New England Dragway in Epping. Got photos?

Why does that name sound familiar? I think Gary was a customer of mine when I worked at Gauthier Motors in Salem.Left there in 92 so my memory isn't too good there.

 

You can find more pictures of the Hayseed on this thread.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=573476

 

Gary still runs (occasionally) the "Rambler Scrambler" that he's had for years.

 

there is a lot of history in the old formula auto building,..for road racing at least,lol,when I was there,my old boss leased the building from jhon harkness who knew all those old time guys,..use to race with them,..i was there from 1986,till 2001,then moved on to a diff. line of work.

 

ok,pequot filling station was that in salem mass?,sounds familiar?,that nova was cool,used to see it at ned all the time,he and Robbie penny were partners in it I think?

 

I was at Motor's shop in Marblehead, Ma. yesterday, and he has this photo on his wall. Too cool!

 

Yep Great place, I was oversea's at the time, serving Uncle Sam. Lived up on rte 125 just up from Browwns IH Dealership..........

 

I wish it were true that your friend has the Orange Peal. The car from the Cape was at the Orange Drag Strip race in Fitchburg this past summer. I took a picture of it and sent it to Pete Tropeano. He said it was not his car, It was a different year body...

 

I have been hearing about this project for the past year, and I am excited about this car being recreated. I will be looking for it at the drags this summer.

 

I remember seeing this body in the early nineties at Billy Belmont's shop. He brought to the Mansfield swap meet,and it sold and went to NY. About five years ago a friend of mine bought the molds that they made this body from. Rick Picard told us that the car originally had a steel body. A friend of his who worked in the boat bussiness said he could make a fiberglass copy of the steel body. The body came out nice and strong, but weighted nearly as much as the steel one.

 

Thank you I knew it sounded familiar.If you see Gary tell him Ray Smith said hello.

 

How are ya doing Alex? Are you going to the All Timer's run this year? I'm planning on coming out with the Safari.
Paul told quite an interesting story about that day.Seems that the week prior they had run into Don Prudhomme at a meet somewhere and they noticed he was running one of the new(at the time)Scheiffer mags and had this enormous knife switch for an ignition kill switch.When they asked about it he said that the mag was putting out so much current that it would just jump across the poles of a regular switch.
Well when they installed the mag in the Spirit they elected to use a regular kill switch and as luck would have it the thing malfunctioned when it was needed the most.
Tell him I said hello when you see him again and say hello to the guys in the shop.

 

Crappy pic but this sign used to hang in the tower

 

A friend referred me to this page and all I can say is "Wow". I raced at NED from 1972 to 1981. I have several photos to post and here is the first one. My first dragster, built sometime in the late '50s, mild steel tubing, 113" wb, junkyard small block Chevy, 39 Ford ford trans with 2nd and high, banjo Ford rear. The picture is from August 1972 and I'm in the hot car staging lanes waiting to be pushed down to track to fire the motor. Real old school stuff. This was one of the first Econorails at NED. The car ran fairly well for what it was, it taught me a lot.

 

Two speed trans and a 10.4 time?
Nice. Back then a 12 sec car was top shelf.

 

These were taken by my uncle, who moved there in the early '70s. I have some more on-topic ones, but I need to dig them out and scan them.

 

While racing my Econorail in 1973, I had the opportunity to acquire the former Bernier & Bickford BB/GD dragster chassis. A 215" wb Haulin Chassis from Maurice Bresnahan, I thought it would make a great Comp Elim car. I built a 331" SBC with Enderle injection, and put a M&M clutch flite trans in the car. I finished it late in the season and only ran it once. In 1974, I competed in Comp Elim with a little success, spent more time learning than winning. At least I was having fun. The 113" chassis was parted out at the end of the 1974 season. Never saw it again. Also found a sticker from the 1972 Grand American event from NED.

 

Welcome to the HAMB. I remember this car running Comp Eliminator in the early seventies. That looks like Joe Petro owner and driver of the Kamikaze B/D in the back of the picture. I crewed for Joe at that time. Plese post some more of your pictures.

 

I started going up to Epping to watch, I believe in'72 for the Funny Car Nats, would love to see pics of 72-76 if you gotem!!! All classes

 

Anyone remember Bill Lawton from RI that drove Pinto's in the 70's. He had a AA/FC and he also drove the Stevie Besch + John Healey Pro Stock Pinto

 

Tweed, check your messages!!

 

Hi Church Key, good eyes that is Joe. He and I became good friends over the years as we were racing at the same tracks. I knew that he moved to NH and I used to run into him but I have not seen him for years.

Tony

 

Date on the back of these is May 1975.

















This was in the same lot, not sure where it was taken?

 

Me and my dart,mid 80's

 

By the end of the 1974 season, I had broken more parts and spent more money than the previous 2 seasons combined. Comp Elim was a tough place to race. I decided to sell off the injection stuff, the slider clutch stuff and the clutchflite trans and go back to econorail class racing. So in 1975 I put together a long rod 331" small block Chevy with a 850 Holley and put a powerglide with a 5000 rpm stall converter in the 215" Haulin Chassis. I added side skirts to the body and painted it dark blue and white. Oh yeah, the side skirts had a row of louvers punched in them. The car weighted 1235 lbs. Started the season running high 9's in the 140 mph range and by the end of the season I set the NED Econorail track record at 9.553 sec at 145.39 mph. We were having fun again! I found a sticker from the last major race I was in from 1974, the East Coast Fuel & Gas Championships.

 

your first dragster looks to be an old Lyndwood Eliminator circa 1959-60 (like my avatar image)
Paul

 

There were a lot of cool guys at the track and one of the more colorful was the starter Dave Berube. Here's a picture of him in his usual spot on the track.

Another group of great guys were the Boston Strangler team. In the picture you can see a very early version of their Mustang Funny Car. I think the guy with the curly hair and his back to us is Bob Ellison and Keith Hughes in the red shirt is standing next to the car.

The third picture is of the Don Juan II driven by Val Di Genova, who I believe is still driving a dragster today. These were taken in the mid 1970's.

 

Hi Shadow, the cars are similar but my chassis had two small frame rails one on top of the other with a filler plate welded to the both of them. The flywheel shield that came with the car is almost exactly like the one shown in you photo album. Maybe an earlier version or a variant? Thanks for your comments.

Tony

 

The two bottom shots are May 1973 at WRKO Raceday when I was filling in for Lawton as he was in the pro stocker somewhere.

I drove Lawton's car and the King & Marshall top fueler the same day...

Don Roberts

 

Bill Lawton would sell the Pinto to Al Hanna after Hanna crashed the original Eastern Raider at Maple Grove. John would crash the Pro Stocker at E-Town I beleive. Welcome Don what can you tell us about these 4 shots and whats the deal with the wheel pants on the Jade Grenade did those cause the crash, I thought that was a Ivo thing were you driving in these shots looks like you and not Jimmy in the K+M TF and in the Super Glue pic looks like the rear engine car with no cage ??