By 1963 Drag News was ensconced as drag racing's 'Bible' and appeared set to continue unchallenged. And it might not have been were it not for a kid from South San Gabriel named Phil Bellomy who thought he could do it better. And for a little over three years, he did.

Bellomy partnered up with well-known track photographer Jim Kelly and gained the generous support of So. Cal. printer Carl Bennitt,who made possible the first and subsequent issues of Drag Sport Illustrated ™ (DSI).   Later, support was given by Lee Hallerberg.

DSI was all about pictures, lots of great pictures. Reporting the weekend's races was important, but secondary to drama and impact.It was a week-in, week-out visual treat made possible by high grade Electrabrite newsprint, in stark contrast to Drag News' less expensive paper.

DSI was also about recognizing the talented contributors with by-lines and photo credits, something that was missing frequently in other publications.

In those days, most track photographers and writers worked for nothing or almost nothing, because they loved the sport. Recognition was about all they could look forward to,and in DSI they got it.

Drag Sport showcased the talents of photographers like Kelly, Dave Shipman, Tim Marshall, Bill Turney, Charles Strutt, Bellomy himself and others.

From the time the first issue of Drag Sport rolled off the presses on March 3, 1963, they and writers like Ralph Guldahl, Dave Wallace, Forrest Bond, Mike Kotowski and Steve Gibbs made it happen, week after week.

Within a few short months DSI was a must-have weekly newspaper at tracks from coast to coast. The issues ranged from 12 pages to 30 pages and they all trumped Drag News in the number of photos and quality of publication.

The main focus was always on dragsters, but DSI gave a ton of coverage to all the other classes, from stockers to gassers, from motorcycles to Altereds.

From Washington to Florida, DSI was there.

In addition to better photo reproduction, Drag Sport pioneered a magazine format among weeklies in lat 1964, with 20 to 30 pages every week.

In July of 1966 DSI was abruptly shut down. This was a huge loss to racers and fans alike but not so much for Drag News. Two other publications using the DSI format popped up but didn't grab the fans that DSI had. Both Drag Digest and Drag West folded within a year. However, they will both be available on CD down the road.

That said, earlier this year Cacklefest.com owner Ron Johnson had the good fortune to run across someone who had every single issue of DSI and was willing to let them to be scanned and transferred to disc for posterity. He got together with WDIFL.com owner, Don Ewald to see if the whole thing was doable. Ewald could do, but wouldn't without consent.

After contacting Bellomy and getting his blessings to do the project, Ewald began what can only be described as a monumental time consuming and arduous project. Using a professional large bed scanner, DSI is being saved one page at a time and the first two volumes of the collection are available now.

The CDs are in the PDF format and are viewed in Adobe Reader. This is the same format the Drag News collection was released in and allows the viewer to adjust the size to a comfortable viewing level to their taste. The photo quality is 100% better than the Drag News discs and every effort has being taken to make each and every page as viewable/readable as possible including blocking a lot of the news print ink bleed. Keeping in mind that these "newspapers" are nearly 50 years old one can only imagine the care being taken.

Orders are now being taken for *Volumes 1 & 2 (dual disc set) which includes the 1965 DSI color calendar as a bonus. The sets will be sold on a first come, first serve basis.

Shipping NOW!

(Multiple copies can be added at check-out.)

Only $39.95!

For samples, click the links below to view the very first issue of DSI and imagine that the quality only gets better from there. There is also a sample of the publication when it went to a book format in late 1964.

DRAG SPORT ILLUSTRATED VOL. 1 ISSUE 1 03-03-63

DRAG SPORT ILLUSTRATED VOL. 2 ISSUE 46 01-30-65

If you don't have Adobe Reader it is a free download from: Adobe Reader Free Download

Check back for the pre-release order information as the collection will be sold on a first come, first served basis.

Got questions? Email: DSI Collection on CD

A portion of each sale will go toward the preservation of the NHRA Wally Parks Motorsports Museum.