What REALLY happened to Drag Racing in 1964?

Don't kid yourself. Racers "ruined" drag racing. Everybody wanted to go faster, even me in my flathead, and technology advanced, not by some nebulous outside force, but by the very racers themselves. When somebody developed a good system or part, everybody wanted it to keep up. Somebody would be plenty willing to sell that part or technology. Bracket racing saved drag racing, IMHO. The average Joe just couldn't afford to keep up with the technological advances the racers themselves made. It really isn't that much fun to keep losing.

 

Found this...Left side list all Years ...and Click on "News Library"...All kinds of "history" ...kind of tells it all

http://cms.nhra.com/50th/index.html

 

The war in Vietnam didn't help.

 

GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who got it? I may have more photos besides the ones I lent you! Got an engine builder for "Alley Oop" so a side by side run with Hellzapopin is in the future. First time in 48 years.

 

I think Jim Marlett and fab32 are right. The racers with knowledge, the folks that could afford to buy the knowledge, or a combination of both have always had an edge.
As far as 64 being the year of change, who knows? Don Montgomery, in his gasser book states that NHRA changed the rules for the Gas classes around 1960 to make dual purpose cars more competitive. Did it work? Ask 1960 record holders Ohio George (blown 400+ cu. in. Cad) or Burt Looney (blown 460 cu. in. Olds) if they drove their gassers on the street.
I guess drag racing did become a spectator sport in the 60's. That's where bracket racing came along and made it a participant sport again (and probably saved a LOT of local dragstrips along the way).
I'm always amazed at the folks that think you could buy a clunker, drop a junk yard engine in it and win races.
Off to work.
Larry T

 

Yo 37KId. ...Click on the link...Bob Schlegel Got it ,NETO photographer from Carmel.N.Y. He's putting it into Injected Motor form...JUST like in the photo I posted a few back. Can you handle piloting the Ol' Alley OOP? We'll Do a "Photo Recreation" on the Starting Line ..like we did with Bad News And Willy the Welder MG. Many of you have mentioned Viet Nam...Had a profound impact on car counts at Tracks....And Dough Made it go...Class racers outpriced themselves....More Money-You Won. Should have had more rules restrictions to keep it street & strip. When the Trailers and Box trucks showed up, the little guy went to the spectator side.

 

Thanks Dino! If you PM me Bobs address I'd like to keep him updated. Just got back from the welding supply shop and stopped in at The Sycamore for lunch. Place still looks the same as it did when you were there last. Merry Christmas!

 

"The hot-rod scene in america is a pretty good case study in evolutionary memetics"
Looked up 'Evolutionary Memetics' and well...you'de have to explain that...way above my humble education.

 

IN the south it was Super Stock and gassers. We also had classes like cheatin' 2 barrel and 4 barrel for cars that weren't legal for gas. Top fuel dragsters were something we read about in magazines for the most part. The part about it being the best era in drag racing is very true in my eyes also.

 

I always thought '64-'65-'66 were the very best years of racing. They were the pinnacle to me. After that, the decline. There was some excitment with the floppers in the early '70's, augmented by early pro stock, hell, everyone was still on open trailers with the top guys maybe having an open ramp truck. But with the mass commercialization, the corporate sponsors not directly involved in marketing to the car industry (Coke, Pepsi, the beer companies) it just went to hell. I didn't mind the 'tree, but sure can't stand pro trees. BTW, Dino, I never liked a tree more than good old Dover's home made one!

 

Down hill? No way! The 1964 to 1971 supercar years up to 1974 (where it peaked, as far as I'm concerned) and ending in the late 1970's, was drag racing's most exciting, most innovative and most colorful era BY FAR!

Pete

 

I draw the line at catalytic converters and smog pumps (1975) for cars. I think trucks may have escaped a little longer. Someone else can chime in on that.

 

Getting More info on this Transition Year. Seems Money in sponsorships and the new Speed equipment companies needing Advertising started a whole new way to "bank-roll" your Racer, NOT like Home-builts of the past. And so the promoters got into the mix. Commercialization invaded and many hit the Street Rod Trail, never racing again.

 

I know already..... this is an ancient discussion, but I'm compelled to ask if anyone raced the unsanctioned OutLaw circuits of the time?
I don't know about up north or in the west, but here in the southeast, there were more unsanctioned flag start (or a bulb on conduit) strips around than were professional ones during the period in question.
This was indeed a period of transition.
I built our first car when I was 14 and had an older cousin drive it at Dudley Oakley's Fairview Super Dragstrip located 35 mi west of Nashville, Tn. It was a 1,000' or what was called a 3/16's strip that I understand started in the late 50's as dirt out past the starting line. Unlike many others which closed in the 60's, it continued operation until the late 70's and there is no place else I could have ever raced because being a young kid, my junk was not otherwise safe or competitive, but there was always a crowd and what a show.
I had raced and been to races for several years and seen many magazine pictures of professional cars and racing, but I never actually saw a Chrondek start and ET timers until 69' when I first visited sanctioned Union Hill in Nashville. I had only been to unsanctioned strips to that point, and found even that regular Saturday night 1/8th show quite spectacular.

I believe .....for what it's worth, Dino is correct here, and there were major changes that evolved in the period in question, but you are not hearing from the folk that did not join the sanctioned ranks and instead continued to race competitively with their stuff in prehistoric conditions, for big $$ in entry pools, and starting line and concession stand side bets.

I'd like to cite several examples of div 2 unsanctioned outlaw strips active well past 64' and into the 70's, that ran the way they did from day one to the day they closed.
How about Larry Carrier and IHRA? what division and why did that come about?

Anyone else out there relate? Does this need to be a new discussion thread? Did I impose here on this older discussion, sorry but I felt compelled to bring this out. I never see posts from the non-NHRA renegades.
Tom S. in Tn.

 

I sold my Willys gasser at the end of the 1964 season because of the breakout rule....we all were always trying to go faster and quicker, when someone did, we celebrated....with the breakout rule, you were disqualified.....to me that was Not racing.....it became a braking contest.....I went stock car racing cause they still raced to the finish line.....now I have come full circle, thanks to nostalgia drag racing, and we're racing to the finish line again.....it's still just as much fun, plus now we remember how much fun it was back then....that's how I remember it.....Fred Bear...S&S Racing Team 1962-64.

 

Tom S. Good points. I view '64 as no more or less definitive than any other year - it was just part of an inevitable progression. No one here seems to remember the AHRA either. Down south, rails & altereds just never seemed a big deal. Doorslammers reigned supreme whether in nascar or dragracing. Look at what Detroit was offering from the later '50's and through the 60's. Once they were onboard, it seems to me it was Detroit who changed dragracing forever. Detroit also had one powerful thing going for it the others did not - easy customer financing. That in itself made a huge difference.

 

^^^^^^ AHRA was based from somewhere out West if I'm not mistaken, and I never had much exposure to that organization, but it is correct that most racing in the South was stock automobile body based, but that was the extent of it with wheelbases shortened and engines setback not by inches, but by feet.
I'll never forget the time a guy showed up at Big Oak Drag Strip located between Franklin and Columbia Tn., with a McCullough supercharger off a late 50's Ford or Stude (?) on his new at the time 66' Mustang fastback.
Some serious hl raising...... when they made him run off a blown gas record.
It led some Chevrolet folk to declare a Hilborn should be a legal replacement for a Bendix injector if this car were to race with them.
To avoid gunfighting, things evolved into Run What Ya Brung (even sounds suthin' don't it) which later evolved into what became known as Bracket Racing where timing lights and such were present.
Places where timing and starting lights were not present were to become victim to urban sprawl and died into extinction due to liability and other aesthetic reasons.

There are volumes written of the lore and history of bootleg runners racing in pastures and fairground horse tracks that became Nascar stars, but there is precious little mention of the parallel that took place at the same time on abandoned county road dragstrips on the fringes of small towns.
I know there were large crowds back in the day but everyone only talks about points races and national events anymore. Anyone else out there.
Tom S.

 

Tom, I guess it all depends on where you were. I believe you might need to get out of TN and head a little further south these days. There's still many small tracks operating, some of them quite old now. Sadly, most only have weekly bracket racing venues these days, as I suppose it is almost everywhere. This means no spectators, so the racers have to pay their own purses, plus track overhead. I remember what the spectator crowds were like on the local level at many tracks, when I first started watching in 1960. They always seemed to constantly have big, paying crowds.

It's still "doorslammer" country though. Pro Mod events are promoted around the area and DO bring spectators to the tracks. And if you tow some (3-4-5 hours), you can race rather frequently - and they are darn exciting. I've ran Pro Mod for about the last twenty years, since I refuse to bracket race.

Since you mentioned it: The last "Cheatin four barrel" race I ran (and the very last one I have heard of) was around 1990 at Atlanta Speed Shop (I believe it was). Julius Hughes III was trying to revive them at the time, but lost his lease for the track when the railroad (which owned the land) wouldn't renew and closed the track completely down.

Some say "bracket racing" saved dragracing. I don't think so, I think it almost killed it. But I recognize opinions are like bellybuttons, everybody has one.

 

something that always makes me wonder is this notion about bracket racing not being real racing. the thing about heads up racing is the same reason everybody got out of it, it cost to much!!. the guy with the most money usually always wins in heads up, or if you don't have 12 people in your crew to split the cost, you can't compete today.
if it wasn't for brackets, most of the people who race today wouldn't be. with brackets it doesn't matter what you race or how much money you have. i race a flathead bantam altered in the anra series and have been in the finals many times. also, i run against 10-16 sec altereds and dragsters. so you see, if it wasn't for brackets, i wouldn't have been running my car for the last 16 years. oh yea, i have never broke anything major in the car all this time. in closing I'll just say, if you don't race heads up today, it's because you don't have enough money to compete, so quit wanting something back now you couldn't afford back then. if you like racing, build something and go bracket racing. you'll get the hang of it.

 

This is all extremely interesting, thanks for posting this great thread

 

Maybe i missed the point of this thread i think its all good who cares if you get a trophey or are the best in the field.. we head to the track as often as we can and run our cars under tt thats right straight up time trails choose up cars in the stage lane that we think is a good match and run thru the lanes together line up and let it hang even have let the track guys know its a grudge race and personally have driven my car over 2.5 hrs each way to the track for a grudge race more than once had a blast mid to high 11s on a street driven car not in it for the points hell couldnt follow the circut nor the every weekend thing even if i wanted to....as long as each time i go to the track i get a little faster i am a happy man
The good times are right now each and every day if you wake up in the morn and both feet hit the floor and you go out and your car what ever it may be fires up everthing after that is pure gravey..just my 2 cents

 

I'll share a little history with you. 1964 was an important year for many of us Old Farts. It was the first time I got to vote in a presidential election. Lyndon Johnson "PROMISED" he would keep us out of Vietnam (oh yeah!). so i voted for good ol' LBJ. 12 months later Uncle Sam asked me to join him! I was one of the lucky ones and never left the US! So yep there was alot going on! Some of us got distracted.

 

Excellent point Larry, and I agree with your political perspective of the period as well. Strange events followed the assassination, some could argue even up to today, but that's censorship material. However, I still get angry when I see the guys I knew in my high school class picture that are not with us. If I had been born a few hours earlier or later, I could very well have been one of them.

But back on task....... Speedex, you are in a prime location for drag racing. Georgia was a racing mecca and as hot as any place on earth in the day, west coast inclusive, and the location of 2 of the worse accidents in the history of motorsports that ultimately changed public view of the liability perspective of all motorsporting activity.
I'll cite the following example of a Ga car that was instrumental in the history in development of present day funny cars, a class which does not have west coast roots.

we used to run these damn things from saturday till the sun came up on sunday...........
If you went to a junk yard today, what could bring home to make a race car from ??



Ok, I'll let it go............. but I still have the theater of my mind.
Tom S. in Tn.

 

Sorry, but I have one more thing to address before I quit.
After looking over the commentary posted, I have to interject that 50 years ago everyone could compete, and based solely on your skills level as to what level of competition you could compete at.

Question: How was Mr. Platt able to obtain the car pictured above? (hint: he had a public job and a welder in his basement shop)

Yes, faster has always been more costly, and if you were wealthy it has always been easier to go fast, but during the period it could still be obtained even by a share croppers kid if you had skill and worked for it.

Somethings lost in this day. Now I'll let it go.
Tom S.

 

Good points. I sure don't like all of the electronics in bracket racing today, but it did save participant drag racing at a time when it was going down the tubes.

As far as all heads up drag racing goes, there have been "spots" based on class records or indexs as long as I can remember. One of the favorite quotes I ever heard at a track back in the 60's was when a B/Stocker had to run an O(i think)/Stocker in Stock Eliminator. The guy with the B/S said
"I've got to spot him 1/2 mile and we only race a 1/4!"
Larry T

 

1964 , 427 Ford and Chevy became the standard as did the Hemi. Christmas tree, The war took thousands of guys who would race out of the picture . factory supported stock and super stock cars .

 

In my opinion one of the biggest changes was the fact that you could go into an car dealership and purchase a car with over 400hp and head to the drag strip that weekend.

In the years prior to the early 60's guy's were in garages building their car for a few years but once you could just buy something out of a showroom everything started to change.

I remember one friend who purchased a 1964 Hemi in a Plymouth with two big carbs and he had not purchased the slicks yet and he took me for a wild ride and it was fast right out of the showroom.

Guy's were buying 409's with 425hp and taking them home and sticking in a 4.56 gear and a set of slicks along with a good tune up and heading for the drag strip.

Kink of scary in those days the cars you could buy if you had the money.

Jimbo

 

That's a helluva lot easier now than it was then... And if you can't (or don't bother to)make the payments, that's ok...the govt will help you out

 

Most of my time was spent on the street but hot rodding in general took a big hit when so many went to Vietnam. It had the secondary effect of taking mentors away from the younger guys coming up. Then you had the insurance companies hitting us with super high premiums, government safety nazis, and recreational drugs. A lot of would be rodders and racers were in vans stonned to the bone and not motivated to do anything but roll in the shag carpet with some young hippie chick. Hmmm. Then there were the race riots that caused a lot of people to move farther out from the city and broke up the social groups of rodders. Crime spread and a lot of the hangouts closed up. You couldn't keep a set of wheels on a car parked in your driveway. Everything worth anything had to be garaged. On the street the cops were getting thick as flies with all the crime. With so many cops came ticket after ticket. Wheels exposed; bumper too high; plug wires that made police radios crackle; scoops interfering with vision; loud exhaust, etcetera. But now I'm back for the next round and building my Henry J gasser.