World Fuel Altered Challenge

If you trace the history of that unique American motorsport drag racing back to its roots in 1949 at Goleta Airport, now Santa Barbara International Airport, you can see that most of the racecars were really hot rods, street-driven roadsters and coupes modified for racing. As the racing evolved so did the cars becoming more and more venue and class specific. Some evolved into rails, what we now call dragsters that were little more than the frame rails with an engine, a driver and four wheels. Others still resembled their production roots but grew more cartoon like with short wheelbases, giant raised engines for weight transfer, huge tires for grip and somewhere back there a driver hangin’ on life.

These hot wheels on steroids were called Altereds, because they were altered from stock and the top of the class was the AA/Fuel Altereds as they ran the biggest engines on nitro methane. Their short wheelbase—minimum 92 inches—and their high center of gravity made them insanely unpredictable and hugely exciting to watch, as you never knew which way they would go as the leapt off the start line.  According to Lou Hart in his book Drag Racing Fuel Altereds they were “Pure entertainment” and the crowds loved then.

They heyday came at the end of the ‘Swingin’ Sixties’ when a bunch of them including Pure Heaven, Rat Trap and the famed Winged Express went on a nationwide tour. They killed it but in 1973, at the height of their popularity, the NHRA’s new ruling bounced the Fuel Altered class from national events forcing many racers to become ‘Outlaws’.

Their short wheelbase—minimum 92 inches—and their high center of gravity made them insanely unpredictable…

Fuel Altereds kinda disappeared from the scene until the advent of nostalgia drag racing in the late eighties. Soon, guys like Ron Hope were resurrecting historic Altereds such as Rat Trap while other like Randy Bradford and ‘Mousie’ Marcellus were dusting off cars such as Bradford’s Fiat and the by now infamous ‘Winged Express’. Hope is actually a driving force behind the resurgence and has been touring the world with Rat Trap racing across the US and in Canada, Europe and New Zealand and most recently in Australia in the inaugural Aeroflow World Fuel Altered Challenge presented by Gulf Western Oil (WFAC).

The idea of the Challenge came about when Hope was talking to ‘Kiwi’ Morice McMillin who happens to be the head honcho at Australia’s Aeroflow Nitro Hot Rods & Funny Cars. Over the course of three weeks they thrashed out a plan to host the event at Sydney Dragway, Australia and bring in teams from New Zealand and the US to do battle with the local Aussies.

The American team comprised of Randy Bradford’s Fiat, Ron Hope’s Rat Trap, Rich Guasco’s Pure Hell driven by Ron’s son Brian and Hughie Callen’s High Heaven driven by Shawn Callen. The Australian contingent comprised Agro driven by Paul Messineo, Berzerk driven by Justin Walsh, Chucky’s Toy driven by Rick Gauci and Pyscho driven by Shane Olive. The two New Zealanders were Nightmare driven by Dave Gould and Spooky driven by Morice McMillin.

For the Americans Australia was an awful long way to travel for a one-day race. For Hope’s Rat Trap it was more than 9,000 miles from their home just south of Nashville, TN. Nevertheless, the four cars were trucked to Los Angeles and shipped in containers to Sydney. The Aussie customs released them only the Thursday before the Saturday race and to make matters more stressful the weather forecast was rain.

Thankfully, as Saturday dawned the skies cleared and the cars were paired for a Chicago-style event whereby there would be three rounds with the two fastest cars going to the final. Despite the Aussie cars being mostly shortened Funny Cars fitted with Altered-style bodies the ten cars were fairly well matched and all we’re running in the low- to mid-6s at in the 230 mph range. The US’s Randy Bradford, a tough competitor at the best of times, ran a 6.07 and a 6.19 that put him in the final against Aussie Rick Gauci driving Chucky’s Toy.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. While the teams were all thrashing to perform repairs after a tough second round a few spots of rain turned into a downpour and the race was called. There was huge disappointment in the pits. Everybody had worked so hard to pull this event together and here they were with no result, however, co-organizer Ron Hope declared, “This has been a fantastic experience. We made a lot of new friends and saw some great racing but there’s unfinished business. To paraphrase The Terminator, ‘We’ll be back’.”

Your First Dragstrip Pass:
Safety Equipment

…once you’re hooked, you will absolutely want to empty your wallet and fill your driveway with cars just for the track.

The great thing about going to your local drag strip’s grudge night or test and tune day is that you get the chance to actually race your car on the track with very little extra effort or expense – it’s one of the best ways to get involved in motorsports without having to spend a ton of money or have a specially-prepared race car. Don’t get us wrong, though; once you’re hooked, you will absolutely want to empty your wallet and fill your driveway with cars just for the track. But in the meantime, the car you already have will do just fine as an inexpensive gateway drug.

 
One of the things that holds people back from getting out of the stands and into the staging lanes is concern over tech inspection and track safety rules. Depending on how quick your car is, you’ll have to meet some basic equipment standards in order to be allowed to run at a dragstrip that follows the NHRA or IHRA rulebook, and today we are going to take a look at those requirements so there are no surprises when the nice man with the clipboard asks you to hand him your tech card and pop your hood.

Safety requirements are broken down into three basic categories: How quick your car is (elapsed time), how fast your car is (trap speed), and what specific modifications you’ve made (things like adding an aftermarket supercharger, turbo, or nitrous system). The main criteria is elapsed time, and for each level of required equipment, you’ll see a break point for both quarter mile and eighth mile ET. The rules are divided up that way in order to make sure that cars running the shorter track length but accelerate just as hard as their quarter mile cousins have similar levels of safety equipment. Each level builds on the previous requirements unless otherwise noted, and please keep in mind that this isn’t the ultimate authority to what’s allowed or required – consult the NHRA rules and your local track officials if you’re in doubt

All Vehicles

In general, your car needs to not be leaking any fuel, oil, or coolant. Your battery needs to be properly secured with a real hold down clamp (no zip ties, shoelaces, or other janky fixes), and you will have to have a radiator overflow catch reservoir. Your tires should be in good condition, and you can’t have any broken wheel studs or missing lug nuts. Factory seatbelts are another necessity, and you will be required to wear a shirt, long pants, and closed-toe shoes. Finally, you’ll need a valid driver’s license or NHRA/IHRA competition license.

Plain old DOT-rated motorcycle helmets do not meet this requirement, so don’t grab the chrome-plastic skullcap you wear on your Harley and presume you are good to go.

Some tracks will have specific additional rules – in some places, all drivers will be required to wear a helmet, no matter how slow their car is, and you may also find tracks that prohibit anything but plain water in your cooling system, so check if you aren’t sure.

13.99 and Quicker (8.59 ⅛ mile)

• Approved helmet – this will need to have either a Snell or SFI rating sticker from within the last 10 years (for example, in 2019, the oldest acceptable Snell-rated helmet would be a M2010 or SA2010). Plain old DOT-rated motorcycle helmets do not meet this requirement, so don’t grab the chrome-plastic skullcap you wear on your Harley and presume you are good to go.

13.49 and Quicker (8.25 ⅛ mile)

• Convertibles only – an approved roll bar, and SFI-rated seat belts. Be aware of the fact that there are specific design requirements for drag racing roll bars that are different from those required for road racing or track days, so consult the rulebook if you are unsure whether yours meets the specification.
• Rotaries only – SFI certified clutch and flywheel plus flywheel shield.

11.49 and Quicker (7.35 ⅛ mile)

• Approved 6-point roll bar (see above)
• SFI-rated seat belts – this includes an ‘anti-submarine’ strap (making it a 5-point restraint) and it has to be either manufactured or recertified by the manufacturer in the last two years, as shown on the tag attached to the belt. As an aside, this is often a cause of grumbling among racers who think that recertification every two years is excessive, or even a way to force people to buy new belts they don’t need. The reality is that next to helmets, belts are the most important personal safety item in your car, and they’re easily damaged by sunlight, heat, and abrasion. If you’re putting together a car that will need SFI 16.1 belts, do yourself a favor and wait until you are completely done and ready to run the car before you buy them so that you get the most use out of them as possible before they need recertification. If you don’t want to go to the hassle of sending them back to the manufacturer for inspection after two years and just want to replace them, check out your local off-road forums to sell your old ones, because harnesses that are out of date but still serviceable are popular with ‘wheelers who aren’t concerned about high speed crashes.
• Manual-transmission cars – SFI certified clutch and flywheel plus flywheel shield.
• Rear-wheel-drive cars – Driveshaft loop.
• Jacket meeting SFI Spec 3.2A/1.

10.99 to 10.00 (6.99 to 6.40 ⅛ mile)

• Automatic Transmission – SFI-rated transmission shield and locking dipstick tube. The transmission shield can be either rigid or blanket-type, as long as it meets SFI 4.1 specifications.
• Rear-wheel-drive cars – Aftermarket axles and axle retainers.
• SFI-spec harmonic balancer.

9.99 and Quicker (6.39 ⅛ mile)

Single-digit timeslips are a big break-point for safety rules, where a whole bunch of new requirements kick in, including a competition license for the driver. Cars this quick are beyond the scope of this article, and by the time you’ve built one capable of running under a 10-flat quarter mile, you will already be well-acquainted with the safety requirements.

Trap Speed Safety Requirements

Note that these requirements apply to both quarter- and eighth-mile trap speeds, but generally speaking if you are going fast enough to trigger them, you’re already way past needing our advice…

• 135 MPH – SFI-spec padding anywhere the driver’s helmet may come in contact with roll bar or cage components.
• 135 MPH – All the same requirements as a car running faster than 10.00, regardless of actual elapsed time.
• 150 MPH – Parachute.

Modification-Related Safety Requirements

On the other hand, if you show up in your HEMI Challenger with a big aftermarket supercharger strapped to the top, all bets are off.

Here’s the part that trips people up; once you start modifying your car with speed parts, an eagle-eyed tech inspector may find certain changes trigger additional safety rules. For the most part, as factory cars have gotten quicker and quicker over the years, drag racing sanctioning bodies have been pretty lenient about allowing them to run in unmodified form even if they are technically past the ET limits for some requirements. This allows cars like late model ZR1 and Z06 Corvettes, Nissan GT-Rs, Shelby Mustangs, and Dodge Hellcats and Demons to pass tech.

On the other hand, if you show up in your HEMI Challenger with a big aftermarket supercharger strapped to the top, all bets are off. Here are some examples of safety regulations that are triggered by modifications made to your car, regardless of what elapsed time you are running:

• Non-OEM turbo, nitrous, or supercharger – SFI 3.2A/1 jacket for the driver.
• Water/Methanol Injection – The tank, pump, and lines can’t be in the passenger compartment, and if the tank is in the trunk, a solid bulkhead of .024-inch steel or .032-inch aluminum is required to isolate it from the driver.
• Nitrous Oxide – If the bottle is in the passenger compartment, it must be equipped with a “blow down” tube that vents the pressure relief valve outside the vehicle. No matter where it’s located, it must be “permanently mounted”; hose clamps and tie wraps aren’t acceptable, and you can’t just stuff it in the back seat footwell and run the passenger seat all the way back to jam it in place.

• Drag Slicks – If you’re running quicker than 14-flat in a RWD car and running slicks, you’ll need a driveshaft loop. Tires with DOT approval for street use don’t trigger this requirement until you go quicker than 11.50, as mentioned above.

• Spool – RWD cars with a “locked” differential need aftermarket axles and axle retention devices to go with, regardless of ET.
• Relocated Battery – If you’ve moved the battery from the stock location to the trunk, a master electrical cutoff mounted at the rear of the car and accessible from outside is required.

Preparation is the Key

We’ve covered the major points of required safety equipment here, but this article isn’t intended to be the final authority on the subject. Our goal is to give you an overview of what you’ll need to pass tech and have a safe, enjoyable day at the dragstrip. For most street-driven cars, the safety requirements are very easy to meet; first-timers are often wildly optimistic when estimating just how quick their whip actually is, so chances are that a good helmet and a car that isn’t dripping oil or antifreeze is all you will need.

Your First Dragstrip Pass: Heads Up or Handicapped?

Or, “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dial-In”

One of the great things about drag racing is that, in the words of legendary broadcaster Dave Despain, “It’s racing that you do, not racing that you watch.” Most motorsports have a high barrier to entry—in order to be competitive at even the lowest levels, you need a dedicated race car, a trailer and something to tow it with, and a fair amount of disposable income.

Of course, if your dream is to be the next John Force, you’ll need a dump truck full of money to reach that goal, but drag racing has always been about run-what-ya-brung competition going all the way back to its origins in the 1950s, and it’s definitely possible to have a lot of fun (and win some races) on a budget. It comes down to the difference between “heads up” competition and handicapped racing, and today we’re going to break down how these two broad categories work.

Heads Up Racing

Conceptually, heads up competition is the simplest form of drag racing, but in practice, things get a lot more complicated. Two cars line up, and both get the green light at the same time. First past the finish line wins, barring a “red light” start where one (or both) drivers jump the gun and leave the line before getting the green. In order to keep things fair, a set of class rules defines which cars run against each other, based on power, weight, and traction (or a combination of all three).

Power can be equalized by limits on engine displacement, which power adders are allowed, and even the type of fuel used. It’s common to see heads-up classes where cars powered by large-displacement naturally aspirated engines compete against others with smaller boosted engines (which are also limited in turbocharger or supercharger size) and nitrous-fed combinations that are restricted by the number of “stages” and nitrous jet size.

Weight is another way to try to make things fair; some combinations may be required to run a higher minimum weight across the scales at the end of a run than others in order to balance things out. Traction is the final piece of the puzzle—by limiting the size or type of tire, a heads up class can level the playing field, and by restricting the modifications allowed to a car’s suspension, another way of evening out the difference between combinations is introduced.

…A set of class rules defines which cars run against each other, based on power, weight, and traction.

Balancing all these factors is one of the hardest things a race series has to do, and it’s critical to how successful that organization’s races are in terms of the number of competitors. Nobody wants to build a car to the limit of the rules, then be uncompetitive because of a mid-season change that nerfs their combination, but it’s equally crucial to make sure that there isn’t a runaway escalation that turns the class into “pay to win.” As a result, even “entry level” heads up classes tend to be expensive, since they require a car that’s built to take full advantage of the rules if you want to be a frontrunner.

Handicapped Racing

Fortunately, a very long time ago drag racers figured out a way to let cars with vastly different speed potential compete against one another on a level playing field. Handicapped-start drag races, most commonly seen in the form of “bracket” racing, reward consistency and driver skill over raw speed. Here’s how it works:

Let’s say you have a moderately-quick street car. When you bring it out to test and tune night at your local drag strip, you typically run mid-13-second quarter mile passes, run after run. Your buddy has a car that’s got more power and more tire, and he’s running high tens. If you lined up against each other and started at the same time, you’d lose every race.

But you’ve street raced a bit, and so you know that to make things fair, you can negotiate a head start. On some rural two-lane, that might be getting a couple of car lengths, or having your buddy wait until you move before he does, but at the track, you can build that handicap into the timing system.

The beauty of handicapped-start drag racing is that literally anyone in any car can run against anyone else on a level playing field

If you know your car runs 13.50 in the quarter mile, and he knows his car runs 10.75, these predicted elapsed times can be “dialed-in” to the timing system. Because your car is slower, your side of the tree will show you a green light 2.75 seconds before your buddy, so if both of you have the same reaction time and run exactly on your predicted elapsed time, you’ll reach the finish line at the same instant. Just like that, a race that wouldn’t be a fair fight comes down to who reacts quicker.

“But wait!” you say. “Can’t I just sandbag and say my car is slower than it really is, and give myself a huge head start?” You certainly could, but that’s where the “breakout” rule comes into play.

In a bracket race, if you run quicker than your predicted elapsed time, you “break out” of your bracket and lose the race, unless your opponent did the same thing but by a greater margin. If you dialed in 13.50 and ran 13.48 while your buddy ran 10.78 on his 10.75 dial, you may cross the finish line first but still lose the race.

The beauty of handicapped-start drag racing is that literally anyone in any car can run against anyone else on a level playing field, but consistent success requires you to be able to very accurately predict your car’s elapsed time, and cut a quick reaction time. It’s a true test of how well you know your equipment and your driving skill.
Some drag racers will disparage bracket racing as being inferior to running a heads-up class, but it’s the easiest way to get on the dragstrip and build your experience and skill. Running your 13.50 street car down the track every Friday night beats sitting around in the stands and running your mouth about how you’re going to have a fast heads-up car “someday, when I can afford it” every time.

Your First Dragstrip Pass: Know Before You Go

Essential Information for Graduating from the Bleachers to the Burnout Box

Drag Racing is the most American form of motorsports, and is the one form of competition where almost anyone can participate. It’s “racing that you do,” not just “racing that you watch.” Maybe you’ve been to a couple of events at your local track, or maybe you live your life a quarter mile at a time on the street – here’s the essentials you need to know before you make your first dragstrip pass.

It’s Not Expensive

Most dragstrips try their best to keep “grudge night” and “test and tune” entry fees low. In most places, $25-$50 will get you as many passes down the dragstrip as you care to make during normal weekly racing. You might have to pay a little bit more for entry into events where there is an elimination ladder and prizes at stake, but if you just want to drive your car flat-out on the track, it will cost you less than dinner at a nice restaurant.

“But street racing is free!” you might say – well, while it doesn’t cost you anything up-front, there’s always the chance of thousands of dollars in tickets and court costs if you get busted, not to mention the fact that you aren’t getting an ambulance, safety safari, and EMTs on standby in case something goes wrong. You also aren’t getting the assurance that the guy lined up next to you isn’t driving some dangerous piece of junk either. Which brings us to…

You Can Race Just About Any Car That’s Safe Enough To Drive To The Track

Tech inspection, the process where your car is looked over by a track staffer to make sure it meets the minimum standards to race, might seem a bit intimidating. But in reality, unless you have a highly modified car, it’s going to come down to a few simple checklist items which are all just common sense. Is your car leaking anything? That’s going to be dangerous for you, and for anyone behind you, so it will definitely send you back for a refund on your tech card. Are you missing lug nuts? Trust me, telling the tech guy “You let Hondas run with four per wheel” will not convince him to let you race your five-lug Mustang down the track with a couple of sheared-off lugs. Do you have a proper battery tie down? Electrical fires are no fun, and a shoelace or a couple of zip ties aren’t going to cut it, even on the street.

“Get the trash, recyclables, crown-shaped air freshener, and basically anything you wouldn’t want hitting you in the junk out of there.”

Once you get inside the car, you’ll need working factory seatbelts at a minimum, but one of the most common ways to waste everybody’s time in the tech line is to roll up with a bunch of loose stuff rattling around in the passenger compartment, just waiting to hit you the moment you have to brake hard. Get the trash, recyclables, crown-shaped air freshener, and basically anything you wouldn’t want hitting you in the junk out of there.

For you nitrous enthusiasts, there are a couple of special considerations. First, the tank has to be properly secured to the body/frame of the vehicle, so that in the event of a crash it won’t become a projectile. Just pinning it in the back seat footwell by pushing the seat all the way back isn’t good enough, nor is bolting it to a loose piece of plywood and hoping for the best (both things I have actually seen people try before, by the way). Second, any time a nitrous tank is sharing space with your fragile human body, it needs what’s known as a “blow-down tube” that connects to the pressure relief valve and is designed to safely route the gas outside the body of the vehicle in the event the burst disc ruptures. If you have your bottle in a separate trunk, you don’t need a blowdown tube per the rulebook, but it’s still a very, very good idea.

You’ll Need A Few Things

For most street-driven cars, there isn’t a lot of special “safety equipment” you’ll need, but there are a couple things that often trip up new racers. Technically, most sanctioning bodies don’t require helmets on cars slower than a certain elapsed time cutoff, but many tracks have gone to a “helmets for everyone” policy to make it easier for the staff and safer for everyone. To get started, you don’t need anything fancy, but some helmets that are technically legal for use while riding motorcycles on the street aren’t considered sufficient for drag race use. At a minimum, you’ll want an open-face helmet with a SFI or Snell rating sticker that’s no more than 10 years old – no DOT beanies, weird chrome plated WWII biker helmets, skate lids, or the like. Many tracks have a few loaners on hand that you can borrow, but it’s best not to depend on it, and let’s face it – other people’s heads have been in there, and other people are often gross.

“Don’t try to go down the track looking like the love child of The Dude and Freddy Mercury in your mesh tank top and flip-flops.”

The second piece of gear you will absolutely need is long pants. This can literally be almost anything that covers your legs all the way down to your ankles, from sweatpants to jeans. It just can’t be shorts, and if you try to sneak around this rule because it’s too hot to sit in the lanes with long pants on, I can guarantee the person working the starting lanes will look inside and notice. You don’t need a long-sleeve shirt, but tank tops are also right out, as well as open-toe shoes. Don’t try to go down the track looking like the love child of The Dude and Freddy Mercury in your mesh tank top and flip-flops.

Pay Attention To The Track Staff, And Learn Basic Etiquette

Nobody is born knowing how things work at the dragstrip, and a good track staff will be happy to answer a first-timer’s questions to make your inaugural racing experience a positive one. Even if you’ve been a spectator before, there are still some things that might not be obvious if you’ve never raced.

First, if you are on street tires (not drag radials or slicks), don’t drive through the water box when the person running it motions you forward. You will drag a bunch of water and bits of rubber up to the starting line with you if you do, and everyone who IS on drag radials or slicks in the staging lanes behind you will silently judge you. Drive around it to the outside of the track. For that matter, don’t try to do a long, smoky burnout halfway down the track like you’re John Force – this is pointless on street tires, as they will develop less traction when they’re overheated, you’ll tear up the rubber laid down on the track, and usually if you go past the start beam during your burnout, you won’t be allowed to make a run anyway. A short “dry hop” to clean the tread of any debris before rolling up to the line is more than sufficient for street tires.

Once the starter motions you forward, edge forward carefully until your prestage beam lights. Check where your opponent is, then move the rest of the way to fully stage once they are also ready in the prestage beam. Don’t be the noob who didn’t pay attention to where the photocells are, who either drives right through the beams and tries to stage on the back tire, or worse yet, drives all the way up right next to the tree. The starter will have to walk all the way out there to talk to you and get you to back up, and that’s not fun for anyone.

“…Get that battery secure, fix those leaks, and get out of the stands and into the staging lanes…”

When you get the green light, keep it pointed straight, try not to miss any shifts, and if something doesn’t feel right, don’t stay in it – If your car has real problems, move to the side of the track as quickly but safely as you can, instead of laying a stripe of oil or coolant all the way down through the finish line. If everything does go well, once you are past the finish, remember that usually (but not always! Check your local track for their particular procedure) the car in the lane closest to the turn-out has right of way to prevent cutting across the path of another vehicle.

Obviously, we can only scratch the surface in the space we have available here, but there’s lots more to learn – Stay tuned, because there’s more to come! In the meantime, get that battery secure, fix those leaks, and get out of the stands and into the staging lanes of the closest drag strip near you…

“Big Daddy” Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing

I first saw “Big Daddy” Don Garlits race in England at Blackbushe Airport, west of London, in 1964.  By then, Gar’, as he is often called, was already famous having begun racing in 1950. In 1959, he traveled west from his home in Tampa, Florida, to race at the 1959 Bakersfield Fuel and Gas Championships. He was not popular and whenever they moved his infamous “Swamp Rat” dragster it had to be pushed through a field of empty beer cans.

“It got so bad,” said Garlits, “that one of us had to walk in front of the car as we pushed it through the pits, to kick a path through the empties.” Unfortunately, for him, Garlits did not win but he learned a lot and came back in ’65 with three cars, two of which raced in the final that Don won against teammate Marvin Swartz.

Garlits continued to win race after race, but it was in 1970 while running at Lions Drag Strip that he would unwittingly cause a racing revolution.

One of us had to walk in front of the car as we pushed it through the pits, to kick a path through the empties.

While driving Swamp Rat 13, his home-built, two-speed transmission exploded and severed his foot in half. Shaken, Garlits came back the following year with a new rear-engine dragster that changed the look of drag racing forever.

In 1976, Garlits made another trip to the U.K. and while there came to the realization that the U.S. needed it’s own drag racing museum. Consequently, Don and his late wife Pat founded the “Big Daddy” Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing and in 1984 opened the original 25,000 square foot facility in Ocala, Florida, just off Interstate 75.

Over the years, Don has added to the facility that now tops 50,000 square feet and even that is nowhere near enough as the place is jammed to the walls with not only Don’s cars and memorabilia but around 200 other cars and related artifacts. Note some are housed in an adjacent building called the Museum of Classic Cars.

To be honest, it’s a bit much to take in on one visit; you really need several visits to see everything. Obviously, it’s great to see so many of Garlits’ Swamp Rat dragsters but some of my personal favorites include Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s “Yellow Fang” dragster that was driven by George Schreiber; Red Greth’s “Speed Sport Special”, Jocko Johnson’s “Jocko’s Porting Service” streamliner, Dean Moon’s Moonbeam Devin sports car and the Mooneyes dragster, and the Mooneyham & Sharp 554 Fuel Coupe.

Finally, and sadly pushed into a corner was Jim Lytle’s “Big Al” an Allison V-12-powered ’34 Tudor sedan chopped to the point that it had slits for windows and the driver’s head poked out through a hole in the roof.  Those were the days when drag racing was wild and unpredictable and racers experimented with the unconventional.

“Big Daddy” Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing is open every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas Day from 9 am until 5 pm. Parking is free and admission is $20 for adults, $15 for seniors (60+) military, veterans, college students and teenagers (15-18) and, $10 for children (5-12).

As for Don, whose personal best was 318.54 mph in 4.76 seconds in 2002, you might bump into him working on one of his projects that includes an electric dragster that might just change the sport again—he’s done it before.

Mendy Fry: Queen of the Drags

At the recent California Hot Rod Reunion presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California, Mendy “Nitro Kitty” Fry, once tagged Drag Princess, was finally crowned Top Fuel Champion — the first ‘Queen’ of drag racing.

I first saw Mendy race at Sears Point (now Sonoma Raceway) in 1989 driving a bright red, injected ’27 T roadster that she had built with her father Ron. It didn’t matter that she was a 19-year-old female, she raced hard and was admired for that. In fact, while she was driving the Super Street T in the NDRA/Street Rodder Magazine Series, she was also racing an NHRA Top Alcohol dragster. The summer before, at age 18, she became the world’s quickest Top Alcohol driver while racing at Fremont, California.

But let’s back up a little to the staging lanes. How did she get there? To say that Ron pushed her would be an understatement. At age 4 she was driving quarter-midget sprint cars saying, “I was my father’s only boy. He was an engine and chassis builder and wanted a son. Instead, he got me so he cut his losses and took me racing. I started racing quarter-midgets before I was in kindergarten. My family didn’t vacation, we raced.” Realizing even at such an early age that she preferred straight line racing to roundy round, she retired from the ovals at age five.

When she wasn’t at school, Mendy worked at Fry Racing at Sears Point, answering the phone, paying bills, chasing money and learning to build racecar bodies saying, “I guess it was a different life than most girls had but it was all I knew.” Ron was one of those rare talents who could do it all from designing the car to building the engine to coaching the driver but he was an exacting taskmaster.

In 1985, Judy and Tom Boswell were looking for somebody to build a fast street rod. At the time, guys like Steve Castelli, Cole Cutler, ‘Fat Jack’ Robinson and Jerry Moreland were vying for the unofficial title ‘The World’s Fastest Street Rod.’ Ron’s response was a lightweight, full-fendered ’27 T roadster powered by an injected Rat. Initially, Mendy was the test driver while Jeff Gillette was slated to race the car, however, at age 16, Mendy was soon in the hot seat while Ron ran the car. Eventually, the brashness of youth beat out the ol’ guys and Mendy and Ron won all but two of the races they entered.

Mendy got married in 1989 but the following year would be memorable. It began well when father and daughter traveled to Indianapolis for the Goodguys Hot Rod Nationals where Mendy won the event. Unfortunately, the year ended badly when the dynamic duo suffered a major setback after they installed a new 8-71 blown alky big-block with a Crower pedal clutch and a Lenco in the T. In their quest for speed she admits they made a lot of bad decisions. It was time for a change.

Suddenly, father Ron died all-too-soon in 1995 at age 51 and Mendy’s racing career with him. She hung her race suit in the closet, graduated as a CPA and stayed away from the strip for almost a decade. Finding it difficult to ignore what was so ingrained she revisited the strip in 2000, the same year she became the president of the San Diego Chapter of the American Women’s Society of CPAs. She was surprised at what she saw, how nostalgia drag racing had progressed and indeed, that people remembered and missed her.

Later that year, she got back behind the wheel of a Junior Fuel Dragster thanks to Ron “Big Yohns” Johnson. She raced Jr. Fuel for two years but yearned and lobbied hard for a Top Fuel ride. It finally came in 2004 when Frank “Rootbeer” Hedge and Tom Shelar of HighSpeedMotorsports.com (HSM) gave Mendy her first Top Fuel ride. A two-car team, she was racing alongside Sean Bellemeur but an engine explosion caused her to comment, “There was a flash of fire that singed my eyebrows and there was all of this hot, burning oil in my face, and I couldn’t see snot. Imagine roller-skating down a hill in San Francisco and suddenly someone puts a paper bag over your head. The lights go out, and I am reaching for the brake and the parachute and just have to trust that the car is still going straight, that the end of the track isn’t too close, that the other car didn’t come into my lane. And then I had to unpucker my ass from the seat when I tried to get out of the car.” It was a ride in the hot seat to hell; nevertheless, she became the first woman to run a 5-second E.T. at 5.87 with a top speed of 251 mph.

The deal with HSM ended at the end of 2005 but not before gonzo journalist Cole Coonce interviewed her for the LA Weekly in a story titled Drag Princess. It’s obvious that the boy was smitten—it’s not every day you meet a tall, slim, attractive female Top Fuel driver. During the next decade, Mendy went on to drive four different Top Fuel dragsters and three nostalgia Funny Cars.

In 2016, she was invited back to HSM and it’s been a race to the finish ever since with major wins at the California Hot Rod Reunion, March Meet, Nightfire Nationals and the Nitro Nationals. Oh, and by the way, having got divorced, she also found time to marry that smitten reporter Coonce.

This year, 2018, has proven to be Mendy’s year and the planets aligned at the March Meet where she was runner-up and again at Bowling Green where she won the Holley National Hot Rod Reunion. She went on to win the Nightfire Nationals at Boise, ID. Consequently, a rainout at Tulsa mathematically gave her the Championship but there’s nothing quite like winning as, well, winning. Hence, all fingers and toes were crossed for a win at Bakersfield Reunion.  She set the pace as top qualifier and set low E.T. for the meet at 5.55. In the final, she took out Rick McGee with a blistering 5.61 pass at 259.36 mph. Suddenly, the Princess was crowned Queen.

You can’t do it alone though and Mendy would like to thank Tom and Rick Shelar for giving her the seat, Walt and Maria Stevens for their continued support, the High Speed Motorsports team and their families and not least their sponsors: Cam2 Blue Blood Racing Oil, The Blower Shop, A&A Precision Machining, Donovan, SCE Gaskets and Webster Cylinder Heads for their support.

El Mo

Even the most ardent motorsports fan might never have heard of El Mirage Dry Lake or, El Mo as it is known to the cognoscenti. 

El Mo is located about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert. Used to be, it was way out there, nowadays the townies are creeping ever nearer with housing tracts, strip malls, and the inevitable traffic. Nevertheless, the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA), formed in 1937, continues to sanction land speed racing events every month from May through November except August when they go race at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.

Unlike Bonneville, which is a salt lake, El Mo is a dry lake of alkali dust. Most every winter it rains and levels out the bed, more or less, to form a long, flat race track. Every spring a hearty and hard-working band of pure volunteers arrives to lay out a 1.3-mile course that runs arrow straight West to East.

At each event, several hundred racers face Mecca and try to break a record. The fastest car so far on the lake is the Leggitt-Mirage Blown Fuel Lakester, an open-wheel device driven by Paul Prentice to a speed of 312.100 mph. There are plenty of records in excess of 200 mph that puts you in the ‘Dirty Two’ club. The fastest motorcycle is John Noonan with a speed of 252 mph.

I’ve made the pilgrimage to El Mo many times, even raced a car there and every time I drop down onto that dirty, dusty, hotbed of activity I, like so many others, get a chill from walking where the founding fathers of hot rodding raced in the ’40s.

I currently hang with ex Shelby employee Steve Hope and his crew Jim Alvaney, Chris Thoman and driver Jere Teepen who race an FWD ’84 Dodge Charger. Scott Harvey began racing the car in 1984 when it was new and when it went 142.85 mph. Now, with sponsorship from Capautorecon.com and USAutomotive.co.uk, and running in the 2.0-liter Blown (turbo) Gas Coupe class it has gone over 206 mph at Bonneville, however, they were unable to confirm the record. Meanwhile, driver Jere holds the class record at El Mo at 190.587 mph but as yet the team been unable to break the ‘Dirty Two’ mph barrier.

To experience land speed racing and watch all this amazing machinery you just have to pay the Bureau of Land Management $15 for entry to the lake bed (per day). To learn more about the SCTA and to get a schedule of race dates, visit scta-bni.org or visit their Facebook page @SCTASouthernCaliforniaTimingAssociation

LS Fest West 2018

Fans of GM’s All-Conquering V8 Gather in Las Vegas

It’s hard to believe, but 2018 marks the 21st anniversary of the introduction of the original LS1 engine for the 1997 model year. In those two decades, the LS family of V8 engines has become all things to all people and has been swapped into practically everything that moves – not just cars ranging from Mustangs to hot rods, but boats, aircraft, and even helicopters. 

It’s easy to make power with these inexpensive and anvil-tough engines, and if you can’t find the parts you want in a junkyard waiting to be reborn, the aftermarket has you covered with everything you need; blocks, internal components, engine management, and even swap kits to make installation paint-by-numbers simple. 

Recognizing how important the LS engine had become, back in 2010 Holley Performance Products organized their first LS Fest in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and ever since then, the annual event has drawn larger and larger crowds, with participants coming from all corners of the continent. It’s more than a car show, though – there’s something going on from the time the gates open until they close, on the dragstrip, the drift and autocross circuit, the chassis dyno, or the swap challenge tent. “An assault on the senses” is sort of a cliché, but it’s a totally appropriate description for a day at LS Fest.

In 2017, Holley added a second event to the schedule, the LS Fest West, taking over the sprawling dragstrip and motorsports complex at The Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. May 2018 marked the second annual spring event, and as anticipated, it was even bigger than the inaugural LS Fest West.

“The best way I can put it to you is that LS Fest events are a party,” says Holley’s Blane Burnett. “Sure, there are competitions that take place within the event, but for the most part, everyone is here to enjoy what they’ve built and have a good time.” In case you think that Burnett might just be saying that to earn a paycheck, know this – He’s a True Believer with the cleanest daily-driven (and autocrossed) LS-swapped Nissan S14 you’ve ever seen. 

Speaking of swaps, one of the most striking things about LS Fest West 2018 was the sheer variety and number of LS-powered vehicles on the property. While the event runs three full days, it’s almost not enough time to take it all in, between all the various competitive events including drag racing, drifting, a road course time attack, and even off-road competition, then trying to see everything in the show-n-shine. 

We only got to experience a fraction of everything that was going on this year, but as you can see, if you are a fan of late-model GM performance (no matter what is wrapped around that engine) there’s a compelling reason not to miss LS Fest West 2019.