[Don Keefe]

As the author of the book, I can tell you that it's really neither approach but has some qualities of both.

Here is the Preface:

In the course of preparing any historical retrospective, it is necessary to tell a story not only in the of recitation relevant facts in a tightly-cropped fashion but to tell the entire story. That seems obvious but what exactly does that mean? All too often, works concentrating on the various topics of automotive history reduce the story of a particular car, developmental program or generation of vehicles to a regurgitation of technical facts, dimensions and other details like production numbers and available colors. All of it is relevant but it’s only part of the story. When reading a particular article or book, if the reader starts asking questions like, “Why did they do that?” or “Why did that happen that way?” and if that work doesn’t answer those questions, then it didn’t do the entire job.

History doesn’t take place in a vacuum and in order to do the job completely, the author must present those stories within a larger framework, that being the context of the times in which they took place. All too often, we walk away with unanswered questions and the experience is less than satisfying, as we didn’t get to our desired destination in the quest for more knowledge.

The purpose of this book was to answer those questions and also present the story of Pontiacs in drag racing in such a way that it does all of the above and if we were truly successful, even answers a few questions that you might not have thought of.

A classic example of this is why we included information about the Kennedy Administration and the action of then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. This is likely the first time RFK was included in a drag racing history but in many ways, he had as large a hand in the development of the GTO as the engineers at Pontiac because he set in motion the events that led up to the 1963 GM Ban on Racing. From there, Pontiac took the performance message to the street and the GTO was born. This added context makes the story easier to understand, as it completes the picture. It makes no sense on its face that GM would suddenly abandon one of the most successful promotional programs and face a possible decline in sales. When that larger picture of the era is presented, the reasons become more clear.

What we have done here is to chronicle a few different things going on at the same time: The development story at Pontiac, the lay of land with the larger racing and musclecar market and the actual racing of those cars. We did our best to limit the focus on cars with the traditional Pontiac V-8 engine, so you won’t see anything on the cars built in the “Corporate Era,” post 1981, which could easily be another book, nor will there be anything more than a sprinkling of the various Pontiac-bodied funny cars of the 1960s and ‘70s that used Chrysler Hemi or other powerplants. The focus of this book is on the cars and the people who made the era of the 1955-1981 Pontiac V-8 engine so impactful on the racing world. We also included a chapter on those companies that are still loyal to the traditional Pontiac V-8 and provide new parts to keep them going. That level of loyalty deserves recognition.

With any book, there will no doubt be some omissions, some will be for space considerations, some will be due to a lack of available photography and some will be for logistical or other reasons. What we have done is provide as much information as was reasonably possible to fit in the allotted space of this book. We apologize in advance if your favorite racer is not included here or a story of a racing dealer’s story isn’t here. Again, the need for photos and people to interview can make the difference as to whether a particular car, driver or group of people are included.

We hope you enjoy reading this book as much as we have enjoyed preparing it…
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-Don Keefe
Clearwater, Florida
October 24, 2023