NEW YORK STREET RACING 60'S & 70'S ~ story found

Anyone ever listen to Bruce Sprinsteen's song "Racin in the street" ?

There's always been something about that song.......

I don't know what it is....I guess its so American to me.

 

Having raced on the street and the strip back then I'd have to say the street was WAAAAAAY more fun.

 

Street racing was way more fun but after the people got killed the cops really cracked down and were confiscating the cars and locking up everyone there, racing or not. We were going thru the 1/4 with lines of people 3 feet away, it was way crazy. Fortunately we were bullet proof at that age. I was caught dead once with the input rung off the T-10 in my 427 57 Ford when another guy tried to run over the cop. They all went after him and I limped home in high gear. Yes it was an aluminum T-10 out of a light weight 63 Galaxie, not a top loader

 

No, the article I'm referring to was an overview and written in about '85-'86, IRRC. There was a lot discussed about 'sucker cars', rusty Ramblers, '60s vans, pickups, even Deuce and a quarter Buicks, Lincolns,etc powered by Hemis and Rats, trailered cars, 4 figure bets and such. I wish that I hadn't tossed the magazine along with most of my others in the Big Move of 2002.....

But thanks for posting this one... A very interesting read.... Not to start a Coastal war, but my theory is that most of the mags...Cars a notable exception were published on the West Coast so that's where the staff gathered their story material from. It is or was pure economics. But most of the racing action...legal and illegal. street, strip and oval track took place far east of the Missssippi.

Jan

 

Street racing my '55 Chevy and my '66 Nova had to be the most exciting and thrilling time of my life.

I won't bore you with the details... but running 11 and 12 second cars on the street is a rush... and watching the 10 second cars run out on the street was just as cool.

They weren't big money races... in fact, most were run for fun. But to come back a week later and wax a guy who had beat you the week before was payment enough in a small town.

Incedentally, most of the racing was done on California Avenue... just outside of Modesto... which dead ended into... Paradise Road. And then at the end of Monte Vista Avenue in Turlock where it dead ended into Montpilliar.

Good times... good times...

Sam.

Here I am in my Nova... on the street.

 

Ya- It's a good thing this stuff never happens anymore.

http://videos.streetfire.net/search/big+dre/0/wm/2aee2f41-5d59-48d1-9624-03ca7c2648fc.htm

Oh, wait a sec...

For some guys, these are the 'good old days'...!

I don't remember traction being that good on the street when I was doing it.

~Scotch~

 

This brings back a lot of good memories about 62 to 65 used to race at the white castle in the bronx and than on the sprain brooke parkway in Yonkers. I lived right down the road from the exit,make a pass stop off at home do a little tuning run again. Had a64,426 plymouth savoy.

 

Thanks for the fascinating stories. I really enjoy reading these stories.

Keep them coming

 

Well Actually we did...Most us old buggers who lived in Auckland raced down in the water front area of Beaumont Street.
Queen Street in the city was the cruisin' strip and after pub closing time(10pm ) we would hang out at '246' swap bulshit until midnight when a crowd would start gathering down by the Shell oil installation.Crowds would be in the hundreds ,once i counted ovr 1500 people ,racers spectators and just kids who had borrowed the family car to come and look.
One memorable night we were hanging around at the usual spot in Queen street when a particularly scruffy '56 Chev pulled up driven by Squeek who asked..." where this Beaumont street??"
"just follow us we said ,So Squeek pulls his header caps off in the middle of the city's busiest precinct and proceeds to rumble off through the traffic.
Down at Beaumont Street ,he lines up against a Ford Falcon ute ( 351 clevo,15 sec 1/4's ) and although he blew his clutch off the line
he still beat the ute,just in time to see a police car heading in the opposite direction..
Racing was eventually stopped by the city authorities on the pretext that racing wasn't a good idea next to an oil tank farm. So the whole show moved out to the burbs and places like industrial Ave..We even featired on local TTV one night and there was book published by Auckland photograper Murray Cammick full of pictures of the cars that frequented the area back then .

 

nice

 

Has to be Brooklyn Heavy ..Heavy also had a Dick Harrel Built Camaro and a 4 speed Hemi Dart ..Plus plenty of Drug money to Bet with ..

Here's a post from another site about his cars ...

http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/178008/page/3/fpart/1/vc/1

 

Sam,
Your Nova picture is awesome. My 66 GTO ran 12.80's and held its own here in Riverside...but, still wasn't the fastest.

Can someone go on that site i mentioned and post all of the pictures on this thread?

Thanks

 

my old man used to take me tostreet races in youngstown ohio in the early 80's i was 3 or 4 then. funny i like togo cause we whould stop at a&w or mcdonald's

 

there are a few places they STILL do this.

 

REALLY ?

 

Super COOL thread!!!!

Here is a video of my Chevelle on the street....
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1217090283

 

Even us country hicks street raced back in the'60s. Had a quarter mile marked off on a 2 lane farm-to-market road a couple of miles out of town, Could usually get in about 3-4 races before we saw the state trooper coming, for some reasaon they would turn on the flashing lights when they left town. We all had switches to turn off tail/brake lights, would scatter on the gravel country roads, regroup later in town. We could all outrun the DPS cars until the 440 cars hit town. No one ever got hurt, no crashes. Just lucky I guess.

 

brooklyn heavys cars were driven dowm the street in a row when the feds got him for drugs,the 69 427 camaro got away and sat at my friends station in wantagh untuched waiting for his release,,when it was seen that he was doing a long beaf and the station was closing the car was crushed...as for real life problems wt street racing my friends bought wally booths camaro and the first nite made a money run ,broke an axle fliped it and killed a guy,,we rolled in onto the trailer upside down,,,another time i was called at 2 am to get to the shop and cut up the motown missle that made its first pass with just spray paint over the name,it killed three people that got to close,,not all times were rosey

 

Unbelievable! Circulated flyers advertising upcoming street races. And I thought St. Louis had a pretty serious street racing scene. We had(have) Hall Street here in St. Louis that is pretty famous in its own right.

 

The street racing scene wasn't limited to the New York City area. Upstate New York Albany area had its Central Ave. and claim to fame.

Included in the bunch was non-other than the famous Shirley "Cha-Cha" Muldowney. If I remember she ran a mid-60's Corvette Sting Ray that tore up the competition. AND ..... of course, it was a 4-speed!!!

If I remember, they even did an article in the local Albany newspaper about her.

She did legal drag racing at Fonda Speedway. This was a dirt fairgrounds oval track that had a paved pit road, drag strip running through the middle of it.

Raced on the pavement and shut-down running across the dirt track into an area adjacent to an old cemetery. I think pics were posted here awhile back of this operation.

 

Wow, what a rush...! Thanks so much for this post. Connecting Highways was my youth. Someone mentioned an ice cream truck, well in 72' at 12 yrs. old I was the kid helpin' out Teddy in the truck. I worked for ice cream and the racing. It worked out perfect, when a big race was happening everyone was on the guardrails to watch.... including me. Then after the race I'd run back to beat the rush. 2-3 yrs later I was cruisin' the circuit in Tony Gilbirdis Hilborn injected 69' Camaro. I learned to do hole shots, power shift, slipshift and even how to just drive a 4 speed in that car, although by the time Tony let me drive it, but that insane 327 was only carbed now. ( He got tired of getting her runnin' everyday with the injection. At 15 I bought my 63 nova, 513 posi, 327, 4spd. right off the track at Long Island National Speedway. As I promised my Mom, I didn't drive it (often) until I turned 16 and got my junior lic. After adding a stereo and some seats to my race car, I had my 1st car on the road..... Straight to Connectings, and Cross Bay. Anyone remeber Reveiw ave. or the Marina how about the spot under the L.I.E. between the two cemetaries, what was that one called.?

I do have some pics, but man finding them, I'll try. If this post keeps goin' I'll post a few stories as they filter through the fog. Wow this is too cool.... If you Hamb r's only knew how many people have givin' me that fish story look when I tell of 200 people ,vendors, cars ,vans, Harley's the first Jap super bikes (Z1) all on the city streets with guys goin' down and stopping the hi-way traffic to start a big $$$ race. I've seen gassers, rails early coupes come in on trailrs and drive in with zoomie barkin'...... So it wasn't a dream.

Anyone that was around the Queens/Brkln spots around 72-80 feel free to IM me or post, same bat channel, same bat time.... Who knows. Anyone remember the plain jane orange 69 Camaro that was just about unbeatable for a year or two..........

WOW, Howard

Anyone one know what a Chase Truck is....?
Thats what I did for a living....B4 I got my lic.

 

WOW,, Talk about remembering "my life".. There also was another spot.. Though I had been to most of the mentioned spots in NYC, and some on L.I. in the 60s,I was too young to race there. As the 70s came into focus, cars really got serius, and tech advanced through knowlege, and parts availability. I remember hanging out at Burger King on Hempstead Tpk. in the early 70s,, and getting the racing "business" done there,, and going out either onto the TPK, or Seaford Oyster Bay expressway. to get the job done.. Of course, this was till the cops got savi !.. Then,,when I moved to Suffolk (a bit further out on the Island, for you non NYers), there was Crooked Hill rd. Er,, Ummm,, I do believe there are times this still exists ! My shop was in Deer park, so I do remember 231 racing also...But the history does really IN FACT, belong to Connecting Hwys, and Cross Bay Blvd !!!!!

 

Anyone have pictures please post them. Thanks

 

My frist time to Brooklyn was in 02 and buy the end of the night on union ave I raced a model A sedan. Crazy

 

beteen the cemeteries is called"Laurel Hill",thanks for the memories!

 

Connecting Hwy was such a big deal that local clothing stores sold t- shirts with the logo on them for years even after it was shut down. Had one as a kid as my mom bought it and had no idea what it was.

Connecting hwy, Laurel hill Blvd, Astoria Park... You just can't explain them as nobody can grasp that it was that big.

 

They did it then and they still do it now. When I was in High School I used to love cruising Central Avenue between Schenectady and Albany hoping someone would pull up next to me for a little fun. Ah, the enjoyment $5 in gas would bring when I was young.

The organized stuff still happens in the middle of the night on deserted roads. There is one really nice spot with an access road running parallel to it so that spectators can safely watch. Sometimes the track is actually prepped. The only thing missing are the grandstands. Quite a few people actually travel a few hours to visit this spot. Last year this funny story happened. A person from Vermont came and saw a few races. The next week he decides to bring his whole family from Vermont to see the action. They set up a picnic (blanket and all) at this spot and sit there for a few hours waiting to see some races. Of course the police shows up, sees their Vermont tags, and asks them what they are doing picnicking next to a road? They nonchalantly answer that they drove all this way to watch the car races. I'm sure all the cops were laughing about that one back at the Police Station later LOL

I used to street race about 20+ years ago when I was young and stupid. I don't do it now... but I might have spectated at one or two races in recent years.

The excerpt about street racing in NYC is fascinating reading. Even though I wasn't there all those stories sound like the stuff that used to happen at the Neba Nationals in Schenectady/Albany years ago.

 

Yes, yes, yes... Laurel Hill. Thanx I was losing sleep tryin' to remember that. What a flashback. Street racing, I used to get paid to it..... No, really! Any of you NYC guys rememger (chase trucks) the taxi cab yellow wreckers that would race to the accident scenes in competition for the better ($) collision job? Thats what I did for work at 17. I'd catch hell from my boss when he'd be at Connectings to watch and he'd see his truck lining up with some camaro or a goat............Ah, youth and ignorance/ piss and vinegar