The NASCAR Firecracker 400 race, held each July at Daytona International Speedway, got its start in 1959. It was named the Firecracker 400 for many years due to being held on Independence Day. Since we’re in the middle of summer, what better time to look
The Lodi Mini Nationals 1973 was the first major event the late Gary Meadors directed. Working together with fellow Nor Cal Early Iron club members, Meadors displayed the promotional savvy and ability to rally the troops that would one day lead him to great success
The Harvey Aluminum Special - What happened to this special Mickey Thompson Dragster? While we all think we work hard, the late Mickey Thompson worked harder. By day he ran M/T Enterprises and Lions Drag Strip and at night he did a shift at the Los
I’ve known Jitney Jake Jacobs since 1982 when I photographed him and his partner Pete Chapouris driving their iconic ’34 coupes down Highway 99 towards Merced, California to the Street Rods Nats West. It was one of those lucky shots taken hanging out the back
Early Nostalgia Drag Racing got its start way back in the late 70s in the Western U.S. in both Southern and Northern California. The sport really got going when Tom Prufer rented Fremont Raceway so that he and his friends could go race with minimal
The Bonneville Salt Flats covers about 100 square miles in Tooele county Utah. The flats, part of the Great Salt Lake Desert, are a remnant of the bed of an ancient lake formed about 30,000 years ago late in the Pleistocene Epoch. Named for explorer
It's the 1958 Indianapolis 500, and the monstrous, man-eating open-wheel “Champ Cars” are in full effect at the Speedway. This Era is what Wagner called the Gotterdammerung — the twilight of the Gods. Mere mortals cannot manage these man-mangling machines. “American racing was, at that time,
The 1968 Indy 500. Fifty years ago. The End of Two Eras, the Beginning of two more and a grueling month-long battle of wills contested not only at the infamous 2.5-mile oval Brickyard but also at a proverbial crossroads. Rhythm and blues cotton pickers may tell
What ever happened to Roland Leong's Hawaiian Dragster? The Winternationals-winning, chute pack dragster driven by Don Prudhomme? Read on… Back in the 70s and 80s I made numerous trips to Italy to the Turin Auto Show that at the time was one of the world’s premier
In the summer of 1986 drag racing in Western Canada was all but non-existent so the Mission Sand Drags came to be. Mission Raceway Park was still dealing with the government to come through with the promised funds to build a drag strip while drag
