During the 50s and 60s, the sport of drag racing exploded in popularity. In its early days, drag racing had a class for everybody, from professional rails to 4 door sedans. As a participant sport, drag racing made itself very accessible, and as a result, drag racing facilities sprang up all over the country, some national in scale and others very small and local. This was great, for a while, but with the sprawl of suburbia and various economic conditions like the growing expense of racing over the last few decades we have lost hundreds of drag racing facilities across the country. Many of these were places of legend where the biggest names in the sport got their start or ran some of their most memorable passes. Others were relatively unknown, but served a local area’s needs for a safe place for local speed addicts to run their cars. For whatever reason, they are no longer in business, but evidence of their former existence still remains.
This book takes a look at many of the lost quarter-mile tracks across the country. Some of them are gone completely; paved over to make room for housing developments or strip malls. Others are ghostly remnants of what once was, offering a sad and even eerie subject for the photographer.
The images are teamed with vintage shots of drag racing’s glory days, sharing what once was one of America’s most popular pastimes with the modern reality facing these facilities today. For fans of drag racing’s past, it’s a sobering and interesting study. The stories are true and the photos are thought provoking, which makes this book hard to put down.
Tracks include: Lions Associated Drag Strip, Orange County International Raceway, Riverside International Raceway, Bee Line Dragway, Motion Raceway, Motor City Dragway, Oswego Dragway, U.S. 30 Drag Strip, Dover Drag Strip, Pittsburgh International Dragway, Connecticut Dragway, Pocono Drag Lodge, Lakeland International Raceway, Green Valley Raceway, Dallas International Motor Speedway, Hudson Drag Strip, Shuffletown Dragway, Brainerd Optimist Club Drag Strip, Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip, Paradise Drag Strip, Double H Drag Strip, Southeastern International Dragway, Smithville Drag Strip, Lloyd’s Drag Strip, Harriman Drag Strip, Green Valley Raceway Drag Strip, Drag City, Loudon Raceway.
Bob Bondurant, born in Evanston , Illinois in 1933. His reputation as a driver was in his handling of Corvettes. Carroll Shelby invited Bob to drive one of his Cobra in the USRRC. A year later sharing the wheel with Dan Gurney, they won the GT class driving a FIA Cobra in the 24 Hours of Le Mans famous race. Bob drove for Ferrari in 1964-65, participated in the CanAm, TransAm, NASCAR, Baja, and participated in the Formula one World Championship in 1966, driving, BRM, Lotus, and Dan Gurney’s V12 Eagle. This book is a perfect coffee table ornament with 100 photographs each narrated with a great story.
Forward by Phil Remington
Book Two in The Old Car Nut Book series provides more stories from old car guys and gals from across America. You will read about the personal exploits of people that love the classics, muscle cars, and hot rods and the varied reasons for that enduring love. Relive their experiences, both good and bad, and read about the amazing effect that the cars have on people from all walks of life. The old cars seem to bind Americans together and provide a way to connect with others that they may never get a chance to know otherwise
Caution: Like book one, once you pick this book up, it will be difficult to put down and you will want to reread the stories over and over, sharing with the people that make your experience in the world of old cars worthwhile.
A century of road trips across America
Everyone has a road trip story and book #3 in The Old Car Nut Book series provides a sampling of accounts on the road from all over the country. Readers will enjoy tales of trips up the Alcan Highway or traveling across country with Harold Lemay in search of cars and memorabilia for his amazing collection. Of course, road trips are seldom without a bit of trouble here and there and so we find ourselves sharing the travails of those that ran out of gas or had problems and how they were solved. These stories tell of how the road brought friends and family closer together and how new friends can have a major impact on us. In the end, readers will be surprised and delighted at how giving and caring, resourceful, and inspiring people can be when the chips are down and the road begs us to keep going to our journeys end.
This third book begins with what might be one of the earliest documented road trips as a family moves from South Dakota to Oregon in a Model T Touring car in 1915 . Keep reading and you discover stories that will make you laugh or just plain inspire you to get in your special ride and go!
The Stig gets his kit off and reveals how he came to be Top Gear’s iconic racing driver and so much more – including what it’s like to thrash an Aston Martin DBS, train for the Army and face the terror of Jeremy Clarkson’s underwear…
When the Black Stig disappeared off the end of an aircraft carrier in 2003, we were introduced to The White Stig. Faster. Stranger. Harder to keep clean. And ever since, millions have wondered – who is The Man in the White Suit? They’re about to find out.
Ben Collins caught the car the bug young, kicking his dad’s boss in the balls for not giving him a company Jag. This was the attitude that eventually led him to spend seven years sharing a cabin with Jeremy Clarkson’s underwear, James May’s PhD thesis and Richard Hammond’s hairspray. Because he is The Stig.
Now he tells all about life inside the iconic white helmet. What it’s like to guide a blind ex-RAF officer around the Top Gear track; pit a drug dealer’s Mitsubishi Evo against a Trojan tank; set a Vauxhall Monara against Chloe the dancing Ninja; and race double-decker Routemasters against bendy buses. Not to mention all the inside stuff on how the show’s amazing driving sequences are made.
He also reveals how he got to be there – setting
a Dunsfold lap time faster than Michael Schumacher’s. Breaking records with the best of the best at Daytona and Le Mans.
It’s an awesome story, told by an amazing man.
