Ed Justice Jr. BLOG

Fuel and Guts: The Birth of Top Fuel Drag Racing by my good friend Tom Madigan (we've known each other for about 40 years!). He was selected by the publishing house Motorbooks to write this long overdue addition to the recorded history of drag racing. A short while ago he wrote another book, Edelbrock: Made in USA and won just about every award that an automotive author can. I own this and a copy of another book he wrote back in 1984 about Bill Stroppe called Boss: The Bill Stroppe Story. This book has been long out-of-print and sells for over $100.00 now. Pretty amazing when you consider it originally sold for $13.95 and it's a paperback book. FUEL & GUTS: THE BIRTH OF TOP FUEL DRAG RACING is not the first book on drag racing that Tom has written. The loner: the story of a drag racer which was about Tony Nancy, a well-known and well-loved early drag racer. This book is available on the second-hand market, but again it goes for as high as $180.00! Bottom line, Motorbooks picked the perfect guy to write on the subject of Top Fuel Drag Racing because he was THERE! In addition, it's obvious that people put a great deal of value in his work.

So the question is how do I fit into this? Well, Tom contacted me and asked that I contribute some of my early drag racing photography to this book. I was very excited to work with my friend, knowing that saying yes was easier than going through thousands of negatives looking for shots. You have to realize that I have not looked at some of these negatives in 20 years. I honestly have been just too busy running Justice Brothers and shooting current racing. Long story short, I printed up some shots and sent them to Tom in the nick-of-time, about nine months after his first request. The cover of the finished product pictured here is the result of Tom's efforts, with a small amount of help from me and a whole lot of our friends. Guys like Steve Reyes, Don Brown, Jere Alhadeff, Bob McClurg, Eric 'Ric' Rickman, Ralph Guldahl, Jr., Dave Wallace, Jr. and a whole lot more. I understand there is a very nice credit list at the back of the book. The few I've listed here are a few of the guys I shot with on a weekly basis at tracks in Southern California.

I'm really proud of Tom's finished product and am really excited that this history was recorded and now can be enjoyed by anyone who gets a copy of the book. The period covered in this book was an incredible time and none of us really knew what we were witnessing. I'm sure glad I got to be there!

This book is a real keeper for the serious drag racing fan!