History Old drag strips texas, name them

Tinker, you wouldn't happened to be the same Tinker that was partners with Red Sessums Red&Tinker Corvette would you?

 

no not the same only vetts he drove was don gist out of florida and one here in dallas that don coker was to drive at green valley and tinker was asked to drag it and it tooked out 1000ft of gaurd rail hot dog stand and a tool shied
charles

 

Sure do. We ran a Xmp sports car and took out all the end barbed wire fence one Sunday. Ran there about 5-6 times-The pea gragel end was just to much for us to deal with.

 

I remember "Hands" Harcroft. You could pass a silver dollar through his ring. Saw him mount a slick one time by grasping the slick / wheel with one hand, and starting lugs with the other hand.
Alaso remember Gene Snow. Do you recall a guy named Bill Alexander and the Blue Goose 55 chevy? How about John Mulkey and his '32 roadster?

 

Drag racing on Hwy 90 between Shiner and Gonzales back in '73-'75. We had lots of fun on that hwy when the only law was a constable who went to bed at 8pm.

 

In 1963 & 64 I raced my 261 powered 31 Chevy sedan at Scorpion Drag strip in McKinney. I was 15. No ET just mph measured.

 

Dad did strip and street racin in the 50's-60's in Houston until the Docs put him on LSD.

One was a 34 Chevy coupe with a big Jimmy, 5 carb setup in late 50's, then in the 60's was on the "389" Pontiac roll.

"Hands" used to come to our house. He and Dad were of the same stature, long hair and crazy wild.

I remember going to Houston International out on 45 and also Porter. As a kid I couldn't wait to go. Always fun. Imagine a bunch of us kids out on the track and the track people letting us do a foot race. Wish we were back there now.

Below are a few pics of Dad's Chevy. The faded pic is the only one I have of the motor.

I sure would love to hear him ramble on about those days of hot roddin', cruisin' Princess drive-in, racin', stripin', louverin' and wrasslin', but he's gone now.

Mikey

 

Nice photos! PM sent.

 

I think my old Mopar ran at most of these old tracks.
The last 2 are at the Lubbock speedway. Early 80's I do believe.

 

http://www.ustreas.gov/auctions/irs/latx_real_3651.htm

Don't see any mention of Excessive Raceway Park in Laredo. Seems like a steal at $325,000. If you can just keep the low flying planes from landing there.

 

I was told about a place from a lady working at a Walgreens. She did mention it was a private ranch. They raced a mid 60s Impala in around the 70s . Never found her again to get photos. I wonder if this was the same place.

 

There are pictures on the bottom of the IRS listing showing the track. Seems like a little disrepair. Here is the track Googled: It is 28 miles south of town on Hwy 83. There are two small lakes just off the Rio Grand. Just south of them is a small island in the river. Directly NW of the island is a county road that T-bones Hwy 83. On the other side of the road is the dragstrip.

dhttp://maps.google.com/maps?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4SUNA_enUS264US268&q=laredo%20tx&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

I also heard of the track south of town while I was stationed at Laredo AFB in the 60'S. Unfortionately I never made it out there.

 

Talking about August (Hands) Hartkopf, long time good friend of mine. First met at Austin Speed O Rama, got to know him better through some friends in Austin.If all the stories told about him, wild things like grabbing a fan belt from a running engine to whipping everyone's butt at a racetrack were true he would still be alive 'cuz he would be immortal.Actually he was a somewhat quite easygoing guy, he did do somethings that were pretty amazing to me though like changing jets in a two barrel carb,one night at Austin SpeedORama removing the spur gears from a quick change rear end that I could'nt budge because they were binding up. But I never saw him pick up two slicks one in each hand & walk off with them, or any number of totally unbelieveable things.Also a story was circling that he got very violent when called Hands. not so he didn't mind that nick name at all, he didn't however appreciate being called Augie.Not saying any of these things didn't occur,I just never saw anything like it, and seriously doubt they did.

 

little river dragway its near temple tx

 

Thats funny you mention this stuff.

One of his friends last year told me this story -said that when they went out to Cali. on an invitational drag race (Texas vs California) meet.

When they were in the pits they told the public or some group not to get near him while working on the car cause he could get "upset" if they got in the way.

Know one had ever seen him up close in Cali. so, here he was working under his car having no idea of what was going on, gets out from under the car all greasy with a long pony-tail and being as huge as he was just plain scared the shit out of some people or some guy ran off after he saw him stand up right in front them.

Huh?? -scratching his head!

Later on August was asked what he thought about Cali. people and all he could say was....Well...they werent to friendly.

His buddies cracked up laughing cause it wasnt suppose of happened that way. ...WHAT

When ever I get good stories I post them on the blog.

 

No doubt Hands was a pretty scary looking guy, but like I said for the most part quite & easy going.

 

I got these pictures today. It is Paris Tx drag strip sometime around 1975.

 

going north on harry hines you took a left on goodnight lane ant downsmallnarrow road to the drag strip we stood by the track in front of our cars to watch wonder no one ever hurt that i know of mike burkhart had fast 1957 red chevy also snuff box was quick then snuff box jr a lot of family sedans i stock and j stock ran out there hust for fun but one of them had to win

 

you wouldnt have any pics of four side by side ???

 

This was the old 'Circle Drag strip"......did you know that the "Snuff Box" crew,headed by Lenell Walker..They set up jars in convienence stores like for Jerrys kids.only the sign on them was"HELP SNUFF BOX WIN"..True story

 

I have alot of old photos from Houston International and a few from Porter if anyone is ever interested in seeing them. I also have some old 8mm & Super 8mm movies that I took back in the late 60's and early 70's. Early funny cars, gassers and even Garlits with the times smokin' the whole 1320 at Houston!

I wish it didn't cost so much to have them converted to VCR or DVD because it's a pain to change them in that old projector.

 

Yeah, you need to share that stuff.

 

Many Thanks for this Thread... what memories you all have brought back.

I used to race out of Corpus Christi.. mostly at Victoria back in the early 60's with a team Gas Dragster.

Also "Hands" raced at that track frequently

 

SandPro, here's a great website with photos of Six Flags Dragway/Aloe Field in Victoria...
http://www.sixflagsdragway.com/gallery1/index.htm

 

Anyone have any more photos or info on this one.It was bought buy Tom McCroan and turned into the Funny Car.Who owned it originally?

 

Speaking of August Hartkopf ........... you Austin guys.......is that little kid with the glasses Manny Manchaca?

 

Yes, thats him.

 

I remember "Hands", August Hartkopf. His hand could span the steering wheel on that Chevy. He was a really nice guy, and died young.
Buck Terry was my hero and got me started racing. His '40 Ford pickup was king of the hill for years. I wish he had still been racing when Richard Lancaster came along. I remember Dickie Anderton as a rich kid whose stage 3 wedge race car stayed parked in his garage most of the time. I don't remember Gene Snow racing at Forest Hills; his "Hemiroid" was too fast for that track! There was Wetzel and his Plymouths, Joe Bianco and his '60 Bonneville convertible, Roger Stewart's '60 Chevy (and great looking wife...), "Cowboy", the classifier and his blond wife announcer in the tower, Joe Kennedy and Charley McElroy (The Pied Piper) with their 409's. I loved those days. Start flags, no roll bars, no helmets (heck, most cars didn't even have seat belts), toss an empty beer can into the back at the start line before launch...Great days and fond memories!

 

I raced "Snuff Box" at Yellowbelly with my A/S 427 '66 Chevy the summer of '67. I lost and also ran off the track into the ditch. It was a perilous track if you trapped much at all.

 

"Snuff Box ran at "Yellowbelly" most of the time..If you can call yellowbelly a very good race track..more like an
accident on the way to happen..many accidents at that place...L A Cornielus was a regular there also