Story by Jim Hill James Hankins always thought of himself as a local, little guy racer, one of the tens of thousands of weekend warriors that fill the staging lanes at drag strips across the nation. His modesty notwithstanding, Hankins’ lifetime and career achievements touched tens of thousands of individuals. This restless stamina reached far […]
Story by Jim Hill That insatiable drag racing bug chomped down on Rick Holladay in 1964. At the time Rick was a student at the University of Arizona. On a whim, he took his daily driver, a ‘64 GTO, to the local track at Tucson. Holladay was at once thrilled by the speed rush, power-shifting […]
Story by Jim Hill As he nears his 75th birthday, Roy Johnson looks in both the rear-view mirror and to the future. He sees both with a simple, yet crystal-clear perspective. Not many men who have reached three-quarters of a century have the unique life story, or lifestyle of the Greenville, Tennessee resident. For much […]
East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame 2017 Inductees 7 East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame list of honored inductees includes racers, three famed race car chassis builders, a world-class afamous “Jet Car Bob” Smith Pioneer Jet Dragster Driver J. Ed Horton Race Car Chassis Builder Randy Stewart Sportsman Drag Racer, Fabricator (Posthumous) […]
Story by Jim Hill The Discovery Channel’s “Street Outlaws” series is enormously popular, and one of Discovery’s highest rated shows. This success is in spite of their “street races” being staged on totally controlled street surfaces with the same safety provisions of a sanctioned drag strip. Of course, strict safety standards are mandatory to satisfy DSC-TV’s […]
Story by Jim Hill For a car-crazy teenager in the 1950’s, the “stuff dreams are made of” were not a black painted statue of the deadly Maltese Falcon. Instead, those dreams often began amid the rust, dust and hoped-for diamonds of a local junkyard. Back in the day they were called “junkyards”, not politically-correct “auto recyclers”! Monroeville, Pennsylvania’s […]
ECDT Hall of Fame Story by Jim Hill This is a story about a kid from Cleveland grabbing a guitar, learning a few chords, then going forward until he gains considerable fame in the music world. That’s what happened with Gene Schwartz, and along the way, his other love, building and racing fast cars, created for him […]
Story by Jim Hill The formidable husband and wife drag racing team of Steve and Brenda Taylor created a powerful one-two competition punch that often found both members of the Taylor household taking home dual Eliminator wins! That one-two punch lasted for more than three decades, until May 20, 2007, when Steve Taylor passed away. […]
