Drag racing in New England hasnt always been relegated to Epping, New Hampshire. In fact, the region saw plenty of side-by-side action from the 1950s onward on a number of tracks, many of them re-purposed airstrips. One of the longest lived of those tracks was the one at Orange, M***achusetts, where drag racing will return this September after a 40-year absence. As part of the annual Orange Airport Dragstrip Reunion, which until now has only featured a pre-1974 car show, the new drags will take place on a 1/16th-mile section of abandoned runway at the airport, use a flagman starter, and will be divided into five heads-up cl***es: Top Eliminator, Street Eliminator, Flathead Eliminator, The Big 4 Banger Shootout, and Exhibition Only. Just 400 entries total will be accepted for the racing portion of the reunion. The car show portion of the reunion will continue. According to Bernie Shumans Cool Cars, Square Roll Bars, the Orange Airport drags first took place July 18, 1954, when the M***achusetts Automotive Council after three years of wrangling with local authorities received permission to use the airport for acceleration trials; they apparently were restricted from calling the drags an actual race. Attendance didnt really pick up at the Orange drags until the NHRA Safety Safari came through town in August 1955 and the following coverage in Hot Rod magazine alerted New Englanders to the presence of the Orange drags. That was the same year the MAC gave way to the New England Timing ***ociation, which ran the drags until the end of racing at Orange in 1970. This years Orange Airport Dragstrip Reunion and Orange Airport Nostalgia Drag Races will take place September 10. For more information, visit www.DragReunion.com
I will have to be nice to my little Banger. I don't wont to brake it before race day. Will there be a flat head and OHV banger cl***?
Add one for the banger cl*** This will be fun I can't what. I will have to get a twin carb set up if I won't to keep up with Johns bad *** pick up
milltown was happy to be partners with the first reunion.... put it back on the map ect.... we are no longer affiliated with this at all...............
I too am registered for the racing at the Orange airport. The last time I raced at Orange was in 1971! A few years have gone by but the desire still burns brightly, I have a 55 Chevy that raced in C/MP on many west coast strips in the sixties and seventies and it is now back in race trim with much of the original equipment. The 301 CI. that was originally in the car has been replaced with a 355 CI. I am going to have a blast come September. Hope to see lots of cars and people from the past, that era certainly lived up to all the hype that billed it as the "GLORY DAYS OF RACING" Being able to race once again at Orange will certainly scrub off a lot of years that time has ac***ulated.
The Jalopy Journal
