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It's important to keep in mind, as we modestly excuse ourselves, that
the Southern California Timing Association [SCTA] which promoted nearly
all the half-mile drag races at Riverside, did a very primitive job
of reporting these events. With the exception of elapsed times, speeds,
and drivers and hometowns, no descriptions of the way the cars raced
or any in-depth tech information was provided. As for the Top Eliminator
or Top Fuel class we're assuming they raced heads up based on eyewitness
accounts, but winners on a number of occasions ran as much as a second
and a half slower than the losers, which insinuates a handicap. Hence,
writing a history on this wild little venture proved to be like getting
information on the core matter of Pluto. A neat trick, at the least.
Drag racing has a lot of weird old heirlooms in its historical closet.
There have been race cars with three and four engines, V-8-powered motorcycles,
dirt dragstrips, rocket-powered go-karts, triple-engined Funny Cars,
and even half-mile long dragstrips.
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