Fuel and Guts: The Birth of Top Fuel Drag Racing - Hardcover

Until 1949, there was no such thing as drag racing. There were road races, oval races, dry lakes time trials, even boardtrack races, but nobody had considered sanctioning an event that simply put two cars head to head and sent them down a straight stretch of pavement to see who got to the end first.

Luckily, a confluence of events and circumstances combined to create what is arguably the most exciting form of motorsport on the planet today. Young men and women came home from World War II with pockets full of money and heads full of technical knowledge, which they quickly applied to their cars. Southern California s mild climate provided them a year-around laboratory in which to experiment. And most importantly, a handful of devoted kids turned what was once an innocent, back streets pastime into today s multi-billion-dollar drag racing industry. This is their story, and best of all, it s told in their own words.

Top Fuel drivers are the rock stars of drag racing, the acts that put the fans in the seats. Spectators slip out to grab hot dogs and beer during the support classes, but when they hear the Top Fuel engines roar to life, they rush back to their seats.

In Top Fuel s early days, when a nitro-burning monster motor sat in front of the driver s face, pushing a car to its limit and beyond was called lighting the 1000-foot fuse. In other words, if the engine didn t explode within the strip s first 1000 feet, then odds were good you d manage the final 320 feet without meeting your maker. The front-engine, Top Fuel dragster and its West Coast driver defined the evolution of drag racing in the period through the early 1970s.

It was a simpler time, not just for drag racing, but for California life in general. Factory support wasn't controlled by accountants, but by builders and engineers with a genuine interest in the sport. Sponsorship came from companies just starting to scratch out names for themselves, not from giant corporations more concerned with image than winning. Of course, with success came greater expectations. This is the story of what it was like to race in a more innocent time, and what it was like to see that innocence slip away.

Fuel and Guts: The Birth of Top Fuel Drag Racing is the story of how Top Fuel drag racing started in California, told through the words of the men and women who lived it. Since the sport s beginning, author Tom Madigan has collected recorded interviews with luminaries such as Mickey Thompson, the late Tony Nancy, Tommy Ivo, and Tom McEwen, to name just a few. In addition, he has maintained contact with men like engine builder Ed Pink, chassis builder Kent Fuller, and racer Don Prudhomme. Add Madigan's personal knowledge of the events, and Fuel and Guts gives readers a real sense of what it was like to be part of Top Fuel drag racing in California during the 1950s and 1960s.