Fuel and Guts

Until 1949, there was no such thing as drag racing. There were road races, oval races, dry lakes time trials, even boardtrack races, but nobody had considered sanctioning an event that simply put two cars head to head and sent them down a straight stretch of pavement to see who got to the end first. Luckily, a confluence of events and circumstances combined to create what is arguably the most exciting form of motorsport on the planet today. Young men and women came home from World War II with pockets full of money--and heads full of technical knowledge, which they quickly applied to their cars. Southern California's mild climate provided them a year-around laboratory in which to experiment. And most importantly, a handful of devoted kids turned what was once an innocent, back streets pastime into today's multi-billion-dollar drag racing industry. This is their story, and best of all, it's told in their own words.