colecoonce’s NITRONIC RESEARCH

Godspeed to Darryl Jackman of Fast News Network and Drag Race Central. Besides being a vital resource and a reporter who did exemplary work, he was just a nice guy — an absolute mensch. The word I got is that he passed on Wednesday from pancreatic cancer.

I will remember him this way, posed next to the portrait of LA Times motorsports reporter, Shav Glick. Glick was obsequiously courted by the NHRA, who couldn’t go down on him fast enough, even though he sometimes got many things completely wrong, including confusing cubic inches with cubic centimeters. Regardless, besides a permanent parking space next to the tower, NHRA named the media center after him and hung his portrait next to Darryl’s spot in the press room. I guess the joke is how much Darryl was beginning to resemble the portrait.

Darryl Jackman, Godspeed

Drag Racing Online: Where The Pavement Ends

“But through all of that, the biggest story was the turnout: Yes, in a scene reminiscent of a Steinbeck novel or a dusty Henry Fonda movie, hordes of racers and race fans fired up their rust-buckets, rail-jobs and stripped-down coupes, took to the highway and made the migration to Bakersfield and its drag strip out by the oil fields, Famoso Raceway. More than 500 race cars entered. Twenty-nine Funny Cars slugged it for eight slots on the Elimination ladder. On Saturday morning, it took an hour to crawl five miles from the exit off of Highway 99 to the track’s parking lots and entrances. Bill Groak, the event’s publicist, marveled, “What recession?” in reference to the legions of go-cat-wild gearheads that overran the facility.”

More here: DRO: WHERE THE PAVEMENT ENDS — Metallic Crab Salad and Crushed Toes in Bakersfield

In organizing the art for the Top Fuel Wormhole collection (subtitled The Cole Coonce Drag Strip Reader, Vol. 1), KeroseneBomb Publishing has been going through its files, looking for a proper photograph of the author.

This vintage shot of the writer feebly trying to engage Kenny Bernstein — owner/operator “Budweiser King” Top Fueler –  (taken at Bakersfield Raceway during the 1991 NHRA/PRO Big Bud Warm-up) didn’t make the cut.

Cole Coonce (l), Kenny Bernstein (r); photo by Sean Vigle

Pictures from Saturday’s qualifying sessions at the 51st March Meet at Famoso Raceway.

This was a historic afternoon, as every AA/Funny Car that qualified posted a five-second elapsed time. Low ET was turned by Bucky Austin, who put up a bodacious 5.77….

photo by Cole Coonce

photo by Cole Coonce

photo by Cole Coonce

photo by Cole Coonce

photo by Cole Coonce

photo by Cole Coonce

photo by Cole Coonce

photo by Cole Coonce

photo by Cole Coonce

photo by Cole Coonce

photo by Cole Coonce

photo by Cole Coonce

photo by Cole Coonce

photo by Cole Coonce

Twenty-nine entries put up their best to make the field… — photos by Cole Coonce

Top Fuel Wormhole, a feature-length book of motorsport-themed essays and articles subtitled The Cole Coonce Drag Strip Reader,Vol. 1,  is on the galleys and almost off to the printer.

Coming in at nearly 300 pages, this anthology is comprised of work that first ran a plehtora of drag racing, automotive and pop culture magazines and websites, including Full Throttle News, Super Stock & Drag Illustrated, Bikini, Grand Royal, Gearhead, Nitronic Research and others.

Despite the fervent efforts of its imprint, KeroseneBomb Publishing, hopes of having copies of the book in hand this week for distribution at the upcoming March Meet are remote, however. A more like release date is March 21st, 2009.

Since the March Meet publication deadline wil be missed, we thought it would be ono to offer up a tasty sample of the book in the online form, ith the uploading of the book’s cover story, “THE CHAMPION SPEED SHOP’S TOP FUEL WORMHOLE: A Concentric History of the World’s Quickest and Fastest Chevy on Nitro…”

The story’s illustration is this pic of the Champion Speed Shop fueler, taken ten years ago at the starting of Famoso Raceway.

Champion Speed Shop's Top Fuel Wormhole

Further to that end, we would like to share the book’s Table of Content. It is as follows:

PART ONE: THE HORIZON

FOREWORD by Robert C. Post
1. DEATH ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON & THE WHINE OF BLOWERS OVER THE PACOIMA ARROYO
2. SMIRNOFF VODKA AND THE SPIRIT(S) OF THE 60s
3. BOOK REVIEW: HIGH PERFORMANCE
4. THE DRAG STRIP DIARIES, PART 1
5. WHO’S AFRAID OF ARLEY LANGLO?
6. THE DRAG STRIP DIARIES, PT. 2
7. TAYLOR STORMS TO 6.17
8. THE DRAG STRIP DIARIES, PT. 3
9. OVER, UNDER, SIDEWAYS, DOWN: THE STORY OF “WILD WILLIE” BORSCH
10. THE DRAG STRIP DIARIES, PT. 4
11. BAKERSFIELD BE HERE NOW
12. HAVE NITRO, WILL TRAVEL
13. SHIRLEY MULDOWNEY: ORIGINAL BLAST-OFF GIRL AND DRAG STRIP GRAND DAME
14. DUNLAP TASTES VICTORY
15. RITTER TURNS 5.98, 242 – WITH HIS EYES CLOSED!
16. BURY MY HEART AT EDWARDS AFB
17. BLAINE JOHNSON 1962-1996

PART TWO: THE CENTER OF THE SHADOW

18. HESITATION KILLS
19. MISHAP AT BLACK ROCK!
20. BISCIGLIA CRASHES ‘48 FIAT FUELER
21. TARGET SPEED: TWENTY NINE PALMS: JOCKO JOHNSON’S GUERILLA RENAISSANCE IS NOW
22. THE UNIVERSE IS EXPANDING: MACH ONE AS THE BIG BANG
23. THE EPIC SAGA OF THE SURFERS: THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EXPLODING INEVITABLE
24. DRAG RACING IS MUCH MORE PUNK ROCK THAN ANY SLACKER GEN X SHITHEAD WITH AN OUT-OF-TUNE GUITAR
25. MURPHY MAKES MARCH MEET HISTORY
26. JIM HERBERT, R.I.P
27. W.W. TWO STARS IN BAKERSFIELD TEAR-JERKER
28. CHAMPION SPEED SHOP’S TOP FUEL WORMHOLE
29. THE CRASH, BURN AND RESURRECTION OF A WORKING CLASS HERO: THE “WILD BILL” ALEXANDER INTERVIEW
30. 1999: NOTES FROM THE HEART (LAND HOT ROD REUNION)
31. “SWINGIN’ SAMMY” HALE EXITS COCKPIT
32. MIGRANT APES IN THE GASOLINE CRACK OF HISTORY
33. THE MAD! ROCKET SCIENTIST

PART THREE: COLLAPSE

34. THE PASSING OF STEVE COLLISON AND THE DEATH OF DRAG STRIP JOURNALISM
35. “VIVA LA NITRO!”
36. FRYING THE BALONEYS OFF OF DANICA PATRICK AT THE SMOG CUTTER
37. DRAG PRINCESS
38. BUCK OWENS, TOP FUEL AND THE DEATH OF THE BAKERSFIELD SOUND
39. TOMMY JOHNSON’S DIPPITY-DO AND A MODEST PROPOSAL TO SPIKE DRAG RACING’S BAD HAIR DAY
40. SMOKIN’ DON SCHUMACHER’S, INTERNET WORM FOOD AND WHO KILLED MARK TWAIN?
41. THE DAY OF THE DELUGE AND SURVIVAL OF THE UNFITTEST

Upon publication, copies of Top Fuel Wormhole will be available at amazon.com, HotRodNostalgia.com and Drag Racing Online and KeroseneBomb.com. –30

Pictures from yesterday’s test and tune at Famoso Raceway, Bakersfield, CA…. a very reasonable turn-out of AA/Fuel Dragsters and Nitro Funny Cars, all making final tweaks before competition in the NHRA Heritage Series commences next weekend at the 51st March Meet.

The new Champion Speed Shop Space-Age streamliner

A sexy wheel for a stealthy streamliner; CSS rolls the new Gibson wheel

Champion Speed Shop stages...

Mike Chrisman licensing in John Rodeck's Paso Posse fueler

AA/Fueler Brad Thompson, before popping a blower later in the day

Mike McLennan boils the hides in Mike Fuller's fueler

Dennis Taylor shaking out Gary Messenger's "Future Flash" Nitro Funny Car

Kris Krabill set Low ET for the Funny Cars

Mendy Fry smokin' the baloneys in McCain's Bomb Squad '73 Duster...

... then reflects in the shut down area....

Sean Bellemeur pinch-hit for Troy Green in the High Speed entry; car ran like a bat out of hell

nitro funny car leaves some clutch dust

Hey! You can't take a picture of that!

Adam Sorokin and Bobby McLennan in discourse

(pictures by Cole Coonce)

The new “Where The Pavement Ends” column is up on Drag Racing Online: “The Day of the Deluge, and Survival of the Unfittest.”

If the Winternationals at Pomona are any indication, drag racing is in a world of hurt….

An excerpt of the piece: “Is it just the economy and the weather? Or is part of the problem that those nitromaniacs who once lived for Top Fuel have found less and less to relate to? In the interest of safety when it comes to Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars, there has been a neutering of nitro percentages the last few years and now an emasculation of the distance of the drag strip from 1/4 mile to 1000 feet.”

More here:   “The Day of the Deluge, and Survival of the Unfittest” — CC

I saw my first 1000′ drag racing “competition” and “qualifying exhibitions” last weekend… and after timing malfunctions and a general dour mood, let’s just say watching Arley Langlo running over his parachute was the most entertaining and perversely soul-satisfying occurrence of the qualifying…

Sundry photos from Tuesday’s rain-delayed eliminations follow…

(words and photos by Cole Coonce)

Antron Brown in the his Top Fuel pit at Pomona

Top Fuel driver Tony Schumacher at Pomona

Gary Densham, "Teacher's Pet"

Gary Densham and Jim Head b.s. in the Funny Car staging lanes

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 — After the deluge, a fresh-out-rehab Chris Martin visits the NHRA Press Room. (Martin is sporting a Jumbo’s Clown Room t-shirt, no less!)

NHRA Winternationals.  Top Fuel 2nd round: Mike Strasburg a no-show against Antron Brown; Brown’s dragster shook so hard, the parachute came out 200′ into the run…. Doug Kalitta 3.82, 273 beat Cory Mac;s 3.88, 296; Steve Chrisman posts a cylinder-dropping 5.15 v. Morgan Lucas victorious 3.88, 305 mph…. Bernstein turns a 3.83 311 beating Tony Schumacher 3.86, 313 mph… end of TF quarter-finals…

Below: As Top Fuel begins its competition, staging lane worker Harold Owens keeps the show moving…

Funny Car 2nd round: Jim Head v. Ashley Force: w/ a gnarsome holeshot, Heads gets way out of the groove but turns a damn-near-guardwall-scrubbing 4.09 and beats Ashley’s 4.05; Del Worsham can’t turn over the motor (crossed plug wires!) and finally lights it as Densham is ready to stage… Densham goes 4.12, 297 over Worsham who runs 4.27 with a puff of smoke at 600′ and a mere 214 mph… Beckman vs. Hight… Beckman red-lit and goes 5.07 to Hight’s 4.09 at a reported 235 mph (?)… (methinks the left lane mph light is still popcorn….) Ron Capps goes 4.08 over a dead fat, cylinder-dropping Tasca, who turns a losing 4.25… end of FC Quarter-Finals….

Nitro-burning drag strip action from the 17th Annual California Hot Rod Reunion. Nitro Funny cars, Top Fuel dragsters, et al.

(photos by Cole Coonce)