When was your first time at a dragstrip?

summer of 1973. Como drag strip Como Texas. Went with my cousin who was racing a 56 Ford big window pickup with a 390 4 speed.

 

the very first time i was in diapers! my earliest recollection would be around '71 at kingdon drag strip in lodi ca. first car i ever heard with open headers(other than dad's in the garage) was a willys coupe. probably why i have a fondness for the gassers.

 

12 years old,,,,,1956, Rockport, Texas.

Big bad Bobby Langley was there with his Scorpion fuel dragster. Eddie Hill was there with his carburated Pony gas dragster called the Purple People Eater. What a deal for a 12 year old.

 

1972, 17 years old Oswego Drag Strip in Illinois.

 

I belive it was 1982, sophmore year at High School (Arvada High )
It was memorial day High school drags.
I was in my 70 chev pu 350/350 I still have the time slips somewhere ?
I think I ran high 16`s low 17`s ?
I made it all the way through to 3rd place !! OH the memories ..
the drag strip was and still is Bandamier in Morison, Co
Good Times...

 

I was 15 years old in 1958 when I talked my Dad to take me to the short drag strip inside the Langhorne Speedway in PA. from our home in North Jersey.
My life has gone down hill ever since!!!!

 

first time was in 94, i was 6. yea im a young one. It was the IHRA nationals at Tulsa raceway and my dad got pit passes, i still have a lot of pictures and a few memories. they had the hemi under glass, first car i ever seen do a wheelie, and Bob Motz's jet powered semi, at that time the worlds fastest truck. When he was warming up the engine and was turning the afterburners on he burned a hole in the fence behind the burn out box about 10 ft. in diameter, that was awesome! We walked around the pit area and got autographs from most of the racers and i even got a BROOKS 88 connecting rod out of Mark Thomas's funny car. Man 6 years old and mark gives me one of the con rods out of his car i was grinning ear to ear all day. best memory i have with my dad and that was 16 years ago.. damn time goes by to fast.

 

I will thank my late father for taking me(after MUCH pleading) to Lapeer Dragway back in 1969. Though "just" a local track with rudimentary facilities,it was DRAG RACING!!! My old man gave away his post-war hot rod days as he described various cars and even knew a couple of the racers. I don't think he realized then what a monster he created(or aided in the creation of) by his actions. I'm eternally grateful,Pop!
Interestingly enough,Lapeer was also where I made my first pass in my own car-and promptly tossed the fan belt on the top end! I had forgotten my tools(dumb ass) and things like spare belts,but another racer came through and got me going.
When I feel the Sport Fury is ready to go to a track,I believe that it will be at Lapeer. It's only fitting. Who says you can't go home again?

 

1962 at Concord Dragstrip in Concord NC. I was eleven. They had what they called a parade lap where the Super Stock cars would be announced by driver and then the driver would leave the starting line and go down the strip. They would not abuse the car, but they would floor it after it was rolling.

They would let kids ride with the driver for the parade lap. I got to ride with Don Nicholson in the '62 Bubbletop, and Ronnie Sox in his mustard yellow '62 Dodge.

I fell in love with the acceleration. It would slam you back in the seat and you could not sit forward.

 

In 1979 I was 16. An 1/8 mile strip in Chandler In.

 

Summer of 1957, I was 14 my Mom drove her 1939 Ford to Ark City Kansas drag strip and I sat on a pillow and drag raced....started as a gearhead, will die as a gearhead.....

 

Orange county OCIR 1976 was the 1st one I think with my dad I was 10
man they had some great nostalgia races there,
then started the coupe in 79 couldn`t wait to go down the track !
been down acouple o times now.

 

1962 at KCTA (Kansas City Timing Association)

There was mom with a newborn and me (the older brother at a mature 1 year of age) watching dad go down the track.

My first recollection of racing would be a few years later, spectating at the "brand new" Kansas City International Raceway.

 

Lions in 1970 and I was 10 years old. My Uncle took me to watch a family friend run their 55 Chevy. I have been hooked on cars ever since. I remember them selling the car in the late 70's for like 1200 bucks....... Way out of the price range for a kid in high school. A 55 is one of those cars I want to have before I die.

 

Aquasco in Md around 1965. First pass, MIR 1977 12.04

 

1955 Atlanta, Ga the track was at the airport and the badest 32 Ford roadster on the plant was owned by a guy named Buck Dollar who beat every thing there including a new Chevy I was 15 at the time....

 

For me, I was 16 (in 1972) and my Dad took me to Beech Bend. I'll never forget it; Redd's F/C and the Altered Ego AA/FA were making shake-down runs for the upcoming Division 3 points race. Plus a full progran comp,modified, super stock and stock were on hand racing. Unless I loose my marbles, it will a day of memories that I will have for the rest of my life.
The Rock

 

It was 1963. I was 12, and my brother got stuck babysitting me, so we went to the Brainerd Optimist Club drag strip, which was then just outside Chattanooga in Hixson, Tenn. I remember the super stock final -- a '63 Plymouth driven by Max Wallace, against a 63 Ford sedan (406, I think) driven by Russell Lee, called "Great Vigah," complete with a JFK caricature. They were frequent opponents, and I think Wallace won that night. Only time I was there. The track is now an airstrip.

 

First time I went to the track was in 1964. Went with some friends to Dover Drag Strip in Wingdale NY

 

Summer 1966. PITA Dragstrip, Erie, Pa.
The hemi Mopars were the kings there. In either 1966 or 1967, I saw Doug Nash race the Bronco Buster there. Try as I might, I can't remember which year it was. Saw my first Z-28 Camaro there. Summer 1967.

 

Sept 1956 at Charlestown RI Naval Air Station. My sleeping bag caught on fire. It was so foggy in the morning you couldn't see across the pits, let alone see the track. I believe Cy Sidebotham set top time.

 

1958 when I was 16. Oswego, IL. dragstrip. Ran my '50 Chevy Fleetline there in 1959. It wasn't nicknamed the Black Snail for nothing

 

79' Brother Hood Raceway, Long Beach, Ca.

 

It was about 1976, I was in the fifth or sixth grade and won tickets off the radio to see the "wheelstand spectacular" at Wisconsin International Raceway (W.I.R.). Little Red Wagon, Chuck Poole's Chuckwagon, Backup Pickup, etc. racing under the lights,a shower of sparks off the tailgates, Wild! Stayed all night to watch the regular Sat. night bracket races.

 

my parents took me to the submarine races the night i was conceived. .....

 

I was about 13 or 14 2 Connecticut Dragway the year was ether 1973 or 1974.... damn I miss that place...

 

Mama would buy beer (for herself) and KFC Chicken and go to Newport Dragway in the 70's with me and my younger brother.
1965 (2-door) Dodge Cornet ?
One time when we arived (late) she was trying to find a parking place in the pits...
HARD Right - (Staging Area) (Drunk) ready for this...??? 9.55 (1/8th mile)
God and my brother as my witness....True Story.

 

i don't know if mom took me the year i was born or not but i know by the next summer i was at the track my dad owned. so i guess if you wanted to be picky i was around a year old. my parents had 2 businesses. a Pool Hall and a dragstrip. until they split when i was 8 i grew up at one of the two places. at 6-7 years old i had done ridealong passes at speeds faster than most adults had ever been and could hustle pretty much anyone in town under 21 at a game of pool other than my big brother. maybe it was the split but i lost alot of my passion for the track and the table shortly after. driving like hell and having a cue in my hand still feel very natural haha. a few years back some friends and i got a table at a local bar. they knew my history but didn't believe it. at first i was rusty to say the least. coupla hours later it was like the last 30 years never phased me. truly good days...ken....

 

Just found this thread. Dad took the family to Dover Drag Strip in 1961 I was 10 years old, and still have the ticket stub. I remembed as clear as yesterday a guy blowing buy our then new '61 Ford in a green '61 ford Starliner going north on Rt 22. Seeing the "Blown Hearse" get push started and race is still etched in my mind. It was a 409 Chevy powered 1933 Chevy Sedan Delivery. It is now under restoration and I think a HAMB member owns it. I had no idea at the time that I would one day be the restorer/caretaker of the Lyndwood rail "Alley Oop" that also ran that day. That was my one and only day at Dover, next live drag race was at Englishtown, N.J in the 1980's.

 

The blown hearse was 348 powered.