I got to thinking about early drag racing days. Each state progressed at different rates on organizing legal drag races. A good friend of mine that lived in the Atlanta area attended Georgia's earliest legal drag races in the summer of 1954. He had a 1932 Ford 3 window powered by an Oldsmobile engine. He was paired against Buckshot Morris who had a 1932 Ford roadster also equipped with an Oldsmobile engine. Buckshot was an expert mechanic that was involved in the early days of Nascar. My friend didn't win the race but I think he won in the long run. A couple of weeks after the race a teenage kid came up and said he took a snapshot of my friend Frank racing Buckshot, and would he like to have it? Frank thanked the kid and kept the photo. He never developed the photo until 2016. He presented it to me as a gift for taking such good care of his old 32 hot rod. I think it's amazing. It's summer of 1954 at Ted Edwards' Fairburn dragway. It's the first legal drag races on dirt for the state of Georgia. I hope you enjoy the picture like I do. If you have early drag racing photos let's see them.
Old Dominion Speedway Manassas, Virginia 1952. Paved the following year. Supposedly the first drag strip east of the Mississippi.
Here's a picture from one of my Durachrome slides that I bought off "-B-y" quite a few years ago. I was told by one of our HAMBER's that they were from the Dirty D (as he called it) and might of been from the 59/60 Nationals. I had no clue what I was bidding on but I knew they were old and vintage. Paid a good amount for them back then. Got into a bidding war. About 120 slides and far from professional.
And heres a painting of Graham Withers in the Ampol dragster beating Ash Marshal in the Vandal. It was allways a Melbourne versus Sydney battle.
The Jalopy Journal
