I saw my 1st dragrace at Thunderbolt Dragway, somewhere around Jacksonville Fla. while stationed there in the Navy in 1961. Chris Karamachines (sic) was there and so was Dave Strickler and Dyno Don in a pair of bubbletop chevies. When I got out in 1963 I started dragracing. Stopped driving in the mid 70's and crewed on several A/FC and jet cars. Recently a new track opened in my area and thought I might run my 27 roadster and was turned away because it was too "quick" and need a rollcage. I also was a NHRA tech advisor in the late 60's early 70's. I built this 27 pretty darn safe. My favorite era? When you could still run your street car at the drags! NHRA=No Hot Rods Allowed!
The nitrous wars of the late 80's - early 90's. The high 8 second street car (back-halved steel car) became a reality. I had friends who raced the first couple of years of the NMCA....when they were heavy cars and people were fighting to make them hook. It was a ball.....until things got way out of hand.
Great thread, fat***buick, and good trip back in time, Sam! I've tried to nail down a specific period or era, but it's all been good up until the late '80s when the ********** of the dollar in NHRA made cl***ic heads-up racing inaccessible to the cash-strapped hot rodder. Vintage or nostalgia drag racing looked for a time like it might put the affordable fun back in the movement but what hope there was at the beginning has all but evaporated. I was involved with a neat little team of pals who were racing a flathead digger in the Flathead/Inliner cl*** at GG/VRA events until GG/VRA decided the cl*** wasn't all that interesting or significant, and so deleted it from their programs and told the compe***ors they'd have to race in the Hot Rod cl***es, against current-tech V8s! I'm not going to bore you with all the drama that led up to and followed this incredibly stupid move on the part of GG/VRA; suffice to say it's at the core of why I have little interest in what that organization does anymore. I want to put a positive spin on my contribution to this thread with some words and images that make me smile and help me recall why I love it so much -- all of it . . . well, almost all of it. First, here's Wild Hare Racing, or part of it. There were only three of us on hand this day for the team picture. The little flathead digger was a mild build, 3/8 x 1/4, running injected alky. ETs were 10s and 11s. When GG/VRA pulled the plug on the cl*** the car was sold and two other cars that were being planned by team members were scrubbed.
This is my favorite drag racing image -- Jeep Hampshire lighting the hides on the Fuller-built Stellings & Tapia car -- right out of DRAG NEWS!
Innovative out-of-the-box creativity entertained us and, at the least, made us think, even when it didn't work as well as hoped, like "Sneaky" Pete Robinson's vacuum car . . .
Well, since you asked...I'd have to say the early '60's, only because it was still a simple time in history. G***ers Rule!
I wasn't there, I've seen the pictures, Santa Pod from the early 60s to the mid 80s. Unschooled Brits going as fast as they can in jalopies of every description, yeah that's racing!
. . . or worked extremely well like the quad-Buick AWD digger Fuller authored for TV Tommy. Not the quickest in its time, but its mission was to bring the fans to their feet and make money, which it did by the carload!
Sam where did you get that pic with the go kart. Says Tampa on the fence. It's gotta be Tri-county drag strip. Growing up in Tampa it was all Garlits in the 60's and 70's. Front page news when he won or broke a record. His old speed shop is now a "Silk Tree" store. I still have a plate from the shop. Connie Swingle has a body shop albout 3 miles from my house. Here's another pic of Pam for you guys.
. . . let's not forget how great the actual funnies looked, lacking the surgical precision of the current generation of gelatinous floppers, but far more recognizeable and lovable!
And let's not forget some of the interesting graphic treatments lavished on hot rods at the time . . .
. . . that just keep us coming back to some of the wonderful memories of past times. But just when you think drag racing has lost its edge, its excitement . . .
I like the purity and innocence of the early days of drag racing, where you drove your car to the salt, ran it, and hit the drags on the way home. Those must have been a blast. BUT..things really heated up around 64 and ran great until 74...those are the heydays in my opinion.
( Jungle Pam Actually looks best with gl***es.. ) To me the racecars paintjobs, the lettering and so forth looks boss until sometime in the early seventies. Then something changes.. Very cool to see so many great photos in one thread.
OK, That does it!!! Unless I'm going to find a dirt cheap Anglia or Topolino ( Like THAT is going to happen ),I know what body to use. Anybody have more pics ?
What a great bunch of pictures. My dad said he beat that Big Willie guy at Lions in his Yenko "back in the day". He said he also used to go behind a Sears and there was a quarter mile marked off...people used to bring slicks and street race all night. Cops never bothered them because it was in a relatively safe area and caused no problems. I guess this was the days before the frivolous lawsuits took over.
The BEST was 1964 and 1965 in Bellevue and Omaha. I graduated BHS in 64 and got my first car there; a great 59 Impalla with a 348 and Powerglide. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. In fact I just went to Iowa. We gathered at Koosgard's Grocery Store (next to the cop shop) at midnight Saturday. That's when the toll bridge shut down and about 100 cars would cross over to Iowa to race the rest of the night. On the Iowa side you could see anything coming for about twenty miles away; plenty of time to cross back over to Nebraska. Trouble was, everyone had their cutouts open and the Bellevue Police were there waiting. Top dog was Dwain Minke with his 64 Impalla SS, 327 and four speed. There was a guy with a 63 Plymouth 426 Wedge who later got the first 63 Galaxie Fastback in town. John somebody, who now owns a sandwitch shop in Bellevue, had a 350 horse Chevy II. There was a guy with a really nice blue 34 Ford 2dr Sedan. My friend, Gordon Ortelli, had a new 64 Pontiac Catalina with four speed. Another friend, Glen Spelis, had a 50 Ford Crestliner; blue with a white side panel, and it was the fastest Flathead around. Sometimes I drove my dad's 63 Buick LaSabre Convertible with the speedo unhooked. That car got a lot more miles than he ever knew. The Buick backed up to school doors and laid a strip all the way out over the curb and twenty feet into the parking lot. Busted the oil pan but we got it off and welded and back home before sun up. Earlier on Saturday and on any other night you could find us cruzin Dodge Street in Omaha. Every intersection on Dodge Street looked like the burn out area at the strip. Race, Race, Race and nobody ever got caught. We would make a side trip to North Omaha and find an adult willing to buy us a pint of Cherry Vodka. I can't believe we lived through those years. Sometimes there would be a race between two cars out on the road to the base back gate and near the river. It looked just like the race in American Grafitti. Two cars racing and thirty or more there to watch. Still never got caught. The Bellevue cops in those days were cool and left us alone so long as we didn't kill someone. Does anyone recall the name of the car club in Bellevue at that time? Glen, Gordon and I almost made it in before we moved on. I went to the great SE Asia Tour as did Glen. Gordon became a helo pilot in Korea. We all three still see each other from time to time. Glen and Gordon both drive Vettes. I have a 350Z and three old cars. Just can't get older than 20 no matter how hard I try. (I don't try very hard.) Arehea aka Rhea Cooke
Back in the 70' & early 80's ... with the 32 AA/FC shows at OCR & match racing our AA/FC almost 3 days a week coast to coast ... oh yea don't forget the VHT/Fire Burnouts !!!!
I think the era from about 1968 till maybe the early 70's---thats when I got into it as a punk kid. I was about 14--15 years old and would beg rides from where I lived {Ventura,Ca} to Lions or Pomona or Irwindale {not the track now--the big *** brewery sits where the old strip was}--or all the way down to OCIR---or up to Santa Maria{ kinda a dirt/concrete track--gravel in the shut-off area!} The OLD GUYS taught me how to mix fuel---set valves for high RPM on the front motor fuel cars---pack chutes--anything just to work on the cars.By the time I was 16, I was getting to hop in the car and warm it up---think about that: a 16 year old kid running up a 2500 horse fuel motor--right between the tires and all that heat/noise blowing in my face--IT WAS BETTER THAN ***!! By the end of the day, I was beat to ****---the constant vibration/pounding--fuel fumes--tire smoke---beating sun.And I don't think I've ever been happier!! Oh yea----there's nothing like standing behind 2 top fuel cars launching off the line--most people see it from the stands or maybe the track fence---I was a lucky guy. Front motor car where and still are the best rush --to me.
1959,1960,1961,1962,early 1963....when Pontiacs Ruled The Strips. Super Duty Program......389 Tri Power....421 Dual Quad...alluminum Bumpers,fenders,hoods,third Members,swiss Cheese Frames,radio Delete Plates,heater Delete,insulations/undercoating Delete. Jess Tyree Mickey Thompson Jim Wangers Arnie The Farmer Beswick The Gay Bros. Pete Mc Carthy Ace Wilson's Royal Bobcat Dealership
I would have to say the "Best" times for drag racing would be the late 60's - to early 70's. I know that when speaking of an era, you normally would talk in decades, but the years in mention meant the most to me. My father and my uncle were running a 55 Chevy g***er in the late 60's that was a national record holder (a car that I am trying to duplicate currently), and that lived in my garage. They were also running a fuel rail, and building a 48' Anglia g***er that never was completed. From the time I was born, I was around these cars, and the strip every weekend. I met Gene Snow, Warren Beetle, and Don Garlits before I was 7, and learned to love the smell of racing fuel over that of cakes and candies. This was also a time of development in the sport, and a time that I think saw the greatest explosion of popularity. I love the speed and technology of today, but would take a tire smoking, gaurdrail jumping, blown fuel altered making a messy p***, over a perfect John Force p*** anyday. Just my opinion of course..
The Jalopy Journal
