A day or two before any modern motorsports racing event, lumbering mega-trucks pull in and unfold into human-assisted race support giant robots. Empty parking lots are transformed in mere hours into a sea of trailers with satellite uplinks, spare parts, and very deep pockets to keep it all humming. This was not always the case. Phil Burgess over at NHRA Insider has assembled an … [Read more...]
Go Karts by America
On this Independence Day it is time to celebrate the ingenuity that makes this country great. This endurance racing kart was built and driven by Duffy Livingstone, a man considered the father of the modern Go Kart. Like so many other forms of mechanized mayhem that later become motorsport, karting started with castaways and discarded junk combined with a crazy idea. Before … [Read more...]
Mickey Thompson: First American to 400 MPH
Mickey Thompson is a legend in American motorsport and hot rodding. The NHRA Wally Parks Motorsports Museum is currently exhibiting a collection of Thompson's lifelong achievement through photographs, memorabilia, and the very machines that broke the records. To get an idea of who Mickey Thompson the man was, consider that while holding down a full-time job as a Pressman at the … [Read more...]
Kit Car Bonanza!
We know what you're thinking. Ferraris? Porches? WTF? There is no cause for alarm. Not one of the cars shown here is an actual Ferrari or a Porsche, they only sort of look that way. These automobiles are the handiwork of the Association of Handcrafted Automobiles - or AHA. This gathering of fiberglass craftsmanship and Fieros as Ferraris took place at the Wally Parks NHRA … [Read more...]
Bakersfield As Barometer
The motor homes across from the pits stretched out side-by-side a quarter-mile long and four rows deep, all the way back to the fence. On the deeper, wider pit side, there were hundreds of megabuck transporters and motor homes and trailers and a quadrillion dollars’ worth of vintage race cars, hot rods and customs. Orange groves, grape arbors and oil wells surround this … [Read more...]