Loud, Fast and Still Breaking the Rules: Rick Bain

Some people photograph drag racing from the outside.

Rick Bain—known to many racing fans behind the camera as Rick Hostage—photographs it from within. His images carry the heat of the headers, the violence of the launch, the tension on the starting line and the personalities that make nitro racing more than elapsed times and win lights.

Kings of the Sport is proud to recognize Rick not only as one of our content creators, but as a true guardian of drag racing history.

His story begins long before digital cameras, social media or online magazines. It begins with a father and son, a Canon AE-1 and a homemade darkroom in a Southern California garage.

Raised on Drag Racing, Skateboards and Rock ’n’ Roll

Rick was the son of freelance drag racing photographer Dick Bain. He grew up as what he describes as a quintessential Southern California kid of the 1970s—surrounded by skateboards, rock ’n’ roll and the thundering race cars that made tracks such as Lions, Irwindale and Orange County International Raceway legendary.

Dick Bain had learned photography while serving in the United States Navy. During drag racing’s late-1960s and early-1970s boom, he carried that skill to Southern California’s major tracks, where he photographed the sport and developed friendships with racers including Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen and Dave Beebe.

When Rick was 14, his father taught him how to operate a camera, develop black-and-white film and make prints. Together, they converted part of the family garage into a working darkroom.

Then came the opportunity that helped set Rick’s life in motion.

With assistance from McEwen, Dick secured a photography credential for the 1978 World Championship Series points meet at OCIR. Father and son shared the credential, passing it between them so each could work along the guardrail. When they needed a second pass, they reportedly fabricated one at home using orange construction paper carefully faded with bleach to match the original.

It was pure do-it-yourself ingenuity—and it worked.

Armed with three rolls of Kodak Tri-X film, teenage Rick stepped onto the starting line and began recording history. Over the next several years, father and son photographed OCIR’s enormous Funny Car programs, including the 100 Funny Cars show, 64 Funny Cars, World Championship Series events and the Super Bowl of Drag Racing.

NHRA National Dragster editor Phil Burgess later preserved their story in his Dragster Insider column, documenting Rick’s remarkable introduction to starting-line photography and the bond he shared with his father. (NHRA: “More Tales From the Starting Line”)

When Nitro Met Punk Rock

Rick’s visual education did not end at the dragstrip.

In 1982, he carried his camera into a Social Distortion performance at the Whisky a Go Go on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. Photographs from that show appeared on the band’s debut LP, beginning Rick’s documentation of Orange County’s raw and rapidly growing underground music scene.

Drag racing and punk rock might appear to occupy different worlds, but through Rick’s lens they share the same essential qualities: noise, speed, danger, rebellion and people determined to do things their own way.

That connection became a defining element of his work.

Rick’s photographs have appeared in publications including Rolling Stone, Super Stock, Drag Illustrated, Thrasher and National Dragster. His images have also been used in Vans advertising, MTV documentaries and on numerous LP and 45-rpm record covers. (Nitro Slamdance: “About the Man”)

Despite that impressive publishing history, Rick has never abandoned the garage-built spirit with which he started. He still approaches photography from a fan’s perspective, without allowing expensive equipment, polished corporate presentation or the pursuit of credentials to replace authenticity.

And yes—he still has a darkroom in his garage.

Nitro Slamdance: A Dragazine with an Attitude

Rick’s independent publication, Nitro Slamdance, brings the different parts of his creative life together.

It is photography, writing, design, racing history and punk-rock attitude presented as a self-produced “dragazine.” Its mission is summed up in three words:

Loud. Fast. Rules.

Nitro Slamdance is not designed as a collection of winner-circle photographs and recycled race results. Rick built it as a modern tribute to drag racing’s golden age of print—a time when photographs were meant to stop readers in their tracks and race reporting made them feel as if they had been standing beside the burnout box.

Through Nitro Slamdance, Rick has documented the March Meet, California Hot Rod Reunion, Nightfire Nationals, Thunder Under the Lights and other important events on the NHRA Heritage Series tour. His coverage embraces AA/Top Fuel Dragsters, AA/Funny Cars and AA/Fuel Altereds while also showing the crews, tracks, spectators and atmosphere that give these events their identity.

The response from the racing community confirms the importance of that work. Kaiser Family Racing has praised Rick for the attention and respect he gives Top Fuel teams throughout the field. AA/FD Statmaster Justin Calkins called Nitro Slamdance one of the most exciting media platforms to arrive in front-engine Top Fuel racing in decades, highlighting its photography, descriptive style and unmistakably punk-rock character. (Nitro Slamdance testimonials)

A Writer as Well as a Photographer

Rick’s contribution to the sport extends beyond the camera.

As a contributor to Drag Illustrated, he has written and photographed coverage of some of the most important moments in contemporary Heritage Top Fuel racing. His published stories have followed Tyler Hilton, Pete Kaiser, Bryan Hall, Shawn Van Horn and many of the teams carrying front-engine Top Fuel into its next chapter.

His reporting has covered Hilton’s victories and championship campaigns, Kaiser Family Racing’s Tulsa Nitro Nationals win, Bryan Hall and the H&H Nomad team’s first NHRA Heritage Series Top Fuel championship, and the competition at Firebird, Redding and Famoso.

Most recently, Rick documented Tyler Hilton and the Great Expectations III team finally capturing the March Meet title—one of the few major achievements that had remained outside the four-time Heritage Series champion’s grasp. Rick’s words supplied the race story; his photographs captured the faces, machinery, tire smoke and emotion behind it. (Rick Bain’s Drag Illustrated archive)

That combination is becoming increasingly rare. Rick does not simply take photographs and add captions. He observes the race, understands its history, recognizes its turning points and builds a complete visual narrative around the people involved.

Why Rick Bain Belongs Among the Legends

A legend does not always sit behind the wheel.

Drag racing also depends on the people who document it—the photographers who freeze a fraction of a second, the writers who remember why it mattered and the independent creators who give racers coverage when larger outlets have moved on.

Rick Bain has been doing that work for more than four decades.

He has connected the starting lines of Lions and OCIR with today’s action at Famoso. He has carried lessons learned from his father into a new generation of photography. He has connected the unfiltered energy of Southern California punk with the untamed personality of front-engine Top Fuel. Most importantly, he has remained unmistakably himself through every stage of that journey.

Rick’s photographs preserve more than race cars. They preserve people, places and moments that would otherwise disappear. His writing gives context to those images, while Nitro Slamdance gives them a home with a character all its own.

That is not simply content creation.

That is cultural preservation.

Kings of the Sport celebrates Rick Bain—Rick Hostage—photographer, writer, publisher, historian, content creator and lifelong fan.

Thank you, Rick, for every frame shot from the guardrail, every night spent in the darkroom, every story written from the pits and every page created to keep nitro racing loud, fast and alive.

Loud. Fast. Rules. See you in the pits.