From the time of the cave man till now man has been fascinated with speed. Og and Grog saddled up a couple of Mastadons while scantily clad Druzilla got ready to drop the palm leaves to see who could get to the finish line first.
Since that time the mindset is still the same but the mode of locomotion has improved vastly.
Drag racing started humbly on dry lake beds, open expanses of deserted areas, and even the main street of your home town. At first regular cars were tinkered with to increase the speed and power. Eventually, new ideas had to be formed as street rods hit the limit on speed improvement and the ability of the stock parts to handle the stress.I was looking for more information and found it here.
The first organized drag racing took place in California when Wally Parks formed the Southern California Timing Association. That was when the emphasis moved to running against the clock. The NHRA held it’s first race in 1953 on the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds parking lot.
Since the first 100mph race in the 1930′s the sport has come along way. New designs and improvements have increased the speed up to 337 mph and cover the quarter mile in just over 4 seconds.