Songfacts®:

• This was Billy Preston's follow-up to his other hit instrumental, "Outa-Space," which peaked at #2 on the Hot 100 and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1972. Preston considered adding lyrics to "Space Race," but since "Outa-Space" did so well he decided to keep it an instrumental.
• Preston came up with the idea while experimenting with an ARP Pro-Soloist synthesizer.
• Preston originally called this "Funky Thing In A," but decided to save the title for a different track. He told Billboard why he settled on "Space Race": "It was a conscious effort to make it relate to the last instrumental. There was a lot of space exploration going on at that time, so it was appropriate."
• American Bandstand regularly used this as background music to keep the audience's energy up during the dance break. Bandstand producer Larry Klein explained: "We needed something where the kids could move in their seats without actually dancing."
• This was used in the 1979 movie When A Stranger Calls, starring Carol Kane and Charles Durning.
• This was nominated for Best Instrumental Composition and Best Pop Instrumental Performance at the 1974 Grammy Awards.