Pro Stock Drag Racing of the 1970s Photo Archive
Title | Pro Stock Drag Racing of the 1970s Photo Archive PDF eBook |
Author | Howard V. Koby |
Publisher | Iconografix |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2005 |
Genre | Drag racers |
ISBN | 9781583881415 |
Howard V. Koby. Popular drivers like "Dandy Dick" Landy, Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins, Ronnie Sox, Bob Glidden, Wally Booth, Wayne Gapp, Warren Johnson, "Dyno" Don Nicholson, Lee Hunter, Scott Shafiroff, Brad Yuill, Richie Zul, and many more are all showcased in drag race action in this door-slammer pictorial. A must for hardcore Pro Stock fans!
Don "The Snake" Prudhomme: My Life Beyond the 1320
Title | Don "The Snake" Prudhomme: My Life Beyond the 1320 PDF eBook |
Author | Elana Scherr |
Publisher | CarTech Inc |
Pages | 194 |
Release | 2020-10-16 |
Genre | Transportation |
ISBN | 1613255187 |
Don "The Snake" Prudhomme reveals for the first time ever his incredible life and career on and off of the drag strip.
Imagine spending a year with Don "The Snake" Prudhomme, having coffee together and talking about his life, his racing, his friends, and his family. He’d tell you about how he rose from being a high school drop-out who was painting cars to a respected Top Fuel dragster driver and successful businessman. You’d hear how he toured the country with Tommy Ivo and "The Hawaiian" Roland Leong, racing all the legends from "Big Daddy" Don Garlits to "The Golden Greek" [Chris] Karamesines. He'd say how he met Tom McEwen and recall how they became the Snake and the Mongoose, leading to a career in Funny Cars that netted him four championships in a row. He'd talk about the thrill of first wins and owning his own teams but also the struggles of bad seasons, crashes and fires, broken parts, and broken contracts. Along the way, he’d speak about the people in his life, such as engine-builder Keith Black and NHRA president Wally Parks, and those who were killed in the wild and unpredictable sport of nitro racing. It wouldn’t be only racing, though. Prudhomme would share lessons he learned about business and life from such varied sources as a neighbor in Granada Hills to Ford GT40 driver Dan Gurney. He also would talk about the importance of family: how his wife, Lynn, and daughter, Donna, changed his world and how finding out about his African-American roots opened his eyes to a culture and inheritance he’d always wanted. This is the experience you’ll get in Don "The Snake" Prudhomme: My Life Beyond the 1320.
Drag Racing Funny Cars of the 1970s
Title | Drag Racing Funny Cars of the 1970s PDF eBook |
Author | Wallace A Wyss |
Publisher | Enthusiast Books |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2002-06-10 |
Genre | Transportation |
ISBN | 9781583880685 |
See the cars raced by many of the legendary names in drag racing, including Don Prudhomme, Tom McEuen and Jim Dunn. The authors include action shots, as well as clear, detailed "in the pits under-the-shell" shots. Photographs show various makes and models of cars that have been reconstructed as funny cars, plus everything from stock to modified Camaros, Mustangs, Javelins, Dodge Chargers, and Firebirds, to oddball exhibition cars like the "backwards pickup."
Quarter-Mile Corvettes 1953-1975
Title | Quarter-Mile Corvettes 1953-1975 PDF eBook |
Author | Steve Holmes |
Publisher | CarTech Inc |
Pages | 192 |
Release | 2024-04-15 |
Genre | Transportation |
ISBN | 1613258046 |
Re-live Corvette’s early years at the drag strip! Famously known as “America’s sports car,” the Chevrolet Corvette came to market in 1953. That same year, the newly established National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) hosted its first event. The Corvette was never intended for quarter-mile drag racing, and it appeared to be completely at odds with the sport. Early equipment included an underpowered Blue Flame 6-cylinder motor and automatic transmission. But somehow, the two have become forever entwined. The Corvette brought an element of class and style to drag racing. On the showroom and on the street, it has always been unique. It is truly American. Likewise, the uniqueness that sets it apart from everything else also meant that it had no natural competition on the drag strip. However, that fact didn’t dampen enthusiasm. Indeed, the NHRA and other governing bodies introduced Sports Car divisions in the late 1950s, catering to both stock and modified vehicles. Naturally, these classes were packed with Corvettes. Racing historian Steve Holmes breaks new ground by unearthing the complete early history of the Corvette in drag racing. Quarter-Mile Corvettes focuses on the period from 1955 to 1975, which spans the first 20 years of Corvette V-8 production. Fittingly, this was also the era considered by many to be the greatest in drag racing’s history, and Corvettes encapsulated the vibrancy of the period in a way that will never be repeated. Certainly, Chevrolet never intended for the Corvette to become a quarter-mile terror, but today, its nameplate has become one of the longest running in all of drag racing.
Lost Drag Strips II
Title | Lost Drag Strips II PDF eBook |
Author | Scotty Gosson |
Publisher | CarTech Inc |
Pages | 177 |
Release | 2016-04-15 |
Genre | Transportation |
ISBN | 1613252234 |
Fresh on the heels of the best-selling book Lost Drag Strips comes a new look at other long-lost and forgotten drag racing facilities from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. In the first volume, the author examined the birth of drag racing and its subsequent popularity that invaded every city and community across America. Unfortunately, after the initial explosion of popularity, it waned, and various drag strips closed for a myriad of reasons. Financial pressure for the real estate they occupied, suburban sprawl, and waning participation were all reasons for the change in fortunes for the small, and even not-so-small, racetracks. The first volume was great, but readers demanded more! Lost Drag Strips II picks up where the first volume left off, covering even more tracks with archival photos of racing in the tracks' heyday, the cars that ran there, and coverage of the tracks as they exist today. This volume also includes some of the tracks that survived, those that fought off the economic demons and the urban sprawl and continue to run today. Tracks in this volume include: Fort Wainwright/Racing Lions Motorsports Park, Avenue G Drag Strip, Fremont/Baylands Drag Strip, San Fernando Drag Strip, Fontana Drag City, Inyokern Drag Strip, Kahuku Air Strip, Las Vegas Speedrome, Continental Divide Raceways, SRCA Drag Strip, Southwest Raceway, Willow Run Raceway, Minnesota Dragways, KCTA Drag Strip, Detroit Dragway, Niagara Airport Dragstrip, New York National Speedway, York US 30 Drag-O-Way, South Mountain Raceway, La Place Dragway, Yellow River Drag Strip, Thunderbolt Dragway, and more.
Drag Racing Funny Cars
Title | Drag Racing Funny Cars PDF eBook |
Author | Lou Hart |
Publisher | Enthusiast Books |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2008-11-01 |
Genre | Sports & Recreation |
ISBN | 9781583882207 |
Since the early 1960s, dealer-sponsored Super Stockers battled for supremacy on the quarter-mile and in the dealer showrooms. Evolving into the Factory Experimental class, these wild steel bodied, altered–wheelbase monsters were stuffed with massive fuel injected and supercharged engines that attracted crowds to the dragstrip! Legendary pioneers “Dyno” Don Nicholson, Jack Chrisman, Bill Shrewsberry, Butch Leal, Dick Landy, Arnie Beswick, Phil Bonner, Gas Ronda, Don Gay, Sox & Martin, Richard Petty, and many other A/FX stars were instrumental in the development of the funny car as it morphed from a heavy production car into seven-second 250mph aerodynamic fiberglass, tubular chassis missile. The popularity of funny cars led “Jungle Jim” Lieberman, Bill Lawton, Lew Arrington, Bill Flynn, Norm Kraus, and “Big” John Mazmanian to become household names. Tom ”Mongoose” McEwen, Don “Snake” Prudhomme, Tom Hoover, Kenny Safford, Terry Capp, John Force, Kenny Bernstein, Jake Johnston, Larry Reyes, Richard Tharp, Roland Leong, Randy Walls, Jess Tyree, Rich Siroonian and others who achieved success racing funny cars are all featured in over 300 incredible color and black and white photos.
Hemi Under Glass: Bob Riggle and His Wheel-Standing Mopars
Title | Hemi Under Glass: Bob Riggle and His Wheel-Standing Mopars PDF eBook |
Author | Richard Truesdell |
Publisher | CarTech Inc |
Pages | 161 |
Release | 2021-08-15 |
Genre | Transportation |
ISBN | 1613255616 |
Look up to the skies through Bob Riggle's eyes in this wheelstanding, must-have Mopar history book on Hemi Under Glass! While the established stock and modified brackets are long-recognized as the heart and soul of drag racing, it was the wheelstanders that more often than not put butts in the bleachers. In that category, some of the most well-known names included Bill "Maverick" Golden's Little Red Wago, Bill Shewsberry's L.A. Dart and Chuck Poole’s Chuck Wagon. Although, most memorable of all was the Hurst Hemi Under Glass Plymouth Barracuda campaigned by Bob Riggle. Riggle started his career in the early 1960s as a car builder and mechanic for Hurst-Campbell and eventually ascended to pilot the Hemi Under Glass. When he left Hurst in 1969, the Hemi Under Glass franchise transferred with Riggle. He continued for six more years as the owner/driver of a succession of Hemi Under Glass renditions. In the 1990s he resurrected the concept of the original car—making four different versions (1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969)—and continued to thrill drag racing fans with his wheelstanding antics. At the time of this writing, Bob’s last run with the Hemi Under Glass was in the summer of 2019. He claims to have retired (he was 83 years old at the time), but he’s claimed that before! For all the success he enjoyed over his long and distinguished career, which is believed to be one of the longest in all of motorsports, he’s best remembered for a run at Irwindale Raceway in early 2016 with comedian and car buff Jay Leno in the passenger seat in a video that has been viewed more than 10 million times. This is Bob’s story, one that Mark Fletcher and Richard Truesdell, co-authors of the 2012 book Hurst Equipped, are honored to share. They say the story was easy to tell—given their unprecedented access not only to Bob but also to his vast archive of photos that reflect his ongoing popularity. Many of the photos in this book are seen in print for the very first time.