The History of Drag Racing
By : Owen Pierce Mathews
Born on the backroads of America in the post World War II years, drag
racing's roots were planted on dry lake beds like Muroc in California's
Mojave Desert, where hot rodders had congregated since the early 1930s
and speeds first topped 100 mph.
One could
even argue that drag racing was born in Goltry, Okla., in 1913, with
the birth of Wally Parks, who nearly four decades later would
found drag racing's most successful and
influential sanctioning body.
When
Parks became editor of the monthly enthusiast magazine Hot Rod, he had
the forum and the power to form the National Hot Rod
Association in 1951 to "create order from chaos" by instituting safety
rules and performance standards that helped legitimize the sport. He
was its first president.
