History Places - Where did you guys Street Race when you were a kid ?..... Could be interesting

Grew up in Oklahoma City. I raced a lot on NW 39th, 12th St in Moore OK and some of the smaller towns outside of the city limits. Small town heroes are always overconfident. Long before the “405” crowd turned their bracket cars into a circus.

 

Small town of about a 1000 people, which had the high school for the whole county (smallest county in Illinois). We had a country blacktop with a four way stop, and one way was perfect for marking off the 1/4 mile. I remember one day when quite a few of us skipped and were out drag racing, when we spotted the driver ed car coming; it was a bright red Ford. We scattered, but I think they knew what we were doing, and who was doing it.

 

In the Washington, D.C. area. 295 by the Blue Plains sewage treatment plant. Rt. 29 and Briggs-Chaney Road in Montgomery County. V-Street in N.E. D.C. in the warehouse district. Lot's of races got conjured up at the local hangouts, the Queenstown Mighty Mo and the Capitol Plaza Hot Shoppes. I spent a lot of time at the Hot Shoppes usually driving this.

 

Redford Twp. just outside Detroit on Telegraph road Friday nights. From West Chicago south back when you could leave on the green and not get t-boned by someone running the red. Late 60's on.

 

The most frequented spots close to the Capitol Plaza Hot Shoppes were George Palmer Hwy. (now ML King Blvd.) and inbound Rt. 50 before the Cheverly, Md. exit. There might be 5or 6 pairs lined up constantly after midnight on a Fri. or Sat. night.

 

Before the Cheverly exit on Rt.50 inbound the signage read, Cheverly exit 1/4 mile. How convenient!

 

Kirksville, Mo The old "dual Lanes" south of town right out in front of the old Holiday Inn. Some really good times had there.

 

I grew up near Cumberland and Massena in SW Iowa. Charlie Spieker (RIP) was a local hot shoe and he marked off a quarter mile strip on HWY 148 south of Massena, the start point was at the "German Church" (St Peter's Evangelical and Reformed) heading north. It was out in the country just a few miles from Massena. The farmer that lived just past the end of the quarter was not a car guy and would call the hiway patrol but the local racers had a friend in a farmer that lived near the start line. He had a 58 Plymouth Fury and when he heard the racers he'd lift the receiver on the party line so the other neighbor couldn't call the cops. This was in the early 60's and guys with 427 Fords and 365 horse Vettes (Charlie Spieker) were just a segment of the racers.

 

"" bracket cars into a circus""

 

35th street, blacktop
Spring park road, blacktop
Sugar beet road, very smooth concrete a good place to race the guy with a hot big block 4 speed, he'd go up in smoke.
Around Mason City Iowa in the mid to late 70s.

 

I grew up around Grove City, Ohio and the west side of Columbus and Logan/ Hocking County so I saw action in both places. Lunch time from the vo-tech school in Grove City found us out on Orders road. The hot spot on weekends was Green Gables at Central Point Shopping Center and then over to West Broad for stop light action. The East Side of Columbus also had it's share of hot cars. In Logan/ Hocking County it was Jurgy hill on old 33 before you got into Logan. My favorite place was Phillips straight stretch towards Union Furnace. The good old days!!

 

V st was insane. A good deal of money changed hands on any given night. Most diverse crowd I've ever been a part of. It was kind of like the United Nations of street racing. Long after the Mo closed its doors the McDonald's on University Blvd. was the hang out spot for us.

 

As a teenager there were several places around town, White Street was 4 lanes wide and straight as a arrow but it was also inside the city limit and the police watched the area like a hawk, if any racing was done it was after midnight.

The most popular place was Concord Road a 2 lane road just outside the city limits without a house in sight and was actually had a perfect stretch a quarter mile long and about another quarter mile before there was a sharp turn, This was my street of choice if I was calling out someone.

The last one was Pearman Dairy Road, a nice road but had a sharp turn and if you didn't gety slowed down fast the trees would stop you, I saw a couple of people badly hurt and a few cars waded up.

I raced my '54 Ford on Concord twice, my first time was no contest,the '54 beat the '62 impala by 3 car links, nether one of us knew what we were doing and I was just lucky, the second time a Chevelle ran of a left me in a cloud of tire smoke..

The dumbest thing I did was get caught drag racing on Main Street and that put a end to my street racing, I was driving my 63 1/2 Falcon Sprint at that time, itcost a lot of money & points. HRP

 

Front Street in Philly down by the Stadiums in an ugly but fast big block chevy
been hiding a VHS tape from my sons with my last drag racing activities right before I got married. My camera man and co-pilot grew up to be a Lieutenant in the philly police force a little irony there and I don't have to worry about the kids getting ideas from the tape I don't think they know where to find a VHS player

 

I grew up in Riverside, Ca and we used to race on North Main and Agua Mansa and Milliken in Ontario, Ca.

 

Me, hell no that's illegal!

 

Out in the sticks, small town, population less than 300. We had "Prosperi's Stretch", a level quarter with a mild dog-leg right, past the finish. Also "The Country Club", a 1.3 mile stretch of fresh black-topped, county two-lane. Ran past the local golf course at one end, hence the name.

 

I have always been a car gal, my daddy and my granddaddy both taught me to love cars. My daddy said if I was going to drive I needed to know how to take care of my car, but it was Danny that showed me the love of speed. Running through the gears and watching the speedometer hit 100 was better than any drug for lifting the spirit and calming the nerves.
My junior year in high school I had classes with a girl who just kept bragging about her "guys" 55 chevy, and how he was teaching her to drive it. It was a nice car and it had some serious power, but it was not that special, but she just keep on, and on, and on.... She drove it to school one morning and she just pushed my last button. I told her my "guys" car was faster, it also had some serious power.
At lunch that day I left school and took my mustang to Danny ( he was at work) and I drove the falcon back to school. I could have probably beat her in my car but it wouldn't have had the same effect. I pulled through the parking lot and back down on to the main road in front of the school. She saw me and followed me. We lined up and she missed a gear. POOR BABY she wanted best 2 out of 3. We lined up again and I took her by over 2 car lengths. That conversation was over.
We pulled back into the parking lot and went on to class. ten minutes or so and we were called to the office. Highway Patrol Officer was there. He said he knew it was us but he did not witness it so he couldn't do anything but he would be watching us real close from then on.
Before I got the car back to Danny he already new what had happened. He tried to be mad but the truth was he was both proud and impressed that had learned how to handle the car and mouthy females.
When I got home Mama was waiting on me. The school had called. She had 2 questions,"are you going to pull a stunt like that again, and do I need to tell your daddy?" No Mam! As I turned to walked away she asked if I out ran her? Yes Mam! I still love the feeling of seeing a speedometer peg out.

 

...........Searching now for the "tongue-in-cheek" emoticon.

 

Stoplight to stoplight was on Wisconsin Ave in down town Milwaukee. If we could stir up some serious contenders we headed to Villard Ave or out to Lily road north of Capitol Dr.. I ran my 57 Chev against some pretty strong cars for the day. Won some and lost some.

 

Of course when confronted I will disavow any knowledge of the aforementioned activities.

 

In San Diego we would usually gather at the Winchells donuts in Clairmont and then head over to Kearny Villa road, a nice deserted stretch by mira mar naval air station where parts of top gun were filmed. Sometimes the cops would show up but usually would get on their pa and say alright get the fuck outa here! Sometimes not though Car Craft magazine did a cruising - street racing series in the early 80s I believe that talked about the Winchells and the Fed mart across the street where the racers would meet up. Lots of cool shit , twin turbo 340 mopar T bucket , blown BBC late model Camaro , Stone Pony with his Nitrous sbf early Mustang. My buddy Scott with his early chevy II with a 377 and a Doug Nash 5 speed would yank the front wheels in 1st and 2nd. And me with my 12 second 69 Camaro SS 396....Fun Times Indeed....

 

1959-62. Small central valley town(Chowchilla). We had a 1/4 mile painted off out of town a bit-lots of action at night-cars from out of town too. Merced, Madera etc. Also east of town toward the lake on a country road-another marked off 1/4. Got caught there by CHP with roadblock in 60 and taken to jail and car impounded-no license for a while-my folks were not happy. When racing in Fresno it was out on Thorn avenue or Snake road. Lots of different types of people and cars, bikes etc. Lots of money changed hands out there.

 

In the 'couve (Vancouver, WA) you could cruise the gut but the action was at Lower River Road.

 

Don, I would think the statue of limitations concerning self incrimination have long since past. HRP

 

we raced about a half mile from Fremont drag strip on Boscell road. we had a marked quarter mile out there. Fremont put in all the roads way before there were any businesses out there. you could see the cops coming from a mile away. 1976 to about 1980 or so. also lots of cruising on Fremont Blvd. when you got a ticket and went to fight it the cops said "I was patrolling Fremont Blvd in the area known as the strip...." that was all the judge needed to hear .. GUILTY!!!!

I raced a 10 second 55 Chevy out there once in my mostly stock GTO when the guy he was going to race didn't show up. he gave me a giant head start and passed me like I was standing still. it was black with a big block and had "Frantic Rat" painted on the side. probably one of the fastest cars out there at the time.

there was also a road that ran along the freeway by the "Safeway plant" where people raced. I'm surprised no CHP even came out there and stopped us.

plus we raced right on normal public streets like a bunch of idiots. class of 78 was a good time to own cheap musclecars.

 

Buffalo: Erie Ave, under the bridge
Omaha: across from the airport, now a housing development
Delray Beach, Fl: West Atlantic just past the turnpike, first turn north

 

seems like nowadays at least here in the Bay Area that street racing has become illegal. they tow cars and even give spectators tickets..... except for the idiot "side shows" in Oakland where they are not racing but doing donuts in intersections with hundreds of idiots standing around, when cops show up they throw stuff at them and the cops don't even dare get out of the car in fear for their lives