There are multiple types of stories in drag racing. Those you can tell, and those you shouldn’t. Then there are those you tell to win a trophy.

For almost a decade, some of drag racing’s greatest storytellers came together for a good old-fashioned yarn-spinning competition where the first liar almost always took the prize. The scary part about it was that the stories were accurate with some embellishments.

Over the next couple of weeks, we plan to bring you the best of these stories, some in word and some in video. - Editor

There’s no question Marty Robertson will have his racing plate full in 2023.

Robertson has competed in everything from Radial vs. the World to Pro Stock to No Prep Kings. Now he has built three Pro Mods to race this year, all designed for different sanctioning bodies.

“We have a very big season planned,” Robertson said in a press release. “I’ve got a Pro Boost car built for PDRA, and we’re running a full schedule to win a championship. I’ve got an NHRA-legal car built to run a full season of NHRA to win a championship. And I’ve got an ultra-lightweight outlaw car to run at any event where they have lighter rules on weights and power.”

With the NFL playoffs heating up this weekend and the start of the NHRA 2023 Camping World Drag Racing Series around the corner, attention is rising on both sports. At the end of last year NHRA Top Fuel driver Justin Ashley was a guest on New York Giants David Tyree’s new podcast Catch the Moment to talk drag racing, football and performing at an elite level in sports and life. Ashley, the 28-year-old professional racecar driver and team owner shared what attracted him to the sport and how one of his goals is to one day leave the sport better than when he entered.

As former sportsman world champion Monty Bogan Jr. sees it, if you're going to be busy, you ought to make it worthwhile.

Bogan, a former IHRA Top Stock champion and Stock/Super Stock standout, made known his plans to travel from NHRA's Division 2 to race in the Rooftec NHRA D4 Comp Eliminator Bonus Fund.

Bogan plans to drive the H/Super Modified Automatic Camaro of Lee Sharp and Tim Freeman in chasing the richest payday that Competition Eliminator has ever seen.

Three-time NHRA champion Larry Dixon will return to Australia to race for Rapisarda Autosport International at round four of the Burson Auto Parts Australian Top Fuel Championship, Sydney Dragway, January 27-28.
 
Dixon will join RAI regulars Damien Harris and Wayne Newby.

Dixon last raced in Australia at the opening round of the ATFC championship in January 2022 when he substituted for Western Australian Harris, who was sidelined due to Government border closures.

Lyle Barnett doesn't want the credit, although he deserves it.

On September 24, 2015, at South Georgia Motorsports Park, he experienced one of the worst fires in doorslammer drag racing history, leaving him with third-degree burns to his face, hands, and feet. He also ended up in a battle for his life.

As Barnett so eloquently puts it, a day earlier, he believed, "I was ten feet tall and bulletproof."

Rick Jackson, a longtime highly successful Top Alcohol Funny Car owner in NHRA, passed away Jan. 16.

Jackson, a former drag boat racing owner, transitioned into the Top Alcohol Funny Car ranks and had great success with drivers including Tony Bartone (2009-2013), John Lombardo Jr. (2014-18) and Shane Westerfield (2019-2022).

“Rick was a cool guy,” Westerfield said. “I watched from the outside for years from when he was boat racing when I was a little kid at the races. He had a Pro Gas Flat he raced, and he always had the professional look. Everything was classy in the pits. He moved to the upper-class Alcohol Flat and I watched him progress and then when he went to the Funny Car thing, he carried over his professionalism.

We snagged these shots of Darryl Hubbard's west coast-based Pro Modified Camaro a few days ago. We are told this new machine, which was built by Jerry Bickel Race Cars could see some action on the NHRA tour as well as other select West Coast events. 

Scotty Cannon will be the first to admit there were many demons on his back when he left driving in the first decade of the 2000s, primarily for pain and health reasons. Almost two decades later, he's back with a greater passion than the one that fueled his six IHRA Pro Modified championships. Those hard-fought championships, which he made look easy at times, were the catalyst for his appointment as the first Pro Modified driver into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame.

"I'd like to clear some things up," Cannon said on the CompetitionPlus Power Hour. "When I got hurt in '97, the year before I went to Australia, which was the year before I had Oakley, I was on a 14 or 15-hour flight within two weeks after surgery. I flew over there, and I raced. The whole time I was in Australia, my doctor didn't even know I was there. I was afraid to tell anybody, but looking back on it, I should have had more faith in my sponsors and just told them I couldn't race. I probably should have taken a year off and gotten better. That was one of the bad decisions I made."

The legendary Tim Wilkerson shares how he got started in the racing and engine building trade. The current NHRA Funny Car owner/driver shares some great stories from his long (and still going) career.

For more great engine tech, check out @EnginePerformanceExpo, which returns LIVE on YouTube on January 13th & 14th, 2023.

For more episodes of the Hidden Horsepower podcast, check out the full Hidden Horsepower playlist. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM

For more on Lake Speed Jr, check out @lakespeedjr.304