History Where was the "Paradise Road" in your town?

In the New Haven Connecticut area we had some and still have some great locations. Ora Ave it was actually in East Haven the road lead to New Haven in the Morris Cove area just out side of Tweed New Haven Air Port. Ora Ave was in the marsh land area so no houses around and being a dead end road it was closed on the New Haven end we would drive in only from one direction. Meet my future wife Laura there {Hot Rod Mama} we just celebrated 49 years married. Next location Research Parkway in Wallingford a great straight away in an Industrial park area. Last area Wallingford Rt-15 Merritt Parkway exit 66 North Bound you race to the bridge.
Some good times and great memories for sure.
Ronnieroadster

 

Route 231, West Islip (Long Island), NY - a few years of my misspent youth up there. Hang out at the fast food lots up on Deer Park Avenue, drop straight down south to "the track" on 231 between Sunrise Highway and Union Blvd. for the run, then head back up to Deer Park Ave to talk about it and set up another run. We even had painted start and stop lines on the roadway at 1/4 mile. Great times.

 

The south end of Deer Park Avenue aka 231 was for racing, the rest of it was for cruising

 

South of our little town (Alexandria NE.) out by the Catholic cemetery on Hwy 53. We had the road marked at the start and finish lines (about a quarter mile) You could see for a safe distance in both directions. Raced out there for several years when I was in high school. State road department had it figured out as every so often they would paint out our markers.

 

We had another spot, Hall Rd behind the Gibralter Ford ***y plant. Nice and safe, flat concrete, no side streets at the time. Usually a week night spot. This is a bit of a story here so enjoy. I may have told it here once before but wth...

So one night this guy trolls up to our car,
"You guys racin this thing?"
"We didn't bring it out for show n tell."
"How fast is it?"
"Pull out some money and find out."
So he starts looking the car over and the blah blah that goes with it. We had a small block Mopar, a built 318 and a 150HP shot of NOS. Little baby 9 X 27 slicks, essentially a mid level st racer. Don't get me wrong, that little ****er surprised many an unsuspecting victim. A best ET of, at the time, 11.07.
His car had a 468 RHS crate motor and a 250HP "Big Shot" NOS system. He also had 10.5 X 29.5 slicks. In addition he had the gaul to ask for a car length.
"**** off dude, if you're scared go play with someone else. Aren't you supposed to be 'Mr 10.80' with that thing?"
"Who said that, I never..."
"**** off Tom, you think we don't get around? Heads up or give US a car."
"Well I don't wanna waste my time, it better be worth my while. 100 bucks."
"Make it 200, 300, I don't care."
Now he's nervous. I pulled out my knot and showed him I was serious.
"Whatcha got? Let's do this."
He had $23 in his pocket. Asks his wife how much she had.
"I got $35 til u get your check tomorrow, I'm not spending it on a street race!"
"How about $50?"
"Well, I guess. Make it easy on yourself."
His wife chimes in, "TOOOMM!"
"Don't worry baby, I won't need it."
So we go race. In the meantime he'd pulled his mufflers and musta had a John Force flashback. Did like 3 long noisy burnouts. I start yelling at him,
"Dude, WTF? You trying to get the cops out here? Let's go!"
So I tell my pal to watch my elbows, and as soon as they twitch just go. He didn't want to, thought that was cheating, and I explained it's a natural twitch when you go to drop. Worked for Garlits in the flag days, right?
So I line em up, this mope brake torqued so hard his tires spin, Mark takes off, and stops right away and I stop Tom.
"SO I GUESS THIS IS YOUR 1ST STREET RACE AFTER ALL, WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU? DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT YOURE DOING?"
Now he's pissed, tryna blame Mark, I go tell Mark just run your race, we own this ****er.
As I line em up I can't resist,
"NOW DO IT RIGHT THIS TIME ****ER!"
Y'all know what's about to happen right? They leave, he overrevs 1st gear, he's on the limiter in 1st n 2nd, slidin all over, Mark is long gone. Clean easy win. He picks me up quickly and we scoot to the party store around the corner to get paid. The most awesome moment of the whole race, "Hey Hon, you got that 30 bucks?" I hope the sofa was comfy that night

 

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Speaking of exactly the location mentioned, this is I-470 before it opened. This is roughly late 1979 early 1980.
We are on top of Blue Ridge looking east. We used to race from the bridge going over James A Reed Road which is about 3/8 mile back from the photo of the blurred out vehicle. It had great traction and was very smooth, flat, and straight. Spectators could line the side of the highway and watch for a few minutes. Now it is bumper to bumper madness at 75 mph all the time.

 

Near the Omaha Epply Airport a board track was constructed decades ago, I believe it was only in use for a couple years as it was a high maintenance venue. Further to the North on 30 th. street in the Ponca hills area I believe around the same time frame was a dirt track that vehicle entries could not exceed a $5.00 valuation, not sure how that was enforced. During an older home restoration, a co-worker found an intact entry ticket while tearing out a stairwell.

 

Not trying to be a **** here guys, but posting pics of late model stuff will only serve to get this thread shut down.

 

Back in late '60s worked in a town called Townsville,up north of our State
we would all meet at a all nite petrol station and challenges were made
plenty of single girls would hang around station looking for a "fun" lift for the nite
we all headed west out of town on the Townsville / Mt Isa highway
there was a straight about 5 miles long with a bridge at that mark and then a slight bend
we had a flat area beside the road at the start line which we used as the "Pits"
first on to the bridge WON
one nite we were all waiting in the pits when we saw some lights coming along
**** it was the cops out for a country drive, do not know who got the biggest fright
them or us as all cars made a dash back towards Townsville (30 miles)
Lucky I had mate with me who told me as we got close to town turn left and keep
going, good luck as police had set up a road block and booked all our friends
Police in the town did not like modified cars

 

I grew up in western ND in the oil patch lot of fast cars would come to town there was a two lane stretch between two cemeteries called cemetery road. there was also a flat 1/4 mile stretch of highway in front of my parents house that guys raced on or shook there cars down. I remember a very wicked 35 chevy coup that used it all the time, my brothers buddy's would use it also, 56 2 door ford wagon with a cross ram 390,69 GTO, built 70 grabber maverick ,64 merc comet,70 mustang are just a few I remember

 

For me the place was Decatur Rd. in NE Philly as Tow Truck mentioned. Spent a night in jail with 90 other gals and guys when the cops pulled their first raid. Have the newspaper clipping. Next day we all went before a judge and had to pay a small fine or give your license up for a time. My dad picked me up and was laughing at it. Also raced at the "Meadows" and the Concrete strip near Byberry Rd. which was a real trip. For a short time the hot spot was the old Budd plant till they destroyed it with bull dozers when word got out. The good old days. MantuaJohn

 

How about another one? We'd also race on Fort St south of the D from King Rd. We'd race going north and it usually also happened on a "school night" since we started a wed night hangout with our club, Michigan Street Unlimited at a hot dog drive in called Jobees.

On many of those meets we would commence "dollar days" from that corner. The area was such we could back up to the block wall in the Farmer Jack parking and p***ing traffic couldn't see. This particular time the grocery store Teamsters union was on strike and there were a few picketing the store down by the road. It's a boulevard with a wide center, and we'd cross the road, watch the race on the opposite side, cross back to our cars. After a ½ dozen or so fun races, each one we would have a $1 bet on the winner a****st ourselves, (hence "DOLLAR DAYS!"). the cops show up, we see em, gotta get back fast but "Oh **** here's another one!" There's bushes and small trees in the middle and I say "Hide! Hide!" and we hide in the trees. The turn around was right there, cop is in it now looking around, here we are 6 or 7 grown *** men hiding in the bushes like little kids, maybe 50 feet from a police cruiser, giggling like 5th grade recess. He leaves and we beat feet back to the parking lot. For cover we grabbed some of the extra picket signs and helped the striking teamsters. 2nd cop makes it back past and didn't give us a 2nd look. Now we're all laughing so ****in hard it feels like we're punch drunk. One of the ladies picketing, "Hey can you guys come back tomorrow night too?" "Sure, why not, we support the unions." "Cool, this is fun!" she says with the other few in agreement. Of course we didn't go back. We wore out our welcome on that corner and the next one too 3 miles south. Dollar Days picked up again though. The nights at the legendary Detroit Dragway, dollar days was a big thing. On the rare occasions at the track today that we're together someone will yell "DOLLAR DAYS!" and we commence to bettin again.

You ****ers won't be happy til I'm racing again, huh? Dammit I miss those days. This isn't helping...

 

...........This is hilarious........

 

Here are the newspaper clips.

 

Absolutely! You were there too, great times.

 

Famous as any, Hall street in St.Louis.

 

About 45 years ago, Peoria Street in Pasadena was the place to be. Was a nice long flat street with a few homes, but few real obstacles. Plus easy exit if the cops showed up. It’s heavily built up now and mix of commercial & residential properties now.

 

Several places around me. But the best was Finch road in Modesto. The road,asphalt, curbs and been put in , maybe mid 70’s sometime. Was a wide road, maybe 60-80 foot wide, in the middle of near nowhere.
Guess it was some kinda of industrial park that took years to get rolling on.
But about any Saturday or Sunday afternoon there were dozens of street racers out there. A few spectator vehicles too.
I ran it a few times there, but what I really remember is I could show up at say noon. Watch dozens of races, leave, and the place was still packed.
Every other place we went day or night was “one and done” meet in town and settle up.
Had to zip though all the posts, but here’s my official “like” on all of them.

Like

 

We used to cruise Noland rd from 35th to 40hwy and hangout in the old Kmart parking lot till about 1am then head over between Independence and blue springs where 23rd st turns into 78 Hwy to run them. Or sometimes we would go down off front st back behind Universal Ave. Kids with twin turbo Fast and furious type cars still run down off front st. Not to far from where the original KCTA track was. **** that was 30 years ago but Good times man!!

 

You're talking my area now. I can see Hall Rd from where I am sitting now and the party store you mention I go to. Also, in your next post you mention Fort St. I grew up off Fort St. north of Seaway/Beaumont Hospital. Before the area built up there were a lot of good race spots in the area.

 

This goes back a lotta years obviously, but we were a club called "Michigan Street Unlimited" and held events here n there for several years. One of our regular meets was the old Jobees drive-in on wed nights. Another connection, if you recall the week long news story about muscle cars and street racing that was our gig, they did their filming and interviews on a Jobees night. At one of our Wyandotte car shows I'll go on public record here and say we had the 1st ever burnout contest. We should have coffee some day...

 

We (Kruse Brothers) had cruise nights at Jobee's also in the mid 80's.
I was at that Wyandotte show. If I remember correctly, it was held where the golf course along Biddle is now. Got pictures around here someplace

 

That's the one. The nation's 1st car show burnout contest. In the years to follow the contest became a staple at the Gibralter Trade Center annual show. We were about done doing shows by then.
I had a black 47 Cadillac conv in that show.

 

I didn't have to go any were to run Paradise Rd .
Frates Rd Petaluma is were they filmed the Paradise rd race .
it was raced on before and well after the movie and I ran it in the early 80's .
I put down the Bad Hemi Cuda there and few other heavy hitters with beat to **** 67 chevelle running a very hot 327 with a ford top loader hooked to it feeding a 12 bolt with 5.13 gears on 30" Mcreary sprint car tires . I was a legend for about 3 days .
guys would cruise Petaluma Blvd and and eventualy sme one had to prove who was faster . a keen eye would see about 20 cars leaving the area in a percession lead by the guys who were going to race . A look out on the intersection of Old Adobe road and Frates RD tot he east and Guys lined up and hit it . A lot like inthe Movie but man it was dark out there . I drove down it on the way to to PU my Model A in Santa Rosa last summer from WI were I'm at now . its all built up around there now but.

In the 80's we also raced at the end of Petaluma Blvd by Mcphails Sand and Gravel but you had to get in arond out of there quick or the cops would show as it was only about a half mile out of town right by the Petaluma river . It was a dead end so you raced back in the direction of town and hoped the cops were not coming in as you were going a 100 MPH plus .

In Santa Rosa we ran a few places . Hall road by the big oak tree was a old favorite before I was in HS then in about 81 there was spot off Stony point in the industrial complex by Optical Coating that we ran and the cops busted it one night I got a call about being present at a Drag race and could go to jail I said hell I was trying to get home and they had the road blocked LOL . I was the first guy to race .
In 82 a buddy and I marked off a 1/4 mile in the Industry west industrial complex were Flow master was a few years later . we marked it in my Mom 73 Datun station wagon. I stuck a piece of Rebar in the chain link fence as the finish line and it was there for 40 years. It was gone last summer I took my son out there to show him the drag strip I and a buddy built LOL .

In my time in the 80's most if not all was non HAMB friendly cars but the racing was the same as in my dads day .

 

The four lane byp*** in my little home town. But there were too many red lights. It built up so that there wasn't a good place until they built a 4 lane highway cutoff later on. I had a perfect record with my bone stock 56 Ford sedan....I never beat anyone...

 

No doubt 107th was very popular as the road included painted start and finish lines.
In that general area racing also took place on Central Avenue between 111th and 115th in 64/65 and the summer of 65 saw many challenges originating at the Dog & Suds in Worth were settled on 135th between Harlem and Ridgeland avenues as this area was still considered “the boonies”
Good times, great memories.

 

Here's one from the insanity dept. We'd race right on Grand River Ave heading east, right off of Telegraph Rd. Big, wide, quiet at night and very little traffic.
One night I'm trying to reel in a new Vette with a (cough-cough) ro that had a 468 with a 150 shot. The guy was under a shopping center parking lot light, front end up, showing off his new computer controlled NOS. His girl was very pretty, no, I mean smokin hot. She's in the car bored, her legs just right giving anyone looking a clear view of the promised land in full commando glory. She shifted in her seat and the onlookers walked away having "seen" the new NOS system. He wouldn't bite on a challenge to race for $100. We raced for 25, and it was the hardest round I ever ran, feigning a feel of how he "almost" got me. I wanted a double or nuthin. We spun around and went again, "from a roll" this time. I looked her dead in the eyes, a quick wink, and see ya later bye. No contest, he was in it for 1 or 2 gears at best. Afterwards he thought something happened to his car. "No you're fine, I just forgot the hose the 1st time." Me and my bro-in-law still talk about that race 30yrs later. Yeah, the race. No really, the race I swear, stop looking at me like that. Yes, I've told this one here before

 

I grew up in a (then) small rural town in 60s Israel, we had zero car racing unless you consider farm boys fooling around with their tractors on some field as "racing" .

 

Downriver area of Detroit in the mid 60’s Northline Road bordered Detroit Metropolitan Airport before it was gobbled up by airport expansion. A section about a mile long I think two farmhouses on whole road. Drew huge crowds after midnight. Eventually lead to “No Parking” signs being posted every hundred feet and Romulus police, Wayne County Sheriff and sometime state police heavy presence then sealing off both ends of road giving everyone there some kind of ticket. The most popular ticket was failure to obey posted traffic signs which required a court appearance. Everyone soon got the message. Also a lot of racing back then on Telegraph Road south of West Road which back then didn’t have the development and was “out in the country”