Come with me now as we take a little trip across the ages. Here for your enjoyment are some of the coolest match racing rides to traverse the eastern quarter miles. We'll start with the MAN -- Jungle Jim Liberman. (1972)

Frank Federici's "Shark" never met a guardrail it didn't like. When not scaring the pants off everyone with wild sideways runs, the "Shark" could be appreciated for its awesome paint job. (1972)

Gary Burgin could always be counted on for solid performances in his "Orange Baron" series of Nitro burners. (1979) The big guy by the back of the truck is John "Indian" Morgan, who developed a workable billet block for fuel cars.

The only person other than "Jungle" to win the "New England FC Nats" three times is Al Segrini. He did it once driving the awesome "Custom Body" and twice behind the wheel of his own "Super Brut" entries. (1980)

As the ‘80s wore on, Nitro match racing began to diminish. But the big shows continued in certain corners of the country. And it's a good thing as certain people who would go on to be superstars honed their competitive edge racing at the match race tracks. Here John "Brute" Force bangs a blower while trying to out pedal Tim Grose.

In the ‘90s the match racing scene became dominated by fast doorslammers with the likes of Mike Stawicki and others coming to prominence racing in Pro Mod or in the "Super Chevy" Nitro Coupe classes.