[herr_oberst]

Professional drag racing was the sport I followed when I was a kid, rather than the stick and ball stuff. I had a long list of heroes; Prudhomme and McEwan and Garlits for sure, but also Big John Mazmanian, Roger Lindamood, 'Ohio George' Montgomery, Bo Laws, Frank Iaconio... And the cars all had names! Color Me Gone, Pure Hell, The Blue Max, RRRevolution. Praying Mantis. There was a local go fast guy named Ralph Van Papheghem who's still building fast cars and driving them today even though he's in his 70's.

I spent much time at the local drag strip (Firebird Raceway in Star, Idaho) and would sneak out of the house on Friday nights and go watch the cars cruising the local main. In the early to mid 70's it was kind of a wild west show, and the color and the noise and the smell was just too exciting to keep me away. There were some seriously fast machines on display, at least to my wide open 15 year old eyes. Sadly, I had the empty pockets syndrome and was never able to afford much in the way of a car. Life happened, I still keep a peripheral interest, but like everything that was fun and exciting about my yoot, the professionals have taken and polished any rough edges down so fine that the sport is a shadow of what it used to be. My favorite class to watch is Pro Mod. It seems like they're allowed to innovate in ways that other top tier classes are rulebound from doing.