Lesson: Forces Involved in American Racing

Mason Colbert placed third with this car in the 1939 All-American Soap Box Derby national championship in Akron, Ohio. The first official derby was held in 1934. Young contestants built their cars from soap boxes, orange crates, and baby carriage wheels. Over the years, designs became more elaborate and materials more sophisticated. But the "fuel" remained the same -- gravity.

The National Hot Rod Association, established in 1951 to govern drag racing, held its first national championship meet in 1955. The event took place on an airport runway in Great Bend, Kansas. Drag races run like tournaments. Two cars at a time face off, the winner advances, and the loser is eliminated. The last remaining driver earns the grand prize.

Hale Barber and Clarence Warnock established the Barber-Warnock Ford dealership in Indianapolis in 1917 and were active supporters of the Indianapolis 500 race on a 2.5-mile oval track originally paved with brick and one of the most popular and well-known races in the country. In the mid-1920s, Barber-Warnock moved from fans and supporters to participants by sponsoring specially built Model Ts. In 1924, Barber-Warnock entered three "specials" built by the Chevrolet brothers -- Louis, Gaston, and Arthur -- under the Frontenac name. Although fairly powerful and fast, the "Fronty Fords" were no match for the rest of the field, finishing a disappointing 14th, 16th, and 17th.

Composite photographic print of Henry Ford (driver) and Ed "Spider" Huff, riding mechanic, (riding the sideboard) driving Sweepstakes, Ford's first race car, to victory at the Grosse Pointe Race Track, Grosse Point, Michigan, October 10, 1901. Originally produced by VanLeyen and Hensler Photographic Company of Detroit, this 1953 reprint is composed of two separate images; the race track grandstands and track and a posed photo of Henry Ford and Ed Huff. The composite image celebrates Henry Ford's first racing victory over Alexander Winton, then the most well-known auto maker in the United States.

Sam Buck and Bob Thompson built this car in 1960. They bought the chassis as a kit, and the 1948 Ford engine was highly modified with special cylinder heads, crank, pistons, magneto, camshaft, and fuel injectors. In this style of dragster, popular from the mid-1950s through the early 1970s, the driver sat behind the rear wheels "like a rock in a slingshot."

Tom Sneva set the fastest qualifying lap at the 1984 Indianapolis 500 with this car, but a broken rear suspension forced him out early during the actual race. The car's front and rear wings and underbody ground effects represent the aerodynamic advances that increasingly shaped race cars in the 1970s -- and continue to do so today.

When machinist George Montgomery started racing in 1953, all drag racers were amateurs with "real jobs" supporting their hobby. This car helped change all that. Montgomery bought an old Willys in 1958 and built a dragster so successful that promoters started paying him to run at drag strips nationwide. In 1966, Montgomery became one of drag racing's first full-time professional drivers.

When did Fords use Chevrolet parts? In the 1920s, when brothers Louis and Arthur Chevrolet made special overhead valve cylinder heads for Model Ts. Sold under the brand name Frontenac, they helped racers triple the horsepower of the stock Model T engine. Such "Fronty-Fords" became terrors on the small dirt tracks and in 1923 and 1924 Indianapolis auto dealer Barber-Warnock Ford decided to enter Fronty-Ford powered cars in the Indianapolis 500. Here we see one of the 1924 cars being serviced in the pits. A mechanic with a funnel adds oil, while another mechanic on the opposite side of the car makes an adjustment. Arthur Chevrolet, wearing a tie and a flat cap, wipes his hands in the middle of the picture. Three men in suits, possibly race officials, observe the scene. The Barber-Warnock cars finished fifth in the 1923 race and 14th, 16th, and 17th in 1924.

Automobile racing has been a dangerous sport for drivers and fans. The thrill and excitement of pushing powerful machines to their limits at unheard of speeds drew drivers to the sport and fans to the roadsides and tracks. Sometimes, things could go very wrong as in this photo showing the aftermath of a car that broke through a wooden fence. It is not known how the driver, and fans, fared but it is safe to assume that everyone had a thrill that day.

Bill Elliott set NASCAR's all-time speed record with this car when he qualified for the 1987 Winston 500 at Talladega at 212.809 miles per hour. By the 1980s, "stock cars" only looked stock. Underneath this Thunderbird sheet metal is a purpose-built steel tube frame, racing suspension and brakes, and a racing engine that no Ford dealer ever sold.

Image originally published in the May 1903 issue of Munsey's Magazine captioned, "At full speed a trial brush between Messers [Henry] Ford (car to the left of the picture) and [Harry] Harkness." Less than a month before Ford Motor Company's founding, Henry Ford was still interested in automobile racing and the benefits to be gained in experimenting with parts of chassis, bodies, and engines that could be integrated into his future automobiles. Ford used trial races like this to test his experimental ideas.

In 1937, the 25th running of the Indianapolis 500 saw 33 entrants and one of the closest margins of victory: 2.16 seconds for Wilbur Shaw. Note that these high-powered race cars still required a two-man team of a driver and a riding mechanic to keep the cars running at top speed.