Shop Tour - Hardcore Drag Racing

  Check out our new tech article page for some performance tips & tricks for your race car. If you have any ideas of what you would like to see just send me a message.  -Mike

What's in The Garage?  with mark francis !        Last month we posted the story of Mark and his Monza named "Louie the Lizard", a big tire street & strip car powered by a hot small-block Chevy. In this edition of What's In The Garage, we are going to showcase some of Mark's past and current build projects. As we learned he has a passion for the Chevrolet Monza, either in sedan or hatchback form Mark has owned a few of each and he has a few in his stable now . Each one is in a different stage in the build process . Buckle up and hold on as we take a look into Mark's Garage!    One of Mark's first builds was this 1978 Monza. Mark said that he bought while he was in high school (1986) from his best friend.      Mark tells us in his own words about his new purchase. It was a V6 roller that he blew the up before I bought it. I bought a 307 from a guy that worked in a machine shop, he built it for the NHRA Super Stock class bu...

        We did a story on John Randell and his rear engine dragster in the past and now we are going to step back in time and go in-depth with him about his new (FED) front engine dragster that's named Re-Entry !   Did you know that John became the first Type 1 Diabetic to drive a Front Engine Dragster! Well on March 2nd, 2022 he created  history at Bakersfield, C.A. where he got licensed!    John tells us in his own words what transpired after that life changing event. On March 3rd, 2022, I qualified for my first March Meet! However, it wasn’t the history or the achievement I wanted, it was the opportunity to unveil Re-Entry!    Re-Entry was an altered my Father Jim Randell and his best friend Terry Roche ran in the early 70s! In 1972 Terry took the car to St. George,U.T. for a race and unfortunately ended up being the last race for Re-Entry. Terry passed away in 2008 and my brother Greg Randell did Re-Entry 2 on my nephews Jr. ...

  Welcome to another installment of Women in Drag Racing. This week we had a chance to get to know Taylor Vetter. She comes from a family that has Drag Racing in their DNA. By day Taylor works for the city of North Las Vegas as an assistant to the city Director , on the weekends she races in different classes of the NHRA. She races in Top Alcohol Dragster, Top Dragster, and the Super Comp classes.  Currently she is the only Woman racing a blown alcohol Dragster and the only woman to go over 280 MPH, which makes her the fastest female  in a Blown Alcohol Dragster class. Taylor started racing JR. Dragsters when she was only eight years old and transitioned into a full scale car when she was just twenty. At that time she started bracket racing and started to race in Super Comp, then she moved up to Top Dragster for a couple of seasons. Taylor set her goals high and she achieved them, she licensed in Top Alcohol in 2020 and she's now competing in a Blown (supercharged) T...

  ******* Update 2024 , Ida will be joining the NHRA tour in the USA ******  Driving a Top Fuel Dragster.  Shop Tour was the first news outlet to bring Ida's story to the United States two years ago! Ida is cool and confident behind the wheel of her Top Fuel Dragster, in her first FIA event of 2022 she set a new European record of 3.782 seconds making her the first team to make a 3.7 second pass in Europe.     Ida Zterström is from Aland Islands, Finland and even though she is under 30 years old she already has had an amazing career. This is her twentieth year competing in a Drag Racing category, as she was licensed to race junior dragsters at just eight years old.   When Ida was only three weeks old she would travel with her family to different race tracks. She grew up in her fathers workshop and at the racetrack. Her father raced in Pro-Stock and Pro-Modified and also worked with other race teams.  He was her biggest influence and encouraged h...