There's a lot of misgiving in the drag world. But there's also a lot of knowledge, and the people who created that knowledge are not prone to giving it away....just like any other industry. Moreover, drag racers by nature are not the type of guys who have it in their blood to sit around writing books. Drag racers are very much 'doers' and writers are very much 'talkers'.
It's a lot like sex. People who do it are far ahead of those who write (or read) about it. And doing it for an hour will teach you way more than reading about it for a day.
Drag racing remains the purest for of motorsports in many ways. For example, of the 4 wheeled motorports, it's one of the few left where you can participate without a million dollar bankroll or a 7 person team. Look at Indy Racing...it's so snooty you can't even race without the right pedigree and the right connections. Yuck.
Some years ago, Road and Track listed the stats (various acceleration, top speed, braking, g's, etc.) of all the race cars they had tested. Included was a Top Fuel dragster fielded by one the pro's. They listed in bold font the top performer in each category. The Top Fuel car was #1 in every field related to acceleration and even top speed. It was quicker and faster than any other race care fielded by anyone in any form of racing.....to go any faster would require one of a handful of Bonneville race cars. And the dragster hit that speed in a quarter mile.
