KCTA - Kansas City Timing Association

what color was the 56 chevy

 

Did anyone mention that the KCTA strip was open and available throughout the week day and night for anyone who wanted to race? The period I am thinking about was probably late 60's.

 

Hot Rod November 1956

 

Bump a dump

 

About 200 pictures from this photo shoot by Francis Miller for Life Magazine 1959? can be seen here:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&tbs=isch:1&ei=JAsjTPHIFImJnAe_p8wm&q=Kansas+city%27s+all+girl+Miller+source:life&sa=N&start=0&ndsp=21

Click on the thumbnails to get photos that are the same size as in this post, then click on the photo to see it in high resolution.

ENJOY!

 

Neat pics LowKat! Thanks for the link. I need to find one of those Dragettes jackets for my wife! Too cool.

 

More on the Dragettes: http://www.kcmeesha.com/2010/06/05/old-photos-kansas-city-dragettes/

~Jason

 

Old news story: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UrkfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ftcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2387,1998235

~Jason

 

I think that Lee Dorrell, mentioned in the article went on to lead the A.H.R.A., which thrived by offering fuel racing during the N.H.R.A. ban.

 

Got a KCTA trophy from 1960.

Front tag reads "Cars Invitational" KCTA 1960

Penciled on the bottom is K.C. JULY-31
Top Time 110.85
ET 12.97
B/GC

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ray Erickson here,,,,1955 AND 1956 KCTA PRES. wE OPENED DRAG STRIP IN 1955 ,,,THE NATIONAL DRAGS WERE held IN 1956--- ThERE WAS NO STRIP IN 1954

 

I was 11 or 12 in the mid sixties when my cousin took me racing. On Friday and Saturday nights we'd cruise down Independence Ave., get a burger and a shake, and wind up at the strip. He had a '63 Fury convertible, 361 with 3 speed column shift. He'd pull into the gravel pits and park. While he found a race, I'd uncap the dumps and put on the slicks. After a couple weeks, they taught me how to line the cars up and how to start 'em off with the arm drop. I was having the time of my life. We raced as much as we could that summer. I never saw anything but the grudge night races. It was spectacular. I'm still a fan and occasional racer today. No kid ever had it so cool. Thanks to all on this thread for bringing back some great memories.

 

awesome

 

I know this is responding to an old thread, but if that 56 Chevy is what I think it is, it was a red and white two-tone two-door post with an old guy named Pops driving it - and beating the pants off of all comers.

 

Seeing this photo brings back memories, I can remember being in High School 1959-1960 and going to the KCTA Strip
after dark at least once a week when weather permitted, paying $ .75 per car load, no lights, no supervision, no crowd control (It was great!).
Two black '57 chevy were regular attender, one was a FI 270 hp and the other had "Honest 220" painted on the rear bumper
the 4 barrel car was the dominate winner!!!

 

My favorite week day racer was Pops, must have been in his 60s or older in 1967 or so, I think he had a 55 Chevy, 265 CI all tricked out but street legal, had a stick figure dog drawing on the door. Any photos of this old man with a lot of cl*** out there?

 

Just makes me sick that we have lost all of our drag strips in the KC area.

 

What did they do with the KCIR property?

 

Going to be a park because the money people moved into the area and didn't like the noise. Guess who had more pull with the politicians??

 

I recall my older brother was a member of the “Road Knights” car club in Wyandotte County in KC, Kansas. My recall of the 1st NHRA Nationals in the earlyh 50s by KCTA was on an old airport runway in the KC bottoms, some low lands around the merging of the Kansas and Missouri rivers. I recall selling tickets at a make shift entry gate. It was all done by hand, a flag man, stop watches and spotters at the end of the 1/4. Urban legend then was that dragsters would become air borne at 150mph so that was a physics top speed possible. Art Arfon had a dragster with a v-12 helicopter engine and later one engenous dragged strapped a aircraft jet engine on a frame. That design didn’t last, and of course the ET and top speeds are beyond belief. KC then was blue collar industrial and rail center, complete with organized crime characters. It’s all santized now, with industry gone and suburbs grown There is no there anymore, and I am from there, born in Sedalia and grew up in Jackson and Wyandotte counties while my father worked for 40 years on the AT&SF Argentine yards

 

I seem to recall that is was way in the back of the Montgomery Wards warehouse parking lot down in the river bottoms

 

It was off of Chouteau Trafficway, just south of the Chouteau Bridge. There was a tavern, the Chouteau Inn, on the north side of the bridge. I was a city surveyor for several summers in the late 60s and early 70s, and did the construction survey for the replacement to Front Street. Nostalgic for several of us on the crew. Then we went to the Chouteau Inn.

 

The place was owned by Ronnie Schoonover about that time. Did you know him?

 

Larry, didn't know Ronnie, but knew Ted Schoonover and his dad, who owned a radiator repair shop at 85th and Prospect. They were old car folks. Dad sold me a 37 Ford coupe, which I had for about 30 minutes until my mom found out and insisted I take it back. Don't know if Ronnie and Ted were related, but seems likely, given the unusual name.

 

I don't know if they are related. Ronnie and his wife, Vickie, have lived in Florida for years and the old Chouteau Inn real estate is now an apartment complex.

It is certainly a good thing that parking lots don't tell any tales.

 

Larry, I'm losing it in my old age. Ted and his dad who owned the radiator shop were the Brookovers, I now recall. I did, however, go to a very old dentist in the early '60s named Schoonover. His office was in the Argyle Building Downtown, which is now converted to apartments. Chouteau Inn was an absolute favorite for KCMO city crews to have a long lunch, especially on payday Fridays. Cold beer, hot, juicy hamburgers and pool tables, as I recall.

 

From the Charles "Junior" Hurley Archive....A regular at the Edna,Kansas Drags...