To the uninitiated, the first response might be, "Who is John Mazzarella?" No, he never won a Top Fuel, Top Gas, Funny Car, Pro Stock, or Sportsman title, but "Mazz," as he is known, may be one of the most recognizable, successful, and certainly popular manufacturer's reps of all-time. The good-looking Italian with the radar grin has shaken more hands and consummated more friendships (and deals) with racers, manufacturers, and hot rod association officials than almost anybody. Mazz, who many might remember as the National DRAGSTER advertising head for the early 1980s, knows just about all the racers who have competed in the past 40 years and is currently the head man in Bob Stange's Strange Engineering racing equipment ad division. A trip to Stange's hospitality trailer with Mazzarella as the host will produce more visits with famous racers than either the Garlits or NHRA museums; he's that well-connected. In four words, he knows the sport. Here's the recent Drag Racing Online trivia contest winner's earliest recollections of his first drag race-and a little beyond-in his own words.

- CM

I must have been 15 years old in 1958 when I attended my first drag race at Tri-City Dragway in Oldsmar, Florida. I really don't recollect the event, other than it was a road trip with guys I looked up to who had "hot" cars. We all piled into one of my hero's '48 Chevy coupe and drove the 35-40 miles from the small orange grove town of Largo, located between Clearwater and St. Petersburg.

Drag racing has been my life since that day, so the recollection of this one day is cloudy. I do remember I was "hooked" on the speed and especially the sound. The racers consisted of Ed Pantey, Don & Ed Garlits, Bob Langley, Connie Swingle, Hasely Hood, Charley Hogan, Emery Cook, Lucky Harris, Joe Herndon, the Nelson Brothers, and Marvin Schwartz to name a few.

Growing up an only child with loving parents that worked all day in the grocery store business, I was left on my own after school each day. I played Pop Warner football in the 5th and 6th grades and Jr. Varsity and Varsity football from the 7th to 11th grades. I tried basketball and baseball, but the contact sport was a lot more exciting to me.

I would see the first-string players driving neat '55 Crown Victorias and '57 Chevy convertibles all set up with lowering blocks in the rear and glass-packed mufflers that were soaked in oil when new so that over a (smoky) period of time they would become very loud. The sound was music to my ears. They also had all the best looking girls that wore form-fitting sweaters and lots of "crinolines" (petticoats) under their skirts. The fuzzy dice, Merc Cruiser fender skirts, mud flaps, Olds Fiesta and "flipper" hub caps were all the rage in the Tampa bay area at the time.

I was dating a girl whose uncle had a two-motored dragster. How weird! There was a girl from Tampa who had a '57 Chevy with a picture of two cherries on the trunk. Under this was painted, "If you can beat it, you can bust 'em." Man, I had a lot of dreams about that car!

My folks bought me my first car in 1958. It was a nice $300 '53 Chevy Belaire that I immediately modified. It had a 235" 6-cylinder with a 3-speed on the column. Within the first month I swapped motors with the family '55 Belaire 4-door (when they went on vacation), installed a set of Fenton cast iron headers, an Edelbrock 2-one barrel manifold with dual Rochester carbs and an Isky E-400 cam. I used flex-a-pipe to hook-up the two glass-packs and straight "lakes pipes" that exited under the rear axle to be "cool." At 16 years old, the cops hated me. My folks could not understand why I changed a good running car to the loud, smelly, ill handling car that got lots of the wrong kind of attention. It did get me plenty of girls but after blowing up 5 to 15 transmissions that first year (hey, they cost $15.00 each at the junk yard) and having too many girlfriend's parents calling my dad, I sold the car to a friend for $400 and joined the Air Force. I was shipped to Paris, France for my entire tour of duty as (what else) a mechanic in a motor pool.

I think the Chrisman Bros. entry won the 1961 U.S. Nationals at Indy.

In 1961 I was sent to Tech School in Illinois for (what else) auto mechanics. While there I attended my first REAL drag race at Indianapolis Raceway Park. That year George Hurst was giving away '61 Hurst Pontiacs to the eliminator winners.

I saw Tommy Ivo and his 4-motor car, Linda Vaughn, Ohio George Montgomery, Stone-Woods & Cook and many other famous racers of the day. Oh yeah, did I mention Linda Vaughn? I was amazed by all the two-motor cars.

Eddie Hill's 2-motor Pontiac at Indy. What an ill-handling car this was.

The Dragmaster "Two Thing" was one of the sharpest looking rails at Indy.

After Tech School, I was shipped off to Paris, France for my entire tour of duty in the motor pool. This turned out to be a paradise full of women and hot rodders. In the 38 months I was in the Air Force, I owned a 1950 Ford Victoria flathead V8, a '49 Chevy Club Coupe with a 265-inch V8 3-speed, a '55 Buick Special Nailhead V8 3-speed, a '59 Pontiac Catalina and a '56 Olds 98.

It was the fall of 1964 when I started my new life back in Tampa Bay. I got married, had a couple of kids, had numerous jobs including machinist in an auto parts store, a Coca-Cola route salesman (great job but it literally broke my back), a heli-arc welder for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft and then....a welder/machinist for Don Garlits at his Tampa home shop. I worked with Connie Swingle and Tommy "T.C." Lemmons. I was way over my head but worked my butt off.

After this short stay/long experience, I packed up the family and headed west to Southern California. Selling potato chips for Frito Lay, I worked at Frank Huszar's RCS in the evening, finish-welding the baddest race cars of the day. Tommy Ivo, Doug Rose, the Bright Boys, the Hampshire Brothers, Ralph Wagner, Fred Goeske, Harry Hibler, Tony Nancy, Tom McCourry, Sonny Diaz, Jack Martin, Marcellus & Borsch, John Peters, Marc Danekas and many more.

So here we are, approaching maturity (never!), a FORMER skinny kid from Florida with a vast knowledge of our sport and industry, educated in positions at Don Garlits, RCS, Carrol Shelby, Louie Senter, Stan Alexander's Auto Accessories, Clifford Research, SEMA, NHRA, Don Schumacher, and for the past 16 years....Strange Engineering. I now live in Indy with my new "hot rod" (wife Lori) and still maintain a stable of "neat" cars from Pro Street to Custom and a newly found love of modified Harley Davidson Motor Cycles. The family of friends and acquaintances that I have amassed over the years is staggering and I owe it all to individuals like Hasely Hood who introduced me to racing and Dick Nickerson who pushed me to get involved in the industry.

Over the years I coulda' been…shoulda' been…and woulda' been…exactly what I am today: totally happy to be involved in the automotive performance industry and having been employed by the "elite " of our industry. I wouldn't trade any of the highs or lows of my past and look forward to the future. As long as there are hot rods and a market for performance, I'll be there.

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