Book Review: The Chrisman Legacy… Always Faster

The Chrisman Legacy… Always Faster by Tom Madigan

A book review by Phil R. Elliott

Like many of you, I’ll miss Art Chrisman.

About the time I discovered drag racing, Art Chrisman won the 1st Fuel & Gas Championships at Bakersfield. I was reading copies of my older cousin Chuck’s Hot Rod magazines, but due to the infamous nitro ban, HRM had no coverage of that meet. However, the ads, both large and small, sprouted quickly on its pages in 1959 and 1960, proclaiming accolades for the name Chrisman for wins and performances on asphalt, salt and dirt.

There was Art and Jack, and it seemed the two were nearly unbeatable. But they were quite different in their methods: Art running his own cars, often with a partner, while Jack nearly always drove for other owners. Both got the job done.

Besides drag racing, I noticed that Art was a big part in Bonneville activities, including being among the very first to run over 200mph on the slippery white stuff. He also built or helped build everything he raced. He began to look really big in my small eyes.

As a birthday present a few years ago, my pal Buzz Baylis sent me an autographed copy of The Chrisman Legacy… Always Faster by Tom Madigan. During my cancer recovery, I have been able to read or reread a great many of my racing library, and Chrisman Legacy has been one. When it first entered my life, I leafed through it, read a few paragraphs and enjoyed the fantastic photos, but just slid it into my book shelf for another day.

As has happened so many times, when “another day” came, I could not lay the book down. And by the way, gravity really helps with this one because it is on the high side of three pounds – the stereotypical large scale “coffee table book” with those colossal photos that can draw you in for hours.

Author Madigan is a story in himself, almost a peer of the Chrismans, sharing time on the very drag strips, dry lakes and other chosen SoCal speed courses that Art and Jack dominated. He went on to own racecars, including a fuel dragster, then moved on to magazine work. His interviewing style has been well known, and the personal testimonies from family members in Chrisman Legacy are pure joy to read. And, now that most are gone, including Jack and Art, their words and experiences are truly priceless. Accolades to Madigan for the timing on getting this one done, I mean, while Art was still around to interview.

The book not only covers racing exploits of the Chrisman family members, but the peripheral activities as well. For example, it spends a lot of time on Art’s Autolite years, where he performed far beyond his job description in helping other racers find a handle when they were seemingly lost. His experience led to the feeling by others that he could work magic in tuning a race engine. His devotion gained him a huge following from a list of “name” racers, especially drivers and crew chiefs. Art’s selfless advice and guidance often made others look good.

Of course, Jack won races, including the ’61 NHRA Winternationals and the ’62 NHRA Nationals, was the 1961 NHRA World Champion, and was first to climb in a late model stocker with a supercharged, nitro-fueled engine that evolved into the funny car. He continued at the very top of the FC game until he decided to back off. He then built the absolute best in driveline components, a company that continues to this day with his son Steve.

When Art quit racing, and Autolite went away, he shuffled around for a few industry giants, then began a few restoration projects, especially his old racecars. Art got quite involved as the vintage movement took a hold on drag racing, always astonished at the many fans enamored on just meeting him. Eventually, he and his son Mike took on others’ street rod and custom projects, and competitiveness stood out, including winning the prestigious Worlds Most Beautiful Roadster at the Oakland Roadster Show.

Though the older generations are now gone, the sons will carry on the Chrisman Legacy, covered so well in this book. I highly recommend getting a copy and absorbing the whole thing. You’ll thank me. It is widely available in motorsports museums and bookstores, as well as the normal online sites. Expect to pay around $50.