NEW YORK STREET RACING 60'S & 70'S ~ story found

[unclescooby]

Originally Posted by Ratmotor

I don,t mean to step on any toes or be disrespectful in any way but I heard stories about a rather large African American back in the day from Jersey,New York or Detroit who was a legend.Big Willie ring a bell? I think he raced a hemi car.....

freakishly enough, i was at my brothers house last week and we got a peek in the neighbors garage for the first time in 13 years they'd lived there. Inside was a 1966 GTO with a 6-71 blower...street freak. Been a race car since day one. 6000 miles on it and still in original paint. Hasn't seen the light of day in years. Only black family in the neighborhood and never says a word about cars or racing. I'd love to talk to him but he's not interested. Very nice guy just won't talk cars. Dunno what's up there. I'd sure like to see that car back on the road too. He raced it on the streets of chicago in the 60's.

[Gman0046]

Great article. As I grew up on Long Island during the period you referenced and participated at the 1/4 mile West Hampton and 1/8 mile East Islip drag strips. One hang out you failed to mention was Schorr's Drive In on Sunrise Hwy in Rockville Center and subsequent Street Races on the Jones Beach Causeway. The Big Bow Wow was definetly the place to go. Your article sure brought back memories.

[Chili Phil]

Thanks Axle. Good read. I only spectated at the digs behind the old GM plant in South Gate. I'd like to hear some stories of back then. Or the Orange County scene based out of the Carls Jr on Glassell/Kramer… Fun times

[graverobber63]

Awesome read. I was born about 25 years too late.

[axle]

I'll probably make enemies here but i still don't see a problem with a handful of motorheads taking their cars out to the orange groves,outskirts of town near an industrial park, or deserted old hwy and runnin a couple of cars. As long as there aren't a few hundred spectator's standing along the roadside watching.

Someone said Ice cream & Hot Dog carts !?!?!? Thats the beginning of the end.



When i was born my Uncle bought a brand new 66 GTO. The following year my parents went to the dealership and bought a 67 GTO with a 400 HO,Dual Gate Automatic,and posi rear with 3.55 gears.They bought this right off the showroom floor.
The following year my other Uncle bought a 68 GTO 400 HO,Muncie 4 speed, posi rear with 3.90 gears.
so, imagine three brothers running around northern Virginia in brand new GTO's. Thats why i grew up with Pontiacs & Pontiac powered cars.

My dad still says insurance premiums were at an all time high back then due to the extensive street racing that was so popular .

[The37Kid]

I put this newspaper clipping in my scrapbook back in 1962. There were 400 kids and 42 tickets handed out, 24 less than the week before.

[BIG JOHN 37]

for you north jersey guys, don't forget the "action" on McCarter Highway(Route 21) in Newark - a ton of cars every Fri. and Sat. night 'til the wee hours or the cops came, whichever came first! - a lot of "local legends" like Brooklyn Heavy, Levi Holmes, etc. - i used to leave my girls house (now my wife)at 11-12 o'clock because i was "tired" and go over to 21 and stay 'til whenever - never got caught until my parents met her paents, when my mom asked why i got home so late, and my future mother - in - law said he doesn't stay here late! - a number of cars that were capable of running deep into the 10's in the late 60's and early 70's - great memories, shame some younger guys will never get to experience it

[meatball]

Ya cant have much fonder memories than the old street racing days....I remember meeting Big Willie from the L.A.Street Racers at irwindale one day and being invited to the "races" that night in a warehouse district...what a night..Im sure this was repeated all over the country ......thank god for police radio monitors!!!

[meatball]

Originally Posted by ProEnfo

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/G...otherhood.html

"As the Sixties drew to a close, the social upheaval seen in other spheres of society influenced drag racing as well. In the wake of the 1968 Watts riots, legendary street racer Big Willie Robinson figured out a way to use drag racing to change society. An imposing, muscular 6'6" Vietnam vet with a badass Hemi Daytona Charger and trademark bowler hat, Big Willie was the undisputed king of the late '60s- '70s East L.A. street racing scene. In response to the growing influence of drugs and street gangs, Big Willie and his wife Tomiko organized the 'Brotherhood of Street Racers' as a way to channel the energy of South Central youth away from crime and violence -- "peace through racing," as he put it. Working with local officials and police, Big Willie was the driving force behind the building of Brotherhood Raceway Park on L.A. harbor's Terminal Island. "

watch close at the begining of Two Lane Blacktop...its Big Willie that starts the cars during a street race.....he's been a hero of mine for many years......

[DELTUFFOIL]

Originally Posted by Junkyard Jan

I believe that too. Cars magazine (I think?) ran another article on the NY City street race scene in the mid '80s. Big buck cars running for big money with huge crowds.... This is exactly the sort of street scene I posted my remembrences of in a much smaller way in Youngstown Oh in the early '60s awhile back.. Street racing is definitely wrong, but it sure was fun back then!

Jan

This?


http://www.geocities.com/mopar_440_dave/Urban.htm

[axle]

Anyone ever listen to Bruce Sprinsteen's song "Racin in the street" ?

There's always been something about that song.......

I don't know what it is....I guess its so American to me.

[270283]

Having raced on the street and the strip back then I'd have to say the street was WAAAAAAY more fun.

[mtkawboy]

Street racing was way more fun but after the people got killed the cops really cracked down and were confiscating the cars and locking up everyone there, racing or not. We were going thru the 1/4 with lines of people 3 feet away, it was way crazy. Fortunately we were bullet proof at that age. I was caught dead once with the input rung off the T-10 in my 427 57 Ford when another guy tried to run over the cop. They all went after him and I limped home in high gear. Yes it was an aluminum T-10 out of a light weight 63 Galaxie, not a top loader

[Junkyard Jan]

Originally Posted by DELTUFFOIL

This?


http://www.geocities.com/mopar_440_dave/Urban.htm

No, the article I'm referring to was an overview and written in about '85-'86, IRRC. There was a lot discussed about 'sucker cars', rusty Ramblers, '60s vans, pickups, even Deuce and a quarter Buicks, Lincolns,etc powered by Hemis and Rats, trailered cars, 4 figure bets and such. I wish that I hadn't tossed the magazine along with most of my others in the Big Move of 2002.....

But thanks for posting this one... A very interesting read.... Not to start a Coastal war, but my theory is that most of the mags...Cars a notable exception were published on the West Coast so that's where the staff gathered their story material from. It is or was pure economics. But most of the racing action...legal and illegal. street, strip and oval track took place far east of the Missssippi.

Jan

[SamIyam]

Street racing my '55 Chevy and my '66 Nova had to be the most exciting and thrilling time of my life.

I won't bore you with the details... but running 11 and 12 second cars on the street is a rush... and watching the 10 second cars run out on the street was just as cool.

They weren't big money races... in fact, most were run for fun. But to come back a week later and wax a guy who had beat you the week before was payment enough in a small town.

Incedentally, most of the racing was done on California Avenue... just outside of Modesto... which dead ended into... Paradise Road. And then at the end of Monte Vista Avenue in Turlock where it dead ended into Montpilliar.

Good times... good times...

Sam.

Here I am in my Nova... on the street.

[Scotch]

Ya- It's a good thing this stuff never happens anymore.

http://videos.streetfire.net/search/...ca7c2648fc.htm

Oh, wait a sec...

For some guys, these are the 'good old days'...!

I don't remember traction being that good on the street when I was doing it.

~Scotch~

[Hilo hotrodder]

This brings back a lot of good memories about 62 to 65 used to race at the white castle in the bronx and than on the sprain brooke parkway in Yonkers. I lived right down the road from the exit,make a pass stop off at home do a little tuning run again. Had a64,426 plymouth savoy.

[TwinH]

Thanks for the fascinating stories. I really enjoy reading these stories.

Keep them coming

[Mercmad]

Originally Posted by rockabillybassman

Great story! Got me very nostalgic, even though we did'nt have a "scene" like that in NZ.

Well Actually we did...Most us old buggers who lived in Auckland raced down in the water front area of Beaumont Street.
Queen Street in the city was the cruisin' strip and after pub closing time(10pm ) we would hang out at '246' swap bulshit until midnight when a crowd would start gathering down by the Shell oil installation.Crowds would be in the hundreds ,once i counted ovr 1500 people ,racers spectators and just kids who had borrowed the family car to come and look.
One memorable night we were hanging around at the usual spot in Queen street when a particularly scruffy '56 Chev pulled up driven by Squeek who asked..." where this Beaumont street??"
"just follow us we said ,So Squeek pulls his header caps off in the middle of the city's busiest precinct and proceeds to rumble off through the traffic.
Down at Beaumont Street ,he lines up against a Ford Falcon ute ( 351 clevo,15 sec 1/4's ) and although he blew his clutch off the line
he still beat the ute,just in time to see a police car heading in the opposite direction..
Racing was eventually stopped by the city authorities on the pretext that racing wasn't a good idea next to an oil tank farm. So the whole show moved out to the burbs and places like industrial Ave..We even featired on local TTV one night and there was book published by Auckland photograper Murray Cammick full of pictures of the cars that frequented the area back then .

[ShakeyPuddin55]

nice