Over the next few months I’ll present a history of
the Northwind Top Fuel dragster of the 60s and a progress report as the
rebuilding of the car continues for a Pomona debut in November.

I had followed drag racing since I was in the eighth grade and by the time I
was 22 in 1965, I found myself heavily involved. Most of my learning experiences
were crafted through trips to places like Aurora and Scappoose, Oregon, as well
as Shelton in Washington state. Back then, I had hitch-hiked or bummed rides in
order to get to the races. I wanted to learn more.

Most of my time was spent photographing every car that traveled down the drag
strip with my Brownie camera. I spent many an hour standing in the grass
alongside the track. My insatiable desire for cars, and especially drag racing,
grew until I was able to get in close contact with the sport through a neighbor
of mine in North Portland.

Be careful what you wish for. It just might come
true.

It has for J.R. Todd, and the NHRA POWERade Series rookie is loving
it.

Todd is enjoying a quick rise to NHRA stardom this season. He just
wrapped up a successful Western Swing by winning two of the past three events -
both times against Top Fuel stalwart Tony Schumacher - and is the obvious
favorite for the Auto Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award,
which is annually presented to the NHRA Rookie of the Year.

He's living
out his dream.

Mike Castellana flexed his muscles with great
regularity last season, winning four of the last six IHRA national events en
route to his first career Knoll Gas-Torco Pro Modified World Championship.

This season Castellana has found the going a little tougher as he had not
visited the Winner’s Circle before the 25 th Annual Torco Racing Fuels Northern
Nationals at US 131 Motorsports Park. Things all came together for Castellana
during the Torco Pro Modified Shootout, however, as the Westbury, N.Y. resident
topped Quain Stott in the final to collect the $20,000 winner’s check. It was
the first significant victory for Castellana this season and, he hopes, a
springboard toward better things the rest of the season. His 6.141 at 232.31 mph
put him in front as Stott posted a 6.161/232.96.

“This feels great,” Castellana said. “We’ve kind of struggled this year and
it has nothing to do with nitrous cars or blower cars, we just kind of struggled
to find our combination that we had last year. Things really came together at
the right time this weekend. We’re thrilled with this. We needed a little shot
in the arm to get things going, now we feel like we have things headed in the
right direction. Hopefully we can keep it going.”

Castellana, one of two nitrous-powered cars in the field, went from the #3
seed to the championship. In the first round he squared off with the ’53
Corvette of Rick Distefano. He took advantage of lane choice against the
seventh-seeded Distefano, posting a 6.177 pass at 231.12 mph to top Distefano’s
tire-shaking pass.

Of the nearly 6000 powerplants prepared by Ed Pink since 1948, we figured
his most memorable to be some form of the nitro-burning Chrysler Hemi that
propelled him to international attention in the Sixties and Seventies.  Instead,
it’s a tiny German gas-burner from the Eighties, as Pink explains here ...

“Every business has its
peaks and valleys.  Mine started to go into a valley in the mid-Eighties, and we
had a pretty-good-sized nut to crack.  So we got involved in sports-car racing,
around 1987.  My old friend and drag-race customer, Jim Busby, had started
running a 962 Porsche in GTP, the ultimate IMSA prototype class.  One day he
called me up and asked, ‘Why don’t you do Porsches?’ 

“I said, Jim, we’ve never done a Porsche before; I don’t even know what the
inside of one of those things looks like.  He says, ‘An engine’s an engine. 
You can do it!  I’ve got strong connections with Porsche.  How about if I get
you to Germany, to their R&D center?’   I said, Well, that would sure
help.  So, he got me hooked up with them, and I spent two weeks in the engine
department.  That was quite an experience.