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50 Years of Drag
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Independent. Informative. Outrageous. To quote ourselves, "Drag racing from a different perspective." And so what do we do? A year in review!!!! Juss like everybody else. Well, this time it is a big deal. I mean the end of a century, and more importantly, the end of a millennium. That's big stuff and deserves a crack or two. This here's 50 years in review, focusing in on the big power players of the last half century and who I think contributed the most. Let me say in advance that, I absolutely abhor a "one great hero" approach. No sport, no political exercise, no religion, has one great anything or anybody that stands head and shoulders above everything and everybody else. History doesn't work that way. All human advances, whether in sports or whatever, are people borrowing from the past, applying it to current times, understanding the results, and trying it on future problems, allowing all of us to move forward and slice through the fog of the future. You may not buy that sociologically, but I think that hat fits drag racing fairly well.
I saw recently that CBS Sports was going to honor an Athlete of the Century. Puhleez! There is no such thing. Certainly Muhammad Ali was a major figure on both the sporting and social fronts, but was he as important as say a psychotic Ty Cobb, a drunken Babe Ruth, or a multi-skilled Jim Thorpe? All three played gigantic roles in launching sports, the whole enchilada of sports, into the public consciousness at the beginning of the century. No, ya gotta have categories and qualifications. And I'm not gonna rate them, 1, 2, 3, either. For example, how do you differentiate between the fabulous multi-year performances of the Reher-Morrison-Shepherd Pro Stockers (1981-1984) and Gary Beck's clocking 17 of the quickest Top Fuel elapsed times in 1983 and 1984? Great running Pro Stockers are far more consistent than their nitro brethren because they're not as volatile, and as a result, Shepherd won a lot more races than Beck. However, to utterly dominate the sport's quickest class in performance as did Beck in the Larry Minor car, is on a par with the Pro Stock Texans. Below are my selections in a number of categories (some borderline ridiculous) of the best of drag racing's first 50. They are listed alphabetically or chronologically and are included because I felt they made historical, sport-changing, consciousness expanding contributions to drag racing. And now for drag racing from a long-winded perspective. Let the controversy begin! NOTE: This for me is not a popularity contest, but (I hope) a better-than-feeble attempt to highlight those that made, again, sport-changing, earth-rotating contributions to the sport ... at least, in most cases. Also, the pros are far more represented than the sportsman because that's what the people pay to see. And given how incredibly sensitive I am, I will admit beforehand that there's a decent chance I've overlooked someone. (Hmmm ... let me think here for just a second.) Okay, tough shit. This isn't the Academy Awards, this isn't a congressional Medal of Honor deal, you need to realize that writing a list like this under the influence of lysergic acid diathylamide and salvia divonorum, might cause some ... aw to hell with it ... enjoy or wretch, I leave it to you, amigos. MOST SPECTACULAR (non-lethal) INCIDENTS
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