colecoonce’s NITRONIC RESEARCH

An excellent article by Brian Lohnes on bangshift.com about the state of “nostalgia” funny car racing. Definitely sums up the conundrum facing those who love and race vintage-style machines. If one defines a pursuit as “nostalgia,” it must face its own obsolescence, because the pursuers get older and die and those born to replace the deceased have no idea what to feel nostalgic for…

Or as HIGH PERFORMANCE author Bob Post said recently in his foreword to Top Fuel Wormhole, “(A)s compelling as this is, nostalgia racing of course harbors the seeds of its own destruction. This is because people with ‘the desire to return to a former time’ (that’s what nostalgia means) will soon be gone, and one imagines that all the 1960s slingshot dragsters that have been lovingly restored or recreated will go through another cycle of consignment to the garage rafters. Perhaps most sadly, there will be nobody left who cares about sitting in one of these silent machines to go vroom, vroom….’”

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