Bristol Dragway’s storied his history has been captured in the pages of a new book compiled by one of the Tri-Cities area’s finest photojournalists.

David McGee has followed drag-racing on the hallowed grounds of Thunder Valley since its inception in the mid-sixties. He worked for many years with the Bristol Herald-Courier as a reporter and photographer before moving on to serve for four years as editor of the IHRA’s Drag Review publication.

In that time, McGee grew even closer to the aura Bristol Dragway presented. Two decades later, he’s invoking memories for many, including himself.

“It took about a year-and-a-half to make it all happen,” McGee said. “The most difficult part about it all was narrowing down which images to use. We were limited in terms of page count.”

McGee’s Bristol Dragway features 200 pictures from the initial construction of the facility until today’s modern look. Narrowing down to that amount proved the toughest task. McGee says he sorted through 20,000 images before settling on the current content for the 128-page book.

“Quite honestly, we could have done a magazine that was three times the size,” McGee said.

With only 200 making the final cut, another 19,800 remain unpublished. Thoughts of a sequel come to mind, although McGee would prefer to see how this one fares on the marketplace first.

“There could be one,” McGee said. “We’ll see how this one goes.”

The book will be available later this month in all Bristol stores as well as on Amazon.com, Books-a-Million.com and Barnes and Noble.com. The book is published by Arcadia Publishers in Charleston, SC.

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