History Drag cars in motion.......picture thread.

Dale Schafer photo.

 

Credit Dale Schafer.

 

Tommy Allen in Larry Huff's Soapy Sales 2 Woody car. Looks like Huff leaning over the left side of the motor and Ed Pink with his hand on the injector.
The photo looks as if it is from the 1970 NHRA World Finals at Dallas. At that time the world champ designation was decided at a singe race rather than from season points. It was not until 1974 that the basis of the current system was introduced.

Roo

 

Credit Dale Schafer.

 

Credit Dale Schafer.

 

Dale Schafer photo.

 

Dale Schafer Photo.

 

Dale Schafer photo.

 

Dale Schafer photo.

 

Dale Schafer photo.

 

Dale Schafer photo.

 

Dale Schafer photo.

 

Dale Schafer photo.

 

Dale Schafer photo.

 

Herm Petersen in his first "store bought" race car a brand new Woody car that he purchased in late 1968 and debuted at the 69 Winternationals. Beach Imports was a Bremerton, WA Fiat dealership. If this photo is like the rest and from the 70 World Finals, Herm would run this car for another year before replacing it with a back motor Woody.

Roo

 

I have a pack of photos from 1973 (ish) at Portland International Raceway hosting a large contingent of new RED's. I'll look but I'm sure Herm was present, he always had nice stuff.
This was my first exposure to "big time" drag racing, I was hooked.

 

Dale Schafer photo.

 

Dale Schafer photo. Looks like Gwinn.

 

Dale Schafer photo.

 

Hi, new here, mainly so I could ask this question though. lol
What did the absolute very first top fuel dragster look like.
Was it called different then change to T/F?


your future engineer, Trevor.

 

Welcome to the site...the first dragsters ran on fuel, but the term "top fuel" didn't come around until at least the '60s...they were just "dragsters" if they ran fuel, if they ran gas they were "open gas." Here is an early dragster, run by the original masters, the San Diego-based "Bean Bandits," flathead powered, but later ran all sorts of different engines.

Later the driver's position moved behind the rear axle, around '55, but they were still "dragsters," classified by engine size, so "A" was usually over 303 cu. in., though classifications varied by track, before standardization by NHRA and ATAA, around '56 - '57. Fuel was banned for a while by NHRA, when it came back dragsters remained "fuel dragsters" with similar classifications, so A/FD was a fuel dragster with the largest permitted engine. Only when the lower fuel dragster classes went away did NHRA adopt "Top Fuel" as a category. Hope this helps.

 

Dean Moon wins class, Winternationals (see Dean Lowe post below) Devin-bodied with a blown Chevy.