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Top 20 list: The fans weigh in

08 Apr 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
VOTE NOW! Our Top 20 Funny Cars list was released last Thursday – a day late due to some technical glitches – but…
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Top 20 Funny Cars

31 Mar 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
  In case you missed the announcement today on NHRA.com, we’ve revealed the final Top 20 list of Funny Cars from which fans can…
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Five great drag racing movies

28 Mar 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Whether you’re relaxing on your couch streaming entertainment or at the local movie theater, who doesn’t love a good flick? And if you’re a drag racing fan – and we know you are – what’s better than a movie about your favorite motorsport? Here’s…
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Top 20 Funny Cars: We have a list!

25 Mar 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Don “the Snake” Prudhomme has three, Kenny Bernstein has two, and 15 other drivers and teams each have one. That’s the breakdown after weeks of analysis and consultation that resulted in the compilation of a list of 20 of the…
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'Buddy' Garner, NHRA's first season champion

18 Mar 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
  "Buddy" Garner, of Hobbs, N.M., was crowned NHRA's first points-based champion in 1960, after a nearly perfect season with his C/A Plymouth. It’s a pretty fair bet that the knowledgeable citizens of…
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Female Funny Car pioneer Paula Murphy

11 Mar 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Sometimes you just never know who’s going to be on the other end of the phone (especially in my line of work), so it was a great pleasure – and great timing – when I learned that the voice on the other end of the line earlier this week belonged to…
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1970: A 'Super' season for Funny Car

04 Mar 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
The Funny Car class got its first taste of full integration into the NHRA season in 1970, NHRA’s vaunted “Super Season.” NHRA had nearly doubled its schedule, going from four races to seven – adding the Gatornationals in…
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The Hawaiian, 1969-71

26 Feb 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
National Dragster's Lane Evans captured this unforgettable image of the flying Hawaiian. There are no subsequent shots from him because it was the last exposure on his roll of film (but we have more angles below). Last week’s…
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'Jungle Clare' Sanders

19 Feb 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Clare Sanders, then and now By 1969, the Funny Car class was in full bloom and contested at three NHRA national events. After its debut at the 1966 World Finals, the…
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'Fast Eddie' Schartman

12 Feb 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
We began this whole odyssey into the early days of Funny Car with the announcement a few weeks ago that NHRA would be saluting 50 years of Funny Cars this season, with the starting point for the celebration being the 1966 season, when NHRA…
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Remembering Jess Tyree

05 Feb 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
The history of the Funny Car class that we’re celebrating this year suffered a significant loss earlier this week with the passing of Jess Tyree, one of the drivers who was in on the ground floor of the class in 1966. Tyree died Monday of cancer…
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Funny Cars: Who's on first? I dunno ...

29 Jan 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Jim Johnson and Jimmy Nix suited up; the firesuits were mostly for show. Jack Chrisman's Comet was a race car, shown here running in B/FD in Pomona. Well…
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Early Funny Car History 101

22 Jan 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
As one Insider reader tweeted to me last week after my column about working to create a list of the top 20 Funny Cars, “Can open, worms everywhere.” Yes, indeed, we did open a whole can of worms with the notion that I – or anyone…
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Top 20 Funny Cars: Let the debate begin

15 Jan 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
  As I noted here last Friday and as was announced earlier this week on NHRA.com, NHRA will be celebrating the Funny Car class throughout the 2016 season. Using the 1966…
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Feedback Friday

08 Jan 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Well, the new year is only a week old, and already it has been packed with a lot of newness, not the least of which is the new NHRA.com format that launched Thursday. The new design allows NHRA fans easier access to the wealth of stories available…
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What's it all about?

01 Jan 2016
Phil Burgess, National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
No real new column today – even the Insider deserves a week off to celebrate the holidays – but just a chance to once again express my thanks to the loyal visitors to this little cyber pit space. It seems impossible that since I rolled out this…
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A Christmas Letter to My Younger Self

25 Dec 2015
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Seems like it’s all the rage these days, especially among sports stars and rock 'n' rollers – of which I am neither – to offer up a little something called “Letter to My Younger Self,” in which one shares the wisdom of a lifetime with one’s…
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Drag racing on the tee-vee, 1976-style

18 Dec 2015
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
While I was researching my last couple of columns about Ontario Motor Speedway and the Supernationals and World Finals, I used my typical National Dragster and magazine article resources but also got sucked into…
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Ontario's World Finals, 1974-80

11 Dec 2015
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
We continue our look back at the great facility that was Ontario Motor Speedway this week with a recap of the seven editions of the World Finals held at the Southern California race facility, beginning with the 1974 event. NHRA’s sudden decision…
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NHRA Supernationals, 1970-73

04 Dec 2015
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
The 1970 season was, by many accounts, one of the most important in NHRA history. It marked the first season for a new class, Pro Stock, and the first time that a season champion would be crowned in a fledgling class known…
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Ontario Motor Speedway

27 Nov 2015
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Last week’s column about Funny Car elapsed times and the number of class-best passes that were recorded on the quarter-mile at Ontario Motor Speedway, along with what we have learned over the years about the track’s ability…
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Funny Car performance, then and now

20 Nov 2015
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
If you are a fan of the Funny Car class – and hey, who isn’t? – the 2015 season was a spectacular one, not just for its dramatic finish on the final day of the schedule last Sunday in Pomona, but also for…
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Dirt biking with the stars

13 Nov 2015
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Don Prudhomme, left, and National Dragster's Leslie Lovett, two-wheelin' it Fred Mooneyham’s brief mention last week about dirt-bike riding with his nitro peers in the 1970s and motocross…
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Teen Terrors of the '70s: 'Fearless Fred' Mooneyham

06 Nov 2015
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Teenage Fred Mooneyham with his father, Gene, and crewmember Larry Faust. (Above) Mooneyham cut his teeth in a front-engine Top Fueler in Louisiana. (Below) Mooneyham and brother Gene…
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The Perils of Billy Meyer

30 Oct 2015
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
As I teased in last week’s column, Billy Meyer’s road to Funny Car fame was not without some painful bumps, a trio of which I will share with you this week. As you read in the previous column, the impressive start of Meyer’s Funny Car career came…
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Teen Terrors of the '70s: Billy Meyer

23 Oct 2015
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Of the Teen Terrors of the ‘70s that I’ve profiled the last few months, there’s no disputing that Billy Meyer enjoyed the longest and most successful career of all of them. He won national events in NHRA (12) and IHRA (eight…
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Happy birthday, Texas Motorplex

16 Oct 2015
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
By the time you read this, I’ll be in Dallas for my annual trip to the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals at Billy Meyer’s Texas Motorplex, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this season. I won’t say I’ve been to every NHRA…
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Remembering Dave Beebe

09 Oct 2015
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Another hole was torn in the fabric of our racing family last weekend with the passing of Dave Beebe, whose surname was one of the more famous in our sport thanks to the accomplishments of he and brother Tim in the Top Fuel…
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Teen Terrors of the '70s: The Allison Brothers

02 Oct 2015
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Randy and Gary Allison, circa 1972. Imagine, if you can, two young brothers with zero nitro-racing experience deciding to try their hand at Top Fuel. It’s not a scenario you can even begin to…
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Bill "Maverick" Golden

25 Sep 2015
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Before he became one of the godfathers of wheelstanding, Golden earned his "Maverick" nickname with a succession of highly successful Dodge doorslammers. The Little Red Wagon…
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