Vallco Professional Drag Racing

Vallco Professional Drag Racing is a card-based drag racing game invented by Greg Zyla originally in 1963. The game was inspired in part by Strat-O-Matic baseball and LeMans racing board games. It combined cards (containing driver statistics, including averaged e.t.s, wins, losses, holeshot wins and losses, and breakage rates) with die rolls (four per race). Zyla's prototype game used statistics for "Dyno Don" Nicholson, Ronnie Sox, Gas Ronda, Hayden Proffitt, Dick Brannan, Dave Strickler, and some other Pro Stock and A/FX (pre-Funny Car) racers. Burnouts were governed by die rolls, also. NHRA required Zyla to get signed releases from every driver involved. Only Don "The Snake" Prudhomme's lawyer sought a licensing fee; when Zyla revealed he was a mere "mom and pop" operator, Prudhomme wished him luck. When it reached the market in 1975, the game offered only Pro Stock drivers (31 in all), relying on their 1974 season's statistics. There were also anonymous cards, for players who wanted to race, themselves. The game accounted for changing track conditions and oildowns, as well as the latest NHRA rules. Zyla's first advertisement was in National Dragster in 1975. By 1977, Zyla had added Top Fuel Funny Car (including East Coast match racers like Tim Kushi) and Dragster drivers.