Linda Vaughn gets the credit (or, some would say, the blame) for introducing me to drag racing.

I was a sportswriter at the Philadelphia Daily News in the mid-and-late 1970s, and while Linda’s home was in California, Hurst Performance Inc. (and her boss, Jack Duffy, a great PR man) was near me in the suburb of Warminster Township. So I’d see Miss Hurst Golden Shifter pretty often, at the Indianapolis and Daytona 500s, races at Pocono and Trenton and Watkins Glen, car shows, awards dinners and cocktail parties.

“Michael, when are you coming to a drag race?” Linda often asked me. Atco was the second racetrack I’d visited as a kid (Langhorne was first -- A.J. Foyt won) but I’d never been to an NHRA national event. So, at Linda’s urging, I headed to Englishtown in 1979. Linda told me I’d find her at the Hurst display adjacent to the pits, but she would have been impossible to miss in a breathtakingly bright red top and shorts, adding heat to an already sunshiny afternoon. Linda immediately began to introduce me to every racer in sight. Including some guy named Wally Parks.

Linda Vaughn gets the credit (or, some would say, the blame) for introducing me to drag racing.

I was a sportswriter at the Philadelphia Daily News in the mid-and-late 1970s, and while Linda’s home was in California, Hurst Performance Inc. (and her boss, Jack Duffy, a great PR man) was near me in the suburb of Warminster Township. So I’d see Miss Hurst Golden Shifter pretty often, at the Indianapolis and Daytona 500s, races at Pocono and Trenton and Watkins Glen, car shows, awards dinners and cocktail parties.

“Michael, when are you coming to a drag race?” Linda often asked me. Atco was the second racetrack I’d visited as a kid (Langhorne was first -- A.J. Foyt won) but I’d never been to an NHRA national event. So, at Linda’s urging, I headed to Englishtown in 1979. Linda told me I’d find her at the Hurst display adjacent to the pits, but she would have been impossible to miss in a breathtakingly bright red top and shorts, adding heat to an already sunshiny afternoon. Linda immediately began to introduce me to every racer in sight. Including some guy named Wally Parks.

Linda long ago earned her deserved status as an auto racing legend, in her own way, right there with Don Garlits and Shirley Muldowney and anyone else you could name. Yes, she was Miss Pure Firebird (and other titles) before becoming Miss Hurst, but to call Linda just a beauty queen would be like describing Garlits as some guy who raced.

She learned to become an accomplished marketer, saleswoman and public relations representative. She appeared on TV and in the movies. She was featured in Sports Illustrated in 1983, a story of such magnitude even Roger Penske said he wished he could get that much ink. She is right up there with Princess Diana and any supermodel as among the world’s most photographed women. She became a friend and confidant to drivers and their families. She’s in several Halls of Fame. She probably has been in more victory lanes than anyone on Earth. And she remains one of racing’s greatest ambassadors.

I caught-up with Linda in January in Scottsdale at the Barrett-Jackson classic car auction. She was there primarily to auction off two black-and-gold special edition 2014 “LV-1” Chevrolet Camaros. “We’re selling a pair,” Linda said from the stage, to much laughter and applause. Only 500 will be built, 400 two-door coupes, and 100 convertibles. They brought in $280,000 for Dreamakers.

Q: You’ll always be associated with the Hurst Oldsmobile, so how did this honor of having a car named for you happen?

A: It was a little dream come true for me through Jack Watson (known as “The Shifty Doctor” at Hurst.) He came up with the idea and we went to Chevrolet and I was ecstatic that Chevrolet approved to have my name on the Chevrolet Camaro. I’m really thrilled and flattered and humbled. Of course, I will own one. I can’t make up my mind on the color: black and gold or white and gold. I’m leaning toward white for the hot days.

Q: How did you become interested in drag racing?

A: The very first race I ever went to was a drag race. I went down to Yellow River Dragstrip. I just flipped over drag racing. My very first boyfriend, Jimmy Newberry, the first boy I ever kissed, had a ’57 Chevrolet and he let me drive it and drag race it. In the summertime we ran on the airstrip and we would do little benefits for the Lions Club and I’d get to drive. Then, I got to meet Big Daddy Don Garlits in the ‘60s. He was over doing his engine at Grady Pickle’s house and it was two doors down from my grandma’s house in Dalton, Ga.

Q: How did you learn PR, marketing, advertising, sales and all the other business elements?

A: With the help of George Hurst and Jack Duffy and then I took some schooling for marketing. I absolutely fell in love with the industry. I had to learn it all and I was kind of a self-educated woman out there. It wasn’t easy. I did it by working and working. I guess it got my competition juices flowing. I took my costume off after the races and put on my business meeting clothes and earned it. When you work with people they’ll tell you want they want for their car. And then I’d bring that back to the factory and tell them what the people asked for. If you give the people want they want, and make it right, it’s going to last and be successful and that’s what George Hurst did.   

Q: Wally Parks presented you several awards from NHRA. Do you still have them?

A: You walk in my house and you’ll see my Wallys. I have three. One for the public relations award presented to me by Wally and Barbara Parks for all the PR that I’ve done promoting drag racing. Even at the Indy 500 I’d talk drag racing on the radio and television. And then the person of the year award, which was fabulous, and another award for lifetime achievement.

Q: What’s your favorite Shirley Muldowney story?

A: Shirley used to stay at my house and she can cook, too. Shirley and I still are great friends. She won Columbus, Ohio and she was the first woman drag racer to win Top Fuel and the championship so I gave her a great big kiss on the cheek. She was the first woman driver I kissed in the winner’s circle!

Q: Courtney Force looks like she could be a superstar on-and-off the track. What’s your opinion of Courtney?

A: She is a superstar. She’s beautiful. She photographs well. She can drive the heck out of a race car. She’s got it in her blood because of her father and her sisters. They’re a very competitive family. I saw her at the Indy 500 last year and we took pictures with Dario (Franchitti). She deals with the public quite well. She did do the sexy layout (ESPN the Magazine), which was a little risque, but it didn’t hurt her. The word I use for her is she’s focused.  

Q: Hurst Performance Inc. has been sold several times over the years. Are you still officially associated with Hurst?

A: I’m still Miss Hurst Golden Shifter. I still do some appearances. I’m doing quite a few car shows with GM. I’m booked a lot this summer.

Q: What’s the most events, including races, car shows and awards dinners, you’ve done in one year?

A: I did 123 events in 1972. I don’t know how I lived through 1972. James Garner drove the pace car for us at the Indy 500 and I did stock car racing, Indy Car racing, drag racing, off-road racing, Formula One racing. That was the busiest year of my life and probably the most exciting.

Q: No one can forget your salute to the fans when you rode on the back of a convertible next to a giant Hurst shifter during the parade lap before big races. Did you ever fall off?

A: One year, coming off the fourth turn at the Daytona 500, a wire broke. There’s three wires that held the shifter up. The one in the middle broke and it swung to the left and I jumped in the back seat. So I never fell off but I fell with it and I fell in love with it, too.

Q: How’s your health?

A: I’m doing well. My heart is doing very well. But I do have some issues and I’m going back into the hospital Thursday (January 23d) and we’re hoping the stent will help the circulation in my right leg. (Update: A stent was placed in her right leg and in two months she’ll get one in her left leg.) But I do have four stents now, one is in my kidney, so we’re keeping a close eye on that. I have to eat right and drink the right amount of liquids. I’ve got to stay focused like Courtney does.

Follow Michael Knight on Twitter: @SpinDoctor500