Shop Tour - Hardcore Drag Racing

  Mark McGuire has been a truck driver for over 40+ years, currently he hauls heavy equipment. In the past he did a 10-year stretch driving a transporter for Dick Simon racing and he was also on the pit crew. Mark was just a child when his father was drag racing and said that's how he got hooked on racing. Mark was just 19 years old when he bought his first race car, it was a 1969 SS Chevelle dirt track car. He was lucky enough to land a sponsorship from a local California radio station 99.1, which helped with expenses.  He had fun, but after three races he realized that asphalt was for racing. He went on to race circle track cars for the next 30+ years, from street stocks to super late-models.      The Nova wagon didn't start out this pretty, this is a before photo of what this killer looked like in a previous life.           With help from Gilbert "Mel" Meltvedt the car was transformed, the Nova was named "The Little Insane Wagon ". When the wagon was reb

                                                                 Wicked Willys                                                              I tried to the best of my ability to maintain a certain look when these cars ruled the strip. (J.Andrew Stepka)   J.Andrew's 1941 Willys was acquired from a guy in Long Island, N.Y. It was turned into a Pro-Street car during its long life but it was a steel body and that was all that mattered to him. The frame was built by The Willys Works in upstate NY, but Andrew had plans to turn this old Pro-streeter into a ground pounding gasser from the glory years of drag racing.                                             These two photos are dated 1964 and 1966, they were taken at Connecticut Dragway and I was told this was my car.      Within the first 6-months a reverse restoration of sorts took place, anything modern was removed. Andrew got rid of the 4-link rear suspension, A/C, power seats, power windows, remote door openers and automatic Th-

                                                       Brad McBride is the builder and driver of this 1963 Type 3 Fastback, known as Blitzkrieg. Photo credit Jason Reiss/PDRA   Brad McBride is the builder and driver of this super cool and fast Type 3 Volkswagen. Brad has been around racing his whole life. His father owned land that's now the pit area beside Piedmont Dragway in North Carolina. His father raced a roadster and later raced a top alcohol funny car called the Starr Rider well into the 1990's. So you could say it was in Brad's DNA that he was destined to be a drag racer. We asked Brad how he started racing and what his earliest memories were. He stated the first thing he raced was 20" Schwinn 5-speed bike when he was 12 or 13 years old.  Even early on he was a fabricator and equipped the bike with wheelie bars and a parachute. He used and old mattress spring as a launcher and sewed up the chute and pack himself.      Brad would race the other 'track-kids

  The Lucas Oil division 1 meet was a hot one, It was 86 degrees and sunny. It was held at Maple Grove Raceway in the heart of God's country, Mohnton, PA.   The turn out was out standing, the pits were packed and people filled the stands. This shows that people are still interested in the sport. The Pro mod class had 32 cars show up for 16 spots, I haven't seen that since the late 1980's  when Englishtown had 32 funny cars.                                                                                   The staging lanes during the last qualifying session on Saturday .                                                                                            Photos and videos by, Mike Salemme CR. 2024                                                                     Travis Hess does some amazing paint jobs !                                                                             More photos to follow soon!