While reading another thread ( http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=241576 ), it occurred to me that there are a lot of people here that either lived through, had family or friends that lived through, are a drag racing buffs/historians, or were in some way a part of drag racings "Golden Era." I know there are a lot of drag racing books and websites dedicated to capturing this history, but most tell stories that are well known and have been p***ed along over the years. There is nothing wrong with that (in fact, it was one such story that inspired me to start this thread-see below), but I know there are a lot of stories that aren't well known or in books/web sites, etc. It's those stories I hope people share. Of course, the well known stories are welcomed too! I also think about all the drag racing icons we seem to lose every year and hope to encourage those that know some of them getting on in years to share some of their stories. Perhaps this is best suited for a separate thread, but for perspective, I think the next question is, when was the "Golden Era" of drag racing? Well, I'm no authority, and certainly not qualified to make that determination, but I do have an opinion on the subject. Many people argue that the introduction of the Ford factory sponsored Merc Comet's in 1966 for Jack Chrisman, "Dyno" Don Nicholson, Ed Schartman, Bill Kenz and Mike Leslie were the beginning of the end. Shortly thereafter the "flopper" Funny Car was introduced. For me, it ended in 1973 when the NHRA banned Fuel Altereds. By then, Funny Cars had momentum with factory sponsorship, sponsors liked greater space to advertise and certainly the NHRA and had safety concerns. All these and other factors contributed to the end of Fuel Altereds. Make your own case, but I think anything after 1973 would generally not be considered part of the "Golden Era" of drag racing. To kick things off, I wanted to share ProEnfo's re-telling of one of my favorite stories during the Golden Era (thanks putting a smile on my face ProEnfo!). His post was in response to the question "Who was Floyd Lippencotte, Jr?" Ok, so now it's your turn. Got any little known drag racing stories of the Golden Era? Let's here it! My hope is that this thread gets some traction (pun intended ) and becomes a long and interesting archive of great stories.
Got a bunch but heres a quicky for now, We're at OCIR musta been '72 or so one of their great funny car shows, time for Ed McCullogh to come to the line with the Revellution Duster, but he isn't there, announcer says well no McCollough so, so & so will get a single, when suddenly we here this roar from the pits and here comes Ed through the stagging lanes to the starting line does a quick burnout, stages, green, he goes and wins the round, well we all thought he was superman, a couple of years ago I am reading on a web site a story from back east this guy is telling this great story of McCullough at their local track back in the '70's, same story!, another guy from midwest post, Ed did the same thing there! I realized then what a true showman Ed was, he knew how to work the crowd way back then, Ed McCullogh was John Force when JF was still driving a truck in Bell Gardens... More later.
When I first got in the ad biz, I worked on a torque wrench account. Instead of contingency money or sponsorship fees, racers were given a case of torque wrenches from time to time that they would sell for cash in the pits. Those were the days when FED's were towed on flatbed trailers with a station wagon to hold the crew (volunteers) and tools. Spare engines; what spare engines?
The Golden Age for many of us started the first time we were at the track. For me, winter of 1956 at Saugus Dragstrip. Waiting in line to enter and race with my stock engined, only got pipes, lowered in front 50 Ford sedan, almost fully dark and a clear, but slightly dusty night. A few typical street runners of the day, much the same as my car, a Hemi powered 55 or so Ford pickup right behind and behind him a blown 55 T-Bird. It made you feel like you were finally a part of something you'd been reading about since you were 12 or so and hearing about from dad's pal's since you were 10 or so and seen more than a few local hot rods both running and under construction. Most famous car seen that night was the Yeakel Brothers Cadillac powered fueler. A few weeks later, a bright and sunny Sunday at San Fernando drag strip, a heckuva lot more modified cars and the two I remember best were a yellow full fendered 34 fuel coupe with a big number 25 on the side and a metallic green 50 Olds fastback with blown Rocket Motor and Cad-Lasalle floor trans. The Olds was cranking off times in the 111-112 region and we were stunned to see a full size street runner looking car run so hard. The experienced guys know about ET and how important it was, but we focused on mph and figured anyone who could run over one hundred had a fast car. Little brother and I were hooked. I still fool around with home-built hot rods and he runs a 166 mph Henry J drag racer.
C9, great memories for you...thanks for sharing them with all of us! Ok, who's next? I got one I'll post later.
Well, since no else is picking up the torch, I guess I’ll run with it a little more… Sometime in the early 60’s (I’m not sure of the year), local PNW drag racing hero, Jerry “The King” Ruth was already winning every race in that corner of the country when an event at Shelton Dragstrip changed his life forever. The event was mostly a demonstration event that included a pair of Romeo Palamedes jet powered cars. Apparently one of the cars was having problems and the promoter was left with just the one jet car-not a good show in the promoter’s eyes. During the event, before the jet car was supposed to run, Jerry was asked to participate in a 4 wide exhibition race, which he won. The promoter had an idea, and quickly made his way over to Ruth. He told Ruth if he would run his fuel dragster against the jet car, he’d pay him $400 cash. Ruth, ever the shrewd business man, jumped at the chance. Despite losing both races to the jet car, the promoter approached Ruth after the race with a paper bag full of money. Legend has it, Ruth took it back to his room and threw it all on the bed and said “I’m taking the rest of the year off!” Apparently that launched Ruth’s own race team as a driver/owner and he never worked for another owner his whole drag racing career. Let’s hear some more!
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