I do feel I built something [Drag News] important. I had some help, it wasn’t just one person, but I was really caught up in drag racing. If you had to pin it down to one thing, I’d say I put in the long hours and all that, because it was an awful lot of fun. At least back then, it was."

— Doris Herbert.

Wally Parks can claim the first racing newspaper; he put out Tie Rod in 1951. It was essentially a newsletter for people interested in the brand new NHRA, its program and policies. It only lasted for a few issues, and then in June1955, Dean Brown came up with Drag News.

This paper was different in that it reached out to the world beyond NHRA. Parks never tried to hoodwink anybody; his publication was the viewpoint, stand, and method of a hot rod association in its infancy. Brown’s was different. Santa Ana, Colton, Saugus, Bakersfield, San Fernando, Lions, whatever the track’s affiliation, it could find space in the drag racer’s bi-weekly. Drag News was the sport’s first real, all-around, report-anything newspaper and it remained so for another 15 years.

Despite its democratic resolve, the 12- to 14-page paper struggled, so much so that in late 1959, it was put on the auction block, so to speak. Chet Herbert stepped up and bought it.

His younger sister Doris had been an advertising worker at the Santa Ana Register and was looking for a change. Cognizant of this, Chet told sis that he’d make a down of half the money Brown wanted, and that Doris would pay him and Brown back six months later.

In January of 1960, Doris took over the paper and it took over the sport and both the above parties were paid off in short order.

Drag News had it all. Great reporters filled its pages on a voluntary basis. Just get them inside the joint and they’d handle the rest. Ralph Guldahl Jr., likely the best of the pioneer writers, honed his craft at Lions, the Wallaces at San Fernando, Stan Adams (Pomona), Steve Gibbs at San Gabriel and Fontana, Bob Kruse and Ben Brown for the Great Lakes area, Jim Cooper in the Northwest, Ken Weddle in the South, Arthur Irwin III and Terry "Broomfoot" Cook in the New England/New Jersey areas, Bob Ramsey , Jack Redd (East Coast), Diane Edmunds (Fresno and Central California), Al Caldwell (Northern California), Joanne Peters in Texas, Don Elliott in the Plains states. The paper had an unbelievable reporting staff.

Moreover, it took on political responsibilities. At the tail end of 1959, the paper started publishing a records(for all classes) section. The requirements were, assuming the car had passed whatever tech, that it had to run within two percent of its record pass for it to be established. This was a rather bold step because a number of tracks would produce phony e.ts and mphs, get them published, which they hoped would lead to bigger crowds.

Chet Herbert came up with the idea of having a Top 10 ranking. There were no real world champs due to the fact that the two hot rod associations would not recognize each other. What made it worse was that different racers ran with different organizations, so that never the twain shall meet ... with the exception of Don Garlits, Chris Karamesines, or Don Prudhomme.

Herbert said (in so many words) why not set up a Top 10 and determine the placings in best of three match races. On May 21, 1960, the Drag News staff came up with a list of the ten top racers in Top Fuel and Top Gas, and Junior Mr. Eliminator, which housed blown fuel altereds and modified fuel coupes and roadsters. For six years, the Drag News No. 1 spot was as coveted in drag racing as the No. 1 seed in pro tennis.

As time went by, Herbert added popular columns by Suzy Beebe and "Friendly Fran" Rooks that were gossipy and almost always dead nuts accurate. NHRA, AHRA, IHRA, UDRA, and ADRA races were covered in their entirety. In general, the paper actually reflected the all-out atmosphere of a growing dynamic wild new sport.

"The reporters called me; I really did little or no soliciting myself. They volunteered to write the stories and they’d do it for free. They just wanted tickets to get into the races. So, I’d get in touch with the track and set them up at the gate and the writers and photographers would go to it. It was like they wanted to be in on the fun.

"Putting the paper out was something else. Since I lived in Southern California at the time, my friends and I had our choices of going to tracks like Lions, Fontana, Irwindale, and Orange County Saturday and then we’d go out and party with the winners at some restaurant and go out and do it again Sunday. On Sunday, you could find us at San Fernando, Pomona, Riverside, or one of the San Diego tracks. As soon as we got back from the races, we’d start getting the book ready. We’d go at it until Tuesday night and even into Wednesday morning. We’d sleep at the print shop many times. It was nothing to go 36 to 48 hours without sleep, putting out Drag News. When the paper came off the printing presses, we’d load it up on a truck and drive from Pasadena or Gardena, wherever the shop was at the time, and go to the main post office in downtown L.A. and mail it out. However, after about 20 years of this, I got, in a word, tired."

— Doris Herbert.

In 1976, Doris Herbert sold Drag News and that effectively retired her from the sport. There wasn’t much money made with the paper, but certainly, a wagonload of memories was sustained.

Drag News did not last much longer after the sale. By that time, National Dragster, despite being the NHRA house organ, was three times the size of the venerable old paper and was the new bible of the sport. It had three times the track coverage, columns, and features, and in 1977, Drag News disappeared from the landscape.

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