Keeping NHRA Fans Up to Date
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Motorplex memories and mishaps
It's Friday morning at Texas Motorplex, and it's good to see the old gal again. I haven’t been here in a few years, and even then it was to attend the Division 4 NHRA Summit Racing Series Finals and not an NHRA national…
Be true to your school
Voted most likely to become a drag racing editor?
We didn't have a drag racing team, so I had to settle for volleyball. That's me, number 5.…
They didn't call him 'Wild Bill' for no reason
The man, the myth, the legend: "Wild Bill" Shrewsberry
Shrewsberry, second from left, drove more than wheelstanders. He's pictured with crewmember Dee Catton,…
Concord, N.C., 1960 style
"T.V. Tommy" Ivo has always been a great self-promoter – witness his television career, four-engine Showboat, glass-sided trailer ... heck, the guy even unabashedly signs his correspondence "your hero and mine, TV Tom" – and…
Stone, Woods & Cook: From the inside
When ND published a story in 1984 about the great 1964 Lions Drag Strip match race of Stone, Woods & Cook versus "Big John" Mazmanian, we also arranged a reunion of sorts. (Above) Leonard Woods Jr.…
And the winner is ...
Final results for Favorite Race Car Ever
Stone, Woods & Cook Willys
2088
(17.40%)
Winged Express
1598
(13.31%)
“Jungle Jim” Liberman Vega…
Favorite Race Car Ever voting: The final round!
Final results for Favorite Race Car Ever
Stone, Woods & Cook Willys
2088
(17.40%)
Winged Express
1598
(13.31%)
“Jungle Jim” Liberman Vega
1115…
Superman lives!
Long before John Force ever saddled up in his first Funny Car, drag racing had another gregarious character that we all called “Superman,” a tough-as-nails nitro jockey who piloted fuel dragsters and Funny Cars in a 20…
Mondays with Murray: Shirley Muldowney
Seeing drag racing legend Shirley Muldowney in the photos from John Force’s induction into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Novi, Mich., last Wednesday reminded me that I haven’t run a Mondays with Murray column in…
If the Shoe fits ...
Even as our Favorite Race Car Ever poll heads toward the final rounds, I’m still getting e-mails asking how I could possibly have forgotten to include this particular car or that car in the polls. The perceived slights run…
Favorite Race Car Ever voting: 1980s and Beyond
Joe Pisano/Mike Dunn Olds Funny Car
Don Garlits Swamp Rat XXX Top Fueler
Gary Ormsby Castrol GTX streamliner Top Fueler
Joe Amato TRW Top Fueler…
'I was there:' Garlits debuts Swamp Rat 14
While watching the numbers on our '70s Top Fueler poll inch slowly toward the cutoff point (as opposed to the ‘70s Funny Car poll, which is skyrocketing toward that number; there's still time to vote in both if you scroll…
Favorite Race Car Ever voting: 1970s Funny Cars
“Jungle Jim” Liberman Vega
Don Prudhomme Hot Wheels ‘Cuda
Don Prudhomme Army Monza
Tom McEwen Hot Wheels Duster
Raymond Beadle Blue Max Mustang II
Ed McCulloch Revellution Dodge
Barry Setzer/Pat Foster Vega…
In the Mood
Veteran fans recognize this masked man. "I never used the full-faced helmet," said Moody. "With both rear-engined cars, I used the old Tony Nancy leather face mask. I guess it was less confining, and I…
Favorite Race Car Ever voting: 1970s Top Fuelers
Don Garlits Swamp Rat 14
Don Garlits Swamp Rat 22
Beck & Peets Export A
Warren-Coburn-Miller Rain for Rent
Don…
Get 'er Dunn (and happy anniversary to us!)
I’m putting the finishing touches on all the research-doing, photo-grabbing, and poll-making for the next step in our Favorite Race Car Ever poll, which will cover 1970s Top Fuelers -- look for it Monday, and, in the…
Favorite Race Car Ever voting: Early Funny Cars
Sachs & Sons/Chrisman Mercury Comet
Jim Liberman’s Chevy II
Gas Ronda’s Ford Mustangs
Arnie Beswick's Tameless Tiger GTO…
Voting recap, making it up as I go, and your stories
Final results for all-time favorite exhibition car!
"Winged Express" fuel altered
1394
(36.53%)
"Little Red Wagon" wheelstander
1109
(29.06%)
" L.A. Dart"…
Favorite Race Car Ever voting: Early Dragsters
The Glass Slipper
The Speed Sport Roadster
Arfons Bros. Green Monster
Don Garlits' Swamp Rat I
Don Garlits' Swamp Rat…
Favorite Race Car Ever voting: Early Door Cars/Roadsters
Sox & Martin Barracuda
Bill Jenkins '68 Camaro
Don Carlton Motown Missile
Stone, Woods and Cook Willys
“Ohio George…
Let the voting begin!
Bill Shrewsberry's L.A. Dart wheelstander
Sammy Miller's Oxygen rocket dragster
Jack McClure's rocket-powered go-kart
Doug Rose's Green Mamba jet…
Dry hops in heaven
Buster Couch looks over as the Funny Car approaches the staging beams and winks at the new arrival, a tousle-haired kid with a lead foot whom he has known since the lad was in diapers. Scott Kalitta moves forward as longtime…
Look, up in the sky, it's the Kite Cycle!
That daring young man on his flying machine.
Here’s a little something different on this star-spangled weekend, prompted by a letter from regular reader/e-mailer Mark Watkins, who first wanted to…
A little bit of this, a little bit of that ...
Former U.S. President Calvin Coolidge once said, "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education…
Mondays with Murray: Don Prudhomme
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 100 times, and I bet that I’m not alone, but growing up in the 1970s, Don Prudhomme was my drag racing hero. There was no one cooler on the face of the planet, and it wasn’t just because he…
Norwalk, and The Big Dig
What happens when you have a lot of rain and a high water table; how Frank Manzo helped save the day
NHRA's Graham Light and Frank Manzo work on the situation.
Tuners Johnny West and Chuck Worsham assess The Big Dig.…
Return to Norwalk
A return to the place I first drove a racecar, some 24 years earlier; travel misadventures
Well, we’re here at beautiful Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, and I’ve opened the Summit Racing Equipment notebook left in my assigned place…
So long, Scott ...
Remembering Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta
It’s Monday after the SomberNationals in New Jersey, and I woke up this morning, and Scott Kalitta is still gone. And we all face the hurt all over again.
The kid who everyone in the pits used to jokingly refer to as “…
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…
More cursed Corvettes
Corvettes that bit the dust; origination of some racing superstitions
Feedback was, as expected, swift and sure on Friday’s superstitions column and the Corvette Curse.
Our own roving lensman, Richard Brady, has been shooting NHRA race cars for five decades, so it’s no surprise that he’s…