45 Years Ago Today Saw My First Big Meet At South Glens Falls Dragway

Oct 3,1965 at SGF they held a S/S-F/X show that as a teenager I was thrilled to attend.The evolution of factory cars was moving fast.Took a cab as my Dad was not into it at all and would not take me.Only 6 miles from my house.These are Instamatic pics.Was in Nirvana all day with burning rubber and nitro.
Kept scrapbook and wrote notes under the pics that I will post unless they are too embarrassing..
The first batch are B&W.

This is John Caseys S/S Hemi Dodge from Vermont.

 

Bucksnort,
I know how you feel. Even though i wasn't around yet in those days the first nostalgia event that i went too with my husband i couldn't keep the smile off my face all day. Everytime i heard something start up that would shake the ground i was off and running toward it. We have had a blast touring with the S&S race team for the last 4 or 5 years. Nothing in this world makes me more happy.
Gasser Girl

 

I feel another cool thread coming.

 

This B/S GTO was there for a match race.B/S was the class for the factory musclecars.



Pop Dawley with a 426 Hemi Cuda from Rhode Island



Biil Laganas' wheelstanding A/FX Comet from Mt Kisco,NY arriving at track.
Dig the truck.


Bill Lagana on a time run.

 

Kenny Warrens' fresh AWB,injected,nitro Hemi '65 Dodge driven by Ben Woody.


Toby Reed from the Albany,NY area with his 1964 409/425 AA/S.That was the top stock designation of the day.Toby is doing the old flat tow/change the tires when you get to the track trick.I did that many times with a NMW tow bar and hubs.Still got both.


Don Havers B/FX Falcon from Canada.Very strong injected or maybe Gurney heads(forget) 289.


Al Oakes in the Loehmann Chevy II


First time I had seen this.A/MSP Chevy powered.Square roll bar-cool.
Ran well.That a Corvette body?

 

Isn't that a great feeling.Great memories of back then and love the nostalgia shows today.

You ought to know about cool threads,Royalshifter.Hope people enjoy and smile with this one.

Time well spent.Thanks for the thanks.

 

bucksnort, do you have a picture of harry clark running his 34 sedan with a 409 in it? he used to run milton and sgf.thanks

 

Ramrod 65 Plymouth hemi from NYC area.Trailers were good enough back then.


1960 Chevy that was the New England points champ ran stick shift stock.
Neat 55 Chevy tow car.


Jay Miner from Latham/Colonie area with Hemi 1964 Plymouth.He would build "The Trip" funny car that last I heard is down south with a big bucks collector fully restored.


Norwood Chevy II out of Rhode Island.396 power.Think Mel Perry was the driver.


This was nice. 409 B/A still on the tow bar.

 

Just posted a 409 but it's a 5 window.Got a couple of scrapbooks full of pics,gonna try to get them posted but it will be awhile.I will look for a 34 sedan.

 

Good work Bob

 

Great stuff.

 

A club called "Tri City Flywheelers" had a bunch of good running cars.This was the Turner Brothers D/S 1963 Chevy named "007".They had a 1957 Chevy stocker that won class at Indy as I recollect.


Al Oakes on a time run.


Wild Bill Rubin was a popular and successfull racer in these parts.Think he had some factory help,not sure.The injectors on his 1965 Plymouth were installed 2 days before this show.He ran Northeast Speed shop in Schenectady after Erv Grant sold out.Lots of good racers hung out there,Jack and Shirley Muldowney included.


Norwood Chevy brought along their B/MSP MG.Ran 11 flat.


Billy McDuells Comet ended up being 1st place winner.Billy could drive that thing.One of the stongest wedges I have ever seen run.Really liked this car.



That finishes up the B&W.I know if you were not from the northeast alot of these cars you probably have not heard of.To us it was a thrill to see them.Most were not national stars but all were hard core racers and were a reflection of what was going on in the rest of the country.

 

Great pictures and history to revisit. I also love the Comet.

Jon

 

Way to call that one!

Thanks for the photos. I'll be here for the duration, I love pictures of the simpler times.

 

Thanks for sharing those, great stuff. "Trailers were good enough back then." Not only good enough but garage built.

 

Great pics,thanks for sharing ! I lived in that area during High School and certainly didnt get to see anything that cool ! Looks like a lot more fun than cruising the villiage...

 

Great to see these cars. As much as you may enjoy the Don Nicholsons and Ronnie Soxs it is super nice to see these other cars. I love seeing photos and cars I haven't seen before. There were a lot more cars like these than there were the super stars on the national scene. Keep posting.

 

My first trip to SGF was in June 1963. I saw Notheast Speed Enterprises run their new 413 Plymouth and 413 Dodge. One black;one white .Your pictures show what a dust bowl SGF was. You really had to clean off your tires before you pulled up to the starting line .

I remember a lot of the cars in your photos from Lebanon Valley,too.
Funny thing: SGF was NHRA sanctioned in '63 but Lebanon Valley was considered an outlaw track then because of no guard rails. Yet Lebanon Valley "felt" a lot safer to me than SGF ever did.

Thanks for the memories. Those were great times !!!!

Glenn

 

Was wondering when you'd crack open your scrap book and start scanning.

 

What years were you around?

You beat me to the track by a year.Dirt pits were not beneficial for traction,were they.Remember the oil truck that was always parked in the pits?They got the used oil from GE from capacitor manufacturing to spread on the dirt.Was free and every town and highway department in the area used it to oil their dirt roads.There were quite a few of them while I was growing up.Too bad it was loaded with PCB's which is what closed the track.
I always pitted on the grass on the other side of the concession.Was sanctioned under the premise of improvements but they never happened due to partner problems and the sanction pulled.The divided lanes were a trip and the short shutoff was a challenge.Dodged lots of bullets there.
Funny about the guardrails because all SGF ever had were railroad ties with wire cables through them.You were right to feel safer at the Valley.
In fact I was at the Valley last week for the nostalgia drags and saw Erv Grant who ran Northeast Speed.

Yeah I am overdue but I am getting a little better with the computer.

 

Thanks to everyone for the words of encouragement.
On to the color.
Looks like time is putting a hurt to these.Probably best to get them on the computer then learn photoshop to clean them up.Right now best I can do is autofix on photobucket.

Kenny Warren on a time trial run.Probably first time I got a whiff of nitro.



Norwood Chevy beats out Al Oakes on the top end.Round 1
Thats what I had wrote under the pic so I gotta go with it.



Lagana putting a hole shot on Jay Miner but broke down track and Miner went on for the win.Round 1

.

Yates Dodge on a bye run.


Chevy II edges out the Yates Dodge.Went 1 size smaller with the resize on this one to see if it cleans up a little.Don't think it helped much.

 

Jay Miner shuts down Ramrod in first place runoffs.


Al Oakes gets a bye.


Ramrod beats Shaker


Don Havers high winding B/FX


Bill McDuells Comet "The Ultimate" shuts down Norwood Chevy.

 

I remember my 1st smell in 1967 like yesterday.

Nice hole shot!
You had a better reaction time with the camera than the Yates Dodge.

 

Yep,never forget your first time.

That was only the second time I had used a camera,an Instamatic.First was a week earlier at the drags.Took me awhile to realize what I was seeing in the view finder was not what I was going to get on film.Think you had to frame the shot a little towards the back to get a subject centered on the film.You can see that a lot of shots were ahead of being centered.
I got a little better at it eventually.I have more shots of this meet to post and after that I might as well go through the scrapbooks and post what I have.Might try to experiment with photoshop to clean up the pics first.Hopefully,it won't be too frustrating to this novice.

 

Hey bucksnort,i grew up in greenwich and used to cruise lake goerge,,where was the strip?whats there now?

 

Strip was on Rt 9,a mile north of Exit 17 from the Northway.Right across from Hillman Bros. Trucking.There was a Jeep dealer out front but they lost that and now sell Suzukis and used cars.
Just empty field now courtesy of the PCB cleanup.Got some pics of it recently and will dig them out and post.
Did you know Bill Boyce from BJ Farms?

 

man those were the days....driving terry malones 390 powered ford roadster to the track (ran 11 sec.) and racing dick nash's challenger crosley or jack wittman's coupe,willie worthington blown t.....or watching ronnie minch with his y block altered or ron scott with his blown hemi willys.....then we'd go to the brown log and drink and of course had some wild and i mean wild drag races on rt. 9 .....going past the brown log at well over 100 mph.....we use tet-te-cycle-clorine (spelling) to clean the tires and the stuff would splatter all over you........breath in the fumes...man no wonder i'm half crazy....

 

You saw yer first big meet? Creepy

 

You are throwing out some familiar names there.Tipped a few at the Brown Log myself.That was when Rt 9 was less occupied.
Ahh..fumes.Guilty myself.
Saw Ron Scott couple years ago at a little SGF reunion along with Don Noyes.Those guys are full of stories.Ron Minch could make those y blocks run.

 

Joe, you're MORE than half crazy, buddy !!!!

We've got to get together for a breakfast run soon.
Glenn