The Secret History of Drag Racing: Mythbusting, Revelations, and A Look at Its Wild Origins

One of my oldest memories is that of my Mother racing our 66 Comet in the late 60's. I recall my Father being mad because she had to race against big block cars, as there weren't many women racers (powder puff race), the little 289 didn't stand much of a chance. As a little kid, it was cool to see Mom on the track and I'll never forget it.

Boy, this one brought back memories. When we used to go to THE Nationals in Indy, we'd tour around to all of the motels in the evening watching the Top Fuel & Funnies being worked on, since like you said, no one was allowed to stay inside the track. Thanks, Brian, you made this 80 year old feel young again!

Nice work. I started drag racing in 1963 with my E/Gas Sedan, by 1964 I was racing my home built A/Altered which ran low 9’s. I have NHRA rules books going back to 1963. After an Asian holiday I returned in 1969 with my A/Dragster. I raced Top Alcohol Dragster with a blown alcohol Rodeck Chevy from 1984 to 1989. We won a bunch of UDRA events and Championships and some NHRA events as well. We low qualified at the 86US Nationals. After my wife died in 1990 I moved to Australia where I have built cars, built engines and flowed fuel systems for over thirty years. Good job with the history. Loved it.

Tasca Ford, legendary. Great thumbnail thanks for the vid!

I love the real history you’ve presented here Brian! Thank you for not simply romanticizing history. History is often times not as glamorous as we like to recall decades later.

Here's a little drag racing tidbit - In the 60s, in NHRA, stock cars were divided into classes using a formula. In fact, it was called "formula racing." The formula was advertised weight divided by advertised horsepower. There were classes "A" through "N" stock. Some stock engines made more power than they were advertised to have. Some engines made MUCH more power than advertised. Oldsmobiles were on of 'em, making them natural winners. We had 3 of 'em and ran K, L , M and N Stock for that exact reason. We easily set strip records everywhere we went. Super Stock was a prime example. Some Super Stock engines were ridiculously under-rated. Finally, NHRA wised up and started "factoring" the horsepower.

Thanks for the lesson. Our house was on same country road that Indianapolis Raceway Park (home of the National Drags on Labor Day weekend ) was on. Family moved in when I was 6 in 1967. Got to see the Kings and Queens of the sport. Still love to take 1st timers to watch their reactions to a funny car or top fuel burnout , from the bleach box area. I remember the staggered starts but they had the tree determine starts with green lights staggered, couldn't take off till your side gave you a green light. Loved funny cars, especially The Mongoose, Tom McEwen , The Blue Max, Raymond Beadle obviously Don the "Snake" Prudhomme, Don Garlits, Shirley "Cha Cha" Muldowney

Brian, I love these kind of videos so much, and you narrate the stories so well. Thank you.

Lots of great images that I have never seen before (OMG The Greek and the Zookeeper at Bristol!) but the Bill Lawton vs. Willie Borsch photo is an absolute gem - that made my day. Well done!

Great stuff!!!! The only way we can truly love our sport is to learn the roots and Brian Lohnes is giving us the short course into loving drag racing!

Wow ! That must have taken hours of research , very well done . These episodes of yours are my favorites as is all drag racing. I will have to watch this one a second time at least. Greatly appreciated ,and many thanks Brian.

One of my favorite books is High Performance: The Culture and Technology of Drag Racing, 1950-1990 written by Dr, Professor Robert C. Post. That books ranks right up there on my all time list of sport books. Who would have figured that a Professor with ties to the Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology would write a book about the History of Drag Racing? Another great look at the history of Drag Racing Brian. I really admire your work.

Love your drag racing history lesson. Grew up @ 2 miles from Irwindale raceway. We loved the 32 funny car meets,and the east vs west meets back in the 60's. We were there every week.

Brian! You have outdone yourself! Thank you so much! As a 66yr old you are bringing back amazing memories! Your Friend Frank!

Excellent video. Thanks. My father participated in Drag Racing in the late 1950’s in the Southeast at abandoned military air fields. He said occasionally, the race promoters would have 1/2 mile drags. Dad said the cars really felt light in the front end as you approached the finish line at these events. Rear end gearing was crucial. Dad said he felt the speeds attained by these basically stock cars with stock tires was a bit unsafe. Dad also participated in some 1/4 mile “dirt” drags. Dad’s car was a heavy stock class car with an automatic transmission. Dad said this combination yielded great results against the lighter clutch 4 speed cars who couldn’t get good traction for half a track. I remember the staggered starts in the late 1960’s. The slower car was staged several car lengths down strip of the faster class car. The fans did get into these races. Thanks for the video.

If I remember correctly, R/C planes use nitromethane as fuel! That is where I grew to love the smell of 'nitro' exhaust when I was just a kid in the 60s! Yee haw!

Thanks for the history lesson,my first trip to a drag race was in 1967.Can never learn enough about this sport,may it always survive in a world where things are forgotten,and tossed to the side.😎

Darn good content here- you just gained a sub. You can go back even further when the SCTA started; they began the practice of running regularly scheduled organized standing-start races with professional grade timing equipment to ensure the accuracy of the results. Instead of paper slips you could get a small brass plaque to put on your car showing it's top speed to 1/10 MPH to impress your buddies. They were also the first drag race sanctioner to incorporate as a business for legal protection and to obtain insurance for their meets. Regardless of what the Beach Boys sang about, cars which could do 140 were extreme rarities way back then, with most of the best hot rods running around 125 over a carefully measured mile. The later drag racing sanctioning bodies emerged from that on discovering that almost all the speed possible with cars from those times happened in a quarter mile so there was no real need to have tracks any longer, and that's where the 1/4 mile standard for drag tracks originated. Now to go into the rabbit-hole of your older vids 😊

Acres of almond trees lined the interstate highway which complimented the crazy driving nuts.

This is a great video as always! I'd love a video on the gas class and the birth of gassers and rules that governed the class.