Guitarist Paul Gilbert first gained notoriety when he was featured in Mike Varney's Spotlight Column in the February 1983 issue of Guitar Player magazine.

[1] After acquiring Gschoesser, Gilbert, with the help of Varney, recruited Jeff Martin of the Phoenix metal band Surgical Steel.

[6] With the release of Street Lethal, Paul Gilbert suddenly burst into the mainstream as one of the members of the Neoclassical genre, popularized by Randy Rhoads and Yngwie J.

[1][12][13] The song "Getaway" received limited airplay on Los Angeles' heavy metal radio station, KNAC.

Second Heat was released in February 1987 by Shrapnel Records, and solidified Racer X's style of double-lead guitar solos using techniques such as fast alternate-picking, two-handed tapping, string skipping, and sweep picking.

"Moonage Daydream" was a David Bowie cover, and "Heart of a Lion" was a Judas Priest song dropped from the Turbo album.

[14] The song was a birthday gift by Rob Halford, who had befriended Jeff Martin in the band's early days.

[15] While the Los Angeles music scene was at the peak for glam metal, Racer X were reaching the height of their popularity with their live shows.

The band was selling out and packing their usual rotation of The Roxy Theatre, Troubadour, and the Country Club in Reseda, California.

The rest of the group, searching for an explanation to the lack of major label interest, focused their frustrations on Jeff Martin.

Juan Alderete, Bruce Bouillet, and Scott Travis initially brought in Guitar Spotlight player Chris Arvan in 1989 as a replacement and performed a few shows, including one with Oni Logan from Lynch Mob.

Jeff Martin formed a short-lived outfit named Bad Dog with drummer Todd DeVito and former War & Peace and future Fight and Steel Panther guitarist Russ Parrish; the latter had also been part of Electric Fence, a side project featuring Martin and Paul Gilbert.

[16] The four played one show at the Troubadour before Travis received an offer from Judas Priest, who were looking to replace the recently departed Dave Holland.

Jeff Martin, a friend of Judas Priest, relayed the message to Travis, who was ecstatic at the opportunity, and accepted the offer.

[17] In 1992, Shrapnel Records released Extreme Volume II Live, which featured songs from the farewell Racer X concerts at the Country Club.

After departing Mr. Big in 1997 after the recording of the Hey Man album, Gilbert started a solo career releasing King of Clubs.

[citation needed] In the email he chastised Paul for the more pop-oriented music on his solo records and accused him of forgetting his shred metal roots.

Paul was apparently inspired to record heavy metal and decided to reform Racer X. Gilbert was joined by every original member except Bruce Bouillet, who did not choose to return.

For the final show, in Yokohama, the performance was hastily recorded in two tracks on the sound board, and this was later released as Snowball of Doom 2.

Racer X performed at the 2009 NAMM Show at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California (the performance actually took place at the Sheraton Park Hotel ballroom next to the convention center), with a line-up consisting of Paul Gilbert, Scott Travis, Jeff Martin, and Juan Alderete.