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...]
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...]
Austin Bantam Not Once But Twice
Taking the castaways of the automotive world and transforming them into race cars through ingenuity and steel tubing is nothing new in America. This sixties-built dragster was at one time a thirties-built Austin. Opportunity Washington's Duke Cornell first constructed this Bantam bodied drag coupe 1961. Duke claims he ran 10-second quarters at the drag strip with alarming … [Read more...]
Hot Rod Reunion Roundup
The celebration of all that is awesome in drag racing known as the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion is a wrap. Extracting maximum performance and entertainment from alternative fuels was nothing new to these guys even back when flat out timed runs across SoCal dry lake beds gave way to the quarter mile contest we know today as drag racing. Early troublemakers and speed merchants bolted up … [Read more...]
Dragfest Photo Bonanza
The 2nd annual Rod and Kulture Dragfest played host to a healthy number of vintage drag racing heavyweights and freshly rustified kontraptions alike on the hallowed grove of Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield. Any event that combines nitromethane burning t-buckets, jet cars, altered wheelbase stockers, and twin-engine dragsters like the Six-Session just has to be fun. Throw in a few … [Read more...]