My buddy Phil Burgess, who is the head of all of NHRA's print/online media, posted this brief article today regarding Shel's connection with NHRA. Good read.
https://www.nhra.com/news/2023/carroll-shelby-s-100th-birthday-we-recognize-his-connection-nhra
Their destinies were intertwined in the SoCal hot rodding community. Their other long time friend helped promote them both as Shelby himself recalled at the passing of Robert E. Petersen.
"We were friends for over 50 years. I owe Pete a lot. When I introduced the Cobra, he helped promote it with articles about the car in Hot Rod and Sports Car Graphic. Every CEO in Detroit respected him. He'd tell everybody, 'You should see this new car Shelby's built. It's a winner.'"
We 70+ year old kids remember the exploits of these 3 amigos and the effect they had on our lives that still exist today.
Brett: Definitely! You and I got to be there for part of that, but I'd loved to have been around in the true good ol' days of the '60s.
Here's CS with Bob & Margie Petersen, and yours truly, at the Motor Trend 50th Anniversary party in Las Vegas. 1999.
Thanks for posting. I also enjoyed the Detroit Dragway article next to the Shelby article. . A track I visited in my youth growing up in the Detroit area.