Nostalgia drag racing all weekend in Beaver Springs, PA Located about an hour's drive north of Harrisburg, PA, Beaver Springs Dragway is a dragstrip with lots of heart. The crew running the show goes out of their way to make you feel like part of the family. Their advertising slogan is "Nobody does it better!" and I would have to say that's definitely not false advertising! The "Beav" is the perfect location for Gasser Magazine's Gasser Reunion that was held June 10-12. We hit the road early to make the 3 hour drive from our home base in WV and it rained the entire trip! When we arrived, the spectators' parking field had an inch of standing water. Do you ever get the feeling that maybe you are wasting your time making a long trip for nothing? Well, luckily that feeling for us was wrong and the sun was shining by 8:30am. Everyone was able to enjoy a full day of racing. Randy Campbell's 1950 "Full Metal Jacket" Studebaker sits in the pits drying after the early morning rain. The track crew did an excellent job getting the dragstrip prepared...

The Oregon Rally and an Intro to Rallying At the beginning of the automotive era, all auto races were rallies – dedicated race tracks simply didn’t exist, and paved roads were rare outside of cities. So the only way to race cars was to start at Point A and race to Point B. That’s what they did in 1894 – the challenge was to get yourself and your car from Paris to Rouen – a distance of some 79 miles. The winning car made it in 6 hours and 48 minutes – 3 hours and 30 minutes ahead of second place.  That made the average speed about 11 miles per hour. But there it was – an auto race that used unpaved roads to get from one place to another.  Almost 117 years later, the Oregon Trail Rally happened May 13-15 weekend at Portland International Raceway and on roads up in the Columbia Gorge near The Dalles.  The cars are a little bit faster, but the fundamentals of the race are the same – get your car, driver, and navigator from one place to another as fast as you...

Vintage Camaros, Mustangs, Chargers and AMC's on the Track MyRideisMe.com doesn't normally publish press releases, but since this is a track near and dear to me, I had to... plus, this just looks like a blast! 2011 Tour Begins with Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival, Infineon Raceway Los Angeles (May 16, 2011) -  The Big Boys are back June 3-5, 2011, at the Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival, being held at Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, CA. Bring the entire family for a day of incredible racing with the Historic Trans AM Racing Group. Featuring the original cars, the excitement and the noise you remember from the late ‘60s and early 70s Trans Am series. This exhibition race will bring back memories of the glory days of road racing. The original series drove auto makers to go faster, be louder and better than their competitors. Detroit’s battle cry of “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” correctly labeled an escalating new-car marketplace demanding affordable, high-performance automobiles, and the most popular American road racing series of all time. The Trans-Am Series thrilled racing enthusiasts four decades ago and significantly helped to change America’s mainstream automobile...

Drag Racing Art by Liz Northrup Liz Northrup is an artist and true hot rod and drag racing enthusiast. This article is written by her and features her newest hot rod art piece, the legendary "Motown Missile". -pikesan In the midst of looking for ideas on a project, I was referred to seek help from a fellow artist named Bill Stinson. Interestingly, I’ve learned that Bill has a unique past as a writer and cartoon artist for various hot rod magazines such as, ISCA's ‘Show Stopper’, ‘CARtoons’, and the original ‘Hot Rod DeLuxe’. Bill currently writes for ‘Cruis’news magazine’. Bill was kind enough to send me a few pictures of some of the most legendary drag cars in history. Out of that collection,  one car in particular caught my interest: the Motown Missile, a ‘70 Dodge Challenger. Being a Mopar fan, I was intrigued to learn more of it’s story. Bill is friends with Ted Spehar, who owned and built the Motown Missile. Teddy (as Bill likes to call him) is a master in building high performance engines and had extraordinary success with the Chrysler Hemi’s. Teddy was commissioned...

Track Day Racing - What you need to know Every car enthusiast wants to drive on a race track – whether it’s a chance to hit the oval, cut a great light at the strip, or test your skills at a road course, the allure of the race track is obvious: there are no cops, no stoplights, and no minivans to pull out in front of you. It’s just you and the pavement. And maybe some walls. Many clubs offer open track days, driver schools, and other events where you can get your car out on the race track. Some clubs require you to join up to participate, others are happy to take virtually anyone. If your club doesn’t do track days, just ask around and you’re sure to find at least one opportunity in your area. Fair Warning: Driving on a Race Track is Dangerous Before you sign up, there are three things you need to know: The first and most important thing to remember is that no matter how great your car drives and handles on the street, it’s likely to feel like a bowl of loose...

Bonneville Salt Flats Streamliner Well it's gonna be! Right now, it's a lesson in patience. Take a look at the "Maro Special" a dedicated Bonneville Salt Flats streamliner race car if there ever was one. Like most race cars on the "Great White Dyno" aka Bonneville, this one's got a great story and Bobby Moore is the perfect gentleman to tell the story. Just like with the World's Fastest Corvette owned by Bobby, going fast takes time. Bobby Moore was 15 when he built his first car, a 1933 fenderless Plymouth five window coupe that he found in a field. He's always enjoyed the thrill of speed and the many friends made during his racing career. So naturally, in 1996, Bobby was drawn to Bonneville as driver of the Hoyle-Dickenson-Moore A/FL (A size engine'd lakester). Then later in '96 he bought the old 219mph Doc Jefferey's A/GT Corvette. The team campaigned the car in 1997 where Bobby got alot of seat time and learned many humbling lessons at Bonneville. With the hardest speed lessons learned, in '98, he joined the 200mph Club with a record of 234.162 in A/GMS...

Rob's 1955 Chevy Gasser Hits the Goodguys Autocross As you know from the 1968 Shelby GT500-KR post I did, I love the autocross Goodguys puts on with their Arizona Spring Nationals Show in March. You can't beat AZ in March (see the folks wearing shorts in the pic below!) and you can't beat hot rods sliding sideways when they were built to be driven in a straight line. Case in point is Rob "thehazmatguy" and his 1955 Chevy Bel Air he just calls, "1955" in his personal garage here at MyRideisMe.com.  Looking at the car, it doesn't take long to notice the nod to Gassers of old. (Every Hot Rod Gasser Story at MyRideisMe.com) The slightly nose-up stance, fenderwell headers and plenty of punch from the ZZ4 Chevy under the hood linked to the compulsory manual box changing gears, this time in the form of a TKO600. Nuff to say, this car's sweet. When I saw Rob in line to run the autocross, I had to watch and his girlfriend, Ryan Marie took this video to show how Rob drove it hard!! [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R3RfMBL-fE[/youtube] . . But wait, there's more...

REAL 1968 Shelby GT500KR on the track  You've probably seen a 1968 Shelby GT500KR... it's easy to watch Barrett Jackson or the RM Auctions when they're on. If  you're a Mustang fan, you may have sought them out and seen a few.  You ever seen one this nice on the track? Todd Stevens has got balls! The autocross at the Goodguys Spring Nationals is the one thing about the March show that  better than our November show. I watched for a while as random hot rods, muscle cars and G-touring cars tore up the track, but when I saw my friend Todd sitting in his Shelby, I thought... WHAT?? (Knowing the cars Todd has, I knew not to ask if it was real) Here's what happened... I didn't have the camera gear to catch a shot of Todd in action, but the picture above shows the hard earned racing scars as proof.  When the big Shelby took right hand turns, I could see the old-style and correct looking Firestone Wide O Oval tires rolling over like they were about to come off. Not sure what the problem was, maybe...

Datsun 510 For Sale at Bringatrailer.com To start your "My Ride is Me" obsession, you need to find that perfect car. So where to look? Instead of searching through disorganized and slow loading classifieds sites, check out BringaTrailer.com. The name might sound like basket-case junkers that need a flat bed to pickup, but that's not it at all. Bringatrailer features everything from Obsure Fiat's and Opels to mainstream hot rods and performance import cars. A car I've wanted to own for a long time is the Datsun 510. Here's a couple that recently came up at BAT: This 1969 Datsun 510 has been a dedicated race car since the 70's and has the SCCA log book to prove it. With all the obvious upgrades visible, there's much more than meet the eye. The engine is a 2.0L Datsun with a dyno sheet reading 238HP. Gotta have it? It's a Bringatrailer Exclusive car, so you'll only find it for sale here: 1969 Datsun 510 For Sale Another BAT Exclusive Datsun 510 for sale is this beauty: This 1972 Datsun 510 sports the vintage BRE paint scheme and a NOS FJ20...

Team Force Wins Gatornationals TEAM JFR RACE REPORT 2nd of 22 races in the NHRA Full Throttle Series 42nd annual Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals Gainesville Raceway Gainesville, Florida March 13, 2011 * * * * Final round results from Sunday’s 42nd annual Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway, second race in the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series: FUNNY CAR – Mike Neff, Fishers, Ind., Castrol GTX Ford Mustang, 4.092, 310.48 mph, def. Cruz Pedregon, Brownsburg, Ind., Snap-On Toyota Camry, 7.819, 99.32 mph. TOP FUEL –Del Worsham, Chino Hills, Calif., Al-Anabi dragster, 3.858, 318.00 mph def. Tony Schumacher, Brownsburg, Ind., US Army  dragster, 3.866, 318.39 mph PRO STOCK – Jason Line, Mooresville, NC, Summit Pontiac GXP, 6.554, 211.96 mph def. Greg Greg Anderson, Mooresville, NC, Summit Pontiac GXP, 6.545, 212.43 mph PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE - Eddie Krawiec, Brownsburg, Ind., Harley Davidson V-Rod, 6.847, 197.08 mph def. Karen Stoffer, Gardnerville, NY, Geico Suzuki, Red-light DQ, 6.949,193.27 mph. * * * * CASTROL GTX’S NEFF WINS GATOR NATS GAINESVILLE, FL --- Mike Neff and his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang were hot on Saturday and they got hotter on Sunday...

Force Selected As Newest Inductee Into Texas Motorsports Hall Of Fame FORT WORTH, Texas (March 8, 2011) – John Force, one of drag racing’s most legendary figures, will add yet another racing accomplishment to his illustrious career resume when he becomes just the fourth NHRA racer inducted into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame. Force, a 15-time NHRA Funny Car champion (1990-‘91, ‘93-2002, ’04, ’06, ’10), will be honored Thursday, April 7, at the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame Gala held in the Speedway Club’s Grand Ballroom at Texas Motor Speedway during the Samsung Mobile 500 NASCAR doubleheader race weekend. Force’s induction will highlight an evening that recognizes the accomplishments of some of the biggest names in motorsports, all while benefitting Speedway Children’s Charities at Texas Motor Speedway. Others being recognized are seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Richard Petty; defending race winner of Texas Motor Speedway’s Samsung Mobile 500 and AAA Texas 500 Denny Hamlin; five-time Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson; four-time Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon; and veteran motorsports reporter Terry Blount. “Being inducted into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame is a great honor,” Force said....

2011 Winternationals Winner Robert Hight HIGHT MIXES LUCKY CHARM WITH FORD ONE APPROACH TO START SEASON 1-0 YORBA LINDA, CA (March 1, 2011) ---Minutes after Robert Hight and his Jimmy Prock tuned Auto Club Ford Mustang raced to a season opening win at the 51st annual Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals Hight was giving some of the credit to a lucky charm he picked up from a fellow Ford teammate last season. In honor of the Wood Brothers dominating performance at the Daytona 500 Hight raced all day with a commemorative coin Eddie and Len Wood gave him at Charlotte’s zMax Dragway in 2010. “I had a little good luck charm (Sunday) besides my daughter Autumn. The Wood Brothers gave me this (commemorative coin) last year,” said Hight a three-time Winternationals winner.  “It was a celebration of their 60 years of racing. They went out and won Daytona in the No. 21 car this year and they didn’t get lucky. They dominated kind of like John Force Racing did (on Sunday). This year is NHRA’s 60th anniversary.  It was cool as the day went on to look at that coin and to...