Cole Coonce

Cole Coonce (born 1961) is an author and drag strip journalist.

After sundry odd-jobs, Coonce started writing with automotive and drag racing magazines, including Super Stock & Drag Illustrated and HOT ROD MAGAZINE.

Among his more popular works are "Remember the Surfers," which chronicles the madcap travails, triumphs and tragedies of "the Surfers," a beatnik drag racing team from the 1960s; "Have Nitro, Will Travel," a travelogue written on the road with the poverty-stricken Top Fuel dragster driver, ; and the feature length book "Infinity Over Zero," a history of the land speed record that has been compared to both Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff.

In 2001, he was honored by the Goodguys Vintage Racing Association for "Outstanding Journalistic Vision."

In 2004, he won the Los Angeles Press Club's Best Sport Feature Award for "VIVA LA NITRO!" a cover story for Los Angeles CityBeat that re-lived the sojourn of Tony Pedregon, a Chicano racer as he won a professional drag racing points title.

Following the publication of VIVA LA NITRO!, Coonce branched out into covering and critiquing the fields of pop culture and rock music, which lead to the publication of his second feature length book, "Come Down from the Hills and Make My Baby," which is billed as "a book to curl up on someone's sofa with a warm crack pipe and enjoy."

Partial Bibliography
*Infinity Over Zero, KeroseneBomb Publishing, USA, ISBN 0971997705
*Come Down from the Hills and Make My Baby, KeroseneBomb Publishing, USA, ISBN 0971997713

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