About this blog…
What the heck is the purpose of this blog?
Well, a few bits of information first. My father, Wayne Gapp, raced automobiles. That much should be clear.
The time frame for his racing activities, 1964 to 1978, extends across what I believe to be a fascinating era of the sport of Drag Racing.
From Factory involvement in the sport to the refinement of the Eliminator classes in NHRA and the early years of the Pro Stock class he was there.
That said, I actually know very little about my father’s racing career.
I was born in ’68. He stopped racing in 1978.
I do remember bits of pieces.
I sat in and played around the Maverick know as the ‘Tijuana Taxi’ to most fans. I remember running behind a Pinto while at a track and someone starting it at the same time. Scared the hell out of me. Lastly, I remember being taken for a ride down the track…albeit very slowly in the ‘Taxi’. Everyone should experience the hammering of a V8 inside of a race car just once. Not something to forget and the sound does get in your blood.
Lastly, I read. A lot. I compare information. In many cases the information about my father’s career has been lost. I mean we are talking about looking back at a time period that as of the day that I write this was a minimum of 30 YEARS AGO. Some information has not been lost but has been skewed or misrepresented not through intention but through the retelling of the information through time.
Reading the information that is out there today you might get the impression my father was a footnote in other’s careers. Not even close. A good man, wildly competitive, a brilliant and innovative engineer and a fantastic father.
My aim is to present information. Images, articles, rules, stories…for myself, for the reader. I hope you find this blog interesting.
Thanks for reading.
