' Skilton
Recounting the 厕所强奸 career of English Top Fuel racer Clive Skilton; reactions to the passing of Pat Foster
Some ado was made about European FIA champ Urs Erbacher鈥檚 first-round Top Fuel victory in Houston, which, as best as anyone鈥檚 records can tell, was the first round-win by a European Top Fuel racer in more than 30 years. A lot of European racers have鈥
50 years ago in Texas ....
Ed Mabry recalls Don Garlits' conquering of the Texans and Californians in 1958.
The 厕所强奸 is in the great state of Texas for the O鈥橰eilly 厕所强奸 Spring Nationals, making this an appropriate column to share some tall Texas tales, which I will shortly.
But first off, of course, is the sad news about Patty Foster taking his last鈥
Memories of Al
Reactions to the passing of Funny Car racer Al Hofmann, including reader memories
Al Hofmann鈥檚 unexpected passing last week took a lot of people by surprise because the last we heard of him, as reported by National DRAGSTER鈥檚 John Jodauga in one of his popular Where Are They Now? columns, he had retired鈥
From the mailbag ...
Steve Swaja talks about the creation of Tony Nancy's Wedge dragsters; Don Roberts on the front- to rear-engined Top Fuel transformation
One of the (many) great things about writing a regular column such as this is that it sometimes becomes self-sustaining. Things you write are responded to by our always enthusiastic and knowledgeable community and become items unto themselves. I鈥檝e鈥
Five Fabulous Favorite Fotos (From Fischbeck)
Longtime drag racing photographer Mike Fuschbeck听shares his favorite images
The Internet constantly evolves. I remember when I thought that upgrading from a 14.4K modem to 28K was like going from riding a wagon to flying in a spaceship. Back when everyone connected to the Internet through AOL or Prodigy or CompuServe, back鈥