The Golden Years of Drag Racing

It started out as a wild activity practiced by hoodlums in hopped-up cars, but over the course of a few decades, drag racing would ultimately transform itself into one of the world's most popular motorsports. Drag races after World War II were held on military runways, growing out of speed runs (sanctioned and otherwise) on California's dry lakes. Many recognize Goleta Air Base north of Santa Barbara, California as the site of the first organized drag race in 1949. These early drag strips were temporary facilities with no safety barriers or grandstands—just pavement, people and fast cars. Thousands of spectators turned out to watch early racers run 10-second elapsed times (E.T.s) on the measured quarter-mile—a distance chosen because it was about the length of a city block. Most cars were driven to the track or towed to the races on open trailers. Corporate sponsorship and glistening transporter trucks were far in the unimaginable future.

Top Fuelers
Wally Parks founded NHRA in 1951, but the sport took a while to get rolling. Even 10 years later, NHRA still only had two competition classes: unmodified Stock or Top Eliminator where anything went. Well, almost anything. In 1957, citing increased cost and danger, and NHRA outlawed nitromethane, which was becoming the popular fuel in Top Eliminator.


With the fuel restriction in effect, the fastest dragsters running in NHRA competition burned gasoline, while most non-NHRA tracks allowed nitro. Two of the best gas dragsters were the Albertson Olds and the Dragmaster Dart. Owned by Dode Martin and Jim Nelson, the Dart was a formidable force and the pair used it as a template to build cars for customers such as Pete Robinson, Roland Leong, and Mickey Thompson.


Perhaps the best remembered part of drag racing in these early days was the low-tech approach of using a flagman to start races. Few sights were as entertaining as a flagman leaping off the ground, waving his green flag as two cars screamed off the line. However, 1963 proved to be a turning point in drag racing's development when tracks replaced flag starters with the electronic "Christmas tree" starting system and NHRA removed its nitro ban. Competition became fairer and NHRA's quickest E.T.s dropped almost a second, while speeds jumped 20 mph. Despite Top Fuel's rebirth, NHRA continued to sanction gas dragsters until 1971, highlighted by twin-engine monsters like the Peters and Frank Freight Train.


In the early 1960s, Top Fuelers moved from wide and short to long and thin. Wheelbases went from 100 inches to 120 in less than two years as teams struggled for better traction. Smoking the tires for the entire quarter-mile was the norm, but certainly didn't produce the quickest runs. One team that figured this out was Greer-Black-Prudhomme. Led by one of drag racing's savviest tuners, Keith Black, the GBP dragster used a special Schiefer clutch designed to slip just enough to keep from overpowering the rear tires. The car consistently ran 8s, producing an amazing 236 to 7 win-loss record from 1962 through 1964, launching Prudhomme's career as a legendary driver.