Tony Thacker: 75 Years of the Hot Rod Industry

I got my start in this business in 1962. Somebody on my paper route subscribed to HOT ROD magazine.

I'd sit on the curb under grey British skies surrounded by grey British cars reading about red and yellow cars under California blue skies. I was hooked. In 1963, the unlikely named Dante Duce shipped the Mooneyes dragster to England to run at the Brighton Speed Trials. He was found guilty but not as guilty as Mickey Thompson who, not to be outdone, shipped out the Harvey Aluminum Spl., and muscled his way onto the program.

The Royal Automobile Club forbade side-by-side runs but the pair blew away the Brits at Brighton and M/T set the hay bales on fire-bless him. In a flash of chrome, tire smoke, and burning hay, the UK said howdy doody to drag racing. I was one of those adolescents hooked on nitro.

It took a long time to find a job in the industry where there was no industry. The industry in Europe was roundy-round racing and F1-not my cuppa. However, eventually, I wheedled my way onto a magazine, and I'm still writing for more-or-less the same money it paid back in 1978. No matter, I'm not in it for the money.