NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

 

 

 

 

Keeping NHRA Fans Up to Date

Follow our coverage through our newly designed news and videos sections. Don't forget to follow our social media posts.

Sparring partners

17 Jan 2012
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Being a columnist ain’t easy. It wouldn’t even be easy if this was my only gig and there wasn’t some weekly content monster called National DRAGSTER. Don’t get me wrong; this column is still one of the most fun things I get to do each week…
View More

Remembering Tommy "T.C." Lemons

13 Jan 2012
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
It didn’t take much arm-twisting after I broke the sad news of the death of Tommy “T.C.” Lemons, Don Garlits’ most storied crew chief, first on Twitter and then on NHRA.com, to get the stories and plaudits pouring in for an…
View More

Feedback squared

10 Jan 2012
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Feedback2. I think that’s right. I was never very good at math that didn’t involve elapsed times. (I am pretty good at Photoshop, though. Except my drawing here would seem to indicate feedback to the fourth power or…
View More

The gift-giving continues

06 Jan 2012
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Happy New Year everyone, and welcome to the first DRAGSTER Insider column of 2012. I hope you enjoyed time off with your family, that all of your Christmas wish-list dreams were fulfilled, and that you’re ready for another year of shedding…
View More

It's baaack (motored, again)

23 Dec 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
If Michael J. Fox can do it, so can we, so we’re going back to the future … er, back to the rear in the future – whatever. I should have known better than to call it Case Closed on the rear-engine Funny Car thread, cuz as soon as I did, here comes…
View More

The story of John Hoven, as told by his son

20 Dec 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
You don’t have to go to Disneyland to know that it’s a small world after all. Examples are everywhere around us, and the Internet surely has helped make it an even smaller world. Facebook is great, but me, I’m a bigger Twitter fan. It’s a fast way…
View More

More mind-blowing mid-motor madness

16 Dec 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Maybe I’m overstating the case, but if you’re the kind of person who revels in the minute details of our sport’s history – and, hey, if you’re here, you probably are – I’m fixing to make your head explode like the…
View More

The Mid-Winder

13 Dec 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
The chassis for Ed Lenarth's Mid-Winder Funny Car. A Gremlin body was going to be used, but the car crashed in testing minus the body. Lenarth's powertrain layout…
View More

Stalking the Night Stalker

09 Dec 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Throughout the course of this growing rear-engine Funny Car thread, I’ve received several requests for more information on the Night Stalker Mustang that was the unlikely first Funny Car for the man who would become the king of the class, John Force…
View More

Getting our rears in gear

06 Dec 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
When it comes to rear-engine Funny Cars, the engine may have been in the back, but the love from the Insider Nation is front and center, and the DI mailbag started overflowing. After…
View More

In Hindsight, maybe not such a great idea

02 Dec 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
If the high point in the all-too-short lifespan of the rear-engine Funny Car was Jim Dunn’s victory at the 1972 Supernationals, surely the low point was Dennis Geisler’s jaw-dropping backflip with Burt Berniker’s Hindsight Duster during qualifying…
View More

Rear-Engine Funny Cars

29 Nov 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
It’s funny the things we take for granted. Most of the readers of this column have their own vast mental encyclopedias of drag racing knowledge, so I try not so much to regurgitate the history they already know by heart but to fill in the details…
View More

More cars with scars

22 Nov 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
One of those I heard from was John Largent, who was a race car painter “back in the day,” who was more than familiar with those works in progress and not a big fan of the unfinished look … for his own reasons. “Most of…
View More

Topless Funny Cars

15 Nov 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
When Raymond Beadle famously lost the roof of his Blue Max at the 1981 Winternationals, it turned his Plymouth Horizon into a convertible. He had to tack the roof from Kenny Bernstein’s spare body onto his to make the final because the rules said (…
View More

Reyes brings on the ugly

08 Nov 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Last Friday, I promised a collection of Steve Reyes shots of primered race cars for today, but once he started sending me photos for our “ugly car” collection, it became clear that I had a big problem on my hands. Or, to be more precise, more than…
View More

This could get ugly

04 Nov 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Drag racing machines have long been known as rolling pieces of art, with intricately designed paint schemes, pinstriping, gleaming chrome, and detail beyond what the outside world’s most obsessed might find acceptable, but (to borrow from the…
View More

Cleaning out the Inbox

01 Nov 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Forgive today’s later posting as I’m still sorting through the facts and figures from the great race this past weekend in Las Vegas and putting the finishing touches on my National DRAGSTER assignments from the event. I’ve also been…
View More

Remembering Phil Castronovo

25 Oct 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Compared to those of other former world champs, Phil Castronovo’s Funny Car driving career was short-lived – spanning just a handful of seasons – but the recently departed 1971 NHRA class kingpin certainly left a legacy of…
View More

Crowning champions, then and now

21 Oct 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
 I had planned today to share – as promised Tuesday -- some stories behind the stories of former NHRA Funny Car world champ Phil Castronovo, who passed away Saturday, but, without boring you with details, one thing led to another, and I’m now…
View More

Back on the 'Dyno'

14 Oct 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Tuesday’s column about Don Nicholson bought out the love for the dyno man and a slew of those whose lives he touched. I’ll share some of those stories below as well as offer great additions to the Psycho Mustang tale I also wrote about earlier this…
View More

Brush with garage greatness

11 Oct 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
I got an email from reader Derek Staples that, based on years of correspondence with the readers of this column, may well ring true with many of you. For many race fans of – ahem – advanced seniority, introduction to the sport sometimes came from a…
View More

Of jackrabbit finishes and faked photo passes

07 Oct 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
The return of Fan Fotos brought interesting feedback and fun stories to light. There were a lot of nice submissions about the Burkholder brothers, including the photo at right from Dave LeRoy,…
View More

The return of Fan Fotos

04 Oct 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
There has been so much to talk about lately that I’d forgotten how long it has been since I reached into the vault for Fan Fotos. In this column’s earlier years, I ran these pretty regularly as a way to thank everyone for their support and interest…
View More

Another Memorable Motorplex Moment

30 Sep 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
  First Top Fuel five: Missed it   First Funny Car five: Ditto   First 300: Not present  …
View More

Fan Fotos: New England

29 Sep 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
" width="100%" Welcome to Fan Fotos, the sequel! Steve Heuer – and quite a few others -- took advantage of my offer two weeks ago to display their 10 best fan photos, and here they are. Again, the purpose of this is to show off…
View More

How the elephant crushed the guardrail

20 Sep 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Even when you truly enjoy the subject matter, the reader response, and the thrill of telling a new story, writing a biweekly column can be tough. (I can’t imagine what I was thinking when I began this column more than four years ago as a thrice-…
View More

Open houses, early chutes, and finals gone wrong

16 Sep 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
As I knew it would, Tuesday’s column about early shutoffs elicited a few more head-slapping incidents of drivers lifting too soon or woofing the chute prematurely. So let’s take a look at a few more prime examples, then we’…
View More

Don't lift until you've heard the referee's whistle

13 Sep 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
I coached youth hockey for my son’s teams for a number of years, and one of the things I always worked hard to remind the kids of was to keep playing until they heard the referee’s whistle; until then, the puck is live, and play is ongoing. You may…
View More

NHRA's first computers

11 Sep 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Everyone who has ever owned a computer has a "my first computer" story. Whether your earliest experiences with the "ones and zeros" was a Commodore 64 that loaded programs from a cassette player or you just finally got wired and broke your computer'…
View More

More Indy yearbook feedback ... and 'Jungle's' wedge

09 Sep 2011
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider
Back safe and sound and mostly caught up after the Big Go (my 29th straight!), and I thought I’d wrap up a few loose ends before moving on to our next topic. The 1977 NHRA U.S. Nationals Yearbook continues to be a favorite topic (I’m…
View More