Features Have you ever run a car down a drag strip or an oval track?

Yes!

 

75-80 Drag Way in MD. Closed down a few years ago. Mostly raced my 340 Swinger. I think 13's were the fastest I went. First time I put slicks on it wouldn't pass tech, they were sticking under the wheel well and I had air shocks. The tech said if I blew a shock it would drop the car on the tire. A friend had a set of skinny cheater slicks and let me borrow them. I had just put a set of 489 gears in it. It never really hooked up, but compared to street tires, they pinned me in the seat. I think it smoked the tires in all 4 gears. When I got back to the pits my friends were all laughing. When I wasn't around, my room mate pumped the tires up to about 30 pounds. I didn't think it was funny at the time, now I do.

 

When I was a senior in high school our neighbor across the street raced a 66 Mustang with a 300 straight six in it. He knew I was a junior gearhead so took me along to a few races, and towards the end of the season let me take the car around the track a few times to warm it up. What a hoot!

 

Yeah, the upper three of your four choices.

Drag racing - Many, MANY laps, down four different tracks.

Oval Track - Not much but some. There was an oval track in Irwindale also. Spent some time doing that, thanks to my brother. Both 1/4 mile and 1/3 mile. One inside of the other.

Road course - Went to a couple of different driving schools, if that counts. Also have done many laps doing Auto-Cross, if that counts for road racing.

Mike

 

Back in 75 I bought a o/t gto August 1st and on August 3rd went racing at minnesota dragways, for the first time (kdwb drag fest). I was 16 and my two buddys are 15, no big deal back then. I have run my 39 on parade laps at BRI.

 

I did back in the '60's when I raced my '60 Corvette every Sunday until one day the light bulb went on. I said to myself "what the hell are you doing, beating the hell out of this poor car". I needed the car to get to work and if I blew it up I was screwed. I already went thru one clutch and had to tune it every week, for what? The track owners were making ton's of money and we were the drawing attraction and if we won we got some stupid $10 plastic trophy. Thank God I woke up!

 

Oval and drag strip. Made 3 laps in my 1st oval race and flipped when another car hit my left rear. Was leading the race too. Fun times.

 

AHHH! The process of turning money into noise. I am intimately acquainted. I have vaporized mass amounts of money pursuing that particular endeavor. I have owned, driven, and/or crew chiefed and financed some type of racing machine or another since 1968 up until just a few years ago. Started out drag racing my old '29 Ford pickup for a few years. Then the motorcycle bug hit, and I raced flat track motorcycles for 4 or 5 years until I got hurt and decided that I couldn't race if I couldn't work. After that I bought a go kart and raced that for a season. That was much too tame after flat track motorcycles, though.
So, I built my first dirt stock car. I had finally found my spot. Driving time is much greater going in circles than going straight for a 1/4 mile. I didn't have to worry about falling off the bike anymore, either. I raced dirt and asphalt stock cars for a lot of years. Won a lot of races and a couple track championships.
By then my son was about 8 years old. He was growing up in racetrack pits. We had a couple of old go-karts around the house, and I had always told him that if he wanted to go racing, we would buy a race kart and he could race and I would crew chief. I retired my late model racer, and we went kart racing in a big way. 65-70 races a year. Outdoors in summer and indoors in winter. After a couple of years of dominating the local competition, he stepped up to WKA and IKF National competition. We raced karts from Vermont to Oklahoma. He won 9 national championships in several classes over about 8 years on dirt and pavement.
When my son turned 18, I bought a 410 c.i. 850 horsepower non-wing dirt sprint car. No stepping up in classes for him. Right from about 12 hp to 850 hp and 1350 pounds. He took it up quickly and won a local track championship the first year. After a couple of seasons, we went USAC National Sprint racing. 40 or so races a year plus local shows. He was USAC National Rookie of the Year and top ten in national points that year. Since then he has been driving as a hired gun for other people, and I sold my last race cars a few years ago. He still races and makes his living in the racing industry.
So, the answer to the title question is that in our case, the answer is not only yes, but hell yes. It is a lifestyle.

 

I just drove around the cones with the sports car guys.

 

Never ran a car anywhere except a drag strip. But that's mostly the style of cars I build.


But I did have the chance to drive my '39 Chev gasser up the Maryhill hill climb course in 2023, and had a ton of fun doing it! Absolutely not setup for twisty winding road course uphill, but the old '39 handled cornering well and I loved doing it!

 

This is my sedan at the HAMB Drags. I was told the announcer made a comment about timing me with a sundial.

 

Back in the early 80's, I used to occasionally drag at Spencer Speedway in Williamson, NY. 1/10 mile that ran down the front stretch and your shutdown was turn one. So, kind of ran both at the same time.

 

Aw crap! I don't have the '36 any more, However, I still have the hemi-powered mod, but I think that would run ya' a little more.

After reading this thread, I remember the interminable waiting in line at the drag strip (even back in '61). Looking back, I would much prefer the circle track venue (at least the vintage stuff) because the time is more predictable. The thrill lasts a lot longer, and while it is usually not as extreme, it does ramp up now and then.

 

Only one trip down a dragstrip. I missed a shift on a 427 Fairlane and blew the clutch. Being a poor mailman with 3 kids, I learned that I didn't have the money to drag race as it took me a long time to save up enough money to replace the clutch. So I sold it and stayed a street rod kinda guy.

 

I may have put this here once before if so, sorry, this is 2004 at the Fontana speedway, this was at our ATHS national convention and truck show, we had rented the speedway for it, infield,track and parking lots, this is my 53 Peterbilt on the big track.

 

I'll bet the women love you, huh?

 

Started driving a stock Model A pickup at Colton in 1958. Beat a Willys station wagon for X/Stock, then a GoKart (X/Dragster) when his chain broke making me X Eliminator winner first time out. I'm such a courteous guy, I gave up drag racing due to usually letting the other guy go first.

(You've left out Land Speed racing -- 7 Bonneville and El Mirage records.)

 

And hill climbs and beaches.

Do parade / exhibition laps count?

Chris

 

only if you had it "to the wood" all the way 'round!

 

I did autocross and road course speed events for over a decade. Then I got real stupid and bought a Legends Car and went oval racing. One of the worst mistakes I ever made. I only took that one year of Legends racing to get me out of the mood for any racing. I played around with the idea of going drag racing but, by then, my kids were at an age I needed to spend more time with them. So, I did a few road course Driver's Ed events and then hung up my helmet.

 

Drag raced a few times with a few different cars including the Chevy and the roadster.
Drove a stock car around Las Vegas motor speedway
Beach raced and hill climbed in the roadster too
All good times

 

My 57 Plymouth was raced in gas classes in the mid sixties to around 1974. I raced it at N.Y. National Speedway, Westhampton, Islip 1/8 mile track ( I had to use different gears ) and Englishtown. From what I can remember Westhampton and Englishtown were NHRA. Islip was Nascar Drag Race Division and I think NY National was an outlaw track but not positive.

 

Racing has been in my life since I was about 8, with home built coaster cars, racing down the hill on Maple Street. I have Drag Raced everything from a Honda 50 to a Nostalgia Top Fueler. Now, Oval Track came later in the form of Destruction Derby, Dwarf Cars, Track Roadsters, and Vintage Hardtops, mostly on dirt, but pavement as well. Between the 2 different forms, I have competed in 5 Western States and Canada.; Oval Track requires a lot of brake, throttle, and car control, as well as dodging the Hooligans in front of you. I made race car construction and setup, my business 48 years ago, and plan on doing some racing this year. At 75, you have to do it while you can !

 

I ran sprint cars in the Midwest from 74 - 87 then a buyout at my company put me in search of a job.

I started as a car owner and won two local championships with Jim Moughan Sr. driving my car. When Jim quit me, I started driving and found out how hard it is to actually win a feature race. In the early 80's I ran a good number of USAC races with Bill Burks driving. I'd drive the car at a local show on Saturday and Bill would drive at a USAC show on Sunday. It was a lot of fun. Sprint cars as partially guided missles.

 

One does. She's easily pleased, so I've got that going for me..

 

My first trip down a strip was in 1965 driving my 51 Ford. I was 16 and learned what vapor lock was that day.

 

Took part in a Richard Petty Driving Experence at Richmond VA stock car track about 15 years ago, lots of fun.

Had the '57 at a test and tune once at the dragstrip in Richmond. For $8 you could make all the passes you wanted and race your friends too!

 

Went down the local strip one time, in the 170 cu. in. Mopar in this pic. Got dusted by a 6 cyl. Chevy pick-up truck. Strip and circle track events were my brother's calling. I dabbled mostly in flat track, hill climbs and cross country off road. All motorcycle related, (guarantied to get injured endeavors, it seemed) but being immortal in my own mind...

 

Don't feel too bad. Announcers have referred to me as a 'stalwart' of the bracket and at the nostalgia drags at Mildura I was driving a 'relic' because of my HAMBster.
I've done close to 700 passes in my HA/GR since I started racing at age 54 and will hit 67 y.o. in March this year and still can't get enough of it.

 

I'm a drag racer but I once took my Pepsi delivery truck around Holland Speedway, a NASCAR-sanctioned 3/8-mile high-banked (22 degree) short track that opened up in 1960.
My pop was all over the place, couldn't get the bay doors open, me and the owner's son had a really good laugh, since he's the one that agged me on about going around it. Lol