Scotty grew up in an area where most of the people enjoyed oval track racing, but he did not find that type of racing pleasing. He has a unique hairstyle by showing up on race day with a mohawk.[4] Cannon said, "I have had a Mohawk on and off for years. It started years ago when I would go the beach with my friends and we would Mohawk our hair just to have fun. During the racing seasons, I would Mohawk it and it seemed I would wear it more and more. It kind of stuck on me. I guess you could call it my trademark."
He started racing when he was 16. "I always had a natural love for drag racing, going straight and making the cars go as fast as they possibly could go," Cannon stated.[5]
Cannon was one of the most popular drag racer in IHRA when pro-mod became a professional category in 1990. He won 6 championships in the pro-mod class.[6] In 1998 cannon switched from IHRA to the National Hot Rod Association to a nitro-burning funny car. Then in 1999 Cannon was awarded rookie of the year in NHRA.[7] Cannon returned to IHRA Pro Modified in 2004. He currently drives a Top Fuel Dragster in IHRA Competition sponsored by Torco Race Fuels. His son, Scott Cannon Jr. drives a 1968 Pontiac Firebird Pro Mod, and was the 2007 IHRA World Champion.
Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. The race follows a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance, most commonly 1⁄4 mi, with a shorter, 1,000 ft distance becoming increasingly popular, as it has become the standard for Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars, where some major bracket races and other sanctioning bodies have adopted it as the standard. The 1⁄8 mi is also popular in some circles. Electronic timing and speed sensing systems have been used to record race results since the 1960s.
The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) is a drag racing governing body, which sets rules in drag racing and hosts events all over the United States and Canada. With over 40,000 drivers in its rosters, the NHRA claims to be the largest motorsports sanctioning body in the world.
Donald Glenn Garlits is an American race car driver and automotive engineer. Considered the father of drag racing, he is known as "Big Daddy" to drag racing fans around the world. A pioneer in the field of drag racing, he perfected the rear-engine Top Fuel dragster, an innovation motivated by the loss of part of his foot in a dragster accident. This design was notably safer since it put most of the fuel processing and rotating parts of the dragster behind the driver. The driver was placed in front of nearly all the mechanical components, thus protecting him and allowing him to activate a variety of safety equipment in the event of catastrophic mechanical failure or a fire. Garlits was an early promoter of the full-body, fire-resistant Nomex driving suit, complete with socks, gloves, and balaclava.
Funny Car is a type of drag racing vehicle and a specific racing class in organized drag racing. Funny cars are characterized by having tilt-up fiberglass or carbon fiber automotive bodies over a custom-fabricated chassis, giving them an appearance vaguely approximating manufacturers' showroom models. They also have the engine placed in front of the driver, as opposed to dragsters, which place it behind the driver.
Hot rods are typically American cars that might be old, classic, or modern and that have been rebuilt or modified with large engines optimised for speed and acceleration. One definition is: "a car that's been stripped down, souped up and made to go much faster." However, there is no definition of the term that is universally accepted and the term is attached to a wide range of vehicles. Most often they are individually designed and constructed using components from many makes of old or new cars, and are most prevalent in the United States and Canada. Many are intended for exhibition rather than for racing or everyday driving.
Shirley Muldowney, also known professionally as "Cha Cha" and the "First Lady of Drag Racing", is an American auto racer. She was the first woman to receive a license from the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) to drive a Top Fuel dragster. She won the NHRA Top Fuel championship in 1977, 1980, and 1982, becoming the first person to win two and three Top Fuel titles. She won a total of 18 NHRA national events.
The International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) is the second-largest drag racing sanctioning body after the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA).
Pro stock is a class of drag racing featuring "factory hot rods". The class is often described as "all motor", due to the cars not using any form of forced induction such as turbocharging or supercharging, or other enhancements, like nitrous oxide, along with regulations governing the modifications allowed to the engines and the types of bodies used.
The Junior Dragster or Jr Dragster is a scaled-down version of the top fuel dragster. The cars were developed in New Zealand in 1988, with classes developed by the New Zealand Hot Rod Association. The National Hot Rod Association in the USA began sanctioning the class in 1991, with the JDRL. The JDRL is a division of the NHRA, which consists of two different dragster classes, traditional Jr. Dragster having a wheelbase between 90-150 inches and a single-cylinder, five brake horsepower Briggs & Stratton engine, and the larger Jr. Comp dragster being 150-190 inches in wheelbase and using a motorcycle or personal watercraft engine. Junior drag racers may choose to participate in programs run by the NHRA, IHRA and the Australian National Drag Racing Association [ANDRA], or at an unsanctioned facility. Drivers may be male or female and must be at least five years of age to test, and six years to compete, and be no older than 20 years on December 31 of the competition year.
Top Alcohol refers to two different classes in professional drag racing: Top Alcohol Dragster and the Top Alcohol Funny Car. Commonly known as "alky" cars, both are akin in design to the premier Top Fuel classes, but less powerful. In Top Alcohol Dragster, the cars used supercharged ("blown") engines, burning alcohol (methanol). Top Alcohol Funny Cars look similar to Fuel Funny Cars, with about half the power of a Top Fuel car. In this class only alcohol cars with three-speed transmissions are allowed.
Nostalgia drag racing is a form of drag racing using cars from the 1950s, 1960s and lately the 1970s.
Pro Modified, also known as Pro Mod, is a class or division in the sport of drag racing used in the NHRA and FIA (quarter-mile) and the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) (eighth-mile). It is similar to the Top Doorslammer class as defined by the ANDRA.
Gary Beck is a two-time World champion drag racing driver. Born in Seattle, Washington and raised in the United States, Beck married a Canadian and they made their home in her native Edmonton, Alberta. He competed in stock car racing before switching to drag racing.
Eddie Hill is a retired American drag racer who won numerous drag racing championships on land and water. Hill had the first run in the four second range (4.990 seconds), which earned him the nickname "Four Father of Drag Racing." His other nicknames include "The Thrill", "Holeshot Hill", and "Fast Eddie". In 1960, he set the NHRA record for the largest improvement in the elapsed time (e.t.) when he drove the quarter mile in 8.84 seconds to break the previous 9.40-second record.
Don Nicholson was an American drag racer from Missouri. He raced in the 1960s and 1970s when there were few national events. The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) estimates he won 90 percent of his match races. As of 2002, he held the record for the most number of categories in which he reached a final round : Funny Car, Pro Stock, Super Stock, Competition Eliminator, Stock, and Street. He was nicknamed "Dyno Don" after he was one of the first drivers to use a chassis dynamometer on his cars in the late 1950s, a skill that he learned while working as a line mechanic at a Chevrolet car dealer.
Summit Racing Equipment is an automotive parts retailer with four retail stores and distribution centers located in Tallmadge, Ohio; Sparks, Nevada; McDonough, Georgia; and Arlington, Texas. Summit Racing Equipment is also involved in motorsports and other events as a sponsor.
Chuck Beal Racing is a drag racing company owned by professional drag racer Chuck Beal. The company is located in San Diego, California. Chuck Beal started as a racer of front- and rear-engine vehicles until he changed to the alcohol funny car class and then nitro-class vehicles. His grandson Brandon Welch took over the duties of racing his Funny Car after having graduated from Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School. He also serves as the Vice President of Marketing. Other racers who have raced for Chuck Beal include Jeff Arend and Jeff Diehl. The company's vehicles have multiple sponsors, including AutoAnything, UnderCover Truck Bed Covers, TruXedo Tonneau Covers, ProZ, and TruXP.
Leah Christine Pruett is an American drag racer, currently driving an NHRA Top Fuel dragster for Tony Stewart Racing.
Steve Reyes (Born:1948) is an American photographer and storyteller from Oakland, California. Reyes has been included in Don Garlits' International Drag Racing Hall of Fame (2002), NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion Honorees (2009), and the East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame (2011).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
