Dick Towers, drag racing historian, dies

Dick Towers, drag racing historian and proprietor of Match-Race-Madness.com, passed away on Friday, October 23, 2009.

Called the grandfather of Drag Racing Preservation, Towers amassed an impressive collection of photographs and documents that have become a visual record of the sport. His website, www.match-race-madness.com, includes a huge library of historic Super Stock, F/X and Pro Stock images by photographers like Marty Johnson, Jim Kelly and Mike Brescia. In 2007, Towers told Hemmings Motor News that he estimated he had nearly 300,000 images.

In the early 1990s, Towers and Mike Guffey organized what was called the first “real” reunion of HEMI-powered dragsters.

Born in Michigan, Towers was posted to Vandenberg AFB in California and remained in the Goldern State after his separation from the service. After seeing his first drag race in 1960, Towers was hooked and competed in both SS/D and SS/LA classes.